Unit 123: Pt 7 City of Shadows Ts 2 & 4 LOs 2.2, 3.1, 4.1 & 4.2

I was already thinking about how I could feature Brighton &/or Hove in relation to this project, but I didn’t want to go down the beach/seaside path. An initial concept that came to mind evoked the ethos of a BBC2 drama called The City & The City.

This series was based on the novel by China Mieville, the plot of which revolves around the concept of two cities existing next to one another. Set 500 years in the future, the citizens of both cities are forbidden to interact with one another. In the spaces where the two cities meet, the inhabitants cannot look at the other side. The way in which this was portrayed on screen was to blur one side.

 

 

This made me think about how Hove is “overshadowed” by Brighton. Could this concept be used in my project? One thought was to have a 360 degree panoramic shot or an interval timer session on the border of Brighton & Hove, blurring when the view of the Brighton appears on the screen.

While watching the first episode, I noticed the ‘blur’ was a strong, continuing visual theme.

 

 

It certainly isn’t ‘smooth’ viewing & gives quite an unsettling effect.

The other thought I had was depicting shadows within Hove.

 

 

 

Unit 123: Pt 8 Musical Thoughts T 4 LOs 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2, 4.1 & 4.2

When I was first presented with this unit, my initial thought was to produce something similar to one of my Level 3 projects.

 

 

This video is comprised of images captured using interval timer shooting. What I could do differently with the current project is to take footage from different angles & edit it showing different Points of View. This would be in contrast to the continuous tableau shot in my previous piece.

One aspect that I learnt from this project & animation I previously produced was that sound plays a very important part. While looking at the initial brief for this project, I came across a piece of music that could be suitable.

 

 

The piece is only two minutes long, broken into two halves. The second minute features a piano & double bass. This could work as a theme when depicting the two halves of Brighton & Hove. Or I could isolate elements of the music & combine it with other sounds, channelling a touch of Mark Leckey.

I also know the musician, Allessandra Cellitti, & was delighted when she gave me permission to use this piece. There is also a very interesting background to the music.

 

 

The following is an extract from Cellitti’s website:

‘More than 20 years have passed since the release of ‘Hidden Sources’ the first album that I dedicated to the music of Gurdjieff & De Hartmann. Yet, after so many years, I remember the emotions I felt in the daily immersion in the study of such intense & profound melodies.

At that time I was living in Prague & them mysterious & hypnotic landscapes of Central Asia evoked by these compositions, mingled with the snow & the bitter cold of the Bohemian capital. It was a strange alchemy. So this year, after a long time, I thought of going back into the sacred atmosphere that Gurdjieff managed to explore during his countless journeys & brought to light thanks to the collaboration with De Hartmann.

This time, however, my piano is not alone. For “Sacred Honey” I tried to imagine & recreate the exotic & esoteric sounds of the movements, hymns and sacred dances of Gurdjieff and I involved the multi-instrumentalist Daniele Ercoli who honoured me with his participation with the sound of the double bass, the kaval and of the flugelhorn. In many of the compositions, I created the electronic sounds myself and played the harmonium (an instrument very dear to Gurdjieff), that I bought in a small shop in Mumbai during one of my concerts in India. I would like this new work to have the strength to transport into soundscapes full of charm and enchantment.

Why Sacred Honey?

The word Sarmoung means “bee” and there are traces of a Confraternity of Sarmoung whose origins are lost in the mists of time; signs are found in Babylon since the days of Hammurabi. The Sarmoung taught that objective knowledge is a material substance that can be harvested and stored like honey. It is believed that the Sarmounis (the bees) possessed teachings antecedent to The Flood. Once again comes the metaphor of the Ark and although it is certainly possible that no real universal flood has ever occurred, it is probable that the Sarmoungs referred to their responsibility to keep safe the Ark of ancient wisdom through the floods of time. It seems that this confraternity had recorded the destructions and periodic rebirths of humanity believing that its tradition represented an eternal and unchanging nucleus of wisdom to which humanity could always draw.

At critical moments in history, the Sarmoungs distributed their “honey” throughout the world through duly trained agents. The traveller, scholar of metaphysics and of ancient religions John Bennett, believed that the symbol of the enneagram at the base of Gurdjieff’s teaching, as well as the knowledge of the Law of Seven, the law which according to the mystical Armenian, regulates every process of change and many of his sacred dances, had arisen from the Sarmoung Brotherhood.

From this suggestion the choice of the title for the sound itinerary within the musical world of Gurdjieff and De Hartmann. The inspiration also evokes a question of absolute topicality and importance on which I was interested to dwell: “If the bee disappeared from the earth, humanity would remain four years of life, no more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more human beings. ” (Albert Einstein?).’

 

Reference

Alessandra Celletti. (2019). Sacred Honey, by Alessandra Celletti. [online] Available at: https://alessandracelletti.bandcamp.com/album/sacred-honey [Accessed 24 May 2018].

Unit 123: Pt 9 Further Location Research Ts 2 & 4 LOs 2.1, 2.2, 4.1 & 4.2

After a discussion with Ria during the class session, the concept of using Boundary Passage as my location became clearer. After some further discoveries, the idea of portraying this as a passage way as a ‘no man’s land’ came up.

