Reflection on the process and outcome for Screen Project 1
Not in a million years would I have thought that I will create an experimental video. I enjoy seeing avant-garde works but I have always shied away from making anything deemed experimental simply because I don’t think I am creative enough. Hence, Screen Project 1 was a challenge I am glad to have overcome.
In the scripting stage, the problem that I encountered was not being able to turn my imaginative images into full sentences or find any visual references. Eventually, I decided to go for a rather classic research approach. I wrote down keywords while listening to the music. The keywords that were prompted by the music are: magical, dreamy, unconscious, purple, green-ish, creatures, black hole. The idea of the little forest adventure only came when I ditched the script and started drawing the storyboard based on the keywords. At the start, I spent so much time looking at published works to find ones that resonate with my vague ideas. Now, I realized sometimes it is better to adopt a simple and familiar solution.
The filming stage went really well despite the circumstances. The footages I did not film myself are videos of Minh and clips of the spacious garden in Chigaco. Initially, I intend to film in a park to illustrate that dreamy/magical forest adventure, not in the little garden on my rooftop shown in the video. Therefore, I asked my friend who is living in Chicago for extra clips to expand the space of my music-inspired imaginary images. I spent a lot of time playing around with my set of videos because I got inspired (#1, #2) to try out new technical skills. For videos of Minh and Trang, I only tweaked them a bit because I want to maintain the colors and atmosphere of their environments. I thought it was interesting how one could be the representative for minimalism, and the other one is the complete opposite of minimalism. The setting of Minh’s videos is staged exactly like that he created the melody. He was in his room at night and produced the melody using only synthesizers. Since his background does not change, I asked him to take videos from a variety of angles. I reckon the videos I took of Trang had shown the painting process and her environment well too.
Quotes from Trang about her painting:
The idea behind this painting is inspired by the saying “there are many fish in the sea/waters”. Here, it alludes to the feminine sentimentality of enjoying how men find women attractive and intriguing, without giving any chance of romantical involvement or the lack of such intention from either side. It is an empowering feeling that fights against the traditional stigma of how a woman should be in a relationship just to feel “completed” based on social standards.
She also said that the colors should bring out a mix of dark feminine and a young woman’s feeling of joy and excitement. Mia specially mentions that she loved painting the hair because it indicates the water flow and somehow resembles aquatic plants for the fish to swim through.
What I love the most about this project is how experimental the process was. I got to experiment with making a non-narrative video, editing footage filmed by others, using archive footage, playing with the overlay effect and different lightings. The topic of the video is mainly related to senses, so I used my sensation to make the video as visually pleasing as possible. I believe it reflects my initial idea of showcasing art-making processes to emphasize its relation to the sensory nervous system and to visualize the distinctness in one’s sensory nervous system.
The video might seem naive and not perfect. Nevertheless, I am proud of it because it proved that I have gone out of my comfort zone. I used to think experimental works require exceptional creativity, and my opinion has not changed. However, after this project, I also acknowledged that it is not purely about creativity. My video is also dependent on research, technical practice, and the ability to find inspiration in ordinary life.