hello, and welcome to my weekly update on my studies as a foundation art student at ravensbourne, or rave as it has been affectionately nicknamed by us kids who call it uni. this week i have been studying the art of lens based media, i.e. photography, animation, and film.
monday: the history of and introduction to the lens and the importance of composition.
as our first official day of ravensbourne things were, if i'm honest, a little scary and big and shiny. as we had been set a task over the weekend to produce 15-20 photos based on 'this moment in my life' i was incredibly nervous i had interpreted the brief wrong, silly i know as there's no wrong answer in the art world. our tutor, tom, gave us a talk on the history of the lens and photography, and i had a little geek out as a lot of it i had covered last year in my physics a level as part of the astrophysics unit. this meant that the knowledge that was imparted on me made a lot more sense as i understood the basic mechanics of the camera. after this he clarified what was included in the lens based media pathway, which was quite intriguing to me, as i didn't realise it included sound design, something i've been interested in for a while through my music a-level. and then the practical. i'll admit, during the practical itself i hated it, it pushed me well outside my comfort zone. my drawing has always been something that i've kept personal, and producing work on such a large scale with everyone around means that there is no way no one could not see what i was doing. i chose the photograph of my road sign because i thought it would be easy to reproduce onto such a large scale, but i think i was mistaken, as the perspective proved more than difficult, and there was very little detail to put in, so i ended up finishing early and adding things in that weren't really there. definitely a big mistake, and given the chance to do this task again i'd definitely pick an image with a slightly easier perspective and more detail. after lunch we had 'crits' which are essentially talking about each others' work within small groups. i found this incredibly interesting, as during discussion points were raised about pieces that i would never thought of at all, and that there are so many levels within someone's work.
tuesday: the art of storytelling
the second day started gruesomely, with watching a short film based on the circumstances surrounding robert breechen, a man who was resuscitated in order to be executed, which stimulated really interesting conversations about the way the penal system works today and comparing our system to the us. we then moved on to the art of story telling, and establishing what made a good story, i.e. a beginning, middle, and end.. We then watched some short films by a well known film maker, and analysed them for their story telling, and discussed what made a good story. I have never really thought about what makes a good story and how the parts come together, so for me, this was really thought provoking and has influenced the way in which I analyse story telling mediums. We were set the task in groups of four to come up with some scenarios for which we could tell a story, our group got very side tracked with one story, and then managed to swing it round too make up several individual stories. We then had to come with a problem, resolution and struggles through which our character persevered in order to come up with a resolution to the intial problem. I actually found it quite difficult to seperate the intial problem and other things out from the whole story. We also were quite off the wall with our story making, but it did mean we weren't constrained by reality and were able to come up with some really unusual conclusions, although we did run into the problem of deus ex machina, or god of the machine, and thus making our stories believable.
Day Three - SDS
We were set the task of producing a set of six photographs or a short film following the rules of set-up, problem, struggle, resolution. I chose to produce a short stop-motion film about a girl who loses her balloon. Although the principles of stop motion were fairly new to me, I had a good idea, and knew my equipment and software reasonably well. My downfall was that I chose to animate it using hand made drawings, which meant that several characters and images needed to be re-drawn for frames in order to get the visual effect I wanted. This meant that I slightly under estimated the time I would need to create the film, so it is very simplistic. When attempting a project again I will definately ensure that I fully plan, and in the case of film storyboard, my ideas so I know exactly what it is I will need to undertake in order to ensure my work is of the highest standard possible.
Day Four
Back in college we spent the morning preparing our work for presentation as crits in the afternoon. Again I was nervous about the crit, but knowing that several people were in the same boat as me now, made it much easier. We all presented our images or films and discussed techniques that each student has used. We then left feedback on sheets using the guidelines that Damian had given us to ensure that everyone had sufficient feedback for the work that they had produced. General feedback comments for me were:
- Good composition of music against images.
- Well followed structure.
- Unclear in the scene with the dog.
- Only one camera angle used, meant that there was the same perspective.
- Simplistic nature works to make the story clear.
I was incredibly pleased with this feedback, given that it was my first time producing a film in this way, and it's defiantely something I will consider in the future. What I have taken away from this, is that I need to ensure that I make everything clear to everyone, as things that are clear to me, might not be clear to others. I have really enjoyed this pathway as it has opened my eyes to the way that the art world works.
