Dance Film - Evaluation

Screenshot of Abrupt Conclusions & The Effects

In reflection over this whole project I think my biggest downfall has to be time management and the idea process. I feel that myself and grace were too ambitions with out original water idea and got too attached to it do it took longer then it should have to regroup and come up with a new, more achievable concept. This then hindered us for the rest of the project as we had to jam a lot of work into one small area of time and it effected the final outcome. With what we had though I feel that we both managed to wrangle together and make a film that portrays the message we want and its a piece I'm proud to show. I think the final film is visually interesting and also conceptually full as we wanted to make sure we had out bases covered as this is a sensitive subject, and didn't wanted to step on anyones toes or have our toes stepped on. The project has been a lot of fun and I've learnt a lot and had the chance to work with people I haven't in the past, so if anything I hope I've created a better relationship with my peers for future projects. 

(link to film on youtube coming soon)

Dance Film - Edit

I always start every editing process going back over the original idea of what I wanted to achieve from the start with the film as a refresh and keep the goal in mind. Myself and Grace wanted to make a film that depicts our experiences, struggles, and frustrations with others stereotyping us into all the different kinds of offensive LGBT stereotypes. To also show how these narrow views are then forced onto us and how this can then change our perception of ourselves. Also and an unexpected problem arose with how myself and Grace like to work, Where I like to have a sound piece and then editing to it where Grace likes to have an edit in which she can create a sound piece for. We ended up finding a pre existing instrumental online and got permission form the creator to use and then Grace edited it down and tweaked it for me to edit too. From this I then reviewed the footage and shot plan to find shots that fit, or I could manipulate to fit, this message in an edit. Then I dove right in. 

STRUCTURE

Screenshot of After Effects Timeline

The structure of the piece I took from our original cycle idea, as it is still a reverent statement to how we experience the cycle of stereotyping and self doubt. So I structured the piece into five sections; 1 and 3 are the same  and 2 and 4 are the same, then 5 is the ending. to have this repetition. So the film isn't lazy and boring I re edited sections 3 and 4 so they were the same but with tweaks. This also re enforces the core of the film and how stereotyping can change our own self image. I also kept the beginning and end as abrupt as I could for two reasons. One, I wanted to make you uncomfortable and almost as if its wrong. This is becuase thats exactly how I feel when someone makes board and untrue assumptions about me based on my sexuality. Two, I wanted it to feel like a break in the cycle as in all honestly all I want is for it too break, I guess it represents a personal goal, to be able to not let outside opinions make me doubt myself. 

DANCE ASPECTS

Screenshot of Abrupt Conclusions & The Effects

Screenshot of Abrupt Conclusions & The Effects

As this is Dance Film , its time for dance. For this we wanted to focus on body movements and what the body is saying (this is also outlined better in the research post), and I made sure to try use the shots where it was obvious that the hands were not touching the face as this links into the lack of physicality that stereotyping has. In regards to the edit I tried to keep this essence. I kept the live performed dance very simple as I wanted it to speak for itself but added into to highlighted this lack of physicality, I've edited together pictures of the hand movements with a technique called Interpolation (shown in the second picture). Its a simple technique that in which you frame blend a JPEG sequence. This is a technique I use a lot in film as I just really like it and I find it effective in a multitude of ways. But in this instance I used it to enhance the performed dance> I feel I've done it well as it is different enough from the performed that it keeps the piece visually interesting but similar enough that it boosts it. I personally think I've handled the message of the body well in the piece, the only thing I could say is to use it more. 

SUBTITLES

Screenshot of Abrupt Conclusions & The Effects

Throughout the film I've dotted subtitles in Korean, Spanish, Norwegian, and Japanese. I did this because I wanted a way to  demonstrate 2 things. One, I wanted to have the subtitles unreadable to most audiences in some way so as a way to re enforce that these experiences aren't the audiences. Its mine and graces. Two,  a way to represent that becuase stereotyping is such common place in how me live our lives and perceive people, its often just ignored, so I wanted a way to show this avoidance and dismissal of it. I chose the above mentioned languages becuase I know people who speak each of the languages so I could get authentic quotes. All of the subtitles are queer slurs. I feel I've managed to achieve what I've set out to do with the subtitles.

