MEDI 236: Documentary Project- Original Proposal

My initial ideas were to do a photo journalism piece about winter in London  since I go there for winter break. I was thinking however that a few pictures would lack any real entertainment value and not be very gripping or go anywhere. It was then I thought of 'La jetée' the film that '12 Monkeys' was based on and thought that it would be interesting to make a documentary in this style. The main idea would still be to try and capture winter in the suburbs around London but maybe in a more whimsical light or with a holiday feel. I would like to have some voices and a sound track with the images to flesh it out a little. I may choose to include a very small amount of filmed footage like in 'La jetée' to better blend it but I would like to approach it from a fairly artistic standpoint. The main crux of this is I am hoping for snow and a lot of it. It is something I find breathtaking and would hope it is fairly interesting subject matter. So in essence the film would consist of mainly stills and a sound track.  

MEDI 259: Sound Idea

I was thinking back on the live performance of our tracks that we made using the sounds we found. Of all of them I feel mine was far more unconventional and not conforming to standard ideas of music. This got me thinking, maybe it would be a good idea to take something recorded in the real world and turn it into music. Thus making sound or noise follow a set idea of music.

I have very recently started appreciating electrically generated music more and more including things like EBM, Trance and Dubstep.
This has lead me to find a video tutorial on Dubstep Here that is also a fully formed track. Dubstep itself evolved in London when Dub music (that originally evolved from Reggae)  Fused with Garage. The end result is a very electronic beat heavy style of music.

So the crux of my idea was, using the conventions of the tutorial video and lots of natural sounds could I make a fusion of the ideas of Music Concret and the genre of Dubstep?

I think the mix would make for a very interesting track.

Further Idea: I was thinking I could make it from a fairly limited sound pallet for more interesting results, in essence I would like to see if I could make it from autumn sounds. These would include, wind, crunching leaves, rain, wind, puddles, squelchy leaves etc.

MEDI 259: (The Image M+T) 'Urban Decay'

For this workshop after a lot of planning I decided to go with the theme of 'urban decay'. I had previously done a project on mold so I was interested to develop the images further than what they already were and make them something different. I had lots of different ideas on where to take this but decided to use the three images of mold and different pictures of the city scape and meld them together very simply. This was influenced by the style of Doug Keyes as I particularly like his 'Collective Memory' series.

I am not overly pleased with the last picture however I do really the other two. I think there are things to expand on with urban decay but I may also explore other options.

MEDI 263: Group Work Photos

For our group work we decided to actually make a very loose narrative in order to structure our shots a bit better. We were using colour film on a Hasselblad which is a medium format camera.

We shot all our photographs around the new park near the uni and the pub in order to get a nice contrast in settings and fully utilize the colour film.

The story was about a teddy bear and his lover, played by a stuffed dog. There are several romantic shots as we tried to get very a-typical romance shots such as the two stuffed toys kissing, having a picnic, gazing at the sky and so fort. Then there is a shot of the bear looking sad all alone. Thus begins his decent into a binge drinking session. The shots that follow are of the teddy drinking lots of alcohol, pole dancing, throwing up in an ashtray, having a 'kebab' and so on.  He finally ends up face first in the bushes.

Photos in Narrative Order: 

I think the image quality is stunning and I do think we worked well as a group. Everyone double checked that they were happy with the shots and everyone had a hand in directing the shots. I think we made the narrative flow well although some of the story is left to the imagination such as why the bear was left alone. I think it was fun and playful narrative and I really like the Hasselblads. I am thinking of using one for my final project as the image quality they produce is staggering.

MEDI 259: Experiment- Sound

For the first sound workshop we mainly did recording work. This was based on the Fluxxus Movements ideas of non notational scores.

We came up with five scores per group and then swapped with another group.

Our group did:

• Stand in the middle of the road and record all the noises. -We picked a crossroads and got some good sounds!
• Walk around the revolving door for a minuet. -This produced some interesting sounds.
• Run pens along a radiator adding more pens up to the total of three in 30second intervals. -This was by far my favorite sound it was 'clicky' yet rhythmical, kind of like crickets. 
• Jumping Mexican wave. -This was actually very rhythmical and had very bass-y qualities to it, the pace sounded steady. 
• Chair Dominos. -By far my favorite to set up. A line of ten chairs had to be very carefully set up and the end chair let go of. It made a brilliant crash sound. 

Here is the Photographic Proof: 

We recorded all these sounds and then a few people made a live mix using them. It was a really interesting experience and very satisfying to be part of.

MEDI 263: Photographic Narratives: An Idea

I had an idea that I could do a wonderland themed narrative.

I would like to base it on the quote of "Why is a raven like a writing desk?"

To be able to achive this shoot I believe I would need to use the studio and a lot of props. Obviously the main things being said raven and writing desk. I would like to be able shoot it on colour film but also I would like the piece to involve lots of shadows so I would have to play around with maybe only one fixed strong light sorce.

Its just a preliminary idea as I feel the amount of props needed may be not feasable on a low budget.

Stage One Overall Results

Here are the results for BA (Hons) Media Arts Stage One. The modules that give a percentage mark have their percentage and the pass/fail modules have either a pass or fail: 

MEDI 114:  69%

MEDI 116:  61%

MEDI 117:  64%

MEDI 118:  58%

MEDI 119:  55%

MEDI 126:  60%

MEDI 127:  PASS

All of these modules are a pass grade. :)