Alternative Media Stories

Alternative Media
(Su Ansell)
Brandon Boyd - N0703554

Introduction to the Module
When I was first introduced to the module ‘Alternative Media’, I knew that I would have to create something different to the
normal type of video I had created previously in other modules. I had to begin asking myself questions such as ‘Who Am I?’,
‘What themes am I initially drawn to?’ and ‘Who do I want to show my films to?’, in order to think more outside of the box,
than just basic ideas. I was also told about a variety of film-makers who specialise in creating ‘alternative’ content, and that
instead of describing what is going on, they show it through visuals.
References included:
1 -’Frequency’ (Lincoln, 2019)
2 -‘Smoking Dogs Films’ / John Akomfrah
3 -’Lars Von Trier’ (Dogme 95 Films)
4 -’Tropes’ (Sign Language in Films)
5 -’MoMALearning’ (Media and Performance Art)
Tips:
- Try to include poetic moments to
connect senses and imagination
- Act on coincidence
- Attempt to craft and juxtapose elements
for contrasting effect
- Invite audience into the experience

‘Slow GIF’
(by Rhiannon Armstrong)
The first reference that I decided to research
into was the ‘Frequency International Festival
of Digital Culture’ which ran near the end of
2019 from 24th to 27th October. One of the
interesting talks happened in the ‘Cafe
Conversation’ regarding Humanising Data.
Data is generally represented or shown in a
statistical form, but the use of analysing data
more creatively is now developing.
‘When we see an artwork, hear, smell, feel an
artwork, our actions and generated reactions
can be interpreted as ‘creative data’
1 - ‘Frequency’ (Lincoln, 2019)
Armstrong is one of those digital
artists who uses the concept of
moving GIF’s to tell full stories just
from a few cut up/ripped pieces of
paper. This could be a really
creative concept to use in a piece
of digital art to tell a unique story.
It is a good method for storytelling
which I could include for another
module if I end up researching and
finding different ideas for my final
Alternative Media piece.

‘See-Through’
(by Claire Gaydon)
Another reference that I decided to do some
extra research into, was the ‘See-Through’
exhibition by Claire Gaydon. It turns out that
back in 2018, around 34% of young people
voted for ‘YouTuber’ as their top career choice
after leaving education. Gaydon’s persona
include part documentary, live performing,
parody and desperation.
I like how she creates original pieces of work and includes a variety of different
media outputs. Her story within the images is around the uses of social media,
and gives her own opinions on vlogging, the ‘want’ for people to become
famous and demands on self exposure. Playing around with emotions such as
comedy and sadness are good ways to create an alternative piece of work!
Another of her unique projects is called ‘REMY’
which showcases her ability of storytelling.
Most of the pieces for this project are ad-lib
and she has gone with her gut instinct on what
to create. The colours are quite old fashioned
(from the 50/60’s) and incorporates drama
within her pieces also.

‘Step Sonic/I Infinite’
(by Tom Dale Company)
‘Three dancers unite in an amplified environment. Shotgun
microphones, custom-made instruments, plate reverbs and
amplified boxes capture the rhythms and sounds’
The Tom Dale Company are a trio of dancers who explore
new ideas, aesthetics and techniques to create dances that
people won’t forget. Their use of lighting, objects and
people make their performances unique, and they are all
concept that I plan to include in my own work. Black and
White are two colours which compliment each other very
well; (including those old Black and White films, which may
have given them inspiration to avoid colour) and is probably
the key to their success. They also combine media forms
with the use of electronic music and digital arts.

‘Care(less)’
(by Lindsay Seers)
The exhibition piece ‘Care(less)’ by Seers is very unique,
in the fact that she gives people the opportunity to view
her work through virtual reality technology. The aim
behind her work, is to give people the chance to be in the
body of an older person, including their known traits; such
as reduction in capacity for example. The piece lasts for a
long 6 minutes and ‘shines a light’ on people’s attitudes
towards ageing and relationships based around care.
In terms of colour, Seers using a limited range of colours (as shown by
the above screenshot from a ‘colour palette generator’). The mix of
greys, silvers and green along with black, make the artwork come to
life and is probably more effective than standard ‘black and white’
images. I feel that this could potentially be a concept that I include in
my final piece if I decide to go for a darker theme for my final piece.
Another interesting artwork is
called ‘Continuity’ where artist
Nadya Monfrinoli has created a
‘human circuit’ and the audience
become the missing piece. The
idea of ‘engaging the audience’
through visual communication
could be quite important when
creating my final piece.
Monfrinoli hasn’t yet got a website
to showcase her work, but she is
currently working on another project
linking objects to homelessness.
‘Continuity’
(by Nadya Monfrinoli)

‘Upload Unplug’
(by Rebecca Evans)
Evans’ exhibition of ‘Upload Unplug’ is an alternative masterpiece.
The concept of the show is to save ‘David’ by communicating
personal information and completing a variety of tasks using a
mobile device. Every tap, swipe and swirl will help David to ‘learn’
and will decide if the stays alive or is deleted (similar to social
media). At the end of the performance, the audience are given the
choice to either ‘Upload’ or ‘Unplug’ their information. It’s a really
artistic and dramatic show with a variety of different music/sounds
and graphics, making the show appealing to the audience.
‘Digital dance company
Pell Ensemble invites you
into the world of EPOQ: A
live gaming experience
where your choices
become data, uploaded to
shape a new human
being’

2 -‘Smoking Dogs Films’
SDF are an award winning production who specialise in film
and television. It was founded in 1997 by three members of
the Black Audio Film Collective; Film Director John Akomfrah
and Producers Lina Gopaul and David Lawson. Their work
specialises mainly to produce work that sparks imagination
and innovation, and celebrates diverse stories from
marginalised or underrepresented communities in the
mainstream media.
‘The Airport’ is another one of their projects which I was
draw to, by the simplicity of the colours used in their
images. The work included three HD channels with
colour videos, and lasts for 53 minutes. The work
included is from Stanley Kubrick and Theo
Angelopoulos with shots of Athens and Southern
Greece to explore the ghosts that linger in our
‘collective consciousness’. This is done both physically
(through the architectural ruins) and metaphorically
(through the personal history discovered in previous
generations).
‘Psyche’, one of their films first released in 2012 blends
segments from a variety of films that have influenced them
over time. Shots include that of Renee Jeanne Falconetti
from ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’ produced by Carl
Theodor Dreyer. She is seen to be looking up at soldiers on
the steps in Battleship Potemkin, underlining the
importance of the ‘filmic face’ in order to convey history.
‘Her face stripped of make-up, her hair
cut off, Falconetti is raw and anguished’
The film is silent and tells the journey of how she
pleaded guilty when innocent, and how she is
‘consumed by the flames’ but she ends up going to
‘Smoking Dogs Films’

