26th February week

I found the lecture by Petra Freeman to be an eye-opener in that it demonstrated the ease at which a designer can improve the look of their work through its presentation or form - be it animation, video or photography. It was interesting to hear about her technique of pushing paint around a surface in order to make an animation which is similar to the methods used by Piotr Dumala, a leading Polish animator whose work is distinctly dark and original. He favours working on a plaster surface which he can scratch into and constantly develop the images - albeit at the cost of not being able to keep the original drawings for each frame of the animation. Most of Petra Freeman's work seems to be the result of an enriching childhood which would make us wonder if her work could engulf or appeal to a wider spectrum of life/culture/experiences as I found it hard to relate to the ideas in the work.

The work carried out since last week concerning group videos has made good use of available time in order to establish a finished product with the 3 videos including end credits for the larger group of all 3 small groups. Again it has been a case of the necessity for preparation of intentions before diving into work that has shown its importance this week. Issues that were raised in the first week about lack of preparation, prior to filming, on the part of members of the group have made editing an overly time consuming task for others - which should not have been the case, had they filmed their scenes with shorter, more considered clips.

I am now beginning to understand a lot more about the importance of light in all aspects of art and design - especially photography, filming and drawing. Using the details explained to me by Terry Flaxton on light and film language I have been able to apply such concepts to the photography sequence brief and a recent life-drawing class in which I used light to determine objects rather than their outline. Most of what Terry Flaxton said has been extremely useful in my understanding of why certain conventions are in use in the film and photography world and I have gained an improved basic knowledge of white balancing which will be useful at least in documenting my work in the future. The film on monday was very different to most of what I have watched before, though some of the sordid imagery and dynamic sounds reminded me of certain films by Jan Svankmajer. I found myself realising, rather than sub-consciously accepting, the film language in certain parts of the video which was an interesting experience further adding to my understanding of the film world.