So, printing didn’t go as planned. Photoshop doesn’t appear to have a tile function, which is bizarre, but illustrator does. So I put the images into illustrator and tried printing them, but for some reason they just weren’t making it to the printer? It would say the file has been sent and is ready to print, but when i went to the printer to release it, it hadn’t arrived. Possibly the files are too big, but I assumed it could handle it as it IS the design building. I’m sure I’m not the first person to print something like this. Either way, I had to leave because it was getting late and after 2 hours of attempts I was pretty frustrated. I’ll go back in tomorrow and try again. My current solution will be to manually tile the images myself and then print them all individually. Thankfully I have already saved all the layers as jpegs individually, so i can just cut them up into separate, A4 sized images. It will mean I have to print, probably close to 200 separate documents, but it’s fool-proof, and there is no reason why the printer couldn’t handle that. There wouldn’t be anything complicated about the images, there would just be a lot of them.Fortunately I have tons of printing credit, here’s hoping I don’t run out… This print job shouldn’t be more than $80, right?

This is the first real setback during this production so far. There will always be setbacks in projects like this, in the grand scheme of things, its pretty minor. Last semester I had far worse situations (like an entire days worth of footage being ruined due to technical issues etc.). Comparatively, this is okay. If i can rectify this tomorrow and if the shoot goes well on Sunday, I’ll be happy, and back on schedule. I can rest assured, at least the sound interview sounds really good. Sound is really important, and I’ve found that bad video is salvageable, bad sound is not. We will see what tomorrow brings.

I bought a huge sheet of 3mm mdf board, 1200mm x 900mm. This is what I am going to put the collage on, as the wooden texture will produce the best sounds and scrapes, while also being robust so I wont accidentally rip more than I intend etc. I tried to scale up my Photoshop document to the correct size but the sheer amount of large high quality layers full of large high quality pictures was too much for my laptop to handle. So I took it to the edit suites in building 9 and scaled it up to the right size as well as adding the finishing touches.

For printing, I intend to use the printers in building 9, and i need to print all of my Photoshop layers separately. I need to figure out the best way to do this, whether I need to make one layer visible at a time and print, or whether i save each individual layer as a jpeg and print all of the documents. All the images I need are in the document, even the ones that get covered up by others, so if i can just print the individual layers I will have all the images I need. This is an image of the whole document with all of its layers as it is now (I compressed the image file a lot here for uploading purposes):

Today I collected the rest of the images I needed for the piece, informed by the composition and Peter Elliot’s interview. The images I have now include:

• Sky
• Parish Plans*
• wooden roofs
• wooden canopy
• supreme court*
• old tram*
• horse and carriage*
• old justice district police building*
• L shaped courtyard
• Magistrates court
• Old Courtroom
• People*
• dome area wall details
• wooden seating
• dome area pillar
• dome area arches
• W-class tram
• old car*
• modern tram
• 2 new cars
• updated courtroom
• alive, green tree
• conference table
• exit sign
• RMIT sign

*Images not taken by me, sourced from copyright free photos in the state library collection

This morning I had my interview with Peter Elliott, and asked him questions from my list, but found that he kept the interview going himself. I found I didn’t even need to ask all of my questions as he covered multiple topics within his answers.

I like the way it sounds. The recording is a bit quiet, but there is no noise or anything as we were in an empty, quiet meeting room, so I can just turn the volume up easily. So the clean recording is great, but also his speaking voice is very good. He speaks clearly and I feel his voice and tone matches the building. It’s very relaxed, low, quiet. I can already imagine ways to enhance this and layer over sound effects and such in the finished piece.

I listened to the 15 minute piece and took note of the main topics he was discussing, as well as interesting comments. I found there are some elements of the building I have neglected which he kept mentioning, so I think it would be important to include these, such as the L shaped courtyard, Courtroom 2, and the Dome; which I included a little bit of but probably not enough. From here I will collect some more images, possibly on Monday afternoon. I will then work on my Photoshop documents to make them expansive and to include more elements which will give the piece more visual interest and will allow me to make the piece longer. Hopefully tomorrow I will buy a surface to work on to give me an idea of the dimensions I need to be working in. Something practical, but still large. Then I will try printing these out on Thursday, so if there are any hiccups in printing, I can rectify them on Friday. From there I should be ready for filming on Sunday.

