Week 4: Documentary Initial Edit, Clips and Further Inspirational Research

Introductory Edit

For the initial premise project, my intention is to use three people to explore performance, style and storytelling devices in order to get a better scope when focusing on my final piece. Looking at how I intend to start my documentary, set the pace, and scene and introduce the interviewees in a way that cross-examines and compares the drastically different days that ended in months of confinement within one’s own home.

Documentary and Relationships to Video Game Landscapes

While not directly explored within my premise project, some of my recorded content involves people’s experiences with video games and lockdown which I find a very interesting visual identity to explore within the realm of animation. Below highlights a clip from The Midnight Gospel (Trussel, 2020) that discusses a person’s experience playing video games, and while they are recounting it there is violent imagery showing that matches that of the description in a way that visually matches the identity of playing a game without directly matching the spoken content.

In this light the film Molotov Alva and His Search for the Creator: A Second Life Odyssey (2008) utilises the video game space of second life to address a mans experience within the game itself. I like the idea of taking direct videos from video games and incorporating them into my film also, showcasing directly the virtual world within a virtual world.

Documentary Footage Edits

Below is a rough edit of my introduction to start considering how and what the overall tone of my film will be. I intend to explore and use this cross-story cutting to answer specific questions one at a time to allow for aesthetic contrast between different interviewees but similar content.

However, adapting these interactions for my premise project, I have decided to use these specific clips and turn them into animated works over the next few weeks to start exploring different visual concepts and narratives.

Interview 1

I feel this clip has a lot of potentials to explore my first aesthetic consideration of utilising police interrogation rooms as the overall tone is more serious and dark in nature. For this, I intend to adapt the performance to a semi-realistic world where there is real-world accuracy to the approach of overall character performance, however, remains stylised enough that it does not breach into aesthetic realism. I still wish to present this world as something that feels ‘fake’ and plastic but resembles reality in its direct mimetic substitution.

Interview 2

I feel this video leaves space to explore the secondary and alternate aesthetic test as it mentions travel and different locations which allows ample room to explore my visual environments from last week. Due to this, I want to try and explore the incorporation of 2D and 3D virtual environments and how I will effectively work on this going forward.

Documentary films watched for further Consideration

The New York Times // Conception // Yael’s Story on Vimeo

The Rent We Pay – StoryCorps

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