Research - Week 14

14/05/2019

Dissertation - Write and reflect on your progress. What are you hoping to achieve

Artist statement due - 21st May
Project due - 26th May

I have been trying to think about putting the dissertation together and going through with the next steps with my project, but I have a mental block right now with being unwell and I'm not certain that I can go on today, unless it's a whole day of staring at a monitor. I will talk to Bex the first chance and tell her about my dilemma and see if I can go home and rest up.

I talked with Bex and she was understanding about my dilemma and came up with some solution that made the project for this paper a bit more manageable. I mentioned to her that I had emailed Kathryn and intend to talk about my dilemma with my workload and see if she has any suggestions before it's too late to do anything about it. Bex thought it was a good idea.

The suggestions from Bex were for me in order to ease the workload was to film oncampus, finalise the script, get some first years to act in the sequence, and actually film the sequence. I will also need to get the artist statement done before the next class, I just to find out where and how to send it. It is important that I focus on my project today because it is 60% of the final mark for this paper, but also I need to get a start on my dissertation if I have time today.

I walked down the hallway with the idea of filming in The Hive, but then I came across a classroom that the business courses use and immediately realized it could work. I took some photos and video of the classroom and I also took a photo of the class' timetable and found that it is free to use on all of Friday, which suits me because I have no class or any urgent commitments on that day. I will just have to find students available on that day.

I had trouble accessing the SIT Wi-Fi and took me a long time to realize that it wasn't letting me use the Wi-Fi because I had updated my password yesterday. I need the Wi-Fi to upload the photos and video of where I will be filming for my sequence onto Google Drive, in which I just download on a computer to add into my documentation.

I modified a lot of actions, dialogue, and characters to suit filming oncampus and first year students that I have in mind to act in this sequence. 

Props
Energy drink (Pak n' Save)
Exercise Book (SIT Bookshop)
Pen
Book (SIT Library)


Finalized script

INT. HALLWAY - DAY

Tara walks storms up a hallway and enters a classroom.

She has her hands on the door frame.

CUT TO:

INT. CLASSROOM - DAY

Tara watches Jess.

Jess is busy at work at desk, writing up notes and has a book opened up next to her.

Jess looks at the book briefly and continues to write notes.

Tara looks unhappy and sighs. She approaches Jess.

Tara grabs Jess’ notebook and flings it away. Tara is shocked.

TARA

You and your bloody studying!

JESS

Oi!

They stare at each other in contempt

JESS

What the hell, Tara?

TARA

(pointing at the door)

Time to come back home.

JESS

What home? Timaru is--

TARA

No, not that. The flat.

JESS

(looking suspicious)

What about it?

TARA

It’s a mess, Jess. You have no excuse. You’re acting like a frickin’ teenager.

Jess gets up to pick up her notebook. She looks annoyed.

JESS

Well, you’re acting like a mother.

Tara bangs on the desk. Jess instantly turns to Tara. She slowly walks up to Jess.

Tara looks uncomfortable and at unease as Jess approaches her.

JESS

What’s up with you? I wash them every bloody night.

It saves a lot of dishwashing liquid. What more do you want, Tara?

TARA

(calmly)

I just want a clean flat, that’s all I want, you mong.

JESS

I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. I don’t get pissed and shit all over the floor.

That makes our flat better than most

Tara walks around the room as she talks to Jess.

TARA

We’re not talking about daries, Jess.

Sure as hell as hope they didn’t hear you say down the hall--

JESS

(interrupts)

Oh, please---

TARA

(voice almost breaking)

I’m not finished. We’re talking about you and your stubborn laziness,

surely you must see that!

JESS

You seem really tense, Tara. More so than usual

TARA

No shit!

JESS

I’ve known you six months, Tara. What’s on your mind?

What the hell you’re been up to? Getting stoned? Pissing off gangs?

Tara strokes her face in a tired fashion.

