Checking In

I wanted to check back in after brief 3 because a few things I spoke about in my last update post have changed (yay for change!).

In brief 3 I worked in a group of four people, when I had worked in pairs for both briefs before this. I found this so refreshing! There were so many more ideas, more people to create video content and more voices when it came to both the editing process and writing the artist statement. I'm working in a group of three for brief 4 so I'm glad to have another opportunity to explore creating something with a group.

In my group of four I was able to take on different roles than I previously had. I got to film a lot of short nature clips in my local area which was really fun. I had some creative freedom to film myself (after coming up with the basic concepts as a group) which made me feel more connected to the final work. I could see how clips that I had initially filmed could be changed significantly by someone else's editing and guided group discussion.

I think the success of this collaboration was our communication. We had a group chat, there weren't any cases of someone disappearing for long periods and we were supportive of each other.

Group discussion of last minute edits

Brief 3 felt much more challenging (partially because of the short time frame) and for that reason, I enjoyed it a lot more. I enjoyed the dynamic of working with different people on different parts of of the process. I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes out of the final brief for the semester.

Brief 3 - Transpositions: Text to Image

by Qing, Kayla, Christie and Logan

Our Poems

Wind and Silver by Amy Lowell
Greatly shining,
The Autumn moon floats in the thin sky;
And the fish-ponds shake their backs and flash their dragon scales
As she passes over them.

Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold, 

Her hardest hue to hold. 

Her early leaf's a flower; 

But only so an hour. 

Then leaf subsides to leaf. 

So Eden sank to grief, 

So dawn goes down to day. 

Nothing gold can stay.

Artist Statement

Our approach:

We started off with four poems because we had a larger group, so we had to narrow our material down because it didn’t seem achievable to cover everything. After settling on two poems, we picked out some of the themes and ideas that they both had in common. These included: 

• Colours: gold and silver
• The natural world: water, wind, flora (leaves, flowers, etc.), Eden
• Light: ‘dawn’, ‘Autumn moon’
• Contrast 
• Iridescence
• Impermanence
• Touched-up reality

We decided to work with some of these themes and ideas to create a hybrid work. We created some mood boards with images of concepts we might like to try out. Unfortunately, we couldn’t pull off all of our ideas so they didn’t end up in the final product.

From there, we did a brainstorming activity where we played around with the two poems and how they could be blended together:

Wind. Silver. Gold. Nothing Can Stay 

Greatly shining ⚪️ Nature's first green is gold, 

The Autumn moon floats in the thin sky ⚫️ Her hardest hue to hold. 

And the fish-ponds shake their ⚪️ Eden sank grief,

As she passes over them ⚫️ dawn goes down to day. 

Dragon scales ⚪️ only so an hour. 

Nothing can stay 

🔘

Both of our selected poems have a transitory, eroding, wind like affect.

We decided then to translate poetry as experience—words arranged as fragments, or film edited in a montage. Play with film as a means to access the matrix of meaning we 

Moving image, sound and cinematic technique appear laden with symbols for a responder to interpret and live for themselves. We decided to use a contrast between focus and unfocus, filter and unfiltered, hard set frame and loose to highlight the ambiguity of experience. To create a place of relating for the viewer, without an obvious lead from us as collaborating creators.

Issues we encountered:

In the beginning, we were a bit stumped by having too many poems  to work with but this was easily solved. The main issue we encountered was not being able to create what we initially intended to. We initially wanted to demonstrate wind with something like gymnastic ribbon or fabric flapping in the wind. When we couldn’t find gymnastic ribbons at any stores on short notice and the weather wasn’t ideal (raining, rather than sunny and windy as we hoped it would be), we had to come up with other ideas. We had a go at filming short clips over the weekend, uploaded them all to Google Drive and then worked as a group to make selections and editing decisions.

Discoveries we made:

Working in a group of four was definitely a new experience for some of us. It was a different kind of work environment with more voices to be heard, unique style preferences and ideas bouncing around between us; however the fact that we all had an interest and engagement with the core ideas behind the poems and video, really sent us in a cohesive direction. There was still enough room within the creativity of the task for each group member to get involved and utilize their strengths while learning from each other.

Another discovery we made was that between the ambiguity of poetry and the ambiguity that can be found in subtle meanings drawn from a few seconds of film imagery, everyone can contrive different connections. For example, while one of us may look at a scene in our video and tie it to the poem as a result of its theme of nature, another one of us may see it relating to the imagery as a symbol of impermanence. This really emphasized the subjective nature of poetry in general.

The Final Product

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1zsTj1uAiOeTP5eY34X8758EQkgVmprFt

The Half Way Point

Photo by Stefano Zocca

The semester is already half over and I wanted to sum up my thoughts and feelings on the studio so far, because they will no doubt change again by the end of the semester.

Collaborating is a real challenge for me. I'm sure everyone in the studio is finding it difficult for different reasons, but I personally just love to work on my own. I like to set my own pace; powering ahead in some stages and then giving myself a break when I'm going through a phase of working a lot or just needing to give myself some rest.

I feel that so far I haven't been challenged too hard in the ways I was expecting (being pushed to try new skills and methods of working, for example).This is perhaps because I've been a bit more willing to let others take control. I feel that I haven't displayed my full potential in working with film yet but I'm really hoping for some magic in the next two briefs.

I haven't felt an attachment to any of the collaborative work that I've produced so far. I'd like this to change by the end of the semester. I'd like to have a work that reflects me in some ways, but that I also couldn't have created on my own. A "true" work of collaboration?

I've worked in pairs for both brief one and two. In class it was mentioned that a third member in a group can serve as a circuit breaker and I really like this idea. I agree that working in a pair can often feel like 'it's your idea or mine' and I think a third person could be really helpful. I haven't found much inspiration in the last two briefs I have completed so honestly I'd love to work in a group that has too many ideas and has to pick and choose between them.

Overall, I think there's more for me to gain from this studio. I haven't been able to show what I'm really capable of creating, it's just the tip of the iceberg. I've kind of just been bobbing along, keeping my head above water and completing everything I need to. In terms of collaboration, I feel that I haven't necessarily gotten into the meat of it yet. I'm curious to find out who I'll be working with for brief three. 

I'm also curious to hear from my future self about what I'll think of this post at the end of the semester!