Week 8 – 09/11/21

Interim Presentation

_{This week we gave our interim presentations, we had to present an element of our films to the class. I decided to present my ideas on visual style. Unfortunately I missed the 5 minutes or less note and had a 10 minute presentation prepared that I had to very quickly condense down to fit into the time slot. What I didn’t get the chance to properly explain I’ll post here.}

Lawrence Lek

_{One artist/filmmaker who has been influencing a potential visual style I might adopt is Lawrence Lek. In the event that going back to JHQ becomes significantly more risky than I anticipated then I have prepared some alternatives, one being to try and animate some sequences of the film and to use more archive footage incorporated with this animation. This is something which Lek does fantastically.}

_{His seemingly simple, and almost early-Playstation Game-esque, animation style works beautifully with the themes of sci-fi and apocalypse that are present in lots of his work, notably Europa, Mon Amour (2016 Brexit Edition) which paints the trendy North-East London Dalston as a ‘post-apocalyptic utopia’. “Come and explore this drowned world of the near future: filled with forgotten nightclubs, neon-lit music venues, Election booths, Turkish snooker clubs and luxury penthouses”.}

_{Comparing my own Blender experiments, which I posted last week, to this it is clear that I am still a long way away from being at this level, but I am thinking maybe I should switch to using other 3D animation programs, such as Unreal Engine. But I am going to stick with 3D modelling and animation as I feel this is the best alternative if JHQ really is as inaccessible as some people seem to fear it is.}

Emmanuel Van der Auwera

_{Another artist I have been looking at is Emmanuel Van der Auwera, especially his seemingly one piece of video work, The Sky is on Fire. In this film Van der Auwera uses 3D scanning technologies to create a digital version of a Miami Street which the film glides through. “The technology that was used in the making of the images transform these streets into ruins of reality. Film, images, and documentation are now simply digital ruins, and this film is an exploration of them”. The full film is up for free on Mubi, but below is an extract. As well as the visuals of this film I particularly love how it brings archive footage into the animation, in a slightly similar way to Lek’s work, and am obssessed with the constant sound of the crackling of the wind against a microphone making up the soundscape.}

_{This 3D scanning technology has recently become a lot more accessible, the new iPhone comes with Canvas built into it, but after a bit of looking into it I have found out that Canvas is compatible with any iPhone above an 8, to a 5% accuracy.}

My Own Experiments with Visual Style

_{Despite all the focus on animation, I am still quietly confident that filming around JHQ won’t be such an issue. So to prepare myself for filming in less than ideal conditions, as a one person production where I will be carrying all the equipment with me and still needing to be able to easily get around in possibly difficult conditions, I have been practising filming some stuff around my flat with the equipment I have. I wanted to see how my camera would operate in less than ideal lighting situations and to see if I could make this into a feature of the film as opposed to something that will hold it back.}

_{I personally quite like the less than perfect image quality that comes from pushing lower end digital cameras to their limits in low lighting, and think that this fuzzy and at times pulsing image lends itself quite nicely to the themes of memories and creating a dream like state that with the visuals. I also think that the slightly-shaky camera and not actively trying to hide my shadow or reflection is a suitable way to include myself visually, I think any attempts at filming myself directly would possibly push the footage more towards a vlog than a documentary. Although this technique of self-recording or diary filmmaking is something that has been done effectively in other films and could be something to explore.}