Translating Observation Assignment Two Part Two
Observational Writing
The heavy rain outside can barely rival the noise level of this room. Packed wall-to-wall, like sardines in a tin can, the room is crowded with rowdy, loud, and energetic children. Their voices bellow and can barely be kept below a highly audible yell at best. In one corner there is a child seated alone at a table, a book in her hand, and a plate of sliced apples in front of her. Somehow, she has managed to tune out all the madness occurring around her and is totally engrossed in her book, too focused, her eyes stay fixed on her page as her hand brings another slice of apple to her mouth.
The pasta has only just graced us at the table, but it will be delicious. The delicate shade of yellow pasta that fills the bowl is complemented excellently by the subtle shades of reds and browns of the Bolognese sitting atop it. All of this is amplified by the small inclusion of fresh basil, the strong green presence bridges the gap of these other shades, and all this colour suggests maximum flavour is to be expected.
He says his name is Tim. He casually assimilated into the group as we passed his driveway, shaking his arms around by the curb with a glass of red wine in one hand and a bag of cashews in the other. Despite not knowing anyone here, he speaks confidently and stands with a comfortable demeanour. Perhaps this a regular occurrence around here.
The stomping of feet correlates with the sounds of cheering. The small crowd gathered at the sideline of the basketball court erupts each and every time a score is made. “That’s it, you can do it guys” they cry out. The score rests evenly and the energy of the players has sharply declined since the beginning of the match, but despite this, the sideline crowd is rowdier than ever. They are the life-blood of their team, and one could argue more determined to win this match than the players themselves.
The yard is enveloped by golden autumnal leaves, piled on top of one another, blanketing the ground like a dry snow. If there were a ground beneath these leaves you couldn’t tell. Their rich array of colours is spectacular: vibrant reds, yellows, and browns abound. The scenery is picturesque matched only by the spectacular crunch that occurs with each step through the leafy undergrowth.
This street runs adjacent to the heavily trafficked main road, well-lit, brightly exposed and flourishing with busy street life. This street, however, is as silent as a mouse, dimly lit, and eerily still, as though the not even the wind dares to come down here either. The car is parked only a few houses away but the walk between feels like an eternity, it’s as though time and space has been stretched and contorted by this disturbed place. There’s no monsters, ghouls, or goblins lurking, in fact, there’s nothing at all, but still a heavy presence rests over you the entirety of the way. It looks just like any normal street, but it feels like no other.
Reflective Writing
Reflecting on a class exercise: Having to film someone exploring the contents of their bag in one long continuous take presents many difficulties that have to be considered and prepared for so that the final product may come out as best as it could be. It is important to consider how you are actively framing the action, moving around to present new frames to keep the action from being stagnant, focusing on particular objects or movements to imply importance, and how the lighting from different angles will affect the shot are just a few examples of the specificities and difficulties that need to be considered. This task though, emphasised the greater challenge of overcoming these issues in an improvised environment, where you may not get more than a moment to consider how you’ll achieve a satisfying result. Knowing that we’d have the opportunity to edit the one take and potentially alter the continuity of the events occurring, it was important to have the camera panning to stationary objects that were separate to our person unpacking, so that we may use these moments to cleanly cut between footage and remove time we wouldn’t use, or also to make subtle dialogue cuts without revealing on-screen that it has occurred. Another issue that had to addressed was the positioning of our boom-mic operator in relation to the cameraman, interviewer, and person unpacking their bag, because the boom-mic operator would need to be able to accurately cover who was speaking at the time and then switch to the other, all without getting in the way of anyone moving around them, and not revealing the boom-mic within frame. We established just prior to filming an invisible line where the cameraman would not pass so that the boom-mic operator would have somewhere they could comfortably stand and could hold the boom-mic high and at a distance from the unpacking to get the proper coverage. Furthermore, this invisible line also ensured that the camera’s exposure would always be correct as the side we filmed on had an extremely different light value than the other and would require its own white balance and iris value.
Reflecting on observational writing: Undertaking the process of mindfulness and the subsequent observational writing prompted by the observations we experience through the act of consciously engaging with the world around us (absorbing the mundane and everyday events that may otherwise go unnoticed) can help to develop some extraordinarily insightful and revelatory musings that may be thereafter developed into a more sophisticated cinematic work. However, it is important that the observations that are being made are done so without an emphasis or pre-thought as to the cinematic potential of the observation being made, for fear that then the observation may be unintentionally obscured in an effort to focus on and expand upon the elements that are ostensibly visual or conjure thoughts of previously indulged film works, thus losing the richness that is associated with a natural recollection. It is said that reality is often stranger than fiction and that we only need to look around us to experience absurdities and bizarreness far greater than that which can be found in fictional texts, but in the process of purposefully making one’s self be more attuned to noticing and documenting the natural experiences of the world, it’s often the case, so I’ve found, that it becomes more difficult to decipher the multitude of relatively bland experiences and determine what it was that was truly interesting and perhaps wields something of value. Activating motivating one’s self to be engaging with the world and seeking inspiration appears to make it all the more difficult to be inspired by and discover those truly astounding moments. Perhaps then it’s a matter of needing to observe for observations sake, as currently it’s required that each student make a number of observations each week that they feel that they can write about in a manner that may yield them a high mark, were it so that the observations could be made with no worry of necessity or inherent value, it’s likely that observations may occur more naturally and inspire greater writing.
