helloclarissaq

[helloclarissaq]

This is my video essay for the subject FA300_1_Excursions_Into_Essentail_Cinema, on Elem Klimovs film Come and see. 

[helloclarissaq]

Yup, that was bright.

Yup, that was bright.

Name of film: Yeelen (Brightness) 1987

Director: Souleymane Cisse

Starring: Issiaka Kane, Aoua Sangara and Niamanto Sanogo

Genre: Fantasy adventure drama

 This was an interesting film. I did laugh a couple of times and other times I was captivated in the adventure, wondering what’s going to happen next. It is a light-hearted film and easy to watch. The film’s overall style is very light and bright. Thus, the name of the film. The style of the shots is not very artistic or experimental. There are certain scenes that carried on for longer than I would have liked. The sound supported the theme, look and feel of the film. I would say the theme for this film is good always overcoming evil. And also, that tradition can be broken over years and new tradition can arise. I do feel that the film was worth screening. It also opened my eyes to other traditions and cultures that we are not aware of or get to do with on a daily basis. It was really interesting. And yes, it is also a little strange.

This film is about a young man, Nianankoro (Issiaka Kane) who needs to flee from his father, Soma (Niamanto Sanogo) who wants to kill him. Because Soma saw a vision that his son, Nianankoro would kill him. Nianankoro, with the help from his mother, steal a couple of his fathers sacred fetishes. These are powerful and give Nianankoro powers. His mother sends him away to go and find his uncle. He can keep Nianonkoro safe. Soma has a magic wooden pole, with strange stones on it. This is his artifact that he uses his powers with. With this pole he tracks down his son to kill him. Nianankoro travels far and helps a village along the way. He also meets a woman. He eventually reaches his uncle, Djigui, who has been turned blind by the power of his artifact. He gives Nianankoro the artifact to go and battle his father.

I would say that this film teaches us a life lesson. That tradition can be changed and can also sometimes be for the better. And if you don’t want to change it, that’s fine to. But that one should not be blinded by what you’ve been taught. Instead find your own way and your own traditions. It’s not wrong. The set was mostly the open bush-veld and the small villages of the people. It’s very simplistic yet it adds to the environment and feel of the film very well. I get the feeling that there wasn’t a lot of artificial lighting used. To make it feel as natural as possible. There were magic scenes and these were executed well by the actors. There were a lot of medium close-ups and long shots. In the long shots we could see the environment and in the medium close-ups the emotion. There wasn’t a lot of dialogue, but more facial shots conveying the emotions of the characters.  

This is an easy film to watch. Strange indeed with all the magic and moments when the audience laughed, even though it might not have been intended to be a comedy. But it’s a fun film and teaches you about other cultures. This film gets my stamp of approval and also a thumbs up.

[helloclarissaq]

Try not to cry through Come and see.

Try not to cry through Come and see.

Name of film:   Come and see (1985)

Director: Elem Klimov

Starring: Aleksei Kravchenko and Olga Mironova

Genre: War drama

 I do believe that this film portrays the circumstances during WWll very realistically. It is almost scary how the main character, played by Aleksei Kravchenko, ages dramatically throughout the film. Although this was just a movie, to me it felt more like a documentary. The style of the shots and also of the film itself appears very harsh and as if everything happened in the moment. Not like the shots were pre-planned, which they obviously were. As Elem Klimov, the director of this film, has lived through the World War, his perspective and way of telling the story was very real. I felt depressed after the film. The acting done by the two main characters where memorable. As they were asked to do very difficult scenes. They didn’t come forth as actors to me. They were kids who were trying to survive the war. The theme for this film, according to me, is how destructive war is on the earth and on everybody involved and that war is no way to resolve any matter. This film was worth screening. It’s eye-opening, especially for people who have little knowledge as to how brutal and serious the World War really was. We hear stories and see pictures, but here we have an entire film portraying the devastating times of World War ll.

