Week 2 - making of video and animation:

This week I have started composing my first draft of my video for my final piece of work. To make this video and edit it, I used Adobe Premier Pro to thread my video together. In this video I have performance footage, found footage from old video tapes, footage from my visit to Derby and footage of found objects that belonged to my grandmother. The idea behind this video is to track her life journey from fragments I already knew and from what my mother knew as well.

My grandmother was an engineer and loved dancing and music. But the thing that mattered most to her was family. These key themes are shown throughout the video through performance, found footage and objects.

She enjoyed time with family. She met my grandfather while dancing one night when he was on leave from the army. Unfortunately he died during combat later in life and my grandmother was living on her own. Using figurative performance art I tried to capture this moment but looking back on it now I think it was not that successful compared to other parts of the video.

Throughout the video there is a constant motif of a walk through Shipley Park with my mother and her dog. My grandmother use to take this walk with her dog Peppy, and even after Peppy past away she came along with my mum to walk around. This walk I recorded was the first walk without my grandmother. So in some ways it seems very spiritual to me, as if it is a testament about how she is not there anymore, but how we all still carry on. 

I liked the use of this motif as it connects all the footage together when considering movement and time. However the overall first draft draft of my video I feel there is certainly room for improvement. I think I need to show more of how these memories are just pieced together from what my grandmother just knew at the end of life. Some of these memories are fuzzy in some ways as she unfortunately had Alzheimer's and forgot some things but remembered others. I also think the hands I have used for the performance pieces to signify her ageing and her lost of my grandfather need to look older as they look too young. I may also consider blurring pieces of footage and even decaying parts of footage as well. Overall though I am pleased with this first attempt, there are plenty pieces of footage that are creative ideas and others that need tweaking here and then.

Below is the first draft video:

I also decided to experiment with some stop animation of me drawing her from two images from different points in her life, one from when she was younger, and one when she was older.

As an experiment I feel it was successful, and that it is something I can use later on. I know that keeping something in the same place is very important, and how speed is also key depending on the amount of photographs being used for a stop animation. I feel like if I were to improve them I would straighten out the overall shoot of them all and even prepare myself more with equipment by having a button connected to my camera to take photographs more easily.

Below are both animation experiments I have created:

Week 1

This week we had to figure out what we are wanting to do for our personal project that relates to one of the subjects we have talked about in lectures. I have chosen to focus on the body in art, and I propose to focus on this using digital processes such as video, animation, photography etc, and possible installation/sculpture as well. Below is the synopsis of my project:

The importance of a person’s life is something we don’t know great detail in until it is too late to focus on the crucial details of it from the actual person in hand. Through expressive imagery and analytical approaches I hope to focus on my grandmother’s life and show it through the use of digital resources as well as introducing a performative element to my final major outcome. Everyday objects, simple stories, and found footage can create a lively portfolio of a person’s life. I will present these ideas within a video as well as allow for opportunities such as photography, drawing, and other aspects to allow my grandmother to come alive once again. Looking at artists such as Laure Prouvost and Sophie Calle, I can use these influences to show me how to bring to life someone else’s life, and personality through objects and the use of the body in art. Each key factor of object, re enactments, found footage and so forth can slowly, and beautifully bring my dear grandmother back to life, piecing her together like a jigsaw.