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Reflection

Assignment 4 Reflection:

a) working on a project as a collective
b) creativity in critical thinking, manifesto project design and production
c) insights that making the work gave you to a key concept about the film canon, or about canons more broadly, or to the impetus behind preparing and publishing a manifesto. 

A) The process of working alongside Saud, Jess and Grace to manifest and build our own demands for future filmmakers was a project I had a lot of fun with. Initially we were required to create three statements as challenges to the Canon, I found that in the weeks leading up to this task I had gained more knowledge on dynamics of the film canon, particularly ones that I was shocked by and wanted to be vocal about in my statements. I began to really enjoy the process of analysing the canon and its faults once we were assigned to groups with people who had criticised similar elements of the film Canon. The exquisite corpse exercise was a great way to start collaborating as a group, remaining in touch over Facebook and email to each individually swap statements and create a 1-minute clip that illustrated our concerns with the level of coolness in the canon, the lack of accessibility and the unconscious bias women repeatedly come to deal with. We then came together to refine our ideas and work toward a specific purpose and vision for our manifesto. As a group we decided to deliver it as a collection of positioning statements we had each created, as a list of demands like the lists of ‘the sight and sound poll’ focusing on accessibility, ethical conditions and representation. We faced some challenges along the way with allowing for different time zones and not being able to meet face to face and have the context of being in space to share and work in. Although, that didn’t stop us from working together efficiently as a collective and trying to manage our time in the best way possible. We spent a lot of time brainstorming in a shared google doc before we began to produce our individual work and come back to sew it together. We believed that a lot of pre-production was needed to deliver exactly what we had planned. It allowed us to refine our thoughts, allocate tasks to one another and work out how we were going to present our work. 

B) We decided as a group on using the structure of a video essay to present our manifesto. Our overall idea was to create a manifesto demanding that filmmakers (directors and creators, but also the industry more broadly) address the canon’s shortcomings by making films which deserve to be in it by being universal in their appeal’.  The process of pitching our manifesto to a board of other people was incredibly helpful and it really allowed us to consolidate our thoughts and work, to come closer to improving our work based on the feedback and useful suggestions we received from Robyn and Alex.  Our plan was to use video essays as a form but twist it slightly, not to educate on something as such but to demand something. The effectiveness in delivering an argument in the style of a video essay we thought would be perfect to deliver our point. In relation to critical thinking, we wanted our work to be a visual call out and expose, we wanted it to be apt in its seriousness and not too performative, but actually real and there to bring people’s attention straight to the issue(s) at stake. We decided to use a computer-generated voice to deliver our statements, to dehumanize our voices and strip emotion from the tone so it was stark. It also allowed the manifesto to have a mixed/mastered effect where the tone was rhythmic and consistent throughout, allowing the points to come across in a straightforward fashion, some may even say the tone was cutthroat.  We also had success in removing our identities from the manifesto, it allowed us to unleash in our findings and demands without the concern of identification and criticism and didn’t change overall, to make it one smooth Our final manifesto wasn’t that dissimilar from the exquisite corpse exercise, apart from the fact that it was less clunky and had more of a specified purpose. Like for the earlier exercise each of us went off and worked toward a one-minute clip that contained visuals to go with our statements and could say that our logic with going off and producing a one-minute clip of a demand with corresponding visuals doesn’t give  

C)Creating and developing this work allowed me to gather more of an understanding on a certain key concept we focused on in class. The concept helped me with my statement. The key concept being the depth we went into looking at ‘lists’ on the notion surrounding the dysfunction and counterintuitive side to creating lists, referring to lists as a point of reliance for representing ‘great’ films. It points out how lists can be a deterrent for future film makers, they can polarise people, and how they’re not at all a preserver of the best art.  Lists solidify the points that have already been heard, from the already heard and from people who mightn’t have much to know about the field to begin with. How lists are also made to capitalise, colonise and self-indulge and fail to bring ‘off-list’ films into the public domain. It made me wonder who watches films with subtitles, or films made outside of anglophone countries and where those films are placed on ‘the list’ and how accessible they are and whether they are recognised enough. We decided to create a list of demands for future film makers, like the lists created by boards as a form of iron In class, there was consistent discussion surrounding who decides what’s good and in what context and what period. Creating this work, gave us insight on how you can prepare and publish a manifesto that relies on the initial dysfunction to deliver a point. For example, if lists can be made for the ‘popular’ successes in film, there should be just as much of a priority placed on lists that outline the most ‘popular’ issues in cinema. By listing issues in the same way great films are listed in the sight and sound pole for example, we show the dysfunction while delivering our point which seems contradictory but plays a part in grounding people in the problems– doing it in a way that success is also presented, in lists.  A lot of the key concepts we explored throughout the semester gave me insight into how to create a manifesto. When we initially watched ‘Manifesto’ featuring Cate Blanchett, I was only aware of some of the most renowned manifestos and never really got a grasp of the purpose of one. It was helpful to see manifestos delivered in a contemporary light, as an adaptation of an art instillation. At times I’d catch myself being deterred from concentrated, dense literature and I thought thats all Manifestos were. I found in this course I was able to detach my expectations of the word manifesto from what they truly are, and how they can come about in any form, and be given by anyone. My assumptions of Manifestos have been debunked, excitingly, and I feel as though I can declare my thoughts in ways that are both serious and tongue-in-cheek, as I misunderstood that manifestos must be earnest, always.  

‘Our Demands’
Delivers a manifesto demanding that filmmakers ( directors and creators, but also the industry more broadly) address the canon’s shortcomings by making films which deserve to be in it by being universal in their appeal.

By: Jess, Grace, Lilli and Saud