Evaluating!

To start off with I didn't really feel enthusiastic about this project as it was hard to leave my previous film idea, however once the project started to get it's feet I started feel for it a bit more and I got into the swing of things. Leaving the planning and such to Hannah and Laura as it was their ideas, but I happily pulled my weight with filming/directing and colouring, two things I haven't done before. 

There were some things that would have been better off changing such as location for filming, however we did not have those resources at the time so we had to stick with what we had and tried to work our way around it. There is also the situation of the layout of each screen. Obviously it has been sorted to be clearer and softer on the eyes, however, before the change the screen slowly filled up with more mess and became a jumble of screens being played at the same time. Now, it's changed to only two films playing next to each other at a time instead of altogether. 

With sound, each director is commentating their film. Of course not over each other, when someones film plays only their voice will be heard, same with the other two films.

Preferably I wouldn't have wanted sound, I'd want to have the song from the original clip playing and leave the rest to the eyes to spot each difference as the piece loops. That would seem more like a gallery piece. Just having the music was going to be our original idea, then it changed to having it in the background with commentary, but we thought that might have been too much for the audience and kept the music out of it. 

Colouring!

After Laura and hannah did the editing it was my turn to do the colouring. I actually enjoyed this though I feel I should of had more time with the footage as I don't think it looks as good and I could make it look better or more to the original footage I based the colouring on. Anyway, I took the footage and colour corrected the first shot, coping the effects, I then pasted it to the rest of the footage. Then, going back through them to correct and adjust the settings so that it all looks generally the same colour, brightness, contrast, etc. 

Filming!

Filming the project was a little difficult as we didn't want to film it in student accommodation and have it look like a cheesy student film. So we took the location to my flat to give it a fresh look, however the layout of the kitchen was not ideal for the angle and shots we wanted to achieve. 

We did manage to work our way around some things and tried the best we could with what we had. 

The plan of filming itself had changed as we were originally going to take turns doing each scene, however it became jumbled and confusing so we quickly changed it to each person doing their filming in one then the next person goes. It worked out just as well and possibly a little more simple.

Movie Scripting!

For the project, I couldn't remember the video we were doing so I watched it again to refresh my memory. However after watching it I remembered it very easily part from small little details, so after writing down what I saw I decided to change obvious parts, such as the colour of things. 

Then I shortened it into a script that pointed out the obvious bits that have been changed, sadly when I was recording I thought it was alright but after thinking about it I feel I sounded a little unenthusiastic about it which might change the feel of the film and make it seem droning. 

SCRIPT

There's a dollar bill on the wall.

Then she walks in wearing a stripy shirt.

It cuts to a newspaper clipping of her.

She starts mixing and making a cake with a golden mix.

Puts it in the oven then pop it on the table.

She makes a purple icing for the cake and squeezes the soft pink icing onto the cake.

Once finishing it she stares at it a bit, looking all sad, then goes and places it in the fridge. 

Photography Presentation!

Wish presenting my Photography project i was suggested to use a book or a book to show my work however thinking on the subject of memories and how my project sees them as faded and old, I thought about stringing them together with string. Barely holding on, so easy to forget, yet all on the same string piece of string as they're all bundled to be forgotten.

With the sizes of the image, I shall be keeping them the original film size but I shall add white card to boarder it, which will make it easier for me to string them up without ruining the film more. However I'm thinking of crumpling and discolouring the white card to fit the theme of the photos. 

(Pictures of presentation will be added later)

Distorting and Evaluation!

For my work I need to damage the film in a way that it certain parts are preserved and still viewable. My original idea was to have a bucket full of dirty water and then sit my photos into it for a few days. So just to make sure that it would work I tested it on an unwanted photo.  

However after a few days of sitting in the water, nothing really happened to the photo apart from a few scratches from the stones and mud.

So I thinking quickly I thought bleach my affect the film so again I tested it out and tried to moderate it for when I do the final images.

With a few mistakes I managed to wash the bleach down with enough water to take the first few layers off the film, giving the image a washed/faded effect to it. In the image below I dabbed the wet image with a towel but I didn't like the look of that.