MASKING

Screenshot of Abrupt Conclusions & The Effects

Screenshot of Abrupt Conclusions & The Effects

In the latter half of the piece I use a lot of masking techniques, revolving around the face, or reflections. I achieved this through creating the desired mask and then using the tracker tool to create the keyframes and mask pathing options. I chose to do this to enforce the sense of self reflection and self doubt. I chose to do it in a way of taking reflections of ourselves and replacing our faces as a abstract way to represent body dysphoria and doubt towards ones identity. The warp effect commonly used in the masks was created by myself by smearing paint together, photographing it, then using a turbulent displace on it to give it some animation. I chose this as a visual representation of the fluidity of gender and sexuality. 

SHADOWS

Screenshot of Abrupt Conclusions & The Effects

Finally, In the film there are multiple shots that are obscured with shadows of different forms. I chose to incorporate this into the shooting and and editing to create a similar effect to the subtitles and masking, in how they obscure the subject. But during shooting I planed that the shadows would also frame the subject. I wanted this juxtaposition because, I find that it is a perfect analogy to stereotyping as the hands are blocking part of the subject yet making you focus on one small aspect of them. I think in the film the shadows work well to create this and also to play with composition and keep the piece visually interesting. In reflection I wish I had planned more shots in which the shadows were sues during shooting becuase they do look better compared to the editing ones I've created. 

Overall I Think the edit went well and I was able to create a film that portrayed the meaning myself and Grace wanted to convey in this film. the only thing I feel could have come better would be time management as I feel I didn't have enough time to create the exact film I wanted but what I've managed to do I am prod of and happy with. 

Dance Film - Shooting

BTS from day 1 of shooting

The team we got for the shoot consisted of

Myself - Director / Art Director / D.O.P / Model

Grace - Producer / Model

Nina Sayuri Noriega Sato - AD

Alice Ball - Gaffer

Junaid Zaheer - Best Boy

Danielle Winter - Hand Dancer

Ciara Rose Goldfinch - Set design

Rufaro Maumbe - Camera Op

Before the day of shooting began I was a bit of a mess but thats just me and my overthinking brain but once we got the first shots done I got in the swing of being on a set and slotted into my role. The day was segmented into the White shots, and the Blue shots, and Day 2 was the Red and Orange sections. Throughout the shooting I worked closely with everyone to make sure they were happy, I worked especially close with AD, Camera, and Gaffer so we could keep organised and creating the best we could. The only big bumps in the road were that on day 1 we realised we had a problem with our 24mm lens and had to switch all the 24mm shots too 50mm. Following this on Day 2 we had some unexpected morning absence from Nina as she had fallen ill but Alice stepped up to take over the AD roll for the morning and we had to do the call sheet in reverse to keep the flow. From this I left both shoot days feeling satisfied but upon reflection on the footage I noticed that some footage was slightly out of focus or ever so slightly too dark, something I just didn't notice on the small GH4 camera screen. but from this myself and grace regrouped and did a quick reshoot of some shots and some new additional ones that in the end I feel greatly enhanced the film. 

BTS from shoot day 2

Dance Film - Pre Production

I mean, Grace was the producer so she covered most of the pre production documents. I stepped into the role of Art Director more during the pre production process. It was mainly with the set design as I worked closely with Ciara in the creation of the set and how I wanted it too look and then she was able to go off and create it the best she could. I also fulfilled the D.O.P role and worked on the shot list so Grace could transform them into a call sheet for the shoot days. I think pre production went pretty well in all honestly, nothing really went overtly wrong in the build up to shooting. 

