Questions and Answers

How many questions do we ask per day? 

How many questions do we ask ourselves per day?

These are very different things.

The questions you ask fellow humans (or even animals) are one thing.
But the ones you ask yourself are in a completely different league.

Can you ask someone what the time is? Sure.

Can you ask them how they are? Definitely.

Can you ask them why we persist and persist at an existence that on the surface doesn't even cover 1% of what we truly want to achieve and that ultimately this ride we call life will be over in the blink of a bloodshot eye rendering all effort and progress gained utterly pointless? ...yeah you can ask that, but don't expect a prepared and positive answer.

There are curiosities we should probably keep to ourselves (with the exception of a very patient friend or family member). They could be mundane dilemmas like what paint to use when making a piece of work, or whether to use audio in a video piece or not. But as we all know these dilemmas may take a lot more than a few seconds of pondering....

Like:

"Should I even be even ATTEMPTING to paint?!"

or

"Wtf am I doing on iMovie?! I don't even 'get' what I'm trying to create!!"

These worries and brief attacks usually pass... But the point is that you ask them in the first place.

I'm not a particularly high strung guy. I stay positive the majority of the time and don't get too hung up on the small things. Nonetheless though, I ask myself questions all of the time. From the trivial to the terrifying. What I have realised is that these questions are what keep us creative types going. Even if we give the wrong answers, it's not the end of the world. Plus, what even is wrong? We'll figure it all out at some stage.

From here on out I vow to ask as many questions as possible.

(I'll try to keep the weird, awkward and panic inducing ones to myself.....maybe)

Being Patient

Having new material and fresh clips to take into iMovie is great. Even though nothing is stopping me from using older clips, I feel much more in touch with my imagination when working with untouched material. Plus I sometimes struggle editing together previously used footage as I can't shake the ideas I had first time around.

Filming the Hawick Harlequins rugby team play the Welsh side Bargoed RFC was an interesting experience. I had fun and was able to capture some shots that I was planning on attempting, and even some that presented themselves for the first time on the day. 

It's a little daunting finding yourself in a situation that you knew was coming and had prepared so much for, then suddenly feeling an immense pressure to achieve the things you set out to do. 

This is how I felt the Saturday before last.

Sitting in the changing rooms with the squad felt natural. As a member of the Quins and having played and socialised weekend after weekend over 3 years with the team, there was a relaxed atmosphere as the lads were pulling their boots on and donning the strip. During bouts of recording I would ensure some players that the final work will be without sound, but this only encouraged their enthusiastically explicit language. It soon became apparent that I would need to produce a blooper reel purely for the team's appreciation!

Once we were down at the riverside and onto the pitch, I began recording movement around me. My first few clips were of our committee members pushing the touchline flags into the grass and various shots of legs leaping across the pitch step by step. 

As I looked through the viewfinder whilst recording I couldn't help but think;

"Ooh! That'll look good if I do this..."    or    "This bit will work better if I crop the..."

The editing stage was constantly on my mind and it was affecting the work! I had to focus on the moment and concentrate on capturing the best footage possible. Once the game kicked off I went into a zone of complete paranoia. 

I hope I got that bit!

Shit - was that in focus??

Where's the ball went??

How long until half time? 

I haven't got enough footage...

The first half was traumatic. For both me and the team. The second half went better and I was able to relax and get some images of the supporters on the touchline. There is once clip where I decided to focus the camera on the lower half of one player, and it just so happened he was passed the ball soon after I began filming. Little occasions like that empowered me and made me realise how important being patient was.

I have looked over most of the footage from my day of filming. Most of it is good, and I am confident that I will be able to produce a final work that is as close to my brief as possible. 

'A Man and his Dogs'

Last month I decided what I wanted to achieve through the Final Major Project unit. The idea is to produce a short film consisting of two pieces of footage, on separate screens, side by side, playing in synchronisation. Screen 1 will show a rugby team preparing, warming up and playing a game followed by their post match routine back at the clubrooms. The 2nd screen will follow the manufacturing process of a garment within a Hawick Knitwear mill.

These 2 scenarios will be shot in a very abstract fashion. I will focus on shape, colour, symmetry and juxtaposition.