Finally I did it to my final images and used different techniques with the bleach, such as using a sponge to tab the bleach across it. 

I really enjoyed doing this as it's something different compared to what I'd originally do with this photography project. However I wished the water damage would have worked as it would have given it a more washed memory feel to the images where as the bleach seems very self damaged and done on purpose. Though it has given me the right look, I hope that with a small piece of text it'll be easily picked up that the images represent old faded memories. 

Photography Upgrade!

Stephen gill - Buried 

Take the inspiration from Stephen and for each picture, distort it a different way for a reason that's in the image.

Such as:

Burning

Water damage

Burying 

Ripping/crumpling

Scratching

Or maybe just use water. 

The type of damage that it causes to the film has a faded effect to it, giving it a faded memory feel.

Also, the symbol of water relates to memories that have been forgotten or can't recall, because I am constantly changing and taking in new information, so things will be forgotten or incorrect. 

"No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man." Heraclitus

Photography Development!

Final Idea!

I will gather old family photos that include me in an important or memorable situation however i will burn out certain things or people that I don't remember.

To give it authenticity I will burn the edges as well to give it a more decaying memory look.

Photography Ideas!

Remembering Places
Going back to places or landscapes that I remember from my childhood, yet are too fuzzy to really remember every little detail.
Have the photos blurred too to recreate my memory failing to capture everything.

Burning photographs
burn peoples faces of things out of the photograph
capture the decay of memory, physically and mentally

Faded memories/shattered memories: burnt photos

Putting myself into child hood photos
I say myself when I can use other family members to give the series variety
Gather some old pictures, either with one person or multiple already in it, then place the same people in that photo but their present day selves.

Film me making a collage out of my old school pieces  <- different peoples(friends) school work being made into collages (look into collages of previous works or photographs)
then photography it

Recreate old childhood photographs
just something funny to do.

Chino Otsuka 2

Looking through more of Chino's work I saw a series called Memoryscape. I really like this piece of work as it fits well with my current theme of memory, the decay, as well as fitting in with my favourite side of photography, landscape.

I truly love how she's taken images of beautiful places which she's been to before but taken the images out of focus.

Really showing the message of trying to remember somewhere from memory. It's not perfect it's blurred and isn't as detailed as the actual thing.

Chino Otsuka

Chino Otsuka

When scrolling around on tumblr I came across these series of photographs by Chino Otsuka. In her photos she has taken old holiday photos of her when she was younger and placed her present self into those images.

Looking through her work I've noticed a lot of memory or family based photography. I shall be keeping an eye on her to see if any new stuff appears or if I'm in need of inspiration.

Memory Treatment!

My Treatment

Trying to think of a topic for memory without going to very cliche subjects was hard. Though this idea does seem very cliche the message behind is quite different and the view or take on it is quite different.

Using home footage of my own family, I look to create a warm and personal piece. Essentially inviting you to a chat with my family about the good old memories. 

Clipping together old footage and even some photographs to expand on the media side, also give some variation story wise. Then over the top of the footage will be a voice over or more specifically a conversation between family members, trying to piece together the memory from what they can, without seeing the images/footage.

Of course this does seem very personal to me however you do not have to see it that way. Think of it as a interview or documentary. 

The message behind it is that both physical recordings of memories and memories themselves get very distorted and broken over time. However through communication from people who were there, can piece together a more accurate image from scratch. 

The objective is not to make you feel nostalgic as it's not your family or memories, you are meant be seeing this from an outsiders point of view. It's getting you to think about you're own family memories or how you go through photo albums with family members too. 

For this I will be in need of someone who has a interest in sound. Be it editing or technician, there is a lot riding on the sound aspect of this project. 

We will need to look into microphones and the best way to catch the conversation, be it individually miked up or a set microphone in the centre of the room. 

Then of course I need producers and editors. I need someone more organised than myself and someone who can piece this all together to a polished piece. Of course I shall be guiding you as director.

