Video Exhibition Plan

The location I have chosen to exhibit my Experimental Video is the college tower block. I am planning to use one of the classrooms on the top floor as this would fit in with my video's theme of modern existance and the focus on human life/structures vs. nature. To show my piece to my audience I will use a computer and projector.

In the classroom I want all the blinds pulled up to show what's outside the windows and give my audience a panoramic view.

Video Production Diary

20th Nov: I set the camera up on the tripod at sunset in the front drive of my house with it facing the side of a house on the opposite side of the road, a tree and the sky. I got nearly an hours worth of film with the sky changing colours as the sun sets and it then gets dark.

26th Nov: Setting the camera up in the college tower block, media floor, looking out at the main road with the roundabout and traffic lights. The camera will then be switched on at rush hour and film the street below.

Review of Koyaanisquatsi (Life out of balance) - by Godfrey Reggio

'Koyaanisquatsi' is a 1982 film directed by Godfrey Reggio, produced by Francis Ford Coppola with cinematography by Ron Frike and Music composed by Phillip Glass. The duration of the film is 1 hour 26 minutes. The title of the film, 'Koyaanisquatsi', originates from Hopi Indian and it's meaning is 'Crazy life, Life in turmoil, Life out of balance'. The title embodies the film's concept and what is implied through the piece: that modern day humanity is out of balance with nature and our way of life is damaging to us and the earth we live on.

As the film opens, there is a lingering shot of Hopi cave drawings - we then witness a rocket from the Apollo 12 mission taking off and the billowing smoke and debry. The sequence of shots that follow and make up the first half of the film consist solely of beautiful, untouched natural landscapes; desolate desert, vast canyons, rushing water at a waterfalls edge, waves on the sea, sky and clouds moving and changing. The clips of canyons and cliffs are shot with the camera as if you were flying over them which is a thrilling experience and which I can only guess the cinematographer must have filmed from a helicopter or small plane. Some of the natural scenes last over several minutes each with time lapse photography often used to speed up the shot, e.g the clouds forming and moving across the skies. This conveys time passing and natures pulse. The length of these scenes gives the audience time to absorb what they are seeing and appreciate the beauty of our natural planet and it's presence.

One of the things I felt influenced how I felt about what I was seeing was the musical soundtrack to the film composed by Phillip Glass. From the beginning of Koyaanisquatsi the music has a rather eerie and dramatic quality to it that is very atmospheric. When the shots focused on scenes of destruction, such as deserted tower blocks being demolished, or a nuclear missile being launched, it was quite dark and foreboding which created a sense of unease in me. It also tended to speed up or slow down depending on the pace of the subject. As there is no voice-over or characters in 'Koyaanisquatsi', the music itself is the films only source of narration other than the visual images. The music has a powerful ability to draw emotion from the audience and influence their feelings. It really drew you into the piece, and had an almost hypnotic quality to it.

Around half way through the film, the shots we are shown start to focus more on man and our activity on earth. The images shown consisted of things that man are responsible for producing and stealing from the earth, and most either destructive or harmful to the planet: powerhouses from above, chemical plants, oil production, nuclear weapons being tested. On watching these images it is not hard to get the gist of the overall negative message behind them. That human beings are creatures of greed, imposing themselves on nature and causing damage and destruction. We have little respect for our planet and with the industrial revolution and the birth of modern nuclear living, we have forgotten our roots, which were once at one with the natural world.

As the film goes into the second half and it focuses almost solely on modern human existance, things start to speed up. Time lapse shots of an unknown city with the pulse of traffic and people from high up in a sky scraper, the vast American high way, factory workers making various things from clothes to cars, sausage production, commuters on escalators and in a station, people eating in a mall. All sorts of scenes of human life and the daily monotonous grind.

The way the busy scenes of human life were sped up were very effective as it felt almost overwhelming watching so much happen at such a pace - in fact it was almost uncomfortable at times, because it made you feel acutely aware of the amount of human life on the planet and how it never stops.

