Finished project may be found at the following link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ebFEH0OHwqBFTWV6EZVyGrghx3Z7mPkg?usp=sharing

Now, having finished my final production piece for this unit, I find it important to address how my process and learning as I undertook this process was defined by two principle elements; the means by which I sought to achieve my conceptual aims and how adapting production plans impacted the final product.

In beginning the production of this piece, there were a few considerations which were forefront in my mind and I wished to explore; temporal relations, habitual ways of thinking and context. Within my short piece, I attempted to address these to the best of my ability. While I believe that these ideas may have been explored to a greater extent, there were some elements in which I believe I was successful in my exploration. Particular to this is how sound relates to the visual image throughout the course of the film piece and those effects which arose as a consequence of the soundscape. Not only did I choose to employ a non-diegetic sound, but non-diegetic sound that was pertinent to the on-screen events without being a product of or synchronous to such. I feel that this was an important element. Where the speed of the visual image varies drastically throughout the course of the piece, the use of a consistently and realistically paced audio accompaniment assisted in grounding the visual image to a linear progression and therefore gave rise to a sense of real-time. In this, I feel also that the exploration of assumptions and habitual ways of thinking was made to be more effective, for the image, in being bound to a linear timeline, was made to appear as a natural progression as opposed to a discordant series of shots and appeared to reflect the fluidity of thought processes to a greater extent. Thus, where the shots are faster-paced, they present themselves as more fleeting thoughts whereas shots at a slower pace are those which are subject to greater consideration or experience. Where my goal was to explore habitual ways of thinking and assumptions, I believe this enabled the establishment of an experience and an after-thought which facilitated the representation of the process of thought and of making assumptions.

However, the audience is not invited to project/employ their own habitual ways of thinking throughout the course of the film to a great extent. Assumptions pertaining to the behaviour and potential intentions of the subject are made explicit and the audience is left little room to assume events. That said, the audience is still encouraged to assume the context of the events with which they are presented; it was a choice to encourage the act of assuming by removing sources of context such as dialogue, even when the subject is speaking, and promote the assumptions including assumed communications by having the subject seen to be on their phone. In alluding to another present individual/character, I believe the audience is effectively able to consider some of their own assumptions and how these assumptions relate to the visual image. 

That said, while I sought the address of these key areas of contemplation of the role of film, I feel that the product suffered somewhat from the lack of clear direction when engaging in the first stages of planning and producing the piece. As mentioned in my previously reflections, this derived largely from the necessity for abrupt and drastic change to production plans and difficulty in finding an avenue by which my observational writing process could be meaningfully related to my film-making processes. I feel that this is reflected in the quality of my film, particularly the visual images, which although organic appear somewhat random and careless. While I enjoy the organic character, I feel that if I had a greater sense of direction from the outset when it came to early production phases I may have been able to acquire more compositionally interesting and/or competent images.

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.

As of current, the footage from my practical work has begun to unfold and evolve so as to become its own piece and adopt its own characteristics. I have been attempting to be as malleable and as open to working with the footage sourced as opposed to the idealistic product which was in mind in order to produce a piece that feels organic and true to the talent filmed.

In the first stages of the editing process, the necessity for a dynamic relationship between goals and products had been revealed. Such has been revealed principally by the fact that the circumstances of production, particularly sourcing footage, differed considerably from what I had anticipated they were to be. In my project, I had three avenues by which I had intended to potentially engage in the exploration of the potential of film and divergence from ‘conventional’ methodology; temporal relations between events, habitual ways of thinking and context (these are detailed further in a presentation script found here) and sought to do such through the construction of the audience’s response independently of explicit narrative or narrative structure. Such was to take the form of the filming of a young woman holding flowers wandering the streets, as was inspired by the following image.

In light of these ideas and my strong visual inclination to the aesthetics of this image, I had hoped to recreate the overall aesthetic in a fashion that would be as true to my inspiration as possible, then allow the course of the progression of the piece to evolve around a theoretical observation which was written in response to this visual inspiration. Talent was selected accordingly, just as were aims of shooting set out and thoughts as to how best to approach shooting so as to allow such to produce footage that would be as true and organic for the talent as was possible. However, not only did I found myself faced by the challenge of important self-imposed deadlines for production, but I also was put into a position of having to work with a different talent whose persona, demeanour and general character felt to me as though it was discordant with the initial goals of footage and shooting. Such was an important factor on account of the fact that, in order to maximise engagement and perceived authenticity, I had hoped that the behaviours and the manner of the character would be reflected in the events as truly as was possible and sought to then manipulate these events for these goals. In light of this, a fair amount of the footage which was acquired lacked this sense of authenticity as I had insufficient time to adapt my plans for shooting so as to be more appropriate for my talent. Those shots in which the talent is directed to a greater extent towards my initial aims appear falsified and are therefore not effectively engaging. 