Plans

Dance Film - Research

Dance Film is finally here, The class has been tasked to create a dance based art film. This task greatly interests me as I try to focus on movement and the juxtaposition of motion and stillness in my films already. After the briefing I already had ideas and this project around I've chosen to work with Grace. I approached her because I feel our skills compliment each other, she works well in sound and is highly capable in the realm of pre production, two areas of film making that I still haven't yet grasped as well as I could. Immediately we started working on ideas and doing research and we both want to make a film about our experiences with others perceptions of ourselves. Through talking we realised that the process of stereotyping, in the way we have experienced it, is a cycle. From this we decided to look into water and the water cycle as a visual representation of our experiences. 

WATER -

Water Based Dance Film Mood board by Joe Palmer & Grace Pryer

Above is visual collection of images and colour pallets for our film idea. We want to create a film in 3 sections; Underwater, Rain, and Smoke. This is to reflect the water cycle and in the film each section will be repeated to enhance this, we want a repetitive feel as being stereotyped ad bullied is very repetitive if I'm honest. There are only so many ways to glare at someone. The under water section will be mainly comprised of close up shots of myself and Grace in a tank of water so as to avoid distortion of us from the surface. the rain section will be, if all goes to plan, filmed with a rainmaker and be the most 'dancey' area of the film. and the smoke section will all be reversed footage to represent the evaporation stage of the water cycle. 

Quick Rough sketches of Visuals

The main visual inspiration for this idea are the music videos Singing in the Rain by JinSoul of Korean girl group LOONA, 4 Walls by f(x), and Move by Taemin. The main being Singing in the Rain as it covers all forms of water in the music video. 4 walls and Move are more in-depth looks in the underwater and rain sections respectively. 

Singing in the rain is a great visual resource for this idea as it shows the use of water in multiple different forms. The music plays with all different forms and intertwines them throughout the music video to keep it dynamic and visually interesting. Critically I find their editing style of this music video very effective for promoting the music and making an eye catching video to draw in viewers as, in this case, music videos are to help sell the music itself. Move has given me a lot of ideas for shots and choreography for the piece. 4 walls only has small specific sections that involve water. The whole music video music video follows the theme of 'the butterfly effect'. 'The Butterfly Effect' is an aspect of chaos theory in which a small change to one aspect of a deterministic nonlinear system can result in extreme changes later on in the process. the term was coined by Edward Lorenz, who was an American meteorologist and mathematician. I find this a very interesting concept to look into as it is a hard theory to disprove and the bases of changing one small thing can change all of current history just makes you think. Unfortunately I feel looking into this further will go against the current theme of cycles as they depict a situation in which things repeat and often with small changes or different situations yet they all end the same. From this music video I decided to look into some more art based visual research before looking into conceptual.

Antony Gormley, Blind Light, 2007

I looked into Blind Light as a visual tool for the actual execution for this project. The original meaning of this piece is outlined by Gormley on his website in which he states; "Architecture is supposed to be the location of security and certainty about where you are. It is supposed to protect you from the weather, from darkness, from uncertainty. BLIND LIGHT undermines all of that. You enter this interior space that is the equivalent of being on top of a mountain or at the bottom of the sea. It is very important for me that inside it you find the outside. Also you become the immersed figure in an endless ground, literally the subject of the work." I find this so playful and interesting as I do enjoy art which takes common and everyday concepts and turns them on their heads. i fid i do because I like the turmoil and the sense of familiar in the unfamiliar. I just find them fun especially when presented to the audience in a visually pleasing way, like Blind Light. Similarly I like art which kind of challenges the audience by either questioning their values or opinions. I find this because creating art is a cathartic experience and presenting it is your chance to, not only display or perform to the masses but also your chance to speak. These combined work in that challenging sense. As for the actually building of this piece, myself and grace are being rather ambition with tis project and hope to build a tank like structure in which we could use in the same style as Blind Light but also to fill with water and use it for the underwater section of the film. This is a bit of a monumental undertaking especially in the time frame but Grace seems optimistic and I trust her. 