The fact the footage is already shot makes the task a little easier, however there's possibly the case of getting old VHS tapes concerted into a digital format for editing. Which just leaves the sound recording, which shouldn't take more then a couple of days.

Previous Memory Ideas!

Daydreaming

Daydreaming whilst listening to music an it brings old memories back, be it anything or just a good feeling, or it brings new thoughts such as ideas 

Music that brings emotions, e.g. joy, sadness, anger  

Collect different songs from different songs from different people.

Shoot locations or areas that a subject might look at to encourage this dream state. Have music that changes throughout the piece, the music brings back memories, either good or bad

Pre-pitch development 2!

I developed my idea in my pre-pitch and we developed and pretty much changed the idea completely. 

We are taking home footage and photos of my family. The idea is to search through them and find interesting, possibly funny, warming footage of my family. Clipping them together to make it ideal length for the task.

 Then my plan is too go and gather my family members in a room and get them to tell me about the specific memories I have picked without letting them see or be reminded. Of course a microphone is needed for recording them and a lot of sound editing to get rid of all the thinking time.

There maybe some technical issues with the amount of people in one room and getting VHS tape footage into a digital, editable format.

The message behind this one is that video footage, over time, will become distorted a lot like our memories. With family input the memories can be rebuilt from scratch, even if it is a bit choppy.

Pre-pitch Development!

Development of my previous idea is to keep the memory abstract and hard to make out. Also instead of playing around with hard to reconstruct footage just keep it simple, like home footage that one person might remember. 

Still debating on whether to use 2 screens to show the correct footage and then the distorted version next to it or keep it all on one screen somehow. 

The message now is that over time memories will become distorted, the brains quality in remembering will decrease. Also the importances of living in the moment and record happy times in others ways (e.g. photos)then trying to remember them. 

First Pre-pitch!

Dream Recording

My idea is to take this fact based technology and apply it into my idea to recreate the look of a memory.

The things I'll be recreating is the truth behind Historical events, such as the death of JFK, 9/11, etc.
The list of conspiracies behind those events are large and the fact that media can be very easy manipulated. So I would show the image of the historical event next to footage the 'Memory' of what 'Actually' happened.


Recreating the 'memories' look in after effects.

More research into this technology.

My Chilean Miner Reenactment

Warning! This is not a serious thing, if you take it seriously I will be forced to slap some sense into you!

Monday 20th!

Monday 20th research

photography process:

heliography

william henry fox talbot (1844)

louis daguerre (1848)

the planning and process (chemicals and equipment) was a lot longer and needed to be thought out thoroughly 

photography was used for research in science, police investigations, passports and pornographic images, newspapers, rather than a everyday thing that the common man has.

major events that no one in this generation has seen but because of photographic evidence we can experience 

august sanders = portraits (labels) 

time and life magazine 40s

http://content.time.com/time/archive

dead vietnam soldier <- describe my feelings toward it compared to someone not familiar with the photography aspect 

penny slinger<- an exorcism

magnum <- http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_14

martin parr <- http://www.magnumphotos.com/C.aspx?VP3=CMS3&VF=MAGO31_10_VForm&ERID=24KL5357TF

cindy sherman

roland barthes - camera lucida <- read

memory triggers <- smells, look, feel

talk about “artistic” short films and photography (weird, not liked)

susan sontag - on photography (1979)

katherine keenan 

john berger- ways of remembering

ideas: Retrieve images from home that are of me or my family when im younger 

retrieve video from nan of home/family footage

work out later what to do with them 

sophie calle

look at digital memory 

calum colvin

doug hall <- relate to security cameras or google earth 

matthias wahner 

Memory Mind Map

This mind map is from the thought of Time and what it spreads itself too. Of course I have possibly missed out some things, however this is what I got.

Chilean Miners Reenactment!

5th August 2010, 33 men were trapped 2,297ft underground in the San Jose mine in 

Copiapo, Chile. Stuck so far underground for 69 days the temperature and humidity of the mine was intense and caused a lot of worry for the health of the miners, as well as lack of food and water.

TELEGRAPH

Interview with miners!