Rocking up late is a horrible habit, however, today it was simply due to the fact of working late and sleeping in. Despite unfortunately missing a review of my own work, I was able to review a few of my other class members today. I always find the viewing process really interesting, because up until that point, you really have no idea of what other people are up to in their creative pursuits. Overall I was super intrigued by how each person tackled the task. Although there were clear similarities between each person’s work, there were many aspects that stood out to me. I thought the way close-ups and archival footage was used to be really interesting. Although I think archival footage shouldn’t be used too often, it was something I didn’t even consider for this project. After seeing some works using it, I saw the potential of it to be used in creative ways to tell a story or express an idea in this course. Likewise, I thought the use of close-ups was an interesting way to focus on the item. I liked videos that used extreme close-ups in a way that left the item entirely as an abstraction. A level of abstraction is something I think is needed in this course. Without abstraction, the relationship becomes too literal and doesn’t leave enough room for the audience to think about different things.
In terms of learning from my own experience in this first project, I thought I gained a lot from Adrian’s feedback from each video. Two of the main things I gained from his feedback were the ideas of focusing on video as material and thinking about how the constraints of the camera can be used to your advantage. These two points are similar and focus on the way the camera and video are used purposefully. Given the specific nature of the relationships we are trying to document, it is necessary that we leave out elements that serve no purpose to the overall video. Likewise, although I thought a little about framing, in hindsight, it was a little rushed and my composition is something I will be focussing on in the weeks to come.
If I were to give feedback to my own work it would be centred on variation. I think it would have been interesting to have a more varied palate of material for the video to form around. By having more variety, more relationships can be explored and there is more potential for meaning to be generated from the material.
Overall, this class was an interesting way to see the direction of where this course is heading and how other class members are interpreting all the information in the studio.
