During class 2 of week 9, each student was assigned the task of presenting their experimental film piece as it was at that time to the tutorial group. That of Sufeeya was particularly striking and noteworthy to me. Sufeeya’s presentation itself was effortless, organic and unpretentious and due to this was a generally pleasant experience; she excelled in being authentic and not excessively pampering to what may have been perceived as enhancing the measurable value of her presentation against a marking key. 

While this enabled Sufeeya’s presentation to be fundamentally engaging, it is the exploration of what was presented that allowed it to be striking. Sufeeya’s film piece to that date was magnificent and incredibly well-formed, yet refreshingly simple. Similarly to the presentation itself, her single-shot film piece appeared to have been an effortless attempt at capturing her world. Yet, despite the perceived effortlessness, her piece exhibited a craftsmanship in even the most simple of its aspects; the composition of the still shot was beautiful and from a purely photographic perspective was technically excellent for both the purpose of aesthetic qualities and audience appeal. Her audio reflected the production conditions and had a home-made quality, yet it was exactly this that enabled such to be of interest. Sounds flowed freely in a largely undivided soundscape which emulated the auditory experience of being a few rooms over from a household activity in a realistic and immersive fashion that was an excellent compliment to the image.

Sufeeya’s choice to inform the class of the intentions of her film piece after the presentation was an interesting choice with respect to the reveal of the context of the piece but also exhibited a great and inspiring depth in the degree of her consideration for what may be thought of as minor details and technicalities. Her discussion exposed how these features may have a much greater cumulative effect than one might anticipate. Of particular note in this discussion was the clear intention of emotional implications which were associated with her composition of the shots and how these implications then informed decision making in post production, such as colour grading. In this, Sufeeya’s presentation also revealed how the timing of the introduction of context may bear considerable weight with respect to the engagement of the audience and their ability to effectively comprehend the piece. I found that it was due to the fact that the context and intended effects of the piece were presented to me after viewing the piece itself that I was able to engage in her video piece in an entirely uninhibited fashion, while the later context deepened my appreciation for her work.

Sufeeya’s observational style differs considerably from my own and has developed in an alternative fashion to that of mine throughout the course of the semester (or at least such appears to be the case in what I have seen of her writing). Her work displays a thoughtfulness and self-assurance in her decision making in the creative outlets which she has explored as part of the Translating Observation unit. Within the context of her practise, her cinematic style and simplicity seems to correlate well with the perspectives and perceptions of her environment that are reflected in her observational writing. At this stage, I feel that our style’s differ too considerably for me to be able to effectively appropriate and adapt those qualities of Sufeeya’s practise in my own as they are currently not immediately applicable to my style and methodology, or otherwise applicable in a way that I feel would be genuine or true.

That said, I do take considerable inspiration from how Sufeeya contextualised her video piece and hope to be able to apply this realisation of the importance of the timing of context to my own work.