it’s been summoned upon me further elaborate how benning’s work lends towards lingering, and i feel as if it will be worthy to devote an entire blog post to exploring the means by which benning’s work can encapsulate lingering.

lingering via duration

as i have been discussing through these blogs, i firmly believe there is a lot to be said about lingering by way of duration, or by prolonging the extent to which something is filmed. the use of time as a non-constraint would be a truly liberating facet for lingering, as to ignore time, one could let a shot that is being lingered on by way of duration just manifest, leaving the viewer to fully explore what is taking place. in los, at the 13th minute, there is a shot of a harbour with benning capturing a boat as it arrives at the left side of the frame, to then cut as the entire boat leaves the right side of the frame, before exploring another environment. using lingering via duration with the use of time as a non-constraint would be so beneficial for lingering as it would really allow a camera to absorb an environment, and a landscape, to fully, for that moment, bask.

benning’s praxis embodies this style of lingering as benning does also then deliberate what, of the countless multitude of footage he has captured with his camera, should then be used in the final project, and in leaving his camera dormant at times, allows noticing to take place once something has already been filmed, noticing in post-production. it’s truly admirable, i think

all in all, i think my first springboard dive into the pool of lingering was a success more or less, though in many ways there is a lot more to be learnt, as with any process, but i am pretty pleased. my noticing experiment in lingering was one that was trying to explore lingering in a way that deals with basking and absorbing moments, to try contextualise them and understand them. I think my experiment responds to the prompt quite well in the sense that the recipe created considers all bounds suggested. however, it is worth mentioning that as my work pivoted from being one particular thing to then becoming something else, all the facets which i was considering to explore have been in a way diluted as my work was now a lingering work surrounding the element of water a lot more. i think as such it diverts from the recipe an amount but i think it is still inspired by it.

what did i learn about noticing

i think this project helped me understand further that it is not as difficult to notice as it is the mark elements, because the time i could spend noticing something, i could then spend lamenting that my audiovisual devices are not readily available for me to use. though something can really be said here that i should make this occurrence less of a reality.

what did i learn about non-fiction

my understanding of non-fiction continues to get better as the semester progresses as i happen upon contextualising non-fiction work more in my creative process as well as my highlighting other works that lends towards non-fiction work as i notice it. what occurred to me more this assignment is non-fiction can be in a way “fictitious”, a work can create a creative landscape that is not “authentic”, like the layering shots of water, it is representing non-fiction in a fictitious and non-existent manner, in a way? this is to say that the line can be blurred.

refining into a larger scale project?

i think if i’m going to explore water more in lingering, it would be a waste for me not to also explore lingering with another part of nature, in places where you can go on hikes, and the like. in terms of finding a way to expand on water lingering as well as an exploration of how i can add juxtaposition more into my assignment and into lingering, i think that this is the next logical step, and i’m quite looking forward to exploring as much. it will also prove to be a great excuse to get some vitamin d, i think.

Last night I was watching some music videos for quite a long amount of time and it was an interesting exercise to, while watching, realise the facets of the videos that I felt could lend towards lingering.

Case in point was Blood Orange’s Charcoal Baby video, and Jewelry video, as well as A$AP Rocky’s Praise Da Lord video. In Charcoal Baby and Praise Da Lord, there is a use of split screen that is so creative and thematically fits in with something that could be really interesting

Here the split screen works in synergy with each other as both screens tell this story of two places colliding. In Praise Da Lord there is two distinct locations being documented, to ‘in a way’ highlight that they’re like for like, that the two locations are the same, by way of montage. In Charcoal Baby this is done and showing two settings, with a very juxtaposition by way of a contrasting colour grading to compliment both split screen situations too.

Thus, to extrapolate these ideas I think there is a lot of weight in adopting split screen shots in lingering that is a vast juxtaposition, as well as something completely advantageous of using split screen recording to linger on two different locations and link them geometrically, it really opens a treasure trove of ideas and I think it could really function well in a jigsaw puzzle manner.

James Benning’s work is really starting to implant itself into mine, at least for this assignment. My idea in mind is to linger on “protagonists” a word lifted from the reading from class, to involve or move forward with the desire of mine to document planes in the sky, or perhaps flight – to feature land as protagonist. Benning seems to be making use of this in his shots, to really hone in on what I would argue lingering encapsulates, in which any points extrapolated are implicit, in the essence of the shot. I write this while watching Ruhr, and it seems Benning has cottoned on to my idea well before I thought it would be genius, with an unassuming shot of flora as a plane flies past (in which the interviewer bases their implicated thought from).

I think as well the idea of letting a Tripod solidify a shot for us, as that which is in the frame can serve as the shot in the sense that Benning describes, and for that sake I’ve really enjoyed filming a new constraint, which is that of lingering on cliffs, as a way to reap the cinematic benefits of being in a coastal environment during the mid-semester break.

That said I am slightly dissapointed that although the proximity of the planes I saw land on Hamilton Island was so extremely close, I really wasn’t in the best position at any time to film it, having been overcome with a headache.

