Capturing Creativity is a studio that delves into the production of artistry. A summary of this semester reflects on the process of meeting, discussing and collaborating with local Australian Artists who have exhibitions and works within the contemporary art scene. The process of creating our short documentaries began by meeting and discussing ideas with our artists. My artist was Justine Khamara her current exhibition was ‘Stratum’ on at ArtOne mere days from being allocated her name. Of course, this meant that I had to jump into action straight away from receiving her contact details. My first instinct was to ring her up and gain as much biographical knowledge on her as possible so I could paint my own portrait of her lifestyle and art and choose a direction in which to take my documentary. After our initial talk, I created a simple production calendar and timeline in which I aimed to accomplish everything.

As my first shoot was within a short time period I decided to use and equip myself with my own equipment to make the process not only easier but more moveable with just one individual- myself. It really didn’t take long to film Justines hanging, I knew exactly what I wanted to film and how I wanted to portray the art. Her art was minimalistic so I recognized the footage of it would be quite simple, very black and white which is the two shades most predominate within the film. I used this to my advantage and really thought about the stylization of how I would be editing what I was filming whilst filming. My Panasonic LUMIX GH4 was a good choice to use the quality came our amazing and I wasn’t lugging around heavy luggage all day by myself.

Once the filming of the hanging was completed the second part of the filming was more complicated, it included filming Justine for an interview. I wanted to film her in one of RMIT’s studio rooms so that the canvas would be as neutral as possible but many of the studios were hard or unable to be booked. In this instance with the help of my tutor Louise Turley I was able to book a room within Building 9 at RMIT and set the room up accordingly with how I would like it to be. The crew only consisted of Stephonie Yeoh and myself which all in all was more than enough, I was good to have Steph there as she helped carry equipment from Building 8 which was down Bowen street and quite heavy. I loaned out an LED lighting kit and Zoom mic but when I got to the stages of setting up the Microphone I realised the tech desk had forgot to book it in and loan it out to me, as Justine was already arriving I used my Video Pro Road Microphone instead and I believe the audio still came out quite well. In fact, the hardest challenge was editing Justines narration as it wasn’t as fluid as one would have hoped and getting audio that was both descriptive and paced was the main challenge.

If I’m too reflect less on of the physical process and more on the mental learning I found this studio to be really enjoyable, I like how the pace was- It was very independent and we weren’t tied down to doing a particular thing as I could see and note in other studios. It also gave many students the ability to work on their own individual projects placing us in the position of the producer and director. It was also so pleasurable learning about different people’s artistry and many of the local galleries within Melbourne’s scene. I especially liked our trip to Gertrude Contemporary, I hadn’t visited too many contemporary art galleries beforehand but they were definitely something I enjoyed especially after being to MONA in Tasmania (one of the reasons for my interest in this studio). The way students thought was also a positive aspect, there was a lot of debate and discussion (especially on the meaning behind many pieces within contemporary art). It was good to see people passions when working upon their projects. I crewed on Katrina’s shoot which was different, it was interesting to see how her artist had evolved in regards to my own. He was very different especially within his views and values and had a precise way he wanted to be represented which was different from Justine who did not mind and wanted to me to choose my own form and take initiative.

Overall this studio has taught me a lot about my own creativity, It will be sad to have it officially come to an end but I now know what I really enjoy about film making. I enjoy documentary- telling individuals stories, especially editing them and piecing together a narrative. I also really enjoy watching originality form and ideas become reality. I hope in the future that I am able to continue working on projects that have a high form of originality.