Idea 1-Development

After thinking about my first idea and how broad it is I realised that memory isn’t broad at all. In fact memory is very specific to each person. So with that in mind, I took the idea of memorials and condensed it down to a more personel level. And what do we use to remember people by? Thats right gravestone!!

Cinéma Vérité-A Reflective Review

As a way of exploring the styles of Cinéma Vérité I looked in more detail at Jennifer Vendetti’s Billy the Kid.

http://billythekiddocumentary.com/

By only using what seems a simple Handy-cam as the main camera throughout with more emphasis towards the post-production, the film defiantly conforms to the proposed conventions of the ‘Direct Cinema,’ with its ‘naturalistic techniques with stylized cinematic devices of editing and camerawork’ (thanks wikipedia). This style of film-making not only aids in the subject matter’s deliverance, but the way in which it is delivered. The ‘Handy-cam’ element makes the piece seem real and therefore accessible to the audience, and with the subject matter being so alien to most people, this style helps the audience to relate to the subject matter.

Direct cinéma is the polar opposite of the Dogma 95 movement, both of which strive to portray reality in their forms. And so my view is this: Why must people conform to strict boundries or guidelines in order to produce a peice of real integrity, why not just go with what feels right? For me, these forms can be defined as techniques of portraying reality, and so by taking the most effective methods from each, and create almost a hybrid-genre, you can become even closer to defining reality in as much an objective way as possible, which a documentary should be. Or should it?

Idea 1

Whilst in Berlin I noticed an overwhelming amount of memorials varying from specific memorials for the Romany Gypsy victims of WWII to more general memorials for all victims of war. This made me think: For a memory to exist, it needs to be remembered. This is what led me to my first idea for an artifact to do with memory: 15 images of remembrance. Obviously going back to Berlin would be rather unfeasible, so I’d need to scale it down to Coventry (an obstruction!!). As luck would have it Coventry was as much a victim of WWII as Berlin was and so there is no short supply of memorials knocking about.

To summarise my first idea for my first artifact is 15 images of memorials around Coventry.

The Five Obstructions-A Reflective Review.

My overall thoughts of The Five Obstructions were of intregment, the concept of not even creating something, but remaking it, with a number of completely unnecessary constraints placed upon the creative process was enlightening. My initial thoughts, however, were that the whole concept is a bit pointless: Why would you make life harder for yourself when its not easy at the best of times. Then, the more poiniant the constraints got the more I realised how necessary they where. For example, to only use 12 frames per cut seems crazy, but that forced a pace and tempo into the piece. So to push yourself outside your comfort zone creates results.