A final point, I feel like the term Duration will really test this inspiration from Benning, as for a video that is meant to be 3 minutes long, this is a far cry from the aesthetic of Benning’s movies, which are far less bound by a constraint of duration. I think the overarching solution to this though, is overlays.

we presented our ideas in class today which was a cool experience. i went into the presentation with a rather unclear frame of mind for the assignment, but it was definitely something that was derivative from what was suggested by Sophie Kim and Hannah after the presentation had concluded.

a brief run down of the presentation is that the ideas weren’t fully formed, and i ended up filming really quite a lot of footage whilst in the whitsundays for the midsemester break and I had filmed a lot of footage of cliffs, planes, and the water. i also found a lot of solace in the use of several multi shot layouts, like layering and split screen shots. I was averse to layering with too much transparency involved as i felt like it diluted the lingering process and praxis, by perhaps diluting the way a shot can linger.

in any case, i was instructed by all three people to focus more on the water side of it all, which i’m currently looking into following through with. while i feel like i could create a work that considers this, i think there is something to be said that the final project should probably explore this but perhaps also go further than? preliminary thoughts here could be driving out to some natural spots and establishing this link between the flora green and the water more, elements of nature that we can tangibly understand. though, for the remainder of this assignment I am curious as to how well i will pursue the sound that i could feature in the work, because as it stands i feel as if there is more that i could do and explore

I’ve found myself stumbling into the actions which are mentioned in this weeks reading in regards to archiving tonight. I was having dinner with some friends and pinpointed with my friend Mitch that there was a picture that I’d sent him in the past that looked suspiciously thematically similar to his album art for one of his musical works. I then spent the rest of tonight looking for the photo, benefiting from being someone that found it important to archive material and finding the picture.

But then I realised of course it goes far beyond this, I think back to the videos I filmed simply speculatively trying to flip it into tangible content later (music videos, etc) and theres just so many files, and duplicates of files scattered everywhere that in this creative praxis is destined to be useful in some manner I would say, perhaps especially if you subconsciously deliberate on a means of documenting, that is all your videos that you film in general fall within lingering, then the follow on effect is that in the future it will be incredibly simple to create finished video works that are just an ensemble of the multitude of archived videos that i have previously filmed. in a way it could ensure that one could continue to have a endless stream of non-fiction work to be created, which seems endlessly beneficial, whilst also being thoroughly rewarding?

i guess that is only if you pick up the option to then create the pieces, otherwise they could just get lost.

I think this MIFF has made my kind of come to with a realisation that my ideal word will almost certainly be lingering, as I like the idea of being able to bask in a shot for an extended period of time is something I found has been something I’ve found most gratifying in the shots of the films that I was watching at MIFF. The shots in An Elephant Sitting Still worked for lingering two ways, still shots of people in their moment whilst occasionally lingering on the person by acknowledging the importance of that person in their shot – it really captures the alternative thought to lingering beyond still shots a bit more for me

I think something about the concept of lingering that will really benefit me is being able to experience a place through the eyes of a tourist – say when I go to the Whitsundays, embody this but also keep this up in Melbourne. I always think about these old relic videos filmed of Japan in a time that is now past for these kinds of things. It’s really quite peculiar how certain cities can allow for lingering at such ease. It really is

i’m starting to understand more what i feel as if lingering is –

in which i feel like a definition could be as much as

“to bask in a particular facet by way of absorbing the moment, whether it is by way of filming or listening”

as such I’ve drafted a recipe that flows in this manner, that tries to explore various styles of lingering, as i really do feel like you can linger via duration by just letting a camera stay recorded.

ingredients

• mobile phone camera
• another non-phone camera
• recorder (zoom h4)

steps

• pick one area in line with the overall sentiment of flight and water and record 4 videos for a undecided amount of time (long) to linger by use of duration
• film and linger on cliffs, let the camera simmer and occupy and take control of the proverbial steering wheel
• linger on the water, as it moves and interracts with the wind
• venture towards two areas where there is a clear expectation that there will be airplanes in the sky
• upon hearing the sound of a plane in the sky, ready one’s camera (in a landscape position) as a means to searching for the plane in the sky, and upon noticing the plane in the sky, keep the camera still and linger on this shot until the plane is no longer in view
• record the audio of an Event that contextualises centrally what is being filmed

tonight marked 11 days of MIFF, and the 13th film I watched – a bit grotesque but I’m kind of starting to feel like it is benefitting the ideas I’m having in terms of my creative or noticing process. being tasked with finding a new way to understand the shots in which i film and the shots which have been filmed i feel have really helped me. I’m really excited for this upcoming assignment because i’m actually going to go to the whitsundays with my parents for the midsemester break, a facet of my month that came about because my parents were finding it weird without me while i was living in the sublease.

i think holiday planning in general is a step in the noticing praxis, from the outset i’m being tasked to think about what to do and all this planning – but here i think the next step is like since i’m going to the whitsundays i could do a part or portion of my assignment there, but the thoughts that come to my head are like, what do i think about doing?

i google search the words “whitsundays” to start me off – without looking i can think “beaches, food ?” – not much else

seems as if

which is pretty good – I don’t know either – I wouldn’t mind a jetski

I should probably retrieve my gopro

Swimming will be good

Wonder if there are places to walk

theres a lighthouse

what could i do there ?