chapter 3 - all done

Both Brodie and Emily did a really amazing job at editing their parts. Brodie's audio piece was really enjoyable, and Emily's editing saw our footage finally joined together to create the story we wanted to tell. It was amazing to see how our piece shaped itself when put together. I'm glad I got to work in such a lovely, kind group because we supported each other through all the stressful times.

I was present for the post-production process as well, and together with Emily we did some colour-grading on the final footage & added some of the text and times we based off the footage. The text was in relation to small details about the location or the object that one wouldn't necessarily consider when walking past. The time was in relation to the time of the day we would use the particular object, starting at the morning and proceeding onwards into the day.

Overall, I'm so happy with how our piece looks. With a little bit more time and better understanding of our equipment, it would've definitely reached its full potential, but I feel like what it is now is a really great Beta that could be built upon some other time. I can definitely imagine this piece being an immersive installation when it comes to the exhibition in Hockey gallery, so I hope to pursue the design of the space we want, no matter how much time it takes, and I really do hope it all works out.

My journey from point A to point B is somewhat cleared in my Learning Agreement and my Evaluation, which I've printed out, ready to submit along the final piece and Production Pack.

chapter 2 - object, camera, ready

With our Production Pack having been signed off, we collected our equipment on Friday and this was probably the first moment we realised that maybe we were a bit too enthusiastic about what we wanted to use. The equipment was heavy and we realised it would be very difficult to carry it around.

On top of that, further into the weekend we realised that perhaps we didn't really have a good enough understanding of the use of the glidecam. It definitely swallowed a few hours from our previous shooting schedule. In the end, we came to the conclusion we should use a tripod and worry about the slow movement when we got to post-production.

Despite all this, the actual filming went past in a blur. We had quite long days of walking around and I think by the end of it we were all exhausted, but some of the shots we got we were more than happy about. The walk I had done prior to this definitely helped us find all the right spots for shooting and saved loads of time, so that was definitely a benefit.

Here's my lucky shot of the project - I was filming a bottle of shampoo when a deer ran past, chased by two dogs. I can't believe that actually happened:

My other top footage I got was of a postman walking past our mirror but that's a treat for the actual final piece! Serendipity at its best!

During the production week, I also helped Brodie record some sounds at mine - such as the kettle boiling, keys rattling, footsteps, etc. I feel like Zoom F8 now looks way less scary than it did when we were inducted, and I'm glad I could watch Brodie use it. She also wrote the first draft of our dialogue's script because I felt stuck on my own which I then tweaked with her help, and we tweaked it one last time right before recording in the foley room. When it came to recording, I listened back to my voice and realised it wasn't what I wanted, so in the end the dialogue was spoken by Brodie and Kylan, which I felt like was a much better match.

I think that's all I have to say about the actual filming & recording process. It really was a blur, but I'm glad we didn't come across any other issues along the way. I did use my DSLR for all of my parts of the footage, which made it a little easier to get the visuals I wanted.. and I also put my camera very close to this lovely stream in the middle of Farnham Park.

Overall though, I may not have achieved the level of understanding of the GH4 that I wanted, but I think it was my mistake to assume that I could learn as I went along - I should've definitely done more tests prior to the actual shoot. Due to the fact we were running out of time, we had to sacrifice the glidecam and the GH4 to trade them for the good old tripod and our DSLRs because to get the shots we wanted, we needed to be more comfortable with our equipment.

chapter 1.2 - all the decisions

Phew! I feel like I haven't slept in weeks! Maps & Networks has been a journey. This link takes you into the adventure that was my idea merging into a project between myself, Emily, Brodie and Kylan who all had very lovely ideas of their own that were linked together by what we wanted to look into and achieve. It also has all of my previous blogs in relation to Maps & Networks.

Despite some setbacks, some uncertainties, a very overwhelming start - boy oh boy am I glad we joined into a group. Despite being very tiresome, it was definitely the least stressful project in a while and I enjoyed 99.9% of it.

