My buddy Solar caught a big mama jamma fishing out on Beaver Pond in Lincoln, a sight were we have seen many moons, drank a lot of beers, almost tipped a lot of canoes, filmed a movie, miss a friend, and catch a lot of fish. Check out Josh and our film circa 2006.
Every once in a while it becomes apparent that during the holiday season we need a little escape.
The truth about pictures:
This little ditty is a tale of revenge. Centered around the escapades of two Cats, The Truth About Pictures is about what a photograph means. Starting at an early age, a female cat is taking pictures of her male counterpart. The youngster builds a snowman that he finds to be worthy of documenting. As the young lady cat takes photo’s, the other decides he is going to stomp out his snowman as a grand finale. Once the female cat has run out of pictures and attempts to rewind her film, she realizes that there was never a roll of film in the camera. This sets the male cat off his rocker and he begins to pelt his female counterpart with snow.
Twenty years later, the two cats are off in the world. This time the dude cat is the photographer. He continuously takes pictures of the lady cat and this becomes the impetus behind a long set of travels, or better known as a “road trip.” From the Mountains to Chicago, then back again to Antelope Island and the Great Salt Lake, this road film transfixes on to the man cat’s revenge for the lost pictures twenty years ago. Still holding a grudge on the female cat for not having film in the camera, the male cat snaps photographs all over the countryside. From goats and windmills, buffalo to flying kites, the male cat issues photos from every angle of the lady. The lady cat eventually asks the dude cat if he will try and fly a kite instead of shooting pictures. After much hesitation, the male can’t fly the kite so hot. At this point, the lady realizes there is no film in the camera and that the dude enacted his revenge by not actually shooting any photographs.
In an attempt to comment on the role of film in today’s society, it was my main goal to allegorically describe digital pictures by telling a story about taking photos with no film in the camera. In this particular film, the picture taking is the catalyst for why most things happen, instead of what was happening being the reason to take the photographs. I think this mentality is something apparent in what digitalization has done to photography on a consumer level. Yes, in a way, we still take pictures at the sure awe of something, but culturally it is not an object that seeks something outside of itself. The preservation is not something that is a main concern because it is something that is always already going to be infinitely reproduced. This in turn takes the significance out of what so genuine of pictures a long time ago when they weren’t just a commodity.
Thus, when taking pictures let’s say as a tourist, we are mostly caught up in taking a photograph of what we are in front of rather than enjoying the specifity and physicality of what we see. As an observation throughout the film, when the camera presents itself in the frame, the action starts to become for the camera. In this sense, it is capable to make an argument that the act of taking a picture alters any situation structurally, and resulting when taking pictures we start to understand our surroundings more through images and screens than we do from our own eyes experience. This is what makes digital pictures so interesting- they lack any materiality even as a product. They are ones and zeros, so we are taking pictures with no film in the camera when we are snapping away on our digitals. All physicality has been removed, whereas at least with actual film, the chemical process of light burning an image onto film attempts to generate more sincerity.
In the film, the power dynamic between the two also sheds light on this. For instance, it is the female who is originally taking the pictures. The young man decides to do something foolish like destroy what he has made for the camera, and she goes along with it. However, upon her mistake of not having any film in the camera, the boy cat starts to act like a baby and takes it out on her tenfold years later. The pathetic nature of holding a grudge so long and carrying out a revenge in such a infantile way is typical of immature men, especially ones that can’t see the beauty in the moments, such as what is behind the pictures, and is really only focused on the outcome, such as the revenge. He believes the actual pics themselves and their lack will offend and hurt the female. This transference onto the product lacks any sincerity and disregards any process.
To go back to the tourist example to explain more, it is as if taking pictures of a trip to where you have been is more about bringing back the pictures and sharing them, than the actual traveling process, which is generally more about cultural expectations being shattered, learning experiences, mistakes, and mishaps. Instead, it is quite obvious that by having a pile of pictures one can turn their trip into just about anything they want. At this point, I am even gonna claim that we can then project any meaning we want onto our pictures as an afterthought. They don’t have to actually experience it except in their pictures, but they can still put any meaning onto it. For instance, if one goes to Africa, more specifically let’s say a country that has game parks and safaris, something like Namibia. Well, although somebody is going to a place like Namibia to learn about the culture, they are also going to reinforce their own stereotypes because if they want to see some traditional African culture, they are going to photograph what they think that to be, and in turn they will believe they learned and are now more culturally enlightened. However, the camera becomes the catalyst and proof of something that can’t be proven by a picture. None the less, how ironic is it that pictures actually lacks any process these process, it is essential just code and virtual; in other words, the same can be said for those who travel only through their pictures despite the fact that they physical traveled as well.
By exposing this mentality, it is easy to see how the female, although never knowing it herself, mostly holds the power, whereas the male believes he is getting the final word. This is exemplified by the fact that the lady cat is actually posing for the camera. She realizes the act of taking the picture draws attention to the moment itself and by engaging and performing her part, she is not allowing herself to fall victim to the photograph itself. In a way, this is control. Whereas the man cat just does not get the fact that although he feels like the fast one he pulls is actually damaging her, it is him who misses the point that it is not the outcome, but the process.
This next photograph is a copy of the photo up top. Both were shot on super 8mm…and went through an actual filmic process. The one above was then exported from Final Cut Pro as a digital still. This one was still yet cropped again by taking a screen shot to cut off some of the black boarder. Have these lost value in their mechanical processes? Has one more than the other? Probably not, because I can’t really tell. However, when projected, it certainly does look more crisp…but when you don’t know any better because we really only watch digitally, what’s the difference? The difference is in what is happening culturally on a subconscious level. It is the theoretical process that intrigues me about all this, but also, I just wanted to make a movie about some cats on a road trip. That in itself is more fun than the film itself, but you should watch the film anyway, because that is fun as well. It was the thought process I wanted to draw attention to and although I have talked a lot in a theoretical realm, none of it really matters; however, it does tell you the truth about pictures.