Alongside this, I need to be thinking about shot lists, and planning my shoot so it can be successful and efficient. I will also be beginning to  edit Peter Elliott’s interview from now, so when I have the footage from Sunday, I can get straight into editing that and polishing it all, plus gathering a library of sound effects I can use. I need to pay special attention to this on the day, as the ripping of the paper and the tools and such on the piece are going to play a huge part. I can supplement these with recordings from a H4N later if I need to, but I would like to avoid this and keep the sound diagetic.

Full Interview: https://soundcloud.com/matthewsj-1/peter-elliott-interview

I listened to the interview and wrote down what times each topic occurred at to help me edit:

After contacting the Architecture school I was directed back to Peter Elliott. At first I was defeated by this because I was going in circles, but I realised the email they had provided me with this time was different to the one I had tried. The initial email was just the one on their website, which went to the office, but this one was addressed direct to Peter Elliott. I shot him an email and he replied immediately. So now, it looks like I have an interview subject! Hooray! It’s so great that he could help me out, now I just need to make sure I do a good job to make it worth the effort.

I’ve been drafting some questions for the sound interview, and hope to have it on Friday or even earlier, just so I can get it done this week and begin editing it before I jump onto the collage next week. The important thing I need to focus on now is having good interview questions that cover all the bases. I also need to complete organisation of an interview time/ date/ activation which will fit into my production timeline, but importantly, is least taxing on my subject. I want to do this efficiently, as he would be, essentially, doing this as a favour to me and RMIT.

Filming of the collage is going to take place on the 17th of this month. That is the day when we have the Building to ourselves, and I just need the one room. Hopefully I can spend a few hours in there making sure I get every shot, as the way I am imagining it, there are lots of little shots and I have to move the camera a lot between each one due to continuity. I can’t shoot to edit, I have to edit while I am shooting, unless I get multiple cameras which I don’t need and don’t particularly want either.

Before I have this interview, there appears to be a lull in production, as I am quite prepared, but just need to wait. In this time I will collect sounds I can use over the piece if i need to, and will do some tests of the collage creation, printing, making, materials, etc. I am thinking the best surface for ripping at and building on is MDF. Maybe I will get a big sheet of thin MDF, so that I can use scraping tools etc on it.

Here is my list of questions:

Today in class, Abigail Belfrage  from the Public Records Office came to discuss our ideas with us further and how we can go about finding sources. My project doesn’t really lend itself to a lot of those types of sources, but we discussed things such as parish plans which i could include in my collage. I love this idea and feel it would be a great way to ground the work, and make it even more ‘Melbourne.’ I think this opens the piece up nicely, because it gives a sense of pre-supreme court time also. Originally, the composition began with the supreme court, but this is more focused on the land and space.I found a few of them on the state library database, my favourite one is this one from 1854, around the time the supreme court was first built. 

Some other suggestions were about who I could contact for my interview. The National rust and Australia ICOMOS were suggested. I was about to contact them when Peter Elliott got back to me and agreed to an interview. That is a relief.

I’ve been struggling more than i expected finding interview candidates. Peter Elliott and the Old Melbourne Gaol didn’t respond to my email. Recently I emailed the Architecture faculty asking if they were interested, but so far the only reply I have received suggested I contact Peter Elliott. At this point, I will probably wait for some more replys, hopefully over tomorrow one of the Architecture staff steps up. Otherwise, I will probably visit the Gaol in person to get a direct response, and/ or find another way of contacting Peter Elliott.

I’m not really stressing about this though. The main point of the piece is the collage, and I can organise all of that on my own terms. The interview is sort of the secondary thing. If it comes to the point where i can’t find anyone willing to do an interview and the piece is looking bare, I can easily write out a script myself and just do the recording myself or with a voice actor, since I have done my own research about the history of the architecture. My first preference is the interview though. I think it would ground the piece to have a voice like that, rather than just random history being recited.

