mfa thesis post-production

MFA Thesis Post Production
Dr. Samantha Krukowski

spring 2007 questionnaire

*To be completed as an independent, physical document, due to me on February 27 (as noted in the course calendar)…this cannot be a Word document because it should have physical texture, surface, penetration, the evidence of touch. It should be portable, and important to you*

a) answer as poetically as possible, with the definition of poïesis in mind
b) insert imagery that extends your answers
c) at the end of the document, indicate questions and areas of difficulty

Poïesis: To Make; poïetic work reconciles thought with matter and time, being with the world. Martin Heidegger called it a “bringing forth”…he explained poïesis as the blooming of the blossom, the coming-out of a butterfly from a cocoon, the plummeting of a waterfall when the snow begins to melt…these are all examples of threshold occasions, moments of ecstasis (literally: astonishment, trance) when something moves away from its standing as one thing to become another.

To more fully understand this term, think about the relational process that exists between an idea and a manifest thing. There is a conceptual evolution when an idea seeds, and begins to take on form and energy. As the idea grows, it begins to inform material, but the material has its own rules and characteristics. These material rules structure the ways in which the idea can be represented. The process goes two ways: Pure idea becomes manifest materially, and material is fashioned to represent an idea (which may itself be a physical form.)

Name

Name of film company (if one)

Website

Title and genre of thesis film (if no title or genre decided, some ideas in this direction)

Meaning(s) / potential interpretations of title

Running Time (or estimate)

Cast

Crew

Budget

Production timeline

Anticipated completion date

Anticipated graduation date

Plans post-graduation

Current status of project (be specific, please)

Describe the narrative character and progression in your work. To what extent does the narrative embody poeïsis?

What kinds of devices are you using to speak the narrative? What kinds of voices live in it? What kinds of silences?

Are there unusual ways in which you are treating and depicting time (past, present, future, memory, dreams)? Think of memory as the agent of the past and imagination as the agent of the future when you answer.

Describe the image quality of your work overall, and in terms of particular scenes / moments of import

What specific colors and color-ranges you are interested in? How do they function, what do they contribute?

What role does lighting play in your work? What is its character at various points in the film?

Describe the spatial qualities in your work, including sites (shooting locations, sets) and inferred spaces

Are there particular objects that are especially meaningful, carry specific weight? How so? Think semiology—the study of signs and symbols—the study of how meaning is constructed and understood.

Is the world of your film more material (physical, grounded, sensual) or more ephemeral (ethereal, hard to locate, formless) overall? How do both material and ephemeral worlds function in your work?

Evaluate your script/film as follows, in linear (drawn) diagrams (each diagram should be its own entity):

• Break it down into individual sections, divided and isolated based on your own understanding of how your work is composed.
• Number and name these sections.
• Excise one line of script per section, put these lines together from start to finish.
• Consider each section mathematically. How many elements (of import, as accessories) are present? Lay out these numbers along with the components that comprise them…
                     ex. 4 (1 chair, 1 window, 1 cigarette, 1 woman) + 7 + 5 + 1 + 4 + …
• Assign an adjective to each section.
• Assign a verb to each section.
• Assign a color to each section.
• Assign a shape to each section.
• Mark time in each section (century, year, day, time of day, past, present, future, length of section (real time/screening time)…) Each section may have multiple time markers.
• Locate or create a singular image to stand for each section. Do not use a still or footage from your film.
• Locate or create a landscape for each section (representational or otherwise—could be a mountain range, could be a map, could be a room interior, could be dust.) Again, do not use a still or footage from your film.

Why are you making this film, why do you care about it, why is it important to you?