TWERC - JOURNAL
Entry 1 – Ideas and inspiration
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Initially I had a couple of different ideas for this project. However, both of these ideas were based around the same topic. From the start, I decided that I wanted to focus my project on sights and sounds of the everyday. I have a keen interest in film photography and I am fascinated by the idea that photography can capture meaning and bring focus to something so mundane and/or common as a wheelie bin or a person smoking. I thought about a video project that I had seen from one of last year’s graduates, Gavin Clark. In Gavin’s video, he focusses on the culture of skateboarding in an urban landscape. This made me consider the fact that photography and skateboarding are so similar in the sense that they enable a unique, creative interpretation of landscape. They both present opportunities for landscapes to be explored and enjoyed in ways in which a lot of people might pass by. In the very same location one skateboarder might see a ledge that they can skate, one photographer might see interesting lighting, shadows, composition and an opportunity for social commentary and one person might not see anything of note. I knew from very early on that I wanted to explore this idea that there is substance in everyday objects, depending on the context of their environment and timing. In an age of throwaway digital and phone photography we are afforded the luxury of taking countless photos and deleting as appropriate. From a film photography point of view however, the restrictions of a small viewfinder and limited exposures makes for very deliberate and considered decision making to create the desired photo. For example, this photograph of a police car on fire, taken by Jerry Hsu (who is coincidentally also a skateboarder) captures a moment in time that will almost definitely not be replicated. It was taken during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests and the composition alone forces the viewer to consider the connotations of people’s views on the police force in that moment in time.
Entry 2 – Developing my idea
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One thought I had in the initial stages was how I would be able to incorporate sound and moving image elements into a film photography project in order to satisfy the requirements of the brief. I thought back to last year when I created a short documentary video with accompanying sound elements such as voiceover, field recordings and added FX. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this video and the thought of creating another video was very exciting to me. At this point I thought about the things I liked about the video such as the general aesthetic and cinematographic style and subtle sound elements. I also considered the things that weren’t so good such as the voiceover that was recorded on a zoom recorder. I wanted to use this project as an opportunity to learn from these shortcomings and further develop the positive creative elements to create an interesting piece.
As well as being inspired by Gavin Clark’s project, I also stumbled upon a few videos on YouTube by Joe Greer and Willem Verbeeck centered around film photography. In these videos, these photographers record point-of-view footage and show examples of photos they have taken having been influenced by their surroundings. Included in these videos are street sounds, music and voice-overs. Initially, I wondered if this type of audio work would be satisfactory as there’s not a huge amount of room for creative input besides the soundtrack. This concern was based around the fact that a lot of my classmates have shown work in the past that has been extremely conceptual, inventive and demonstrates a clear ability to manipulate audio. I was worried that creating a subtle soundtrack to accompany my video would not demonstrate this. After a few meetings with Adam, I was convinced that not only would this be satisfactory, I could in fact face several difficulties with the complexity of recording dialogue, field recordings, a soundtrack and mixing these elements to an ‘acceptable’ standard. By acceptable, I am referring to the standards set in similar videos on YouTube such as those by the aforementioned photographers. I would also have to consider the deliverable requirements for YouTube in terms of industry standard maximum loudness.
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Entry 3 – Getting started/My own stamp
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I decided early on in the planning stages that in order to create a distinctive video in my own style, I could include several different locations, each with a different purpose. Being so inspired by street photography and urban landscapes, one thing I definitely wanted to include was a section in a busy city such as Edinburgh or Glasgow, paying close attention to members of the public with the objective of finding stories through photography within these environments. I also thought an interesting segment could be achieved by meeting with my Glasgow based friend who is also a keen film photographer. My view was to have a learning element in the video, in which my friend could show me around spots he likes in particular, talking me through which camera and film he uses, and why or how he creates the interesting photos he does. I also really wanted to include some quintessentially Scottish seaside landscape photos so I decided to travel to Crail and Anstruther in the East Neuk of Fife with the intention of delving further into the nuances of everyday objects, and compositions of life in picturesque Scottish villages.
I thought that the contrast of these three sections would give the video an interesting dynamic, but it would still be very focussed overall on film photography and inspired by elements in the videos by the photographers previously mentioned.
With regards to recording in Crail and Anstruther, I decided to use a GoPro to record the point-of-view video footage as it is high-definition and industry standard for videos uploaded to YouTube. I also decided to use a lavalier microphone to clearly record myself explaining where I was and what was inspiring the photos that I was taking.
