In this week’s tutorial we are looking into the archival and found footages and how to use them in different meanings. Before this week’s study I was not very aware of the concept of archival and found footages, and my understanding of using them was only to present as the resources, however after watching the different works I’ve learned a lot and got some inspirations of them. In Beautiful World (1981), the archival footage is used so properly to present the lyrics of the ‘beautiful world’ at the film’s first half part, however the other parts are presented in a very ironic way, in which the violence is standing the opposite to the ‘beautiful world’. As I mentioned in the previous post, I wanted to explore more on the concept of irony and now I think I can get some inspirations of that, which is the voiceover or text against the content of footage to express a feeling. Moreover Phantom Limb (2006) also inspires me. I really love the way that it uses the found footage of building collapses to metaphorise the collapse of a character’s emotion. Also the film’s structure is good as well, the first part tells the story, the second part goes deeper in presenting the emotion and makes the whole story more complete. Furthermore, Best Of Luck With The Wall (2017) shows the power of showing rather than telling, the true footage gives the intuitive feeling for the audience, I think I would like to steal this idea for my future work.
For my work this week I make it as a presentation of my rough idea for the final work which is a contemplation documentary with irony. The structure of my film is imitating Phantom Limb (2006), which I make the first part to narrate the benefits human take from the water with some archival & found footage, and the second part I use the found and archive footages of water pollution, in this way to narrate what water brings us and how we treat water. Additionally, I add a few texts in the film to tell what benefits water gives us in the both two parts. For the first part the texts and the footages match literally, however the second part the texts against the content of footages (water pollution), thus in this way to create a ironic feeling and to make audience to consider and interconnect their emotions about the water — we get a lot of benefits in the water, and we do not protect the water but harm water. The texts are only occupied a little part in the film in order to attract the audience more focus on the footage to get the intuitive feelings, also the long shots give a peaceful feeling to make the audience think better.
To reflect my work this week, I think it’s more like a rough cut version of my final work which involves my idea for the final project (contemplation documentary with irony), however I think I could still explore more concepts, unique concepts or angles to reflect my idea of the environment. Moreover, just like Kleon and Ebrary (2012) addressed: Your job is to collect good ideas, I would like to view more other artists’ work to get some inspirations as well, which to “steal” their ways to go deeper in presenting emotions and feelings (I think I really need to improve this part).
Beautiful World. 1981. [MV]. Directed by Devo
Best Of Luck With The Wall. 2017. [film]. Directed by Josh Begley
Phantom Limb. 2006. [film]. Directed by Jay Rosenblatt
Kleon, A., & Ebrary, Inc. (2012). Steal like an artist 10 things nobody told you about being creative. New York: Workman Pub.