461 – t3

i am very happy to write this update about the film project.   for those of you new to the blog, let me give you some background.

i have a commission from derby silk mill museum to make a non linear film using footage i shot in november last year in and around the museum.  by mid december i’d managed to get the film to a point at which it was working technically yet it was oh so dull.  i really wasn’t exploring what non linear film meant.  my response was to use where i had got to as a basis for version 2.0.

cutting a long storey short, yesterday i received word about a technical issue with the application i’m using to create the film.   the application is called korsakow.  it’s been available to play with and experiment with for sometime.  i have a few past projects made with it.  those are based on flash, a technology that is slowly being superceded by html5 from necessity because mobile devices and tablets are not natively compatible with flash.  the version of korsakow i’m using was released in october last year and is natively html5.

the upshot today is i’ve been able to get back to making the film.

the technical issue was actually a series of misunderstandings that was resolved very quickly.

picking up the film wasn’t as difficult as i first thought.  i’d left the process at a stage where files had been exported from the editor and sat ready to be compressed and imported into korsakow.

i did this while ignoring the niggly feeling about the overall film.

now some hours later i understand what that niggle was.  it was originated from the very nature of the non linear film ie ….

i need to take a moment here to try to explain the feeling.

using the last documentation film i made as a reference … with that i knew what the film needed to be like because it was governed by the performance that was filmed.  i merely had to make editorial decisions about the flow of the film.

with the non linear film, there is no linear governance and it hit me hard before starting today that i had no plan.  a plan in a linear sense.

korsakow by the nature of itself sets a framework … a non linear framework within which to work.

what i learnt today is that there is a time in a non linear film production where it appears that for all the work put in … that there is nothing to show for it … nothing that makes any sense.

this was all before i started to work.  methodically doing the thing that allows the korsakow film to function.  that thing being snuifying.

this evening i’m again buzzing about the film.  the decisions i made and editorial control practiced have to day started to show me a non linear film that i’m enjoying watching and it’s inspiring me to go back to the editor to generate the next set of files ready to import to korsakow.

i’m happy to update today because i can seen that what i’m doing in korsakow is starting to work and i can see more clearly where i need to add in content to move the project closer to being complete.

the paradoxical aspect of completing the project is that it’s possible to film more and add it into project.  for now at least i need to remain focussed on processing the footage i have and moving it all into korsakow.

once again i’m enthused about the project and it feels good.

what will the world make of it ?  i posed this question at the end of my last post.  in working towards completing the k film based on the silk mill museum, i’ve found myself asking of myself … what do you make of it?

i’ve had to take a step back and reflect upon what i’m doing.  i see i’ve been doing literal things.  i’m making a non linear film yet all of my connecting of the units have been based on the physical linear rule of the building itself.  is this what i set out to do ?

in part yes it was because this is how i filmed in the mill.

however i now see the need to move beyond the physical rules of the space and consider the nature of the spacial material of the footage i have.

this film is somewhat experimental into what is a non linear film? what does that concept mean to me now with the footage from the mill? and is the concept behind how i’ve filmed actually a  blueprint for other films?

in my stepped back position i have to consider where i am within the editing and k film building process so i can use this as a starting point for the next version of the film…  version two point zero.

in 2.0 i feel i need to consider the connections between the building and itself.

in the museum on a day to day basis, the collections are the starting points for new narratives.  i see this with the museum in miniature we take onto wards of the london road community hospital in derby.

what i need to do is make my non linear film of the silk mill more interesting than version 1.8, the version i got to before realising that it needed to evolve.

i have spent a couple of days feeling daunted by the thought of v2.0 because of the scale i think the task in hand is.  v2.0 is what i need to do and do it i will.

in summary…  i’ve thought …. felt  …… and now it’s time to do.

with a need to finish this project soon, i’ve had to work on it again today.  working at home while the family are around can be a challenge if the work i’m doing requires a lot of attention.  fortunately for me today, i’m simply repeating a compression task, so interruptions for questions about printers and christmas decorations aren’t too much an issue.