The film really made me think about modern life and the relentless pace, and ultimately question the degree to which we are all out of balance with nature - and wonder about the inevitable consequence of our continued disrespect for the planet we inhabit. 'Koyaanisquatsi' is a a very powerful and original piece that was successful in conveying it's message to me and the people I watched it with. It stuck in my mind for quite sometime afterwards, which is something I think the film-makers intended.

Chapter 6 - Audience and different interpretations

Everything we watch or read is open to interpretation and most often an audience on watching a film will differ in their opinions and feelings about what they've seen. With each of the experimental videos we have viewed together in and alone outside of class, we have all come away with different reactions and interpretations of what we've watched.

When we watched MUTO, for example, some of the group were slightly confused by it and could not see a proper point to the video concept-wise. There wasn't a clear narrative to the piece which made the overall concept difficult to interpret. Some peope did not feel much enthusiasm for it as they found it rather creepy and weird; while others felt the film had a running theme of birth, re-birth and the recycling-cycle of life.

On watching the video myself I at first felt a bit puzzled by what I was watching and thought the wall art was rather weird but incredibly inventive. So much happens in MUTO within a short space of time that it took me a second viewing of the film on youtube to absorb what I had missed the first time and I had more of an idea about the film's meaning after watching it again. Because of this I think that MUTO is best watched for a second time because it actually has more to it than you may have first thought. I think with certain films or books it benefits the audience to watch/read the piece with an open mind and be prepared to look deeper in order to take away something from it. Sometimes I think the creators behind the film are intending his or hers audience to do so. This is why there is truth behind first impressions not always being correct and that it's better to reserve judgement on something until you've watched the whole piece.

I think something that the whole class agreed on was that we all were amazed by the graffiti art and impressed by the amount of dedication it took to make an entirely stop-frame piece with it. I also found myself finding appreciation for graffiti as art on watching MUTO that I had not had before. This in itself is an example of me being pre-dispositioned to not really liking graffiti but after watching MUTO changing my judgement.

Eulogy for Things Left Unsaid by Rob Chiu

Eulogy for Things Left Unsaid is a short film created by Rob Chiu. It was released in 2008 as part of a project called Twenty 120 in which twenty different directors each created a film 120 seconds in length. In the piece Chiu explores the emotional journey we go through during different stages in our lives and the very human struggle to accept the progression of time.

The concept around the piece is memories and regrets. It explores childhood and how our perspective of things change as we grow older; as children we are unaware of what the future holds for us and as we grow up and become adults we are faced with choices that inevitably shape our future. Later in life when we look back we often find ourselves burdened with regrets about the decisions we made, the opportunities we missed, the things we never did or said, and we can't help wondering "what if" and thinking about how things might have been different.

The piece also deals with loss and how nothing lasts forever in life - even our memories, which blur and fade with time. When we lose someone we love they are reduced to memories. In our lives we all have to come to accept that nothing is forever and we can't stop time from progressing, or go back to the past, but our memories are the only connection we have to it. Memories aren't always a blessing, but a curse also; because of how they can make us feel.

The craft with which this film was created is what makes it such an effective, moving piece. Throughout the piece the voice-over reads a poetic 'eulogy' that narrates the visual aspect. The cinematography used is exquisite, with the scenes of nature encompassing the films subject of change and life's cycle. It has a summery, dream-like quality that gives you the feeling you really are witnessing someone's memories, and the emotive music adds to the poignancy of the film.

Chapter 5 - Experimental Video

Work in progress, will update with full idea.

My Experimental Video idea is based around modern life and it's unrelenting pace. It is inspired by the film Koyaanisqatsi and the idea that human beings have lost touch with nature and forgotten it's importance in everything.

In my film there will be a collection of shots in different locations with the juxtaposition of nature and rural surroundings against an urban environment. The technique I am going to use in my film is time lapse photography - where the film is sped up or slowed down to emphasise the movement and life over a period of time.

I will be filming around where I live (countryside) and in a more urban environment (Brighton , Crawley and the M24 dual carriage way), incorporating scenes of traffic and people with shots of natural landscape and the environment. I originally had the intention of filming the busy scenes in London but have had second thoughts as the locations I wanted to film may have needed permission and it was too much of a task.

