Well, so far this project has been revelatory for me due to many false starts. I felt very inspired by our class discussion and was flooded with a number of ideas, the first being an exploration of how presence informs place. I wanted to gather video footage from places particularly inspirited by people’s presence by filming when no one is there. For example a sad bar room during the day or dark playground at night. I wanted the still images to capture the places in an uncanny state of desolation. The problem I ran in to was that of lighting. Three attempts in different places were too dark and resulted in grainy, unclear footage rather than the beautiful images I had crafted in my mind. And so my technological inexperience with video proved a hurdle as well as a valuable lesson.
My next idea was Alamo Square Park. I always pass this place and its postcard view of the row of Victorians. It is a beautiful SF vantage point, and an irresistible photo op, but I can’t help but laugh at the hundreds of people per day that take that same photo time and time again. One can go there at any time of the day on any day of the week and someone will be there, taking a photo. My plan was to gather about three hours steady of footage from across the street (Victorian row side). I wanted to speed it up so as to see the volumes of people that constantly filter through snapping away. I was debating on whether or not to even show the houses and background skyline. It would be pretty funny without, but on the other hand periodic snapshot inserts of similar photo results would be pretty hilarious also. Though presented in a kind of snarky manner, the video comments on this idea of place and how people record their presence there. Many times they aren’t even in the photo, so they may as well buy a postcard – probably a better image anyway – but we humans have this desire to say, “I was there;” and recording our being there in that place is significant to us. My problem with this project, however, was battery power. I only got ten minutes of unplugged time. I'm thinking probably the best way to film this would be from the corner apartment of a neighboring building. I got some footage, and then took some with my camera phone, but that footage is not very high resolution. Yet another technical issue – location and equipment. I know every filmmaker is familiar with how to negotiate these issues, but for me, as a traditional visual artist, I came up with the concept before figuring the technological aspects. Herein lies another lesson in video.
Next up, I'm going away over Spring break to my first tour of the deep South. I plan to get some footage there in another attempt at defining place in video. Stay tuned..