2 -‘Smoking Dogs Films’ John Akomfrah
John Akomfrah
Akomfrah is an outstanding artist and filmmaker who covers a variety of
topics, including memory, postcolonialism, temporality and aesthetics.
He also explores the experiences of ‘migrant diasporas’ globally.
‘The Unfinished Conversation’ is the story of Stuart Hall, through his work in
both radio and television. He came to England as an immigrant after the war in
the 1950’s and became the co-founder of the ‘New Left Review’ with E.P
Thompson and Raymond Williams. Akomfrah became fond of Hall’s story since
his appearance in the BBC television programme ‘It Ain’t Half Racist, Mum’. The
UC is a personal project in which the director is ‘reflecting on how their own
research of archive-based work related to the notion of black identity.
Stuart Hall
Hall was born in Jamaica and began studying at
Oxford University. He left academia and his high
cultured life to become an intellectual. Hall
decided to focus on race, gender, class, ethnicity
and religion that is spoken about in the main
media and said that ‘Those discourses are not
innocent, but hidden in mass media is ideology,
which we need to expose…’. Those included the
rationalism of crime, patriarchy of gender, othering
of immigrants, muslims, poor people and other
minority groups.
Apparently messages can only be imposed by
‘people from above’ but this isn’t true in cases
including the bloggers of Tunisia, Graffiti artists in
Brazil or the #BlackLivesMatter campaign. Hall
went further to explain that we can seek stories
from more of a variety of sources including gossip
magazines, soap operas and music videos.

3-’Lars Von Trier’ (Dogme 95 Films)
1. Shooting must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought
in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be
chosen where this prop is to be found).
2. The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa.
(Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being
shot.)
3. The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable
in the hand is permitted.
4. The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is
too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be
attached to the camera).
5. Optical work and filters are forbidden.
6. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc.
must not occur.)
7. Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that
the film takes place here and now).
8. Genre movies are not acceptable.
9. The film format must be Academy 35 mm.
10. The director must not be credited.
Dogme 95 was originally set up by two Danish film directors, one
being Lars von Trier, and the other Thomas Vinterberg. There was an
interview back in 2014 where Trier discusses what Dogme 95 was
and the rules that they set out for themselves as a film company.
During the interview, Trier stated that ‘If you can’t control it all,
what’s the point?’, referring to the control of a film. He also spoke
about a variety of movies that he created, that caused controversy in
the media. A selection of those films included ‘Breaking the Waves’
back in 1996, ‘The Idiots’ and ‘The Kingdom’. He also admits that a
personal Universe is more important than the Universe around us.
In their manifesto, they imposed a list of
ten rules, which were known as the ‘Vow
of Chastity’. They were as follows:
Lars Von Trier
(Dogme 95 Films)

According to Trier, The Kingdom’ was a
very simple script to write and that all their
dreams and ideas came into the script
naturally.
‘When you’re scared about something,
there is fascination towards that subject’ -
he was afraid of hospitals; and in the film,
hospitals are projected as a place without
power over your body.
He also forced actors to do what he is
afraid of himself.
‘Breaking the Waves’
‘The Idiots’
‘The Kingdom’
3-’Lars Von Trier’ (Dogme 95 Films)
This film was created to show the ‘inner
idiots’ that some people can become. The
characters all behave in public as if they
were developmentally disabled - without
including any links to actual disabilities.
The group become friends with ‘Karen’ a
single lady who works in the diner, and she
ends up at their house, which becomes a
focal point of their group activities instead of
a property that was initially going to be sold.
This film was released in 1996, and
was set back in the Scottish
Highlands day back in the 1970’s.
The film is a romance story between
a young woman and a man.
After he becomes immobilised from
a work accident, he asks her to have
sex with other men and to ‘bring him’
to her husband before he dies. The
film was an internationally made co-
production led by Lars Von Trier’s
Danish company called ‘Zentropa’

4 -’Tropes’ (Sign Language in Films)
A ‘trope’ is just a fancy way of
speaking about common aspects in
different forms of media. They are
things we would automatically
associate with a particular action,
colour, style, genre of film etc. It can
also include things such as
showcasing a common place,
recognisable plot/storyline or visual
cue that means something in the
arts.
A lot of films have interesting
concept like music, narration,
scripts, locations, actors and
actresses.
Real life example: A child running
around with a cape. We can
automatically begin to assume they
are pretending to be a superhero.
Love and Affection
Romance films sometimes have
storylines where the two lovers
are from different life
circumstances (teacher and
student, young friends, sports
players and geeks/nerds)
‘Palo Alto’
Soccer player & Coach
‘High School Musical’
Typical intelligent girl &
Basketball player
Will they or won’t they?
Questions the main
actors/actresses as to whether
they will get together by the end
of the film
‘Friends’
Ross & Rachel
‘The
Office’
Pam & Jim‘Cheers’
Sam & Diane The tough girls
Previously known as ‘Tomboys’,
female characters can be both
attractive and strong
‘Alien’
Ellen Ripley
‘Salt’
Sarah Connor
‘Once Upon A Time’
Emma Swan
‘Tropes’

5 -’MoMALearning’ (Media & Performance Art)
I decided to have a little look on the MoMaLearning website (The Museum of Modern Art) and chose 3 sections that looked
appealing without actually reading any other information beforehand. The reason I did this, was that Alternative Media is all
about being able to tell stories visually, without narration, words or ideas in a ‘standard’ format. From my initial experiment, I
decided to look further into those sections; ‘Abstract Expressionism’, Pop Art’ and ‘Minimalism’.
‘MoMA Learning’

5 -’MoMALearning’ (Abstract Expressionism) The first category that I wanted to look into more was ‘Abstract Expressionism’.
It is a term that was applied to a vast amount of American Painters between the
1940’s and 1950’s. According to the Tate Modern art gallery; Abstract
Expressionism is often ‘characterised by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making,
and the impression of spontaneity’.
One of the artists that delves into this type of media is Ann Temkin,
who created the exhibition ‘Abstract Expressionist New York’
(2010). She admitted that this type of media was developed through
‘intensivity’ and ‘creative bursts’ in individuals and it helped to put
New York on the map. With this type of media, these American
artists and creatives were challenged to create something unique,
and were inspired by other artists including Pablo Picasso.
She also researched into how original all of the content was when
comparing a variety of different creatives, and how men/women
used a variety of materials including stone and metal to create
content (including photography, sculptures and even paintings).
They were also inspired by a lot of events that had happened earlier
along with what was happening in Europe; including lack of
civilisation, the bombings in Japan and genocide which they had all
witnessed.
‘If the world was going to keep on going, it needed to be re-invented.
The ambition and faith was there in the artists, and by making a new
art, they were contributing to a new culture for human civilisation’.
‘Abstract Expressionist New York’, 2010, Ann Temkin

