MAKE THE BED

While I would have loved to reflect on a slightly more interesting exercise like ‘Lenny’, rather than ‘Make The Bed’, my practice in syncing audio and video didn’t go so well, hence ‘Lenny’ still exists as a choppy piece of art with non-existing audio. However, ‘Make The Bed’ turned out to be a more critical learning experience than I anticipated.

Overall, I was happy with the outcome of ‘Make The Bed’, and not just because the exercise came around the same time I needed to wash all of my bedding. In the end, six shots made it into the cut, though I filmed a lot more than six and took about an hour to get it all recorded. If I learnt anything, it’s that I took far too long stressing over what the shots would look like, and spending too much time there when I could have put more time and effort into the edit.

While I do like the video and am happy with the shots that resulted, I wish I had thought out the pacing the edit slightly more. When I watch it back, I’m overwhelmed by a sense that I’m rushing, and in 40 seconds there is so much happening really quickly. Generally, when I make my bed in the morning it’s a slow, relaxing activity that is normally done quite leisurely – nothing is really upbeat or exciting about it. I don’t really believe my edit of ‘Make The Bed’ reflects that, I’m almost stressed out by the whole thing.

If I were to repeat this exercise, I would have filmed with a more serene mindset, hopefully achieving much more calm shots to match the mood of the piece that I’m imagining in my mind. I would have also put less shots into the sequence, making use of the 40 seconds with longer, more purposeful clips.