Kyle Mungenast

ROLE: Director, Editor
MEDIA: Video Art
SOFTWARE: Premiere 
SPECIFICATIONS: 1290×1080, H.264
DURATION: 3’00”
CLASS: FMX 392 – Independent Study in FMX
PROFESSOR: Santiago Echeverry
SEMESTER / TERM: SP 20
INSTITUTION: University of Tampa

DESCRIPTION: My prompt for the final assignment was “Kyle Mungenast.” That was it. So I went through a lot of hours worth of video tape home video footage and selected a few very specific moments to present throughout the piece.

I SEE FIRE – COVER

ROLE: Director, Editor
MEDIA: Video Art
SOFTWARE: Premiere 
SPECIFICATIONS: 3840×1636, 4K, H.264
DURATION: 1’59″”
CLASS: FMX 392 – Independent Study in FMX
PROFESSOR: Santiago Echeverry
SEMESTER / TERM: SP 20
INSTITUTION: University of Tampa

DESCRIPTION: This was hard since it was made during COVID-19 and I had barely any time to shoot what I got, let alone the options to go back and re-shoot and get b-roll were out of the question. I was hanging out with my ex, who’s a good friend now, when we got the news classes were cancelled and I had just made arrangements to return to Boston. I didn’t know what I would do for my music video, especially since social distancing was about to be in play, so on a fluke without any planning I shot a few takes of Emily singing some of her favorite songs. So with all of this madness, I decided to “embrace the error” and sit on a moment of the raw take at the end, especially since I wanted to focus on a contrast of romanticism yet reality of our relationship. I will edit a piece catered to the musician’s desires soon – this is a more personal and experimental approach to her work that I am solely using for my class.

SOUNDTRACKS FOR THE BLIND

ROLE: Director, Editor
MEDIA: Video Art
SOFTWARE: Premiere 
CAMERA: BlackMagic Pocket
SPECIFICATIONS: 1920×1080, H.264
DURATION: 2’10”
CLASS: FMX 392 – Independent Study in FMX
PROFESSOR: Santiago Echeverry
SEMESTER / TERM: SP 20
INSTITUTION: University of Tampa

DESCRIPTION: I created Soundtracks for the Blind to be a video about the blind: not the physically blind, but to those blind to who I am and to my identity. I shot Soundtracks immediately after an experience of trans/homophobia. It captured my emotions in that moment – the colors I used were influenced by Uboa’s The Origin of My Depression album, and the title is a reference to a Swans album which I reversed and sampled in the piece: both albums have been very personal to me, which is why they came to mind in this moment.

SLOW GAZE

ROLE: Director, Editor
MEDIA: Video Art
SOFTWARE: Premiere 
CAMERA: BlackMagic Pocket
SPECIFICATIONS: 1920×1080, H.264
DURATION: 2’28”
CLASS: FMX 392 – Independent Study in FMX
PROFESSOR: Santiago Echeverry
SEMESTER / TERM: SP 20
INSTITUTION: University of Tampa

DESCRIPTION: For my video art projects, I am never supposed to exceed a minute. This was the first I deliberately went over that limit – even it effects the grade, I couldn’t make a slow motion Brian Eno influenced piece without indulging more in the passage of time. The original cut was five minutes, and I could’ve easily made something at least a half hour… I would have had that much footage, too, if it didn’t rain in the fountain garden I was filming in. It is a long process to take off nail polish… It is a long process to find the confidence to come out more family members… It is a long process to find my voice… But it’s ultimately a beautiful one, despite the pain, and despite the eternity it feels like sometimes. Slow Gaze ended up being somewhat of a prequel or proof-of-concept to Soundtracks for the Blind, and I even later layered some of the footage from this project over my Soundtracks piece to add to its tone and color pallet.

ERRORS

ROLE: Editor
MEDIA: Video Art
SOFTWARE: Premiere 
SPECIFICATIONS: 1920×1080, H.264
DURATION: 1’12”
CLASS: FMX 392 – Independent Study in FMX
PROFESSOR: Santiago Echeverry
SEMESTER / TERM: SP 20
INSTITUTION: University of Tampa 

DESCRIPTION: For this project, my assignment was to “embrace the error.” As a result, I took a lot of outtakes from a narrative I had just worked on, as well as some archival footage I shot a while back from multiple other projects, and edited them in a dynamic of clashing tones as they are synced to Swan’s eerie “Surrogate Drone.” I wanted a clash of tone to show how upsetting and empty failure can feel, but also how it can lead to new unknown places that are even more exciting for an artist to explore.

ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF ON MY TOXIC RELATIONSHIP

ROLE: Editor
MEDIA: Video Art
SOFTWARE: Premiere 
SPECIFICATIONS: 1920×1080, H.264
DURATION: 1’01”
CLASS: FMX 392 – Independent Study in FMX
PROFESSOR: Santiago Echeverry
SEMESTER / TERM: SP 20
INSTITUTION: University of Tampa 

DESCRIPTION: To be completely honest, this might be the most emotionally challenging piece I have worked on as of now. The assignment was pirated editing, and to deconstruct a pre-existing media to turn it into something completely different. I took an interview with Anna Von Hausswolff, one of my favorite musicians, and deconstructed it as if it was a block-out poem, but with audio and visual. I even placed some of the blue static from my previous project in here to show my presence in the story being narrated as if she is reading from my own personal diary. The process of spinning one of my biggest influence’s own words into a self-reflection of a toxic relationship I experienced was cathartic. Editing her words to reflect on the pain, romanticism, fascination, and destruction I feel post-relationship with my “sister” was a lot for me.

FUCKING PURPLE

ROLE: Director, Editor
MEDIA: Video Art
SOFTWARE: Premiere 
CAMERA: BlackMagic Pocket
SPECIFICATIONS: 100×480
DURATION: 1’00”
CLASS: FMX 392 – Independent Study in FMX
PROFESSOR: Santiago Echeverry
SEMESTER / TERM: SP 20
INSTITUTION: University of Tampa 

DESCRIPTION: For my first video art piece, I wanted to work with the idea of reflection and use the physical TV as the mirror based on video art’s history. I initially planned to reflect through an HDMi cable, and when it didn’t work, it inspired me to look for other ways and see the TV was a natural reflector I could capture myself. I captured the TV’s static, too, contrasting shades of blue and pink to show the typical colors associated with binary genders, and then after my reflected, ended with purple to be reflective of my non-binary identity.