5 -’MoMALearning’ (Abstract Expressionism)
Ann Temkin also goes on to say that the individuals often showcase a profound urgent expression of themselves
and the society they live in, by providing a voice for themselves to express their own souls. They often show this
through their sculptures or artwork which is an essential quality for being an artist in modern art.
‘The contemporary art world in New York is a huge industry, which used to only be a tiny band of people who were
interested’ - Ann Temkin
The only people who used to be interested in the modern art were the people who worked at the modern art
museums, the artists who knew one another from the exhibitions and those who visited the museum on a random
afternoon. There were often not many shows to choose from anyways, and the collectors didn’t expect to make
any money from any of their work.
‘By working together, thinking together and going out to bars/parties/galleries, the artists were able to have a
social bonding movement as well as an isolated genius, in which they worked alone in their studios and saw the
beginnings of the transformation making the phenomenon of what we see today’. - Ann Temkin
Three Abstract Expressionism
artists that I wanted to look into
were Jackson Pollock, Mark
Rothko and Willem de Kooning.

Pollock’s brothers raised him and gave him the
inspiration to become an artist:
-Their father had an alcohol addiction and was also
abusive
-He moved away with his older brother Sanford, and
younger brother Charles become an artist. During
‘The Depression’, Jackson Pollock worked as
muralists for the Public Works of Art Project
Jackson Pollock
‘Free Form’, 1946, Jackson
When Pollock experienced overnight fame, it
was detrimental to both is work and his
mental health:
-He was published in LIFE magazine and was
asked if he was the greatest living painter in
the U.S.A. His unique style of painting earned
him admiration by many, and TIME magazine
named him as ‘Jack the Dripper’
‘Autumn Rhythm’, (Number 30) 1950, Jackson Pollock
‘Blue Poles’, 1952, Jackson Pollock

About:
-Born September 25th 1903, died February 25th
1970. He was an American painter and was half
Lithuanian and half Jewish. He refused to follow the
rules of any art movement, but he was generally
identified as an abstract expressionist.
Mark Rothko
His work
-Most of his main exhibitions of his work were shown at either
Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool or Tate St. Ives. I thought it
would be interesting to look into some of his personal work.
‘Red on Maroon’, 1959, Mark Rothko
‘I was much influenced
subconsciously by
Michelangelo’s wall in the
staircase room of the Medicean
Library in Florence. He achieved
just the kind of feeling I’m after -
he makes the viewers feel that
they are trapped in a room where
all the doors and windows are
bricked up, so that all they can
do is butt their heads forever
against a wall’
Breslin, 2012 (pg400), Mark Rothko
‘Light Red Over Black’, 1957, Mark Rothko
He liked working with oil paints in his work,
and this is a large oil painting on a
rectangular, vertically oriented canvas.
The central black rectangles have a velvet
blue-black base, ‘modified with small
amounts of cobalt violet and possibly
manganese blue’ according to art historian
Bonnie Clearwater.
Back in 1946, he initially began working
with vibrant colours, but during the 1950’s
the palette of colours that he chose were
quite muted and sombre. This could be an
effect used in alternative videos; exploring
and experimenting with the lightness and
darkness of colours.

About:
-He attended the ‘Academy of Fine Arts &
Techniques’ in Rotterdam, the Netherlands which
was later renamed in 1998 to the ‘Willem de Kooning
Academie’.
-de Kooning also wanted the standard ‘movie star
life’ earning big money, seeing lots of girls and
around the cowboys.
-After briefly working as a house painter, he soon
began selling himself as a ‘commercial artist’ and
was inspired by his own paintings and those in the
New York art world. He started two strong
friendships with Stuart Davis and Arshile Gorky.
Willem de Kooning
‘Women Singing II’, 1966, Willem de Kooning
He actually created three pieces of work called
‘Women Singing’ and they were based off of the pop
singers he saw on television at the time. The energy
and bright colours were typical concepts in some of
his workback in the 1960’s.
‘I have all my forces...I have a bigger feeling now of
freedom. I am more convinced of picking up the
paint and the brush and drumming it out’ - Willem de
Kooning - 1960’s
There was also another of his pieces which was
untitled that looked like charcoal designs on
tracing paper. It was published in a variety of
books and sources including the ‘Catalogue of the
Tate Gallery’s Collection of Modern Art other than
Works by British Artists’ - Ronald Alley and the
Tate Gallery.
It’s very interesting how the image has been left
for the viewers to interpret for themselves and the
use of black and white is also something that I
would be interested in using for one of my short
videos.
‘Untitled’

5 -’MoMALearning’ (Pop Art) After World War II, America experienced a period of
both economic and political growth. Rock and Roll, a
new kind of music began bursting into popular
culture and became the track of ‘teenage rebellion’.
Television replaced radio as the number one media
outlet.
Between the 1950’s and 1960’s, a cultural revolution
let by activists and artists began fighting for change.
‘And even overturn, what was, in their eyes, a stifling
social order ruled by conformity’.
Pop Art work was often inspired by things that the
artists saw in their everyday life, looking at
materials and their immediate environments. They
also decided to use bold Primary colours and
concepts such as ‘silkscreening’ and ‘multiples’.
‘Marilyn Monroe’, Andy Warhol
Roy Lichtenstein, another Pop Artist (along with Andy
Warhol), used to try to connect the standard traditions
of art with what was happening on television or in
films. ‘They challenged traditional boundaries between
mediums and techniques, merging painting with
photography and printmaking, combining handmade
and readymade or mass-produced elements, and
bringing together objects, images and sometimes text
to make new meaning’
‘One Date at a
Time’, ‘Look Mickey’
& ‘Low Self Esteem’,
Roy Lichtenstein
Other artists include Deborah Kass, Richard
Pettibone, Robert Rauschenberg, James
Rosenquist and Tom Wesselmann; all who
featured on the ‘MoMA Learning’ website.

