ON THE SCREENING + OUR HOPES
Having completed our makeshift zoom exhibition, I feel it was a lovely ending, and goodbye to this studio! In terms of our group’s manifesto, the main idea I hope audiences were able to resonate with is the unnecessary nature of opposition. Although the idea of simply enjoying what you want to enjoy is familiar enough, I think we have all known (at some point in our lives) the pressure of our preferences being shaped by other factors. Whether it be liking or disliking certain films to seem knowledgeable, cool, or otherwise. Hence, I primarily hope our manifesto enabled for some semblance of reflection for audiences. In order to recognise whether or not their preferences are truly for themselves, or out of something else (more sinisterly judgemental). In turn, I hope such a realisation (if any) enables audiences to love and enjoy their preferences in film (and anything else), more wholesomely.
Additionally, I hope that it was overall an engaging or at least, entertaining viewing experience for audiences. Given our creative concept and video format, one of our main goals was just to convey our manifesto in a fun manner. Moreover, with the ‘guilty pleasure’/’low art/high art’ films we visually presented, another key idea we hoped to reinforce was the absurdity of such films being condemned for such labels. At the very least, I hope that my sub-par Carrie Bradshaw impersonation was amusing to view.
ON THE POTENTIAL IMPROVEMENTS / FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
If we were to continue developing this project, I think we could improve upon our production. I’ll sound like a broken record one last time, in saying that if not for the COVID restrictions/online learning, I think our manifesto’s visual cohesiveness could have been greater.
Therefore, while I think the visuals of our final piece are great (and I’m certainly proud of what we produced separately and collectively), I think this is something we could definitely enhance. For instance, we may have been able to incorporate or experiment with more visual elements to link our manifesto sections together (i.e lighting/coloured gels, having one ‘set’ that moves into one another’s films, shots to transition…).
Another thing that could be refined I think may be our manifesto wording in itself. While I do think we were able to create a generally unified piece, I wasn’t entirely sure about the manifesto form in general. Hence, I felt I didn’t really understand the best way to transition our discussion of one topic to the next. Given the opportunity, I think we could make our manifesto and its statements more connected – particularly in how we link our propositions against high/low art and guilty pleasures to our overall argument.
ON OUR STUDIO + OTHER GROUPS
‘I BELIEVE’ by Jacob, Shiloh and Mary
I really loved Jacob, Shihloh and Mary’s final manifesto. The video presented their argument in such an engaging manner, with its unique visual collage approach. In combining things such as movie clips, glitch effects, and shot footage, the subjectivity of cinema which they were arguing was incredibly illuminated. Moreover, I thought the additional element of interacting with the class to create cut up manifestos was really interesting. It again, re-iterated their manifesto’s essence, but was also a thought-provoking exercise to take part in, in recognising my own ideas on subjectivity and cinema/art.
‘CANON 2.0’ by Viv, Erin and Emily
‘Canon 2.0’ was such a fun and intriguing project. I really enjoyed the website format, and thought it was such a clever approach to conveying their manifesto. All the videos featured on the site were really well made and being able to browse through the various categories made for an insightful experience. The browsing nature of the manifesto really enabled me to reflect on the group’s various ideas. What is considered ‘film’? Why are canonised genres so limited? Why champion old, outdated films? Overall, I thought Viv, Erin and Emily’s manifesto was super engaging and well executed.
ON ANOTHER STUDIO – ‘REAL TO REEL’
The ‘Real to Reel’ studio website was incredibly interesting to delve into. Seeing the various approaches each project took to crafting non-fiction work was really engaging. Especially in the context of COVID, the ability of all the projects to create short documentaries in isolation was really applaudable. Moreover, I found how a lot of the works explored how various people have been impacted by the pandemic really profound.
Specifically, I really enjoyed ‘What Did You Say Then?’ by Finnic Dong. I thought the combination of audio interviews and animation was engaging, and a great way to work within those COVID restrictions. Moreover, the video’s exploration of normalised racism in Australia was thoughtful and relevant. In essence, this work, as well as the rest of the studio website, really underscored the variety, ingenuity, and creativity available in approaching the creation of non-fiction media.