Loie Vaughn

Well, I didn’t get all my shooting done this week as I had hoped (scheduling issues), but I did get the majority of it done. Monday I filmed the weeping shot in the “balanced world”. Tuesday I checked in with Laurie and then shot for six hours and almost finished my “distracted mind” cut-out scene. Wednesday night I made the cut-outs for the “human concept of time” piece and filmed myself drawing the last few seconds of the “balanced world” scene. Thursday I completely shot the “human concept of time”. Friday I fussed around with the framing of the old 16mm transfer footage of my meditation. It will work perfectly. I was able to size down and crop the shot so that I can layer the animation of my consciousness underneath the smaller video frame. I also captured some of the footage I shot Wednesday night. The first shot had too much of my shoulder in it and not enough of my work visible so I’m not sure I will use that part, but I know I got a better couple of shots later on.

Sunday I spent the day recording most of my audio. I walked  through the Garfield Nature Trail and recorded some great natural ambient sounds… lots of bugs and babbling creeks and birds… though it was hard to exclude all the sounds of mowers and power washers in the surrounding neighborhood (of course I had to pick the best day for garden improvement). I was also almost ran over by two kids on dirt bikes… brats. I was thankful for the sunny day when I was able to hear and record jets passing over. Then I trundled downtown and meandered the docks listening for appropriate sounds. The only thing I found which I needed was electronic industrial noise made by the fans on top of Bayview Thriftway. Most of the other sounds I will have to create myself (breathing, clicking, popping, ukulele, rumbling, etc.).

Later that night I completely finished drawing my consciousness scene… which I know I will have to slow down a ton in final cut. The minute accuracy needed for animation is hard to maintain while using pastels.

As far as reading goes, I am still chipping away at The Secret of the Golden Flower. On page twenty I found a very good quote that perfectly describes the type of focus meditation and awareness take, “To focus meansto focus on this as a hint, not to become rigidly fixated. The meaning of the word focus has life to it; it is very subtle.” It’s not healthy to live in a state of mind so focused that you become single minded and single spirited. I believe you should be careful, considerate and aware of everything you do. When you concentrate single mindedly, you lose the natural relaxation of doing. If you let go and simply do, you will naturally be focused. I also liked the quote on page 41, “When you want to enter quietude, first tune and concentrate body and mind, so that they are free and peaceful. Let go of all objects, so that nothing whatsoever hangs on your mind, and the celestial mind takes its rightful place in this center. After that, lower your eyelids and gaze inward at the chamber of water. Where the light reaches, true positive energy comes forth in response.” Sometime I feel as if my conscience is not within my body. I feel like it is slightly above and behind my physical head. I don’t know if this is healthy, or not, but from this reading, it seems I need to work on bringing my conscience down and into my physical body, down into the center.  Yesterday I read about oblivion and distraction, the two most frequent problems beginners find. Distraction is more easily dealt with because it has direction. Usually one is aware of their distraction and is able to pull your focus together. However, true oblivion means you lack awareness. How do you fix something when you lack awareness?

I think I made great progress last week, and with some hard work this week I should have a decent rough cut by friday. Yay! Almost done with the quarter!