Here My assignment 3- I added on to 1 and 2.....
Soundtrack only a sketch!
password: vamp
Feedback questions:
1. How do the three parts relate to each other, in your opinion?
a) what does each part do on its own
b) what are you drawn to in each part and what is less exciting?
c) what is/are red (a) red thread(s) that could connect them?
2) Who could the character be that is emerging from the study/three parts?
3) Do you have any sound/soundtrack and text suggestions?
4) any other observations, thoughts, feedback?
Feedback questions:
1. How do the three parts relate to each other, in your opinion?
a) what does each part do on its own
b) what are you drawn to in each part and what is less exciting?
c) what is/are red (a) red thread(s) that could connect them?
2) Who could the character be that is emerging from the study/three parts?
3) Do you have any sound/soundtrack and text suggestions?
4) any other observations, thoughts, feedback?
(1a)
ReplyDeletePart 1: femme European (legs + skirt) → sari → confrontational animal
Part 2: intimate space: with you in a sheer leopard print sari
Part 3: a silhouette of a strip tease, broken by a funny, ironic scrolling text
(1b)
Part 1 – Drawn to the clear shapes of the legs, the playing between sexualized and grotesque, the transformation from skirt to sari. For me the playing with the skirt/pallu from around 1:00-1:17, does not read very clearly to me – I see a lot of out-of-focus fabric.
Part 2 – I’m drawn to the sheerness of the sari and how it moves in the wind, the intimate feeling of being in the sari with you, the image of the empty sari after you disappear. The zoom into your chest and the circling of your legs – which I think are supposed to be sexualized movements appropriate to a “vamp” – seem like they could be more loaded. Partially it is the clothing -- the sari and salwar don’t reveal any cleavage or legs – and so those images/movements lack impact for me as a viewer. For me, the violence of the lyrics (“I am a vamp I bite my men and suck them dry…I should really be kept in a zoo” does not really align with the imagery or movement.
Part 3 – I like the dropping of the bra and shoes because they make clear, legible silhouettes. The beginning portion is filled with moving shadows and hard-to-read textures that I wished to be readable more quickly. It would be nice if your silhouette was clearer. If you are interested in clearer imagery, perhaps making the green backdrop tighter and using a more focused light source would help.
(1c)
It reads like an investigation of the vamp, and because they are spliced together, I read them as a continuous event unfolding in real time. It seems to be the same character throughout, playing with sexuality, femininity, primitivity, unexpected Euro-Indian crossovers (not as evident in part 3), clothing, the camera’s gaze. The song and the consistency of character are red threads.
2) A vamp who moves between German and Indian referents.
3) While this edited version of the soundtrack is choppy, removing some of the lyrics makes me hear the ones that are there more clearly. The repetition of the musical intro at the beginning musically gives me the feeling of a song that never starts. What if you said/sang some of the text yourself? That could potentially make your character feel more empowered by giving her a voice. On this note, the interruption of the scrolling text – which I found hilarious because I know you and your “hopelessly femme” qualities – also has the effect of giving you a voice. If you like the scrolling text, does it appear at any other time as a pointed, tongue-in-cheek, po-mo/Brechtian commentary?
I’d continue to work with the song and its text, since I think it has a lot of charge, and figure out specifically how it dialogues with the imagery. Does it make more sense in a processed, fragmented state, voiced by yourself, a sung recording, etc?
4. I want to see you cross-dress! As an exercise, it might be interesting to play with the order of this footage, or to cut it up in different ways. Also, how might this character dance?
1. How do the three parts relate to each other, in your opinion?
ReplyDeletea) what does each part do on its own
Part 1: I interpret as a European woman’s legs going back and forth between teasing the audience and feeling her own sexual tension until she tries on (or is released or is dropped into) an animalistic exotic appearance that the audience is then confronted face to face with. I see her grimace at me and hear her growling and am surprised to hear her chiding Hitler like a lover or even a child. Then she laughs and tilts her head back.
Part 2: I am up close with a woman, sensually enclosed by a sheer veil. It feels slightly sensual and slightly lost, lost in the folds looking for something with the movement of the camera. The camera tries to focus on her breasts but the veil of fabric pulls away and she lifts to stand revealing harem like pants and her wild voice claims that she is a vamp. Her voice is powerful though the movements seems soft showing off the flowy pants and a little bit of leg. When she says she really should be kept in a zoo I see her step up and out of the frame as if she’s escaping from a cage and leaving behind the trace of her veil blowing emptily in the wind.