TARA

(sighs in frustration)

Get me an energy drink from the dairy next door and

I’ll tell you all about, Jess.

Jess re-enters the room and comes back with an energy drink. Tara sitting at a desk,

looking depressed.

Jess approaches Tara and sits next to her. She places the energy drink down onto the desk.

TARA

You want info, Jess? You’ve got it.

Jess looks at Tara with genuine concern.

JESS

(in a concerned tone)

Tara?

TARA

I shouldn’t talk to you like that, Jess. No one should.

You deserve to be spoken to better.

Jess passes over the energy drink to Tara.

JESS

You’re getting better, Tara. Keep talking.

Jess sculls down a bit of the energy drink.

TARA

I’m in deep shit.

Casting
I messaged the first years students students I had in mind, but did so forgetting that they have classes on Friday, so I will need to try and work around that. 
Janette wouldn't be available because she will be visiting her mum after her classes on that day, but Zara will be available after 3pm that day after classes.
I talked to Natasha in class because she tends to be interested in acting type of stuff. Her availability is a big maybe, but she is interested and wanted a copy of the script, which I was able to provide via student email.

I have also send a PDF of the script to Zara through Facebook and informed her that her character will be Jess


I intended to sort out my project up until the lunch break because I was confident that it was enough time (and I was able too), and then start on my dissertation after my lunch break.
I did find out about where and how to submit my artist statement for the design team to print and apparently in a dropbox that has been set up on the Visual Arts Temp drive and I just need to copy over the file there once I'm done. It is necessary to name the file - ArtistStatement_JerryWestaway


Dissertation

The Context of Colourisation

Research Question My research question for this project is what is the impact of removing colour from an original dramatic sequence, which will be filmed on a phone, and how will it affect the accuracy of its interpretation? The research question has gone through development and changes. 

Originally, I read some research journals concerning my field of study and brainstormed some potential research questions from there. What initially influenced my research question was from reading an issue of Cinema Journal, which in one article talks about a 1939-1940 film that was later colourised, Twenty-Four Variations on an Original Theme. Their process at the time was to duplicate the frames onto colour film stock, using an optical printer. 

I came up research questions like how does colour help improve a film's narrative? How does colour help a film to be more engaging than black and white? What are the benefits of using split screen in a film? What are the benefits of colourising a film? How can colour effect a film? How can films in colour better at storytelling than films in black and white? How colour in film affects emotions from the audience? 

Aims, Objectives, & Context It became my intention to film a short dramatic sequence to show the effectiveness of black and white and colour by using separate versions of themselves through split screen. As the research progressed, split screen became less and less relevant as an aspect of my project, but it was something I did explore by researching and experimenting with. I believed showing both black and white and colour version of a scene would tell us the pros and cons of each other. What worked and didn't work in the sequence with black and white? What worked and didn't work in the sequence with colour?


Exhibition
It was decided that I sort out getting the posters up at the SIT Apartments with at least 2-3 of them at each site. I emailed Paul Watts (SIT Accommodation Officer) and he was fine with that, just as long as it is only in the laundry rooms and blue tack is used. I will talk to installation team (Gayle) about acquiring a TV (from Chris) and podiums (from Kathryn). 

It will be my responsibility to notify the pack away team to safely take back the TV and podiums to Chris and Kathryn. 
I will be helping PJ with distributing the posters around the campus on Friday morning. I was given a few printed posters already to originally give them out to local business and cafes, but I need make clear to them that it is a SIT event and that Year II means 2nd year students at SIT, not year 11 high school students.

However, these copies of the poster I do have already will now be specifically for the SIT Apartments. I did ask for a couple of more to give to Liz Craig's office (one of the local MPs) because I know the people there would be more than happy to put them up there.

16/05/2019

The poster will be making necessary changes as requested by Kathryn and so PJ has insisted that I hold off from distributing the posters at SIT Apartments. 

