At the start of this project I found myself apprehensive about working with the Sony MC50 video recorder. I think my inexperience shows as I knock the camera a few times and shaky cam rears it’s ugly head. In continuing in this course I would like to get more comfortable around the equipment I am working with and become more confident holding a camera.
I tried using a tripod to limit these errors however I found it better hold the camera across from Maria, chatting like we usually do. Not only did it make her feel more comfortable but it allowed the piece to become more of a conversation rather than a questionnaire.
I chose Maria, for this project because whenever we talk I can’t help but listen to whatever she has to say. I thought this was an important quality to capture in my piece. I achieved this by using found footage to enhance her story rather than distract from it and using a series of close ups to really draw attention to what I felt was the most important parts of her story, focusing on her mouth.
The found footage I used was a mix of old animations and burlesque. Burlesque not only being something my subject was very interested in, but I felt fit the themes of sexuality. The old animations I used, helped me show things I wanted to be less literal things like fluidity or the act of vomiting. Overall I am mostly happy with my combination of found footage and actual footage to tell a story.
I also found myself experimenting more with sound this project, using music over vocals rather than being to timid to combine the two in project brief 2 and editing with things such as volume and fade ins/outs. I am pleased that I have spent more time working on sound this brief even if I still have a long way to go.
A big challenge that came with project was how much footage I had, and choosing when I had to cut back. This is still something I need to work on as portraits need to really speak volumes about a person and by adding to much footage your best pieces can get lost.
I also want to improve on titles and credits in my next piece.