Journal

WEEK ONE

Monday

Today was the first day of our lens based media project. We were introduced to 'flaneuring' which is something i've never actually heard of before so it was interesting to learn this concept. We researched various artists that were flaneurs and I got the opportunity to watch a few flaneur videos including one called 'swan' which i did find to be quite boring. Today we were also given a camera induction with Caterina and i found it very interesting to learn about the different types of camera and how their uses all differ from each other. 

Tuesday

Today was our first day of flaneuring. This meant going into Canterbury and taking various videos and pictures on an aspect of our choice. I decided to choose benches as I thought this was an interesting concept due to the fact that as stationary objects they experience everything around them. I borrowed a DSLR camera and tri-pod from the camera department and used this to start taking films of benches in different locations of Canterbury. At first it was nerve wracking setting up a camera and filming in public, but I did get some really nice shots and the rainy weather created a really nice aesthetic.

Thursday

Today we were shown how to use Blogger which I will admit i found very confusing at first! But after getting into it i found that this is actually a very good platform for creating your own artistic space and sharing various pieces you have created. We were also given a sketchbook induction with Wendy which i did find particularly helpful. We were shown various ways of making our books more interesting including teabags and use of space. We then did a few sketches based on what we had seen in Canterbury and our found objects. This opened my eyes to a looser more free way of drawing and taught me how to better use the space on the page.

Friday 

Today i was given an introduction to Adobe premier with Simon which i found extremely useful. I was expecting the software to be really complicated to use but i actually found it quite straightforward and it really sparked me on to creating my own video. I was also given a creative writing induction which i didn't find to be particularly useful as i knew most of these things prior to the induction. As well as this i was given a dark room induction with Colin which i found really interesting. I found the process more complicated than i was expecting, it was funny trying to do things in pitch black however.

WEEK 2

Monday

Today we had another flaneur session so i used this opportunity to take my film photos. I found it difficult to set up the film camera but once i got it working i feel i found some really good shots and i am very happy with the pictures i took.

Tuesday

Today was our final day of flaneuring so i wanted to use this opportunity to take my digital photos. I wanted to stray away from the Bench subject a bit whilst still remaining with the same concept. So me and a few friends went to an abandoned mental hospital where i took pictures with my phone. We all found this to be a very scary but exciting experience and i managed to take some really eerie photos which i was well pleased with.

Thursday

I spent today working on and editing my 'BENCH' video. This was the most time consuming part of my project but i am so so happy with the end result. I used a black and white filter on my clips and overlaid some cinematic music by Zack Hemsey. I spent a lot of time matching the clips to the beat of the music which created a very nice effect. Overall i feel the video did very well at conveying the message i was trying to put across.

Friday

Today was the final day of our flaneur project and i used it to develop and process my film pictures. It took me a long time to find the right exposure and get the pictures just right but i was extremely happy with the pictures that i took, they had real atmosphere to them. I also used today to piece together the remainder of my blog and make it look nice. I selected an appropriate background image and tried to keep the colour scheme to greys with the occasional hint of blue which i found really complimented my theme. All in all i am very happy with how this blog turned out.