Soul Sights and Still Lifes

By Wendy Faunce

Wendy is a junior at Ball State, studying creative writing and telecommunications: video production. Here on The Public Screen, she aims to inform readers about recent and impacting projects of filmmakers, photographers, and other visual artists. 

Photographer Laura Letinsky is best known for her still life-photographs, some of which were recently displayed at the Photographer’s Gallery in London. The photographs, all of which were included in her series titled ““Ill Form and Void Full,” use fruit, dishes, paints, candy, and pastel-colored stains to compile an image that Letinsky describes as highly personal with strong “affiliations with domesticity and intimacy.”

Letinsky focused on portrait photography at the beginning of her career, specifically portraits of couples. While she was able to convey the affection that photography can evoke, she was not settled in the genre. “While I was taking photographs of couples in the 1990s, I began thinking about love, and about how photography relates to love, how it can function within a kind of circuitry of production and consumption… I also wanted to switch from an omnipotent point of view to something that felt more immediate, more first-person.”

Though one would be tempted to think that photographs of candy and fruit would be aloof and reserved when compared to portraits, the photographs simply show the same love of people in a more hidden and almost intimate way. Each item in the picture has been stretched, cut, arranged, or destroyed by someone, giving each item a distinctly human quality. In a sense, these inanimate object photos externalize the inner turmoil we can’t always see clearly below the surface of human interactions. In the same way people changed these objects, they can stretch, cut, and arrange each other’s souls as well. 

48 Hours to Film

By Wendy Faunce 

Wendy is a junior at Ball State, studying creative writing and telecommunications: video production. Here on The Public Screen, she aims to inform readers about recent and impacting projects of filmmakers, photographers, and other visual artists. 

"It took every virtue I had in my personality from patience to courage to sorority to leadership ability. Of course I will do it again!"
 

"We are sooo tired." 

"It was awesome working with and meeting new people and coming together to create something. We all enjoyed ourselves immensely!"

These sound like statements the Media Matters members would make about our work here on the Public Screen, but they are actually statements from participants in the 48 Hour Film Project, which is currently in the midst of a tour and set to reach Indianapolis in August.

Filmmakers from across the globe were involved in last year’s 48 Hour Film Project. This project started as a Washington DC filmmaker’s crazy idea: to make a film in 48 hours with the aid of only a small team of people. That idea grew in an unbelievable way over the last 12 years. As of last year, artists from 6 continents were involved with crews numbering anywhere from one person to a 116 member team (and 30 horses).

Each crew’s film has only four common criteria: a character, a genre, a prop, and one line of dialogue. These criteria are revealed to the crew on a specified Friday, providing them only the weekend to finish the film. “All writing, shooting, editing and scoring must be completed in just 48 hours.” After the weekend, one film from each city is selected by a panel of judges and submitted to the 48 Hour film festival, Filmapalooza. The top films are then shown at other festivals like the Cannes Film Festival and many more.

“The 48 Hour Film Project's mission is to advance filmmaking and promote filmmakers.” Because of the limited amount of time, the project focuses on many aspects of film that can be lost in lengthy productions. The filmmaking process is torn down to the bare-bones minimum, focusing on the process and creativity rather than effects or complicated plots. The chance to meet filmmakers from around the world also draws many artists and audiences.

Acting Out Against Hate

By Rick Belbutoski
 
Two months after Ball State’s College of Communication, Information, and Media (CCIM) had its Super Party, the controversial image discovered there has practically been forgotten.

According to WCRD news reporter Cameron Ridle, a crude drawing of a black person being lynched was discovered on the digital board of the Ball Communication Building’s second floor at approximately 9:50 p.m. following the January 17^th event. 

The WCRD story received some feedback. There were many comments on the WCRD website, including one from the President of The Black Student Association (BSA). The Muncie Star wrote an article about it, and even the Ball State’s Vice President of Communication and Marketing released a statement. Within two weeks, however, another act of hate was committed in the CCIM complex.

Two weeks after the image was found on the digital board, a “Safe Zone” sign was torn from a professor’s office door in the Letterman Building and crumpled up while a message of hate was scribbled on an Indiana Public Radio bumper sticker which was on the same professor’s bulletin board. “Safe Zone” signs signify where members of the LGBTQ community can find a person trained to support members of the community with struggles they may be experiencing.  Sadly, this act of hate was met with an even less substantial response than the digital board drawing. 

