On Thursday last week we had to do an exercise which was sort of like a mind map, to get the idea ball rolling for the final assessment task. These exercises are always useful, especially considering my current state of idea related lethargy. I have never considered myself good with ideas, but rather with the execution of an idea or figuring out the logistics of an idea. I’m so much of a perfectionist that I always seem to be searching for the perfect idea and in doing so, it blocks all others from my mind, making me overlook even the simplest ones, that are oftentimes the best. What I actually found most useful is hearing what past students had come up with, as it grounds me, allowing me to not get too carried away or go too simple with my approach to the task.

One of my ideas is something centred around the making of my stop motion, perhaps the filming of the process, the results of the stop motion itself, an examination into the sounds produced, how slowing down or speeding up effects the story, how colour or lighting have effect on finished product e.g inconsistent lighting is bad for stop motion. These are some ideas, but I really want a chance to think about the medium in my head and kind of break it’s components down to come up with something interesting to focus on.

I am also thinking about doing something surrounding sound/audio as it’s by far the weakest of my technical knowhow and perhaps this assignment could double as a learning opportunity, allowing me to gain confidence in sound work. I thought the previous example of another students work, who manipulated sound and visuals to fool the viewer, was extremely interesting and gave me a different perspective for approaching the task.

There are other things I would be interested in researching such as colour and lighting when presented in different scenarios or perhaps I could compare 1940’s movies to the 1930’s or 1950’s, or explore the idea of fame through the decades – with a particular examination of the Hollywood starlets of the Golden Age of cinema – maybe looking into some of my favourite actresses of all time such as Rita Hayworth, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn.

These are all things I can springboard off of – I just need time to ruminate on the task or perhaps an idea will come serendipitously. Like Paul said in class, this is an iterative process, so expect an update.