In response to this, I have been invited to slightly alter the trajectory of the project and abandon some of those plans which I had initially made for myself in order to better reflect the tone which emerged in response to the alternative circumstances of production. The aim of this change is to be able to complement and expand upon this tone in a way that is ultimately more meaningful and may serve as a better facilitator for the exploration of the previously mentioned points of interest.  

In recent classes we were invited to more actively consider the importance of sound and how such may be a powerful tool in creating meaningful cinema, particularly when our expectations of what sound ‘should’ present itself as are disrupted. While our discussion of such in class pertained more explicitly to the inclusion of sound, since said discussion I have been considering the possibility of the exclusion of sound and how silence may be employed in an engaging fashion. I feel as though such may not be done without some degree of sound, for example at the beginning and end of a piece, due to the fact that an expectation for sound is so deeply ingrained that it is essential in order to establish audience engagement; even in early cinema, music was quickly incorporated as ambient sound for the purpose of enhancing the viewer’s investment in the image. However, the exclusion of sound may be used to emphasise certain moments and invite the audience to question their acceptance of the image with which they are presented. This has been demonstrated by the film Only God Forgives (2013), in which director Nicholas Winding Refn has allowed silence to prevail on two occasions during the film. Such was to the effect of emphasising barriers to communication between characters, inconsistencies between perspectives and the emotional qualities of the image presented. Ultimately, the viewer is invited to reflect upon their own understanding of the characters and plot at the moment of silence as they search for the reason for the silence. While these moments within the film are ineffectual in isolation, within the context of the film as a whole they are powerful and exploitative of their disruptive effect with respect to the audience’s expectations. I feel that noting the power of silence within this film is worthwhile in the context of the use of sound, particularly where said use is contrary to expectations, as it highlights the importance of the careful employment of sound and draws into light that sound does not need to create meaning in visual images but is a powerful tool when used to enhance the meaning of images.

Further to my previous reflection relating to the impacts and success or lack there of observational writing as an experiment, I find myself now at a point of uncertainty regarding how to make some aspect of my approach to observational writing applicable to my approach to film-making both for the purpose of the experimental film task and for the purpose of my wider film-making practise. I find it necessary in this to consider the processes which define my methodology, particularly the sources of inspiration, for each, as well as how each has been subject to growth/change over the course of this semester.

Initially, in seeking content and inspiration for observational writing, I found myself noticing potential sources of inspiration only when I felt that as though there was a strong element of visual beauty attached to the observation or the moment at which the observation was experienced. This visual beauty did not necessarily need to be an important part of the event itself, but was a key point of attraction and attachment to the event. Those experiences and observations which were lacking in the visual component by which I was compelled were entirely disregarded as subjects for my writing. In light of this, many (but not all) of my initial observations were driven by this visual element of experience and my own perceived quality of my observations was defined by the degree to which I considered the event to be photographic. While this visual emphasis has remained an important quality throughout and my observations are still often realised by their photographic potential, the photographic potential of an event is no longer integral to the realisation of an observation. It is instead my own retrospective obsession with an event that has become of importance in realising inspiration. Should I continue to turn an event over in my mind following its being experienced, I consider it a significant experience and this a worthwhile observation to write about. This shift in the process of sourcing content has also facilitated growth and change in my writing process. Due to the fact that I find myself thinking about an observation for a considerable period of time prior to writing about the observation, I am able to consider in depth the most important aspects of that observation, the tone, the context and how best to recreate an experience on the basis of such. This is not a process in which I find myself feeling well-accomplished, however this process of refinement of inspiration is a path which I hope to address in an immediate sense in the future for the purpose of exploring its relationship to and impact upon the work produced.

What inspires me to make a film or a video-format piece of media is embedded in aesthetics to a much lesser extent. The aesthetics are a secondary consideration that are built in support of the subject/content of the film piece. It is the representation of human behaviour and the exploration of such that is typically central to my decision of whether content is worthwhile and thus what is inspirational. Particularly in film/video, I am fascinated by people, peoples’ obsession with people, and people’s obsession with other people’s ways of thinking, all of which relates to representation and interpretation. I find myself captivated by quirks and seeking to emphasise things that break from normality so as to engage in a subsequent reflection of preconceptions of ‘normal’. This process is typically grounded in capturing a literal reality to a much lesser extent than is the case of my observational writing processes thus far. In pursuing these counter-normative aspect of people and behaviour, I find myself investing in the subjective as opposed to the objective, and building a subjective representation of a subject and/or a reality accordingly, thus prioritising the task of representing reality over the replication of reality whereas in observational writing I am more concerned with the replication of reality. This approach often involves the use of various forms of media and/or styles within the selected mediums (ie. collage and non-literal visual accompaniment to dialogue). Within the context of this unit, however, I feel that my stylistic approach to film-making has become increasingly concerned with a literal reflection of reality, particularly in recreating observations, in response to the process of observational writing as being a process embedded in said reality to a significantly greater extent.

