Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Cahoots


Cahoots from Joseph Griffin on Vimeo.

Well here it is...My first 16mm film. I think I did alright. although exposure seems a bit overexposed at time I promise that when you watch the straight projection it's fine...stupid DV. Anyway watch for the scene where I'm running behind Sam and you might see a glimpse of the tree that I hit and then try and find my one continuity error.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Hamlet

The long awaited release of one of my first ever feature length (approx. 8min) films is here. I found this forgotten project a long time ago. I saved all my video projects onto my external hard drive before moving out for school even before I went to BG and I have just recently started mulling through the archives. The embedded film is one of those archived creations. I made this abridged version of Hamlet for a group project for British Lit. during my senior year of high-school. Tig was my partner and to be honest...I don't know where he's gone now after school. Anyway, here's the film and be sure to watch it through to the end for the special reading by my brother Ryan.



Hamlet from Joseph Griffin on Vimeo.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Ground Zero

Here's some pictures my T.A. Evan took a few minutes after the catastrophe:

Hi8...Bye8


So my roommate and I were having a conversation when the topic of Hi8 camcorders came up. Everyone remembers the damn things from that wedding or birth or crappy zombie thriller they shot in their backyard in the 90s. Hell, I can recall one Christmas in specific where my brother, myself and the family's Hi8 cam ruined Christmas for the whole family. Probably my first attempt as a filmmaker, as far as I can remember, I dressed my little bro Andrew up in a big puffy vest and sunglasses. The idea was a sort of James Bond thriller in the arctic tundra of Siberia (Wisconsin in the winter time was an obvious choice for the location to get this effect across). Andrew slinked around the porch and down into the yard improvising as he went along. The bomb that he was supposed to disarm was in the shed connected to our house and underneath the porch. Mind you this is like Christmas eve now. Andrew goes in to open the shed door and instead of the bomb we discover every single Christmas present unwrapped and exposed to our curious little eyes. Yes we were in shock and yes we thought about just closing the door and leaving...but then...what if the bomb went off....right? So we continued in and at this point I broke the silence and began the commentary on the early unveiling. Me being that avid little filmmaker I was I forgot to turn off the camera and one present in specific I remember was one of those little plastic play kitchens with the little plastic burgers and hotdogs, Andrew wanted it, He noticed the picture on the box and felt no shame in going right up to it and approving of its presence. After we had scoured the shed we finally left and without stirring Mom or Dad. We thought we were in the clear! It wasn't until later however that we found that our efforts for being undetected were in vein. Mom found the tape in the Hi8 camcorder and along with it all the evidence that "Christmas was ruined". I don't remember a more sullen and remorseful Christmas in my life. Mom was mad and we knew it. Actually, to this day I don't think my mom has been more mad than she was on that fateful Christmas day. To be honest though, they should've just wrapped the presents instead of leaving them exposed for us to walk in on like that. I digress. Back to the original topic. Hi8. Not only does the quality of the Hi8 camcorder suck but my memories of it suck. It's funny to think about the bastardized medium now that we have DV and more recently P2 card technology. I made a joke to Adam saying if I ever make it in the film business I'm going to shoot my first and subsequent movies all on Hi8. It's amazing that they are still selling like hot on eBay and other marketplace websites. Then while I did a search on Hi8s I came across this link to a posting where a guy is set on transferring Hi8 to 35mm...which is a freaking joke! I thought it was funny and if you've ever used Hi8 and understand the superiority of 35 then check this link out and try not to laugh:

http://www.likeastory.com/boards/cgi/noncgi/Forum8/HTML/000373.html


Poor guy.

Edit: Then again the post was made in '98. Maybe he was serious...all the more hilarious!

Sunday, March 02, 2008

The Big Zero - Five

Long time no update, so here it is:

I turned 5 this last Friday! My fifth leap-year birthday was kicked off as such that the year can only get better from here on.

The following series of photos depicts the results of my first film shoot here at Columbia. The shot was of my main character running to a woman who was hurt. I followed over his right shoulder as he ran. In retrospect I believe I had made a mistake and whereas I wanted a wide shot with a 16mm lens I in the process of winding the camera up had moved the turret so that I was looking through the 25mm lens. This vastly reduced my field of view but I decided to compensate by simply backing myself up a bit in order to get the desired framing. This decision would lead to a tree with a hole cut out of it and my whole face becoming very bruised. As I ran behind the actor I all of a sudden came to a complete stop and pain surged through my face. After coming to my senses I noticed I had run into one of the park trees and tore a chunk of it out with the sun shade on the 75mm yvar lens. Luckily the camera was alright...the only thing I was truly worried about after hitting the tree was the camera. Opposite the tree and it's injuries were me and my injuries:


I didn't black out and I never got any sort of a headache besides the initial dazedness that I experienced the whole thing was really no big deal. We continued the shoot as usual and the camera clicked of film just fine. After a bit we took a 30 min break in the nearby Dearborn Station and two off duty bike police had some sanitizer and a band-aid. The rest of the shoot went smoothly and once I got back to my apartment I simply iced the wound for about half an hour and then went on with my day. I couldn't have asked for a more eventful 20th birthday.

Back in Oswego this weekend I got the chance to help in a fellow scouts Eagle Court of Honor. Dave Stewart and I were good friends back when I was in troop 63 and to have the opportunity to see him get his wings was quite special.

I bought three movies while I was in Oswego since I got some money for my birthday.

1. The Third Man (Criterion Edition)
2. Hard Candy (creepy thriller gone controversial with a young Ellen Page)
and
3. Heat (a personal favorite featuring a scene with Al Pacino AND Robert Dinero)

All long awaited additions to my collection! :)

Other than all this my birthday was rather lax. No party but now that I think about it my mother sent me some cookies that have my name plastered all over them in the kitchen and that to me sounds like a good enough party so I'm out for now. Stay tuned for more details as things progress.