My final project has evolved from the beginning of the course, I had a general idea that I wanted to explore how students were using digital technology and what their experience was of it. However, this was far too open to interpretation and I found it difficult to maybe explain my idea in a clear form.
Tonal Projections
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
― Pablo Picasso
Tonal Projections was where we saw our work from our Masters group come together. It was fantastic to collaboratively work together to produce this almost “pop-up” projection art from inside #TheTank Studio, at Coventry University.
We created a space that was no longer this Kryptonite cube, it evolved into a projection art space. We had three types of projections going from within the glass cube. Firstly was the main projection on the wall, we blocked all the sunlight out so that the luminance of the projector could be at its fullest and all the colours being able to pop out at the audience. Then there was Ken experiential projection, which evolved with the setting sun.
Monks of Wat Bo
This is a short Cinema Verite film, that is made from archived footage, I recorded in April 2015. It is going back to the bedrock of cinema verity and documentary film-making, free handling, no fancy steady cam. The rules are so established in our minds, there are no steady shots, clean editing and focus have been abandoned. It is about experiencing it for what it is, and being emplaced within the environment, through a sensory experience
Photography
What does it mean to be a Monk in the 21st Century? Monks in todays world, somewhat differ from the usual stereotype of a bald man, sitting under a Bodhi tree meditating. He is now more connected than ever. And this is something that has only ever interested me in photographic sense. Visiting Buddhist temples and seeing such religious practices is a sensory experience in itself. This is not something that can be shared fully through just a photograph. And that is where sensory ethnography comes in.
Sound
Sound played a huge part in the creative process to stimulate the senses. The amplitude and gain increases slowly throughout the piece and the chant that the monks are producing, is hypnotic in its tone.
Zero Project
“The film drama is the opium of the people…down with bourgeois fairy-tale scenarios…long live life as it is!” Dziga Vertov
TASK-The verite piece must be a real story about real people. We are not looking for television formats or fabricated spectacles. The essence of any engaging documentary is a story, strong characters, strong imagery and a journey, conflict, resolution or crisis that we follow through the video. These should be your guiding principles when researching and producing your piece. We want you to really explore a more fluid approach to image making in conjunction with a multi-layered use of audio to build a simple soundscape. The film should be three minutes long and should be sensory in its approach.
Cinema Verite- Film truth
Cinéma vérité- ‘film truth’, also known as ‘Direct Cinema’?
A style of film concerned with representing truth and reality, not overtly using filmic artifice or complete directoral control.
What is Cinéma Vérité? –
Cinéma Vérité? often gets misinterpreted. It should provoke its own kind of truth and is not meant in the literal form. It’s an exploration of what the truth “may be” and all the different avenues that the narrative may explore for the audience member personally.
This video describes how Rouch believed that people were just revealing a “truer” version of themselves, not because they were performing, but it was more a reflection of Rouch and his presences as a filmmaker.
Sensory Experience
Sensory : Relating to sensation or the physical senses; transmitted or perceived by the senses:sensory input
Oxford Dictionary. 2015
Sensory is simple to explain. It is the emotion and feeling created through a medium, that uses our basic human senses. Such as sound, sight, touch, taste and smell. When I think about sensory in media, it is not solely on the narrative but all the layers that have been built up to the mise-en-scene. The sound and the visual submerges us, with our senses. The clever use of editing narrative and shot techniques is what gives us a concept of time and feeling. It gets most interesting when you break this down further, when looking at specific documentaries and ethnography films