Reflecting on the adaption process: Adapting a written observation from text to visual is an intricate process, that will inevitably differ from person to person, as each text inherently bears a unique and subjective interpretation. No two people will walk away from any text with the same (but perhaps similar) quale. A text comprises of a series of words, each with their own individual meanings, which then must be contextualised and reevaluated within the context of their sentence in order to develop a specific contextual understanding. Each step in this process involves a unique understanding of the meanings and intricacies of each word as defined by a person’s own individual recognition of those words, as developed by an absurdly vast and individualistic series of life-experiences. This then must be converted from the abstract to a visual representation, that may be perceived as describing the physical and the intangible quality of tone and emotion. This may be done in many different ways. Many years of refinement of film, visual expression, filmic techniques, film theory, and film criticism has developed a relatively universal method of depicting the abstract in a physical, tangible, and understandable way. Intertextuality theory suggests that any text, or work of art, may be better understood when cross-referenced and interpreted relative to the intertextual references (any part of the art that represents in a tangible and definable way any part of another work that may have come before or after) that comprise the work. As such, when adapting any form of work across mediums, it will never be possible to convey a universally understood impression of the original work, and thus is important to convey the work only as it appears to you. The observations that have been recorded for this class have undergone the laborious struggle of identifying and then interpreting a real-world observation into text, knowing full well that they will inevitably be used for cross-medium translation, but then written such that they should not reflect what is considered “a filmic quality” but rather an objective textual recreation of that initial real-world observation. Each text then is a series of adaptions before ever being considered for adaption. Everything that would be necessary for a visual recreation is available in the text and must only be unpacked again further (with visual representation in mind), in order to properly capture the spirit of the piece (the essence of how the piece makes one feel and think).
Individual Exercise 03
In order to recreate an observation as a video piece requires that the observation be deconstructed into its quintessential elements: i.e. key objects and their motivations; the emotional tone of the observation; the potential for symbolic meaning in the visuals; how the unique qualities of textual meaning may be translated into the unique properties of film, etc. This observation had particularly distinct qualities that were identified, these included: the abandoned and lonely quality of the umbrella; the still atmosphere of the space; the absence of identifiable sources or reasons for the umbrella to be in this position; a transcending of time; and an absence of people. The key factor to consider in all aspects of the production is the somber properties of the piece, and how this can be portrayed in the film medium. The blocking and the framing of the key item (the umbrella) should be such that it exists isolated in the frame, removed from other objects, and perhaps off-center such that it’s depicted as a secondary thought, unimportant, etc. Issues arose when filming as it was a particularly windy afternoon and the umbrella refused to remain still, getting caught in the draft and moved along the ground. Future attempts would require that something be prepared to unnoticeably pin the umbrella down rather than having to partially stick the umbrella under the car to keep it from moving; corrupting the intended vision of an abandoned umbrella and instead appearing as though it had accidentally fallen out of the boot (much less dramatic). The observation described the location as an “empty parking lot adjacent a building.” This location contains many significant connotations that amplified the sense of isolation as the past presence of this area being heavily populated lingers over it like a ghost. Consequently, discovering an empty parking lot appropriate for filming during the day proved a difficult task, and would require significant planning and preparation for any future adaption, as this time after much misfortune and difficulty finding a suitable spot I had to settle for a place that merely resembled the location on a surface level; reducing the potential for an impactful wide-shot displaying the environment and the umbrella’s isolation within it. This observation is a distinctly visual piece and there’s ample reference material available to plan and develop a strong storyboard to better represent the observation. However, this does not mean that sound is unimportant by any means, as sound is an infinitely valuable tool for defining the emotional and physical details of any film piece. In this case, I used a deep, noisy drone that I had previously prepared that I felt provided an appropriately moody atmosphere. It should be considered that a minimal soundtrack, focusing on small ambient noises may better portray the emptiness of the space than any score.
Advanced Video Piece
Recreating the oral component of the previous individual exercise proved a difficult task. As the video accompanying the narration of an original observation had been tailor made to represent in one way or another the events depicted in the original observation, creating a new oral component meant reframing those images to convey a newly conceived and wholly unique tale. This proved troublesome as the images were very specific and had deep-rooted connections to the original meanings and abstractions of the original narration, thus it was difficult to find the inspiration that would incite the new interpretation. With much deliberation, I decided to expand upon the multitudes of wartime iconography and imagery that the video piece was comprised of. Unpacking the repeating images, exploring potential themes, and searching for anything that could ties these images together in a new way. Eventually, I came to the realisation that I had decided to present the video in black and white (with the exception of red having been allowed to remain), and an opening shot comprising only of a large white texture. This prompted the connection of the Japanese flag with its distinct two-colour scheme: white and red. Furthermore, there are clear connections to be made between the history of Japan and the distinct wartime imagery used in the video piece. The initial observations emphasis on using violent and militaristic language had prompted the use of these visuals, and it seemed appropriate to further explore the original’s fascination with genocide. It’s interesting to note here that I chose to further explore the obvious connections between narrative and visuals, perhaps it would have made for a more interesting and complex piece had I chosen to provide a narration that worked in stark contrast to the visuals, providing a uniquely jarring experience that may have enhanced one another with their potentially absurd connections, much the same way that happy or sad music may create a unique experience when paired with a sad or happy visual respectively. Regarding music or scores, for this version of the video piece, I chose to incorporate a particularly jarring drone that escalates and evolves in its intensity as the narration begins to discuss darker subject matters, such that in the end a disorientating alarm (much like a warning alarm used in a state of emergency) may similarly distress the viewer.