5 -’MoMALearning’ (Minimalism)
The third and final theme I would take a look into was
‘Minimalism’ as I knew that the word meant taking a simple
idea and creating simple visuals - not too many complicated
shots of aspects.
After the success of Abstract Expressionism, Minimalist
artists decided to produce works of art with three
dimensional shapes. They used industrial materials such as
fibreglass and aluminium, with the help of mathematical
systems to work out the compositions of their own work.
Three elements that were challenged were the traditional
notions of craftsmanship, the illusion of three dimensional
objects and the spatial depth in the image itself.
‘The Marriage of Reason and
Squalor’, 1959, Frank Stella
‘Untitled Stack’, 1967,
Donald Judd
Minimalists artists often embraced the techniques of
manufacturing, materials that were commercial and industry
fabrication to eliminate ‘evidence of the artist’s hand’. They
also believed that the art shouldn’t reflect the artist personally,
but to instead be able to explain and showcase the space in
the images.
For me, I like the idea of being ‘minimalistic’ and being able to
focus solely on one or two main focal points, which could be
something I include in my final project for this module.
‘Pink out of a corner’,
1963, Dan Flavin
‘Corner mirror
with Coral, 1969,
Robert Smithson
‘Repetition Nineteen III’,
1968, Eva Hesse

Researching other Alternative Filmmakers
References included:
1 - Sally Potter
2 - Pippilotti Rist ‘Ever is over all’ (and Beyonce’s ‘homage’ adaptation)
3 - Maya Deren ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’
4 - Koyaanisqatsi - ‘Life out of Balance’
5 - Andrei Tarkovsky - ‘Mirror’
6 - Christian Marclay - ‘The Clock’
7 - Thomas Vinterberg
8 - Carol Ann Duffy
9 - Bill Viola
10 - Eisenstein - ‘The Battleship Potemkin’

1 - Sally Potter 2 - Pippilotti
Rist
Potter attended a photography exhibition event in
collaboration with John Jones to discuss the
images she took during her film set for the film
‘RAGE’. Her aim was to take pictures of the actors
and actresses just after shooting a scene, while
they were still in character to focus only on the
individuals themselves, as opposed to their
character. She goes on to explain that there was
no acting, but just truth telling and embodiment.
‘A good film actor doesn’t become an actor, they
enter a state of being which their character will
have’.
She continued to explain with Jones that each
portrait tells a unique story and that there must
have been an inspiration behind the photo, in
order to want to take the photo to begin with.
Portraits are also a good way to work out whether
people are worth looking at or studying, based on
their photography skills, editing skills or the way in
which they capture portraiture.
‘’To know that those people who
inhabit the world of the web with
confidence ca appreciate what we
were doing aesthetically (images
designed to work small or large)
and politically (looking at the ethics
of the Internet, branding and so on)’
In her film ‘Ever is Over All’ she describes the initial
negative aspects of femininity which have been
rejected by women themselves. The story includes
love, death, everyday life and fiction creating a
sensual relationship between music and video art.
An interesting part of the video was when a female police officer
walked straight past her, and instead of arresting her, she just
smiled and continued walking down the road. The video is both
‘aesthetically heightened’ and very ‘seductive’. In 2016, Beyonce’s
music video for ‘Hold Up’ seemed to take inspiration from this 1997
artwork and she is seen holding a baseball bat and smashing the
front windows of the cars parking along the side of the road.
‘Ever is over All’, 1997, Pippilotti Rist
‘Hold Up’, 2016,
Beyonce
‘RAGE’, 2009,
Sally Potter

3 - Maya Deren
4 -
Koyaanisqatsi
I decided to look into another Alternative filmmaker called Maya Deren, but
especially at her film ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’ back in 1943. From beginning to
end, the story is very unclear but there is an understanding that towards the end of
the film, the actress seems to look as if she is planning to take her own life, after
talking to her ‘multiple personalities’. I feel that towards the end of the video, the
fact that she keeps seeing her husband, is a sign that maybe she doesn’t want to
be in that relationship anymore and her only way to escape is death.
The main object in the film is a knife which sometimes changes into a key, and this
could signify that to end her own life, the knife is all it takes. At the end her
husband/boyfriend finds her collapsed on a chair with blood pouring out of her
mouth. This is definitely an example of Alternative Media, because there is no clear
ending, no clear storyline and not a ‘happy ever after’ or concluding scene.
This particular short film was in black and white, which is another concept that
made it more enjoyable to watch. The fact that the viewers had to firstly think
about what was happening in the story and focus on the characters involved, it
made the process a lot simpler by not having colour. Along with the dramatic
music, it brought the film to life and made it more interesting to watch.
The next filmmaker I decided to look at was Koyaanisqatsi
and his film ‘Life out of balance’ released in 1982 and
directed by Godfrey Reggio. The very beginning of the film
project has an interesting opening segment of both sound
and visuals before fading into various other scenes
(including lots of blacks, oranges and browns.
The majority of the film includes a variety of slow motion and time
lapse photography work of cities across the United States. The
shots are very professionally shot and there seems to be quite
minimal in terms of what’s actually being shot. There is no dialogue
or any form of voiced narration. The word ‘Koyaanisqatsi’ means
‘crazy life’; including, life in turmoil, life out of balance, life
disintegrating, a state of life that calls for another way of living’ and
that can be seen in the film which combines and links together
relationships between humans, nature and technological aspects.
‘Life Out Of
Balance’, 1982,
Koyaanisqatsi
‘Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943,
Maya Deren

5 - Andrei Tarkovsky 6 - Christian
Marclay
In Tarkovsky’s film ‘Mirror’, there is a nonlinear structure
which has been used along with flashbacks from the
director’s own life to reflect and remember what happened in
the war. His film alter ego is ‘Alexei’ (Ignat Daniltsev), a man in
his 40’s who is dying, and the interactions he has with both
his wife (Margarita Terekhova) and children, bringing back a
range of memories from his own personal life - including his
parents’ divorce and his time on the battlefields During World
War II.
‘Those not accustomed to a slightly more disjunctive cinematic style are
likely to dismiss Mirror as boring or dull because it may not necessarily
correspond to their expectations of film. However, it is still something I
would regard as required viewing for everyone since it shows that cinema
can be beautiful without necessarily following the rules Hollywood has
imposed on the rest of the filmmaking community, and that ultimately
rules are there to be broken. A masterpiece, no less’.
In the short trailer I watched, the
majority of the film was in black and
white and quite a disjointed story. I liked
how all the characters were interacting
with one another and the changes in
scene when the woman was washing
her hair, to the house falling down was
very dramatic, but showed that people
circumstances can change very quickly
due to war/bombings.
This film by Christian Marclay titled ‘The
Clock’ was a very interesting project, as the
audience were brought into a studio for 24
hours to watch a live timed film. Every time
they looked at their watch in real life, that
was the exact time being shown in the film.
It was very interesting concept and took a
lot of pre planning to make it successful.
All of the clips used were from Hollywood films,
that proved to actually tell the time. Marclay was
inspired to make this movie whilst working on his
2005 installation called ‘Screen Play’. The types
of clocks used included pocket watches, clocks
and clock towers. The film took a total of three
years to fully edit.
‘The Clock, 2010,
Christian Marclay
‘The Mirror, 1975,
Andrei Tarkovsky

