When editing my piece I wanted to capture the essence of a metropolitan environment and the daily commute for city civilian’s. Melbourne’s trains are particularly cosmopolitan in appearance. They create a structured and manufactured surrounding that contributes to the urban setting. I also wanted to deal with my fascination with reflection.
reflection
rɪˈflɛkʃ(ə)n/Submit
noun
1.
the throwing back by a body or surface of light, heat, or sound without absorbing it.
“the reflection of light”
The most notable part of my train journey are the sections where you can see the train reflected on buildings and windows as you pass by. It is interesting to see this vestal you are travelling in without being able to see your face onboard. You are observing the scenes but your view of the outside world is shattered as you are reminded of your place within it. You transition from observer to the realisation that you are contributing to the environment and overall structure of the city. The city is full of movement and you are a part of the cogs that twist and turn in different directions but begin and end in the same place. This reflects our daily routine, waking up, going about your day and returning home at the end. The layering of movement of trains in my editing was done to highlight this multi faceted nature of the city.

Sound – My sound is very unresolved and will need to be re shot and edited. Originally I intended to connect my sound to the visuals of the train. I edited sounds such as the train tracks, These are all sounds people uniquely identify with their experience on public transport. I wanted to sum up the audio experience of a train journey. I wanted the audience to be able to identify each sound and relate to their own experiences. To highlight the mundane sounds we take for granted that blur in to the business of our every day life and dont stand out or make an impact but collectively evoke a sense of association between a certain time and place. When edited together the piece sounded too much like a insignificant snippet of a train trip. I then attempted to warp the sounds to have reverb and different tempos. I experimented with cutting sounds and repeating them in order to form a beat. I slowed down and sped up the clips but they didn’t come together cohesively. They sounded too disjointed and and didnt flow from one segment to another. I need it to sound unified and not like an experimental audio edit .

Nostalgia – This Mad Med episode discusses the relationship between the old and the new. The happy/sad feeling that spurs inside you when you recollect memories from the past. Nostalgia is stronger then a memory, its difficult to describe, its an association we have with a particular time and place that conjures up a sense of sentimentality. “In Greek nostalgia literally means pain from an old wound” “its a twinge in your heart, far more powerful then memory alone”. It grows stronger with time, age and distance. As the gap widens between the event and the present the ties become tighter and immerse themselves deeper and deeper within our hearts. The further we travel from the actual event the more we ache to return there and the less likely we will ever be able to recreate that occasion. Nostalgia draws a line between familiarity and the unknown. Its a time in our past but can often feel so far removed from our currant state that it almost feels like a stranger.

I have settled on the idea of journeys. I want to focus on the views out of a train window and how that can represent a metaphoric journey, you depart from one place, arrive at another and have a very internalised and personal thought process in between. A train trip can be a good opportunity for an individual to get some piece and quiet, absorb their surroundings and enter a space of deep thought and contemplation. Trains can also be metaphoric of memory or dreams. They can be a nostalgic experience where we recollect our past. The flashing images of trees, houses and fences can blur into snap shots of our own lives. Our thoughts flicker from past to present, to future and back again.

“Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site” – A quote from Sherrl Duskey Rlnker`s childrens book “Steam Train, Dream Train”. The story follows a night time cargo train that makes a series of pit stops along its journey. At each stop a new carriage is added to the train, each is loaded by a different species of animal. The animals load material that is suited to their qualities e.g polar bears and ice-cream, rabbits and pogo sticks. I like the dreamtime and surreal aspects of this story. I love the “midnight” element and the emotions it evokes. Focusing on midnight can create a sense of peacefulness and calmness but also uncertainty in the stillness quietness that is present whilst you are awake but everyone else sleeps. I think the billowing smoke depicted in the cover of the steam train mirrors the shapes and colours of clouds. I think the shape and form of a train is a suitable subject to focus on at Signal because, the wide shape of the screen will be complementary to the length of the train. I could try to incorporate some ‘childhood dream’ elements in my piece, similar to the use of animals within this story.

Amy Holdsworths reading deals with the effects of television and technologies on memory and nostalgia. She questions the difference between “what we know” and “how we remember it”. Nostalgia can often play a part in warping or altering our memories. The older we get, the more life experiences we obtain, therefore we generally become more nostalgic. Our memories and associations between certain sights, sounds and smells begin to form links and create strong connecting emotions. As the gaps in time grow with age we tend to look at the past in more of a haze. Our memories develop a film as we look through a brighter, shiner lens that leaves us with a sense of fondness as we reminisce about “the good old days”. As a traveller on public transport you are given time and stillness to look out the window and ponder your thoughts. A driver is required to maintain constant awareness as they are actively participating in the task of driving. On the train our thought process is mirrored by the views we see out the window. Our thoughts flicker from one time and place to another just like the flickering and flashing trees, telephone posts and houses. We are then snapped back into reality by the sound of the doors opening and closing, Myki inspectors checking tickets or other passengers having overly loud conversations.

