YPG2EL
East London New and Old from YPG2EL on Vimeo.
I came across a project called Young Person’s Guide 2 East London, a website, which aims to help visitors on 2012 as they visit east London for the Olympic Games. Its set up and run and made my young people in East London and consists of advice and videos.
http://www.ypg2el.co.uk/
The videos are mainly made up of stills with audio. They have a very student-y feel about them. The project seems great for getting young people involved in media, and the upcoming Oylmpics. It isn’t the feel I want to go for in my videos. Although some of the photos are quite good, I still want to aim hire than these standards of video’s, as they feel quite amateurish, compared to the standard of video I covet to make.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tom Hunter
Tom Hunter is a polish photographer who lives and works in Hackney, where I am from. He has a range of works from series on the art of squatting, living in hell, Travelling, and east end life. His works on east end life, is the most interesting, and relative to my own works.
His more cinematic, and artistic approach to capturing his subject, is very elegant, very thoughtful, and beautiful. His work is very colourful, using the natural colour of every day life.
I am more prone myself to documentary photography, so I find it hard to critically analyse more artistic work, but this is something I need to do to develop my own work.
Tom Hunter has a poetic raw truth in this photography, the photo is beautiful, yet the story the image is conveying is one of hardship, poverty, death, love, sex, homelessness.
I like the aesthetics of his work, the vivid colours shine through the dingy atmosphere.
(From the Swan Songs Series)
(From the Swan Songs Series)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Kingsmead Eyes
Please watch the video in the link below.
Kingsmead Eyes from Kingsmead Eyes on Vimeo.
I came across this project when I found this article
The project by Gideon Mendel is so relevant to the work I want to achieve with my final project. The Kingsmead Estate is in Clapton Park, where I live, and will be producing my final project. Some of this teenagers that are envolved in my project live on the Kingsmead estate, and went to the Kingsmead primary school.
I previously spoke with D.Wiafe about the idea of giving camera’s to the teenagers in my project, and allowing them to capture their own lives, their own world. I love the ascetics and nature of disposable cameras, and the ‘happy-snap’ photography. This is also a much more viable and affordable option for my project.
In the video I love the voice overs by the children themselves. This is also something I have always envisioned for my video project. I never thought of a poem idea, but love the concept. Poem writing, and lyric writing, prayer writing is something I have always wanted to encourage for the youth churches I run currently with the teenagers in my project, as this, especially lyric writing, is something they can really relate too, as they are all huge music fans.
I love the still image video, I myself want to do something with moving image, rather than just still image, as I am very aware that we are meant to be creating a body of work, rather than a simple piece. I want to be able to explore lots of mediums, and outputs through my final project to see what works best.
Gideon’s work is a great find to help me with my project, as it is so close to what I am aiming for. It is currently still being exhibited at the V&A Museum of Childhood, which is my very favourite museum, which, as a child, visited almost every weekend. So I will be going to see the exhibition very soon. I may even get in touch with Gideon, or the Kingsmead school about the project.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
NINE
I went to see the film Nine over Christmas. It was a good film, very well directed by Rob Marshall. You could see the comparisons from his most famous film Chicago. The way the film portrays women is clearly linked in both movies, the sexiness they ooze on screen, and how they always out shine the men in the films; admittedly both films evolve around women, but this is another link between the two.
I personally felt the film was a little boring throughout, and was longer than it needed to be. The best part of the film for me, well the Kate Hudson song scene:
I love the use of black and white, and the style, and fashion.
The other most meaningful scene for me was the last scene in the film. All the characters from Guido’s life came out of a door on to a large stairway. They came out as they would at the end of a stage production for applause from the audience. The characters came out to be there with Guido to help him move forward with his life. At the very end, Guido’s childhood self runs towards him and sits next to him whilst he starts shooting his next movie. Reinforcing a quote earlier in the film, about needing his childhood to help him move forward in his life. I loved they symbolism in this scene, and the way they used the past characters in his life, and used a stage technique in a movie.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
The Big Ten: Idea’s So far.
So I’ve decided I need to come up with 10 ideas (if not more) to help me select the best final project. I have 2 currently. So here we go:
Idea One:
Social Media Documentary
This is the idea I had before starting 310mc in the summer. I would like to explore the nature of how different people interact with social media and how it integrates and affects their lives. From someone who uses it all the time for personal use, an older person who uses it every no and then, or a self employed person, or public figure who uses it for self promotion and PR/work purposes. I find it fascinating the way it fits in to different peoples lifestyles.