Anyone who cares about encouraging diversity must question why these two acts of hate drew such different responses from Ball State University, who didn’t comment on the second incident, but chose words artfully to minimize the uproar about the image found on the digital board.  What could have been the positives and negatives of having a conversation about hate on campus?

The good news is that these thoughts are going to be given some attention this week. On Thursday, February 27^th, CCIM is sponsoring a Dialoguing Diversity Symposium from 1-4 p.m. in The Letterman Building. A group of five students have put together a project specifically for the symposium. The project, titled #stophate365, is a multimedia campaign that aims to raise awareness about acts of hate on Ball State’s campus, educating and encouraging students to stand up to these prejudicial messages. You can join the campaign by tweeting at #stophate365 and attending the symposium Thursday afternoon. Those who can or cannot attend can come by the project group’s table to sign a banner that will be placed in the Letterman Lobby to express how they stand up against messages of hate.

 

Happy Birthday, Kurt Cobain

 

By Sam Watermeier

Given our emphasis on the importance of media and those who make it, we would be remiss not to mention the late, great Kurt Cobain, who would have turned 47 today.

As the frontman for Nirvana, Cobain produced thunderous yet intimate music. He made stadiums feel like living rooms. When you watch him perform, he exudes pure, raw emotion, as if he is confessing to the audience. 

Here at Media Matters, we like to celebrate media that is cathartic, media that reaches out and touches its consumers. The best media connects with people. It jumps off the page, ignites the screen, or radiates from your headphones and warms your heart. And that is precisely what Cobain's music did and continues to do. 

Like any great piece of media, Cobain's music communicates in a raw, honest, artful way. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic once said Cobain was like a particular piece of art he made — a picture of grocery store meat with an orchid pasted on it, a testament to raw beauty. 

It's a true shame that Cobain is gone, but like any great art, his music will live on forever.

In his honor, you should give it a listen tonight. Here's my personal favorite tune...

True Drama

By Sam Watermeier

Last week, I wrote about the intimate power of television, specifically how a talk show host can make you feel like he is sitting right next to you in your living room.

While "The Tonight Show" exhibited intimate power with its static shot of retiring host Jay Leno bidding farewell to his audience of 22 years, HBO's new series, "True Detective" has demonstrated another major power of television — its ability to make you feel like you are on a roller-coaster ride in your living room.

The crime drama did that quite literally last Sunday night with a six-minute, unbroken tracking shot following detective Rust Cohle (Matthew McConaughey) amid a robbery gone awry. Acting undercover as a member of the Iron Crusaders biker gang, Cohle participates in the robbery in order to gain access to a meth cooker who may be involved in the murder he's investigating.



Tensions rise and bullets fly as the gang raids the stash house and Cohle runs all over the housing project with its leader as a hostage. This unbroken scene is an exhilarating fly-on-the-wall moment that pulsates with you-are-there immediacy. As the show's director, Cary Joji Fukunaga said, this kind of unbroken shot is “the most first-person experience you can get in a film.”

The shot is a visual embodiment of the show — a sustained surge into a world of crime.

Just as Jay Leno's farewell speech was poignant regardless of whether you watch "The Tonight Show," this sequence in "True Detective" works as a stand-alone adrenaline rush. Of course, it is all the more powerful when you are immersed in the show's history and world. 

Whether sitting you in front of a talk show host as he bids farewell to his audience or thrusting you into a crime world, television is immersive. You may watch it in your living room, but it takes you to another world.

Photos and Fairy Tales

 

By Wendy Faunce

Wendy is a junior at Ball State, studying creative writing and telecommunications: video production. Here on The Public Screen, she aims to inform readers about recent and impacting projects of filmmakers, photographers, and other visual artists.

Portrait photographer Annie Leibovitz has had an astounding career that began when she was a very young woman. In 1970, after graduating from the San Francisco Art Institute, Leibovitz was hired as a staff photographer with Rolling Stone. At the tender age of 23, she was promoted to head photographer. Over the next 10 years, she photographed countless musicians including John Lennon and the members of the Rolling Stones. Vanity Fair then hired Leibovitz. She photographed countless celebrities, musicians, and artists for the magazine. As with Rolling Stone, her photos became icons of artistic freedom and unrestrained boldness. In 1996, she was appointed official photographer of the Olympics in Atlanta.

