Something interesting did occur for me during this brief. It went well and I’m happy with how it turned out albeit it was a little rushed. we had to split up to film our parts and then give them to Terrence to edit together. While this turned out fine, with a bit more time we could have refined in much better in my opinion.

However, it also taught me something interesting as well. In pretty much all of the collaborative film projects, I have been in throughout the year. the entire project itself is normally left on my laptop due to me having the right programming or storage etc. this has never been intentional but thinking back on it, this has always been the case. So when I gave all the footage to Terrance to edit, I gave up a large bit of editing control I usually had in projects like this. which felt strange and almost uncomfortable. I fully trusted in Terrance’s abilities to deliver the video, which he did. but giving up that control and putting that trust in someone else was admittedly very new to me. I guess it shows I need to relinquish that control more often since it’s not always necessary.

Here is a link to our Project Brief 3

Rationale
Dr Seuss, “Oh, The Places You Go!”. We decided to focus in on the main theme we felt throughout the entire poem, perseverance. By selecting the main theme we enabled ourselves to move away from the actual stanzas and opened ourselves up to a more broad spectrum to work in. We wanted to divulge from the literal meaning of the poem and escape into the wider world the poem affects. We each found something in our lives that we have seen people struggle at and persevere through to achieve something greater to include in the piece. By doing this we allowed ourselves a greater chance of reaching all audiences in an attempt to relate it to anyone and everyone.
We narrowed down the tone of the poem as jolly and tongue in cheek in an attempt to carry it over into the cinematic piece. We wanted to do this by ensuring that the piece wasn’t taken too seriously.

Another main idea that the poem explores is that when your young you can do whatever you want, however, that doesn’t mean you won’t have any obstacles. So in response, we thought to create some really serious issues of people struggling to complete assignments, to be an artist or be a gymnast, to do a chin up. We all have struggles and every person has to persevere.

The theme of failing was a large part of the poem, so incorporating that in many ways as possible is crucial, for example, the chin up subject fell on the ground before he succeeded. As well as the gymnast falling before he could succeed. Our character needs to achieve a goal but whether or not the person succeeds is a different question. We did this, as the poem is fairly certain you’ll succeed, but how long it will take is what is ambivalent. So leaving some people’s story as still in their struggles represents this.

When concerning the world of art, we wanted to capture the feeling people within the creative field can understand. A sense of continually pushing yourself to make every piece made something to be proud of as the poem suggests a desire to persevere and succeed in what you do at times can often be difficult to achieve, especially during the creative process. To help with this idea, we used a VCE Studio Art Folio to reflect this as these require constant working and reworking of an idea and documenting the successes and failures of the process. The idea of constantly having to work and rework an idea to create your vision can be challenging and is something all artists can be familiar with. An artist is always working and revising their concept, going through inspiration and creative slumps where they struggle to create after so many trials and errors. But when an artist perseveres through this and continues to produce results, they can go on to create incredibly in-depth works of art reflecting all the time and effort they have put within it.

I’m not sure how this brief will go since we have such a short deadline. I know we don’t have to show a video but it doesn’t feel right not to show one. We had an idea of making the theme around travel, however we soon decided instead to make the idea around perseverance and continueing to work hard in the face of difficulty.

In the end, my group is going to do the poem ‘Oh the Places You’ll Go’ by Dr Seuss.

Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know.
And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look ’em over with care.
About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”
With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,
you’re too smart to go down any not-so-good street.

And you may not find any
you’ll want to go down.
In that case, of course,
you’ll head straight out of town.

It’s opener there
in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen
and frequently do
to people as brainy
and footsy as you.

And then things start to happen,
don’t worry. Don’t stew.
Just go right along.
You’ll start happening too.

OH!
THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers
who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed.
You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead.
Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best.
Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so
but, sadly, it’s true
that Bang-ups
and Hang-ups
can happen to you.

You can get all hung up
in a prickle-ly perch.
And your gang will fly on.
You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch
with an unpleasant bump.
And the chances are, then,
that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump,
you’re not in for much fun.
Un-slumping yourself
is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked.
Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked.
A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin!
Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in?
How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And IF you go in, should you turn left or right…
or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite?
Or go around back and sneak in from behind?
Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find,
for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused
that you’ll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles cross weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place…

…for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or the waiting around for a Yes or No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for the wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That’s not for you!

Somehow you’ll escape
all that waiting and staying
You’ll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

With banner flip-flapping,
once more you’ll ride high!
Ready for anything under the sky.
Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done!
There are points to be scored. There are games to be won.
And the magical things you can do with that ball
will make you the winning-est winner of all.
Fame! You’ll be as famous as famous can be,
with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t
Because, sometimes they won’t.

I’m afraid that sometimes
you’ll play lonely games too.
Games you can’t win
’cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not,
Alone will be something
you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance
you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.
There are some, down the road between hither and yon,
that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go
though the weather be foul.
On you will go
though your enemies prowl.
On you will go
though the Hakken-Kraks howl.
Onward up many
a frightening creek,
though your arms may get sore
and your sneakers may leak.

On and on you will hike,
And I know you’ll hike far
and face up to your problems
whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course,
as you already know.
You’ll get mixed up
with many strange birds as you go.
So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.
Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.
And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and 3/4 percent guaranteed.)

KID, YOU’LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

So…
be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray
or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea,
You’re off the Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Here are the two poems I found inspiration for Project Brief 3.

1. 1969
BY ALEX DIMITROV
The summer everyone left for the moon
even those yet to be born. And the dead
who can’t vacation here but met us all there
by the veil between worlds. The number one song
in America was “In the Year 2525”
because who has ever lived in the present
when there’s so much of the future
to continue without us.
How the best lover won’t need to forgive you
and surely take everything off your hands
without having to ask, without knowing
your name, no matter the number of times
you married or didn’t, your favourite midnight movie,
the cigarettes you couldn’t give up,
wanting to kiss other people you shouldn’t
and now to forever be kissed by the Earth.
In the Earth. With the Earth.
When we all briefly left it
to look back on each other from above,
shocked by how bright even our pain is
running wildly beside us like an underground river.
And whatever language is good for,
a sign, a message left up there that reads:
here men from the planet earth
first set foot upon the moon
july 1969, a.d.
we came in peace for all mankind.
Then returned to continue the war.

2. Dear —
BY DONIKA KELLY
I am not land or timber
nor are you
ocean or celestial body,

but rather we are
the small animals
we have always been.

The land and the sea
know each other
at the threshold

where they meet,
as we know something
of one another,

having shown,
at different times,
some bit of flesh,

some feeling.

We call the showing
knowing instead of practice.
We seem to say,

at different times,
A feeling comes.

What is the metaphor
for two animals
sharing the same space?

Marriage?

We share a practice,
you and I,
a series of postures.

Here is how I
become a tree
[ ]

and you
[ ]
a body in space.

Admittedly I haven’t used this blog as much as I want to. I just mostly get distracted and forget about the blog as I’m not one to record down my thoughts and then post here. Hopefully, I can fix this and add to it more frequently before the end of the semester.