Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Exit Through the Gift Shop


I recently saw the documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop directed by Bansky. This film follows the life of amateur film maker Thierry Guetta (aka Mr. Brainwash), as he discovers the world of illegal street art. The documentary begins with an overview of Guetta's life, he's an average french man living in L.A, he owns a high end thrift store and has the interesting quirk of filming every waking moment of his life. While on vacation with his family, Guetta has a chance encounter with his cousin, a street artist named Invader, this causes Guetta to become obsessed with street art, he follows many famous street artists around, including Shepards Feirey and Bansky himself, Guetta captures their works, then he soon tries his hand at his own art and become very successful.
There is definitely some literary aspects to this film, it has many characters that include all the street artists that Guetta encountered, it also has an overarching plot of Guetta's rise to fame. The only conflicts in this movie are some run ins with the police, and the overall resentment of some of the other street artists. The setting is all over, as Guetta travels around the world to film prominent artists in the graffiti world. The point of view is mostly from Guetta himself, but both Bansky and Shepards Fairey chime in as well.
There is less dramatic aspects and cinematic aspects in this film, most of the shots in this film were captured by Guetta himself, as he travels with these artists. Everything is in real time, there is no acting, or sets, or make up in this documentary, except for interviews with both Bansky and Shepards Fairey.
I would recommend this documentary to anyone who shares this interest in art, I do think it is necessary to warn people that Guetta will not be your favorite character, he comes off as crazy, to the point he looks almost mentally ill, and at times it is very hard to connect with his character. Root for Bansky and the rest of the artists.

Exit Through the Gift Shop
1hr 30 mins
Rated R

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Journal Tutorial

 Alright so I have a serious addiction to DIY projects and such, so I decided to make my own tutorial on how to construct a journal.


To Begin You Will Need:
Cardboard ( I used a cereal box but if you have anything thicker use it!)
Scissors
Ruler
Pencil
Hot glue gun
Glue
Three small clips
Some paper (lined or not. doesn't really matter)
Construction paper (Not shown above because I forgot but oh well)
Duct Tape (electrical would probably be better but I only had Duct)



1) Alright so the first step is to fold one of your regular papers in half. You are going to use this to measure out how much cardboard you need. You want the cardboard to be about 1 1/2 cm bigger than your folded paper. So cut out two pieces of that size and also cut a slight strip of cardboard to be the spine of your journal. ( I cut out four piece and taped them together so it would be sturdier.)

2) So once you have that you want to take a long enough strip of tape and place the sliver of cardboard more or less in the middle of it. 


3) Now you want to place the other two pieces of cardboard on the tape leaving a tiny space in between each piece of cardboard. With the excess tape on either side simple fold it over the edges.
4) Next place another piece of tape to cover up the other side. Folding the excess over the edge again. Press down in between the spaces so the tape sticks together. It should look like this now.



 5) Now comes the tedious part. However many pages of paper you want, you are gonna have to fold them all in half. Try to make them as neat as possible because it makes it look nicer.



6) Next once you have them all folded. Clip them together on the folded part. One on each side, and one in the middle. 


 7) Then use the hot glue gun and cover the folded paper. Squeeze it together a little so the glue doesn't soak down too much. 


8) Wait for it to dry a little, then move the clips and go over those parts with glue as well. 


9) Let it dry and you should have a wad of paper that stays together. 


10) Now we're going to work on the cover. Take two pieces of construction paper (Mine is pretty!)  and measure out two pieces that are bigger than the folded paper (It honestly doesn't matter how much bigger, about 2 inches would be good, i only did like 2 cm and i didn't really have enough.) This is gonna be your cover paper.



11) Cut them out.



12) Line up the cover paper with the cardboard , you want there to be an even amount of excess on every side. 

13) Next take your hot glue gun and glue the cover paper over the edges of the cardboard. 


14) It should look like this now. Try to smooth the cover paper down as best you can.


15) Depending on how you want to make the cover you can either repeat steps 3 and 4 or you can wait and I'll explain another way later. 

16) Next you want to take another color of construction paper and cut out two pieces of paper that are about the same size as the folded paper.



17) Glue the construction paper to cover up the edges of the cover paper. Make sure you have enough that construction paper that you can glue it to the spine of your journal.



 18) Next glue the pages of your journal onto the spine


20) Wait for it to dry. And WHOOSH you're done!




For the another way to make the binding of the cover, cut a strip of the construction paper and paste it along the edge of the spine on both sides. (This is the other journal I made)