The 0.1% was me taking on the role of the Student Producer. If there's one thing I've always been mortally scared of, it's producing. Don't get me wrong, I like knowing what's going on, scheduling things, researching and so on, but for some reason as soon as I opened the good old Production Pack, my mind went blank.

Thankfully Kylan, Emily and I did most of the paperwork together in the time frame of one evening in Caffe Nero (this included location notifications, three separate risk assessments, a project outline and treatment, equipment list and a shooting schedule/plan). We based our three risk assessments off our original risk assessment that Brodie & I made a few days prior to that.

I then had to tweak it a few times over the next two days before it was good enough to be printed off but I can honestly say that I faced my fear (named Risk Assessment) and honestly, it wasn't that bad! I definitely learned a thing or two. After weeks of uncertainty, it was good to know that our project was going to be made and we knew what we needed to do and when.

Here's a lovely photo of us from that evening (Alex represents Kylan in this photo):

Next Kylan and I went to see Julie, booked out a bunch of equipment (we got too excited & got equipment we weren't a hundred percent sure of... this came back to bite us) for the following weekend, as well as the studio, and then it was time to breathe for a little bit.

Camera gear:
GH4 with Prime Lens Kit, Steadicam, C Stand for balancing, Tripod

Audio gear:
Zoom F8 (headphones), Pearls x2 (with leads), Two mic tripods

Lighting gear for studio:
Arri lights (300?), Extension Lead

I used the free time during the other group's studio shoot to go location scouting (perks of being the only person of Group A in your Maps & Networks group). This was actually a really good idea as it definitely helped me picture what I wanted as a DOP a little better. I noted down some places I liked and some shots I could imagine in my head already (as we didn't have a 'storyboard').

One of the visual things that inspired me was a photo I did in the summer for the summer project:

And here's some photos from that lonely walk I did:

 

part two of studio shoot: first evaluation

Previous post on Studio Shoot - research of my role as Production Designer

Leading up to the shoot, I made multiple different layouts as the plans kept changing due to small issues of communication between the groups. At one point we had an angled back wall, then windows on both sides, then a few different locations for the door.

In the end, we went to the first day of studio build with this layout:

However, when we took the Film set down, we realised there was only one window panel of the size we wanted. As we had already placed it on the side that Group A wanted, Group B sadly agreed to have the one window on the right side. Also we decided to go for 4 x 4 panels as we didn't necessarily want a big space, and were going for the atmosphere of cosy, smaller room.

After the build came the sanding, painting etc. The weekend before our studio build, Pip, myself, Brodie and Jen went to Homebase to get all the things we needed: paint, rolls, tape, brushes, etc, so as soon as the walls went up, we were able to start painting! Here is a wonderful photo taken at about 6pm on Tuesday, 20th.

And here's the prop list we went shopping with:

It was very impressive how quickly the set came alive. Even though there were some issues of communication, most of the crew followed art direction and on the first day we left with most of the walls having had the first coat of paint. The following day we focused mainly on re-painting the walls, window and door. We wanted the door brown, so we sanded it before spray-painting it brown. Within a day and a half, our set was up and ready to be dressed, which was very impressive and unexpected. With the door and window in place, we decided to focus on putting up the curtain pole / curtains and the flooring. When doing this, the first issue I came across was that there weren't enough wooden floor boards, but with Alex and Jen's help we put together a rather interesting flooring consisting of two rugs, floorboards, and other wooden panels we found in the studio. Despite how strange it sounds, it actually looked lovely.

Then came the actual dressing and with the help of my group we placed the furniture where we wanted it and I added little bits and bobs, such as a plant outside our window so it would be visible when the light shined inside against the back wall, and used fake blood to fake wine stains inside the wine glasses as we didn't want any liquid on set.

Surprisingly enough, everything was perfect so surely enough something was gonna go wrong. Pre-light went fine, although Pip, Anike and I had to go out shopping for one of the actor's wardrobe as the clothes Grace had brought in couldn't be made dirty using fake blood. This took some unplanned money out of our budget as we had expected to use clothing we already had. 