Part 3: I watch shadows moving murkily for a while, then a veil drops tumultuously in front of me, then clothing items start dropping into the frame. I think of a shadow reality as representing what we think see or what we imagine something to be vs the reality of real things we recognize dropping into frame
When a bra shadow is seen I realize it is a striptease. When bare legs come into the frame and I assume she is naked. The legs step on the female clothing, one leg raised as if about to step somewhere and then the
words up breaking the mood of mystery with sound and video silenced/still. The text is slightly amusing and also slightly confusing. I wonder why the character wishes to cross dress. The sound and video come back on again with a satisfying moment of her voice at the end, almost burp like.
b) what are you drawn to in each part and what is less exciting?
Drawn to: The transformation of the sari, the words of the song, the close snarling face, the stepping out of the frame, the shadow striptease.
Less exciting: parts where it takes a while to figure out what is going on, like the intimate veil section moving to the chest, or in the beginning of the shadow striptease I can’t really tell what is going on so it’s just like watching vague shadows for a bit.
c) what is/are red (a) red thread(s) that could connect them?
To me the thread is about the trying on of stereotypical appearances: Western woman (perhaps “cougar”), vamp, savage, harem dancer, burlesque striptease dancer, and finally the desire to try cross dressing…
2) Who could the character be that is emerging from the study/three parts?
She could be several things:
the European woman discontent with her own identity and thus appropriating the identity of others
The discontent femme searching for her “true” identity
The vamp enjoying the power of changing her appearance and thus playing with how we perceive her and not allowing us to settle on one perceived identity.
And probably more….
3) Do you have any sound/soundtrack and text suggestions?
DeleteI like the way you’ve parsed out the music into the tense repetition of the piano
In sections vs her harsh aggressive voice in others. This was the first time I was able to hear the words and so they felt really strong in the parts that they were there.
I love the beginning of her vocal section as you drop to the floor and the line “I should really be kept in a zoo! “ happening as you step out from the frame.
The text is an interesting disruption though I find the piece fascinating without it. Perhaps if it is used it stays at the end as one big disruption, but you might also play with peppering in other text other places as well (as Cyn suggested). Perhaps her peppered in text that is talking to the viewer provides a counter to what the viewer is perceiving and thus causes the viewer to question what we perceive in that moment and thus to always continue questioning what we see next.
4) any other observations, thoughts, feedback?
I am curious about the idea of trying on new identities/appearances/roles. To connect it to the research assignment 3, how can a woman create power for herself in these different roles? is it the same strategy or different depending on the identity?
Also, since cross dressing seemed like an impossibility at that moment (I myself just did a thrift store run for mine), what other possibilities are there at that moment within the realm of the femme?
Here are some images of the neo burlesque scene that provide some provocative embodiments of the femme….
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/27/leland-bobbe_n_4345810.html#slide=1747452
I am particularly drawn to Dottie Lux’s clown femme and Mrs. Tickle with her breast in hand. Both seem inviting the gaze and disturb the expectation of the objectifying gaze at the same time.
Here’s Lady Scoutington, also featured in the Huffington post article using song and femme tease to talk politics: http://ladyscoutington.com/post/61377053271/www-yipyipsisters-com-ladyscoutington
And since you were interested in cross dressing at the end, here’s another related video I also found through the same article: Andrew in Drag
http://youtu.be/Jf_l3EGQvL8
1) The three parts to me are all connected. I see them as different moments of the same performance. The legs, full face, and the shadow play. I am waiting to be shocked with all the teasing foreplay.
ReplyDelete2) The legs set up the hiding/revealing motif and expectations as you draw the skirt higher to reveal the "forbidden fruit". The face section was least interesting to me as I wasn't sure how it informs the other sections other than that you are a beautiful woman, but I feel once we see your face, it undermines the mystery inherent in the other sections. The shadow/light play is also intriguing and sets up anticipation of the naked vamp.
3) The character I see emerging is a seductress/perhaps a stripper?
4) I kind of like the soundtrack you are currently using, but it could be interesting to play with different types of instrumental music (percussive---tribal feel), (jazzy), Bollywood? Just to see how it might inform the piece differently