Analysis of Authorship in "Two Dogs and a Ball"

This week, we are trying to discover who the "author" is of each piece. After viewing "Two Dogs and a Ball" I believe the author of the piece is both the man behind the camera as well as the two dogs in front of it. Being an owner of a Weimaraner I am very familiar with William Wegman's works and it seems to me as if the dogs actually have a good idea as to what's going on then one would think. I think what separates the dogs from being actors is the fact that they aren't humans that can communicate allowing them to act freely with no real direction but their own senses.

2/18/08 Lecture: Guest Artist

In Mondays lecture, we had a guest artist come in and show us some her works. Her name was Althea Thauberger and she shows her works mainly in galleries. I'm going to talk about three of the films she showed us, the one with the girl in the woods, the dead dog one, and the one with the helicopter rescue mission. In the film with the girl in the woods, I can't help but wonder what reactions people give to seeing this in the gallery. I feel like I could go make a film like this in 10 minutes but I don't think it would ever be good enough to display to the public. This film to me seemed to have no real meaning or drive, more just random thoughts blurred together.
In the musical film about the dead dog, I was a little more open-minded about because of the supposed narrative it had. However, upon seeing the ridiculous looking dog it was hard to take the tense situation on screen serious anymore. Then in the next scene with the singing, it just put it over the edge for me. Maybe if the whole film was in the style of a musical could I have accepted it a little more but once again, it seemed like just too many random thoughts put together.
Finally, in the Helicopter film about the trees, I thought it to be quite visually appealing because of the interesting scenery. However, once we got to the part with the survivors waking up things started going downhill again. The acting to me just seemed totally fake and I couldn't get over the fact that no one woke up from the helicopter landing but yet when their name was spoken into their ear they were instantly revived.
All in all, I think her films have good intentions but maybe just too many conflicting focuses.

Concerning First Few Classes

After the first few classes I want to reflect on two films, specifically Lemon and Mirror. Both these films were very avant-garde in my opinion and I'm not sure if I will ever get used to that style. When I watch these films, I can't help but keep asking myself, how does someone make a living by filming a lemon for 8 minutes or walking around in front of the camera with a mirror. It just seems bizarre to me that people can find true meaning and enjoyment from these things.
However, when seeing these very avant-garde type films, I do enjoy the different ways of seeing that are presented. Especially with Mirror, I truly enjoyed the different feeling you got of the moving frame within the frame. The reflection of the actually filmmaker also caught my interest as well and made me think about the possibility of viewers seeing the filmmaker in the process of picking out what they want their viewers to see (if that makes any sense).