I'm an aspiring actor who believes you can't rest entirely on your laurels. I'm on a Media course purely for the reason that you can't put all your eggs in one basket.
The story is an interesting one, having been brought back to media I was forced to think on my feet and to create a new museum piece. I thought back to all the exhibits I had seen and I remembered the exhibit on the singer miss Kathleen Ferrier, upon revisiting the museum It soon became apparent that she was a very big fish in the music world as an internationally acclaimed contralto opera singer. As I continued my research into this woman I began to feel quite passionate about the work as I could feel myself making a connection to the story of the eponymous singer. I decided to create what I though would be a short audio biography. I approached this a television biography, I recorded commentary narrated by myself, I gathered several of Kathleen Ferrier's recordings and then compiled them into a suitable order or so I thought. What happened over the course of this period was an exercise in continuous creativity. All throughout the period of creating the documentary I was continuously reinventing my approach to the piece. the soundtracks involved in the process also altered considerably, originally the piece was going to consist of commentary interspersed with the music of Kathleen. Though as I intensified my research and realised that the song would take longer to produce than I originally expected it became apparent that more music was required. And so I intercut the commentary with several pieces of delicate piano music (as is the convention of oh so many biographical documentaries) and in the section of her death I included a particularly ominous and innovative soundtrack from the video game Devil May Cry. The resulting soundtrack was included with non-diegetic sound relevant to the moments that they occur in the film. The piece I make bold to say was a triumph. I was pleased with the overarching theme of it aswell as the many and varied aesthetic qualities it possessed, form overlapping dialogue to appropriate diegetic and non-diegetic sounds paced adeqautely to allow for easy and inquisitive listening.
As you may have guessed the idea involves trees that produce alcohol, those this is only the tip of the iceberg in my idea. I intend the entire piece to be a comedic satire in the vein of Monty Python or Mitchell and Webb. The aim of the film is to poke fun at the criminal inefficiencies that communism creates and the direct contradiction of human nature it represents. Even in the supposedly ideal conditions that a small tightly knit community would present to such an ideology as you will soon see.
The Plot
The plot concerns a journalist travelling in central Siberia collecting research for a wildlife column before he's ambushed by a local woodsman, before long he befriends the young journalist before rendering him unconscious. By the time our journalist protagonist wakes up he is inside a community of rustic woodsman clinging to communism. Over the course of the next few hours he will come to realise the weird and wonderful world of a great controversial ideology typified by hammers and sickles, egalitarian meetings, criminally efficient bureaucracy and posters of leaders long since deceased.
Communist symbolism
Communist imagery is an intrinsic part of the short and will be featured to emphasise the ideology of the characters as opposed to dialogue. The vast array of Soviet propaganda readily available will be strewn about trees and all around the camp.
This is a prominent example of left-wing Soviet Propaganda emphasising the greatness of the "Leader". Posters like these will emphasise the brainwashed nature of the rustic individuals strewn throughout trees as a constant reminder to the loyal marxists of the cause they feel must be fought for.
Though posters are only one piece of the pie all objects that evoke communism will be featured to full effect on costumes and throughout the camp (for added comical effect I may be tempted to replace knives and forks with hammers and sickles).
Medals such as these will be a staple of the Russian characters' costumes and dependant on quantity will be placed in a comical ridiculously large supply on the characters' chest similar to Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev's Legendary love of them below.
Though my aim is not to mock the values that communism presents it is only to portray the aspects of it that to westerners seem ridiculous. A prominent part of the objectivism in the short will be devoted to the achievements of communism such as a photograph of the worker and the peasant girl.
In highlighting the triumphs of the ideology I want to highlight the concept of it not as an ideology to be strived for but an ideal created out of human optimism and the will to create an egalitarian united and prosperous world.
Satire of Communism
No doubt the aims of my short have become abundantly clear to you though I do not simply want to make a statement of communism being a cheap and ridiculous thing to look down on and ridicule. I want to maintain an impartial view on it and to promote a fresh and impartial view in the minds of my audience. This is the intention of my short film.
Dolphinholme if nothing else was intended as an exercise in concept creation and artistic inspiration. The concept that I and the colleagues I share my particular yurt with was one that evolved several times during the course of our day. Originally it was intended as a promo, then gradually it evolved into a mini adventure until it later became the resulting film.