We also briefly looked into this Japanese art installation piece which was for Matsuri ( Japanese Summer festival) organised by Fuji TV and created by teamLAB at DMM.PLANETS. This was an interactive experience in which the participance's could walk around multiple rooms (some with water, some without) which had 360 projections of visual effects. We are taking inspiration from the water aspect of this and might try and incorporate projection into all 3 segments of the film. I've worked with projection before and it works on black water or water in a black container, constant streams of rain and thick smoke. So we will have to do a couple test shoots to perfect the technique we we think it could add another layer to the film. 

As for actual dance based films we looked into three; a previous piece of work from my course Alkimia, Il lamento dell'imperatrice by Pina Bausch, and Rosas danst Rosas by the same artist. The previous UCA work we looked into because it has such beautiful transitions between a contemporary style dance and i feel this way of editing greatly enhances the flow and movement of the piece and creates a digital aspect to the dance that I would also like to look into and experiment with in this film. Both the films by Bausch We looked into because they both have a exaggerated movement style to them, were the actions of the dancers aren't overtly typically, for lack of a better term, 'dancey'. I find this style so interesting and personally my preferred style of movement to be used in dance film as it creates an uncanny essence to the pieces. I do also enjoy a choreographed contemporary style dance too, as seen in the above mentioned music videos but I enjoy them for different reasons, when in art based dance film I find the exaggerated familiar movements more intriguing.

Ophelia by John Everett Millais (1851–1852)

Above is the painting Ophelia, we looked into this as it is an incredible piece that can be read in so many different ways. the pice was created as a sort of study of Ophelia's death scene in Hamlet, mainly because it all stage shows at the time the scene was never performed on stage. The audience would simply hear the singing before her demise, accompanied by narration. The death is renowned as one of the more well written and poetic death of its time and even to date. Everett painted this piece to be one of the first depictions of this beautiful scene and to great accuracy. I personally applaud the piece for its beauty but love to look into it further. The way Everett painted her in the tradition pose of a saint creates an interesting level to the narrative that suggests that her untimely demise absolves her of the crimely nature of her peers in the play. I find that I would like to play with the subtlety of the pieces levels in concept and try add similar layers into my film.


UPDATE

SO, we kinda realised our ambitions were so incredibly high.
We are currently looking into ways to create that some movement that being underwater creates with things like hair and fabric as we realised that these subtle movements were integral to the film. The idea of trampolines and slow motion are on the table, as we think that it should create a similar motion. Obviously the act of falling will add so many more different meanings and interpretations to the film so once we have conformation from the places we've contacted on weather we can film using their facilities then I'll be back with more research.


MORE CHANGES

SOOOOO, the trampolines fell through and we just kinda decided to take the essence of the film conceptually and rethink the visual aspect of the film. We felt the base of the film is our experiences with stereotyping, and how other people force their perception of us onto us and how this affects our self image and self worth. In social psychology a stereotype is defined as “...a fixed, over generalised belief about a particular group or class of people." And comes in two forms; Explicit stereotypes ( where the participant  is willingly verbalising and creating action towards individuals), and Implicit stereotypes (which are unconscious and subconscious feelings and views in which we are unaware of but effects their views of any other). The latter of the two I find most interesting as implicit stereotypes come from the culture views of ones societal upbringing, or the conditioning that can come from someone entering groups or organisations. This is an interesting subject area as the implicity of this form of stereotyping is by description unconscious and something that can be difficult or even impossible to change about oneself. And yet the piece myself and Grace are trying to make is about our annoyance and struggle with peoples unconscious views of ourselves, at first a mute point. But, implicit stereotypes are unconscious to the holder of these views but can be visible to an outside perspective, so by theory these views can be altered with education which we want we want to do. Create a piece which is a depiction of our experiences with being stereotyped, to inform and also to be cathartic.

