ASSESSMENT DAY - Jan 14 2009

I'm due for assessment at 1500, and its mid morning as I write these words about what I plan to say. (I began last year some time to make out a sheet to had to the assessers of what I want to say, so that, in the event that I get side-tracked, and don't say everything, they will have it there in front of them.)
Anyway, this HINT-SHEET helps me to be focused, so whether it helps the tutors or not is for them to say.

I need to focus on the three pieces of work I am presenting:
Camino
Coombe Old and New
Sometimes.

CAMINO
This is a short piece which has two aims:
1. To avail of the oportunity to explore the use of theatre lights to make art
2. To work through the personal trauma I experienced in the course of walking over 200km of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela over 12 days in July 2008.

There are three elements in the video:

THE FIGURES:

The WALKER (using the hat, kaftan and sticks as used on the journey) re-experiences the variations of mood experienced along the route and shows this by changes in body language.
WHITE FIGURE 1 dangles a large cube representing the heavy load carried and how at times this was unpredictable and uncontrollable in its effects.
WHITE FIGURE 2 dangles a manic butterfly which is also difficult to control, and represents the fragility of the moments of high elation.

THE SOUND

This is MUSIC, recorded on the camino final day, is a group of pilgrims dressed in Inca like costumes marching to the Cathedral at Santiago. The original experience of this music did much to enliven those last few kilometres of the journey.
Three different tempos are used: normal, slow, manic again to reflect mood experienced.

LIGHTING

The THEATRE LIGHTS are also used to reflect mood - bright light and purple light, light flooding the performance area at the end.

SELF CRITIQUE:

• I am pleased enough with how this worked out in the end. I have plenty of footage to play around with later if I want to do so.
• What I learned is that theatre lighting is very different to studio lighting and extra people are needed to operate them. Also they are not as flexible as floor lights, especially with regards to tracking, and also focus. I would be reluctant to use them again for a performance.
• I also learned how different performance is from either theatre or movie-making, and how difficult it is to explain this to people who may not have experienced performance before.
• Working with other people was a lot easier than I anticipated, and the meetings we had were very focused and kept strictly to time.
• I also began to realize about the way light works, light piercing the darkness, interrupting this universal 'screen' that hides, conceals, protects so much.
  

COOMBE - Old and New
This piece consists of a sound piece recorded on a walk up and down the Coombe with John Gallagher who was born there and lived there most of his life.
Photographs and video are used to illustrate John's narrative.
Black and white images, from the Architectural Archive and from books, fade over present day images to show what used to be on the site concerned.

SELF CRITIQUE

• I think this piece works well. I am particularly pleased with how it isn't evident that the video was made on a different day to the sound, though I realize that the traffic sounds don't synch with the cars in the movie.
• What I learned, apart from an intimate geography of the Coombe which animated this urban area for me, was a lot more about using Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. I also learned that I still have a great deal to learn.
• The video work showed me the need to try using a Steadicam for this kind of work, but I like the idea of the one long shot, something I subsequently view in part of Russian Ark on You Tube.

SOMETIMES ...
This short piece is first of all an exercise in looping video.
The theme mood swings, as moods cycle from one to the other.
IMAGES

• Shadow image shows a see-saw which represents the ups and downs of moods
• Light flashes on and off at irregular intervals even as lighter moments interrupt the darkness.
• The colours are symbolic: Green for peace, blue for 'the blues', Gold for joy.
• The times vary, showing that moods are not of uniform duration.

SOUND

• Weather forecast voice predicts changes in weather but in a way is as unreliable as trying to predict what mood will predominate on any particular day.
• Back-ground studio sounds indicate that life goes on as normal regardless of how any individual may be feeling.one
• Voice indicated the isolation of the internal world of the individual as they face the reality that mood changes are a normal part of life.

SELF CRITIQUE

• I am pleased with how this little piece turned out. By slow degrees I am learning that quantity isn't everything, sometime 'small is beautiful'.
• Again I learned some filter controls in Final Cut Pro in the course of doing the editing.
• I also learned to make an 'animation apparatus' in my kitchen at home, a kind of light box, an activity I would like to pursue at some stage.