Another clip (or rather clips) we watched in class this week that I really got a lot out of was ‘Powers’. In this case we were provided with two versions of the same film, one seemingly made as a sort of proof of concept and the other being the apparent final product. Interestingly though, and as much of the class including Robin seemed to agree with, I actually found the preliminary version to be far more interesting somehow. It’s hard to explain exactly why this is – I think it’s probably a bit of everything compounding together really. For me the first version already works so well, to the point that it’s almost as if the more refined alternative becomes somewhat redundant. Further than that though, I think there’s something to be said about the sort of lofi quality of the original and the way in which it makes the film somewhat more idiosyncratic. The original almost feels like the sort of ancient video you would stumble upon randomly during a YouTube binge and probably really enjoy, whereas the second version feels kind of dated despite looking more modern – maybe it’s the fact that its presentation is akin to something I might have been shown in a primary school science class.
Despite all these comparisons and discussion over which version is better though, I think the real lesson I took away from watching these two alternate versions of the same idea, was really that having a smaller budget and fewer resources should not be seen as a limitation on creativity – in fact as I think these videos show, sometimes when you have more limitations you are forced to be more creative to work around them. This of course is especially relevant in the present, as it’s perhaps one of the more difficult times right now to be attempting to make any kind of film. But looking at the original version of this film is almost inspiring to me in a way, and it’s also somewhat of a wakeup call – because what it proves is that we shouldn’t be looking at the limitations imposed on us at the moment as a restriction on creativity, as in actual fact it’s very likely that the films we’re going to make for this final assignment could not, or at the very least would not have been made the same way were these restrictions not in place, therefore resulting in what I hope will be some very individualistic pieces of work.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kFHxP3LfZ0iH3EGiv6HFur3090ba16mz/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zpm-tk7E8tpsrOCdi33ADHpIb9N4jAK0/view?usp=sharing