Resolution 1, New Learning Agreement

After changing elements of my idea due my findings from research and my pre-vis experiment I then went and wrote a new learning agreement which I feel much better lays out my idea now.

Digital Film & Screen Arts Learning Agreement				YEAR:		3
NAME:  Billie Williams			DATE: 28/09/17
Unit Name/No: Resolution 1		Deadline for submission: December 5th 2017
GROUP PRODUCTION:	NO	INDIVIDUAL PRODUCTION:			YES
DESCRIPTION: A synopsis of the work you intend to undertake in fulfilment of the aims, outcomes and assessment criteria of the unit giving fuller detail in response to each of the five sections below.
Working Title: Separation My piece is a visual audio journey creating video art which explores the theme of divorce, in particular, the experience within my own family. My brother and I are collaborating on this piece, with him creating the instrumental music and myself and a crew creating the visuals. This will be available as a one screen version, however my main intention is to project it into a large gallery space. This will allow me to isolate different parts of the video in different areas and maybe on different objects, using projection mapping if possible, so that the viewers can see the many stages but also emotions of my journey and be within this experience as well. The visual images will be based on symbolic evocative imagery layered with isolated body parts using gestural movement, which helps tell the emotional journey in an abstract way. Effects like macro, slow motion, repetition, collaging, double exposure and the Kaleidoscope effect will also be implemented. This will build up with the audio making a strong atmosphere for the viewer to experience while in the space. I am hoping that the viewer will then reflect upon the journey they witnessed not only observing my personal story but bringing their own life experiences towards the piece too. I am hoping to help other people, who have experiencing similar journeys release and realize their emotions as this is an experimental representation of a childhood trauma which hasn’t been commonly explored previously in this way.
RESEARCH: (Initial reference material and sources)
Initial Research: -       Samsung Infinity Hypercube -       DJ Shadow Live Performances -       Ben Stokes Projection Art -       Childhood Trauma and Divorce Affects Research -       Projection and Light Mapping Inspiration and Basics -       Harvest Light Studio -       Bonobo Music Videos -       Macro Studio Ink and Macro Videos Future Research: -       Visual Audio Installations in particular- DMM Planets installation featuring the work of Japan’s Team Lab, The Tate Turbine Hall Installations, Shanghai Film Museum Installations. -       Video Art, in particular to my chosen style and theme -       Interactive Installations -       Subjectivity of Camera -       Montage and Poetic Videos and theories behind this (Theory of Montage, Laura Marx) -       Light and Projection Mapping in detail (How To) -       Arts and Humanities Research Council -       Virtual Reality, Experiential Design and POV particularly within creating empathy -       Symbolism Essentials (Linked to Divorce) -       Gestural Body Movement and Isolation
CONTEXTUAL UNDERSTANDING (How the work relates to your future goals, previous work, work by other practitioners and so on) This project will help me become involved in the world of video which has transferable skills to the music video industry which I have always been interested in however it allows me to do this in a more experimental and artistic way, which I prefer. I would like to be more of an experimental music video & Video art director and editor rather than commercial pop etc. This project will also be installed in a more technical experiential manor as video art which comes back to how much fun and the skills I felt I gained and succeeded with during last year’s installation project. This project also allows me to develop my technical skills even further as well because there is a larger technical side to it than I’ve never attempted before with elements like Macro, Slow Motion and Kaleidoscope Editing and these are skills I know will be beneficial to have. This piece will fit into the current art and media culture of creating experiences, which are immersive like 360 films and infinity spaces etc. I want to hopefully use the relatively new technology of projection mapping as well to present it in a way which is immersive and atmospheric. I also feel this piece is addressing an issue, which people wouldn’t think to try and portray through abstract symbolism, in an installation because it’s so real but I feel like it isn’t only about my journey but it’s about other people applying similar personal situations and having their own journey with this art too. I have also noticed through research so far that this subject of divorce has never been represented in an abstract evocative way like my piece will so hopefully it will help the audience realize and release emotions from their own journeys. It is unrepresented trauma which I will bring a voice to through this experimental piece.
TECHNICAL AND CREATIVE SKILLS (Propose specialisms, resources required, relate to the above) I will be the Director of this piece, Partly Producer and Editor, however I will need a crew to work with to achieve everything technical that I want. As Director, I will need to plan the vision and concept of the piece communicating thoroughly with my crew about this especially the DOP. I feel like this will test my Directing Skills in terms of keeping such a varied and busy project in perspective and organised but I also feel like concept wise I need to keep the crew engaged as I know that it comes across as a very personal subject but I want everyone to bring a part of themselves into this. This will also challenge me a lot more as an Editor because there are a lot of technical challenges in this that I have given myself like collaging and creating patterns like the Kaleidoscope effect. I have editing skills in Avid, Premier and slightly in After Effects so a lot of the editing is achievable for myself with a lot of work but I wouldn’t feel confident with more of the technical VFX side so I have a VFX editor & crew member who will work with me on this to achieve what’s best for the piece and helping me learn new skills. I am looking forward to developing some projection mapping skills if I can with what’s available or affordable to me in terms of the equipment and software. I never thought of how useful this skill is but after considering the massive amount of ways it can be used I feel like it would be beneficial to learn and I would love to be able to keep using this skill in the future to display mine and others work.
COMMUNICATION (How you will communicate with the staff team and collaborators/How the work communicates with an audience, crowd funding, dissemination etc) I am collaborating partly with my Brother, who is the Musician for this piece and is also a part of the concept as well because we have both shared this journey through our childhood so it’s a very similar experience. I need to keep communication with him up and continue this good working relationship so that we end up with a piece that is strong in audio and visuals together. I also need to communicate with the UCA Equipment Hire team to see what is available to me to achieve the high-quality imagery I want to capture and to see if Light and Projection Mapping is possible. I will then need to make sure I experiment and practice with this before filming and installation. I may also need to complete some crowd funding if I can’t find equipment that is affordable and beneficial that the university might not have especially for the projection mapping process. When it comes to Light and Projection Mapping as much as I can learn online I would also like to see if any technicians at the university or anyone I know has these skills to be able to assist me at least with the initial learning and experimenting process of this. As I have said my piece will work as a one screen version but also as an installation. This one screen version can be uploaded onto YouTube and Vimeo and linked to the musician’s social media sites, so that it reaches not only his fans and following but also anyone else on YouTube and similar platforms wanting to explore these themes. I feel both versions will appeal more to the younger generations because a larger percentage of them have experienced their parents’ divorce as statistics showing this have gone up. Also, the younger generation will be more intrigued due to the experimental nature of the music and the visuals. I feel like not only could this be installed at a typical art gallery but it would be a good piece to install in urban locations where a lot of young people would be found (Skate park, Underpass, Music Venue’s etc.) especially since there is the possibility to Projection Map it to fit many locations.
SELF MANAGEMENT (Work plan, schedule cross referenced with timetable, assessment deadlines etc) October – Gaining Crew and Planning Roles, Pre-Production Paperwork November – Research and Technical Experimentation December – Finalising all Paperwork and handing in for Deadline January – Booking all spaces, Equipment and Acquiring everything and everyone required for filming. Create the finalised documentation for shooting like schedule and call sheets. February – Filming in studio! March – Organise Footage, Archive and Rough Cut, if needed re-film anything April – Get feedback and make Final Cut. Projection Map for Installation and Mock up. May – Create Installation!
STUDENT SIGN:		DATE:
TUTOR APPROVAL:
TUTOR SIGNED:		DATE:
I feel a lot happier with this LA as I feel like the idea has developed and I am now in a much stronger position.