I would also like the documentary to be interactive. Full of multimedia, and only watch-able on a computer, so you can click through to different links, see live RSS feeds etc.
Idea Two.
Re Visit 210mc Project
I want to look back at the photography project I started for 210mc which focused on a group of teenagers in Hackney, which attended a small local church, and their relationship with God and Church. Please read more in the second part of this post: Looking Forward + Skills Audit.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: 210mc, 310mc, Ideas
310mc: Process
To develop and evolve from 310mc to 311mc there are certain process I need to go through before I get to my final idea, and final product.
The things Steve pointed out in the 310mc Lecture today to help us make that journey were:
1) Must develop lots of ideas (10+)
2) Realise your idea
3) Develop idea – research – plans
4) Understand your context
5) Must link 311mc work with 310mc
I think one of the most important points which was raised was to KEEP BLOGGING over the holidays, keep inputting idea’s, research, thoughts etc. This will all help me with my final approach.
I think the big one for me also is to come up with 10+ ideas. I feel I have already found a great idea, one I think I’m certain I want to have as my final project. So its hard to come up with new ideas when I feel I already have ‘the one’. I will still come up with idea’s, as I’m sure with the Christmas influences I’m going to encounter I will have lots of inspiration to think of brilliants, then I can look over my ideas as a whole and make my final decision.
When thinking of new ideas, and progressing those final ideas I must keep looking back to Power, Spectacle and Memory, a point I forgot about, and keep pulling on those themes to help with the final project.
Out of my ideas I must also insure I have a Plan A, a Plan B and a Plan C! Because anything can happen, and I have to be prepared for everything to go wrong, and need to start over. If I have an efficient plan then I will be fine, and still produce a great piece of work.
I also have to remember it isn’t a final piece, I have to produce a strong BODY of work. A number of different artefacts will help me achieve higher grades, and better artefacts.
One more point is: Research Research Research. The more influences I have the better my work can get. I need to actively look for work to inspire me. This is something I really need to work on after discussing it during my Skill Audit with J.Lee. I aspire to have blogs and blogs, and books and folders and files full of research. Every tiny thing I come across starting NOW I need to document, and talk about, and see how it can help me and my own work. Steve mentioned Logistical and Contextual research, so things that are in the context of my ideas, I need to see what people are making in the same field, and the same area, logistically. Feed off this research to help my work, get in touch with them, to help me. Every little counts.
Most importantly I need to put the hours in.
This is all what I plan to do. I will keep re-reading this post to keep mu focused.
And chanting: Plan, Blog, Power, Spectacle, Memory, Plan, Blog.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: 310mc, Process
During our Lecture with Steve this Monday (1412/09) we were shown two types of student final projects Colin, and Dancing Shoes.
Now I knew Colin would be the ‘good’ one, as I had already heard of it, I think I first saw it on Twitter, being publicised, and trying to get it into real cinemas. Colin is a student film, made on a £45 budget. and… Its GOOD.
The things that make Colin GOOD:
Good Sound,
Good Lighting,
Good Actors,
Good Editing,
Good Graphics,
Good Shots/Framing,
And this thing which made all those previous things happen was: ATTENTION TO DETAIL.
That’s the key to making an amazing final piece of work, to put the work in and attend to every single detail. The guy who made it also was aware of his market. He really knew the context of what he was making, which is why it didn’t turn out cheesy or fake.
The other option is to make something like Dancing Shoes, I can’t find the clip we were shown in the Lecture. But the reason it was BAD was because it didn’t do the GOOD things that Colin did. It lacked the attention to detail, It didn’t even have continuity, and frankly looked like a first year piece. I know there was probably a big story behind it, and a ton of research which helped it and that’s also a very important thing to be thinking about in this final module. But it still has to be presentable, I still have to show the technical skills and creativeness I have learnt during my 3 years here, and pile it into my final piece, because this is going to be the big one in my portfolio which I will show prospective employers.
So Colin, or Dancing Shoes. I have to decide, to pay attention, to work hard, to do the leg work as well to produce an amazing piece. I should aim for nothing less than Colin.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: 310mc, 311mc, BAD, Colin, Detail, GOOD, Steve Dawkin
Looking Forward + Skills Audit
My Skills Audit with Jonathan Lee was useful to help me reflect, and look forward to my final project, and final stretch of learning at Coventry University.
