ACTION EXERCISE

Isn’t it always the way that what seems so simple, turns out to be brain-wracking and intense. Our first homework exercise as part of ‘Box’ was to pre-produce and film for a thirty second sequence, with ourselves as the main actor performing one simple action. One of the prompts was that this didn’t need to be interesting, however, it needed to be thoughtful and well made. Yet, I think I got these switched and ended up filming an action that could have been much more uncomplicated but produced at a higher quality.

I struggled with the same sort of thing I did with ‘Make The Bed’, and I thought an action piece involving me turning my fairy lights on and off would be fun and visually engaging, but I think the edit turned out a little more sloppy and a little less magical than I had hoped. Ultimately, if I were to do it again, I would have done something much more straightforward like sitting in a chair or brushing my teeth. I believe if I had done this I would have been able to focus more on the edit than getting wrapped up in how pretty the shot was. I also didn’t spend any time on correcting exposure or anything, most likely because I don’t know how to do this – but it is going to be necessary at some point.

However, at the end of the day, my final action piece is still important to me as I think it represents my reluctantly to let go of aesthetics and embrace the somewhat technical side this studio presents. My aim this semester, taking into account what I have already produced, is to forget a little bit about my perfectionist/‘arty’ side when it comes to pre-production, as I’m used to spending hours fretting over what I’m going to create. I also want to learn a lot more about the technical side of editing, hoping that it will help me in the long run.