Week 13

Video Artists:

Kahlil Joseph is an award winning video director hailing from Los Angeles, California. I enjoy his videos because they're pretty simple but very creatively shot paired with good music.

He has worked with renowned musicians like Kendrick Lamar, Beyonce and household fashion names like Margiela and Dries Van Noten.

His primary target audience is young black people as his films try and reflect the black community on screen. Young people of other races (mostly people that would label themselves as hipsters) that enjoy art installations.

http://www.the-most.com/#fka-twigs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fLKcHu-LJo=

When I saw his MAAD art installation at the infinite mix. I really enjoyed the 2 monitor aspect he used. I still wonder why he did it and if it holds any creative merit or if he just decided to do it because it looks good. It made the installation more interesting though because the audience was allowed to choose what side to look at which altered the way each member of the audience perceived the film. I might incorporate this idea if I decide to go with my Clouds As My Witness idea which is about depression. My initial idea was to have one of my favourite poems about self-hatred scroll at the bottom of the screen but I might use a second monitor in which it slowly scrolls down with footage of an iPhone battery display draining which symbolizes the mental state of the main character deteriorating.

Dexter Navy is a photographer and director from West London that has many projects that inspire me and influence my style. He currently primarily works with Asap Rocky who also happens to my one of my favorite artists. Dexter Navy's signature style is the use of amazing visual effects that support the narrative of his projects very well. He also helps orchestrate live music performances in which he adds a lot visuals on the stage which enhance the experience of the audience. He usually uses multiple monitors to co-storytell with the music played. Like the artist I discussed before, I really like the multiple monitor idea as it gives me a lot of creative space to portray my installation. We also live in the age of the internet in which people don't really seem to be able to focus on one thing so the dual monitor idea will give them multiple things to look at without their brains seemingly demanding more content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ274umjhFY

My video installation ideas:

A very real dream:

A video about the experience of sleep paralysis in which the person experiencing it goes on a journey through his memories. This idea will be very visual effects intensive and I'm unsure if I'm up for the job. Sound design will also be a crucial part of this project as I want to try and replicate a trance state which has a lot of distorted sounds.

Clouds as my witness:

A rather short film that reflects a place I found myself in when I was younger. It follows a young couple that abuse drugs to quell their sadness but it only makes it worse which leads to suicide. They then enter heaven and reflect on their life and see where they went wrong.

This will have a soundtrack comprised with 3 songs that I'll mix together to support the story. I will sync the footage with the music to make the visual aspect more interesting and I will switch from coloured to black and white footage to represent the mind state of the characters in it. I will use two monitors to present this: One will be showing actual film whilst the other monitor has a poem scrolling down the screen with an iPhone battery display running out of charge, representing the mental state of the characters.

Memories of a generation:

I had an idea of me filming World War 2 monuments and bringing them to life by adding sounds that could've been heard during the time. There will be a soundtrack overlaying the sounds of bombers flying overhead, anti aircraft guns firing and sirens.

Link to my video installation:

Preproduction:

https://studentsouththamesac-my.sharepoint.com/personal/1369639_student_south-thames_ac_uk/_layouts/15/onedrive.aspx?id=%2Fpersonal%2F1369639_student_south-thames_ac_uk%2FDocuments%2FUnit%2010%20Engaging%20with%20an%20audience%20in%20creative%20production

Evaluation:

My progress on the Clouds of my Witness idea went really well until my actress had to bail out due to several personal reasons out of my control leaving me extremely frustrated and desperate to come up with an idea. I then revisited the WW2 idea and had to scrap up what I could. Time wasn't on my side and I went to London to film. I had to complete the editing within several hours which affected the final outcome in a big way as the project was mainly focused on post production based work. The outcome however isn't to bad in my opinion. The project ended up having a more tribute like feel to it instead of an art video but at the same time, I think it might evoke the sense of appreciation for the servicemen and women involved in the conflict which is the job it was supposed to do in some way even though its stylistically not the most artistic video, it still has a meaning and message with depth thats supposed to evoke thought which is what art is.

Things I have to improve: planning and actually following through a plan.

My idea was solid and really good for the clouds as my witness idea. I had a very good picture of it in my head but unfortunately and not for the first time, my actors bailed on me mid way through the project which is unexplainably frustrating and infuriating.