It’s not Your Father’s Video: Exploring Generations of Mediums

Tuesday • March 24 • 2-3pm – RSVP on Facebook

A student roundtable moderated by Joseph Lopez. This roundtable explores and questions what “medium” means to new video makers. Through experimentation and exploration of both their own methods and practices and the cultural influences of their generation, new artists will show their process and engage the audience in a discussion of what medium means in the 21st century.

Joseph Lopez is a professor at the University of the Incarnate Word where he runs a convergent media program. His work spans many fields, he is always looking for the next adventure. You can see some of his work at thecmcollective.org

Making Movie Music: workshop with Jared Van Eck

Tuesday • March 24 • 3-5pm – RSVP on Facebook

Ever wonder what goes into creating a film score? Participants in this hands-on workshop will work with local musician/electronica artist Jared Van Eck to explore the musical elements and cues that go into composing a film score. We will be making multitrack recordings using AADL’s music tools. No experience with music and recording necessary, but it could help. By the end, you will have co-produced a short score! Cosponsored by the Ann Arbor District Library, for adults and teens grade 6 and up.

Jared Van Eck (https://soundcloud.com/microluv) has been making music since childhood, focusing mostly on electronic music for the last 15 years. He was recognized by Current readers in 2014 as the local DJ/Electronica Artist of the year.

Your Homemade DCP: workshop with Tom Bray

Wednesday • March 25 • 10-11am – RSVP on Facebook

Almost every movie you see today is the playback of a digital file, and most of those are wrapped in a file format called a DCP, or Digital Cinema Package. As an independent filmmaker, being able to create and deliver your work as a DCP has many advantages – mostly the assurance that it will be played back exactly as you created it. You will learn the basics of creating your own DCP using the free software “DCP-O-Matic.”

R. Thomas Bray, the Technical Director of the Ann Arbor Film Festival, works at the University of Michigan where he is an Adjunct Professor in the Stamps School of Art & Design and a Converging Technologies Consultant at the Digital Media Commons.

What’s Your Day Job? panel moderated by Ted Hardin.

Wednesday • March 25 • 11am-12pm – RSVP on Facebook

Join us for a discussion, show and tell, and debate about the merits of living in the multiple worlds of art film, commercial work, and education. How does an organic interplay between innovation, creativity, and compelling ideas exist regardless of an artistic or commercial framework? Panelists will discuss making artwork on the fringe while holding day jobs and artists who left an individual practice to apply their creative talents to the industry.

Ted Hardin is an Associate Professor at Columbia College Chicago. Ted worked at art centers, but also shot films for German Television. Commercially he created content for companies as a strategy to gain access to equipment and circumstances for his own experimental work. *image credit: Natalya Balnova, Day Job.

Creative Crowdsourcing: presentation and workshop with André Silva

Thursday • March 26 • 10-11am – RSVP on Facebook

We have, as a society, transitioned from a binary relationship to media, in which there is a clear information provider and information receiver, to a much more complex relationship in which crowdsourcing plays an important role. This workshop explores the possibility of developing creative crowdsourcing into an enduring mode of media production offering limitless creative potential.

Andre Silva is an Assistant Professor of Film Studies at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. His filmmaking interests include experimental animation and creative crowdsourcing.

Dr. Chicago as the AAFF: discussion with Gerry Fialka

Thursday • March 26 • 11am-12pm – RSVP on Facebook

Join a conversation about the resonant intersections of George Manupelli’s Dr. Chicago films and the Ann Arbor Film Festival. The amalgamation of innovators and sources that inhabit Dr. Chicago films is a metaphor for the roots of the Festival. Evolution is adapting to the exploration of personal filmmaking with breakdowns as breakthroughs (Alvin Lucier’s stutter), performance art (Pat Oleszko), poetry (Edgar Allen Poe), avant garde music (Robert Ashley, Pauline Oliveros, Blue Gene Tyranny), political activism (Black Panthers), contemporary dance (Steve Paxton), painting, comedy, and post-post modern collage sensibility.
Gerry Fialka probes the hidden psyche effects of what we invent and lectures on experimental film, avant-garde art and subversive social media. Laughtears.com

Never the Same Show Twice: The Practice of Hand-made and Cameraless Filmmaking

Friday • March 27 • 10am – RSVP on Facebook

This demonstration of live projection techniques and audio manipulation will illustrate how every element related to projecting 16mm film, including the projectors themselves, can be reworked to literally reshape older materials to create new and engaging cinematic forms. The tools, materials, chemicals and processes they use will be discussed, including the practice of creating content.
Steve Dye is a sound artist and filmmaker who explores light, sound and perception in installation, collaborative musical composition, animation and expanded cinema performance. Alfonso Alvarez is a filmmaker who collaborates with musicians and filmmakers to create multi-projector performances with live musical accompaniment.

Splices and Bits: discussion with Evan Meaney and Jennifer Proctor

Friday • March 27 • 11am-12pm – RSVP on Facebook

This presentation will help to connect some of the loose social, historical, and aesthetic threads currently hanging between cinema and gaming. Does the kinesthetic joy of Buster Keaton translate to Angry Birds? Can we see some element of Martin Arnold’s micro-repetition in the constant tribulations of Mario and Luigi? What is gained, and lost, when games look to movies as their representational role models?

Evan Meaney is an assistant professor of new media and gaming at the University of South Carolina. Jennifer Proctor is an assistant professor of film and interactive media at the University of Michigan-Dearborn.

What the Hell Was That? : panel moderated by Jonathan Marlow

Sunday • March 29 • 10-11:30am – RSVP on Facebook

This panel has been an Ann Arbor Film Festival favorite for over a decade, and began when a filmmaker overheard an audience member declare “What the hell was that?” about his own film. An enlightening discussion ensued and the idea for the panel was born. Join us for an opportunity to watch and discuss three short experimental films from this year’s Festival selected by visiting AAFF filmmakers and other special guests.

Jonathan Marlow, co-founder of Fandor, the online, subscription-based movie streaming service, is an accomplished curator, composer and occasional cinematographer. He is known to host occasional screenings throughout the world showcasing remarkable films that are generally unavailable elsewhere.