So, here is a complete version of the Paris Photo video. The second half uses a soundtrack, plus a few images, from Leeds City Markets, juxtaposed with the images from the Grand Palais. The point of doing so is, probably, self-evident but I hope it makes the viewer reflect on the relationship between photography as a contemporary creative artisitic activity and the market for photographic art. How relevant is each to the other? How do they relate? I'm not sure I can really answer the question, but it was one firmly embedded in my thoughts as I visited Le Grand Palais in November and as I reflected afterwards.
Re-reading my last post on here, I also reflect on the similarity of this video approach to, say, a collage. I've already commented that I returned from Paris Photo less than satisfied with the images that I collected; and I even considered abandoning this approach to Assignment Three. Now I'm not sure it would be fair to say that a video enables me to make the best of a bad job, but maybe the point is that it is the collective affect of these images, the juxtaposition, the ordering, the extension through sounds and comparative images, that works. In a situation like this, maybe it is better not to have some 'stand-out', exceptional individual photographs, but to allow the 'collage', the collective effect do the job.
Anyway, I'm going to put this video up here for a few days to see what, if anything, people think of it. Meanwhile, I'll also need to think about just what I am going to submit to my tutor for this assignment.
A great improvement on the shorter draft version. The video appeared to use panning and zooming less intrusively and I loved the Market voice-over as a juxtaposition against the art market.
ReplyDeleteI've watched it a few times now, and not just for Cannonball, though that's always a pleasure. I find the ending brings me up sharply, maybe too sharply for me. Everything else is fine, the mixing of the markets works very well and editing is improved I think. Anything by Horace Silver coming up?
ReplyDeleteI think the video works well and agree that it has come a long way since the first short section. I agree with John that the end is perhaps a little too abrupt but that's a very minor point.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in your comment about the difference between video and still (I think a slide is something of a hybrid but this one at least has filmic qualities so I'm categorising it that way). I'm reading a very useful guide to filming for photographers and they make much the same point about needing to think differently and needing a range of different types of shots - more than you'd need for a still photo essay - for most videos to work. In this case the additional material does add and I am sure that even more could have given you additional choices.
Thanks for input.
ReplyDeleteJohn - Have to admit Horace Silver doesn't mean anything to me; I'll have to look him up. (That's actually the great Miles Davis playing on this track, of course, with Cannonball Adderley's group.)
I understand what you're saying about the sharp ending - but it is deliberate. It's a short piece, so getting changes of pace into it isn't easy, but I've watched the ending again myself & I think this sharpness is what I want to stick with (though I do understand what you mean and that it might not be everyone's style).
Interesting that you're picking up on the still/video difference, Eileen, and that it's something you've been reading up on. I was scribbling some more notes about it myself, yesterday. There is, I guess, a sort of continuum from a single still, through a series of stills or a book, through a slideshow, by way of a video comprising still images (this piece), to a genuine 'movie'. Working on this short piece has, I would say, made me more conscious of my 'viewer' and their potential response than I would have been if producing a series of still images, in print form, for example. I'm 'in control' of every second, determining exactly how much time the viewer has to see an image, what they see next, what they hear, what they get chance to see again, and so on. It's a powerful position to be in, which is why I referred to 'manipulation' elsewhere, but it's also a bit of a knife edge situation. Fine judgements about parts of a second can make a difference in how the work is perceived. I think it needs a more intuitive, perhaps emotional approach. You can spend quite some time getting something just right, but it might only be before the viewer for a second or two; yet those seconds matter. By way of contrast, I've also done a slideshow video, comprising about 30 of the still images, with no soundtrack. I might post that in the blog as well so that you can see a contrast. It's a very, very different feel, despite the fact that there are many images in common between the two.