Place

My survey film has a still shot where a man-made structure is fixed in focus against a speed-blurred, haunted background. Inspired by Rachel Lowe’s ‘A letter to an unknown person n.05’, I cut 30 seconds of footage either side of it and reduced the frame speed to 10%. As the film played I then tried to draw objects that snagged my attention onto a piece of glass. Here’s a (rather poor) mock up of the final result:

Result: a drawing of multiple times and space. Placed on the original still, the drawing conceals and alters sections of it whilst also hinting at the truth of what was seen in the footage. It’d be interesting to see if / how the drawing changes with different sections of film.

I can see the piece of glass I’ve drawn on should be larger – big enough for gestural drawing.

I used a mixture of pens I had to hand. Fine tipped ones made little impression but this might be an issue with the pen itself? Thicker ones left more interesting marks but tend to obliterate the still. I need to re-stock on pens – in a mixture of thicknesses.

Presentation: mount the still onto the back of the glass using magnets & mount the whole, unframed onto the wall (magnets or L-shaped nails)?

I have gathered plenty of film footage, shot as and when so it spans seasons and weather conditions. I’ve surveyed the entire journey down each side of the train from Marden to London and mapped points of interest to shoot in more detail.

I want to shoot more film in overcast conditions as it gives a cool, misty quality to the light. I’d like to work in heavy rain, perhaps positioning the camera over raindrops. I’d like more footage shot at dusk.

Explore more techniques like panning from track until the inner reflection of the train appears. Try see-sawing the camera across the vertical line. Capture footage that appears still but isn’t and dislocating motion such as the curve round a bend. Uncover interesting stills like this one ‘hidden’ in the mass of footage.

My original goal was to make a series of short films investigating different qualities. I’m already in danger of getting overloaded by the volume of material I have. I need to work in a focused way – concentrate on one aspect at a time and assemble the footage needed into a short film.