June 28, 2007

Garfield Park Conservatory

Sloan and I hopped aboard the CTA to Chicago's marvelous Garfield Park Conservatory on Tuesday, to do the first of what we hope will be the first of several little parallel movie projects this summer. Lots of fun.

She brought her professional-quality vidcam, and created a really artistic and sophisticated little movie.

I brought my crappy old 30-grainy-seconds-at-a-time digital camera (which is probably worth about $50) and created a crazy video pastiche that includes a time-lapse hot dog eating montage. Call me well-rounded, or call me constantly hungry, but I always enjoy art and culture that much more when there's snacking involved.

It's so cool how we have such distinct impressions of shared experiences. One thing that made it into both of our movies this time was a big group photo moment that we happened upon near the end of our visit. Sloan has this really sweet fixation on cute elderly Asian women, who stir up her intense affection for her Filipino grandma, and there was one in this group who prompted her to whip out her camera on our way out the door and catch just one more moment. Hmm...I wonder if we should try to work a tiny Asian grandma into every parallel project from now on. It could become our trademark.

Anyway, here's my video:



And here is Sloan's video:

9 comments:

Prego said...

out of sight. is that the joni mitchell version?


i just figured out that my crappy digital camera doesn't do sound.

this project is up my alley. here's one i did with my crappy digital video camera. feel free to check out the others.

p

(ps - i tried to do one with your friend's awesome dinosaur song, but it ended up looking like crap, so i trashed it. i'll try again later and send you the link.)

Elizabeth McQuern said...

Hey, Prego! Yeah, that's the Audio Hijacked Joni Mitchell version. Glad you liked it!

And I love your skating kids vid...so darned sweet. Will check out the others, too.

And it would be awesome if you did something using "The Dinosaur!" Brandi would love it!

Anonymous said...

If golf is boring, what is a video tour of a greenhouse?

Elizabeth McQuern said...

Is this like a zen riddle? I think the answer is..."as boring as cat video."

Dale said...

Garfield Park Conservatory looks really cool from both your points of view. Nice work and the music really helps set the tone, forgive the awkward language. How integral was the music to your editing and composition?

Dr. Zaius said...

Ack! Scary fountain lady sculpture!

Elizabeth McQuern said...

Dale - thanks! I realize it's just plants, which aren't terribly dynamic, but I'm looking for more ways to learn about editing, so why not?

Music ends up being a huge part of this sort of thing. Unfortunately, I was an idiot and didn't back up my music before my last laptop died, so I don't have a huge selection at my fingertips (hence the generic music in the Fountain Square video). But I was reasonably happy with he Joni Mitchell choice this time around.

Sloan's music was really key to her video - she spent a crazy amount of time going through songs, synching certain transitions, and almost driving me nuts with a particular clip of that Yes song.

Chancelucky said...

Bella,
I can't believe that you got Joni Mitchell to hang out, eat hot dogs, and sing while you were filiming at the Garfield Park Conservatory.

Several years ago, I made several visits to Flower High School which is in Garfield Park. Students would occasionally cater events at the conservatory. Oddly, I can't remember if I ever went into the conservatory itself. So, this is what I wa smissing. Did Sloan do hers with or without a tripod? Those slow pans are really hard to do without.

Elizabeth McQuern said...

Chance - Flower High School? That sounds cartoonishly adorable.

Sloan did all of that stuff without a tripod. Pretty great, huh? I wish you could see her original cut - so much of the quality gets lost when you compress stuff for YouTube.