My arts challenge is to create a short film about how isolation can affect your motivation. I chose this because it is exactly how I felt during isolation, so I thought that it would be good for me to express these feelings through film. It will be a 1 minute short film and during these early stages, I will do research on my favourite practitioner, plan ideas for my film and watch some other short films for inspiration. Once the film is finished, i'll definitely ask my friends and family for some feedback!

I will only need my piano and my pets because I decided to include things that are apart of my daily life in the film. Also, nobody is allowed to go out at this time so I will just be filming at home.

I began to plan. I definitely wanted to show the contrast between normal life and isolation, but with limited places to film, I wasn't sure of how to achieve this. Luckily, I remembered that I have a lot of videos and photos from holidays and decided to find some archival footage from these and photos that I've taken whilst out with friends. I thought that it would be a good introduction and it would be an effective way to show the contrast between normal life and isolation.

The skill I want to focus on the most in this project is cinematography. I realised that to get into this field, you must be flexible and take advantage of what you have, even if it's not a lot. So something very ordinary that would seem uninteresting could easily be a focal object in a video, it just depends on how you use it. Even a pet could be the main focus!

From this I learnt that I should try my best to think outside the box, because this is where the most interesting and unusual ideas come from.

Sunday 5th April

Because I’m using a few photos in my video, this would be a good opportunity to learn how to use photoshop. So I watched a few tutorials and started with editing some photos that I took a while ago.

Usually I'm not picky with my work and find it hard to find things that I want to change, but editing photos has made me realise that there are way more things than you think that can be edited. I practiced removing unwanted light and objects in the photo and got familiar with colour graphs. From watching tutorial videos and other people's work, I learnt that there are so many different ways that a photo of video can turn out, it really just depends on the person's style.

Monday 6th April

Today I started to plan the structure of my video. I decided to have the archival footage in the beginning of the video because I want to show straight away how everything was before this pandemic. After this I would go into the isolation section; this way I can effectively show the contrast between daily life and isolation.

I spoke with my mentor about my project; I was struggling with what or who I should make the focus of the video on and she suggested that I could make it a point of view, which I liked because I want to show how isolation has affected me. Also, that way I didn’t necessarily have to have a certain object or person to act in the film. This really shaped my project because it makes everything more personal. The viewers see exactly what I would be seeing and I think that plays a big part in being able to show emotion.

From this I learnt that I must make sure that I regularly plan out what I want to show and why it's relevant to the film.

Tuesday 7th April

As i'll be the one editing the short film, I wanted to practice with editing videos. So I decided to collect different videos from my favourite music video director, Yongseok Choi (Lumpens) and create something different out of it. His work really varies, but one thing that stays the same is that he includes many different art forms. In a video there would be things such as paintings, sculptures and graffiti, which often has meaning to the video.

I was inspired by the series of the 'WINGS' short films, as it is based off a book called Demian (1919), where a world is divided into two realms- light and darkness, good and bad.

From watching these short films, I learnt that I should make it clear to the audience that i'm showing the difference between freedom and isolation. Using things like dark/bright lighting and sound is very important to set the tone for the different times.

Wednesday, 8th April

I thought about how being inside all the time has its advantages and disadvantages. You're able to rest more and enjoy plenty of time with your family. However, being stuck inside your home for weeks isn't the best thing. For me, my motivation wasn't so great and I wanted to show that through my short film.

I decided that I would use things such as dutch tilts and dolly zooms to help create an alternate view, as the more we stay inside, the more odd outside looks. As well as this, I wanted to include very still shots, because although daily life is very unusual at this time. We aren't out working 5 days a week, therefore everyday feels the same, and I wanted to use very static shots and cuts to show that.

Thursday, 9th April

This was more or less a reflection day. I really thought about how I would want my video to come out. From watching different short films online, I noticed that a good film isn't about having all the mesmerising camera techniques, it's about having a balance between movement and stillness. Both still have an effect, it's the meaning behind the movement that makes the film what it is.

So I learnt to make sure not to get carried away with my film and to make sure that I stay focused throughout the production. That way, the emotion and ideas will easily be put across to the viewer.

Film Practitioner

My favourite film practitioner is Hayao Miyazaki. He is a Japanese filmmaker and animator, and makes beautiful films that cater to everyone.

He had watched a film by Toei Doga in high school and decided from then that he wanted to do animation. After he graduated university, he became an entry level animator in Toei Animation. As he went on, it led to the success of his film called ‘Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind’, and Studio Ghibli was formed with Isao Takahata.

I find Miyazaki's film ‘Spirited Away’ the most inspiring to me because of its visuals. It’s so aesthetically pleasing and it blends together extremely well with the soundtrack. Miyazaki watched a film by Toei Doga in high school and decided from then that he wanted to do animation. After he graduated high school, he became an entry level animator in Toei Animation.

Leadership

There are many qualities that a leader must have, but I think that confidence, open mindedness, good listening and communication skills are the most important.

I would like to develop my confidence and communication skills, so that my partner and i will be able to effectively teach how to script write and edit. I will be taking the role of how to edit and organise your work.

The overall aim/outcome is to show how to make a good piece of work whilst staying organised because having messy work can seriously affect your final projects. For this, i’ll just need premiere pro and there are no health and safety considerations.

I am taking on the role of doing the introduction and the tutorial on editing. I think that doing this will help to improve my communication and listening skills, through me answering questions that people ask about in the Q&A. By doing this often, it’ll make me more comfortable in speaking about my own work.

Mentoring

I got assigned a creative mentor and decided to have a look at her previous work and experience, that way I would have a better idea on what kinds of videos she works on and what to ask her. After watching a couple of videos and a documentary, I could really see what kinds of things she was interested in, but I wanted to know why she decided to do those videos and what inspired her.

What made you want to make the 'Violet Vixen' documentary in 2018?

- 'I'm friends with Leo's mum, because they lived in my home town. I usually find people that I already know, that way it's more personal and more comfortable to film. I want to give people a voice, such as the older generation, and do nice things for people.'

What problems did you face when making documentaries?

- 'One time I didn't have a clear ending, you have to always make sure that you have a clear point that you want to get across before starting your video'

What motivated you to go out and make documentaries?

- 'I want to give people a voice, such as the older generation, and do nice things for people.' For example, Leanne made a documentary called 'Shipped Out', giving a voice to Londoners going through a housing crisis.

I learnt a few things from Leanne, but one thing that stood out was that she told me that video ideas can come from anything and everything. This helped me to be more open minded when it came to coming up with new ideas and planning for future videos.

Thank you for reading! If you like, you can contact me through Instagram @ayacloud_