after seeing sheffield doc fest is open for submissions i’ve been considering what statement i might write to accompany this work.

within the edits i’ve worked hard to work around the nature of the footage from a head based camera. i did take a massive risk filming in this way and through listening to what sue has fedback to me i am hopeful that a workable compromise has been made.  as the project continues i’ll keep an eye on the rhythm of the edits and revisit accordingly.

my thoughts wander to how this non linear film will become more interesting as time moves on from now.  does the further we get away from something lead us to wanting to see images of that something from an older point in time.  is this a way to realise how we have progressed ?  was this the origin of the concept of museum ?

back in 2010 i recorded this footage of a clock as i was interested in the movement.  in time i will have editted the entry to talk more about what the clock is, rather than as it was originally uploaded as a concept of something.

i have some footage of the grasshopper engine running before the maker faire.  i have a plan to upload it to you tube and place a link to it within the non linear film.  something else to play with and get to work !

today i have made compressed versions of all the narrative units of the k film.  my next production phase is to import all these into korsakow and start the process of snuifying.  i get a little bit closer to finishing the project.  what will the world make of it ?

half a cup of tea, puppy looking out the window as dusk plays out and i have a satisfied feeling.  i’ve over come the technical issues at the beginning of the week to end the week with a small list of final cut pro edits left to do.

there remains questions about the wide angle nature of the footage i’ve shot and wether wearing a camera produces images that begin to jar over time.

today i’ve been editing the material shot in the stores of the derby silk mill.  something that comes across for me was my inquisitiveness about the sounds the objects make.  this sonic interest is further augmented by the sound of the doors.  they squeak and thunk and add pace and interest to what we can see.

earlier in the week i spoke of my thoughts and considerations going into the korsakow programming for the film.  these centred on the nature of the keywords that link the small narrative units together.  spending time within the final cut pro editing has helped me to simplify my thinking around keywords.

something i needed to to to help this was to left go of the linear nature of walking around the museum space.  letting go of this has opened up a playfulness that creates a little tension in myself because it rails against what i know.

i spoken with producer sue this week and it all feels good.  again something that continues to impress me is how the derby silk mill project is peopled by people who are able to maintain an open mind and always are able to listen and respond to the sometimes difficult nature of the process.

i’m liking how i feel tonight as a result of working hard on the project this week.  i might just have a little beer later…

after my momentum gain yesterday, i’ve had some technical set backs today.  they were connected to the computer operating system and space on my external drive.

on reflection i’m impressed with myself by the way i dealt with the setback.  the first thing i did was to go out for a walk.

this gave me time and space to consider all the aspects of the problem.  not least that to free up disc space by transferring the files to another drive involved deleting files made yesterday and remaking them directly to another drive as this would be quicker that doing a file transfer.  the thought of work done yesterday being lost being quickly moved on from.

in this moment of writing i see how those artists who have people working for them can stay at distance from the technical nuts and bolts to remain focused and true to the vision of their creation.  being my own technical support does at times take me away from the idea and this leads to potential dilemmas within it.  this might be whats going on with the thoughts connected to the proof of concept meeting.  the technical considerations being a potential blur for the creative vision.

when considering that vision … the aspect that is currently most blurry are the keywords linking the small narrative units together.  my creative dilemma being one of how to make this non linear film interesting and understandable.  i trust myself to arrive at the solution once i have steered the technical aspects to a point where i get to do my creative bit.  by creative bit here i mean arrive at something that was previously unknown.  this being different from technical things.

when i think about the  finished watchable film i start to feel very excited about showing it.  as the creator of the korsakow platform says … a non linear film cares that you are watching through interacting with it.  this might of course be yet another one of my mis-quotes.

i might have already talked about how i’ve arrived at way more content than i originally imagined.  i think this experience is in keeping with the experience of getting to know the process of creating the museum of making.   after an introduction the depth of what is being created there reveals itself over time.

making this film is helping me to tell the storey of the project of the making of the museum of making and documenting the experience through small narrative blog posts.