People from around the globe recognize and admire Leibovitz’s distinct style. Her photos are well known for their bold base colors and “awkward” positioning of subjects. For example, one of her most famous photographs is a cover of Rolling Stone in which a completely naked John Lennon wrapped himself around Yoko, who was almost smiling for the photo. For Vanity Fair, she submerged Whoopi Goldberg in a bathtub filled with milk. Her arms and legs raised high in the air and comical expression stretching her face into a mocking smile.

Some of Leibovitz’s most recent work has circulated around Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites for several months. She has put together a collection of “realistic” portraits of Disney characters. For this “Disney Dream” series, Leibovitz uses A-list celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Will Ferrell, and Jeff Bridges to impersonate Disney cartoon characters’ against the backdrop of scenes similar to those in their movies. The photos are yet another staple in Annie Leibovitz’s already stunning career. “We’ve brought a classic to life!” she says.

A Heartfelt Goodnight

By Sam Watermeier

Thursday evening, Jay Leno bid his final good night to the crew and audience of the talk show he has hosted for 22 years. 

Of course, this was not the first time Leno has said goodbye to "The Tonight Show." In 2009, he moved to prime-time, passing the "Tonight Show" torch to Conan O'Brien, but then reclaiming the show, which NBC offered him after O'Brien's low ratings and time slot conflicts. (Watch Leno's explanation below.)

Thursday night, Leno's explanation behind reclaiming "The Tonight Show" dispelled the popular notion that he acted out of mere show biz selfishness.

"People say to me, 'Hey, why didn't you go to ABC or FOX?'"

"I didn't know anybody over there," Leno said, then describing his NBC crew as family.

It was a humble, selfless speech from a man often accused of being otherwise.

There is more to a show than what meets the eye, Leno illuminated, pointing to: the 64 children of his NBC crew that were born during his time on the air; the fact that his parents and brother died during his first years on the show and the NBC crew became his family, etc.

By getting personal and letting tears strip away his clown makeup, so to speak, Leno revealed the intimate power of television. He turned the auditorium into a living room, and when he said, "I want to thank you, the audience," I felt like he was talking directly to me.

Journalist Edward R. Murrow was right; television can illuminate and inspire. When Leno connected with his audience on a personal, emotional level Thursday night, he further proved Murrow's point that television is not merely wires and lights in a box. 

Exceptional in the Eye of a Radical Feminist

By Samantha Smith

Samantha is a junior at Ball State University. Here on The Public Screen, she writes about gender issues in the media.

“If women can do anything, why are we still content with them doing nothing?” Even though there is no true definion to feminism, radical feminist, Amy Glass gives it a definition that is nothing less than opinionated. In her recent blog entry, "I Look Down on Young Women with Husbands and Kids and I’m Not Sorry," Glass makes it a point to say that stay-at-home mothers are not equal in accomplishments to women who work for a living. What's even more radical is her statement that being a mother is not a serious accomplishment or responsibility, that when compared to "landing a dream job or backpacking through Asia," it is equivalent to "doing nothing."  

What Glass doesn’t realize is that she’s describing only one type of mother and is taking that mother’s example and attaching that stigma to other mothers. We’ve all seen this before on Facebook — the young mother who does nothing but post pictures and statuses of and about her little one all day, every day. And sometimes instead of the posts coming off as “Look at my child, he or she is adorable”, it comes off as “Look what I made!” This is the type of mother that Glass describes, the mother whose life revolves around her child and nothing else. Glass completely ignores the fact that not all mothers are like this and that being a mother is real work, especially if she has other priorities on top of it.

Glass goes on to say that the only accomplishments women celebrate are giving birth and getting married; and she describes these things as average. While these are very common things that women do, it doesn’t mean they’re insignificant. When a woman has a baby shower, she’s getting ready to welcome a new person into the world — that’s a big deal. And when a woman has a wedding party, she’s celebrating the fact that she’s getting ready to sign a legal document binding her to one person for the rest of her life — that’s a big deal, too. Glass says that she would like to see more celebrating when it comes to women getting a promotion at work or accomplishing a dream they've had since they were little, but women celebrate these things too. We just don’t make it as formal. If a woman gets a promotion at work, we may not have a party because of it but rather we go out and have drinks with friends or we treat ourselves to the spa for the day. It’s not a very traditional way to express excitement, but it’s essentially the same thing.

Towards the end of her article, Glass claims that young mothers with families "will never have the time, energy, freedom or mobility to be exceptional." Is this true? Maybe, but it all depends on a woman’s definition of exceptional. A woman could define exceptional as having a family and raising their child right, and if that’s the case, she already is exceptional.