The main objective of the Zephyr studio was to focus on uplight and promoting the young underground creative scene of Melbourne, through a docu-series. The pitch deck based our understanding of the studio, with the main objective of creating an immersive experience for viewers to see the ‘no filter journey’ of ‘young, boundary-pushing artists in their ‘fearless’ creative journey of ‘redefined self-expression’. Our group docu-series video was able to capture the complexities of this through the documentation of artist April Crumpler. More specifically engaging with her journey as a visual artist finding her unique style, influenced by her move to Melbourne. 

In more depth, our work was able to engage with inspiring viewers to ‘explore their own artistic passions’ and uplifting Melbourne’s scene by portraying the story of a dedicated and upcoming artist. April’s story started when she was younger, visiting Melbourne with her parents and creating her own art in high school. Though the move from rural Victoria to Melbourne influenced her art in a way that opened her mind to new creative practices and influenced her style in a way that she would have never been able to do back in Ballarat. Starting with portraiture and becoming more abstract and lively with the murals and spray paint work within Melbourne city streets. Therefore, our decision in choosing April allowed us to perfectly engage with the criteria of the pitch deck and its goals.

I believe the most successful element of our final work was being able to capture the essence of April’s journey as an emerging artist through our editing and b-roll footage. We were able to achieve this through the many in class trial runs which developed into creating a VPW. The VPW acted as a cheat sheet for our group, consistently updating and engaging with the content when we were unsure or needed further confirmation. This step not only allowed us to practise and get better at our technical skills with the equipment, but also helped to develop the interview questions, allowing for more in depth and detailed answers. April’s story was demonstrated through our a-roll, but refined during post production where we extracted the most important parts to create an engaging story that ‘encourages viewers to explore their own artistic passions’. Our inspiration video, ‘Meet the artists – Precious Okoyomon’ influenced the way we could edit our own video. This video included an engaging introduction of ways in which we could hook the audience, the structure of the video and bright colouring. Furthermore, our post-production process included logging, paper edits, the comparison doc and group reflection, allowing us to refine our docu-series video down to the core elements and therefore audiences were able to engage with the 4 minute edit in a digestible and inspiring way. In addition to this, the b-roll footage allowed us to visually portray her practice and make our video more enticing in its video format. Viewers were able to see her progression from realistic portraits to spray painting and abstract art as well as her personality, a fun and bubbly person. Therefore, the editing process allowed us to demonstrate April’s ‘unapologetic self-expression’ while also addressing the overall aesthetic of ‘gritty cinematics’ through the b-roll. 

Although these elements were successful, we did run into some challenges throughout our process. For example, we ran into planning issues, where our filming location fell through and therefore pushed our filming day back. We were able to solve this issue by booking an art studio in RMIT. This allowed us to put up April’s work on the wall for a more dynamic background and allowed us to push April away from the wall creating depth, which is one element we were able to solve from the trial run. Another issue was the audio for the a-roll, where the echo of April’s voice could be heard after every sentence. This was due to the open-space of the room we shot in but was able to resolve the issue to the best of our ability in post-production using the audio effects. Although we did run into problems, we all understood that problems will always arise in creative projects and these issues acted as a learning tool for us to improve on for next time. 

In regards to the source material learnt in the Zephyr class, I believed it allowed me to gain real life industry experience in a supportive classroom environment. I was able to learn the whole process of creating a ‘professional level, short documentary’ with the step by step guide and the constant feedback to do so. From practical skills like using the FX3, lighting and audio equipment, or creating a VPW, logging document or paper edit, which I’ve never done before. This semester we not only did blog post reflections but also video discussions which cultivated more ideas and ways of improvement. Furthermore, engaging with the exhibition of the video docuseries by making a thumbnail and printing and putting up posters. 

If I were to continue my work on the Zephyr docuseries, I would love to build social media content on different platforms like instagram or TikTok to reach a broader audience. This is a pathway that I want to personally go down later on in my career. I would do this by re-editing the video into portrait mode, as well as shortening the video down into micro-stories and quicker cuts. I would also love to interview more emerging Melbourne creatives to develop more variety and greater depth into the project, people from different backgrounds, with different experiences and creative processes. 

Our group worked really well collaboratively. We all put in effort to keep constant communication on our work in progress, delegating tasks by understanding each other’s strengths and weaknesses. During the editing process, even though we did it individually, we helped each other with the audio issues and discussed ways to combine our individual edits to an improved and concise group edit.  Our reflective Zoom calls allowed us to listen and learn about each group member’s understanding of the course material and was another way of improving our process both individually and as a group. 

Overall, the Zephyr docuseries project provided me the opportunity to apply industry standard experience within an academic setting, allowing effective teamwork and ultimately elevating April Crumpler’s journey as an emerging Melbourne creative. From planning to collaboration to execution and post production we were able to successfully deliver a dynamic short documentary that resonates with viewers and authentically depicts her artistic evolution. This experience strengthened my technical skills and inspired me to consider expanding the project to reach more people and showcase Melbourne’s vibrant, underground creative scene.  

References:

Art Basel. (2024, May 16). Meet the artist | Precious Okoyomon. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Ljl3I14GU1w?si=Oooouo93fWAyzHdJ