Resolution
3.10.16Resolution 1
Music Video Production
Because of a desire to form a production company after university, I am Producing a body of work for a total of six clients, although we are prioritising one music video for an independent artist called Chrisen which Jamie discussed in his blog. I also intend to direct a few of my own music videos, inspired by experimental techniques I discovered in second year to create some visually rich work.
For these music videos I will primarily be working in collaboration with Klara and Jamie, whilst crewing people from all years of DFSA and film production to help on shoots.
Using music video theorists to drive my research, the goal of these music videos is develop a better understanding of the concept of music video, it's place as an art form and its ability in more recent years, to adapt and change with the evolution of new genres and almost limitless visual potential. I also want to develop my abilities as a visual storyteller.
My role as producer so far has consisted of contacting artists and liasing with them and talking about what the creative workflow will be. So far I have been linking previous work and outlining to the artists how we want to be 100% collaborative in the way that we operate. At this point we have 2 live sessions lined up, as well as 4 more music videos (6 in total . Within the next few weeks I will be t
Despite producing, I have elected not to limit myself to just this. I am still very much keen on expressing my creativity outside of this medium.
A thing that I will be doing is picking apart my favourite music videos, and trying to identify the framework that they were created in. Doing this will aide me in my own creative process.
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| Kongos - Take it From Me |
Documentary
Whilst I am producing/directing these music videos and shooting for different clients, I felt like I needed a personal project that would nourish my creativity and allow me more freedom to express myself as a filmmaker.
What I have really been exploring recently is the documentary genre. One area of the genre I have been particularly drawn to are personal profiles of individuals who maybe have a special or unique talent, or simply have a story to tell. Whilst discussing this with a classmate, we talked about how every story is extraordinary, because everyone has lived a life and had experiences that only they could experience in a certain way,
I initially thought about pitching a series of 4 short documentary profiles of people and their stories, the intention being to explore the part of their consciousness that makes them who they are as a person.
My idea is rather personal to my family - I want to create an experimental documentary about the my grandmothers dementia, and how it has impacted my family.
“Talking about Grandma” is an experimental documentary looking at the debilitating
effects of Alzheimers and dementia, and will follow how the disease has affected my grandmothers health
over the last 20 years, as well as reflecting upon the impact her health has
had on my family and I.
“The word dementia describes
a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking,
problem-solving or language. Dementia is caused when the brain is damaged by
diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease or a series of strokes.”
But it’s not just my family that is affected by this
condition, every family in one way or another has been impacted by Alzheimers and Dementia, and each of them experience it in very different ways.
Anyway, here is a brief story of why I want to do this project:
When I was a kid, every weekend my family and I would travel
1 hour to a historical town called Tewkesbury to visit my Grandma and Grandad.
We would have roast dinner, go for walks, my Grandad would show us his
miniature collection, play snooker with us and just have a great time doing things
as a family. But in 2001, when I was 6 years old, my Grandad sadly passed away,
and this was around the same time that my grandmother was diagnosed with the
early stages of Alzheimer’s. It wasn’t like my family was torn apart by these occurrences,
but since those moments it’s been a part of my life that has stayed in our
family. It is also something that I personally haven’t really talked about or
confronted with any sort of real emotion. I never really thought of it as a
kid, I just kept doing kid stuff like playing football with my brother in the
back garden and playing conkers. Little did I know that whilst I was out being
an oblivious little kid, my Grandma and my parents were going through some
pretty dark things. As I got older I began to notice her obvious distress and realise
that she was slowly losing her mind. Now that I look back, I can’t begin to
imagine what it was like for her; being confused all the time and walking into
a room and forgetting why you went in there in the first place. I think about
my Dad and his sisters, watching their mother slowly lose her marbles. I rarely
see her anymore. It isn’t very nice to see someone who used to love you so much
not even recognise you or acknowledge that you used to mean something to them.
Despite these dark things, I want to draw attention to the person that she was
before she deteriorated. I want to focus on the things she did and the people
she affected and how she lived her life. The presence of the illness will be a
catalyst for this and will hopefully spread some more awareness for this
disease that affects so many people
I have drawn inspiration in part from Tarnation (Dir. Jonathan Couette, 2003) and a lovely
heartfelt film called "My Dad" by
Phillip Bloom. The latter of these films really have a perfect blend of playfulness
with the right amount of blunt, honest truths that tackle tricky subjects like
alcoholism, illness and growing old. Both of these films use footage to tell a story of who their parents were.
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| "My Dad" by Phillip Bloom |
I intend to use my own equipment. I have some visual ideas
such as projecting old home slides on a huge wall which I have to experiment with. The aim is to make this an ongoing project that follows through right until the end of resolution 2
Despite being a personal project, I eventually intend to release this film onto Vimeo, as well as potentially entering it into some festivals and competitions..
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