wASH_1 / 8:25
1~.
This isn’t me, obvi. This is stock footage overlaid with the pink end of my 16mm roll, “A girl underwater .. HD free stock footage.” Bits of writing snake by on the tail of the film. Then more stock footage, “Free Slow Motion Footage rising air bubble.” Colors.*
*which by now start to indicate the divine magic
1!.
There’s that “Play” screen again… Hint: It’s a story within a story, a movie within a movie, like a psychedelic Hamlet.*
*famous play within a play scenario where all things are revealed through the dramatization of the real.
1@.
I repeat some images here (though remixed with water overlays) to link this sequence to the personification of my stomach. The idea is that the tub activates my inner black-hole portal, thus allowing me to travel “inside myself” to fix what’s broken, my own holy Magic School Bus experience. But the images extend from there into new territory…
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We see Alice, further down the rabbit hole. The little fat boy in Matlida forced to eat a whole chocolate cake as punishment (in a scene both grotesque & iconic), that ends up being a triumph because of the support of his peers, much to the dismay of mean Mrs. Trunchbull. Plus, water overlaid to reinforce the idea of this portal-travel happening through a baptismal current.
1$.
*HOly is both a reference to the anointed nature of my affliction and also to its literal Holey-ness.
1%.
This is, like, a clip from a black hole video overlaid with a POV video of someone pouring soda in a cup?
1^.
It occurred to me sometime later in the edit that I should go back & re-emphasize the “bathe three times” thing… circa 90s-style flashbacks that lead the audience by the hand. Slowed the voice down a bit for that deep, warped effect. It fit perfectly over this little piece of footage & I’m pleased with it.
1&.
Lots of weird little sound effects mixed in here, too. Perhaps the most intricate sonic landscape I’ve ever designed myself, all with sounds found on YouTube. Here it’s one of the many sounds I use from a video called, “POPULAR WHOOSH SOUND EFFECTS FOR EDITS.”
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Maya Deren again. Watching from above.
1(.
Bubble stock footage. This is a portal by immersion.*
*a reference to the mormon belief that baptism necessitated a full immersion into the water.
1).
The soundtrack is an excerpt of Mae’s “Prologue” to their 2005 album The Everglow, a part where they “preview” the first few sounds of every track under the conceit that you’ll know when to turn the page (to the booklet that accompanies the compact disc) “when you hear this sound,” evoking the format of old book tapes from my childhood. No single album better encapsulates the mood of my teenage years. I was obsessed.
So, when the time came to find the soundtrack for this first little portal-whirl, it was almost a no-brainer… immediately I heard the creepy, little voice in my head: “I hope you enjoy your journey…” — like the child-like ghost of Christmas past.*
*A christmas carol, of course — a metamorphosis.
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The twister sequence from The Wizard of Oz. The other classic, dizzying scene that used to ruminate through my brain while dwelling on the pain. Perfect personification of transportive distress. And, then my mind would habitually wander onto the topic of what a dumb b*tch Dorothy is in the beginning — wide-eyed & child-like. What a dumb b*tch I was once. And then, I’d reflect on how used up I felt after just one scarecrow. I had always loved the film, but not, “There’s no place like home."*
*I thought this at a time when I was dying slowly in texas, ill & uninsured, thinking I was still justified in not turning to my home for help just because i’d promised myself years ago I never would. Good thing my momma came to me, saved my pride & she saved me.
1+.
That’s “HOLY” written across a heart monitor line. At some point before doing the stomach supercut edit, I knew I’d want to incorporate flashes of the word “HOLY.” So, I collected a pool of black backgrounds & made a series of HOLYs over the various background & then dipped from that pool in the edit.
1`.
To be honest, I don’t really remember what that fire in from. Weird. It’s become a mystery again to me.
1-.
Color Bars. The ultimate, atomizing motif. Reminding us that all things are just a sum of their parts. And, we’re all just one part of a greater plan, played out in yellow, magenta, and cyan.
1=.
Yes, that’s a Mario sound effect — the sound it makes when he enters into one of the green pipes & is TRANSPORTED INTO A NEW DIMENSION. Get it?*