Downtown Rhizome

Right now I am in the process of structuring the short film that I am going to make for my final project. Writing a post about the film, serves two purposes for me: 1.) Maybe get some feedback, please feel free to comment to me in class or on the blog 2.) Processing my thoughts about how I am going to edit the film and impart the relevant theories from class into the editing process and hopefully the film.

In the past, when I have made a film I always started with a story. I have made two films, one shot on 16mm and one on 35mm and both were deemed “experimental” when they played at festivals. What I find interesting about this labeling of my work is the fact that my intent in both pieces was to tell a narrative story. I really did not think of my work as experimental ? Anyhow, in the piece for class, tentatively titled DOWNTOWN RHIZOMES, my intent is to create an experimental piece of work. When I read Deleuze and Guattari’s “A Thousand Plateau’s” I became very excited because I immediately connected with the section on Rhizomes and I also had an idea about how to apply this form to my own work. Over a period of time and taking classes to complete my MA in Media studies I have acquired bits and pieces of work that I really like but never knew how to string together? My favorite is some 16mm footage of China town, HD footage of Little Italy and some digital photography of New York City. Reading Deleuze gave me the inspiration to put them all together and create a mapping of my Manhattan experience.

For me, the following statements are the inspiration for my piece, “ …any point of a rhizome can be connected to any other… a rhizome may be broken, but it will start up again on one of its old lines” Combining my 16 mm, HD footage and taking some new digital photos of Manhattan was going to be my study of rhizome as a form for cinema. Hopefully I can get all of these different “species” of media to interact and make something that resonates with my thoughts on Deleuze and is interesting to watch!

I have posted some of the new photos that I have taken for the piece. I am still debating whether or not to include the digital photography? I have to really start editing and look at the three forms and see if they work together. I am positive that the 16mm footage and HD footage will interact beautifully but I am a little unsure about the photos.

Deirdre