The standard procedures of production dominated the day as we storyboarded the piece and refined our ideas. The final piece though was a far cry from the initial idea of a simple guide to the Dolphinholme camp...
The various dye and paint techniques resulted in creation purely for the sake of creation with no artistic motives behind my "work". The simple excercises yielded "as is to be expected" standard results that were not striking in the slightest. I failed to take much away from the process and quite frankly couldn't find much inspiration in applying dyes and bleaches etc.
My first experience of print based art admittedly not the the best example of my work within the field but work nontheless. I found the concept of creating art through colour printing though quite artistic in nature was wasted on me as I could formulate no artitic uses for this no doubt multi-faceted technique.
A Myriad of thoughtless rubbish, the only way I can describe this monstrosity I effortlessly pieced together from the various paint sand and bleach techniques being taught in the classroom. Yet from this I could ascertain one simple lesson that you cannot be frivolous when creating meaning, you must create with only essential items otherwise it becomes plagued by shortcomings and unscertainties.
Fine Art
Although fascinated by the process of applying paint to images in order to give them new meaning I took no real inspiration from the process and found it to be quite challenging in regards to applying the paint and how to go about doing it. The repercussions of this work were "interesting" to say the least my final images are a myriad of created meaning and unmitigated disaster. Though these Images are unavailable to me at this moment in time I assure you, you are not missing out on much. The Images in question convey little meaning as a result of my own inability to artfully grasp the medium which I was made to understand.
Photography
I spent much longer in this pathway than I originally intended to. After being persuaded by my tutor to spend time in this pathway whilst the new recruits learned the practical skills we who had progressed from the BTEC had already acquired during the course of our previous studies. I embraced the opportunity, as the prospect of acquiring skills in the superficial arts that I could then transfer to my chosen pathway seemed both an exciting and informed prospect and I immersed myself in this unfamiliary territory.
The various pieces of lighting equipment wide and varied, in them I saw the creative possibilities that the tutor was trying to get across. These particular images projected a concentrated light source due to their lightweight and
The softbox light suited best to portrait photo's, the effects of the various lighting were explained and demonstrated to us in this fashion exemplifying both the various lights and various techniques that can be applied. A prime example of this is featured below:
The softbox lighting effect on a low setting and with little background, notice the soft shadow emanating from the subject, the effect accomplished by nothing more than faint lighting.
This continued to be a staple of the next few weeks as our various photographic experiments in creating meaning with high abstract concepts. The exercise in question was one of museum pieces. We were to select an image from the local Museum and choose a piece to re-imagine as a concept. I chose a painting of the picturesque Lucarno Switzerland, though I was not entirely certain as to how I would go about it. Yet ever willing to persevere I chose objects that related to mountain scenery and picturesque greenery. Among the Images I took were leaves, a thermos and a rams' skull all photographed using the various lighting and colouring techniques in varying combinations. This was a staple of the next few weeks until I decided to transfer back to the pathway of my choice and rejoined the Media department.
Media:
Len Lye's colour box, a scratch film highlighting the creative possibilities of the medium. This clip was more than anything else an illustration of the
The pathway of my original choice was dealing in a very unconventional method of creating meaning in this particular roundabout. "Scratch film" was the key term of the day, what followed was a series of delightfully bizarre films highlighting the potential of this particular medium. Following this demonstration and introduction to the medium we created our own scratch films that are to be compiled together and turned into one continuous stream of colour and creativity. This exercise though simple in nature was one that I took great pleasure in creating as It was such a simplistic form of meaning creation that I could od it almost instantaneously.
Brand new Museum Piece
Having left the photography department I set about creating a brand new museum piece from a new source, the previously highlighted Kathleen Ferrier exhibition. Seeing the possibility of both training my voice for drama school and creating a fine piece of work in the process I seized the opportunity with both hands and set about creating a mini biography.
3D Imaging:
Without doubt the most "hands on" of all the pathway activities this centred around the creation of sculptures from Steel and copper wire. Although initially taken aback by the practical construction nature of this pathway I soon immersed myself in the process. Again I created leaves based on the painting of Lucarno from the museum. The reason being that this particular exercise was intended as a continuation of the museum pieces we made in the pathways. My leaves were basic to say the least though I did learn during the process that this medium again can be used to create meaning in the same way that a photograph or painting can.