The above if my own reflection of the skills I feel I have (or haven’t) and the ones I need to obtain. As a self reflective person I always knew I needed to work on my equipment and editing skills, and now even more so when I will be moving into (hopefully) paid work. I need to make sure I’m up to a good enough level for employment.
I also talked J Lee through my ideas for my final project. I want to go back and re-visit a project I started in the second year. I explored the relationship between teenagers at a small estate church in the heart of ‘murder mile’ in Hackney, East London and their relationship with God, and Church. Out of doing that project I started running a monthly Youth Church with my Mum and Friend which still continues. I want to delve much deeper in my revisit, I also want to use sound and moving image this time round. They are a year older now, and feeling about 10 years older, I want to capture these kids before they get too old, I want to capture them at this point in their lives, and see where they have come, and are going with their lives since the past shoot I did last year.
I feel this rare opportunity is so raw, and fresh that I need to take advantage of it, and its a project I’m very invested in, and have been interesting in making since I moved to Hackney just before starting University. I’m very lucky to be in a position to have access and friendships with this group, and am able to work with them. I want to get them involved with this project, I want this to be something we work on together. I even have a vision for an instalment exhibition to display my final piece, and this will be the motivation I have to create something very very interesting, capturing this moment in time for these Kids, before it disappears.
Its good to reflect back on my original artist statement when talking about this project:
When I first moved to Murder Mile an area of east London, which is very economically poor, and has notoriously high levels of crime, especially knife and gun crime and the immediate local area where gang life is common, and portrayed in the 2004 film ‘Bullet Boy’ as the centre of ghetto culture and gun crime; I came into a little community which stood solitary in its estate, the church were all the good went, but arrived late and spoke all the way through the service. Where the young were dragged by their grandparents, so they wouldn’t turn out ‘that way’. These children, these teenagers fascinated me, growing up in a place so famous for murder its named after it, what influences are these kids under from their surroundings, where a lot of girls believe being a ‘baby mama’ when they grow up is okay, and boys think its okay to treat their ‘baby mamas’ with disrespect. These kids aren’t only being influenced by the media like most kids, but by the harsh realities of gang culture, which they see on their streets, outside their front doors, by their own older brother and sisters. These kids with their world so different from the average 13 year old are coming to church, which teaches them about the good, the fair, and the love. I wanted to explore the relationship between the teenagers and their life at church, I wanted to use these previous stereotypes to explore a world colliding in this current culture and how this affects young teenagers in their personal life, social life and their own life with God. I also want to look at how they use the space of the church to socialize with other teens, their parents/carers. I want to use the space of the church as their natural habitat and a backdrop for my photos, to see how they would behave, would they wear their Sunday best, or would they dress in hoodies? I wanted to photograph them using unnatural lighting, to reflect that they are slightly out of place in a traditional church setting. With influences from diCorcia’s Street Theatre, with the light miss-fitting the location, I wanted a studio light effect out of the studio to the teenagers could play up to the camera.
I also wanted contrasting photos of the streets around the church and in a local landmark called ‘The Square’, a local meeting point for the local gangs to show the difference between church life and the world they have to deal with all of their lives, I wanted to show the roads and places they have to avoid so they can get home safely. I wanted to show this at night, because the sense of the place changes when the sun goes down, it’s when the fear begins, and the safety of the sun has disappeared. The well-known roads become new again with hiding places and dark shadows. Using only the street lights and luminous shop signs the photos show that dark sincerity, and hallowing shadows which you can only imagine what has happened there, and what indeed will happen in the future.
Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment
Evalu8in: Overall
Looking back over all 3 videos, and the entire module I can draw similarities and themes from my work.
When I look at the 3 video’s I have produced for this module, I immediately notice that they were all made within the confides of my own home. I never ventured out to a location setting to make a film. I tell myself that this is because all my 3 films needed to be filmed in this way, and shooting in my flat was the best thing for my idea; but then I feel that I should of pushed my ideas harder, and thought out of the ‘box’ – the box being my own home. I think this is something that needs to be dealt with immediately if I am to go on to make a 3rd year standard level of work for my final project.
I think that module has taught me to think of making films in a different way that I thought about it before. I did have an idea I wanted to produce for my final project before this module, and the content and work produced in this module has made me completely change my mind, and think of a better, different, more realistic idea to pursue for my final project next term.
