PRACTICAL TASK AVAILABLE AT:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1afCAnAQ9QHd0G_s-0lRP4wnfdNx_zs58?usp=sharing

The aim of the practical film-making task was to create a rendition of a real and present observation of my particular subjects of interest, which at this time happens to be people and behaviours, while respecting the community, not being intrusive and not being obstructive to people as they conduct their daily business and affairs. In an ideal scenario, this would have been carried out in a purely authentic fashion by which locals may have been filmed in their day-to-day life, however with the aforementioned intentions in mind and time constraints to consider, such was unachievable. In light of this, I chose to endeavour to recreate a real, observed moment and attempt to reflect my own perception of such including how my thoughts wandered as I experienced the moment and how I re-imagined the moment in memory. In order to achieve this while maintaining as much accuracy to the original experience as possible, I chose to adopt an approach to conceptualising and producing that is similar to that which I adopt when writing an observation. This encompassed allowing the experience to form a memory which I then revisit for a period (in this case a couple of days) and slowly refine to the most important points or period of interest before taking action towards recreating the memory.

The exact observation chosen was not one which I had previously written due to, as mentioned, a desire to stay true to my processes thus far. I had recently noticed a pair of young teenagers at the local corner-store ordering several coffees too many between them and a small plate of food which the ate as they waited. I wasn’t able to recreate the bare bones of this observation exactly, and used only one individual instead of two, however I feel that the general integrity of the idea and point of interest was maintained. In not recreating the moment exactly, I found myself able to be receptive to the circumstances which prevailed at the time of filming as I was removed from the desire to produce a black-letter recreation. Such led me to the decision to incorporate music into the final piece, for at the time of filming what was played at the store had grabbed my attention and felt fitting to the moment (although this also led to my paying lesser attention to the overall continuity in audio across my clips as I thought that the original audio would simply be discarded).

While I feel ultimately that a greater attentiveness to the unfolding events would have been to my benefit still, I am satisfied with the degree to which the sequence has reflected my perception of the initial event however feel also that the act of reconstructing this event as I did was perhaps a hinderance. As mentioned in my previous reflection, I am in deep consideration of the balance between objectivity and subjectivity and am left wondering if the product is still truly observational or if it has become too subjective. Additionally, I find myself wondering if, in re-creating an observation, the piece could have been shot and constructed to reflect this observation more effectively or more cinematically within the time constraints and limitations imposed by the environment and my own intentions.