This is the Alternative Media reflection based on my final project 'SOMETHING IN THE BODY' which was inspired by my experimental pieces to do with the themes of Time, Body and Space

1. At the beginning of the Alternative Media module, I didn’t know what to expect in terms of the weekly
lesson plans, but also what the requirements would be for the final project. Over the course of the module
I was able to create mind maps and lists of ideas that unleashed my creativity. Some of my initial ideas for
the final project included things such as ‘real life vs an online persona’, the theme of ‘drag
transformations’, general thoughts that go around my mind (and whether they would be presented
physically or through words and graphics). After each session I made sure that I noted a list of the
references that we were taught or shown so that I could do my own research outside of the classroom.
Another benefit of having completed this module is that I was able to improve my skills with editing
software, as I had used Adobe Premiere Pro before, but as this was a module to create something
unique, it allowed me to experiment with new tools and effects which could help my video to stand out.
This will also be a beneficial skill for me in the future because if I end up working for a brand or a
company who want somebody with a creative mindset, I can use the skills, knowledge and resources
from this module to build together ideas from scratch. ‘When you have no creative restrictions, you’re
more likely to try new things’. (Hardy, 2013).
One of the first projects that I looked into was ‘Upload Unplug’ by Rebecca Evans. This was an interactive
project which showed ‘David’ as a robot who performed actions based on what the audience selected on
their phones. He would communicate with the audience through a variety of different tasks, questions and
situations and what David learnt would either keep his profile alive, or would delete it. The audience also
had the decision of whether they wanted to ‘upload’ or ‘unplug’ the information they were producing once
the show had finished. The meaning that I gathered from watching the project is that social media is a
powerful tool, but in order for it to be used effectively, people need to make sure that they are engaging
with content just as much as they are creating and uploading content. ‘Social media is about the people!
Not about your business. Provide for the people and the people will provide you’ (Goulart, 2018). It also
explained that if people were using social media and they wanted to remove their presence, they could
‘unplug’ from the internet at their own choice.
The first experimentation that I decided to create was based on the theme of ‘Time’. Initially when I
presented my ideas to the class, I explained that I could either create something that everyone else would
probably do; such as things changing over time, time of day or a short video which included clocks. I also
explained that the theme of ‘Time’ could be thought about more graphically, and using the letters of the
word could be another way I go about creating a video. When it came to the storyboarding and designing
for the video, I realised that this was only an experimentation and just used the items and people in my
flat to create something short. I stumbled across some old work that I had created during both Secondary
school and first year of University, so looked at a variety of editing styles in those videos and thought
about trying to include them in any of my experimentation videos. I decided to title my experiment ‘Out of
Time’ and decided to show how time can speed up. The outline for the experiment was about being
trapped and having all your thoughts swirling around your head. Some of the shots I included were of a
dart board, silhouettes and cutlery among others, and I believe that it definitely brought a spooky vibe to
the video. Looking back on the project and the feedback I was presented with, if I was to have the chance
to re edit the video again, I would remove some of the oddly exposed shots and focus on having only a
few different shots that work well together, than a large number of shots with some that are disjointed in
meaning.
For my next experiment which was relating to the theme of ‘Body’, I actually decided to do some more
research after we were shown a variety of other work in class. ‘Cut Piece’ by Yoko Ono and ‘A Minute of
Silence’ by Marina Abramovic were two of the videos that we watched, that focused on one particular
individual throughout the course of the video. Having watched both of the videos, it sparked an idea that I
wanted to have multiple people/personas in my experimental video but I needed to do some more

2. research as to how I would think of an idea to showcase this. After doing some browsing on the Internet,
using phrases such as ‘multiple personas’ and ‘split personalities’, I wasn’t able to find any practitioners or
previous work that allowed me to think creatively. Luckily, I remembered watching some videos on
YouTube where there are multiple shots of the same person playing simultaneously. In some of the
videos, the backgrounds stay the same and in others, the background changes for each shot, but for the
simplicity of the experiment I decided to keep my background the same.
In terms of initial ideas relating to the theme, some of my ideas included having multiple body features on
screen at the same time, forming bodies from nothing (or potentially having shots of people without their
bodies being shown). In the end, I decided to use the concepts of ‘split personalities’ and ‘multiple
screens’ to create a unique and short experimental piece. I named the piece ‘SPL1T P3RS0NAL1TY’ and
the video simply entailed having four different videos of myself, showing a different personality trait that I
own. In the experimental piece, the videos simply move around and some of the facial features become
overlayed halfway through the video. I also decided to experiment with the sizes of the videos and had a
simple background track to allow the shots to flow. Although I was able to showcase the different
personality types quite effectively, I could have had a little title labelling each of the characters. One of the
other things that I noticed about the videos was that I didn’t match them up 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 for the creation of this piece; 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 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.
After reviewing 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 alternative 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).
My final project was a continuation piece from my ‘Body’ inspired video called ‘SPL1T P3RS0NAL1TY’ but
instead of using myself as the main character, I asked a variety of people from different cultures and
backgrounds to send in 4 short videos of them on the same background for me to edit creatively into a
video. When putting the video together I used my experimentation skills in post production to create
something unique. I wanted 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. Throughout the editing process
I did come across some problems. I wanted to include a collation of short snippets from previous

3. YouTube videos that I had filmed, as the introduction for my final piece, but when I reviewed the footage, I
realised it didn’t make sense to have it included so I decided to leave it out. One other problem that I
faced was deciding which order to place the videos in, and how I was going to overlay clips onto one
another.
Overall, I really enjoyed this module, as from beginning to end I made sure to engage and use researching
techniques to my advantage. I believe that there are good and bad aspects about each of my videos, but I
am happy that I was able to take advantage of the experimental pieces, to work out where my strengths
lay and what I could potentially improve on if I was to be tasked with something similar to this. One piece
of advice I would give to myself is not to restrict myself to create a video at a specific time, but to in fact
let the creativity and editing of the video do the speaking for me. I have most certainly been pushed out of
my comfort zone, and forced to think with a different creative mindset than my usual way of thinking.
Another advantage of alternative media, is that there are different ways to raise awareness on different
issues in the world. ‘Alternative media are most valuable when they present messages directly from
individuals and groups who are working to transform their communities and societies’. (Kidd, 1999).