For visuals we were actually inspired by graces extensive sunglass collection. I realised that her funky and extravagant sunglasses, which all are different colours, really fit with the concept. We want to have the glasses to play off the phrase 'rose tinted lens'. The phrase is used to describe a person on situation in which someone is looking at a situation that is worse for wear in a very positive sense.  we want to flip this on its head and have the glasses represent the obscured and narrow view being enforced on us. As the glasses all are different we thought to colour the film depending on the glasses so I looked into the psychology of colour. the main aspect I've been looking into is colour in regards to perception, for example; bread is often sold in areas of stores which are more golden in tone as well as the actual packaging will be brown or gold to represent that feeling of home baking. In our film we want to use this but colouring our film to convey meaning. We've decided on RED, BLUE, and ORANGE. Red to represent aggression, our frustration towards those who stereotype us. Blue to be melancholy, our unwilling acceptance of stereotyping. Orange is often associated with sexuality and expression so we wanted this to keep the link to our concept. to help draw these three sections together we want to have a monochromatic section of white, blacks, and greys to act as a neutral zone, where we aren't influenced by others. We also want to re enforce this sense of perception through the use of reflections and eye symbolism.

Basic shot list and visual ideas

Moving on, something I wanted to explore more into for my dance film were hands. in a lecture we were shown the piece 'hands' by Burrows, Fargion, Roberts - BBC/Arts Council (1995) which I really liked as I find on of the two main aspects of the human body I like to put in film is the hands (the seconds is the face) I find the dance piece fascinating as its such a simple concept and at first glance feels so simple and uninteresting but I cant not look away. I find the dance was originally created as an accompaniment to a musical score. A very simple film basically speaking but I personally read into it as a personification of the feeling of being uncomfortable. I find this because the movements are repetitive and lead back to some original starting point, this to me fits in with that uncomfortablility as it makes the audience feel uneasy and gives them the need to fiddle. I want to take inspiration from this piece as well as the the dance to go with the song Spending all my Time by Perfume. We want to create a dance that can act as a physical representation of Stereotyping, but having hands jut in and block the models face, to block their identity, to be very obnoxious in a sense. this is similar to the same in the Perfume music video but that dance was to act as a further signal to the actresses in the dance being weird psychic triplets. Finally I looked into the music video Dinner by Suho and Jane Jang, This was originally for colour and how they phase from colour to colour. But upon further inspection this was achieved by a huge hanging light box which was able to be the only light source as its so big so you could get the smooth transitions from just that big box (which i am very jealous of and want). On the other hand tho this music video helped with the set inspiration. I want the set to be this room facade dotted with mirrors and lamps, and the odd pieces of furniture. I want this becuase the facade style will hopefully bring a sense of uncanny naturalism so the audience can see the familiar in this abstract room, this is to show how stereotyping is something that happens in everyday life. The lamps are play on the phrase 'to shed light on the subject', becuase the film is about myself and grace showing our own experiences. 

                                                                                                                                   

Studio Shoot Evaluation

So, the studio shoot.

The studio shoot based project given to us was a task in which we had a month or so to come together as a large industry style and standard group and create a film in the University's film studio facilities. I came into this project having spoken to some 3rd years and had a little insight into how the process was going to be and as a safe bet I was recommended to stick with a role I was comfortable with to make the whole process go smoothly. I agreed with this but being myself I did want to push myself slightly. So when it came to the group configuration there was some debate on who was working with who as it seemed most of the class wanted to be in one group together, I also wanted to be in this group as it was where a lot of my friend were and I knew I could work well with these people. After a lot of debate the groups got evened out and people were in roles they wanted, apart from myself, I signed up for Production Design and as i feel comfortable in D.O.P/Art direction style roles so I though with my creative flare I could help with the looks of the film through set, costume, and make up. That didn't happen though, as the roles we're being assigned it defiantly felt like I was being left out because it ended up being just myself who didn't get placed and then when i spoke up about this I was just thrown in the left over role of Camera Operator. A role I was defiantly not comfortable with at the time. After more talking about roles I ended up just making everyone else happier and taking another role I wasn't comfortable with at the time, Director, Its not that Im bad at being a director its just I came to uni to build skills and so far most of the film work I've done I've directed. But, it was all finalised and I was Director again, for Group B.