The film follows a young boy, Florya (Aleksei Kravchenko) and his female companion Glasha (Olga Mironova) as they try and survive the difficult and harsh War. Their families are murdered and they need to try and stay away and out of sight of the German soldiers. They get separated and Florya ventures off with a group of rebels to try and find food and water. Florya experiences the brutality and inhumane nature of the German soldiers as they eradicate a village.

This film is unique in every way as it is not made for pleasure or enjoyment of the viewer. But rather a harsh reality check as to how broken the world was during the War. The film teaches the viewer to preserve and cherish life, as it can be easily taken away.  The lighting of the film was very dull and almost had a humid feeling. There’s no sunshine. This is metaphoric for how dull and dead their circumstance where. The camera work was very shaky at most times. To give it that handheld feeling of someone taking these images as it’s happening. The set designs are incredible. And also, the number of extras in this film is what adds to the realness feeling.

This is not an easy film to watch, and is not for the fainthearted. But it’s a good film to see and I would recommend it. It opens your eyes and helps you to realise the importance and beauty of life and how we should cherish it. I give this film my stamp of approval with a thumbs up.  

[helloclarissaq]

#16   Scorpion

So this one was way out of my comfort zone!! Knowing I chose the word Scorpion for my last blog I actually didn't realize what I did to myself. I had to not just touch but hold a scorpion for at least five seconds. 

The worst five seconds of my life!! Right after our friend got stung by a scorpion I wrote my previous blog. Choosing the Element Scorpion I thought maybe something will come up. Something less dangerous. But no, we drove to a pet store and I made the decision to hold a “tamed” scorpion (that does not exist by the way, or at least not in my books.) 

I fed the thing and then I held out my hand and there it was. On my F@#$%^& hand!!!! Massive and creepy looking at me like I killed it’s family. I threw it back into the cage and then they kicked us out of the pet store saying that Scorpions are very expensive and highly sensitive creatures. I will never ever do that again!!!

[helloclarissaq]

#15   Phone

In my short life I’ve had a couple of times that I was completely phone-less. Times on the farm when there is no signal and the time we where in Rome and didn’t want to pay for roaming cause it is so expensive. But this past weekend was a horrible one to be phone-less.

Yes it is a first for me what happened but it did not actually happen to me. It happened to a friend of ours. We where camping on our friends fathers farm for his birthday. He told us that he has a cool UV light that reflects on the scorpions showing us how many of them are around us. That was pretty scary. Under every rock or log or whatever was a scorpion. And they are extremely poisonous. Being on the farm I knew that we are not gonna have signal the entire weekend so I did not charge my phone and did not bother bringing a charger since there was no electricity either. 

Every night our friend would walk around bear foot. Cause he is from the farm so he never wears shoes. But Saturday night it happened. He went to get some wood for the fire. Being a bit drunk he says: “Guys I think I stepped in a really big thorn.” We went to investigate. And to our surprise the big one was still alive. A massive scorpion. He stepped on him and the scorpion stung him under his foot. 

Having no signal and with a bunch dead phones we start to panic. Luckily CellC gets signal there from time to time and one of our friends charged her phone the previous night. So we phoned his parents and they got him to the hospital. It was the scariest experience ever. He is alive and very well. 

[helloclarissaq]

#14     2 Minutes

My sitting has gone from 2 minutes to 5 minutes. I feel so proud. But that is not what this blog is about. This blog is actually about trying to be social. So I did a test at the Primary School that I tutor. These days everyone, including myself, jumps on their phones when placed in a position where you don’t know people or when we are busy waiting. 

Sometimes I’m way to early at the school and need to wait with other ladies who I don’t know. So I came up with a plan. I will wait 2 minutes. If no one talks to me in that time I will try and talk to them. If the conversation runs dry I wait another 2 minutes (yes i do feel stupid looking at my watch every now and then). If no one talks in those two minutes I get on my phone. It’s as simple and awkward as that. No, I have not made any friends that way. But we do chat now in the evenings when waiting for the kids instead of being busy on our phones. 

