On Monday, Lydia, Penelope and I began toying with the footage I had shot. They were both pleased with it and I think having it helped to keep us all on the same page. Robin came in to check out our progress so far and noted that although the footage was perfectly exposed, the shot was not level, which is made apparent by the skewed poster behind Max. I hadn’t even noticed this until he pointed it out, which surprised me because I’m usually very conscious of that sort of thing when shooting. Reflecting on the actual shoot, however, I was so engaged in what Max was doing and how he appeared that I failed to even consider the background. Robin pointing it out has made me realise that it is really important to avoid these things if possible because people will pick up on them and be bothered by them, which will detract from what’s important in the shot. This will be at the forefront of my mind as I shoot other subjects.

We caught up again on Wednesday to record another conversation, this time aiming to capture something useable and, more importantly, actually capture something. Fortunately we did successfully record the conversation and it was our most lucid yet. It felt as though the topic was clearly and collectively understood. We articulated what we had gathered so far from our collective and independent rumination on the subject, including the different times and places that prompt these moments of flow and engagement with the present for each of us. I think most importantly for my own understanding was Penelope’s point that a lot of people including herself feel most able to slip into this mindset when hanging out with friends. Up until that point I had only properly considered how people can achieve this state on their own, engrossed in some sort of activity.

We are now setting out to shoot new subjects: Penelope will be filming her baby cousins, Lydia will obtain footage of and an interview with her dad and I will aim to film my friend Katherine, who is an extremely talented visual artist and is completing a painting as part of her own uni assessment so to film her would be ideal. The process of making this film has been the most group rumination I think I’ve ever experienced for a university assessment and possibly any film I’ve ever been involved in making. I hope that our newfound lucidity translates well to the edit we string together.