I’ve also been thinking about scrapping the video interview idea and just doing an audio interview. The majority of the visuals would be the collage anyway. Perhaps the interview subject doesn’t need to be seen. I am leaning toward doing the interview with perhaps just a H2n now, as I am picturing the piece in my head, and the sound of the voice can be effective as it is to inform the visuals, rather than to act as a forma interview with the collage just being a feature.

From here I need to ensure the collage is executed successfully. I need to think about my materials. I am thinking of mounting it on a sheet of wood or something as i feel the construction and the scraping would be effective. But if I want to make it a large piece, which I do, perhaps another medium would be better. I will do some tests, printing it and testing it on wood, paper, maybe even something like calico? I’ll go shopping over the weekend to see what kind of large surfaces I can find that are relatively inexpensive. I also have tons of printing credit in Building 9, so I’ll start printing things off.

On Friday the 24th or April I pitched my ‘Remnants‘ idea to a panel for feedback. I also decided ‘Remnants’ doesn’t really encapsulate what the piece is about. It’s fine as a working title, but the name suggests the piece is entirely about things that are left over, which is a big part of it, but another big part of the piece is the idea of building on top of things and updating things, so I’ll have to think about another title.

I think the presentation went well and I think I got all of my ideas across clearly. I received some very useful feedback also, which makes me feel much better in giving me good direction.

• What I was most worried about was finding a good interview candidate, but one of the suggestions i got was that the architect doesn’t necessarily have to be someone who worked on the building itself. Which makes a lot of sense really. Even if i just got one of the Architecture people from RMIT, they would no doubt have some good knowledge on the matter, as they are aware of various updates and designs generally seen in architecture.  So I plan to get in contact with the Architecture school.
• It was also suggested that I make the collage enormous. I didn’t put too much thought into the size, i was just picturing an A3 or so thing, but since it was suggested, the idea has really excited me. It was also said in passing the idea of doing it on the big conference table in the courtroom, but as soon as it was said i thought to myself ‘wow that would be a really awesome location!’ If I can get permission to use that space for a day, I would really love to do a huge piece on that table. This would also make it interesting to see me working around the piece in wider shots, as opposed to just close ups of my hands and the work.
• It was also suggested that i don’t rely too much on the interview. While it would be a good guide to inform the collage, the collage is the main event. I could decide how much of the interview I want to include after it is recorded. It may be a lot, it may be barely anything, or it could be something more experimental such as ‘Blight‘ (1996).
• I could also look further into the block of land itself, which I do really want to do. Since my piece is about the space, not the place, learning about the block itself and the space itself would be very relevant.
• Something I was relieved to hear was not to worry about time too much. Especially for this type of project, because it is more experimental, in the editing process, the most effective way of illustrating it may be 4 minutes, but then again it may be 1 minute, or 20 seconds, or 5 hours. Its difficult to say, and personally I think a shorter piece will give me space to be more creative, and I probably wont have to rely on the interview too much. So I was happy to hear that time is flexible.

The feedback I received was all really useful and I appreciated all of their ideas. I feel they have put me on a more stable and direct path to realising this piece that’s in my head.

On Friday the 17th, I went into building 20 with my DSLR to collect some images for my piece. I had a list of images i needed to get, but most of the images I needed were from the courtrooms, which were being used for meetings. I walked around and found other images for a while, but was approached but someone came out from their office and asked whether I was staff. I explained that I had permission, but it still made me feel I was intruding. I went back to the courtroom to find the meeting was still going, but now the door was closed. It probably wasn’t because of me, it may have been, either way I decided to go back another day. Hopefully when less important things are happening and when the spaces are free.

After looking through my images, I saw the only ones I still had to collect were from the courtroom. So I went there on Tuesday the 21st in the early afternoon. Luckily the courtroom was empty and open, so I was able to quickly take the photos I needed as well as getting a good feel for the space and what was in it without disturbing anyone.

On Wednesday I spent the evening creating my mock up compositions on Photoshop. I left all the huge, high quality layers on the composition, even if they had been covered over, just so when I have to print it, I can print all of the individual layers without hunting for my required images. Of course this requires a lot of memory from Photoshop, and with each save more huge files piled up on my laptop. I had to keep watching the memory on my computer to make sure I still had enough space to save. If not, I had to close the program to restore the memory. It wasn’t too painful though, just another thing to monitor. It’s not like the program or my laptop was running slowly at all.