Be social. And not on social network but in real life. I did this for two days and it worked. We need to talk with each other instead of diving nose first into our phones. 

[helloclarissaq]

#13 Sitting Longer

What a stupid element to choose. But as it turns out it actually happened. I do chair exercises. The one where you sit on an invisible chair against the wall and after 10 seconds your legs start to cramp. Ya that one. So my record is a minute and 10 seconds. I pushed myself to try and do 3 minutes. I failed and my legs gave in resulting with me falling to the floor and just sitting there holding my legs. 

I gradually got better at it and now hold a record of 1 minute and 20 seconds. That’s a joke I can actually hold it for 2 minutes now. And sitting longer like that makes me feel ready to not go and sit in-front of my desk doing work cause my legs are done with sitting. Another joke. I actually feel good for being able to sit longer with my chair exercises. 

[helloclarissaq]

#12     1 o’clock

This one was a hard one for me. I have never been able to work until 1 o’clock. I’ve been able to work till 11 at the latest, but if I really felt I needed to sit longer, I would go to bed and stand up a bit earlier the next morning. So to sit till 1 the morning and do work was definitely a first, and probably a last, time for me.

I decided to push myself and see what I’m capable of but I just grew tired and irritated with my work. So rather than good work and putting effort in, I bit it as quick as possible just to go to bed. In the future this is a challenge I will not be trying again. Rather stick to my own clock and do my work more thoroughly.  

[helloclarissaq]

#11 Music Video

I’m allowed to tell you a bit more about the music video, because it’s been released. The music video was made for Woman’s Day. About the power a woman has and the love she gives to the world. We started the afternoon after class and finished the next morning 1 o’clock. It was the most amazing experience. Me and Rudi’s mother was also characters in the video. In the song the singer sings about woman being like lanterns to the world. We each lit each others lantern symbolizing that we give each other a bit of our light to be the light in someone else’ life. It was so much fun and  a wonderful experience. I would love to do it again.    

[helloclarissaq]

#10 Moving Photos

Or a better word, video. But not just any video, a music video.

It was not my first time on the set of a music video. But it was my first time playing as a character in one. Me and Rudis’ mentor and friend, Deon, asked us to come help him. He asked if I would like to play a part in the music video. I was so excited. We had such an amazing time.  The singer was so kind  and it was just awesome working with her. I’m not allowed to say anything else about the video yet. But I will definitely keep you updated. 

[helloclarissaq]

#9 Flowers and Milk bath

Me and Rudi wanted to send in a picture for a photography competition. He had the awesome idea of me in a bath full of milk and flowers. Me, being very impulsive and all, decided it would be an awesome new experience as well as a wonderful way of sharing our creative minds with the world. 

We bought a lot of milk. Mixed it with some water, set our lighting and started our shoot. It was warm but the milk also felt strange. Almost like my skin felt even softer than usual. 

It was so much fun. And the end result was amazing. 

[helloclarissaq]

#8 Flower tattoo

The story behind the tattoo on my foot is a difficult one. 

I’m a really spontaneous person and can decide to do things in the moment. Like the tattoo that was on the inside of my right foot. 

Me and my best friend (for 8 years already) decided one morning early 2016 that we want to get matching tattoos. I was excited and we decided then and there to get little hearts on our feet. Our one friend is a tattoo artist in training. (red flag) but we thought it would be good practice and it’s not big tattoos. 

She sat first. I was so scared since I’ve never had a tattoo on my foot before and it looked painful. Done with hers, he called me to come sit. It wasn’t at all painful. And we where happy.

A couple of days after the tattoo started to merge. It really looked bad and I was really upset. A year afterwards (and I had to save money for it) I decided on getting a cover up. My friend totally understood. Her tattoo didn’t merge so it looked really pretty. 

