Absurdist Cinema
Censorship and Creativity, New Favorite Photographers, More AI Transcription Tools, and Absurdist Cinema
Let’s open this newsletter with a song that caught my attention a few days back
And now, some things from this past week:
Misc. Articles
I wrote about my new class on cursive, I shared some of my own learning resources in that same article, and also posted a video on YT with the trailer. Just a year ago, I never imagined that I would be sharing content about cursive—even less teaching about it. However, it has become a hobby that unexpectedly emerged and has now become an essential part of my everyday routine.
I read this article on Panah Panahi. He is the director of Hit the Road, a wonderful film that I watched a few months back. After watching his film I went ahead and watched some work by his father (Jafar Panahi) and was also very impressed. This article touches on some interesting things about the challenges Panah Panahi faced when following in his father’s footsteps as a director. Another interesting thing mentioned is how censorship in Iran actually motivates artists to be more creative and bold. A good article for any creative, regardless of having seen the work of Panah Panahi or not.
I found THIS interview (in French) with director Quentin Dupieux. I transcribed/translated it into English using AI, I imported is as a PDF into Readwise Reader, and then listened to it with TTS (Text-to-Speech). Crazy cool that we can now do this, I hope more tools to appear which will simplify the workflow. I have recently been very interested in the work of Quentin Dupieux. His style is considered something like “absurdist comedy,” but I think it goes much more deeper than that. A lot of his work is accessible online, so by watching most of it I have been seeing his progression as a filmmaker. As he states in the interview, with the more films you make the more risks there are because people start to get used to your language. For Dupieux, the solution has been to get out of that by doing something more intimate each time. I’m not sure how accurate the translation is, but it reads that the solution to formulas and clichés is “to go towards more and more bareness of oneself. That is to say to show more and more nudity and to have less and less modesty.” I get it. I think this same can apply to any art or creative field, not cinema alone.
On Photographers and Filmmakers
I found and researched a bit about Sergio Larraín. This article is a good introduction. For years I have admired and respected the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Frank, and I see that Sergio’s photographs are on par with that of the great masters.
Some days ago I stumbled upon the Instagram of photographer Andrés Ríos. I instantly loved his work. I researched a little bit and discovered a project where he photographed his family. This is 100% something along my same interests. Nothing like a photographer documenting the people he loves with the same perspective as he would have when shooting the streets.
Sanbel_g is another Instagram account I recently discovered and also loved right away. I’ve always been drawn to photographers who can take pictures of life with a playful and curious spirit. There’s something about capturing the world with a bit of humor that just makes me smile.
On AI
I thought I already had solid solutions for AI transcriptions (I mentioned them in my previous newsletter) but last week I discovered a few other VERY useful apps.
Whisperscript. Very useful for offline transcription and especially useful for creating SRTs. I still find Whisper’s AI Shortcuts faster for quickly transcribing old journal entries (because of speed), but Whisperscript is great for dealing with audio for videos. There’s a lite version but I’ve always preferred the “large” models, so I purchased the Pro version right away. The developer seems to be committed to the project and I’m glad to support this.
This free app translates SRTs using Chat GPT. Whisper AI offers translation but it’s not as accurate as Chat GPT. Now if I ever meet a YT video in a foreign language I can run its audio through Whisperscript, I can then translate the resulting SRT into English (or any supported language), and then I can stream the video directly from YT to IINA alongside the SRT that I just created and translated. Much better than the automatic captions from YT and a great solution for those videos that have no captions at all. I’m sure with time more automated solutions for this will appear.
Want to use Whisper API locally, totally for free and without any API Key? I just discovered Aiko (from the same developer as Hyperduck!). It has the ‘large’ model on Desktop so if you don’t need SRTs this one may be even better than the Whisperscript lite version, which I mention above. It also runs on iPhone and though it’s pretty basic it’s also pretty sweet :)
For Alfred I discovered and have been using THIS workflow that integrates with Chat GPT. I know there’s a couple of similar workflows with Alfred, let me know if you have a favorite.
On Cinema
A few years ago, I stumbled upon a film called Deerskin. It blew my mind. It was very weird, very unique, and I loved every second of it. It reminded me of Greek New Wave Cinema. This past week I dived into a few more films by the same director, Quentin Dupieux. Two of his most recent works stood out for me:
Incredible but True (2022). Synopsis: Alain and Marie move into the home of their dreams in the suburbs, but the real estate agent warns them that what’s in the basement may change their lives forever.
Mandibles (2020). Synopsis: Two hapless losers discover a giant fly in the trunk of a stolen car and decide to domesticate it in a bizarre get-rich-quick scheme.
If you liked this you may also enjoy some content I have up on my YT Channel! I don’t hang around social media a lot, but when I do I’m on IG or Twitter. You can also check out some of my online classes, listen to my music, or in case you haven’t already, subscribe to my weekly newsletter. Thank you for reading!