Brief #2 has proven to be quite a challenging brief for me, particularly when testing my time-management skills and organisational skills. I began to find this brief quite tedious as I had to repeat the same process 3 separate times after two of my artists failed to reply to me regarding my project. It was hard to not take the lack of response personally, and I became disheartened, particularly because other people in my group (Serena, Fiona and Dusty) had received responses and were able to plan the next stage of their artist profile.

After hearing nothing from my second artist, Simone Slee, I was left to try and pursue an artist I had been in contact with for the past year. Thankfully, Robbie Rowlands agreed to participate in my project and I was able to, finally, move on the the planning of the next stage of my documentary.  After Robbie gave me the all clear, I met up with him at the Abbotsford convent in order to help him film a piece for the Fringe Furniture Festival. After speaking with Robbie, I was able to give him a gauge as to what my documentary would be about, and his gallerist informed me that there is a stack of archival footage of Robbie’s previous shows/exhibitions.

In this reflective post, I do not want to dwell on the negatives experiences, and am choosing to focus on the positive experiences. Due to previously knowing Robbie and being familiar with his work, much of my immediate research had been fulfilled automatically. There is also an extra level of comfort, and not having to worry about awkward introductions and thinking of conversation. Although I began this assignment with a slight delay, I have found that I have covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

My plan, now, is to create a short documentary on the site specific nature of Robbie Rowlands’ work. It will primarily focus on the work of Robbie, but the knowledge he provides will be applicable to other practices that are site-specific in nature. I aim to complete the documentary in 3-4 shoots and am planning on using my Canon 6D for visual footage and a radio-mic for sound. I have chosen the 6D because I am quite comfortable shooting with it, my artist’s pieces are all quite large and the footage generally looks beautiful. I am planning on shooting over the next 3 weeks and editing in between them.

I must also reflect on the collaborative qualities of this brief. The fact that we have been put in groups in order to complete this assignment is perfect in theory. However, when put into practice, it seems to fail. I firmly believe that collaboration is a quintessential skill in order to work in the media industry but, when placed into a group with 3 other people in order to film 4 artists, it seems rather hopeless. Not to seem pessimistic, but the chance that 4 students and 1 artist are going to be able to find a communal time in order to conduct a lengthy shoot seems rather small.

That being said, I am letting my group know when I’m filming, however, I am not changing my schedule for anybody. I have been catching up all semester and I simply don’t function well when stressed out.