Printmaking:
The last of the great roundabouts was yet another exercise in printmaking though this time we were called upon to select images specifically ones of contrast. My image choice was one of a large tree in a field. This was an exercise in applying print to various materials to produce aesthetic quality. It pleases me to say that I was moderately successful in producing aesthetically pleasing work. In particular I was impressed by applying the tree to a wooden slab, although seemingly minute in importance it produced a stunning effect.
The past few weeks have centred around the recurring theme of pathways and trying out the various different artistic methods and techniques to come to a conclusion as to how you wanted to progress. Working solely as a Media person for two years I initially felt bewildered by what at the time seemed like a diversion of my time and effort though I participated secure in the knowledge that if they are asking us to do this it is most likely not without good reason.
These pathways were a very interesting experience indeed as we were guided through many abstract ways of creating "art". From fine art to textiles we were guided through many varied exercises that were met openly by some, and with utmost resistance from others. Nevertheless the next few weeks of "pathway rotation" served both give us a taste of the various and pathways and most important of all to give us all a sense that these seemingly pointless variations in working environment were giving us a toolbox of transferable skills that we could bring into our intended routes of progression.
Textiles
Among the first departments my group visited was that of textiles. This was without doubt the single most unrelated pathway I have undertaken so far. The aim of the day was experimenting with the various different "methods" of working with dyes fabrics and drawings to create an abstract piece of work. The atmosphere although highly creative was one filled with cynicism as people who came to create videos and photographs with pieces of intricate machinery were instead creating abstract paint works with dyes bleaches and drawings. And yet the result of this was a renewed sense that abstract work need not be complex, that spontaneous creativity can be nothing more than small bursts of spontaneous creativity resulting in a finished product.
Fine Art
A very unconventional pathway indeed with a very absurd piece of work as a result the fine art pathway was one not soon to be forgotten. The work centred around photographs though not in the way you may think. This piece of work was about painting over artwork already made. This absurd practice was met by animosity from some and intrigue by others, nevertheless it proved to be a most interesting afternoon as we created new meaning through mad artistic practices. The great positive result of this session was that we were shown that meaning could be changed by unconventional means and a reconfirmation that abstract thoughts need not be complex.
Media
Scratch film, the aim of the session for which I had originally chosen to come on the course was unsurprisingly yet another exercise in abstract creativity. We were shown the great bizarre scratch film works of Len Lye and given an introduction to the practice of direct to film animation. What followed was a reel of blank 16 millimetre film and various different felt tip pens and stamps, the idea was that we would create a piece of work that we could see the results of almost instantaneously. To an extent this was largely the case as within the next few hours we all created our very own elaborate parades of colour and light that would be combined together into a reel that we have yet to see. There seems to be a recurring theme here of abstract creativity resulting from all of the pathways. The prime result of this being that we were all given a great renewed sense of creative zeal to our consciousness, that all of our work was in the service of a great purpose.
Photography
The photographic pathway was the pathway that I have without doubt spent the vast majority of my time in so far. The aim of the first exercise in this field was elaborate light photography with a slow camera shutter speed. The results of this in most cases was utterly spectacular with many elaborate light shows created will be seen in my next entry. Following this I was encouraged to continue work in photography as what was happening in the media department I had originally intended to work within was standards and practices that I and many of us that came here from media already knew. And so the next few weeks centred around photographic imagery and how to produce it using objects that we had to taken from our visit to Blackburn museum. The results of these photographic experiments were very interesting. Using nothing more than leaves and a rams skull (not to mention the several different types of lighting available to us at the time) I created a series of portrait photographs using many different angles and light filters etc.
The transferable skills that have resulted from all of this have been absolutely immense and widely varied. I am now capable of manipulating light sources and filters to achieve desired results and to adequatley position subjects to create meaning.
Visual Imaging
A pathway to blend several pathways this was a most interesting exercise in both abstract thinking and working with materials. We were guided through the process of creating works of art through highly convoluted means that highlighted themselves as the session went by. The most readily accessible example of this being the tracings we took of various images for a purpose I'm still not entirely sure of. Of all the sessions we have done so far this without a doubt is the one I have both understood and spent time on the least.
3D Modelling
This was a very interesting pathway to utilise as it encompassed the creation of a physical product as opposed to the intellectual experimentation perpetuated by the others. The result of this though was yet further aesthetic discovery as we created large "pieces of art" from nothing more than strips of metal.
