During my time experimenting with my final project I experienced large obstacles that would not be an issue if using only new media concepts and principles. However, objective to this opinion I have gained insight into many different ways of using creativity and thinking that I would have never previously explored. I noticed that my connection with my creative process automatically become more prominent when challenging myself to use old media platforms, this is for various purposes and reasons we have explored throughout this semester. Individually I find a strong connection to older media equipment and styles because it demands such a strong thought process. When exploring a larger thought process for a long amount of time I begin to think more in depth about the work I am producing and how I want to communicate that with myself and whatever my targeted audience may be. Without this process I believe this is where a cause for my lack of creativity can occasionally come into play and I do not produce what I would consider my highest standard of work. Exploration plays a large role in this long process and requires you to think deeply and communicate with the devices and surroundings you have to use. As an example of this different way of thinking and communicating I have chosen to write the introduction of this reflective piece with only pen and paper, this is solely to create a boundary between myself, computer screen and keyboard. This along with many other forms of communication and media that I have been exploring becomes a much larger question in my mind and the sizeable question commonly asked throughout the semester: Is old media better then new media? The comparisons are vast and questionable due to such a broad variety of equipment, utensils and media platforms available. Drawing my own conclusion from these questionable methods I have concluded the presented theory. Old media and new media are both prominent denominators for my creativity and growth within this industry.
As I have underlined my process of this project in previous blog posts/reflective pieces I will now go into more detail about the challenges and experiences that arose during this project. When selecting different media methods from the beginning of this project I was excited with the ideas and philosophies I presented myself with. After selecting these, I knew I could have possibly given myself an overload of work that would require a lot of effort when trying to finalise my other projects for other classes I am finishing this semester. That being said, this project is what I considered to be the most creative and wanted to put in as much effort as I could into an overall production of a music video made up of small components of old media. I will display my final reflections below in sections of tasks I undertook.
Script on typewriter: When writing the script on the typewriter I started with a basic treatment. I had a location picked and organised and had brief contact with some actors. The hardest part of this process was the use of the backspace button. I think that it would be easier to handwrite a script, this way you are only using pen ink and paper, and not wasting valuable typewriter ribbon and time. The time it took was what was one of the hardest obstacles. I’ve only ever used a typewriter for creative pieces before that were extremely simple and well planned out. Trying to type at a fast pace and keep to the rhythm of your thoughts with a typewriter is a obstacle within itself, I ended up confusing myself a lot, using the typewriter a lot and using a lot of typewriter ink and paper.
The music for the video: The process of trying to engage with somebody who is writing a piece of music for you becomes difficult when you are challenged with lack of communication. In the beginning, the communication between Louis and I was a difficult obstacle to overcome. I don’t think I connected or explained correctly to him exactly what I was hoping to hear. He produced a song for me that I really did not think fitted the aesthetic of the video I was producing; however, this was entirely my fault as I did not sit down with him professionally. After making a time to sit down with Louis and take a professional approach to the project he was involved in, things became much easier. I showed Louis examples of what kind of the genre and feel I was hoping to portray, along with images that went with the aesthetics of the video and jotted down different words that would also match the feel of the music. After working with him and his enthusiasm to help me, what was produced was something we were both very pleased with.
The music video/production process: The hardest part about producing the music video was having an actor who agreed to show up on the day cancel last minute. This caused me another ordeal with using the typewriter to adjust the script. Fortunately, I had secured an exceptionally good location aesthetically that really had a great old feel about it that fitted perfectly with the music created. This meant for most of the video we were just shooting random objects. This however was okay because I wanted to focus a lot on the music produced and how it fitted nicely with the aesthetics chosen, along with my own prop of the static TV, which was worked very hard on, which I wanted to make a prominent figure in the video. Luckily enough the location had an old piano we were able to experiment with, that tied in with old media. And thankfully we had the of Louis’ guitar that he made the music on which gave us an opportunity to film parts of the guitar.
Overall this was a very challenging process that I learnt a lot from. I am fortunate that I could learn so much about old and new media and will continue to use these different mediums in all projects I undertake in the future. I am satisfied with the outcome of my project and the many things I learnt during all project briefs that lead up to this final one.