Upon revisiting the goals of this studio, I have been prompted to consider two questions – has the overall experiment of observational writing been at all successful or instructive? And has our practise of observational writing had any other benefits?

I wish to address the latter first. I’ve been intrigued throughout the course of this semester by how much one has to be open to the experience of an observation in order for a worthwhile observation to be experienced. This openness does not necessarily require one to actively seek out a subject of interest, nor does it demand that someone falsify points of interest for oneself in things observed so that otherwise ordinary experiences may be transformed into inspiration for possible engaging writing. Rather it requires one to be more aware of their surroundings so that they may be more susceptible to potential observations. In turn, observational writing has become a practise of mindfulness and present-mindedness in day-to-day life. The more active engagement in ones surroundings and the disengagement from sources of distraction, including phones and music, which may inhibit someone’s ability to be and remain engaged in their experience of the world is mandated. I have found this to be a worthwhile exercise as an aspect of the practise of observational writing. This increased presence has reminded me of the rich possibility for inspiration which is available in everyday life and the beauty of normal. It has invited me to shift my perception of beauty away from being purely based upon the aesthetic qualities of the world and its photographic potential, and towards a more diverse and well-rounded appreciation for beauty in life that is inclusive of also behavioural and non-visual forms of beauty, such as human interactions. In this, I feel that I have had both personal growth in my general perspective of the world and an artistic growth in the creative sensibilities with which this personal growth is associated. 

Although I am strongly inclined to perceive the effects of this practise as being beneficial, I feel as though I can not label the experiment as being successful on account of the fact that I do not find the observational writing practise which I have developed to be applicable to my film-making practise in a fashion that is I find to be meaningful at this stage. While there are elements to my approach to film-making and my sourcing of inspiration for video work which may be deemed to have an observational quality to them, such as my preference to allow talent to self-direct and behave as they feel most comfortable when photographed and filmed, I feel that my approach to observational writing has little pertinence to my approach to film making. This arises as a consequence of the fact that what is of note to me as an observation typically occurs organically and meaninglessly, while in constructing a film piece I am concerned with the construction of imagery and the meaning which may be ingrained in the construction process. While I acknowledge that making a short film that relates to an observation or has an observational style an exact realism is not mandated and the process is not lacking in the construction of imagery, however I consider the process of writing and the visualisations of my own written pieces to be discordant with my preferred approach to constructing an image. What inspires me to write does not inspire me to film and what inspires me to film is not my own perspective in writing. Thus, the processes of image construction and translating observation into film through writing are essentially mutually exclusive to me at this time. I hope they may be able to assume a more meaningful relationship in the future. I feel that the practise of observational writing is of value to a film-maker, however the path of development which my own practise has assumed over the past months does not facilitate a valuable relationship. 

In the process of developing a film based on an observational piece of writing, or developing a film with an approach that is inspired/underpinned by practices learned from observational writing, research into the form and observational-style film, while of potential value, exists upon a fine line between detriment to artistic integrity and benefit to the stylistic character. 

Upon the latter possible mode of influence, research into the potential methods by which aspects of the observational writing process may be concurrent with film-making may have a considerable role in terms of reducing the necessity for wide experimentation and therefore increasing efficiency of production and enhancing the visual literacy of the product. This may derive from the opportunity for the refinement of one’s own taste and preferences which research readily allows; in being exposed to a diverse range of pieces of similar taxa, examples are provided of the potential stylistic avenues and methods to production. These examples provide a background knowledge of the form that contextualises the practise and informs one’s taste. In light of this, where exploration of the potential avenues for the translation of observational writing is integral to the practise, by exploring taste and methods without having to do so in self-production, research allows for the refinement of aspirations in practise that informs decision making processes in production and therefore enhances the efficiency and enables the more effective adoption of stylistic features.