I began with the cover up last year September. It is a painful experience since the flower is a lot bigger than the heart. But it is a beautiful tattoo and I really like it. I’m still busy with the touch ups and I can’t wait for the end result.

[helloclarissaq]

#7 Alpaca tattoo

So this one is actually a very interesting story. 

I have a friend who is a tattoo artist. She tattoo’ed my one tattoo. I asked her if I can sit in and watch as she tattoo other people. She said yes. 

As I was writing my previous blog I was wondering what I can do with the word Alpaca. And then he came walking through the door. A big man with a lot of strange tattoos and guess his request for a tattoo. 

An alpaca. On his back. A tiny little alpaca with a hat saying: “Carl that kills people.”

That made my day. All though the original video is Lamas not alpacas.   

That was also my first time sitting and watching someone getting tattoo’ed. 

[helloclarissaq]

#6  Gold Reef’s new ride

Over the long weekend, we decided to go to Gold Reef City. We’ve been there plenty of times so it was refreshing to see a new ride there. 

The line was incredibly long so we decided to go and wait and come back later. I had not known that Golf Reef had an animal park inside the theme park. It had Alpacas and goats and pigs. Really cute animals. 

After riding all the other rides we went back to the new ride. The line was still pretty long but we waited. And finally it was our turn. The Maverick.  That is the name of the ride.

How it works. You sit in a little airplane. The entire ride goes around like a merry go round. And the little plains that we sat in also went in circles. So every thing was spinning after this ride. The big ride spins Horizontally and the plains vertically. It was amazing.

Element for next Blog: Alpaca  

[helloclarissaq]

#5 Avengers: Infinity War in 4DX

In the last blog, I wrote about buying milk with R150 I got from selling old gold jewels. The next blog is about my experience in Cinema 4DX at Menlyn Mall. The movie was Avengers: Infinity War. 

What a movie!!! The ending though. But I’m not a spoiler for who ever has not seen it yet. (Almost everyone dies) Ooops!!!

But ya, so the seats in the cinema moves and there is water coming out of the seat in front of you. It’s just like the 4D movies at Golf Reef city. But not 15 minutes, nooo this movie was two and a half hours!!!!! 

We paid R150 per person!!!! And that’s not even with popcorn. Crazy. But it was definitely worth it. 

Element for next Blog: Gold Reef City Theme Park

[helloclarissaq]

#4  I sold old Gold

This story actually ends and begins with milk. I was sitting on my couch at home, drinking a glass of nice cold milk. Then I had the best idea! I have gold jewelry that i don’t wear anymore. And I needed a couple of bucks. So i went to Centurion Mall. And there is one of this stands that try to cell you stuff but you always just like no thank ya!! One of those stands, are a trade stand, Gold for money.  Obviously, you ain’t  gonna get lots of bucks, but I at least got R150 !!! That was a new experience for me. I love my jewelry and would never ever cell it. The reasons I did it is because I never used those and I needed milk in the house. Yes that glass of milk from the beginning of the story was my last glass of milk for the week. So I had to make a plan!

Element for the next blog: R150

[helloclarissaq]

#3 Playing with paint and milk

The idea that i took from the previous blog, is a camera. 

For one of my subject, we have to create a music video. We need to take shots of everyday stuff we find interesting or different. I took shots of lots of elements, but nothing gave me that YES feeling.

So me and my boyfriend started YouTube-ing. We got the most wonderful idea. When you pour Acrylic Paint into milk and then dip some SunLight liquid into the mix, it creates the most beautiful patterns. If you put some oil into the bowl, it makes this beautiful little bubbles with little color blobs inside of it. 

But did we struggle at first. The paint was way to solid, and we had to mix it with water before pouring it, slowly, into the glass bowl with the milk. After that we started recording our awesome works of art with the camera. 

All the colors of the rainbow and the SunLight made it look like clouds rolling into each other, It was amazing. I’ve never done any experiment like this before, because I’m not really the science kind of person.   

 I enjoyed it so much.

Element for Next Blog: Milk