Chapter 3 - Narrative and non-narrative structures

When making a video or film, the artist has to consider whether the piece needs a narrative structure. If a film doesn't have a clear-cut storyline structure (beginning, middle and end) then this often makes for a non-narrative piece of work.

In 'The Girl Chewing Gum' by John Smith, the audience is required to watch the film from beginning to end to fully understand it. This is because at the beginning of the film the audience is quick to assume that the voiceover is that of a director controlling the scene that is being filmed. However, around the middle part of the film it becomes apparent that things are not what we assumed - while the man continues to tell the audience what's going to happen next, his description of the scene doesn't quite fit with what we are actually seeing. This forms the middle of the story and keeps the audiences' attention towards the end as the viewer. To the end of the film, the narrator reveals where he is and that he is not really controlling or predicting the happenings on the street like we thought he was. Therefore there is a clear ending to the piece and a reaction from the audience.

In comparison, MUTO by Blu does not have a clear storyline to the piece and is more 'abstract'. This makes it a non-narrative in structure. I found it quite confusing at first as I didn't really understand it's meaning - there didn't seem to be much point to it and the grafitti animation itself was quite wierd. Because of this, the audience is likely to interpret the piece and it's meaning in different ways. Even though there is not an obvious storyline to it, I still think there is a concept behind the piece. It seems to have been inspired by the circle of life and evolution and this suggests there is a kind of narration to the film.

Experimental Videos don't need a clear structure or storyline in order to work and be seen as a whole piece. A non-narrative film could be made the way it is because the artist has the intention of it's audience looking deeper into the film to find the meaning. They might want the audience to use their imaginations, or take away their own interpretion of the piece, instead of using an obvious storyline or overal meaning that requires little guess work from the audience.

Chapter 2 - Use of technolgy and techniques

In looking back to the technogly of just 20 years ago and now to the present, it is easy to see just how far technolgy has advanced. From the the internet to gaming consoles to flat screen televisions, technolgy has evolved and devoloped to an extent that it is now a massive part of our every day lives and we have come to rely on it for a large amount of our daily tasks. Even today, technolgy is improving and being updated to new levels at an incredible speed.

For instance, if you were to compare Andy Huang's 'Doll Face' to John Smith's 'The Girl Chewing Gum' they are quite literally a world apart in terms of the technolgy and graphics used. Doll Face is almost completely animated and would have needed advanced graphic-based programs to create the animation. Girl Chewing Gum, however, is a black and white film that was made with a old-fashioned video camera and would have been faily simple to create.

Editing has also come on in leaps and bounds alongside technogly - we now rely heavily on computers and editing software programs when making a piece of film. The Girl Chewing Gum as a piece does not have much editing whatsoever and any that was done would have been very basic - whereas Doll Face has been very heavily edited because of the craft involved. When The Girl Chewing Gum was originally made, the technolgy used was thought of as 'state of the art'. Compare it to nowadays and it seems incredibly basic.

Review of MUTO - by Blu

MUTO by Blu is another short film that uses stop frame animation to create a moving image. In this instance it involves the artist painting graffiti on walls in an urban environment. The artist painstakingly painted each movement the characters made, taking hundreds or perhaps thousands of pictures of each slight movement and then put them together to make it animated.

The main concept of this piece is the cycle and recycle of life. I got this impression because at the start of the film there is a monster with lots of legs that eventually turns into a man with arms, a head and eyes. Throughout the film the man is evolving and changing, with him often turning into something else, essentially being 'reborn'. Several times he actually emerges from another persons body or apart of his body turns into another creature; I feel this represents birth. The concept of life being recycled is represented through the ever-changing being consuming the thing before it and growing bigger. Towards the end it is a cocoon that then turns into a man with the wings of a butterfly which embodies evolution and change. It then ends with the man spitting out ants that scurry to a big human head and devour it until it's just a skull which represents the end of life, death.

This is a heavily crafted piece that would have required a large amount of time and patience on behalf of the artist and makes it a pretty amazing spectacle to watch.

Review of The Girl Chewing Gum - by John Smith

'The Girl Chewing Gum' is a short video that was created in 1976 and directed by John Smith. The black and white film is about 10 minutes long and takes place on a busy London Street. The main concept behind the video is the influence of media on people and society during the 70's and the message is as valid today as it was then.