However, where inspirational influence is typically very closely associated with imitation, research may draw into question or otherwise negatively impact one’s artistic integrity. It is difficult to assess the potential relevance of this to artistic practices as a whole as one can only assume the degree to which ideas are original and/or influenced by another individual, however the issue of artistic integrity arises from the fact that the employment of inspiration derivative from other creatives may lead to unintentional imitation in practise and lack of complete authenticity in artistic expression. Expression instead occurs through vehicles and precedents which are established by other creators. In many cases, particularly in mainstream art and media, such serves to enhance the communicative qualities of a piece as recognisable features, symbols and approaches may already have well-formed modes of interpretation. But this expression is no longer individual. In light of this, should one adhere too closely or too truthfully to their inspiration as is made known by research, their work may become a vehicle for the exploration of their inspiring work as opposed to the exploration of their own ideas.

In consideration of feedback from assignment 2, I have been led towards further consideration of my practical exercise component and my overall satisfaction with such. It was pointed out to me that the most important vehicle for progression and thus audience engagement was the subject/actress selected. Although her demeanour is generally ordinary, the natural pace and ease of her behaviour came across as a highlight to the piece and thus divergence from her as a subject subtracted from the engagement of the audience and the perceived quality of the image presented. 

It is fair to say that the exercise is exhibiting little attempt to experiment with cinematic and/or production methods and concepts. This was exactly the case. However, such is also the reason for which this exercise was important as a first step towards finding pathways for the effective translation of my writing practise. It is for the reason of interest in the behaviour and movements of the individuals initially observed that I chose to write about them and I did so without any thought as to how my written representation of the event would then be recreated as a cinematic piece. I am interested in the ‘standard’ perception and understanding of human behaviour and demeanour and fascinated by how certain behaviours are normalised to the extent that they go unnoticed. There is a lost appreciation for beauty in these pure and overlooked events of everyday life. 

That said, I am concerned by my own belief in the lack of interest in such for the general public. Although I find these events to be captivating when noticed, I am aware that such may not be the case for others and am therefore hesitant to explore these events in full or in isolation of additional points of interest. As a consequence of this, I feel inclined to supplement these moments with further information, such as additional shots of the scene/setting. While this is somewhat discordant with previously described thoughts relating to lack of desire to pamper to an audience’s expectations, I feel that as I am still seeking out the most effective approach rendering an observation in a video form, in these early stages it is somewhat necessary to adopt more conventional approaches that address potential expectations of the audience, despite the fact that such may come at a compromise of artistic integrity.

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.

Narration in writing and in media as a whole is an unavoidable feature intrinsically linked with the process of story telling. Although the greater portion of the narration discussed in the tutorials is the literal act of employing dialogue so as to contextualise visuals, I have been turning over the idea of narration as more or less a synonym to story telling. Much of the relationship between narration/the narrator and the story can be considered as a relationship between subjectivity and objectivity, where narration is the vehicle by which a story is transformed from an objective occurrence to the subjective recount of that occurrence. While I am very much interested in the relationship between the subjective and the objective when considering the recreation and representation of a subject/event/observation, the consideration of the act or practice of narration is difficult to address as I find it to be rather complex with respect to its relationship to perspective. When it comes to observational writing in particular, to lend excessive character to the narrator, whether this be achieved in directly acknowledging the point of view and context of the narrator or in indirectly creating this character in the means and language by which the observation is constructed, I am uncertain as to what degree the active inclusion of subjectivity is appropriate. To acknowledge the inevitable bias and subjectivity with which representation and translation of life experiences is intertwined is arguably an important aspect of observational writing as it informs the reader as to the lens through which representation is achieved and therefore may enable a better understanding of the reality of the event, however to allow the bias and subjectivity to become of immediate importance to an observation as a piece of writing arguably also reduces the degree to which it may be considered as genuinely observational by facilitating the dominance of subjectivity and therefore obscuring the objective reality.

The immediate consideration of narration in tutorials, however, and the viewing of the relevant clips in class has shed some light on the balance between subjectivity and objectivity. Of particular interest was the clips from the documentary film, Die Getraeumten (2016). In what was viewed of the film, not only is it the documentary approach and therefore sustained attempt at objectivity seemingly kept central throughout, but what is observed and documented is the relationship between actors and how the audience’s subjective perception of such is defined by the way the dialogue and discourses between a third party frames this relationship. In this, not only is the objectivity maintained to such a degree that the piece may be considered still a documentary, but the impact of subjectivity is both immediately acknowledged and manipulated. I am uncertain at this stage as to how I can make my understanding of this film and the approach to narration within immediately applicable to my own writing process as I continue to grapple with the balance between objective and subjective, however it is comforting to see that both can co-exist as important elements when adopting an observational approach.