I don't really watch movies. I like movies but there are so many I haven't seen. The fact that I haven't seen a lot of movies has almost become a part of my identity. Sometimes friends of mine will start talking about a movie and be like "you haven't seen that, have you?" and usually the answer is "No, I haven't."
I have no excuse for not watching movies other than my iPad-baby attention span. I'm not great at sitting through them without going on my phone. I like movie theatres because they force me to focus only on the movie. I can't be distracted because it's proper theatre etiquette to give the movie your undivided attention. Seeing a movie in theatres has gotten expensive nowadays though, so I don't go often. I probably see maybe three movies a year in theatres.
I do love film and video as a medium, even though it's not something I engage with much. There's so much that goes into it and so many things to consider when making a video. About a year ago I was depressed so I took the train to the Loop and recorded a ton of random stuff with my Nintendo 3DS. I edited the clips together in a weird fashion. I uploaded it and posted about it and to my surprised, a lot of my friends told me they really liked it and thought it was really cool. I thought it was kind of stupid. I felt undeserving of praise because there was no intent behind the art I had created. I'm a firm believer in the idea that anything can be art, and I do consider this video to art, but that doesn't mean it's good! I know nothing about film. I guess I had created an atmosphere. The Chicago Loop does have a certain vibe to it.
That's not to say I don't create because I'm TRYING to make something revolutionary. I'm just fucking around. I do it because it's fun. Art should be fun! Art should be stupid! I think a lot of people are hesitant to call things art because people are so afraid of being seen as pretentious nowadays. I think people hold art to a standard that it HAS to represent something, say something, criticize something. I love art that does that. But art can really be anything because it's an ART. There's no science to it.
Toward the end of last semester I got the itch to make another video. I started walking up to friends and acquaintances, pointing a camera at them and telling them to start acting. No plot, no script. I wasn't sure what I was doing or what would come of it but I ended up with a short film that wrote itself, almost. There's no conclusion to it, but I almost have A plots and B plots that just sort of came to be. I recorded things first and rearranged them later. It felt like putting together a puzzle. "the behavior" was released on December 13th, 2024, to critical acclaim.
I am NOT a filmmaker but these videos have been so much fun to make. I definitely want to keep making them. I also want to watch more movies this year! I have a whole list I want to get through. Hopefully I can fix my brain.