Throughout the film there is a voice over directing what is about to happen in the street that gives the audience the impression that it is the voice of a director making orders. Within seconds of him making a statement, a person or car would pass by the frame in the exact way he had just described it would.

For the first three quarters of the film, the audience is lead to assume the man's voice is that of a directors as he seems to have the knowledge of what is going to happen next and his tone is orderly. This gives the audience a false sense of belief that is eventually dispelled when towards the end of the film the narrator reveals that he is 15 miles away in a field unable to see what is going on in the street we have been observing. It turns out that the street had been filmed and the audio of the man's voice was then added to the video after the footage was taken.

John Smith successfully manipulates the audience by making it seem that the man is making an order or predicting what was to happen next. This brings up the question of is everything we see or read in the media real or are we being manipulated to believe or think how they want us to? The director is trying to put across just how easy it is to manipulate the way we interpret things and it is often influenced by others.

What the audience comes away with at the end of watching 'The Girl Chewing Gum' is the realisation that in jumping to the conclusion that the voice-over man was in control or predicting the future they were tricked. My view is that the overall concept of this film is our perception of reality and how we interpret what we're told. It's not just how or what the media tells us, but what we make of it.

Review of Koyaanisquatis

(work in progress)

Review of Gisele Kerosene - by Jan Kounen

Gisele Kerosene is a short film by Dutch film maker Jan Kounen. The experimental video was made in 1989 and is very craft orientated, using stock-frame animation as the main material to create the film.

The story is about four witches in a very modern-looking city. At the beginning of the film they are showed worshipping an object with a bird-shaped head on a stick. Another witch in red then flies past on a broomstick and steals it. The four witches mount their broomsticks and race after the thief in order to try and retrieve their precious object. This leads to a chase around the city landscape in which one by one, each witch ends up badly injured as well as a nurse and her patient in a wheelchair. At the end the last witch left chasing the red witch crashes into a wall and the thief then hands it back the item. The film doesn't appear to have much of a concept - the only meaning I get from it is the thrill and danger of the chase - the thief seems to have stolen the item in order to make mischief, rather than the object meaning anything to him, hence why in the end he gives it up.

This video was heavily crafted and intricate in it's design. The stock frame animation used would have been painstakingly time consuming and difficult to do. In order to give the impression of flight with the witches on broomsticks the creators had to take hundreds of pictures of the actors jumping. They then had to put these pictures together in a sequence. Jan Kounen's inventive take on stop-frame animation makes this a very fun and comical piece.

Review of Doll Face - by Andy Huang

Doll Face is a short experimental video by Andy Huang. It is a state-of-the-art film in terms of the technology based graphics used in the video. The film is about a robot that has the face of a female human. It is watching a television that is flicking through channels on the screen and then pausing ever so often on a face. The robot then mimics the look by using it's multiple arms to cover itself in makeup. The concept behind this video is perfection and the lengths human beings will go to attempt to achieve it.

At the beginning, the robot's face is just plain and grey. It seems desperate to copy what it sees on the screen to the point that it's desperation ultimately 'breaks' it. I feel the artist is making a strong point about the media and it's negative effect on us. He is trying to convey our unhealthy obsession with body-image and beauty and how the modern vision of perfection has advanced to such an unattainable level that it has got to the point where we are in danger of destroying ourselves in order to obtain it.

The robot itself signifies both the modern technological age and the way beauty is projected to us in such a shallow context - a robot is a cold, hard, non-feeling being but the face on it is not. It also I think represents the idea of humans conforming to one idea; the robot wants to look just like the face that's being projected but if we were all to look the same we would no longer be an individual. We would all be, figuratively speaking, 'robots' in our behaviour and looks, just like the one in the film.

This film has been beautifully crafted and you can see the amount of skill and time it took to create. The ending is genuinely moving because the robot represents a real person struggling to be everything it thinks it should be; and I think that strikes us all personally in some way or another. We can all associate with the robot being. The story and it's message is powerful and because of that leaves you thinking about it. It brought up quite a lot of emotion in me and I thought it was a very clever, inventive piece.

First Post

My first blog post!! :)