I wish I had thought of this sooner, Time art multiscreen idea

When watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer earlier on this week, one episode; Restless stuck out as it is known for its film making and the techniques in it. This gave me the idea to look into daydreams when you are waiting for time to pass and how the mind wanders when you aren't concentrating on anything.

The footage I already had for the project was the basis of my idea when I had the brainwave however instead of the bus stop and me being the focus I thought the things around it could be the focus of the piece so it shows what happens in a split second whilst you are waiting.

The loop is triggered by birds flying from the left screen to the right screen. So that the screens would have some connection they would fly across all 3. I then thought as the left screen has the person on their phone the birds could be the twitter birds, I then thought the sky could be a Facebook feed as that would be all the person is concentrating on and this would highlight that at that point in time that is all their world is focused on.

The dreams come in in the far right screen where the background would be completely different to the actual background and brightly coloured and magical (if you could call it that) and there would be leaves falling off the trees and blossom fluttering everywhere, highlighting the exaggeration in someones mind when they're dreaming as the surrounding area would not be where a bus stop would be. The blossom from the tree's would float over to the middle screen connecting that screen with the others.

I thought then about making it a stop motion and having the person in the shot moving in and out, however when testing this it all looked too busy and took away from simplicity of it and distracted from the point I was trying to make. It would also mean I would have to go and photograph some more and with what I already had my first idea seemed okay.

Experimental Sound Design... Maman

Research from looking at Maman...

29 feet made from bronze, marble and stainless steel

"Like a creature escaped from a dream, or a larger than life embodiment of a secret childhood fear"

CONTEXT
by Louise Bourgeois 
A French - American sculpture

Maman started in the late 1990s, the spider is used a lot in her work.

"The spider was an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother." - Bourgeois 

MEANING
The sculpture picks up on the theme of the arachnid that Bourgeois had first designed in a small ink and charcoal drawing in 1947 continuing with her sculpture Spider (1996) 

Spider (1996) - smaller version of maman, 9ft tall, made from bronze, first edition made from steel.

It alludes to the strength of her mother with metaphors of spinning, weaving, nurture and protection.

When Bourgeois' mother died she jumped into the Biévre River because of how depressed she was, her father swam to save her. < could be useful within the project, shows how strongly she felt about her mother.

BACK TO MAMAN

maman similar to the french for my mother (ma mére) 

Thoughts on Maman from 'Art and Education' 

- 'They can evoke potent but differing emotions, from childhood curiosity and playfulness, to terror and imobilising fear.'

- Eventually I did enter its architecturally protective legs and looked up to see that she was carrying beautifully shaped white marble eggs. Standing inside her architectural  space I felt a strong, space, maternal presence, a positive energy directed on me like a moments reflection. 

Other opinion:

- Now confronted by the huge predator she felt an almighty dread and immediately panicked. Switching survival mode, her only thought was to escape. With adrenaline rushing through her body and a 'stinging tingling felling in her lips she quickly looked for a door to go through so that she could get a way from its intimidating stance. She was very frightened by the possibility of being chased by its threatening legs that could run faster than her in any direction it chooses. 

By comparing the writer and her friends reaction it shows 2 very contrasting opinions of maman. Which I hope to show in my work. 

Shots for Time Art

3 MAIN shots

1 no tech

2 fill shot(bus stop)

3 loads of tech

1^st shot has person standing in street

2^nd shot is fill space between the 2 people – just the space between where they are standing.

3^rd shot person is in the middle of busy town/ city, headphones on, laptop bag with phone and loads of technology.

All shots LS portrait - tight to person top of head is top of frame bottom of feet is bottom of frame

Would like to edit to make it look glitch, and to do this I want to get fill shots of fields, busy town centres just to cross over with everything, make it look busy/ quiet etc.  – Get around 3 of those…

SHOT 1 – person standing in the street, looking past the camera (get 2 of these, stills for 2 minutes each)

SHOT 2 – blank space of town; get 2 of these for 2 minutes

SHOT 3 - person on phone in the street looking at phone, holding laptop bag, with headphones on (get 2 of these for 2 minutes)

EXTRA SHOTS

1 – 1 minute of still of Farnham Park

2 – 1 minute of still of traffic (from a distance)

3 – 1 minute of still low shot of people walking?

4 – 1 minute of close ups of characters in shot (2 for each person)

Time Art - Treatment

My idea is to have the screens as an output to show todays culture with technology.

There will be  2 different people stood waiting at a bus stop or just waiting and they will either on the phone, listening to music or just standing there. 

I want to highlight how technology has become part of our every day routine and that it means we forget how to communicate properly. 

Its taking the idea of being able to wait and not have to pass time. 

In today's culture people brought up with technology forget how to communicate traditionally. It has meant that passing time has become something we feel we need to do. Instead of potentially 'living in the moment' or appreciating the day we now feel we need time to 'hurry up' so we can get on with our lives. When the truth is that sometimes it is good to take your time and to not be doing something constantly. 

When editing I may speed up the film on the right to show how their time will go faster but some times that is not a good thing. The screen in the middle will be at normal speed and potentially the one on the left would be slightly slower.

I will be the one on the left as I don't see the need to rush and hurry time. As much as this isn't a very powerful message once the message is received it should get the audience thinking about how time is spent.

It really is personal preference and I think if I make my film this way it can be taken in different ways, both positively and negatively and will not push my opinion on the audience meaning it will be more relatable.