Below are a collection of thoughts that I had after an epiphany, of sorts, that a change in direction for my project was necessary. While I ordinarily position my thoughts in full sentences, occasionally, I think it’s worthwhile to put pen to paper seemingly scattered ideas, then to go back and connect the dots.
- Intention – to shift focus of final project from fiction to documentary format
- While I initially wanted to base my project (or final film excerpt) on a fiction piece, I found it was too difficult to escape cliches in terms of a character or story plot on which I could base this
- Therefore decided it would be more interesting to address overarching theme via documentary genre
- Perhaps a talent could be a second or third generation Australian-Chinese Buddhist that has found solace in their religion and this particular place of worship
- Leads to questions like, in an increasingly secular world and city, in particular – what is it about this space (ie. the temple) that is so significant for them?
- How do they reconcile the confines of this space, it’s surrounding and what they, in isolation – and together – represent?
- I have a fair bit of research to do, a talent to find, a narrative to create and skills to practice
- I do feel as though this change in direction has provided me with greater focus and intention
- I do love the documentary format, intend on pursuing this in the immediate and distant future and therefore think it is the angle from which I would like to approach determining how to capture a space and the story said space has to tell
- Thus, the space will really be the main subject, the “talent” creating the narrative via which we can interpret and understand said space and its place within a larger context
UPDATE: since initially writing these changes, I’ve made progress in facilitating contact with potential subjects and am in the midst of locking in these subjects in for a recording time. As well as this, I am starting to conduct in-depth research in regards to the content of my project, as well as investigating the variance of ways in which an individual’s story can be explored, understood and represented.
