Month: December 2018

So what exactly have I done for this project?

This is the fake commercial part of the video, shot in Soho Carnaby Street with my flat mate Tiegan. She did a pretty nice job pretending to have good time there since she just recovered from a quite serious cough, because which I had to put off the plan of shooting to the last week of this project, and returned all the equipment I booked. In the end I did all the shots with my phone. I’m actually not satisfied with the finishing look even I tried my best editing it, it looks bit plain and repetitive. But I don’t think I can blame this on the equipment, I know that there’s film shot with iPhone 5 in the film festival! I feel like I need a more detailed shooting plan, not just thinking “something like that” and see what would happen on the day.

Made the poster for the story happens in my video. Using my bad photoshop skill. Again. But it looks ok.

I borrowed a green screen from school and brought it back to my student hall! This I probably the bravest thing I did for the project. And I did the flashback part in front of the green screen, then replaced the background with ‘old Soho’ view. I was going to use old footage of Soho, and my teachers and librarian helped me a lot with finding footage. However I failed to get any suitable footage as they’re either about weird things like someone giving a speech or unable to download. So I went to Soho and shot something I thought still have the taste of old Soho, and put them in. For the green screen, I certainly had fun using it, but still feel I have a lot to learn about the lighting (see the terrible shadow on the first picture?) and composition.

Adobe Premiere is literary the only program I can use well. And I made the best use of this skill. All the colour correction, effects are all done in using premiere. And I’m pretty happy for the outcome ( just talking about the editing), especially the VHS look like effect I made for the flashback part. But I feel I still have a lot to work on the coherence and clearance of the story (well that of course is not just about editing).

The sound is a DISASTER!!!! I even feel funny when hearing the obvious homemade soundtrack myself. Also because of the copyright, I wasn’t able to use any music from other people, so I sat in the toilet and recorded my guitar playing and also did the narration by myself, with a weird not-very -well American accent. And again, I didn’t make clear plan for the sound recording, so you can hear one person speaks in two different voices, and a lot of things just doesn’t sound to belong together. But I really tried my best. I even made the background music of the fake shampoo commercial using the synth in my phone. (Which is the picture above. Looking pretty badass isn’t it?)

Anyway, I kind of feel I’m doing much better than my last project. Not talking about the outcome, but the whole process. I’m able to direct myself instead of just following what teachers ask me to do, and I made good use of the resource available here, the amazing exhibitions, books and magazines, drew inspiration from other people’s work. I have a lot to learn for operating and realising my idea of course, and I think I still rely on the things I’m familiar with too much, instead of trying to get out of my comfort zone and try something different.

(I can’t think of any conclusion that is not cliche so I’ll just end here. :))

My friend sent me this because she knew I was doing Soho. I wouldn’t start my research towards Soho’s gentrification if I haven’t seen that, and how I realised I can link my postcode project to the work I like by other artist might be totally different. I had an idea of a utopia world before that, it’s quite cliche and I’m so lucky I have other ideas because of this magazine page.

I was going through a magazine the other day, and this came to me. Pop culture. With all those products and prices. Is that the pop culture? Shopping and shopping all the time? And that’s why I would do this video, everything is becoming commercialised, all about money, all about fame, people and places are losing their personalities, losing their uniqueness, which is not cool at all.

I picked up some printed work that people don’t want in the library, and distorted some old pictures of Soho using photo copier, then created this. It seems angry, well, not just because I made it in 20 minutes, but also because I really am. Angry. I know that people are always talking about how good old time passes and the world we’re living in is getting worse, it’s cliche, but I kind of feel the same. The internet makes our life much easier but it also ruins a lot of things. I can’t help thinking that things are not pure anymore. Not just Soho, way beyond Soho, it’s just a perfect sample of this unfortunate.

This is a scene from the final video, the part the girl changes her image to become a pop star and acts in stupid shampoo commercials. Well I didn’t mean to make this fake ad look THAT stupid but my Photoshop skill is just, too bad. But surprisingly it kind of creates the ridiculer contrast from her previous image, so I kept this.

I spent a lot of time thinking about how I can show the gentrification of a place through making a film, and my friend said casually one day that I can turn the place to a person. That reminds me of the film Agora I watched recently, which shows how Roman Empire fell by telling the story of how a women scholar was first honoured then killed as a witch. And I was so touched after watching that, not only feel sad for the character, but also how an era ended. Which means the method of projecting a place, a period of time to a person works well, so I created the story of the two girls.

Choosing Soho as my postcode was not by plan. One day after finishing my visit to Leicester Square, (can’t remember why I went there though) I decided to walk around instead of going straight home. So I went down the road and, guess what! I found the street where Oasis shot their album cover! I might mention in the previous blog, I love Britpop, and Oasis is the first band I listened to. That really means a big deal for me. And as I walk around, I saw some really cool vinyl shops, and a giant musical instrument shop, in which there’re nothing I can afford but still, very cool. Also the famous Carnaby Street is now decorated with neon lights of lyrics from Bohemian Rhapsody, again I mention in the previous blog, I really love Queen, and I cried when watching the film.

“This is it.” I told myself, feeling there’s a fire in my chest.

In the following week, actually few weeks, I went to Soho for about 5 times, to take pictures, to eat, to visit galleries, to get to know more about this place.

I took very quick photos, which I think is very helpful to gather as much information as possible. And I created series of pictures of the same block, they look quite cool, a bit like a storyboard of what’s happening at this place.

However, after a little research online, I found that Soho used to be an even cooler place, with all those bands like Beatles and AC/DC, Pink Floyd playing lives and recording, there were loads of record shops, cool stuffs going on all the time. But now, even though I can still find a lot of elements of music, it’s already been washed off a lot. Remembering the record shops I was in, they are so small, being squeezed by Paperchase and other trendy shops and cafe. And my teacher Lucy told me that’s called gentrification.

A lot of posts online are talking about this problem, saying that Soho, a place once for alternative, is now becoming more and more commercialised, like everywhere else. Which is so sad, but that might be a good perspective to look at.

Sticking on the idea of gentrification is also because of I was doing a research of mental control being inspired by one of the works in the exhibition Strange Days. Soho is becoming like everywhere else, because all those company think a lot of people like places like that, stylish, fancy, good place to make good instagram pictures. But is that what they really want? Or they’re just following the trend. I looked into quite a few articles online and also books about it, which makes me kind of proud of myself, because I was able to link my project and other people’s work together, and look deeper into this. And later I drew inspiration from the film Agora, and decided to personify Soho to a girl who was changed herself to become famous.

Just like this ridiculer news! People dress themselves like Kim instead of being themselves, trying to be attractive?

I would say that I really make a progress on doing primary and secondary research compare to my last project. My sketch book is much fuller, and not just full of random stuffs, but the stuffs that mark the process of my discovery and thoughts. It’s not perfect though, I feel like I should get myself more involved in the place but I was a bit scared. But generally I think I’ve done not bad.