For my own project, I would like to create a visual non narrative piece, featuring flashing images and metaphors for my chosen theme. Recently, someone very close to me was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, an incredibly life changing condition. I want to gain more knowledge about it, and try to represent the effects it has on the person not only physically but emotionally. I want to try to convey not just the negative aspects of it, but also a sense of feeling in control and somewhat powerful enough to cope with it. I have used many techniques to come up with ideas and images I could use to represent the physical words associated with diabetes. In particular, I found using ‘Oblique Strategies’ (Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt, 1975) as a form of idea generation most effective. I enjoy creating sentences and asking a range of people of different ages to write down the first ideas that come to mind, as each and every one of us thinks differently. I will then try to adapt these and come up with whole new inspiring concepts of my own. My piece will be titled ‘1 Type’, which was inspired by the condition my friend actually has which is Type 1 Diabetes. When read like this, it sounds as if it is the first and therefore the worst condition to have. I feel ‘1 Type’ makes it seem far less daunting, and clear that it is actually only one of a huge amount of conditions that exist within the world.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Dean’s thoughts on using physical film to create her work, with no post production. I want to explore this myself, however instead of using film, I want to use more available and everyday forms of recording, such as mobile phones and hand held compact digital cameras. I feel that these forms of medium have a way of making the scene look far more realistic, which is exactly what I want the audience to feel; a sense of movement and realism, and to be aware of the fact that Type 1 Diabetes does exist and does not just disappear. I also liked how Dean layered different images on top of each other within the same frame; it created an extremely interesting and distorted effect. It makes the audience focus much more, and so this is something I myself want to explore. I may want to layer scenes that are more negative, such as needles pricking a person’s finger, with scenes of someone running and having a sense of power and freedom. I feel that Dean’s idea of contrasting images in a scene is highly effective which is why I too would like to do that. I need to research how to layer different videos in Final Cut Pro and Adobe After Effects, and will do this by following online tutorials and experimenting with the software. In regards to sound, I feel that a silent film like Dean’s is highly effective. It makes the video far more intense, and the audience hear their own sounds whilst watching, making the film far more personal to them.
