Monday, January 18, 2010

Building Site

I was eager for full darkness to arrive so I could go film the laser-intensity lights at a nearby building site, which I'd noticed the night before. The huge construction is wrapped in sheets of plastic and nylon too, against the cold, like something Christo would do.

When I got home with the footage, its beauty reminded me of Beethoven. I don't know enough about music--or how to talk about its emotional vocabulary--to say why.
Something noble, yet a little sad, about seeing the underlying structure?
Like the bones of a cathedral.

"Building Site" (3:04 min.)
Beethoven: Symphony no. 7; second movement



I spent a long time trying to get this under a minute. But, you know, that time limit is just an artificial construct of mine. I finally accepted it needed to be longer.
I left the original audio on, for the traffic sounds, but reduced the level.

12 comments:

The Crow said...

I am ignorant of classical music, know very little of it, but I can't imagine a better piece of music to go with the mystery of the images. I especially like how the music builds toward the end when the images are those taken outside the translucent plastic sheeting, the lights shining through - almost as the Light Within shines through us. The background traffic sounds made me think we were hurtling through space, the recurring whoooshing - or listening to our own heartbeats, the blood rushing along at precisely measured beats, like the music flowing through consciousness.

Aw...what do I know?

Good stuff, Fresca!

Marz said...

I like it. Nothing insightful to say. I just like it.

Fresca said...

Hi, Crow and Margaret:
I posted this last night about 2 a.m. and woke up this morning eager to watch it! How nice to see you two already got there.

Crow: I think your summation is much what I feel. I arranged the clips from darkest to lightest (with a slight tapering off at the end) to fit the music's arc.

As for music: I mostly only know the Top 100 Classical Hits--and then, mostly from movies!
(This Beethoven piece--the "allegretto" of his 7th symphony--is famous--I'm sure it's in lots of movies.)

I like it too, Margaret. (And that's enough in itself.) Thanks for saying so.

KMH said...

My first thought was that it was like losing track of time at a dance club and then coming out into the dawn. The colored lights glow and change in an industrial setting, and then blurry light glows through. It seems at odds with the music, except that the closing hour at a club can be very trance-like.

ArtSparker said...

Goethe said architecture was frozen music. You have a terrific eye. I think combining music and image in an unexpected combinations might have possibiities - I remember from high school a very gifted teacher putting a popular song (My midnight Confession?) together with a children's stop motion video.

deanna said...

I like this - I put it on full screen and just watched the video first, because my son's playing Enigma in the background, and that music went with the mood, also somehow. I'll come back for the Beethoven. Thanks for doing these.

Fresca said...

KH: Hi! If it weren't freezing cold, this construction site would make a great dance club!

ARTS: How wonderful: architecture as frozen music! I'd never heard that, thanks. (And thanks for the compliment too.) Choosing the music for a movie, even these little ones, is so powerful--it sets or changes the mood so entirely.
Maybe one day I'll take a scrap of image and set it to different music to experiment with how it changes, depending on the music.

Hi DEANNA! What's Enigma? I only know that as a title of a movie about code-crackers in WWII England.

bink said...

It's tragic and full of longing for something that was or is too be. It fits the beautiful bleakness of Minnesota in the winter. I agree that the sight, with with music, in this movie, reminds me of a cathedral--especially one in ruins.

Fresca said...

BINK: A ruined cathedral--yes, even better!

deanna said...

Enigma was probably in the New Age music category in the 90s. I'm not sure the group is still together, but they did some great CDs. I think you'd like the themes in the one Tim tells me is titled Enigma - really cool with some Gregorian chanting-type parts.

Jennifer said...

I love the way you used light in this one--it was striking in lots of different places, but I was particularly taken wit the little ripples of light along the posts at about :30, it really catches the eye...

Fresca said...

Thanks, Deanna.

JEN: I'd hoped for more subtle movement in the plastic sheeting, but it was such a still night, it hardly moved at all. When it does, it's really something.
Thanks for watching!