Despite having said that I often find learning the practicalities of filmmaking a bit dry, once I have a handle on how to operate the equipment I really enjoy exploring the creative potential of what filmmaking in itself has to offer. As I briefly touched on in my previous post, too many documentaries (at least in my opinion, for whatever that is worth) don’t capitalise on the aesthetic elements for which cinema is more commonly known. And again, as already discussed, it’s the possibility of going beyond this as a filmmaker that drew me to the course.
In line with this, I’ve loved how open-ended the class tasks have been in allowing you to collect the footage that meets the conditions that you yourself set and that are in line with what you wish to communicate. Having been allotted time to do so while at the RMIT campus poses a few problems for me, however.
Firstly, I don’t personally find the campus itself (or the immediate surroundings) visually appealing, nor did I easily find space in which I was able to capture a desired soundscape. The city is harsh and sometimes aggressive, yet, it’s because of this that finding those moments of solitude or hiatus seem all the much more significant and worthy of capturing. I tried to communicate this in the collection of footage so far, mainly being video of various trees and plants in context with their surrounding environment. If I were to further communicate this concept of finding solitude amongst disarray, I would contrast city sound scape to make this connection clear.
I also found that time slot provided (which I understand can only be helped so much) set another challenge against being able to produce the desired outcome. From this post onwards I’m endeavouring (and ensuring) that I devote the necessary time to grapple with and explore these ideas, hopefully improving the final outcome every single time.
