So this week we started by looking at our favourite observation and deliberating the filmic potential of the piece, in which my observational piece was my most recent observation.

I stood for a time as I watch this small house be bulldozed to the ground. This was the home of a long time childhood friend. I had been in this house an innumerable amount of times in my childhood, so much so that I could probably map out the entire house. It was strange watching this house, this staple of my childhood, be torn to the ground while the family of the house were not present. Although we had fallen out of touch, every time I walked past this house it reminded me of my childhood, which was a very bittersweet feeling that I have not felt before.

My opening notes I had on the filmic potential of this observation were;

. Bulldozing metaphor for a childhood friendship fading away
. Montage intercut with footage of the bulldozing house
. Show scenes of friendship over time, slowing allude to a separation, through time, physical distance of the characters on the screen, colour palette changing, music cues
. Vacant open spaces where house once was
. Dissolve characters away
. Displaying bulldozing with very visceral footage

I wanted to focus on the thematic elements of the observation, connecting the images that I observed with the feelings of a lost friendship through montage. Immediately I realised how difficult actually filming a house being bulldozed so focusing on the themes instead began as more of a necessary concession but there is a chance that could create a more developed piece. Using things like sound or written text instead of  physically filming the destruction of a house could be a more effective way of displaying the themes of the observation.

2 questions were also asked when asked when thinking about the filmic potential of our observations;

Is there anything about the  form of the written Observation that suggests a particular approach on screen?

Does the written form suggest the use of any particular techniques or devices?

I think in terms of the form of the observation, it’s clearly coming from a first person perspective but I don’t think it would be important to have a character in the filmed adaptation, it would be just as effective to show the images for the audience to reflect on. As I addressed in my immediate notes on how I would adapt the observation, the techniques I’d use would be predominately montage, combining the two images of the bulldozer (or perhaps the use of sound and text instead of image) and the images of childhood friendship slowly fading away. I think there is a lot of potential in this observation for an effective filmed piece as it is thematic stronger than a lot of my other written observations. I will definitely look to continue this style of observational writing which has a clear thematic element attached to it, or at least trying to attach a thematic element into a less interesting observation.