After making up my compositions and editing the images, I found I wasn’t happy with one image. The picture of the RMIT sign. It was on a slight angle and the light wasn’t catching it well, making the rusty, brassy plate look muddy. So on Thursday I went back and took some images of it on my iPhone. The picture looks much nicer and after putting it in Photoshop, the quality appears to hold up against the DSLR images.

So I am quite confident I have all the images I need to do the collage. From here I just need to print the Photoshop layers, gather materials, and build it. Hopefully over the next 2 weeks.

IDEA:

Visually experimental documentary, ~4 minutes.

• It will be driven by an interview with an architect/ historian, and the story will be visualised through the construction of a photo-collage.
• This idea is about exploring the physical elements of the architecture, and the development of the space. What remnants are left behind from the ghosts of the old buildings and old functions? How have we built onto it to suit our needs and uses?

SYNOPSIS:

• The piece will be directed by an interview or monologue with an architect or historian. They will recount the history of the space and the development of the architecture, as a timeline.
• The development and various transformations of the space will be visualised through the physical construction of a photo-collage. Layers of images will be built upon and ripped away to mirror the timeline. Much of the focus will be placed on the construction and destruction of the piece, rather than the images being neatly layered over each other, the story is told through the physical process.
• This will be supplemented with video footage from the interview.

WHY THIS IDEA:

• I was particularly interested in the development of the architecture. As I was researching I discovered the cedar roof in the second courtroom had been recycled from an even older building on the site; the Supreme Court. Then comparing that with the new elements that have been incorporated into the space, I saw a history of the space in the building. I want to explore those remnants, the pieces left over from prior uses, and I wanted to show the development of the space.
• In this way, my piece doesn’t focus on the place of the building, but the space it is on. What was in that space before? What will be in the space after? Are there remnants of this in the space presently? How has the space gradually developed to meet the needs of its users?

INSPIRATION:

• Inspiration came from the patchwork nature of the space’s history itself and how it mirrors the construction of a collage.
• There are many layers to the space’s history and use, and you can find the pieces that remain, like the layers of a collage showing through.

WHAT HAVE I DONE SO FAR:

• I researched the overall timeline of the building, mainly exploring specific elements (such as the cedar roofs) to investigate what aesthetic elements would be of most significance:
• 1842-3: Brick Supreme Court was built on site
• 1853: Wooden extension added to it
• 1910: Buildings demolished
• 1911: current building built
• 1914: opened by lord mayor
• 1997: RMIT bought building
• I have contacted Peter Elliott (The architect for the building) and the Old Melbourne Gaol for interview candidates, and am awaiting their decision. I thought the architect would have good insight into the elements of the building, and the Old Melbourne Gaol conducts tours within building 20, so they would probably know of a historian who has knowledge on the matter.
• I have researched the architectural history of the space, and identified the elements of the building I want to highlight. I gathered images from the State Library collection, but the majority of the images are from my own photography. I then layered them and edited the colours in Photoshop to create the main compositions. The construction will be a fluid process, but the main compositions are the Supreme Court, Magistrates Court, and as a modern RMIT Building.

PRODUCTION TIMELINE:

• Collecting material (photos): 24th April
• Composition and mock up:   24th April
• Interview subject: 27th April- 11th May (Week 8, 9)
• Filming collage construction: 4th May- 11th May (Week 9)
• Editing: 11th May- 29th May (weeks 10, 11, 12)
• Rough cut: 22nd May
• Fine cut: 29th May
• Due: 5th June

WHAT I REQUIRE:

• I can provide: DSLR, Photoshop, Printing, Physical collage materials.
• What I require: Camera (Ex3 or Z7), Tripod, Sound equipment for interview, one or two extra people for interview, Edit suites.
• Special: Access to Building 20. Ideally the interview + collage construction would take place here. This would keep the aesthetic consistent and emphasise the theme of space.

PRESENTATION SLIDES: