I hate it.
The Mall
This entry was written by Verdi, posted on July 2, 2007 at 1:16 am, filed under Rant, Video. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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15 Comments
In our family we call them “Crazy Mall People”. We make all attempts to avoid the roads during peak hours because of all those crazy mall people. Which can be challenging since we live only 1.8 miles away.
Nice to see you vlogging more.
Woah. Bravo.
I’m surprised you got all this footage. I was at a local mall a few years ago. There is an obscenely ridiculous life-sized sculpture of a mom sitting near a fountain with a little girl and couple of full shopping bags, as if that’s the pinnacle of all mother-child experience. It makes me ill. And what happened while I was sitting there pondering this horrible sculpture I’ll never forget. A little kid who had lost his mom went up to the fake mom. He was crying and confused. It was one of those moments simultaneously so painful and beautiful. I must be an evil human being because instead of running right over to help the kid, I pulled out my video camera to see if I could capture even five seconds of what I was seeing. Mall Nazis descended on me in seconds, they have a policy about no photography in the mall. So I asked them if they had a policy about helping lost kids find their moms, and they went away and helped the little boy.
Yeah. I hate malls.
Like your video though.
This really creeped me out. The ambient sound. The cold colors. Yeah…*ew*.
Loved the video. I too hate the mall.
Yeah this was probably the 3rd time I’ve been there in the last 4 or 5 years. I think I was to record without being bothered because I used my Xacti and held it at waist level. So I just lined up shots and then pretended to just be standing there looking around and not focused on a viewfinder in front of my face.
David – thanks. The colors and sound were obviously altered but I debated with myself over it for awhile. Hoping I didn’t go overboard – what do you think?
I absolutely love this. So much I could say but I’ll just note that the choice to end on the shifting-sign add pillar, and the way you linger on that shot… just perfect.
Bravo.
Thanks Brook. That’s my favorite shot. It was recorded first and inspired the whole piece. I didn’t have any intention of recording anything until I walked past that sign.
No. I really liked what you did.
To me, even though there were a ton of people, it was soulless(sp?). Which is exactly what I feel malls are. “Welcome to the Mall. Please leave your mind at the door”.
Excellent!
Your mall.
I love it.
http://www.starling-travel.com/2006/10/04/san-antonio-my-favorite-moment/
Wow Laura. That’s actually a different mall but still – different strokes I guess. Cool that the pigeons ate out of your hand though.
Eeeep. What a cold and creepy place, fer sure. All that strange background noise — what was it? I always loved malls as a kid and teen because in NYC we didn’t have them so I found them to be wild exotic places. I grew up feeling the same way about HoJo’s and IHOP and Denny’s and Red Lobster. Now that my city is littered with malls and chain restaurants, I can’t stand them (although IHOP remains the sole exception because we STILL don’t have one. We’ve got Applebee’s and Olive Gardens but no IHOP. Criminal.)
Our biggest mall has this revolting poster campaign that look like ads for a self-help program. Big B&W signs with intense-looking silhouettes saying things like
“I am the master of my own choices”
and
“I am confident in what I desire”
and
“I am taking what’s mine”
then finally leading to
“I am the Queens Center Mall”.
(shudder)
I hate malls, too.
You just displayed the power of video and sound. And how you as an artist can convey what a place or time makes you feel like. By muting the colors and altering the sound, you gave it your voice. “This is how the mall makes me feel”, that is what you said with this piece. Subtle adjustments to make it fit your vision. Perfect. If shot in full color and with lively music the video would have a completly different feel…. You captured your mood perfectly….
This wasn’t just good, it was damn good…..
I love how the whole place feels like a tomb. so Lynch.
dude
obviously you hate the mall because there is no orange julius stand.
LOLAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHLOL!1!!!!!
but seriously, i loved the sound.
though i wish wish wish this could have been on a tripod.
i realize that would eliminate the covert-ness of recording there though.
This is so cool. All those mindless robots wandering around aimlessly
searching for what they know not! Though they search without reason, they
will soon be separated from their meager and senseless rewards.
It seems every city in the UK now has something similar. It’s a slow strangulation to experience them (which for me is not very often).
Millions of years of evolution for the death of the soul. But Michael’s made poetry.