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Entry 4 – Life during lockdown
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One problem I ran into whilst shooting on my first day in Edinburgh was that due to Covid-19 restrictions, the streets were almost empty. I completely overlooked this potential problem and at the time, I saw it as massively disappointing and a huge creative block at the start of my project. This was very quickly followed by the announcement of several tiered lockdowns and the inability to travel out with my local authority as a result. I began to realise that although this would definitely prevent me from capturing what I set out to, I could use this situation to my advantage and create a different, even more nuanced video altogether. I realised that I would be able to use this project as a way in which I could document the landscape during these unprecedented times. As soon as I had this thought, I decided to spend a full afternoon recording footage and taking photos in my hometown and the neighbouring village. I began to see so many details in the landscapes such as the way the light shines on certain buildings, how people have been forced to interact differently and the obvious difference that most of the shops were closed for business. These ‘restrictions’ actually provided an ideal opportunity for social commentary and for me to delve deeper into what life has been like in a small town during a worldwide pandemic.
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Entry 5 – Another setback
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Unfortunately, despite posting my rolls of film to a highly recommended film developing lab in Leeds on the 27thof November, Royal Mail didn’t deliver the post until the 7thof December, 3 days before the initial submission date. As I had to wait on these photos returning before starting work on my video, I decided to look at the brief and see what else I could get done whilst I waited. In this time, I began work on my Gallery Brochure, Installation Proposal, Presentation and I also spent a good bit of time organising all my video and sound files into folders. This helped a lot when it came to working on the video as I knew exactly where each video and sound was, which filming location it pertained to and what it contained. Although the delay in receiving my photos back was a massive setback, I did appreciate the time I had to work on the other things in the brief, meaning I could pragmatically get stuck in to editing as soon as I could, with few distractions such as finding video or photo elements.
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Entry 6 – Bringing the video to life
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At last, my film arrived on the 8thof December. I spent the full day importing all of my media in to Final Cut Pro X. I used this software last year and as well as it being industry standard, I found it incredibly user-friendly so I was really looking forward to using it again. For me, the basicality of the layout in FCPX makes for a very organised and simple workspace. I appreciate that in a small window at the top of the session I have all of my files to hand. I also enjoy the ‘roles’ feature that lets me further categorize elements such as audio based on it’s purpose such as music, dialogue or sound effects. The ‘magnetic’ feature of the timeline, then allows me to drag and drop files, disable the audio and trim whilst attaching (if desired) to other prominent elements in the timeline. This makes the editing process much smoother than continuously adjusting the timeline to sync up audio to video, for example.
I imported my media and arranged it in such a way that would make the entire editing process organised and seamless. As part of the video, I wanted my photos to have a border. I looked into various ways of doing this and I settled on importing them into Mac program ‘Preview’ into a template I had made. I used this program for its simplicity also, as software like Photoshop has too many elements for me to quickly navigate basic commands such as resizing. Using Preview meant that I could quickly make sure every photo included in my film had the same size and colour border so it looks professional, cohesive and organised. This is with reference to the videos by Joe Greer and Willem Verbeeck that I mentioned in a previous journal. One element of their videos that I really like is the consistent, clean, white border which offers no distractions to the photo in question at the time.
I also included some sounds at this stage including a camera shutter which I inserted on the timeline when displaying a photo and a placeholder piece of music that I downloaded to accompany the video. This made the whole editing process much more enjoyable as it gave me a good glimpse at what the project would look and sound like further down the line.
I finished one image-only draft on the 8th of December.I then spent the morning of the 9thof December sifting through the video and cutting bits that felt like they were unnecessary. I wanted the video to flow well and transition seamlessly from shot to shot, and this process really enabled me to make the video much more watchable and intriguing, rather than drawn out and unfocussed.
I still felt like something was missing visually from the project. When I referred back to the aforementioned YouTube videos I noticed that they often included titles to break up the video into sections. This makes it a lot more focussed and easier to digest. I decided to implement a similar approach, giving a brief indication of where I was shooting and a suggestion of my goals or the general feel of each section. Again, I felt like these subtle additions really added a professional edge to the video (with comparison to similar, accomplished online) and I decided that these were the finishing touches in the film editing stage for the initial hand in date.
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Entry 7 - Sound for the Moving Image
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Upon finishing the video mix, I encountered a major problem in that every time I tried to export it from FCPX, the program would crash. I still need to figure out why this is happening in order to properly export a high quality video file. However, in the meantime I screen recorded the video so that I could use this as the basis for adding sound elements in post production. I imported the video into ProTools and got to work dubbing the project. Throughout the process I have had mixed feelings on how I want the project to sound and gone through stages of worry and excitement about potential shortcomings audio-wise. I decided to re-watch some of the videos that I was inspired by and think about how I would be able to achieve a similar sort of soundscape. I decided that in order for my film to be comparable, I should aim to have extremely subtle and minimal sound design in terms of added effects, background noise and sudden dynamic shifts. I wanted the focal point to be the photos, so the sound in this instance would solely be used to accompany the visual element, not overpower it. I also began to realise that the subtlelty in itself is difficult to accomplish and if done well would be really positive in regards to the watchability of my video. I have seen similar videos on YouTube that have very sudden cuts or badly recorded audio and these issues have been the catalysts for me to turn it off, even if I am interested in the visual elements of the videos.
