Saturday, 16 March 2013

My mind.... in cue card form?

So I've finally done it. My tutor has been telling me for the last month to create a story board for the final edit of my film. This is easier said than done as it involved figuring out the following;
a) Why am I creating this film?
b) What is the film about?
c) What is the underlying theme?
d) What is the narrative?
e) How is the narrative going to be told?

You would think these would have been things to have sorted out before I started the project - but apparently I have evaded even thinking about them and have just filmed and recorded what had interested me at the time.

So for the last month I got stuck into reading, watching, researching other artists and generally mulling over all the above questions. It's scary as I have felt like I'm achieving very little while my deadline is looming, but in the end it was entirely necessary. Here is the result;



My breakthrough in creating my narrative came from an excerpt from David Bate's book 'The Key Concepts of Photography';
"... News photographs are perceived as signifying events. Art and most documentary photographs signify states. Some documentary photographs and Muybridge's series in particular are seen as signifying processes. From what we know about minimal narratives, we might say that an ideal minimal story form might consist of a documentary photograph, then a news photograph, then an art photograph (process, event, state)." - David Bate


So I'm following this simple narrative structure by showing the process through the visuals, event with discussion of the current organic debates through interview footage and state through personal stories of the workers.

It is intimidating to have everything that was in my brain now displayed on the wall above my bed, but it is a start and it will be good to get going with the next stage of working on the initial edit.

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Lunchtime Film

This is the film I shot on the same day as the stills in the last post. Pretty sure the final piece won't have music, but it's a little weird watching it without... so enjoy! And yes that's icing sugar been sprinkled on carrots and parsnips - inspired!

Friday, 8 February 2013

Lunchtime!

At the farm everyone takes a turn at cooking lunch once a week. It's great that they get to eat together and the conversation and stories round the dinner table are priceless!









Monday, 21 January 2013

Life on a Farm Intro

So this is the introduction piece I handed in for the most recent assessment.

I'm not entirely sure what I think of it any more as it turned out a lot more commercial than I had envisioned... I'm hoping that the final piece for my hand-in in May will have gone in a different direction... So yes, enough waffle. Let me know what you think;

 

Thursday, 17 January 2013

AfterEffects Wizardry

So I spent last Friday evening geeking it out and watching AfterEffects tutorials online. I wanted to create a title page something like on this video (Skip to 1:00 for the title sequencey bit)

So after watching this tutorial on repeat for the last couple of hours...

 

 I finally did it! It's still a little rough and I still can't find a font I like - but here it is;

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

Winter Days

Here's a little clip of some footage that I've gathered over the past couple weeks;


It's just a rough edit of some of the footage I've gathered so far which shows the quietness and stillness of the farm over winter. Let me know your thoughts!

Monday, 29 October 2012

Cusgarne Apple Pressing

I returned to Cusgarne Farm last week to record some film footage and an interview with Greg and I managed to catch their annual apple pressing! They make and sell pressed apple juice from their own orchards, and I can honestly say after sampling some freshly pressed that afternoon that its some of the best I've had! Here are some stills from the footage I captured which show part of process;





All images © Lydia Harris 2012