Experimental Film - STARTING POINT

Each of us had opportunity to choose one of the pitches. I joined Natalie's team because her pitch was based on finding objects and exploring places around Farnham. Finding items in charity shops, bins, park and on the streets. Basically, looking for items that people might left behind. Her idea came from experimental film published on Vimeo by director, Chel White named 'Photocopy Cha Cha'. Before shooting we created a schedule to stick to make the film possible.

We were quiet motivated in the beginning of our project. Later on we misunderstood each other and it was even hard to fix our roles. When we were on track we faced another problems, we found out that it is illegal to take things out of a recycling centre in Surrey but we moved on. I fully took part in our item hunt, it seemed unsuccessful until we find a lot of items in charity shops. We were ready to go and explore, we had bin bags and gloves to pick any items.

We found items like postcards, flowers, a watering can, dog tags and balls, shoes, gloves and glasses. During the project we saw that our schedule is actually not working, we were looking for items while we were editing too.

 We did not rush, only worrying thing at the beginning was our technique, how we will capture our items. Original idea was scanning each item and moving it in post-production. We did scanning for postcards. It took us hours to manage scan all of them and sort out in certain order.

For other items we used a piece of glass that we found in one of the bins behind the charity shop. A3 size glass was fix between two tables so it was easier to put camera under items in a distance.

Apart of items we found we used VHS archive footage. It was a bit weird for me because it was something really personal for someone else. It was someones work, piece of art. I have to admit that during our edit I had different ideas for that footage, a bit misunderstood my team's vision. It was one of the most interesting project parts looking for archive footage.
We tried to replicate a scanner look using white background from top. During filming we had problems with lighting because objects we putted on the glass looked like silhouettes. Therefore we used my LCD light.
It was hard to operate the camera. It was on the floor and I needed to push record button each time which means that I was lifting DSLR and re-frame it again and again. Each time covered LCD screen so there is no reflections in the glass. Similarly I tried to be careful with LCD light panel.