7 - Thomas Vinterberg 8 - Carol Ann Duffy
‘The Hunt’ is a film by Vinterberg which includes a
male character who has been wrongly identified as
a child abuser. The interesting aspect about this
film is that with a simple Google search, they would
have been able to identify the correct abuser. A
television interviewer also handed a piece of paper
to the prime minister with lots of people naming
the same man as the alleged abuser, but was
unaware that everyone wanted this man to be
punished without a fair trial. The main difference
between the film and real life, was that there were
children being abused in real life.
‘Somebody in that
position would be too
stunned. They would
think that saying
anything at all is sort of
an admission of guilt.
And they don’t want to
go down that road’
‘He didn’t do anything. I just
said something foolish and now
all the kids are talking…’
Carol Ann Duffy is a poet who has some work
reading her work in video form. One of her
poems ‘Forest’ for example is a perfect example
of that, to which she is celebrating forest life.
‘The forest keeps
different time;
slow hours as
long as your life,
so you feel
human’ - Carol
Ann Duffy
It is thought that sometimes her poetic
personality is complicated and include
topics such as romance and politics.
‘The Bees’, 2011,
Carol Ann Duffy
I watched a video of her reading
‘Premonitions’ one of the poem from her
collection. The poem was written about
her mother, several years after her death
and the first memories they had together
was at her deathbed, and she imagines
them discussing both of their lives from
the last thing to happen, to the first (as if
they were born old and died young).
‘Forest’, 2019,
Carol Ann Duffy
‘The Hunt, 2012,
Thomas Vinterberg

9 - Bill Viola 10 - Eisenstein
Bill Viola was another alternative filmmaker that I decided to
watch. The first piece that I looked at was called ‘The Raft’ which
was a moving portrait. During the first four minutes of the film, we
see a variety of different people standing still, with occasional
movements, and then a massive wave hits the screen and causes
havoc for all. The final part of the film shows the aftermath of
everyone being hit with the wave.
‘The Raft, 2004,
Bill Viola
‘In this world of unstable and
often unseen powers, an attack
can come at any time for
seemingly no reason’ - Bill Viola
There were supposedly
some historical
references to art in this
piece, including an iconic
painting called ‘The Raft
of the Medusa’ from
1818-1819, where a large
group of people were
struggling to survive a
shipwreck on a
seemingly real life raft.
The last filmmaker that I decided to look into was Eisenstein, and a project
called ‘The Battleship Potempkin’ which was released in 1925. The scene that I
watched called the ‘Odessa Steps’ shows a large group of people initially
waving at boats before they leave the docks and receiving fresh food, before
suddenly running down the steps to avoid the Tsarist soldiers who were
advancing with rifles.
Some of the key parts of the film include a young boy who was sitting along on
the steps, his father already dead. He had been shot by the soldiers and people
were walking over him. His mother firstly doesn’t realise that it’s her son, and then
she carries him to try and convince the soldiers to stop causing havoc. Another
group of women also believe they can convince the soldiers to stop fighting. The
single mother is shot and her son dies in her arms. The other aspect of the film
which I thought I would highlight is another mother who was shot by soldiers, and
her newborn baby in a cot just starts rolling down the stairs with no protection.
‘The Battleship Potempkin’, 1925, Eisenstein

Initial Ideas for Final Project
Initial Ideas for Final Project:
- Real Life vs Online Persona
- Male/Female (Drag Transformation)
- The thoughts in my mind
- -Things I admire
When thinking about initial ideas, I wanted to choose a subject
that I was passionate about or that I had common knowledge
about, but present the ideas in a more creative way. For example, I
have dressed up in drag a few times and thought it could be a
good idea for the final project, so researching into a wide variety
of alternative artists and filmmakers would help me think about
the different ways I could no only film and edit content, but also
different angles I could use, the lighting I would have, what colour
palettes I would be interested in using for the video, than just a
standard short video with music, which would be very boring.

Researching an Experimental Filmmaker -
‘Wim Wenders’
1- His name is pronounced ‘Vim Venders’
2- He was born in Dusseldorf, one year after World War II
ended and according to his star sign he is confident,
generous and loyal.
3- He took a key role in the ‘New German’ cinema
movement with Werner Herzog and Rainer Werner
Fassbinder
One of the films that I thought I would look into, was called ‘Wings of Desire’ a
phenomenon according to Wenders. He was asked in an interview if he could
write a review about his own film and said that he couldn’t. He explained that
he had visited Tokyo a year and a half earlier to start screening his work in the
theatres, and went back there after releasing his film. It was very clear that the
film was a success, as they we still playing the film, but he was shown that the
audiences of a noon performances were all women, with not a single man
present. What he gathered from this, is that his video attracted to women, as
in the film ‘men listened’ and that angels do exist.
‘Wings of Desire’, 1987,
Wim Wenders
Wenders’ film was later remade
into a film called ‘City of Angels’
featuring Nicolas Cage and Meg
Ryan as the main stars.

‘Black Summer’
Deconstructed Narrative - ‘Feeling’ (rather than action & plot)
I also decided to include research of a Netflix series I watched back in 2019
called ‘Black Summer’. I had no idea what to expect from the film, but after
watching several episodes, I realised that it could be classed as an alternative
film. There was very little music, the story wasn’t told in a chronological order
and we were shown deaths before how somebody died, car crashes without
seeing who ended up in the fatal accidents and zombies infesting the town,
without being shown what their ‘human identity’ was, before infection.
The basic concept of the film series is that in order to be safe, the town of people
had to firstly not have signs of being infected, and they were shipped groups at a
time and taken to ‘The Stadium’. Nobody knew what the stadium was, and those
who couldn’t fit on the transport had to become friends and put their trust in
other people to bring families and friends back together.
Some of the concepts from this film series that I could use in my alternative
media work could be the use of storytelling in a ‘non-chronological’ order or the
use of both colour and black and white scenes. Aspects I probably wouldn’t
include are things like full bodies, dialogue or dramatic music.

Pre Production
1 - Initial Research & Ideas
2 - Shot List & Storyboarding (Thinking about location)
3 - Filming/Shooting

Initial Research & Initial Ideas
Past, Present, Future
-Alarm Clocks
-Black to Colour (over time)
-Running out of time
-Fingers and hands
-Elevators/Lifts
-Backwards
-B&W vs Colour (playing simultaneously)
-T I M E (things beginning with each letter)
-Time travel (different outfits/locations)
-Reverse / Sped up /Slowed down/Variety of
shots (& shots simultaneously)
-Same environments and Items changing
-Wanting to do something and deciding not
to...time is running out/death
-Double Exposure

Personal Work
‘Forgotten Homework’
-This was a short film created while I was at Secondary
school, and the main concept behind the video was that
we had to create a short comedy/education related
video. We used the aspect of teleportation and blur, two
concepts I like using within my own personal work.
‘I Am A Camera’
-This was a short video created as part of my media
degree, and the main concept of the video is that we
had to create a short video to accompany a poem.
We decided to make the camera the ‘God like’ object
and when someone had it, their life was in colour.

Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller
I was told to have a look at Janet Cardiff’s work, as she is able to storytell in a very unique way. Through watching a 3
minute snippet from her 55 minute movie ‘Night Walk for Edinburgh’ she uses a variety of concepts and media forms to tell
a very exciting story. The film is shot on through the back camera of a phone.The piece, along with George Bures Miller was
commissioned by the ‘Fruitmarket Gallery’. The aim for her this specific piece of work is for being to go on a journey. The
viewers are given a smartphone and asked to follow the pre-recorded video through the streets of the city.
These are three screenshots I took from the video that I found the most aesthetically pleasing to look at. I like the concept of
having two cameras or camera tricks within shots, the use of black and white shots simultaneously with colour also caught my
eye. The third screenshot tells more a story within that segment of the video so I decided to add that to my research log.

In terms of the location, I wanted to focus the film around somewhere that I was used to. I
decided to shoot the video in my student accomodation. My idea for this experiment was to
shoot a variety of tasks as they were happening but add a creative twist to the shots.
Before shooting any of the clips for my video, I decided to take
pictures of the components that I wanted to include;

This is the majority of the shots
that I am going to be using in my
experiment. I hope to create a 30-
50 second clip at maximum,
experimenting with black and
white colours, backgrounds, the
type of music and tempo of the
video itself.
Depending on how the editing
goes, I want to repeat some of the
clips (or have repeated variations
of some of the clips) - especially at
the beginning and the end.
I want an introduction shot to be
the door opening or closing, and
the same at the end, to show that
the time is up.

When it came to filming, most of
the shots that I had planned to film,
came out very well. I wanted to try
and make the video slightly scary if
possible so on some of the shots I
decided to edit some of the colours
to make the backgrounds darker
On Reflection:
I was very happy with how the ‘Time’ experiment turned
out, as I wanted to create something that was less than a
minute (which I did), and create something unique, with
music, sounds and a variety of different clips. The fact
that all of the clips were filmed in my student
accommodation wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but I think
for future projects, I should definitely think about filming
some more exterior shots.
What I have learnt from this project, is that it is more
difficult to make a shorter video than a longer video.
Having over 10 minutes worth of footage to try and cut
down was very difficult, and there were a lot of shots I
didn’t use in the final video because they just didn’t suit
‘the aesthetic’. The shots of the sandwiches and the red
alarm clock were some of the clips not used as there
were better alternatives, and the video would have gone
over 1 minute if they were used in addition to everything
else.

In this 1965 piece, Yoko Ono allows audience
members to cut and keep a piece of material from
her clothing. The video relates to body, as she
feels like she doesn’t have control over her body,
but reveals that she goes into a trance and doesn’t
feel the need to be worried. This could be an
interesting method to use when creating my video
about ‘Body’, because it doesn’t necessarily require
full body to be seen, or movement to happen.
‘Cut Piece’
(by Yoko Ono)
‘A Minute of Silence’
(by Marina Abramovic)
Marina Abramovic - ‘Sitting’ in the MoMA & Ulay: ‘Nowhere to
escape except from within’. This piece is very emotional from the
beginning to the end. At the beginning, and through her piece,
individuals sit across from Marina for a minute of silence. Each
person showcases different emotions and it’s apparent that they
don’t know Marina and try to build a ‘silent connection’.
One of the interesting aspects regarding this piece, was that there was an
alternative version where the audience would be able to cut each others clothing,
rather than the artist. I really like the fact that this idea was so simple, but she has
also inspired others to recreate the piece; such as her manager Ken Little, who
performed the piece in Texas in 2007 as an induction for his students.
During the piece, an ex lover of Marina (who she had broken up with
almost 30 years ago, came to her exhibition and sat opposite her.
After their meeting, the reaches her hands over the table and cannot
hold her tears back. I believe that realistic experiments and exhibitions
like this are very powerful and promote important messages.

‘Pain Is’
(by Stephen Dwoskin)
‘Who Is Behind Our Face’
(by Olivier de Sagazan)
During his early life and career, he initially began in graphic art and discovered a
passion for experimental cinema after being inspired by Maya Deren’s films.
This video piece is a collation of different people speaking about what pain means to
them and why some of the people featured can’t explain the meaning of pain. He tries
to incorporate different themes in his work; including individual people, close ups of
faces, sexuality and disability among others.
This transformation video by Olivier de Sagazan, is probably one of the
weirdest videos I have seen on the Internet to date. He begins with
filming himself on camera, and then adding and removing liquids,
paints and clay to his face; to try and disfigure the human being look
that we have.
He wanted to try and see how we perceive other people and what not
only connects individuals together, but what divides us. ‘Fear is the
biggest motivator’ in this situation as people may be scared to try new
looks, or act in a certain way.
‘Pain Is’ is all about individual people who speak about how they deal with
pain (whether physical, mental, from others). The types of pain include
chronic pain after a car crash, body piercings, tattoos, nudity and fire.
‘The anticipation of pain is sometimes more painful than the actual pain itself’

The final pieces of inspiration that I decided to include were from Su
Ansell and YouTube! Su created a video piece called ‘Breast Work’ back in
2015 and it focused on showcasing women’s bodies and fighting the
stereotypes and negative connotations in the media. In the video there
are varied patterns and layouts included, and the bodies shown shrink in
size the further along you watch the video. At the beginning there are lots
of screens playing at the same time and it is very difficult to see what’s
being featured in the video, and eventually you can see that the ‘little
blurred boxes’ are indeed female nipples.
The video was supposed to mimic people in underground stations,
gradually getting closer to the posters.
‘Breast Work’
(by Su Ansell) NO VISUALS
The colourful screenshots that you can see on the screen are actually taken from a variety of
YouTube videos. They are most commonly known as split screens’ and used for song
medley’s on the platform. The singer/songwriter performs a variety of songs (or sometimes
just one song) in a variety of outfits and using different backgrounds to showcase their talent.
For my body piece, I want to try and do something simple, and create a more simplistic version
of the above video. One of the possible ideas that I would have for the video is to simply film
myself on either a variety of different backgrounds, or same background but different outfits;
and subtle movements. I feel like this would be a great addition to the video inspirations I have
already showcased, but I wouldn’t have necessarily copied the idea in every aspect.