Resolution 1, Assistant Director & Assistant Editor for Sugini

Another piece of work I am involved in is a piece led by Sugini which has minimal crew but in which I am Assistant Director and Assistant Editor. Her piece has taken many different twist and turns so far but I have tried to help her as much as I can in the meetings we have had regularly so far to develop and discuss the idea. Here are the bride points and notes from each meeting we have had:

Meeting 1 (5/10/17)

Originally when Sugini came to me with her idea she wanted to create a very visually led piece based on 'The Law of Attraction'. It was all about how positive thinking could actually make positive things happen to you. We discussed how this could be achieved through powerful landscape visuals however we were still not sure on the concept. We discussed how the concept could maybe be construed as cliche and almost taboo as some people believe in this and other simply don't. We tried to develop this by coming up with different approaches that might work better. I then remembered a physiological concept I had come across recently which was all about how our brains haven't developed enough to deal with urban environments so it can cause side effects like depression. Hence why nature can have a soothing effect on people. In terms of Sugini's concept this could make it a more focused project on the idea of urban vs nature and this could also lead to some really effective visuals. She is going to go away and look into this theory and see if she thinks it works and then we plan to meet back up and discuss it after her next tutorial.

Meeting 2 (11/10/17)

In this meeting Sugini was trying to find a different approach to her idea as it was pointed out that with her original approach she might end up making something that seemed too commercially or even like propaganda even with the new concept of urban vs nature that we had thought of. I suggested to her that maybe she needed to find real positive thinking people to talk to and anchor down the piece in a more real way. I then had the epiphany that maybe she could talk to the SoulFlow Society at the university which is a society all about positive thinking and change through expressions like spoken word. We discussed ways she could then create visuals from what these people were experiencing from being part of this positive society and movement. We even discussed the possibility of her working with the society to create visuals for their spoken word etc to help be part of this positivity herself. We thought of a few back ups too of other people she could talk to such as Ade a spoken word artist in the class or family members who have recently experienced illness and are recovering positively.

