Group C- Victoria (final edit) "In the Tenderloin"

group A financial dist. | Amber Cox | the voyeur UPDATE

my project is about capturing the real people who work in the financial district. armed with a tea latte, my camera phone, a pen, & my notebook i sit outside (and inside) the starbucks on california & battery street. in my black hoodie and black rimmed glasses i could be just another twenty-something blogger who works for a start up for all they know. as i sit back and pretend to send text messages, i'm really a human recorder. i take in what they're wearing (mostly black coats), where they are going, if they're in groups, or just getting lunch to go. i'm listening. i'm observing. i write down what they say, i capture them on the go. these are the people of the financial district.

Group C- Victoria "In the Tenderloin" Phase 2

In the Tenderloin: A Moving Snapshot

Statement of Progress: Phase 2

            As of now, I have gathered all of the original and found film footage and have edited them down to the essential clips.  The film is approximately six minutes long including opening and closing credits.  I have now turned my attention to the musical aspect of the video. Over the last few weeks I have accumulated a number of instrumental tracks including drums, piano and harmonica. I also may record a guitar track in the next week. However, much work is needed in terms of sound editing. In addition to the necessity of recording the trumpet tracks, a lot of time needs to go into editing the various instruments seamlessly. Another challenge is making sure all the instrumental tracks not only line up together, but also line up to the video clip edits.  I would like to create a sense of synchronization between the rhythm of the song and the pacing of the video, so I may need to spend more time aligning those two pieces.

            Besides the instrumentation, the lyrics of “In the Tenderloin” have not yet been written and seriously need my attention. I am planning on coordinating the lyrics of each verse to the visuals presented in the video in order to provide a sort of narrative that describes the imagery. I would like to complete the lyrics by April 15^th so I may record them when I go to LA (I will also be recording the vocal and trumpet tracks at that time). Thus, by April 23^rd I would like to have all the pre-existing instrumentation to be well mixed and edited so that I only have to add in the additional vocal and trumpet tracks. This will leave me a few days for final editing touch ups before the final phase delivery April 26^th.

Group B Chinatown - Rhiannon - Project Update

The project has evolved a little since my last post.  Hannah and Lucy both brought up an incredibly valid point that I needed to balance out the shocking aspect of the 3000 uncounted deaths with the change in the urban landscape after those tragic events.  Really, Chinatown does become a story about perseverance, rebuilding within constraints and creating a newer, stronger identity.  It would be dismissive to only focus on 1906, so I am sculpting the neighborhood to represent the changing architectural identity that emerged afterwards amongst the ghosts of the past residents.  So much of Chinese culture is about remembering and retelling.  The architecture of Chinatown does just that.

To capture this new focus on the neighborhood character, I decided to sculpt the city blocks out of clay instead of creating the photoshop collage facades.  The buildings will start out at the bottom of the piece as more rectilinear, reminiscent of the simple brick and mortar buildings Chinatown inhabited before the fire and progress to more, while abstract, Chinese inspired and ornate structures.  They will need some touching up after they dry, but you can get an idea of how the streets will lay out.  I am going to construct a base that all of the buildings will attach to, keeping true to the topographical slope at the bottom left corner of chinatown.  I have been using the negative space pieces I cut out of the "streets" for scale, but they will not be present in the final piece.  I do want to account for curbs so that the streets and the "people" in them are slightly recessed into the model.

Thanks so much Hannah and Lucy for the feedback.  It is really shaping my process.  More to come...

Tenderloin Group C- Victoria

In the Tenderloin: A Moving Snapshot

            I am in the process of creating a short film, roughly 4 to 5 minutes in length which surveys

the historical and contemporary nightlife of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. I have chosen to

narrow my focus specifically on the taverns, musical nightclubs and deviant lifestyles of the area’s residents from the early 1900’s to modern day. As part of my research I have chosen to gather video footage of the various activities such as drinking, betting and dancing.  I have also begun asking local entrepreneurs (such as bar owners) for their opinion on life in both the past and present day Tenderloin. In addition to some original footage, I have also spent significant time finding various outside resources. I have chosen the book San Francisco Tenderloin: true stories of heroes, demons, angels, outcasts and a psychotherapist  by Larry Wonderling Ph.D.  to read in order to further my knowledge of the Tenderloin. I have also been inspired by the black and white photography series of the Tenderloin by Sean Desmond for its ability to capture the essence of this district. Besides using the internet for basic research and historical information, youtube.com has proven a valuable source of a plethora of video clips from the Tenderloin. 

            For my final project, I have the goal of presenting a well-rounded survey of various periods in the Tenderloin’s vice-ridden history. The film begins with Thomas Edison’s footage of a Tenderloin bar scene dated to 1899. The film then progresses through the evolution of entertainment in the Tenderloin in the 1920’s and 1930’s as a place to socialize, gamble and partake in the social communion of organized dance, such as the Charleston.  The film continues onto the 1940’s through the 1960’s, somewhat considered as the Golden Age of the Tenderloin.  The Blackhawk nightclub was bringing acts such as Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Nat King Cole to the district to perform. Residents had money to spend on burlesque performances in the Bordellos and alcohol in the bars due to the economic boom following WWII. In the ‘60s bands such as The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young were recording albums and playing shows at Sally Rand’s Music Box (now the Great American Music Hall). The film then chronicles the Tenderloin’s passage through the 1970s to present day, which has witnessed the decline of the Tenderloin’s popularity as an entertainment district. Lastly, I am creating an original musical track that pays tribute to the lively jazz era found in the Tenderloin in and around the 1950s to compliment the imagery.  I have written the instrumentals and invited young local musicians to assist in the final score. I am also in the process of writing a lyrical narrative of the history of the Tenderloin’s livelihood which will verbally describe the imagery presented.  I hope that my final piece will present a beautiful yet brutally honest portrayal of the once thriving entertainment scene within San Francisco’s Tenderloin district.

Chinatown, group B, Tatiana update

WATERFRONT '' FAN ''

WATERFRONT HISTORY FAN 

(yixin yuan group D)