-Facial features (Eyes/Lips)
-Distortion
-Drag/Makeup/Beauty
-Split Personality
-Multiple Screens
-Multiple bodily features
-Forming from ‘nothing’
-Unrealistic
-Lack of ‘Body’ in shots
-Two camera video (Half screen focusing on
hints/keywords and mini tasks to do and
individual/group subjects performing those
actions. Camera running the whole time).

When thinking about the filming session, I didn’t want anything complicated, and decided
to use myself as the main character for the video. I filmed myself for about a minute just
simply looking at the camera and subtly moving; according to my character. I decided to
use four main personas in the video, and they were based on four of my states. They were
when I first woke up, after a shower, in ‘music’ mode and in ‘weird’ mode.
On Reflection:
Although I was able to showcase the different personality types quite effectively, I could
have had a little title labelling each character. One of the other things I noticed about the
videos was that I didn’t match up the videos in perfect alignment; so I should have used
the ruler tool to make sure they were in line. Compared to my ‘Out of Time’ video, I believe
I had used a lot more advanced skills in this video; including varying the camera shots,
positioning, more relevant music and creativity in the post production rather than forcing
out shots that may or may not work.
For the filming of my ‘Body’ video which I later called ‘SPL1T
P3RS0NAL1TY’, I decided to stick two A3 sheets from one of
my sketchbooks onto my wall and film in-front of the
background (making sure the angle and shot types were the
same). I thought about which types of shots I wanted to use,
and thought that it was more beneficial to use less shots and
be more creative with them, than to have too many videos to
have to edit together. If I was to use this type of video as part
of my final piece, I would try and use a variety of different
people (and maybe use shots both horizontal and vertical in
the final piece). I would also make sure to include titles, have
relevant zoom ins to different people’s faces, and have a
variety of people included rather than just myself.

Feedback on ‘Time’ and ‘Body’
Time - After looking at the feedback
from my ‘Out of Time’ video, I agree with
the comments brought up! Some of the
shots I used were included because they
were different, but in the end they didn’t
look right in the final edit. For the type of
experiment that the video showcased, I
should have continued to use
dark/mysterious shots and save
anything else for a different style of
video
Body - For this experiment I decided to
use myself as I was going to create a
selection of characters to feature in the
final edit and wanted to experiment with
the editing skills rather than the actual
shots I got. The comment of ‘being
bolder with the characters’ and ‘needing
a conclusion’ are two things that I
picked up on myself, and if I was to redo
this experiment, I would have more
varied character types.

Walter Murch
When thinking about sounds and sound designer, Walter Murch was a
leading practitioner in this role. Similarly, how you have a camera operator
and director working alongside each other, or the interview and interviewee,
the sound designer would be the person in charge of creating sounds,
finding sounds or the background music for any video project or work. At the
time of making ‘Apocalypse’, Walter was asked how he wanted to be
credited; and alongside helping with the photography and mixing of videos,
he primarily was working with the sound.
He and his team felt that in Hollywood, each film that was being produced
was focusing too much on the artistic, technical and business side, rather
than thinking about how individual concepts would work, such as sound, so
they moved to San Francisco to ‘get away from the overly
compartmentalised part of Hollywood’.
‘It was Murch’s work on Coppola’s ‘Apocalypse Now’, however, that changed how
sound was edited and mixed for film forever. Right from the opening sequence,
Murch built a soundscape that forced the audience to experience the film
through Captain Willard’s warped and war-wary psychological point of view’
Screenshots from the ‘Apocalypse Now’
trailer

Creating Original Sounds (with Megan Biggs)
One of our group tasks was to go out
and create some of our original sounds.
Myself and Megan went out and around
Clifton Campus to try and find some
interesting sounds that were already
around but didn’t notice, and then we
tried to create some of our own. Some of
the sounds that we caught naturally
included cars driving down the road and
a variety of different wind types.
We decided to create some different
sounds by sliding our feet across the
concrete floor using our trainers, walking
up and down the stairs (a mixture of
slowly/quietly, fast and loudly. We also
decided to scrape a chair along the floor
and ask a few people who were playing
pool if we could record a few of their
shots to capture the sound of the white
ball against the ball they were aiming for.
With the audio recordings that we
captured, we then added them one by
one to Adobe Premiere Pro and collated
the best bits together. Overall the editing
was quite simple, and we got a wide
range of sounds. This is one of the
simple methods that we could use for
our experimental pieces (or even our
final piece) if we wanted to either re-
create sounds that we like, or if we
wanted to make our own sounds...

-Gaps
-Mental Health (Time to breathe/relax)
-Items/People far apart to being close
-Space between items
-Space between people
-People on Space backgrounds
-Using space as a ‘rollercoaster’
-Meditation/Relaxing
-Voices
-Quotes/Poems

For my ‘Space’ experiment, I initially wanted to make a short piece about the importance of keeping an eye on your
mental health and raise awareness about this topic. Sometimes people aren’t vocal about their situation, they may still
have personal problems which they want to keep to themselves. When filming I decided to film a variety of different
shots inside my student accomodation along with extra shots which could add effect. For example, I created a sign
with the word ‘Help’ to potentially showcase that the character in the video was scared/looking for assistance. Other
shots that I included was the transformation of the items on the bathroom sink; from soap, toothpaste etc to a variety
of different makeup products which created the final black and green look. The significance of having a hat over my
head was to show that sometimes people aren’t noticed/seen until they’re looking their absolute best.
On Reflection:
From looking at all of the footage, pictures and sounds used for this video, I am quite happy how the experiment turned
out. With the side by side footage that I added in the final video along with the motivational and slightly powerful
background music, I was able to create an alternativ video. It may not showcase ‘mental health awareness’
straightaway, but it’s more of a creative piece which practically shows how people’s minds work when dealing with
something like this. The order of the video could have had more sense while editing the clips, but I feel that for this
video I wanted to experiment more with the variety of shots and editing styles (similarly to my ‘Body’ video).

Finalising an Idea
(Based on Experimental projects for ‘Time’, ‘Body’ & ‘Space’)

Planning for final idea
30 words pitch:
-Experimental video inspired by the theme of ‘Body’. Using people’s
faces and bodies to create an alternative piece using my skills in post
production. Begin with plain backgrounds and small amount of
people, and gradually increase aspects such as colour, amount of
people and editing techniques.
Outline of the idea (What is the idea?):
-My final idea for Alternative Media is to create a weird and wonderful
short video inspired by the theme of body. I want to film a variety of
different people (from different backgrounds, ages, genders) and
focus on simple body movements rather than having too much going
on in the shots. When putting the video together I’ll use my
experimentation skills in post production to create something unique.
In terms of the editing styles I am planning to use, I want to use a
variety of different layouts/themes together into one final production.
Examples of editing include triptych styled shots inspired by Adde
Adesokan, a large video on the screen with overlays of individual body
features from other people and grid-like video shots appearing on the
screen simultaneously with varying colours, shapes, backgrounds.

Treatment (Idea, Content, Structure):
-I generated the final idea from a variety of research that I had completed for this module, but also other external artists/creators that I had seen elsewhere
on the media. My main aim for this video was to get as many people to film themselves in 4 outfits on the same background as possible. I didn’t give any
direction to people of what to do in the video or how many seconds they should film for. The only requirement was that the videos were horizontal and that
there were 4...In terms of the content for the video, I am playing with the editing techniques available to distort ordinary bodies being displayed. I want to use
photo montaging, collaging, gridding and triptych edits to showcase a unique way to look at body (or distance yourself from the ‘normal’ style of body). The
main structure will be similar to my ‘SPL1T P3RS0NAL1TY’ piece, but I intend to use previous videos that I have created on my YouTube channel, as the
beginning videos for the final piece. I feel that I am the creator, I should be the first or last person on the screen and want to showcase my journey in video
content so far, but then transition into the piece itself. I’m hoping to make the video 2-3 minutes long (depending on how many clips I am sent in, or how long
I am willing for each of the clips to be on the screen for). That will all be decided in post production!
Background research (Primary/Secondary):
-There was quite a lot of background research completed in order to come up with this final idea. I decided to research into as many different media types
and styles as possible so that I had a variety of content to try and include into my final piece. In terms of primary research, I shared my ‘Time’ and ‘Body’
videos on social media and the response gained was that the videos are definitely alternative, but maybe I could try and merge some of the ideas together
and try to include other people.
Audience research (How/where will it be seen?/Delivery?):
-As a ‘content creator’ I would aim to showcase the final video on my personal YouTube channel, along with links on my website (with a blog post), on
LinkedIn to showcase my creativity to a professional audience, and I would also submit it for any student competitions/awards as I would hopefully be
proud with the development of the video and it would be something I had created myself.

Characters (Who will you be using?):
-I have no preference for who I will be using in my video. I have asked people to share with their friends and mutuals to see if I can get a wide group
of people to be featured in the video. If not, then I’ll just edit the content that I do receive
Costumes/Hair & Makeup:
-These aren’t applicable for my video, as people will be dressing up however they like. There are no restrictions.
Shot Types & Angles (Pitch, Style, Form, Concept):
-The angles shot will be varied as I have asked people to film horizontally. I could easily edit the videos in Adobe Premiere Pro but I believe it would
be more interesting to have a wide range of angles to play with, than for them to all look the same.
Archived/Found Material:
-I have been searching online for any relevant material that could be used in the video to make it a little bit more interesting. I want the video to be
powerful with just the people I am asking to record videos for me, but if I stumble across something on YouTube, if I look through old videos I have
created or can collate some clips together from other online sources, then this project could become even more powerful.
Music & Sounds (What will be heard?):
-Music will be the final stage of this process. I want to ensure that I have collated together as much video content as possible first, and have used a
variety of skills/potentially found archived or sourced footage, and then I will find some background music that suits the style of video I end up with.

Footage / Images
This is the majority of the footage that I collated for my
final project piece. After creating a short video for ‘Time’,
‘Body’ and ‘Space’, I am going to try and create a video
showcasing/using all of the three elements.
I will think about using time as an aspect of my final video
when it comes to editing the clips. I can do this by having
larger or smaller gaps between footage, potentially add
images to split up the videos or I can have some shots on
the screen for a shorter amount of time compared to
something else.
In addition to this, the aspect of body will be seen
throughout the video from beginning to end, as I have got
a variety of people to send me in their clips; therefore
showcasing individual people’s bodies and looks in the
final video.
Lastly, the idea of space will also be taken on board, as I
can have spaces between the actual video/photo
elements themselves or experiment with different editing
techniques which will allow me to ‘space out’ the footage
and maybe have other footage overlayed or overlaid
through the middle / along the time / above or below.
The videos on the right hand side are extra videos
that I put together to help with this project. I screen
recorded old videos that I had created on YouTube
to showcase the difference in how I looked, and plan
to use this as an introduction for my final project. I
have also filmed a transition video which will fade
the screen recording video into the collection of four
videos filmed by some of my friends and mutuals.

Effects
Opacity Levels
I have experimented with this aspect before and was very confident when using this effect. I
lowered each of the video opacity levels to around 60%-70% and decided to insert small
segments between each of the four gridded edits I will be creating for a variety of the people
used in my final video. Similarly to my ‘Body’ video ‘SPL1T P3RS0NAL1TY’, each of the images
on the grid will move around one space to the left.
In the above screen shot, you can see that I have already began
chopping up the video clips of my first video contributor. I have
used my gridding technique to align the four clips into a
particular corner of the editing software I am using. I plan to do
this for a variety of the other video contributors and then
experiment with different editing techniques for the remaining
people. The video clips that are layered on the right hand side
is where I have started to experiment with opacity levels.
For these shots of Luke and Suhaila I decided to
experiment with a different type of gridding. I
received four videos from each of them (which are
shown in the multiple screenshots); but I decided
to showcase only two looks at the beginning of
this segment of my piece. After reviewing these
clips, I decided to re edit the videos and try a new
editing style as one of the videos I used was very
blurry and I couldn’t use it in the final video.
When I began editing the video clips
together, I decided to experiment with
the opacity levels as I wanted to include
a ghostly effect to my video.
A Level Inspiration:

Effects
Gridding & Triptychs
The next stage of the editing process was to repeat what I did with the first clip of four but without
changing their positions. I repeated this process 5 times more until I had 6 sets of 4 videos. This
editing style was inspired by the photographer Adde Adesokan (who I have researched and included
into my production log); who uses a ‘triptych’ technique to layer images in threes. I sped up the short
clips of each individual person and lined them up to play them all simultaneously.
After this I decided to add a
7th person’s videos as the
background behind the 6
that I had already created.
In a clockwise direction
each of the videos then
became ‘the background’
and the process was
repeated until each set was
on the screen. I decided to
do this as my main aim
with my final video was to
focus on editing
techniques rather than just
the content. I also made
sure to include the
concepts of gridding,
triptychs and face collages.

Effects
Face Collaging
The next section of the video
allowed me to experiment and be
creative with merging different
people’s faces and bodies
together in a variety of different
ways. Here are some of the screen
shots from the video! I decided to
add some humour towards the
end of the video, drawing
everything together.
To bring the video to a close, I
made the 6 sets appear on the
screen, and fade away one by one
until they were all gone! The
background music that I used was
‘How About Nah’ from the
YouTube Audio library.

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