Blarbus

Alpha 60

I might not be a fan of Jean-Luc Godard, but I do have to give him credit for creating what I would consider to be the most amazing, terrifying voice ever to to be featured in a film.  HAL just seems like an amateur after listening to this old computer grumble existential questions into a mechanical larynx.

Before you watch this, I suggest you lower the lights and turn up the volume.  Berets are also welcome.

While we're on the subject of mechanical larynges, here's a video of one particularly amazing innovation called the Trutone Electolarynx that allows you to modulate your pitch with the touch of a button.

If you can't already tell, I have a paper due tomorrow.

Nova Roma Shooting Wrapped

Hey everybody!

It's been quite a long time since my last post, so I'll try to get you all up to speed on what I've been up to.  A week ago, I wrapped shooting on a short film I've been working on since the middle of this past summer.  The film is called "Nova Roma," and it's set in an alternate history where the Roman Empire never fell.  

It was a big departure from anything I've ever directed before, for no greater reason than the sheer scale of the thing.  I owe the success of the production to Max Silver, another CAMS major here at Carleton, as well as Meghan Hafner and countless others who slaved away for days to make this thing run smoothly.  In addition to recruiting help from Carleton College, Max was also able to put together a fantastic crew of professional twin cities filmmakers who volunteered their time and talent to make this movie a reality.

I owe so much to so many people, namely my production designer, Vanessa Miles, and her art team who spent a month of their lives building and designing sets that I didn't think were imaginable on our budget.  Also my Director of Photography, Eli Ljung, and his Camera/Lighting team who managed to achieve unbelievable images despite our breakneck shooting schedule.  Sheila Heil, Kristen Asp, and my wonderful family toiled away on the amazing costumes and all kinds of people turned out from Northfield to spend a day as extras on set.

But alas, I've started on a slippery slope and I'd better jump off now before I have to name everybody who helped!  You know who are and you have my eternal gratitude.  

Without further ado, here are some pictures from the set!

                         

Alistair Sloan- Full Movie

Well, I think it's about time I put this thing up online and close this chapter once and for all.  Thanks again to all who helped out.  I know we all learned a lot. 

I've divided it into two parts to satisfy the whims of the vimeo gods.

Part 1:

Alistair Sloan Pt. 1 from Alexander Cooney on Vimeo.

Part 2:

Alistair Sloan Pt. 2 from Alexander Cooney on Vimeo.

The Northfield Area Foundation

This summer I've been working on a couple of videos for the Northfield Area Foundation; a charitable organization that grants money to projects and organizations who work to enhance the quality of living in the community.

The assignment was to create two short films--about six minutes each--which would serve to both inform people about what the foundation does as well as show how it has affected the community.

I owe this opportunity to the Carleton Cinema and Media Studies department, who established the initial relationship with the foundation, provided for all of my equipment needs, and granted me complete freedom and autonomy in producing the videos.

I'd also like to thank Eli Elstad for freely providing a perfect musical score on very short notice.



Northfield Area Foundation - "Who We Are" from Alexander Cooney on Vimeo.

Northfield Area Foundation - "Giving Back" from Alexander Cooney on Vimeo.

IM Legend

Lately I've been working on a script for a High Noon remake which would swap the old west for Carleton College and the town marshal for an Intramural team captain.  If you've ever played intramural sports at some point in your college career, you can probably already start to see why these two seemingly irrelevant situations are in fact, very similar.  Both involve desperate protagonists who turn to their neighbors for help in the face of a definite, clear cut conflict.  When I was assigned to make a short documentary for my non-fiction video production class, I decided I'd try and see what that story would be like with real people.

The good news is that I picked a good time to film the event.  This particular game was the first of the season, making everybody on the floor especially reluctant and squirmish.  Great documentary material.  The bad news is that I ended up completely undershooting.  For a piece that was supposed to be 4-6 minutes at the final cut, I sadly put down the camera after shooting only a little over 8 minutes.  At minimum, this means I had about a 2:1 shooting ratio, which is even less than what most narrative films end up with.  To have that little amount to work with while producing a documentary is like shooting yourself in the foot.

The result, as you will see, is a rather aggressively edited product that ultimately feels a bit forced and contrived.  I also learned that it's not a good idea to take part in the subject of your story.  You might notice, for example, that there is no soccer game.  This is because I was playing in it.  Of course, I told myself I'd shoot some B-roll while I was taking a break on the sideline, but yeah, that didn't happen.  We were a man down most of the game and I was having too much fun.

As I sat in the media lab the next day cursing myself for not even getting ONE shot of the climax of my story, I realized I was going to have to edit more like a reality show than a traditional documentary to keep people interested and engaged.  I like to think of the finished product as more of an impressionist painting than a photorealistic one.  While you might not learn the hard facts as to who the characters are and where they are, you should at least find satisfaction as a fly on the wall of an interesting room.

IM Legend from Alexander Cooney on Vimeo.

