Week 7 Tutorial Reflection
Presenting my portrait on my friend Keegan to the class was a very different experience compared to my self portrait. Capturing and showcasing my friend’s personality was a much easier task and I was proud of the results as it allowed for everyone to get a glimpse of what it is like to know Keegan.
My Thoughts
Incorporating the found footage was difficult for me as I could not find a source that had anything I could utilise blatantly. I sourced the archived video from Pond5 and overlayed it with Keegan talking as symbolic interpretations of what he was saying. The train filled with logs as a symbol of his transitional journey into adulthood and the large work crew beginning construction of a skyscraper to represent Keegan’s desire to create a work people will one day know him for. Fitting his personality into two minutes was a very difficult task considering I had over two hours of footage and there were idea I still house about a five to ten minute portrait. The little nuances of his personality such as some quirks, his love of video games and especially his relationship with more friends then the ones highlighted in the portrait were left out due to time. While they helped to deepen an understanding of what makes Keegan, I felt it more appropriate, considering the time constraints, to paint a broader picture of the man, book ending his portrait with him doing his hair.
Peer’s Thoughts
I was very happy with the feedback Aidan, Jenny and Alaine gave me as it allowed me to see the my work outside of my own self absorption. They liked how intimate the piece was, created by following Keegan around with the camera and having him interact with it and not ignoring it. It allowed for them to piece together and overall feeling of him as a person because he was not acting as if he was not being filmed so his real self could be brought to the forefront of the portrait. They biggest ‘black hat’ comment I received was the need for more found footage. I totally agree with that because it would have allowed me to create symbolic connections between Keegan and the footage. By re-purposing found footage a different meaning is created due to its new context which allows for it to hold a lot more meaning opening up the portrait to numerous interpretations then just images of the subject.
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