Fireside Chat

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I was a little apprehensive about the Fireside chat at first. I thought it would go super long and I would be super tired and not want to be there. I had an absolute blast. It was such an enriching experience to get to see all of my classmates perform and get to see what they had created and what they came up with. It was fun and entertaining and I was completely wrong about what I though the experience was going to be.

When deciding what I wanted to do for the fireside chat the only things I was sure of for a long time is that I wanted to play a vinyl. Vinyl records mean so much to me and a lot of the ones I own are sentimental in multiple ways. I love vinyls because they are all about connection and tangibility and then have scratches and static but you forgive them for those small imperfections because you love them. This was the fundamental belief that I wanted to communicate; the belief that you have to be able to give and receive love past imperfections and mistakes. That is when I knew that I had to tell the story of my brother , my family, and I. I wasn’t trying to be like “oh look how righteous I am”, it wasn’t about that at all. It was just the biggest moment in my life where I can look back and see where that belief formulated and the gratitude I have for that belief now.  I decided to play the Jackson 5 record with the song I’ll be there because that best demonstrated the love that my brother did/does have for me and how he just made one little mistake. I wore the overalls and the hat because that is how I dressed when I was 12 and wanted people to be able to look at me as a little kid and be able to tell that I was relating a story that was from my own past and better be able to empathize and see what occurred through the eyes of a child.

I was super nervous at sharing something so personal for fear of judgment, but that was the best part about eh fireside chat was that we all just have this love and understanding for one another and really open up.  Like I said before, it was great to get to watch everyone and I feel a lot closer to the class (yeah yeah that’s pretty corny) because people were being so open and just going for it I think that allowed those that followed to be more comfortable and to express the real them a little more in their performance. 

Concerned Citizen

http://youtu.be/7mO4HqMwK6o

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Our concerned citizen started out as a single individual and by the time the project was done, we felt it was unfair to focus on the individual when we both felt that it was a community effort in this BYU/Provo City Easter Egg Hunt. There were so many collaborators, staff members and volunteers that showed up to this event and set up for hours. They knew the hunt would maybe last 10 minutes. The concerned citizen is the community as a whole. Who says it has to be one? Who says that any one person should be spotlighted for this group effort?

We pieced the interviews together to make the basis of sound. Though the editing process we discovered that we wanted there to be multiple interviews form several workers and that for out “concerned citizen” the project manager just wouldn’t do anymore.  We decided to do a very noticeable and very deliberate increase of saturation with each clip to visually demonstrate the importance and the selflessness and understanding that grows within each interview.  Each realization, each citizen understands the purpose behind the egg hunt, the ideal of community and the ultimate purpose of children and the home was represented within the saturation increase.

We were also inspired from a certain quote form the text. The reading stated, “chose to have a soft approach to change, a smooth, non-violent, gradual pace: no wars, no conflicts, no denial of rights; dialogue, understanding and empowerment of rights instead.” We implemented that in both the editing with the color gradient and the focus of the subject matter. How important the next generation is. There can be no better use of service and community welfare than on the youth.  The particular part of the quote that really stuck us was “a soft, smooth, non-violent, gradual pace.” The way to improve out communities and our future is small and simple things to do within the family and to do with your children. How simple and easy an egg hunt is to go to and how many memories and feelings of love there are that are communicated within that 2 hours. Hundreds of people work for months to give that. They give way more work than children give back, obviously as it isn’t in a child’s nature, and they do it knowing that it’s for the good of the family.

The technicality to the piece was inspired by Moulin Rouge!. The coloring within the film directs your thoughts and emotions behind each scene. The playing off of red and blue as heaven and hell. They communicate so much through color and though it is obviously not utilized in such a perfect way such as in Moulin Rouge! But the basic concept was inspired from that film. The power of coloring even if seems more abstract and theatrically it can have a very realistic effect on people.