MESHES OF THE AFTERNOON- video

We watched part of this short film in a lecture and one part of it really hit hard, there is a woman dressed fully in all black, when she turns around, she has no face, only a mirror in the place. This video is early experimental film and i really like the use of repetition and cloning of the main character in the video. it is a non-narrative work, it has been identified as a key example of the trance film, in which a protagonist appears in a dreamlike state, and where the camera conveys his or her subjective focus. this does relate back to when i was looking at Dali's work, surrealists often use dream like states or dreams as a basis of there work! it makes u spend a long time trying to work out what exactly is going on throughout the film which i like the idea of. though in all honesty the sound in this i found distracting in some sections. 
 

Cindy Sherman - photography

when ever i think of this idea of being someone else it reminds me of Cindy Shermans work. In her work, they are all self portraits of herself, however it's not how all is seen, she dresses up as almost different characters, different personas. She doesnt view her images as self portraits, even if they are all of her, 
she states: "I feel I'm anonymous in my work. When I look at the pictures, I never see myself; they aren't self-portraits. Sometimes I disappear." 

Her images are often wide in the subjects she becomes, but some of her more famous shots are from her Untitled Film Stills where she plays different kinds of actresses playing parts, if that makes any sence. In most of the photos she becomes unrecogniseable, she really doesnt look like the same person. 

 The idea of being able to look at a photo of yourself and not bein able to see yourself in it, it really hits to the feeling im trying to get across. some people who have depression or self harm can look into the mirror and not see themselves, it isnt who they think they are. Its like they are an empty shell. How they feel, they put on a brave face and hide whats really happening.

The Basis of my body of work

The idea about what i want to develop to move on from did come from some of the reserch and a photo shoot i did before. The idea is that person is trying to hide who they are, hiding what they're going through, hide the scars. They dont want to show everyone the real them. they hide under layers of barriers that stop people getting to close. I want to experiment using some of the techniques that i tried before. and i also want this to be the basis for my next video, again i want to go down a more symbolic approach rather then obvious and i want to focus on the idea of not having a face of the face u do have is not who u really are. its hard to explain where im coming from but once i start to work on the ideas and such do some test shots then i think it will be more obvious to see what i mean.

Video feedback and thoughts

after a good session on tutorial day, and i had a chance to discuss my video. I personally wasnt happy with it, but the feedback i got from it was good. (i havent uploaded it because of problems with its size and youtube but ill see if i can sort that) the main crit on it was the lack of sound. which i know was a big part as i couldnt think of what i wanted to do. most of the feedback was that there was some really powerful shots in it. i personally felt the video was to slow, and when we watched it back in almost double time it came across better to me. i could rework it to be more like how i wanted but part of me thinks that i wont gain anything from doing that. i also really have an idea that i want to continue on from using the style of my last film, but inproving on it, maybe focusing more on the edits and sound once the bulk of it is shot. i do want to try and encorperate one of the shots from this last film, the lip shot, and reshoot it to see if i can improve it, and make it apart of my new video. Thinking alot after my last post i would love to focus more on video for this, as well as still experimenting with the ideas of photography.

hay

so i know ive been abit slack so far as to my blogging since the deadline. there is two reasons for this:

the first being that i have been struggling to see where this project is taking me. im finding it hard to work out what i want to do next let alone if it is on the same subject, because while i ended up with some good photos at the end, i really was not happy with the video side of things. i think partly is because of a confidence lack. partly because my heart really wasnt in it. i was shooting for the sake of shooting, which really isnt good because i do enjoy doing video work. i may concentrate on photography for my negotiated project more then video but part of me still wants to experiment abit with it. i just think i needed to spend alot of time thinking about what i want to achieve.