This document outlines a student project that will create a video demonstrating changes to public spaces in Bristol over the years. The video will use a three-screen split display of archived historic footage alongside current footage of the same locations, showing how the areas have transformed. It will be shown on a loop in a public space so viewers can observe and learn about the changes. Different themes will be explored by comparing locations linked to aspects of life like work or leisure. The goal is to acknowledge changes to how public spaces are used and reacted to over time through this video artwork.

1. Our Project.
• We want to create a project that demonstrates change in Bristol throughout the years.
• 3 way split screen.
• These will be a compilation of archived footage of Bristols public spaces, and our own footage that mirrors these
shots and highlights how change has impacted that area.
• We thought this is culturally appropriate because the speed that we now live our lives, isn't allowing us much
time to remember and appreciate the change that has gone on over the years.
• We wanted to also display this, on loop, in a public area so that those using these spaces will acknowledge it and
learn about how the space has developed.
• The sound accompanying the visuals will feature diegetic sound from our shots around the city, which means
some may be noisier or quieter depending on the type of public space. To mix with the old footage, we will also
layer traditional radio broadcasts over our footage to sound authentic and encourage those watching our video
to take notice of the historical element of our video.
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2. • We want to explore different themes in our project, by comparing locations that are linked with
aspects of life, like work, play, food or party. We want to look at the change in surroundings to
essential city structures like rivers, roads and paths.
• ‘The Flaneur - the leisurely but vigilant urban stroller’ - Wriggley, R. Flaneur Abroad. London:
Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• The Practice of Everyday Life. Certeau De, M.- Walking in the city is the kind of approach we
want to take to our project and the we present it, by acknowledging change and how we react
to/use public spaces, and how this has changed.
Our Project.
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3. The Brief.
b) A video that recontextualises found
footage, through the techniques of montage, to
create new meanings.
-The archived footage forms the basis of our video.
We aim to use this, with our own footage, to re-
contextualise the visuals we find by putting new and
old together encouraging the audience to compare
the two and look for differences and similarities. We
will use montage to edit the footage together to
merge the difference in image, and use skills from
last semester’s workshops to ensure the quality and
resolution of the images are similar.
d) A video that creatively explores the
possibility of portraiture or self-portraiture.
-All our shots will be a portrait of an environment or
social space within the city. These will be merged in
the film with archived footage of portraits of these
areas.
c) A video art piece that explores the theme of ‘transformation’.
-We want to look into the transformation of public spaces within Bristol and raise this subject to those using these
public spaces. We want to not only produce a video that explores these transformations, but one we can also display
within a public space. We would then be also tackling the exploration of transformation of a space through
technology, by displaying our project on a big screen that would change the dynamic of a space.
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4. Theory.
• Terrance Davies - Of Time And The City: Shots in city, people using public
sphere, tribute to cities history (https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=d6BAoo8hmlU)
• Finisterre (2003) - Shot from moving train giving us a view of the city,
daily activity used to show landscape, idea of moving round the city
(http://www.imdb.com/video/withoutabox/vi721530393)
• Robinson In Space - Long takes, still camera, story, narration (https://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=crVFU-5B6fs)
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5. Media Examples In Bristol
John Akomfrah’s installation, ‘Vertigo Sea’, is currently at the Arnolfini. We went to see
this 3-screen film and particularly liked how the split screens are used to portray
different footage, with the a similar subject. This relates to what we want to achieve
with our film by showing different footage at the same time so the audience can
compare each part of the screen as they work together to create an overall meaning.
This installation also works with archived footage and newly shot footage, and is still
able look like one finished project, which is something we want to mirror.
At the M-Shed, we found loads of resources that feature Bristol’s history. This
captured our interest and made us want to display the comparison between
the change that has happened in an innovative way. By looking at the images
on display of places in Bristol at certain points in history, we began to think
about what parts of Bristol we would like to display. We are going to
research into archived footage from YouTube, and The Create Centre in order
to see what is the best quality footage we can find, of the most suitable
places that will hold the most impact.
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6. Filming.
• DSLR camera / Go Pro
• Film in 3rd person for perspective
• YouTube and The Create Centre for archived footage
• Old footage in black and white, ours in colour
• Editing done on Premiere Pro
• Filming in diverse locations (accessed by car or bus)
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