I talked to Luqman about tomorrow and convinced me that my help will be needed then for filming components of Oisin's cinematography showreel. He suggested for me to film this afternoon since the first year film students wouldn't have class because Patrick is still off sick. I will need to change the script by replacing a female character to a male character to suit Tim, who will be available this afternoon for filming. 

I contacted Zara about moving the filming date from tomorrow to today, which she was fine with. The props will be easy to source; the exercise book will now be a visual diary, an energy drink can be bought at Night n' Day, and I will just need to look around the campus and find a book to use for this sequence.

I took another look at the timetable of the classroom that I had in mind, but it looks like it is booked for a class during this afternoon, so I would have to use another classroom. The Clinic would be ideal to use since there is no class in there because Patrick is off sick as I mentioned before. Usually there would be a technical class for first year film students.

I may use one of the magazines or books on the bookshelf in the Clinic as a prop for filming.

I managed to get the filming done and ended up doing in The Cell. There might be background sounds hear in the sequence like people typing on computers and noise from the music students. Some shots took quite some time to shoot because the actors were trying to get the dialogue right and even one outtake ended up making the story turn into a musical. It was a mess keeping track of continuity, so I should had got someone to be script supervisor for this sequence. 

My phone was fully charged prior to filming, but ran out of battery just as the final shots were up for filming. Recording video ate up a lot of the battery. I didn't think to bring along a battery charger, which something else I should had done in hindsight. 

No one in The Cell had a compatible charger, so I had to use Zara's phone to film the final shots. However, the quality between my phone and Zara's phone may have an effect on the continuity. Zara sent me the footage taken on her phone to me through Facebook Messenger.

Filming took two hours and the actors handed in their signed release form to me afterwards.

17/05/2019

There have been difficulties getting hold of the footage from Zara in suitable quality. It comes out at 360p when downloaded from Facebook. I suggested wetransfer to her, but I haven't heard anything more from her since.

I spent time on my artist statement and did the best I could do by referring to instructions from Bex and links to information about forming an artist statement. I used a template for my artist statement that was provided by the design team. It is an okay draft, it's not great, but it's the best I could do in the time I could afford to use to compile it before the design team needs it on Tuesday. 

I had my artist statement asks questions to the audience and was written in an informal and clear style. It was basically an overview of my influences, the aim and purpose of my project, and how it was completed. I kept it brief and only included information that I wanted the public to know about my project.

MacFarlane, R. (2017). How to write an artist statement. Retrieved from https://www.format.com/magazine/resources/art/how-to-write-artist-statement


Getting Your Sh*t Together. (n.d.). Artist statement guidelines. Retrieved May 17, 2019, from https://www.gyst-ink.com/artist-statement-guidelines

The Abundant Artist. (2009). How to write an artist's statement that doesn't suck. Retrieved May 17, 2019, from https://theabundantartist.com/how-to-write-an-artists-statement-that-doesnt-suck/



Artist Statement

Works Name: The Context of Colourisation

Artist: Jerry Westaway

Year: 2019

Course: New Zealand Diploma in Digital Media & Design (Level 6) - Film

Selling: NFS

Artist statement: 
Hello there, friend or family member of someone who studies here, or a member of the public that has come here just out of interest, you are probably wondering who is this guy and what on earth is he trying to shows us. Well, this is just showing you on a TV screen a short drama scene in both colour and black and white, completed by film student. Why is it like this? It is an experiment to see whether you, the audience find this scene different with or without colour. 
You can record your thoughts in the exercise book nearby. You can record whatever you like, whether it is that you prefer the scene in colour or black and white, or what did you think each version offer that was different or familiar. 

How was this video made? Simply by getting other students together to act in this scene and film it on an ordinary phone, not with some fancy film equipment. 

There are range of influences that were critical when producing this project, looking at the history behind the use of colour and black and white in cinema, reviewing films that utilise both colour and black and white like Natural Born Killers (1994).



What to do with work after exhibition: Return work to me after exhibition