In preparation for filming these events I wanted to get a feel for the camera I will be using, so I had a friend assist me in creating a small 'Mockumentary' following a reclusive man living with his 3 dogs in the country. There was no script or structure to the short film, I suggested things for Calum to talk of or things he could do, places he could go, etc. I wanted a subject to focus my camera on and see what I could come up with.

When I got home home and was preparing to edit, I found I had recorded a total of 81separate clips. This was not what I had expected and so putting together an appropriate selection of clips proved a tricky task. I spent around 3 hours figuring out what audio to use, whether or not to follow an obvious theme etc. What I considered most throughout editing was how the visuals would pair up with the audio. I wanted the theme or plot to be left open. Most of the dialogue sounds as if it should be 'off camera' or 'behind the scenes' conversation, thus hopefully feeling similar to a 'Mockumentary'.

After finalising details and watching it over and over, I noticed how quickly it moved at certain points. I didn't notice this at the beginning and Rosie, my classmate, was the one who pointed it out to me that the eyes of the viewer may struggle to follow what is on the screen. I will take this into consideration when filming for my Final Major Project.

The plan was to film the Hawick Harlequins home game against Duns at the weekend past, but the game was cancelled due to a frozen pitch. Thankfully I will have another opportunity this coming week as the Quins have another home game. As for filming in the mill, I plan to get an e-mail sent to the Managing Director this week detailing my plans and asking for permission.






Here is 'A Man and his Dogs' -

Progress with iMovie

Over the last few months since we began our Location Photography and Narrative Image Making units, I have been randomly filming people in and around our class. I had no idea what I would use these short clips for in the beginning, but after getting to grips with iMovie I discovered a whole number of possibilities regarding editing.

My first initial attempt at a short movie was put the music of Pink Floyd and their song 'Us and Them' I realised an immediate connection with the lyrics and the people in the clips I had recorded.
With no plan or any idea what was my beginning, middle and end I just began sifting through the material I had recorded.

Listening to the lyrics closely I tried to arrange certain clips that may look or sound relative to the words being sang and sort of worked from there.

Below is a link to the video!

Learning a lot from this experience with iMovie I discovered the amount of layering that was possible in the editing process.

I had another look at all of my clips and decided to have another shot. Last night I spent 2 hours finishing off another movie with some of the same clips as my first. I found a lot of sound clips and transitions within iMovie I wanted to use, but this meant straying from the dramatic atmosphere I was wanting to create! So I decided not to take it too seriously and start playing around more!

This is what I came up with!

The Mermaid

I recently drew up some small, rough sketches depicting the story given as part of our Narrative Image Making unit. After being drawn to storyboards whilst researching and developing ideas for my final piece, I managed to condense the short story down to 9 scenes following the plot and the various characters.
The idea was to enlarge each scene up to A4. By doing this I was able to adjust lines and essentially make each image clearer and much more distinct.

Nearly all scenes are unfinished, except for the first one and although these are more detailed than my smaller studies, they still need a lot of work! I plan to add colour, additional objects and general detail on Photoshop. I'll need to scan them all in and just continue adding the characters who are absent from these drawings. I figured I'll be able to do a better job creating them digitally rather than with my own hand! You might notice scene 3 being re-used for scene 6, the reason for this is I quite like the perspective it has on the end of the boat and leaves room for me to add waves and the mermaid on Photoshop. Plus scene 3 is when the skipper decided to throw a herring at the mermaid, and scene 6 is when Donald witnesses the mermaid disappear under the water once he had thrown his herring in, I felt it made sense to retain that perspective and angle especially when both scenes are focused on the mermaid. Again I must stress that these drawings are very rough! Every time I look at them I can see them evolving into the final stages and this excites me, I am pleased that at this stage I'm maintaining momentum and continuing to develop this specific piece(s) of work.

Displaying the pieces for my presentation is the next part of the process, I'll figure that out when I need to. I'm enjoying developing these pen drawings at the moment.

Oh and I haven't created a drawing for scene 9 as I plan to create the final scene in a different vein. Since the story ends rather abruptly and mysteriously, I may look into using different materials to emphasise the scene. Then again... maybe not. It may end up too ambitious and unachievable in the time frame we have!