This was sparked when I checked out Google Maps to see how Boundary Passage appears. I checked. It doesn’t.

 

 

Also, when I looked at Google Street view, the images were very intriguing. As they were taken during different times & seasons there is a weird discontinuity with clothing & the light. There are also some interesting multi-exposure effects as shown in these screen captures:

 

 

They reminded me of the cinematic style of The City & The City:

 

 

You also can’t access the passage at either end.

 

 

There isn’t much online regarding the passage, but enough to get the ideas going. It’s briefly mentioned in an article regarding the Brighton boundaries, but not much else.  However, there is one building in the passage that has a colourful history – the Spiritualist church. Bought by the church in 1978, it previously housed a brothel. Very apt location for this & the visiting clientele.

My alternative source for further information was likely to be the Brighton Museum &/or the Hove Museum. Will be interesting to see if they have any records about the passage & this building. I could also visit one of the Brighton libraries to see if there are any newspaper references.

Another aspect I came across is the name for a place like this: Twitten. This is a specific Sussex colloquial word meaning ‘alleyway’. Could be a good title for the final piece.

References

BBC News. (2019). Gurt! 12 regional words to be used in verse. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40882717 [Accessed 25 May 2018].

Boundarypassage.co.uk. (2019). Brighton and Hove Spiritualist Church – History. [online] Available at: https://www.boundarypassage.co.uk/about-us-history/history/ [Accessed 25 May 2018].

Lexico Dictionaries | English. (2019). twitten | Definition of twitten in English by Lexico Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/twitten [Accessed 25 May 2018].

My Brighton and Hove. (2019). Boundaries. [online] Available at: http://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/page_id__7857.aspx [Accessed 25 May 2018].

Unit 123: Pt 10 Boundary Passage Shoot 1 Ts 2, 3 & 4 LOs 1.2, 2.2, 4.1 & 4.2

After a bit of further thought & a discussion during the Interim Crit with Ria, there was only one thing to do. Go & take some photos.

My initial concept was to take a sequence of shots firstly outside Boundary Passage then walk up taking a shot every five steps. I would then continue to take shots at the other end then go back down taking further shots until I got back to the bottom.

In order for the camera to be in the same position, I put it on a tripod. I then activated the horizon finder tool so the camera would be lined up as straight as possible.

 

 

For this session, I used my 50mm lens on manual focus. The Nikon D750 has a much larger viewfinder than the Nikon D5500 & I’m finding it much easier to get things into focus. The other benefit of using manual focus is that I could experiment with different degrees of sharpness & blurring to create a different mood to an image.

The first set of shots were taken on the main road. As I was using the tripod in a public place with many people about, I had to ensure I wasn’t getting in their way or making myself a potential trip hazard. The following photos were taken on the opposite side of the road to the bottom end of the passage.

 

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I then crossed the road & took the following shots, some with a different focus.

 

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Next was the first walk up the passage, again taking a shot every five steps. I also decided to take a shot on the left & right as well as a centre shot. I wasn’t sure if these will work, but these side shots could be combined with the central ones to create an interesting effect.

 

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The walk continued.

 

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I then decided to try a 360 shot, turning the camera round a certain distance, taking a shot then continuing until I’d gone all the way round.

 

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I then continued to the top end of the passage.

 

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This sequence was taken on the pavement where the top end of the passage starts.

 

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I then returned back down the passage, angling the camera slightly downwards to emphasise the angle of the hill.

 

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The last few shots were taken closer to the high street at the bottom of the passage.

 

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When I got home later that day, I looked through the resulting shots on Bridge. The shots straight down the passage seemed to work well as a sequence, so I selected a sequence & cropped them to a 16:9 ratio. This is the result.

 

High Street.

 

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Going up.

 

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View at the top.

 

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Back down again.

 

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I did make some interesting observations. Firstly, the shots I took of my camera with my mobile phone. It’s a wider angle compared to the 50mm. I need to try different lenses to see the difference.

 

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I also spotted this when looking at shots in Camera Raw.

 

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Could this be a way of creating that feeling of two different worlds running in parallel?

 

Unit 123: Pt 11 First Premiere Test Ts 2 & 4 LOs 2.1 4.1 & 4.2

After selecting & editing the initial images, I uploaded the files onto Adobe Premiere & created the following:

 

 

I’d edited the photos using a 1920 x 1080 pixel crop & saved them as 72dpi. An easy format to use in uploading the images. Not perfect, but a good starting point.

Unit 123: Pt 13 Second Premiere Test Ts 2 & 4 LOs 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.2, 4.1 & 4.2

Time for a second test with Adobe Premiere. This time, I decided to try black & white images with a 16:9 ratio crop. After a frustrating battle with technology & lots of input/help from Max (our tutor), Nick & Mark (my classmates) this was the result at the end of the class session:

 

 

The next step will be to smooth out the dissolve & work out how to synch the music. Also, I definitely need to reshoot using either a 35mm or 28mm (wide angle) lens. I somehow managed to change the perspective while editing in Premiere from 16:9 ratio to 35mm film. No idea how I achieved that!