Meeting 3 (23/10/17)

Sugini came to me in this meeting with a solid idea and approach which she was much happier with after all the development she had put in with some of my assistance. She explained that she would create a visually led piece about her Fathers own experiences through life and in particular the ups and downs he went through leaving SriLanka and moving to England. I really like this approach because it now has more depth to it by being that little bit more personal now. Her Father will be the Anchor which pulls this piece together in terms of context and it will also be an artistic approach rather than commercial. Now that she had much more confidence in the idea we were able to start discussing the more technical and logistical side of it. We spoke about crew and discussed other crew members she needs such as a camera operator and a sound recordist and mixer. She is going to try and get people on board for these roles shortly. We then discussed the visuals she would use and she suggested that there may be the possibility to film in SriLanka if she can. If she can't though we spoke about other visuals that could be used like maybe more symbolic representations instead. She said she would need to almost interview her Father before starting to choose specific visuals which I did agree with. I also suggested that she could then transcribe the interview and use this to select and map out the specific elements in the journey she will represent so that we can find visuals that will match up to each element and part of the journey so that she can make it as strong and powerful as possible. We the spoke about the soundtrack and how this could be a mix of voice overs, music and sounds/follies linked to the visuals. The last big point we discussed was weather her Father should appear visually in the video or not. I personally felt myself that maybe he shouldn't because then it would have more power as this big ominous voice, this would also make it relatable to anyone as well. However the argument that he should appear could be that it would demonstrate his personality more and his and Sugini's relationship more but I worry that it could also end up then being a bit too cliche. We have decided that this decision will be easier to make once she has interviewed and spoken to her father so that is the next step before we meet again. I am excited about being involved with this piece because it is very similar to my own approach in the way it is personal and symbolic but also it allows me to learn more about her too which has been so interesting so far.

Resolution 1, Assistant Director & Co-Choreographer & Assistant Editor for Katherine

As well as completing my own individual piece of work with a crew I am also part of other peoples crews. Another one of the projects I am involved in is a piece called 'Gunpowder Mill' (working title) led by Katherine. It has been agreed that I am Assistant Director, Co-Choreographer and Assistant Editor on this piece and I am very excited about that. It is another Dance Video with a very similar group to last years dance project and therefore we are hoping we can pull off another successful piece. The dance will be on location at an old derelict Gunpowder Mill and the dance itself will be representing the history/space and what use to go on there however this hasn't been fully realised yet.

Group Meeting

I partook in a group meeting on the 11/10/17 with the full crew involved in this piece so that we could be briefed on what was happening with it and what we would hopefully be achieving. We firstly began by clarifying the roles everyone would take within the crew and then we moved on to talk about the technical side of things. It was said that at the moment the GH4 seems like the best camera to use for this shoot especially because it is small and will be good for moving about on location. It is also the same camera we used on our last dance project so we felt we all knew a lot about it already. We then spoke about the actually dance and it is said that if we are able to get three dancers on board we will be using 3 different dancers this time all moving about the gunpowder mill in different ways. However if this is not possible it could go to just 1 dancer exploring the whole space. Gender is not a problem for this project as Katherine has said the way she will dress the dancers won't be gender specific anyway. We then spoke about the overall feel of the piece and she almost wants it to be tense and a bit creepy kind of like the last dance we did but this time in a more ghostly manor. We spoke about making this ghostly effect while filming but also in post which is something that will be experimented with. Lastly we discussed the location and the fundamentals of it when it comes to weather etc which we think will be manageable however we have arranged to go in a few weeks as a group together to do a Location Recce to suss things out a bit more. I am very happy to start this project now as it all seems very exciting and it will be real fun to get to work on another Dance Video.

Location Recce

On 23/10/17 Myself (AD), Katherine (Director & Producer), Sugini (DOP), Umor (camera) and Ethan (Camera) all met at 11am to go together to the location to complete a Recce. It was a 20 minute drive away to Petersfield so Katherine drove us but for the actually shoot we would need to arrange lift shares for the ones who don't drive. We parked up on a road near by and walked about 15 minutes through woodland till we found the main structure left of the Gunpowder Mill. It was such an interesting structure and also the surrounding woodland area with forestry and streams was really beautiful too. Here are some images I took on my phone while there to try and get an idea of how we can use the space:

We discussed while we were here potential use of the space by the Dancers and I felt like the space was so unique and inspiring that there was so much we could get the Dancers to do there especially in terms of getting them to adapt and explore the space through their movements. Me and Katherine spent some time marking to really nice specific spots for them to dance like coming out of the corner, in the small box like spaces, on top of some of the pillars and in the long corridors. This Location Recce made us all understand a lot more Katherine's vision and also allowed us to be able to help with the development of that. It also got us really excited as I would love to be able to film in a location like this so hopefully as long as everything goes to plan we will be able to achieve something special here.