My portrait is a representation of my partner Eloise Vincent, focusing on her struggle to find self-confidence and identity in a life of pressure and routine. For this project I took a more abstract approach and attempted to challenge conventions in my communication of meaning through this film. I hoped to create a piece that displayed the subject as an individual – through the stop motion mirror scene and the constant portrayal of unique image and voice – while also communicating the context of a greater issue, “body image” – through the interjections and commentary of archive footage; techniques of contrast and compliment that will be useful for future projects. Here I discovered how to simultaneously convey two (or more) messages through editing, taking a leaf out of guest lecturer Liam Ward’s “Art of Persuasion”.
The main hurdle in the process was locating suitable “found footage” that would compliment my general idea while being powerful enough to evoke audience reaction, interestingly I feel they became integral to the meaning of the film. The final section where the archive video getting fit plays from “think not about image” to “I am okay as I am” is the most successful aspect as it draws the viewer back to the relationship between “body image’ and our subject as intended through audio and visual edited together from separate sources. Conversely, the opening passage of the film created a mood and meaning that I hadn’t intended, problematic to the finished project. It lost some effect through intensifying audio clips and editing that I hoped would portray an increased tension and feeling of claustrophobia but while not paralleled in the visual aspect seemed cluttered and out of place.
Initially I was worried that my material, seemingly disparate in content, form and genre, wouldn’t create one cohesive piece. However, I underestimated the impact of “the gutter”, as editing with intent to create conversation between materials (through layering, sound bridging, repetition and varying transitions) produced a cohesive film that spanned genre and transcended convention. This incidentally revealed the ability of post-production work to create, change and challenge meaning of raw materials. I will continue to develop my understanding of the production and editing processes to communicate multiple messages and begin intentionally creating media that can be read and received in different ways by an audience.