Week 10 is creeping up on all of us and I am quite stressed about all my assignments. Equally, about whether I have set myself too high expectations for my editing work. If I type out that I believe I can do it on time then that will surely come to fruition, right?

Of course, I will have the help of the group members throughout the editing process which is very comforting to know. The essay film is still in its writing stages, as we have had a lot of trouble settling on an idea that isn’t too broad or difficult to explore throughout the 5-10-minute run-time. With Mina’s help during our consultation, we have decided to create a list between us, of specific things that make us feel nostalgic. These include: long bus rides, seat belt burn, The Simpsons intro song etc. This list of things will be a jumping-off point for our exploration of nostalgia.

For the poem film, we are now in the process of gathering and filming footage. We are each to record ourselves reading out Dorian’s written poetic response to Louise Gluck’s Archaic Fragment. The audio recordings will be the basis for which our visual language for the film will be formed. I have recorded myself reading the poem and have listened to it, so as to get a feel for the possible visual language we can explore. When I listen to the poem, I am reminded of textures – the imagery of the poem evokes this desire to somehow capture textures on screen. I want to capture this through editing techniques such as datamoshing and glitching as described in the pitch. This can also be achieved by filming extreme closeups, of things like dirt, rust, leaves, sand – different aspects of nature which emanate these tactile textures through the screen.

I also get a sense of stillness when I hear the poem – a sense of being trapped, “the universe exists/solely in my bathroom mirror”. A sense of calm and stillness will be interjected throughout the poem film, to indicate a break from the other chaotic visuals proposed. It also makes me want to explore a kind of tranquil movement – waves or trees swaying in the wind. We want to explore the idea of loving both ‘matter’ and ‘form’ as well as the ‘fragmented’ nature from the original poem into the poem film’s visuals. We also want the visuals and the audio poetic response to complement each other and to ultimately create something new. We are continuously thinking about the relationships between the language and the visuals and what effects that might create.

 

Including this GIF in the post because I’m pretty proud of it and think it looks cool. (click on it to make it work)