TELEVISION, MEMORY AND NOSTALGIA
Amy Holdsworth Print Pub Date: August 2011 Online Date: October 2011
Media & Culture Collection 2012, Series: Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies

Today we broke off into groups for our signal project. I have taken on the responsibility of project manager with Nicolette.
Job description:
Overseeing the main events, (Signal and RMIT studio exhibition.)
Contacting specific groups to check progress.
Dividing up roles and delegating tasks
Ensuring everyone is clear of their tasks
Keeping a document that is accessible by everyone to access important information, technical requirements, preparation and instillation dates and deadlines e.c.t

Scenes to capture on the train:
City night lights
Lights reflecting on river
Nepean highway
Bridges between Southern Cross and Flinders St
Other passing trains
Brighton Beach
Richmond buildings with reflective windows
Richmond scaffolding, studio buildings, architecture
Graffiti

Technical considerations:
I have been having difficulty with filming out of the train window to capture the correct angle and compose the shot how I want. I want to be able to capture the experience a passenger has on a train by shooting a POV shot. Initially I imagined the footage would be framed by the window frame but in order to do that I would have to film the window on an angle. This was not technically possible especially with filming at nighttime. The contrast in light from the dark surroundings and bright interior of the train meant that the recording was only capturing the reflection of the interior of the train rather then the external environment. I had to film parallel to the window with the camera pressed right against the glass which is limiting when trying to capture the full scope of the perspective of a passenger. Other considerations were the scratches on the glass that obstructed the camera. Also other passengers on the train who can take seats and obstruct shots.

Thought progression for the signal project:
Horizons
Elements
Water, Earth, Air, Fire, Clouds
Landscape
Panning shot
Tracking shot
Following outside a train window
POV
Windows moving around the parameter of the building
Windows as transition
Connecting the experience
Making relations between a person standing in the city and their experience within transport
Juxtapose experience in open and closed environment
Progression
Progression of clouds passing by
Time lapse
Time passing
Transport
Scenes from different modes of transport
Train
Tram
Car
Bike
Skateboard
Boat
Bus
Journey
(Reel time, slow down, sped up, flashes of blank for audience to insert own images and interpretations)
(Departure, reel time, sped up with black flashes, arriving at destination)

I also thought of creating a dimensional piece that is one big image split into lots of smaller ones. I would want it to experiment with perspective so the image can only be viewed as a whole when you stand in one particular spot and look at it from one particular angle. The further away you move the more the image would become warped and irregular and when you return to the viewing spot it would gradually come together as a single, unified image.

Today was my first class at signal. We gathered in the room upstairs and piled round tabled of textas and butcher paper. The environment was very conducing to creative thinking. The room had windows on 3 of its 4 walls that looked out to the CBD. Being placed right in the centre of everything we had a almost 360 view from the very heart of Melbourne. On one side there was the train line with train tracks, wires, metro pedestrian trains and large trains carting shipping containers. It was interesting to look at the juxtaposition of nature (trees, river and birds) and man made things (sky rises, bridges and boats). Another thing that I found interesting was projecting the elements onto the windows (fire, water, earth, air, clouds). Another idea that intrigued me was playing on the windows as windows or mirrors. Exploring how people look a their reflections, moments of privacy when we think no one is watching. Using each window as a window was another idea. Having them framed with curtains or blinds that are peeled back to reveal the lives of the people inside, like the windows in a sky scraper, each window tells a different story, they can each give an insight to different cultures or ways of life. Looking at movement or zoom was another thing that interested me. Starting with a single image of something on a large scale e.g a forrest, then break into 2 images of something closer e.g a tree, 4 images of a branch, 8 images of a leaf, 16 images of an ant on a leaf, 34 of microscopic cells of a leaf skeleton, giving the effect of a zoom. Light and illumination was another idea thrown around, or different skylines and horizons e.g city, clouds, beach, desert.

In todays class we watched everyone’s artist interviews and received feedback and critique. I think our video could have incorporated some of the background music and sound that other groups had to give the piece an extra layer and engage the audiences a bit more. Another audio difficulty we had was with the quality of our sound. I tried to reduce background noise to make it cleaner and crisper but this slightly warped Marcus` voice. Joseph and Robbie said that if this was exaggerated and amplified it would have made sense in the context of Marcus` work because he experiments and warps sound and radio frequencies. Because it wasn’t enhanced enough and wasn’t intentional it didn’t work in context of the piece and wouldn’t be obvious of evident to the audience. We were also told there was a lack of externally sourced information and other visual mediums to provide the audience with more to look at then 1 artist talking. As a group we were aware of this in advance due to the lack of information available online with examples of Marcus` work. The final piece was clunky and there were some unrefined cuts between shots. Upon watching the piece on a big screen I thought that some of the shots were held for too long, for example the shots of the hand gestures. We had tried to use these in place of the actual artistic work to give the audience more to look at but it was extended for too long. Another criticism we received was that the juxtaposing shots weren’t clearly related and that because of the change in angle and lighting it almost seemed like a different shot filmed on a separate occasion. I am glad that the piece seemed to communicate one overall idea. I was worried that the cutting of Marcus` statements would mean they were taken out of context and weren’t coherent but the audience seemed to understand his overarching ideas about his artwork, in particular his sensory pieces at Testing Grounds.