I had been focused on getting principal photography organised and executed for the last few weeks, falling into the the same hole that I identified in my Back to basics post – Back to basics – Final Project. 

Before sitting down to begin a period of post-production I wanted to remind myself of why I was making this film, what were the choices that I had made along the way. Reading back through the blog posts that I had written the clearest thing to me was that there was no truly defined coherence to the work so far, just a series of loosely defined but related questions and thoughts, and 460 GB of footage of liquid moving in a fish tank.

Stuck

I began to realise that with this project the footage wasn’t going to suggest the next move which is my typical approach to beginning an edit. I turned back to the voiceover script as a possible a route forwards, but I was more bogged down here, voiceovers aren’t really my thing I’m not sure why that sounded like a good idea when I proposed it.

A phrase that resonated with me when I read the blog back was…

Artificial Intelligence Artist in my RSS feed

There was something about the jumbled assemblage of the words that suggested a way forwards. I have looked in previous projects at using algorithmic or process based approaches to creating work. I wondered if the script might be hidden in the posts that I have already written. I was planning on finding a mechanical eye to help me find it before returning to the editing process. I didn’t.

Thanks Brian

I sat down with the intention of coming up with a process to create the script a few times but didn’t, I always ended up doing somethings else. I sat one evening searching for a way forward and remembered a technique (trick, tool) that I have used a few times before, and encourage my students to use, Oblique Strategies. There are lots of great web resources that explain what Oblique Strategies are, and this video of Brian Eno talking about them.

I use a iPhone app now but have used dice and a list in the past, I find it works best if you try to force yourself to make use of whatever card comes up, even if it doesn’t seem that obvious, for me, that not obvious bit is why it works. The way I approach using the cards is as if I had a minute with Brian Eno and could ask him for his advice, the resulting card is the feedback from Brian, like any good feedback there is often some degree of interpretation that we still need to do.

Listen to the small voice

The card I drew was “Listen to the small voice.” So I did, I went on holiday and fun with my family in Disneyland. Once I was back I was able to get an initial edit of the footage done without too much resistance.

I had started this post when I did the blog review a few weeks ago but had not finished it, I nearly discarded it but felt it was important to document as this help to foreground something for me, this film, because I want it to be, is optimistic.

Skype tutorial

I had a discussion with Ken yesterday which largely focused on the voiceover, I had been seriously considering dropping the VO altogether but now it seems like it isn’t going anywhere. We discussed the way the imagery was developing to position the audience in a meditative space, and it seemed that the audience would need a frame of reference for what they would be meditating on. The voiceover needs to be this framing device with a theme of ‘possibility’.