This Project Brief I found to be extremely enjoyable. I was initially at odds attempting to work out who I’d interview, what I’d be interviewing them about and why, but then it clicked. My friend Callum seemed to have this rather strange obsession with Formula 1, and I thought an interview with him regarding this would be a pretty good way to learn about it, and it really was. It was initially in an informal format, wherein Callum is being asked questions whilst watching the Bahrain Grand Prix, and I was instructed to the fact that this would have to be changed a little bit. As such, I felt some more formal questions based around why this obsession with F1 exists to contextualise the live, watching F1, footage would make a lot of sense.

It was a bit more of a struggle to find some completely on point found footage than I thought it would be initially and I guess that is a good lesson to learn now, that perhaps if found footage is going to be pursued, an extensive mine of relevant footage is looked for prior, to ascertain the appropriateness or the logistics of the idea. I think also, in the post production, I made a little too much use of the transition, which was more out of necessity than what I thought would encapsulate what an interview is, and I guess that in itself is a lesson to learn that the logistics of editing between shots needs to kind of be well thought of to an extent during the production process also.

I quite enjoyed the process of creating something with a good friend of mine, and to an extent this feel could be something to pursue in future, sharing the load of the creative process with a friend, or at least taking part in production things with a friend that is present. I think also to an extent it is kind of necessary for there to be a slightly comedic element involved, though I feel like it could tread that line of whether the subject is in some sort of character (blurring the line between mockumentary and documentary) or not, though this was genuinely Callum, and I feel like in that respect it’s a nice way to add substance to a story.

I was pretty pleased with the inclusion of Callum actually driving, because in a way driving is so structurally similar to what Formula 1 entails, whilst being insurmountably so different. Though an issue there was the Time itself, as it was rather dark and meant that I had to kind of work around the limitation by finding an appropriate cutaway, though I felt that the cutaway suits the context of the piece

This weekend will be an interesting one, so much so that I’m rather glad that we received an extension for the submission this week. I got an opportunity to volunteer for Triple R this weekend for the end of their April Amnesty week, a series of live performances called “April After Dark” where theres a live-to-air performance in the Triple R bandroom from 10pm-Midnight. I’ve been entrusted to film the performances, one song for each set, with three sets each night, and it should be really funny. Typing this now slightly nervous an hour before the fact.

So the first night went okay. Each band was met with their own little issue but it was an interesting learning experience and it will be good to work on tonight. Like the first band, The Shabbab, were full of energy and the static shot that I had was a little constrictive in that there are points that the lead singer is out of the frame, which was enough of an issue I felt that I had to move the camera to the other side of the stage for the next two bands. It was kind of interesting trying to work out the framing and also trying to anticipate what movement was going to take place during the particular performance. Hi-Tec Emotions was constricted by there being so many people so close up, meaning that the close up shots I could get were mainly the bassist and the singer. I was operating two cameras, and they’d be the only ones to use to edit and I don’t think I really thought about that enough. Finally, I may have accidentally missed the planned song the be recorded for Nation Blue, so each experience was kind of interesting, though I’m not sure whether or not I’m better or worse off for it. I’m thinking better.

The second night went pretty swimmingly. Teenage Hate of Triple R is probably one of my favourite shows on the Triple R program and due to this I think I was much more comfortable tonight, like if this night was on the first night it probably would have also been fine. I knew the bands a lot more which meant the setlists and cues were a bit easier to get my head around. Though I may have slightly forgotten to format one of the SD Cards before we began which is a slight hiccup, and then the SD card size meant that the cards kind of became full a bit earlier than hoped. But on the whole I thought this night was particularly fun. Dealing with band set-ups and stuff with the framing was interesting. Hopefully get to do more soon.

“Life in blogs is real because it’s your own life, and life is about using time up. It’s nothing more than that.”

Ai Wei Wei, 2006

I was trying to think of how to deal with another initiative post after having written the other one, and I remembered that when I went to New York a couple years ago when i went to MoMA I bought this weird book called “Ai Wei Wei Speaks”. Never finished it. Kind of think the reason why was because I accidentally got it rained on and it no longer looked like a nice book to be seen reading, but it was probably, definitely more my own laziness.

Though I remember reading it and it did touch on blogs at the very
beginning, which I thought was intriguing considering he was such a famous artist for that to come up first. It is pretty potent though, in the quote above, he kind of raises a cool point, that right now in writing this I’m filling up time, or using it, so I guess it is pretty real, however fabricated blogs can usually tend to be.

I don’t think, so far, that I’ve been too withholding of my own identity, just like how I can be apparently easily understood through my social media and internet activity thanks to “Big Social Media” (thanks, Trump), the blog posts so far could probably tell some sort of story as well. 

I feel like this time I’ll actually finish reading it though. Maybe.