And the Back Alleys too

These photographs were taken from my friend Roses' back window. I didn't catch the guy putting stuff into the van, but know there was one. 

The Streets of Filton

Second Batch to 21 Portland Sq, Bristol

I took the second lot of film to a film to digital studio in Bristol. I will be transferring it onto DV Cam tape and from there into final cut pro. I will get it back on Friday so hopefully I can put some fragments of the film up this weekend. Currently typing up Luis's interview, boy that guy talk a lot of balls and somehow gets away with it cos he's cool and spanish. I wanna be cool and spanish, instead I think I've got conjunctivitis and it has taken me half an hour to type up 7 minutes of audio.

One Born Every Minute

Absolutely brilliant, I love this programme, though it does conjure up those maternal feelings you never thought you'd have. Often humorous and very honest, this documentary puts 40 cameras into a maternity hospital and watches the marvel of new born life unfold. My friends about to drop so she watched it and recommended it, then I got hooked, started watching about 15 births a day. It really is incredible though, I don't know if I feel like that because I'm female and may go through the same process one day. I now feel that if I go through that I want my mum/everyone else's mum there just to know it won't kill me.

The camera often focusses on the mother and birthing partners while they are alone in the room, so the viewer not only gains a perspective of the physical space but the relationship between all the people. The minimal interviews often talk about how the couple met and personal anecdotes. It is strange that whatever age they are they usually want their mum. The programme also follows the staffs movements and their interaction with the women in labour. Difficult job. 

I have to say that it is probably the fact that the event is such a universal and personal experience that this documentary seems to hit home.  

It's all groovy baby

Hello dedicated filton followers, I have news of beautiful things for this project. The footage from the first batch of super 8 came out marvelously, there was a hair on the lens which couldn't be helped because on that camera the lens you look through isn't the same as the one your filming on. But that is it. I can't really fix it as it will mean importing all the frames into photoshop and editing it from there. I a) can't be bothered and b) that's the joy and misery of analogue film. More importantly the quality in terms of light is great, and the shots despite me not using a tripod are not that shaky. Filton has been transformed to the 60's. I AM ON CLOUD NINE, SO HAPPY AND RELIEVED. Next is the second batch. But at least now I have 6 minutes of usable film. More black and white photographs will be going up shortly and I WILL start on the narratives this weekend. This has spurred me on a bit, I was losing the will.

FIRST BATCH HAS ARRIVED

But I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see it because I missed the post, Jesus I've got a lot of work to do.

Made this for fun

I made this out of three picture, including one of Filton, a version of this picture is likely to become the artwork for band ManCub (featuring Louis Tompkins and Chris Hodges) here's a link to their music. 

http://soundcloud.com/mancubmancub

Louis gets a bit excited whenever there's a saturation button around, I prefer more subtle effects, so I'll probably have to make a version for them then a version for me. The photographs of Filton could be used to great effect as they sum up mundane England. I'm still learning Photoshop though. 

And ...

I GET MY FILM BACK FROM SOHO FILM LAB NEXT TUEDAY

AND SHE SAID THERE WAS NOTHING ON THE NOTES THAT SAID IT CAME OUT BAD

RESULT????

Olympus Om 10 Photos

Interview Rose

Yesterday I interviewed Rose, She got a but shy in front of the recorder which is unlike her, and I didn't get her full laugh and she kept snorting for some strange reason. She was the toughest person I've recorded yet and it only lasted seven minutes. It's odd because I've known her the longest. She had something quite interesting to say about a run in her housemate had with their neighbour and the misconceptions the community has of students running wild, and she's got such an interesting voice. 
Today I'll be scanning some photographs. I took some in Rose's back garden which had a completely different view from the front of Filton Avenue. All the back gardens are connected and it does appear more neighbourhood like, very quiet and secluded. 


I also interviewed Rose's housemate who said pretty standard answers, not that I'm not grateful because she did it spontaneously. I'm not sure If I'll use her or not. Now I'm going to start crafting a script from all the interviews I've got. ARGHHH the other two are 40 minutes long and I'm going to have to write them up, l       o       n        g   

Only Watching Documentaries Is A Tad Depressing

"Culture Clash on the Front Line"

Interactive mode of documentary, you can physically see the interview and the boom mic in parts of this clip. It is a more immersive form. This is also a very interesting documentary on black history in Bristol. 

Alain Resnais- Night and Fog

Very upsetting and graphic documentary on the Holocaust. Here the narration is put to very effective use, it is a no nonsense voice, just saying the truth about the visuals, but in this case the visuals are so disturbing and shocking I don't know what could be said to make it any worse. It was made in 1955, ten years after liberation from archive footage.

GET MY FILM BACK ON THE 28TH OF FEBRUARY

Not sure when I get the film back from the Soho Film Lab, they told me they couldn't do it last week because they didn't receive enough film to do a bath for the processing, so I hope they're doing it this week.

Zoom Recorder

This is the portable recorder I'm using to do the recordings. It has a helpful stand to avoid handling noise. I'm doing the recordings on the highest quality of audio at 24 bit. I'm relying on the inbuilt microphones to be of a high standard, and to be honest I've been really happy with the quality. The stereo image is very strong on the barber shop recording. 

Luis Bunuel- Land Without Bread

Expository film which I found hilarious, the idiot part gets me every time. These types of films subvert the truthful emphasis of the narrator for comical value. Well I hope it's supposed to be funny.

Song of Ceylon (1934) by Basil Wright

A compassionate and highly complimentary documentary on local people in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon. Beautiful footage captured, great cinematography. I recommend anyone and everyone watch this. This is the full version.