When we came back after the weekend, as I was inflating the balloon in the morning I realised that something was wrong with our helium canister. With 30 minutes before the shoot, Pip, Emily and I jumped into a car and drove to Aldershot to find a party shop with helium canisters that we could buy. 

Despite our rush, we held the scheduled time back by approximately an hour and that's my biggest regret of the studio shoot as I feel like it was my only job to ensure everything was okay for the shooting to begin and I failed. I'm very thankful for my group being supportive, and for Emily and Pip being quick thinkers and getting more helium.

After that, everything actually went quite smoothly.

In terms of my role, I felt like I achieved what I set out to do. I learned a thing or two, and worked very closely with our Producer and my Set Designer to establish a visual look from quite early on in the pre-production. I'd like to think I achieved the look we were going for and to see it come alive was an amazing experience - it actually looked like a cosy little room once it was lit up.

I don't think there's anything I would change at all because I feel like we did everything the way we planned to. I'm definitely thankful I had the support of my team & Anike did a wonderful job at creating the fake meat we used on set. 10 out of 10.

chapter 1 - a brief history of personal objects

On October 19th, I booked out the infinity table and asked people to bring in some objects of importance. Although the RSVP was good, on the day only a few people showed up and I feel like that was probably for the best as I hadn't properly researched and dug into the use of the infinity table.

The photos I gathered were nice, but I wasn't very happy with where I was within my project and in all honestly I was starting to feel like I didn't want to keep it up.

So then I had a chat with Emily, and we found a similar interest in our projects. The same happened with Brodie and Kylan, and soon we became a four people team. After a group meeting, we decided to focus on the idea of homely objects. Here is our draft treatment for the idea:

Treatment for ‘A Brief History of Personal Objects’

The source would be bringing objects that would normally not leave one’s flat outside or into a studio space to create an atmosphere of oddness and puzzlement, accompanied by a soundtrack of each location and an intimate dialogue between two people about their stories via mention of the said objects.

This project started off as four separate ideas:

•  Ance’s idea being looking into people’s connections with their belongings. 
•  Kylan’s idea being an abstract portrait of home and family relationships. 
•  Emily’s idea being how an object can change value based on its environment and looking at the history of an object. 
•  Brodie’s idea being an investigation between peoples relationship with installation art, specifically focusing on the projection beam and themes of escapism and freedom within westernised society. 

The starting point for the development of this particular idea was Lucy May Schofield’s book Belongings, wherein people brought in objects that meant something to them, but never revealed their value to the authors, who then wrote a paragraph about the item based simply on its appearance.

We decided to explore home - the space closest to us - and its floorplan and the objects within. We chose specific objects of value to us, and stripped them of their surroundings, placing them into locations that we would normally visit on our walks and daily routines to create a new, surreal space that explores the mundane by making the audience question what these items mean.

As this is an abstract piece, it would be more ambiguous rather than narrative based, thereby open to audience’s interpretation of its meaning. Because of it’s ambiguous nature, our process in creating this is integral to our understanding of the piece as well. As we place these objects in different environments we’ll discover new meanings beyond our initial understandings. The meanings behind the objects and places therefore will evolve throughout our process.

part one of studio shoot: production designer

The Role of a Production Designer:

They are the Head of the Art department and thereby the person responsible for the visual look of the production and the choices made. They work with the Director, Producer and Director of Photography to select the best style to tell the story.

In our Art Department I'm the production designer, Anike is the set dresser and Grace is the wardrobe/make-up artist. As part of our first three studio shoot group meetings the concept of the story kept changing so we were unable to come up with much in terms of a look, so the three of us decided to meet up to discuss the possible look based off the outline of an idea.

First, we researched the photo and Gregory Crewdson's inspiration - David Lynch.

So after this I created a mood board to portray the sort of atmosphere I wished out set to convey in relevance to the story-line of an unusual family in a dystopian type of location.

