Translating Observation | Reflection 11 – Final Thoughts | Noah Hodgson

Translating Observation has been for me, a class with a great deal of eb and flow. As the semester has stretched on, its purpose and thereby the intent of the work I’ve put out (particularly in regards to the practical work) has shifted significantly from where I had originally thought the class was headed. In many ways I think the concept for my final assignment is a considerable deviation from the original studio prompt of using our observational writing as the basis for practical filmmaking. However, despite my final video piece having no direct ties to any of my observations, it was no less informed by their existence. As such, the answer to the question of ‘have I been successful in exploring the idea of using observational writing as a basis for a personal film project?’ is not clear-cut. Looking at it objectively, sure my final film is not a visual interpretation of an observation I wrote, but it certainly would not exist as it does had I not been writing and observing my surroundings every few days. Which brings me to the side benefits of observational writing, which has been for me a certain degree of enhanced mindfulness, coincidentally the central theme of my final film piece for this class. I think that through the process of constantly looking deeper into my surroundings in search of inspiration for observations everywhere I go for the last few months, has meant that I’ve de facto needed to be more present, more regularly than I was used to – and it is from this headspace that my final film was formed. Mid way through the semester I had thought my final video piece was going to be some kind of visual recording of the lockdown (empty streets and such), or at the very least a more literal translation of one or more of my observations regarding the things I’ve noticed in my environment through the lockdown period. Instead what I’ve ended up with is not a direct documentation of lockdown and the effects of it on myself and the spaces I inhabit, but rather a response to them. So no, my film isn’t directly linked to my observational writing. What it is thought is the culmination of the journey this class has sent me on – I think that the process of doing all this writing and experimentation with film form has caused a genuine shift in my outlook towards the positive, and to me that can only be a good thing.