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.
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