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1.  Vestiges, 2:47

Follows the history of the architecture and the space building 20 occupies, as guided by the narration of Peter Elliott; the building’s architect. This is visualised through the construction of a large photo-collage within the Third Court.  Normal paced footage with the narration is broken up by time-lapsed, somewhat chaotic footage and sounds of the construction and destruction of elements in the collage. I chose to do this without musical accompaniment, so as to focus on the physical noises, as well as to reflect the silence and stillness of the space..

The purpose of this piece is to tell the story of the space in an original and experimental way. I attempted to capture the action of constructing, destroying, and covering up/ re-purposing through the collage, in order to reflect the way I saw the building’s development.

2. I worked on this project alone, thus I undertook each task myself with guidance from my tutor and guests. This project involved collecting images through photography and the State Library, editing them and creating a Photoshop composition, printing these layers accurately, and the physical construction itself. It also required me to locate an interviewee, and do a sound interview with them (Peter Elliott). This interview informed the collage construction, which I recorded by moving the camera around to many different angles throughout the construction, as well as recording clear sounds of construction to layer over this. Then, of course my most recent role was editing the piece.

3. I think I approached this project carefully and enthusiastically which allowed it to come together without any major problems. Technically, the recording of footage and sound went well, as I was familiar with the equipment, and I was able to source everything I wanted for the project early, including the physical resources and an interview with Peter Elliott, who was my first choice for a subject.

4. Some aspects were challenging, however. It took a while to get in contact with Peter Elliott, and I had to go through a 3rd party to get a contact for him. Printing the images was also difficult, as the files were enormous and wouldn’t send efficiently to the wireless printer I was using. This meant I had to save each tile of picture as a separate file so they were small enough to send. These issues were easily resolved, however. The only other thing I would do differently next time is to be more careful with my framing, as there were occasionally chairs or other items seen in my shots that I wasn’t able to crop out in editing. The process of filming would also go more efficiently if I had multiple cameras, instead of having to move the one camera around almost every shot.

5. The main issue I had was access to building 20, as I had specific shots in mind to work with my composition, but I was not always able to get them when I wanted as the spaces were being used. I figured out that the courtrooms were all generally available in the late morning and early afternoon, and the meetings usually happened later in the day. So I was able to schedule my shoots around this. I also found it difficult to contact Peter Elliott at first, as the contact email I had for him didn’t reply. I resolved this by continuing to look for other possible interviewees while I waited for responses, which organically led me to another contact email for Elliott. When I contacted the Architecture faculty at RMIT asking if they would be interested, I got a response with a more direct email address for Peter Elliott, to which he replied.

6. Reflecting on the semester, I have found I was able to get a better understanding of how space and place can be represented through media. The ability to explore a space and represent it in a totally immersive way is more challenging than I initially thought. But I think by combining multiple media elements and creating something more experimental, I was able to capture what I intended.