A Week in the Life

48 Hour Film Project

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 20:14:00 -0600

This past weekend, I participated in the 2nd 48-hour Film Festival put on by the Winnipeg Film Group. Very fun - got to experiment with stop-action animation, which I'd been wanting to do for a while. I describe this as a film-poem. The official title is unwound(ed). Congrats to everyone else who participated!

Click on photo or here (6.4 MB Quicktime, 3 minutes)

Week Three, 2006: Skeletons of Beasts and Buildings

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Wed, 1 Feb 2006 07:45:00 -0600

In which I am terrified of a dead animal in the house, stunned by Apple, and overcome by the dismantling of the old Winnipeg Arena.

Click photo or here to watch (Quicktime, 9 MB, 4 min)

Week Two, 2006: A Walk through Wolseley

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Fri, 20 Jan 2006 13:32:00 -0600

A walk through the Winnipeg neighbourhood of Wolseley, with its colourful houses, organic markets and left-of-liberal election signs.

Click on photo or here (QuickTime, 4.6 MB, 2:10)

Week One, 2006: New Year's in Florida

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 13:52:00 -0600

In which we celebrate New Year's in Florida with the Jain family, play the world's most under-rated game, Monorail, and fit in some mini-golf. On my return, I capture a more Manitoban kind of January scene.

Click image or here for video (QuickTime, 3:30, 7.7 MB)

Week Six, 2005: From Winnipeg to Florida

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Sun, 8 Jan 2006 12:04:00 -0600

(December 28-30, 2005)

The first half of our trip to Florida, including a siting of my dad, an armadillo and a trip to a historically-preserved plantation and American Beach on Amelia Island.

Click on image or here to load movie (QT 7.7 MB)

Bonus Episode: Songs of the Year

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Sat, 7 Jan 2006 12:20:00 -0600

The topic is top songs of 2005, as determined by me and my husband. He and his brother have done Top 20 lists since 1992, but I'm a relative newcomer from 1997. As you'll see/hear, we don't exactly agree with each other's selections for #1.

Click on image or here for video (QT file, 4:30, an extravagent 10 MB)

I'm in the process of creating the Week in the Life for the last 9 days of 2005, but this footage deserved its own episode.

Week Five, 2005: A Trip to the West Coast

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Tue, 27 Dec 2005 07:40:00 -0600

A Trip to the West Coast - another image/sound pastiche. Footage taken from our trip to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.

Click here or on the picture to watch the video (Quicktime 5.5 MB).

The lo-res images are courtesy the video function on my Palm Zire 72. This is a one-time opportunity to see these type of images, as I've just purchased a Canon SD300 - yay. I kinda like the graininess and dream-time feel though.

Music from Ariaphonics via Podsafe.

Week Four, 2005: A Trip to the Mall

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Sat, 10 Dec 2005 13:34:00 -0600

A Trip to the Mall.
This one's definitely more experimental! Very fun to put together.

click on image or here to watch (QT 6MB)

Music by Incidental Fusion, courtesy podshow.com.

Week Three, 2005: Football Picks

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Mon, 5 Dec 2005 18:48:00 -0600

In honour of the Grey Cup (Canadian Super Bowl), this week's theme is football.

Polly makes predictions as to which teams will win in the week's football pool, and Chris experiences ecstasy and agony as the teams do and do not fulfill those prophecies.

click on photo or here to go to video (QT 8MB)

Definitely getting faster to pull an episode together. And this episode tells more of a story than the previous two.

Week Two, 2005: American Thanksgiving in Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Thu, 1 Dec 2005 09:04:00 -0600

In this second episode, we go to grandma's house to play cards, and then my Canadian in-laws kindly agree to celebrate American Thanksgiving with me.

click on image or here for video

I really do want to try to get to publishing Monday or Tuesday but was busy with other film stuff like helping out on a short and editing my own short. (see my text blog for more details).

I enjoyed creating a documentary feel in this one.

Week One, 2005: The First Episode

noreply@blogger.com (Polly Washburn) — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 21:20:00 -0600

Welcome to the first episode of A Week in the Life. Whose life? Mine - Polly Washburn, reporting on vlog-delay from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. To learn more about me, you can visit my text blog.

In this opening episode, we encounter two primordial/quintessential Winnipeg items: snow and perogies. We also glance at my lecture on Canadian copyright, and try a newly-conceived dessert. We indulge in a bit of "character development" as we meet one of the other main characters, my partner Chris.

(click on image or here to watch video - 8MB QuickTime 4:32)

As the title indicates, my plan is to offer a weekly glimpse into my life. I will aim to post on Sunday night or Monday morning (this first episode took longer than I expected - have to figure out all the technical reqs). I have the feeling that sometimes I'm going to need two segments - one entertaining yet more prosaic "plot-driven" episode, and another artistic vision using different types of footage - more visual, less action and dialogue. Both of these I hope will help me develop as a filmmaker.

Feedback is welcome and appreciated as I begin this new process. I imagine the quality of the posts will improve as I go along, but starting here gives me somewhere to grow to. And I have to recognize that it's a different medium than a scripted film. As a spontaneous project, it's imperfect by nature.

I'm learning a lot already from putting together this first edition:

It's OK to pause and sit still on a shot! I seem to be obsessed with pans and zooms!
It's video, not film! Shoot away! Get a "running start" to a shot. Try shots a couple of different ways.
Gotta get a tripod!
Gotta find auto-focus override and a wider lens

Links:
Music from fx10243 via podsafe

Winnipeg Aboriginal Film Festival
Digital Copyright at the U of M