Other ideas that came up was to ‘fuzz out’ the end of the alley, so it creates a feeling of not being able to escape the Twitten. When I get to the end next time, I will take a sequence of shots on a 180 degree from left to right before going back down the alley. Then, at the other end, I will pause & take a sequence of shots capturing the people walking past. I will then blur out them so it again gives the viewer a feeling of being trapped in this alternative reality.

Other aspects to explore:

Split screen? This would involve taking a sequence of shots looking one way then another using the same angle each time. I could then colour one side differently. Max had suggested I look at cinema colour pallets for inspiration.

 

 

I could also try something like this:

 

Back to the Twitten, then…

Unit 123: Pt 15 Boundary Passage Shoot 2 Ts 2, 3 & 4 LOs 1.2, 2.2, 4.1 & 4.2

Another day, another shoot. After the first session of photographing Boundary Passage, I knew I needed to take another set of images.

This time saw a refinement to my approach. In order to get a more steady focal point, I used the grid with Live View & set the red rectangle in the middle of the screen. This enabled me to get a more consistent set of shots. In addition, I set the camera to Manual. This enabled me to adjust the ISO to deal with the changing light conditions along the alley. The other refinements was setting the camera to F10 in order to increase the depth of field.

 

 

 

My shooting plan was to have an establishing shot at the bottom end of Boundary Passage, work my way up, take a series of shots at the top on a 180 degree access then work my way down. At the bottom, I would take a couple of interval timer shooting sessions to capture people & traffic passing by. As I was using the tripod, I also ensured it wasn’t in anyone’s way or presented a trip hazard.

The way up.

 

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The top.

 

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The way down.

 

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The first interval timer session, taken at one-second intervals (200 shots in total). Here is a selection.

 

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Second interval timer session, taken at one-second intervals (300 shots in total). An extract.

 

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To be continued.

Unit 123: Pt 17 Shoot 2 Image Refinement T 4 LOs 2.1, 2.2, 3.1, 3.2 & 4.2

The next stage of processing my images from the second shoot was to take a closer look at the sequences. By running through the photos in Adobe Bridge using the Film Slide view, it gave me a better idea as to which ones worked. As I’d shot in both JPG & RAW, I created a separate folder for these files for the RAW ones. This would give me greater control over the editing of these images.

I then straightened & cropped the RAW images to give a smoother transition between shots. Then I followed the editing process of firstly correcting the lens settings to remove chromatic aberration.

 

 

I then increased the intensity of colours & details in order to create a ‘hyper reality’ look.

 

 

Following this, I cropped the images to 1920 to 1080 pixels (which is a 16:9 ratio for full screen).

I then sharpened the images. As there is a lot of detail in all of the images (high frequency) I selected an Amount of 70 with a Radius of 0.7.

 

 

The next images were prepared for processing in Adobe Premiere after saving them as JPGs at 72dpi.

Up the Twitten.

 

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At the Twitten top.

 

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Back down Twitten.

 

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Interval Timer Shoot Sequence 1.

 

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Interval Timer Shoot Sequence 2

 

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Next step. Back to Adobe Premiere.

Unit 123: Pt 18 Third Premiere Test Ts 2 & 4 LOs 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.2, 4.1 & 4.2

After an afternoon utilising the edited images in Adobe Premiere, I thought I had the sequence sussed. However, I was due to be thwarted by technology.

As it was late in the day & it had already taken an age to render the final piece, I made the decision to save the Premiere file to export it as an MPV4 at home.

Got home. No images were in the Adobe Premiere file. The main issue was that the college had the 2017 version & I have the 2018 one. As such, it didn’t import the images. I’m also still trying to get my head round where to keep all the files for one project. It’s not very logical – the auto save can be a bit frustrating. I need to work out a work flow so I don’t make the same mistakes.

Nonetheless, I tried again. I couldn’t recall exactly what I did at college – further frustration. Also, the menus of the two versions of Premiere are slightly different. After clicking through options, doing a bit of online research & viewing a few instructional videos on YouTube, I came up with the following.

 

 

For this version, I tried an Additive Dissolve with stills holding for one second. I then worked out that the mid of the dissolve needed to cover either side of each frame, so this was also at one second. The frames I have using that just extend over the 2’01” piece of music.

I didn’t like the over exposed aspects. At this stage, I am not sure why that happens with when using the Additive Dissolve. None-the-less, it is a good record of that particular dissolve. I had tried the Film Dissolve with the version from earlier & it is useful to be able to see the difference.

The other good result of the day was realising that I will need to reshoot so I can work on the composition of the images. Practice certainly made perfect on this project.

Unit 123: Pt 19 Fourth Premiere Test Ts 2 & 4 LOs 1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 3.2, 4.1 & 4.2

Another day, another experiment. Learnt that the bike is sometimes the best place to be when I need to think about something. Was thinking about the music & the waltz beat. Yes, this piece needs to be set to this music.

Will share my notes at a later date as I’m still calculating frame & transition duration rates. In the meantime, here’s the result of this afternoon’s work.

 

 

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