What mediums did I use?
Well originally I was going to use photography, sound and video. This did though change to two photography pieces and a sound alone piece.
The piece that is just sound is definitely a step in a new direction for me as prior to this module I have only ever used sound to go along with visuals in videos or over the top of photography pieces.
My were my influences?
My influences were fairly widespread. I watch a lot of movies so I hope that sub-consciously I take elements from the movies that I watch and place them into the work I make. My main two influences were Todd Hido and Terry Richardson though. Both guys are photographers but they work in different fields. Hido works mainly in night landscapes and Richardson does a lot of portrait work that is aesthetically very simple.
What pleased me?
The sound project I think pleased me the most just down to the fact that it was a pleasant surprise. When I realised that I did not have the time to shoot the visuals for my piece and knew it would end up being sound alone I didn’t think it would work but I think that it more or less still does work as a stand alone thing. The think my writing has improved as these pieces sounds fairly natural.
What do I think worked?
I’m not sure to be honest. The sound piece worked and I think my night photography worked as this is something that I do spend a lot of time working on. Not sure whether I like it but technically it does work as things are exposed the way I wanted them to be and composed the way I wanted them to be.
What went wrong?
The thing that was wrong was the simple lack of time that I had to work on my pieces. The sound piece was originally meant to be a video but the lack for time while working on other bits simply meant this was not to be. It is a shame as well because even though I am happy with it I still think it would have worked better as a video piece. I said my night photography was technically sound I’m just not sure that I like the subject matter and whether it worked as a piece.
What did I learn?
Due to the severe lack of time between each artefact I learnt to manage my time quite a bit better than I have previously with practical elements of work. I also learnt that I can work under pressure towards very tight deadlines.
What am I going to try?
I am definitely going to try a lot more with video and sound as well. Both separately and together in pieces just so I can round out my skill set a little bit more. I also think that I need a bit more practice in the editing suites.
What am I going to develop?
To be honest I don’t actually think that I am going to build on any of the artefacts that I have created so far apart from the memory artefact because I would like to add the video element in to see if it does add anymore to the piece overall. After I have done the video part though I do not think that I will take that idea any further. All of the ideas that I thought were my better ones would have needed a lot more time to work on to turn them into artefacts and because of this I am probably going to start working on them a lot more over the Christmas break. The one thing that I need to develop within my work ethic is to look at more people outside of the photography industry. Things like more film makers, artists and so on.