I’ve also enjoyed the individual nature of the module, because we haven’t had a lot of chances in the course up until now to produce bodies of work on our own. This has really enabled my creative flow to grow, and flourish. I feel sometimes in group work it can hinder your original idea. But its also a double edged sword, as in individual work you don’t have help to bounce ideas off, or to help coax ideas, and add value to them also. I’ve also realised working individually I don’t have the level of equipment and editing skills I would like to have, as I have always relied on other group members to use the equipment, myself taking a more producer/director role.
Looking back on the people I have found most influential thought this module would be Ravi Depree, Michel Gondry, and most obviously Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth.
I have stopped trying to want to make a polished final piece because of this module, I wanted to make something initially that would be ready to show prime time on Channel 4. But through this module, it has changed the way I look at film making. I stop looking at it as a film maker, and just as a creative being. I don’t have to make something polished and perfect, fact is – I can’t. I feel this breakthrough, and this learning curve from 310 has shaped my final project into what it will become, and I would defiantly not be where I am in thought processes, and idea for my final piece without 310mc. I look forward to the future.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: Evalu8in, Jorgen Leth, Lars von Trier, Memory, Michel Gondry, Overall, Power, Ravi Depree, spectacle
Evalu8in: Spectacle
Spectacle was our first theme, and our first obstruction. We had just found out all about The 5 Obstructions, and Jorgan Leth + Lars Von Trier, which was very inspiring to our first video, and having the obstruction made making our first film even more exciting! The obstruction was no edit longer than 0.5 seconds, which for me personally was so baffling! I couldn’t work out how I would be able to translate meaning, and emotion, and image in 0.5 seconds. But with the First obstruction to work from I was able to see how. Sound was very important to tie all the edits together.
For my own Idea was very interested in looking at “Spectacle” from a different angle, I didn’t want to take the theme literally. I was also when looking at examples of spectacles in lectures and research, the most interesting thing to me were peoples reactions to these spectacles. So this is what I focused on for my film. I also quickly decided that as I don’t have an awesome time travel device I couldn’t film any footage myself, and would have to use archive footage of previous spectacles. I used youtube initially find footage, as this was more edgy footage, filmed on web cams, and mobile phones. I liked this footage, but hard to find exactly what I was looking for in terms of reactions, as the mobile phone footage was of the spectacle, but with the sound of the reaction, which isn’t what I wanted to portray in my film.
For inspiration I was also told about Ravi Dupree, a photographer who has shot a series called Patriots, a series about the fans and followers of football. It explores the dynamics and psychology behind football fans. This helped me look at the emotion and realness of reactions, specially with ongoing spectacles such as football, which lasts lifetimes. He also had a mix of mobile phone style images as well as very good quality images, which made me think about using other types of images.
Jonathan Lee told us in a seminar about BBC Motion Gallery so I tried there for footage. I was amazed of what I could find, and the quality, and that you can get it for free if you accept the watermark over the top. I had to make a decision then, to use the worse quality YouTube footage, or use the BBC footage, and accept the watermark. I decided that as this is a research module, and isn’t a final piece, that the watermark is acceptable in this situation, but for any other situation it would be far from acceptable. I also thought that it wouldn’t distract from my work as it stays in the same place, and you see through it really, and don’t focus on it for more than a second.
I spent a lot of time practising editing and using iMovie with 0.5 edits with a BBC ident, and seeing how I could play around with that to help me with my editing for my final Spectacle piece. I then went on to select my footage fro BBC motion gallery, which involved a lot of time and concerted effort to trail thought lots of clips to find the perfect ones. I then went on to make several different edits and versions until I was happy enough to present it to my class. I probably could of gone on forever editing it, and making slight changes, so I was happy having a deadline to prevent me from doing that! The music was also a big decision, I initially decided to use a happier, more up beat song by the Flaming Lips, called The Yeah Yeah Yeah song. But after it failed to play the music on youtube due to copy right, I changed it. I’m glad that happened as I found a much better, much more suitable song. The final song by Adel called Hometown Glory, had a great instrumental beginning which was perfect for my piece.
I am really proud of my first piece, and there isn’t a lot I would change if I went back and did it again, maybe spend longer looking for footage, and have a wider range. Although I feel I portrayed a lot of emotions and reactions in my film.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: BBC Motion Gallery, Editing, Evalu8in, Jorgen Leth, Lars von Trier, Ravi Duprees, spectacle, The 5 Obstructions