To begin with, I imported various field recordings I had recorded on location and began to dub these to the image, in order to give both the sounds and the images a context. I decided to carry forward the idea of a camera shutter clicking every time a photo was shown on screen. This is another thing I really liked about the videos I had drawn inspiration from. I find that it helps guide the focus of the viewer, splitting up the video elements from the photo elements, similar to the border effect that I mentioned previously. This shutter sound also gives the piece a different dynamic sonically.
As well as the purely diegetic sound mentioned above such as location audio, I wanted to include a soundtrack that would compliment the films visuals. I signed up for a free trial of Epidemic Sound, a website where I could browse thousands of royalty free pieces of music. I already had a piece downloaded for the editing stage that I thought worked very well so I brought that into the ProTools session. I thought that this piece worked well initially due to the style of music, being very similar to that used in the videos I continued to reference.
One thing that crossed my mind was that using this one piece of music might become extremely repetitive. I decided that I would like to use a different piece of music for each section in the film in order to differentiate and accommodate the differences in each visual segment. I have not gotten this far however, and I still need to import all of my lavalier commentary clips into the Pro Tools session too. I initially submitted the video unfinished, but with ideas of where I could improve it in the months before the final submission date.
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Entry 8 – Revisiting and Finishing
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After over two months away from the project, I came back to it with some fresh ideas and a real eagerness to get it finished. I also carefully considered the feedback given to me by my lecturer, Adam Scott after the initial submission, with suggestions of how I might improve each element of the project.
To start with, I decided that it was paramount to be able to export the video properly so that it would be as high definition as possible. After a full weekend of research and help from my lecturer, Paul Wilson, I finally managed to troubelshoot effectively and sort the problem.
I decided that in order to make it cohesive, the video had to have an ending. I added titles in FCPX at the end of the sequence which acted as a roll of credits, clearly indicating the end of the video, following a summary of the video’s contents.
I then decided that I should think more about what I wanted the soundtrack to be, without just lazily comparing it to the videos I had seen on YouTube. Since the turn of the year, I have found myself becoming enamoured with the films of American director, Kelly Reichardt. In one of her films, ‘Old Joy’, American Indie/Rock band Yo La Tengo provide an instrumental score. This film has a very basic plot with a huge amount of emphasis placed on the nuances of the landscape and the way it is experienced by two old friends. I thought the film’s score really suited the subdued visuals of the film and I thought about how this might actually work with my piece. I implemented several of the songs from this soundtrack into my Pro Tools session and began editing and mixing with the other audio elements. I found that the slow, sparse, melancholic, nature of the arrangements were very suited to the melancholic and relaxed nature of my visuals. Although the style of music was quite different to what is used in the reference videos by Joe Greer and Willem Verbeeck, I actually really liked this difference. The arrangements, each containing quite similar themes, allowed for the main focus to be on the photographs. This consistency of sound made my video begin to flow a lot better, almost gluing each section of the video together into one cohesive piece.
I spent a bit more time mixing the various audio elements and I considered the technical requirements of Youtube in a lot greater depth. I used plug-ins in Pro Tools such as Izotope Ozone 9, Maximizer and YouLean Loudness Meter in order to master the audio to a loudness measurement that suited the industry standard for streaming websites of its kind. This process took a lot longer than I anticipated, and it became quite tedious. This is mainly due to the fact that I hadn’t done it before, and it took a lot of research and fine tuning in order to get the desired result.
In the end, I chose not to use any of the lavalier voiceover clips that I had recorded whilst on location. After listening back to them, it’s clear that I lacked a lot of confidence when talking about my thought processes whilst on the street. The audio quality wasn’t particularly great, with several clicks and pops and wind noise on several of them. I even considered re-recording these and implementing them as if they had been recorded on location. In the end however, I decided after watching the full video back that the other audio elements were enough to accompany the video. I felt that adding any voiceover clips would ultimately distract the listener/viewer from what I feel is a cohesive piece with a very considered aesthetic, both visually and sonically.
I exported the audio from Pro Tools, re-imported it into the FCPX session and synced this up with the new credits that I had added.
I decided to create a book of photographs to go along with my video. The book contains photographs that are in the video, as well as some that were not included. I thought that it would be nice to have these photos in a book mainly for my own pleasure, to see a finished physical piece of work, coinciding with a digital video after months of working on the project. I also thought that in the event of a physical degree show, it would be interesting to have the book on display in the same room as the video being projected. This would enable passers by to have a look at the photos in the book (which is quite a conventional setting for photos) and then they would have the choice whether or not to watch the video showing the actual process of these same photographs being taken. In the event of a digital degree show, I have decided to scan a copy of the book as a PDF, which can be viewed online and flicked through in a similar fashion to a physical book.