project brief 2 reflection
Posted on March 23, 2017
project brief 2 reflection
I was never a fan of creating portraits of myself, mainly because I am in a constant state of change and moods that it’s difficult to pin down a definite moment of my life that is “me”. Along with the project’s requirements, I wanted to find a way to creatively incorporate these requirements whilst showing my audience who I really am. I figured that the still photographs would act like full stops in my sequence, so I decided to take four photographs of a few things that define the current Tessa of March 2017. To fill the gaps in between each photograph, I figured I should just be honest with how I approached this project which was literally grabbing my camera and walking around my house to find whatever holds a connection with me.
The sequence turned out more “cheesy” than I wished, this is probably from the fact that I put probably one of the most cheesiest songs as the soundtrack: Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling in Love. I also wasn’t very happy with how the sequence only communicated a small surface of who I really am. Yes, there were limitations with time, but I believe that if I am to become a successful artist, I will be able to communicate any message no matter the challenge and limitations. From Cal Newport’s “Clarity of the Craftsman,” I thoroughly agreed with his separation of the craftsmen mindset to the passion mindset and how it is better to approach a job or task by wanting to offer something to the world rather than have the world offer something to you. I have made a few short films already that I always find imperfections, but even if just one individual tells me that my film impacted them, then I am happy with my work.
In saying so, creating a self portrait sequence was very hard for me to think in a craftsmen mindset. The topic was about me, and I didn’t know how this would impact others. Thus, I was stuck in a passion mindset where I just picked out the flaws in myself as well as this self portrait. I do think I was successful in showing a little window into my life, but I honestly wish I could’ve figured out another way to approach this task.