LINK TO VIDEO / MANIFESTO:
LINK TO EXQUISITE CORPSE EXERCISE:
MATTHEW MIHAILIDIS
My 3 positioning statements:
- Who determines what is and what is not a canonical film?
- Should ethics, morality and our personal beliefs on the world be considered when constructing film canon?
- Should innovative and influential films be granted greater importance in our film canon
Personal Reflection:
Everyone had a part to play in the manifesto which was great to see. I worked collaboratively with my other group members to come up with our questions and brainstorm ideas, and when it came to the actual filming of the video I answered all the questions while the other group members answered just a few each. Thankfully, everyone contributed in some way, with Max and Tom working on the script and Anna editing the video, it was really quite refreshing to have a group that was equally balanced. I certainly walked away from this assignment with a greater respect for manifestos and their creation. I now know how hard it is to put one together, and looking back at the ones provided throughout the course, they now seem so impressive with the range of ideas and content that is packed into them. I am also appreciative of my group and the work we did together. It’s not often that you get a team that works equally hard at something, as there is usually some people slacking off. This wasn’t the case with this assignment and I will always remember that fondly.
TOM DEIGHTON
My 3 positioning statements:
1. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but this does not form fact therefore forming favourites are completely individualised
2. Film canon has been repeating the same joke to the crowd for far too long, it is becoming irrelevant. Move with the times…
3. Word association… Toy Story: ‘Classic’… if film canon is all about classics, then this must be in the conversation, right?
Personal reflection:
In the first few weeks we started coming up with the ideas for our manifesto, our group was never able to make the same classes as each other. We ended up working it out and delegating roles. My role early on was to take notes of what was suggested to us and keep a document of what we had already got. Once we got the chance to all be in a class together, I was able to let the boys know what we were thinking and they did a great job in furthering these ideas. Max and I worked well together coming up with a script for the piece which then allowed us to all answer questions we had formed. In the end we all worked hard on this manifesto and submitted an interesting visual.
MAX PASPA
My 3 positioning statements:
- A film does not need a message to tell a story
- A film can be both controversial and great
- A films greatness cannot be measured by a minority but only by a majority
Personal reflection:
Looking back on our work on our manifesto everyone slotted into different roles easily which made everything move along smoothly. I mainly focused on creating the text to speech script for the canon incarnate, by including the titles of famous canonical films into its vocabulary along with a narcissistic tone I think we really created an eerie character. During the brainstorming phase we all played a role in coming up with the different core questions that we wanted our manifesto to answer and how we wanted to present them. I really enjoyed working on this project as it was fun to produce something that I had never made before or even thought I would ever make; I think after working on one my view on manifestos has shifted greatly. It was also satisfying to finally have a go at ‘tearing down’ the canon after all those weeks of only talking about doing it.
ANNA WANG
My 3 positioning statements:
- Art could be abstract, but it cannot be fully lacking in technical skills
- It can be anything and okay if it hurts, art doesn’t need to be politically correct!
- Art must not change because of profit
Personal reflection:
In our final work we have created canon as a character and all our members have been trapped in a cinema. We had a conversation with him, sharing our ideas about if canon can be determined or not? After this final piece, I felt its really important to respect other people’s perspectives. At the same time, we should always preserve in our own art. We don’t need to follow others. Everyone is different. But canon also contains many subjective views. However, as an audience, we should always have standards. The meaning of the movie should not be profit.