Is it all over you?

    I made this ad for a sketchy looking website that claims to be offering a $2000 prize to the winner of it's video contest.  I had nothing to lose, seeing as how they weren't asking for any personal information, so I made a video to fit the topic and uploaded it.  The challenge, as you may have guessed from the thumbnail, was to create a short parody of a sports drink advertisement.
   Worst case scenario, my video copyright is stolen and becomes used for promotional purposes.  Best case scenario, I win two grand and plug it into the budget of my next short film.  Either way, lots of people get to see a video I made.

UPDATE:  The competition is legitimate but very poorly run.  I decided to withdraw the video.

And don't be surprised if your body gets up and moves around awkwardly while you watch; the music was arranged by yours truly from sound loops in soundtrack pro.

The Transfer

    For our final project for Digital Foundations, we had to create a short "microdoc" documentary about any subject of our choosing.  David "the Davish" Bliss happened to be visiting the campus at the time to pursue his goal of transferring to Carleton, so I convinced him to step under my microscope and let me have my nonfiction way with him...

Captain Rork and the Professor's Map

UPDATE: CAPTAIN RORK IS THE WINNER OF CARLETON DVDFEST 2008!

WRITTEN, DIRECTED, AND EDITED BY
Alexander Cooney
Robert Kennedy

CAST
Captain Rork - Max Herzl-Betz
Professor Mulberry - Davey Bendiksen
Agent 1 - Alex Higgin-houser
Agent 2 - Carl Smith

CREW
Assistant Cameraman - Caitlin Magnusson
Props Designer - Galen Wetterling
Costume Designer - Emily Green
Costume Designer - Laura Stratford
Visual Effects Artist - Alexander Cooney
Sound Designer - Robert Kennedy

MUSIC
Composer and Conductor - Sara Rothwell
Horn - Gwen Anderson
Horn - Rebecca Hahn
Violin - Bill Parks
Percussion - Hilary Rosenhelm

SPECIAL THANKS
Paul Hager
Wain Lee
John Schott
Alex Fisher
Davey Bendiksen
Kenny Bendiksen
Lara Silverman
Kevin Chapman
Carleton CAMS Department
KRLX
PEPS
APPLE
SSAM
Detonationfilms.com
Blender.org
DVDfest

    Thar she be.  Thanks to everyone who helped out.   Sound was done in Soundtrack Pro, compositing in After Effects, Modelling and Animating in Blender, texturing in Photoshop, and--in order to stay faithful to the DVDfest 2008 entry rules--editing in iMovie.  The latter proved to be about as effective as trying to carve a thanksgiving turkey with a plastic spoon, and then force-feeding entire said turkey to a squirrel.  I know, right?  They don't even eat turkey.  But with a little luck and elbow grease, it all came out in the end, and when the smoke cleared, the finished product seemed to have most if not all of the elements we had planned for.  Success!

The Stick Peoples of Old

    A couple months ago, one of my friends dug up a bunch of old animations I'd submitted to the "Stick Figure Death Theatre;" an odd little corner of the internet that showcases user-submitted, animated stickman battles.

    Sounds a little weird, I know.  But believe it or not, there is an entire internet sub-culture of bad animators out there who are constantly pumping out random, ultra violent, often hilarious Flash cartoons.  It might not be the classiest stuff, but it deserves a lot of the credit for getting me interested in animation.  I think I was in sixth grade when I first saw "XIAO XIAO No.3;"  quite possibly the best stickfight ever created.  I'm not going to try to explain why it is so awesome.  Just see for yourself.

    So I tried making some of my own.  My very first animations were done on a crummy little GIF animation program called "Webpainter," but unfortunately those are long since lost in the deepest, darkest places of the internets.  Then in seventh grade, I got my hands on Flash, which opened the possibility of sound, allowing me to make it so you can watch AND hear my stick people randomly fighting each other to the death.  I must have made more than these, but what you see here are the lone survivors of my poor archiving habits.  I must warn you, they are very strange, very violent, and very strange.  Lots and lots of stickmen were harmed in the creation of these movies.

Note:  Some are even interactive.  Oh my!

Go there now!

Go there now!

Go there now!

Go there now!

Go there now!

Go there now!

Bank Holdup: The Alexander's Cut

    As part of a class assignment, we were given a bunch of raw footage from some god forsaken B-movie and told to turn it into a coherent story by re-cutting and adding sound.  I came up with a bunch of WoW addicts who try to rob a bank to pay their online subscription fee while at the same time managing to get themselves mixed up in mistaken romantic language barriers.  It's a little confusing now that I look at it with the time not being three o'clock in the morning...

    This is the first video I've edited from the other side...  Yes, I used Final Cut Pro.   Thankfully, it is in many ways identical to Premiere, except I would say in some areas a little less intuitive.  Soundtrack Pro, on the other hand, completely blew me away.  All of the foley, ambient sound and music came from there.