The crew ended up being;
Director - Myself
Producer - Suzanne
Assistant Director - Adelaide
D.O.P - Savina
D.I.T - Lorna
Camera Op - George
Sound Tech - Ollie
Boom - Luca
Gaffer - Holly

With this team I had only worked previously with a couple of them so I wanted to get started right away with Meetings and Idea development to get a rapport going with the group. I also felt this was a good idea seemings as out time from was quite small to develop an idea, complete preproduction, build the set, and complete filming. The first couple meetings myself and the producer organised went rather well, most if not all of the crew came and had great idea development, towards a final idea, from here on is when it goes a little downhill as I wanted the film we ended up created to be a collaborative idea in which everyone was enthused about as I felt it would give the crew more gumption in wanting to create it and be present for the process, so I organised meetings for the whole group to attend for this and also so everyone in the group could stay up to date with the stage in which we were at in this project. My producer also created a Facebook page which we would place announcement for meetings and summaries of meetings in which people didn't attend. People not turning up was frustrating as a director because I had to take time out of my Directorial process and time out of other projects I had to to have individual meetings with people as they didn't turn up to meetings nor read the Facebook page posts. The Idea was eventually formed after a string of meetings where only Myself, The Producer, the D.O.P, and the Camera Op would turn up. I was thankful that these members of the crew were turning up but it was a strain on us four as we had to take on others roles in order to complete the production pack. It was also worrying as the A.D rarely turned up and was fully out of the loop. Because of this I spoke to them and we agreed to switch their role and the Camera Op around as this was a less intense role for them to take on and they felt it was one they could achieve more easily. It also benefited the new A.D as they could now fully complete the role of A.D rather then doing their previous job and the A.D responsibilities. The idea we landed on was to create a more abstract style movement based piece. This was decided upon because we felt the abstract style would give us more freedom with the camera and sound work. we also decided upon a minimalistic set, costume, and lighting to ease the roles for others. This in turn made my role harder as the interest in the visuals would come from the actors. In regards to this the class had workshops on directing actors which helped greatly with myself being able to create the right emotions with the actors. As the film is movement based I created plans for where the actors would be on set and the paths they would take around set and then I directed them in rehearsals with their motives and created characters for them to portray. 

Once the production pack was completed we could hand in and get signed off ready for the set build.  When the set build came along it started a little rough as there was discrepancies on the size and shape of the set but as a group we figured it out and completed the set, my group were filming first so we ended the set build by creating the set, this was mainly done by myself, producer, A.D and production design. After set build we had the pre-light in which set up the light ready for shooting, as we had just one lighting set up arranged to make the gaffers job easier (this was agreed upon with the gaffer as well). Pre light was useful for rehearsals with the actors who gladly decided to come along and we were able to get a better feel for the space, and ready for the shoot days.

Finally the shoot days, they definitely started on track, day one went well, myself and the camera team went over the shot list while costume and make up prepared the actors, this really set us up for the the day, while one of our actors got ready I went over the areas of the movements that were being filmed today, I also did this with the other actor when make up was done. This helped with filming as the movements were fresh and on the brain. The actors felt better with this too and they were more in character and more confident for filming. From here we started filming, At first it felt a little weird shouting action and having like final say on everything that happened but i soon slotted into the role. I felt I managed to do this because I made it clear to my crew, especially the D.O.P, that I trust their judgement and if they wanted to just go and film what they had listed and I'd watch for approval I was fine. I feel I'm a slightly lax director as I defiantly wanted to people to do their role confidently without having to come to me every time and say if this is okay which it what was happening for the first few hours on Day 1. I also felt that between shots I gave the actors useful improvements and key words to work on for the next shot, for example using words like "curly" and "round", for the movements of one actor, and words like "pointed" for the other. My actors felt this was a good step for direction as they were able to take those words and use their own knowledge to interpret them into the character, movements, and what I was asking of them. From here on n shoot day 1 the shot list kind of broke down and communication between the camera team stopped which made the shooting difficult and I had to step in and act as a middle man between D.O.P and Camera Op, a job the A.D should have taken on but as our A.D was new the the role and also working on the other groups studio shoot in a big role I feel they understandably weren't 100% present. I was fine to take on some of the AD role but it did make shooting take a lot longer as I had to work with camera and then work with the actors between every shot. Day two was slightly horrible as it progressed. It started on track but due to the slowing down of day 1 we were behind schedule and half way through the day the camera op had to leave which was a known and expected occurrence but it did kind of push us over the edge. it did because our AD took on the camera operator role as out of the crew they were the most experienced for this role but this then caused communication between all roles to stop and the AD was unfamiliar with the shot list and we just kind of ran around screaming and making it up as we went. which was very un organised and un professional but after this whole very stressful project I would have put money on us loosing our minds. I feel I recovered from this mess in the edit but it was a unfortunate end to the studio shoot.

