revision COMPLETE scheduled for publication
Melissa Michel
A still from 'b'of'trombones
Melissa Michel You Only Live Once, An artist's statement In my 30 minute self-directed documentary, I expose college students binge drinking at fraternity parties. You Only Live Once allows the
viewer to get an insider’s perspective on the present day scene, and makes subjects question if heavy alcohol consumption is worth all the risks that may follow. This crutch is a slippery slope into academic failure, DUIs, health problems, rape, injuries, and alcohol poisoning.
This atmosphere serves as a unique and informal place outside of the classroom that gives peers a chance to socialize. However fun, people need to remain aware and stay cautious of issues that can be avoided by knowing limits and balancing a buzz.
Shot Count still from You Only Live Once
An interview with
Melissa Michel Facing the dramatic effects caused by the spread of alcohol among students, in your documentary You Only Live Once you succeed in exploring with a fresh style a social emergence which is no doubt underestimated by media today. How did you come up with the idea for this documentary? My friends were throwing a party on Halloween night my senior year. I brought a camcorder that was originally meant for documenting costumes, but I ended up with pretty neat clips of some of the events. This included beer pong and quarters, dancing in the backlight lit room with the DJ, and watching a guy make batches of jungle juice into a pumpkin pale. I didn’t go to many parties in my college years, but I can certainly say that this one was ridiculous! Around this time the police had issued statements campus wide saying that there would be no more warnings for noise complaints be-cause it had gone too far. A part of me doubted that fraternity parties were as crazy as Animal House to Project X and all the hollywood glamorized movies and television shows in bet-ween, but this party motivated me to go out on the weekends and document real life footage of parties unfolding. The title You Only Live Once, YOLO for short, is used heavily in youth culture. I remember hearing it on a few different occasions when implied to binge drinking. The motto is essentially the derivative to the concept of Carpe Diem, meaning seize the day, but a lot of people also see it as an excuse to act stupid. My intention with this project was to unhinge the barrier between the opposing mentalities, and figure out how they have the possibility of coexisting within the setting of a college fraternity party. In other words, parties may be loads of fun but that kind of fun can also come with consequences. My idea is similar to that of centrism; maintain a balance that won’t shift a side too strongly.
Melissa Michel
Could you describe your experience working with students in You Only Live Once? How was their feedback? My experience with students was spontaneous. Nothing was planned or staged other than the questions that I asked during interviews. I tried to stay unnoticed while pulling a Mark Cohen and shooting from the hip. My camera acted as another face in the crowd. This diversion allowed me to capture the pure essence of the human experience and maintain the element of surprise. I did the majority of the project with barely any connections. No one wanted to get involved because they felt at risk or uncomfortable with the situation. My only resort was to go into open parties and sneak my way into the closed ones. Occasionally, a student would spot my camera and I would have two very different reactions. Some of them were too drunk to notice, care, or enjoyed the few seconds of attention. Others were interested in why I had a DSLR camera, and that tended to be the half that were extremely worried where the footage would end
Make It Rain, a still from You Only Live Once
up. They either turned away or forced me to leave the house. One night on fraternity circle, I had run into quite a few people from all walks of campus life after helping this guy with a DJing crisis. I found that a lot of students had the same mentality about parties and drinking. It was a fun, cheap way to get out of the classroom, let go of stress, and connect with peers on a more dynamic level. They acted as if it were another classroom of the sort and actually took a role in their social growth, so the overall response was very positive after I had finished the film. Your daily experience with students is very important for your artist practice and thinking… Your clean filmmaking style re-minds us of the documentary style of French filmmakers Straub & Huillet. Could you explain this aspect of your art? I immersed myself in the culture around me. First hand experiences allowed me to see how
alcohol had a continual impact on a few of my peers throughout college, and how this habit was developed freshman year when they choose to walk a slippery slope with binge drinking. This thought caused me to expand my project to the all boys college down the road because I knew a lot of lowerclassmen went there to party, plus I had an advantage because they let girls in without hesitation. Each of the houses had large open rooms attached to them that were known as ‘bunkers’ and used to host parties. These spaces let me get a much wider perspective as well as move around and focus on specifics while the cleaner shots were ensued from having a sober eye. The sticky floors and hazy atmosphere blended me amongst the obscure identities who appear in my clips. These bunkers became my studio and the lights my palette. Could you take us through your creative process when starting a new film? This was actually my first film project which
Rager, a still from You Only Live Once
started off as a collection of film stills. I was hesitant in switching from photography to video because it was my safe medium, but I knew that I needed to step out of familiar
territory to reach the full potential of the project. The experience factor would help me convey the message to my audience in a much more clear and intriguing way while
elaborating on my concept with greater visual depth. In the beginning, my project looked like nothing more than an entertaining music video with party clips mashed together. I lost my
path in aesthetics because the medium and software were completely new, but once I worked past the technical aspects and details I shifted my focus to the language of the film.
