This week was d-day (that’s due-day in uni speak) for project brief three, the spoken and written proposal for our project brief four. The constraints for project brief four are pretty wide; we just have to create some sort of media product that explores a concept relating to the frame that we’ve discussed in class.

Thursday we had the chance to watch each other’s presentations. There were some really interesting concepts being explored, most of which seemed to be inspired by students’ work and research for project brief two, the essay. (Not judging, by the way, because that’s exactly what I did.)

For example, a lot of students who had chosen to discuss colour and Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love in their essay seemed to want to explore colour. And by a lot, I mean a lot. But that’s okay, because they were all really unique and interesting. For example, Jerome decided to look at the impact of colour on emotion by creating a series of shots in which the action was the same but the colour was different. Jeremy similarly intends to look at colour, but, inspired by Shaun of the Dead, wants to use colour to link thematic elements of the frame.

Others were exploring different aspects of the frame. For example, Sandy wanted to explore the importance of frame rates, looking at films such as Mad Max and The Hobbit. Daniel wanted to look at video quality as well, adopting the style of Park Chang-kyong’s Night Fishing and using his iPhone to create a film.

As for mine, as I said, I was also inspired by my essay, and focused on what I’d learnt about the similarities between cinematic and visual art. It occurred to me that the way most theorists characterised these similarities was as limitations, so I decided to see if I could break down these limitations through re-conceptualising the frame. I don’t want to say too much yet; I’ve already done some filming so I’ll upload a post next week reviewing the shoot.

I know it’s a little bit of a short post today, but that’s because I’ve had a very dramatic day on my first RMITv set as First Assistant Director. Let’s just say that if you got evacuated from building 80 today for a fire, well . . . we may have had something to do with it.