What is Translating Observation about?
The premise of this studio is, in my opinion at least, a very promising one. It’s a bit hard to exactly put a finger on what I’m hoping or expecting to get out of this studio as I’m not sure it’s a fully tangible thing that is supposed to be being taught here. On the more practical and tangible side I’m hoping to refine my creative writing skills in a university context – which I’ve had little if any experience of doing as of yet. I really like the concept of writing creatively based on what we see around us, without necessarily dipping into documentary territory. I’ve been reading a book called ‘Kudos’ by Rachel Cusk (highly recommended) which walks this line in a really cool way in that the way it is written really transports you into the world of the story in such a way that you’re almost not sure what the author has observed and what she has imagined. I think that existing in the space between fiction and non-fiction could be really fun and I’m looking forward to trying to bring out the intrigue in the mundane settings around me throughout the semester.
On the more subjective side of things though, what I think the studio is aiming to teach, or at least what I’m hoping it will try to teach is to find a sort of connection to film material based on experience. It’s hard to describe exactly what I mean by this but one of my favourite cinematographers and a big inspiration for me, Bradford Young (Arrival, When They See Us, Solo) talks about this a lot in interviews (see embedded video for reference), but to summarise he basically speaks about how he chooses projects because he finds a way to bring his own meaning to the script based on his experiences. So essentially what I’m hoping to explore in this studio is motivating the things I film and the way I film them based on the things that I observe and experience in my everyday life in a much more purposeful way than I would otherwise.