I also mainly focused on the sofa as I felt within the image it was the most eye-catching piece of furniture and the careless/carefree way the girl lay was very much what inspired most of our ideas.

It's very much the starting days for our studio shoot and without a script and communication it's very hard to come up with much in terms of what the director and dop will want to see.

The next step would be reading through a draft of a script to visualise the story so that I get a better understanding of how the story will unfold.

As it happens at the moment myself, the director and the set dresser have all taken on the role of writing up a broader version of the story line from the previous script-writing team just so we could present a more detailed plot to our group tomorrow.

Based off this I have also created a rough set design and along with Anike and Grace we have come up with a rough list of possible props/wardrobe within a budget of £100 or less that we hope to pursue with the producer.


The list of things I have to do as a Production Designer:

• Envision the look and layout of the set based off the script
• Fulfil the requirements to portray the wanted atmosphere
• Brief the look of the characters
• Communicate this information to the DOP, Director and Producer for approval
• Forward these plans to Anike for budgeting with Producer
• Forward wardrobe/make-up related research to Grace

chapter 0 - belongings & the first look

'Individual contributors were selected and approached with the simple request to provide the artists with an object that had a special story or memory attached. They were asked to record that story, yet not reveal it. The artists used the loaned objects as muse and stimulation for their writing to unfold, creating new narrative potential. The artists publication contains photographs of the belongings and the writings they inspired.'


- Belongings by Lucy May Schofield and Sylvia Waltering

◾ the self illusion by bruce hood - what exactly is 'you'?

◾ what if our belongings own us? when there's too much or they're too precious and we never have that sense of nakedness because we always have something that's ours. who are the people who don't have anything? is it refreshing to have nothing?

◾ do they speak about who we are or are they merely objects? 

◾ does location affect meaning of objects?

◾ objectified memories and ambiguity of belongings

Richard Mosse - The Enclave

'The Enclave, 2012–13, is a visceral and moving work by Irish artist Richard Mosse filmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Commissioned for the Irish representation at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, The Enclave is an immersive six-screen video art installation.'

 IDEA of what I want to achieve: 

 Description:  

An exploration of individuals and their identities through objectified (objectify [verb] - express something abstract in a concrete form) memories to shape a metaphorical and authentic blueprint of people.

The source would be an invite to people to bring in an object of importance or value and vague explanation of their choice. Outcome would be an audio-visual piece using speakers and projection.

 Context:  

I think foremost this work relates back to individuality, self-discovery and self-awareness that has previously been present in most of my written work, i.e. poetry. I’m interested in drawing a visual sketch that portrays the human nature, in questioning ‘US’ as both a large group and individuals that make it.

I believe this work will also push my VFX skills as it requires a lengthy and time-consuming use of After Effect, as inspired by the Pujottelua video. I also hope to pursue this idea further in terms of contextuality as I find using belongings to explore a person to be a very intriguing and obscure subject.

In terms of output I have thoroughly enjoyed Richard Mosse and the way the audience can walk around his projections, thereby almost becoming a part of the piece. 

 Skills:  

I am currently looking into the use of an infinity table within a studio to capture photographs of items to use for the project. To do this I will require the assistance of students who could volunteer to bring in items as specified in a post I will put up online, as well as provide me with a vague explanation of their meaning behind the items.

Furthermore, this piece will push my creative skills as it requires research into the relationship of audio and visuals within a piece that is meant to almost hypnotise the viewer. For the outcome it would be important to have a speaker and projector as I will edit the sound to have specific bass levels and for the video to have a certain level of contrast against a white wall.

 Audience:  

The work itself is meant to question how we view each other and ourselves, and whether our identities can be stripped until all that’s left is our belongings that tell a story of who we were as people. I hope that this piece hypnotises the viewer until they look away and question why they were looking at such a variety of objects, and whether it ever meant anything, unaware of the depth of the story behind each individual piece that will fade in this large project.

I have found that the vibrations of a speaker would push the atmosphere of the piece and the projector would involve the audience in a physical way, hence the certain chose for the technical portrayal of the outcome.