The Spins, a still from You Only Live Once
Every now and then with a project I might hit a bump in the road or have a hard time starting an idea, so in nearly all of my artistic endeavors I have used a sort of representational system similar to the processes used in the scientific method. I ask myself questions, conduct research, write out a working statement, experiment, construct or edit my findings, and communicate them. My art isn’t all done in this order nor is it always so systematic, but I find that having a solid direction leads to a better understanding or result.
tion, however: in your opinion what role does the filmmaker have in society? The documentary filmmaker must uncover the truth and tell it. A story is at the filmmakers hands and their job is to bring it to the surface through an unfiltered lens and share its raw qualities to society. They wield a powerful tool to see the world from the inside out, and enlighten the viewers perspective. It’s similar to stepping into someone else's shoes.
Needless to say I eat, sleep, and breath whatever project is in the spotlight. I have to put all of my time and energy into what I do to get the answers I’m seeking in order to create. I’ve learned that failing is equally as important as succeeding and retracing steps is significant. My creative process is interchangeable but it is always necessary to put however amount of time in that it takes to get to the right conclusion. Everything after that is just sequence.
Some artists may have a bias or particular direction in which they choose to show, but that is up to the individual and whether or not that is an attempt to change, an effort to help, or simply a desire to expose the truth. I would say that most films outside of documentary are free for all; a creation of self expression in some shape or form. All filmmakers have the ability to construct a new way of seeing reality through the visual and interpretive enhancements of the medium.
The social effort of You Only Live Once is remarkable: it could seem a specious ques-
We have previously quoted the French directors Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle
Necessities, a still from You Only Live Once
Huillet in our interview: can you tell us your biggest influences in art and how they have affected your work?
cap off ready to shoot any fleeting moment. A presence isolated in time speaks in a transcending manner, no matter how distinct.
I am highly influenced by the photographers Peter Beste, Michael Wolf, Pessoa N Beat, and Julien Legrand. All of them together have shown me how the public and the streets around me are all inexhaustible sources for inspiration that call for an extensive range of possibility. Execution is not always planned just discovered, observed, and snapped at a certain moment in time. Beste and Wolf particularly influence me with portraits of humans within their natural habitats. Wolf’s contemporary photographs tend to crossover with some of the more aesthetic values of Beats work. They show life within the abstract in the way that they frame their subjects in a surrounding. Legrand’s series ‘Filled Emptiness’ uses space and color to give life to a seemingly quiet void. It causes me to think about how all my subjects act in their space and the affect that they have on it. All of these artists have helped me to become a careful observer at the world around, and I must thank my photography professor for encouraging me to keep my lens
Thanks for sharing your time and thoughts, Melissa .What's next for Melissa Michel? What are your next film projects? I would like to explore film more and work with local artists to produce music videos. Music is another passion of mine and I love editing footage together to flow with a song. It's fascinating to see how a collection of various or random clips can stimulate the senses as much as the music itself. I enjoy the flexibility and simplicity of a lot of those types of videos. As far as bigger projects, I would like to explore photojournalism within the bartending community, and have customers revealing their confessions. I really enjoy working behind the scenes and undercover, so I will always continue street photography and other side projects. At this point it’s natural instinct for me to have some type of camera at my side. It is truly impossible for me to stop documenting!