My farwell + Last class period.

Well it is sad to say that this will be my last blog entry of the school year, it has been an awesome few months and I have really learned a lot. The last class we had this week was somewhat inspirational to me in a way. The "The Sneeze" done by the Thomas Edison Company was truly remarkable to see how almost one of the oldest films ever was done, and it was only 4 seconds long! Still an incredible idea to start a class with because it lets you think about the start of film and its roots far beyond the time most think about. Secondly we started moving into George Kuchar's work which I have to admit although it was odd I really enjoyed the mans narrative. Im glad we did not have to witness what George is most notably known for in his film that happens to involve a toilet. Overall though the narrative brings me back to what I talked to Carl a bit about as with the similarities of Kuchar and Garrison Keeler of NPR's the Prairie Home Companion. They both have this active voice that keeps you sucked in with there story telling, and just the way they described things with that subtle sarcastic nature really made them stand out as similar people. This was another thing I enjoyed about having this as one of the last films we watched as it brings me back to my childhood and later years as a listener to NPR and Keeler's amazing story telling almost completely mirrored by Kuchar's quirky films. It was a full circle effect and was probably the best way to end the class for myself.

Over all I am glad I took this class as I have now learned how to dabble into the experimental side of things every once in a while, which I used to shun. I have opened my eyes to this class and genre as a whole and feel I have become even more open minded because of it.

Thank you Carl for being an amazing lecturer (probably best public speaker I have heard in a long time) and I would like to thank Danya Moses for being an awesome TA and provoking my thoughts for these blogs.

Have a great summer !

-Steve Teeple

Point A to Point B

We discuss this topic a lot in todays world I believe, that is the topic of what constitutes a narrative? Of course if a film takes us from a starting point then to an end point it has some sort of narrative doesn't it? Well in the case of "Duck Soup" it is hard to tell. The Main focus on this film was small gags or skits that happened to take your mind off the rest of the content, but as these events play out a backing story is still being displayed so in a sense I feel this fits as a fine narrative. Now when looking more at a piece like "The Way Things Go" the standard view of what is narrative and what is non conventional is skewed slightly. WE have a film that is played out similar to a game of Mouse Trap or a domino set up, one object hits another and causes a chain reaction of events, but then you have to ask yourself isnt that what a narrative is? Certainly it has a beginning a build up, a end point events, time, things that make up a story are all there... so why do some feel differently? It deserves to be called a narrative just as Duck Soup does, just because we dont exactly have a antagonist and a protagonist and a plot twist in Way things go, or a solid story structure or non fiction terms as seen in Duck Soup, they both still constitute a story in my book. Even though that might seem hard to understand for most I feel it is crucial in todays world where so many non linear film works are appearing and becoming a lot more prominent.