CINEMA, AUDIENCE & REALITY EXHIBIT
I hope that our final work will allow our audience to gain insight on what this studio represents. What I’ve gathered about Phantom Studio is how important it is to preserve cinema, and I don’t mean the films itself, I mean the place and environment in which we view these films. Through our exhibition, we hope that this message is clear. After our experience at the studio exhibition, I was happy to see that our work did get a lot of attraction. I think that is because they felt moved by watching Karl, Liam and Matt’s video. I think it was excellent and better than I anticipated. I noticed that a lot of the older audience were much more engaged with our work and I have a feeling it’s because they can relate more since they have more experience compared to the younger people that were at the studio exhibit. When I was explaining our work, I was looking at the audience and I noticed that most people that stuck around longer once I finished my speech were definitely all the older folks. All in all, we hope that they can see and understand what we were trying to portray. It is a very relatable subject and personal to those who love cinema and have been influenced by it their whole lives.
What I could improve on our final work is the props. I think I did a very choppy job, especially in the adulthood set. That was because my Temu order failed to come on time and so, on the very last night before the exhibition I had to make everything from scratch, using hot glue, cardboard and paint. It doesn’t look like how I intended it to, disappointingly. What I would do differently is order things ahead of time. Even though my package got delayed and that is something I cannot control, it’s best to be more organised and ahead of everything, in case such delays occur.
In this studio, I learnt how important it is to keep track of all your documents when working on a big project. These documents include reflections, rough plans, time schedule, research, and anything that really showcases how much detail went into planning a project. I used to think how displeasing it was to write reflections and keep note of every tab after doing research because of how messy everything looks. But in the end, after gathering every piece of document and putting it all in a portfolio on Canva, I’m honestly proud of how it turned out. Now, I have something to look back on and do better for future projects like this. Phantom Cinema also taught me how important cinema is, the place and environment you view films. Before coming into this studio, the last time I went to the cinemas was maybe five years ago and since this semester, I have gone almost every week! Honestly, I have forgotten how enjoyable the experience is and I really love it. This studio has made me appreciate something I always overlooked, even as a movie lover.
I always say this but communication is key when working collaboratively. I was fortunate enough to be paired with Nani in this exhibition and although we were faced with a few setbacks and challenges, we were always messaging each other and making sure that we’re both kept in the loop. In the end, despite those challenges, we achieved what we intended and for that, I am grateful.
I found a few articles online that supports our final work and the content in my reflection writings.
Enrique Dans ‘Imagine a World Without Movie Theatres’ (2020). Forbes. Imagine A World Without Movie Theaters…
This first article ‘Imagine a World without Movie Theatres’ I found online which was written during the COVID pandemic. It raises the question “is this the end of movie theatre?” (Dans, 2020). And it argues that streaming services could be harmful to cinemas and although content is more viewed than ever before, “we won’t be going to the movies” to watch them. This theory that cinema is dead or dying is showcased in the form of an old, abandoned movie theatre as a miniature set in our exhibition. That’s the message we hope wanted to convey in our work.
Tomas U. Santos ‘On Films and Adulthood’ (2009). Varsitarian. On films and adulthood | The Varsitarian
The next article I found goes on to talk about why adults watch movies for entertainment. It is an interesting article and I included it in my folio because it perfectly captures our work and our intention with the adulthood section. It mentions how people, as they grow older, tend to rely on movies as a way to wash “away problems through entertainment” (Santos, 2009). The reading is very relatable and serves also as the author’s self-reflection.
Miah Soto ‘The Effects of Comin-Of-Age Movies on Teens’ (2020). Untold Uptown. The Effects of Coming-Of-Age Movies on Teens – Untold Uptown
The final reference I found to support all my work is about coming-of-age films and the effects it has on youths. It mainly focuses on the youths of New York but it delivers our message well in the sense that young people are the most susceptible in being influenced by cinema. Of course, there are many other aspects in everyone’s lives that will shape them but nonetheless, movies play an essential role in it and the author of this article explains his experience with film.
I think the singular most successful aspect about our finished work is the visual look of our miniature sets. I worked really hard on making the birth set and adulthood one and I believe that both our work combined turned out great. The most problematic aspect, however, is transportation of these miniature sets. Although it is much more convenient than our original idea which was to have life sized version of these sets, it was still a bit of a hassle to bring them in to the city via train. My adulthood set didn’t have everything glued on because some items belonged to Nani and therefore, I had to return them once the exhibition was over. Because of that, everything kept falling over but it was not too bad since I had the help of a friend with me for the travel.