Overall it was a great learning experience and I learned a lot in directing actors and the differences in roles in professional film crews which will help me greatly in the future. If myself and the crew had more time to achieve this goal. I also feel I did rather well in an unfavored role, and I could have blossomed more in a role I wanted from the start like D.O.P, Gaffer, and production design. 

Maps & Networks: Final Piece and Evaluation

We started this project with an interesting concept but after reevaluation we decided on a stronger one the idea to make a project about how we can't handle our emotions and the documentations of use trying to open up to each other. II thought this was strong until the end of the last shoot where myself and Nina just had no idea where to talk the final piece and after a long chat we realised that the fact we can't handle or sometimes even comprehend some emotions to the fact that we both dissociate from ourselves, it was almost impossible for us to find a way to show the way in which that feels if we ourselves can describe that too eachother. We realised that we need to find a way to either present that fact that for us right now in time this project is almost unpresentable (a risky move) or to design a piece around the connection me and Nina made through this project. The latter of those two options We both this is the strongest as when looking back this theme kind of creeped up on us and evolved with the project itself. 

Voltea - Final Image 1 for Maps & Networks - Joe Palmer/Nina Sayuri

Turn Around - Final Image 2 for Maps & Networks - Joe Palmer/Nina Sayuri

These our the final images we decided upon. We made these images as we wanted to make two images that reflect upon one another and fit together. The space we have for installation is two wall facing each other in the corridor and we want to have these two image printed at A0 facing each other. we designed the images the way they are becuase with the un finishable theme we has to begin with we realized we can finish it because we both struggle communicating it to others. But, through the process of this project we both understand how each other feels towards it. and have reached a point in our friendship in which we dont need to talk we just get what the other one means. We wanted to represent this with the lines in the middle of the images and how the red line connecting our eyes is supposed to represent how we dont need to talk we just need sight to see the other and get how they feel. This is supported by the black dead like connecting mouths. This also links into the fact we've use photography, a purely visual medium as our presentation style, to support this 'visual' connotation. To link the images we have the overall look being similar and the text at the bottom of the images is supposed to act like an action to tall the viewer to turn around and look at the other image (voltea is turn around in spanish, Ninas mother tongue, we did this to link back to the personal aspect of the project). We wanted the text as this is an installation piece and we wanted to use our opportunity. It also helps the audience to see the images consecutively and hopefully piece together the fact that they fit together. We did play around with smaller text but felt it being big and caps helped it feel more like an instruction. I feel these images link back to our research well because we have used negative space link Sam Kweskins work. 

Overall this project has been a journey and I feel I have documented it well through my blog posts. On reflection I dont think i would have done anything different with this project as I've very round of all the work myself and Nina did and that we have managed to make strong outcomes that reflect the meaning we wanted them to. The project has brought new networking contacts through Ninas friendship and helped me grow as an individual. I managed to make a piece that fits my usual style but has aspects that differ like the use of text and the mix media experimentation I've done along the way has helped me become more comfortable in them and reminded me to use them in the future. The only down fall for this project would be the slow start with the problematic first Idea we had. But over all I'm proud.