assignment 1

To do the assignment of the square mile I have chosen my parents neighbourhood. I moved into this area of Madrid when I was eleven years old. I was coming from an area of Madrid, which is the one I consider as the place I grew up, in the outskirts of the city. In this new neighbourhood I went to school one year, and to high school four more years. It is in this area also where the swimming pool in which I have spent most of my adolescence (I was a synchronise swimmer and practised for three hours every day) is located, so I chose this as the place to re-explore and photograph in this assignment.

I moved from my parents’ home in 2005, and then I moved from Madrid to Cardiff in 2011. It was only a couple of months ago then I came back, so found the opportunity to photograph some of my memories really enthralling.

The photographers I have looked for inspiration were Stephen Shore and Eggleston. Their images of the conventional daily life and the colour of their film photographs is engrossing. Also influenced by them I have researched Alec Soth. I particularly like the façades in his Niagara series.

I also enjoyed Keith Arnett's series of his neighbours, and how captivating are Tom Hunter and Venetia Darden's portraits. However, I found difficult to approach people and asking them for a picture. Also there were not many people in the city as it was a bank holiday this weekend.

While taking the images for the Square Mile I had the photographers mentioned above in mind. In some aspects a couple of the photos taken would have a reminiscence of their work.

I'm not completely sure if the project works as a whole. For me it does, as I recognise the buildings and the area. The images are also edited with a film filter in Lightroom software (VSCO cam package) so the feel and colour is similar to Eggleston's colour images. This gives them some consistency and continuity. But if I look at the images from the perspective of an outsider, it could be that they don't belong together.

 

With regards to assessment criteria, I have taken a first stab at an analysis below:

Demonstration of technical and visual skills – The images have in general a good composition. Location of subjects in relation with each other makes sense and is balanced. Style is somewhat mixed (angled and simplistic images with more vernacular photos).

Quality of outcome – as mentioned above, the project perhaps does not work as a whole.

Demonstration of creativity – Honestly here I would have liked to get closer to people. I find this terribly difficult.

Context – I have done a couple of days of research before taking the photos. I am satisfied with the result in this sense, though I had probably a predetermined idea of what I wanted to show and have stick to that, keeping the influence from the research (hopefully) in control.  

dfp formal submission - List of contents

Please find in this section (Assignments DFP), in inverse chronological order, the assignments submitted for Digital Film Production and my tutor's reports.

Also links to assignments can be found here:

Assignment 1 - a five shots sequence
Assignment 2 - creating atmosphere
Assignment 3 - creating meaning
Assignment 4 - constructing a narrative


Many thanks,

Maria

inspiration

stephen shore

y filltir sgwar (the square mile)

new course! expressing your vision

assignment 4 - feedback and reflection

I have received feedback from my tutor about El Rastro documentary:

Overall Comments
This ‘day in the life’ of El Rastro market is a fairly convincing documentary. You’ve covered the day with it’s significant events and people fairly well. You’ve also managed to capture the changing atmosphere of the place. The editing is quite fast and jumpy, but suits the filming well and although I find the camera too distant most of the time, you do pick some lovely shots of people and location.
There are a few issues here that you could look at again to sharpen the movie up. 

The issues commented by Robert are mainly about feeding the narrative. I do agree that the sequence of morning, noon, evening does not work just by itself to narrate the day in El Rastro. It would be more complete with further, deeper stories, this is why I tried to shoot the lady, the man going back home, etc. 
My tutor would have expected some interviews, and I think that would have been quite interesting, but believe me when I say that would have been very, very difficult. Most of the people were telling me not to film them at all, giving me suspicious looks. I should have tried, but due to some TV programmes in Spain that make a show of people in the street, many people is reluctant to be filmed/interviewed. 
I am not trying to justify myself, I agree the documentary would be much more interesting with some protagonists, and I should have tried to get them, even if not interviewing them, getting closer as Robert suggests. I was too wary.

Robert mentions that the use of J and L cuts can help to smooth the mix between ambient sound and music. I agree that not using them in this video makes the images quite jumpy, the change in sound is quite obvious between shots. 
"In a J-cut, the sound of the next scene precedes the picture, and in an L-cut, the picture changes but the audio continues" from https://vimeo.com/blog/post/j-cuts-l-cuts

While editing (and even when I was filming) I realised I was taking more "moving photographs" than anything else. I had some very nice shots, but where was the narrative in there? This has been obviously picked up by my tutor:

There are some nice visual moments in the movie but they are random candid market scenes which won’t provide narrative continuity. The kid with Edward Scissorhands, the pigeons, and the bouncing toys. By the time we get to 3 minutes it begins to feel like it isn’t getting any- where and isn’t about anything. It feels shapeless. 

That’s not to say there are not some rough sequences here: the armour and the old lady selling paintings for example. But I don’t think these have a strong enough narrative quality to stand out. 

Finally, I also agree with Robert that my research was quite poor. I merely went through the last chapter of the course as the time I had to finish the course was coming to its end! I'll endeavour to be more organised and constant in my next course, Expressing your Vision, which I begin right away.

As suggested reading and viewing, my tutor suggests David Campany’s Whitechapel books “Cinematic” and “Photography & Cinema” may be pertinent to you if your focus is mostly on photography but you have a fascination with moving image. The first of these is probably the most difficult.

Edit 29/11/15 to attach copy of my tutor's report: