60 seconds Film Project
The aim of this project was to make a short film on a personal subject matter
agreed by our tutors. Also to exercise the aspect of the collaboration.
Despondency by Mina Boromand 02.12.2019 The aim of my project is to highlight the aspects of human experience with tribulation Events in life such as Depression, Loss, Displacement… I’m going through a difficult time to witness the suffering of my dear friend Chris With suicidal acts. I intended to depict the suffering of mental health. After some attempt, I perceived my own emotions suffer. It was then that I decided to show a journey of those that involved with mental health sufferer.
Research:
Dziga Vertov in (Man with a movie camera) The honest documentary film showing behind the scenes. I like his way of positioning the camera and the angle of shooting.
Jozef Robakowski in his short film the Nearer-Farther he experimented with a new way of filming. He shot with low to high shutter speeds while he zoomed the camera IN and OUT. I got my inspiration from Jozef Robakowski for changing the light because I felt I could express my emotional journey better
BILL VIOLA a multidisciplinary artist who mostly talking about issues like death, consciousness, ... I like the way his works visually and emotionally takes you away. Also, I looked at Louise Quil's book Big Brother a project about his older brother and his battle with depression.
Melissa Zexter American photographer- an artist who has combined the slow and meditative process of hand-sewn embroidery with the medium of photography
Sanne De Wilde a Belgian photographer explores the role genetics play in people's lives and affects communities.
Pieter Hugo (from South Africa whose work focuses on peripheral communities.
Alfred Yaghobzadeh (Iranian Documentary photographer) I'm interested in the way they tell their stories.
Contextual Research:
We introduced to Ursula Le Guin and her book essay "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction" she presents a new theory that first human Tool was a carrier bag for food rather than a weapon and stories of a hero going to battle. It is the story that Makes me. LE GUIN's carrier bag theory is shifting the way we look at humanity's foundation from a narrative of domination to one of gathering, holding, and sharing.
OLIVIA AIELLO She contributed to writing the "Knowledge and Decolonial Politics" book. "Connecting to the Embodied Spirit" (A Critical reader 2018) The intention of this chapter of the book is to conceptualize embodied knowing as a methodology for healing. Her research focuses on creating "healing spaces" for youth and spirituality in social work.
I listened to the talk with Tom Holland in BBC6 music on his new book DOMINION about the making of the western mind. An extensive look at how 'the greatest story ever told' overthrew antiquity (the ancient past) and formed the west.
Contact sheets Outline the Methodology
For this project, I used the iPhone, a digital camera, a prism to scattered images, light, color, and sound to symbolize the mental health issues and its journey. It was an experimental and deductive approach.
I had several attempts with different settings. I started with filming of 1 minute or less of the Navigator Square after I left my friend in Archway Mental hospital.
I picked a Concord from the park on the same day that he admitted to the hospital. I start to photograph it.
Shots of 1 minute of the Concord. with 50mm prime lens Shutter speed from 80---->1600 1600---->80 iso from 100--->6400 6400--->100 • Shots of 1 minute or less in daylight studio with symbolic objects and color.
shots of 1 minute of my friend Chris reading his poem.
At last shots of 1 minute of the trees with the sounds of the tennis players on the background, at Lincoln's Inn Fields. Each shoot manifests my feeling and emotion.
One of the technical aspects of experimentation was to learn how to film with my digital camera. (I used YouTube)
To film concord in my room was challenging, there wasn't enough space to fit the tripod. I ended up holding up the tripod while I was filming.
To change the iso - shutter speed and keep the time at 60 seconds while holding tripod was challenging.
To film him wasn't easy emotionally.
Filming the trees with the use of a mirror /prism (in Lincoln's Inn Fields) and changing the shutter speed/iso without an assistant.
From the group crits, I managed to decide which one of the 60 seconds film is my favorite (The scattered moving image of the tree in Lincoln's Inn Fields with the tennis player's voice in the background).
I came up with several ideas during editing:
1. use the original clip with its sounds, add the image of the concord that surrounded in colors somewhere in between.
2. Use of the same clip with a piece of ambient music.
3. use the original clip, add the ambient music.
• Editing was difficult since I'm not familiar with the Premium Pro editing app. I'm sure with a careful editing approach I would improve it excessively.
Self Evaluation
I was very emotional throughout the project specially during the presentation. The main aspect of learning was to be more objective not influenced by my personal feelings.
