Exhibition from beginning to end

So much has happened over the past two weeks, it's been stressful, emotional, and quite frankly knackering! We have all been working together to put up the exhibition from scratch, then we had our opening night, and it's been open everyday this week. It was a great success with heaps of visitors coming to see, and equal amounts of good feedback, through email, and our guest book. Here are some photographs of the process we've been through.

The two photographs above are of my final piece, a conceptual installation responding to memories, and memory loss, through photography, textiles, and short films. 

Our opening night.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came to see the show, and my fellow students that all pulled together throughout the last year to make this happen- it's been a tough one, well done, we did it! 

Dad footage in Black and White

This is the same footage as before, and has been slowed down by fifty percent, just the same as before. This time I have put it in black and white. This is for various reasons, too keep in the theme of Mum and Gramps, to respond to Francesca Woodman's video clip that inspired me, and to add atmosphere. I think the effect has worked nicely and I will keep it in black and white rather than colour. 

Dad Untouched Footage

This is the video footage of Dad writing his name, and then his chosen noun that described him. I have slowed the footage down by fifty percent, and muted it, other than that nothing has been changed. The writing of his name, and noun was inspired by Francesca Woodman and Gillian Wearing OBE. I decided to slow the footage down so it had a greater impact on the audience, also Woodman's style of this was very slow. I will next make the footage black and white because Mum and Gramps videos are both black and white, and I want them all to look as similar as possible. 

Untouched Video Footage for Gramps Film

I shot this video footage to go with Gramps short film, the idea was that it would give more of his personality away, as well as introducing him. I shot the walk to his room through the halls of the care home he is in, then the name sign on his door. I then shot him writing his name, and holding it up (which was a task in its self), next I filmed him talking to Dad and focused on his movements with his hand, and how they shake. I then edited the footage, making it fifty percent slower, this make the audience able to know whats happening without it being too rushed. At full speed it had no atmosphere, and didn't make very much sense. The silence of the footage has a huge impact, it ensures that the audience is totally focused on the imagery, this is something I will keep for the first part of the film, regardless of what music I add to the rest of the footage underneath the voice over.

First edit of Gramps video

This is the first edit I have made of Gramp's video, I have focused on filming and imagery more so than the audio, i think the small insertion of his voice at the end leaves the audience quite cold, with questions arising in their heads instantly. The music in the video is Palmoa Faith - Black and Blue (acoustic version). I chose the song because I think the music within it is stunning and moves a a good pace to accompany the imagery. I will however for my next edit, or the final video fine a backing track version with no lyrics, I think the distract from the real focus. The final edit for this video will be longer, probably around four minutes as I have gathered many voice clips that I will go through and chose from. 

Ideas on Conducting Voice Recordings

I have had to consider how to conduct Gramps voice recordings for more than one reason; he's deaf, he can be easily confused, and his location isn't as quiet as where i have recorded mum and dads. I have finalised three options: One: Conversation - Simply leave the recording device on the table so Gramp is unaware of the fact he's being recorded, therefor any conversation is completely natural. I would record a conversation between Gramp and my Dad, here I could ask Dad to ask specific questions that would provoke specific answers, or lead to certain stories. I could also record Gramp just mindlessly chatting to passer's by or himself. This would be hard for the audience to follow compared to the conversation option. It would however give a very raw representation of his state of mind. If the audio is hard to follow I don't think there would be a problem, instead the audio could symbolise how detached his mind and  memory are. Just as Tracey Emin used imagery to symbolise parts of her life that lead to her not becoming a dancer in her short film 'Why I never Became a Dancer".
Option two: Writing - Another option would be to write down questions then ask Gramp to answer them vocally (which he would do without any prompt). We quite often use this technique to converse with him as he is so hard of hearing, It also gives him more time to answer, this method would keep him calm throughout the interview, as well as making the audience more able to follow whats going on. The draw back to this idea is that I would want the writing to be filmed, for two reasons; too keep in the same format as mum and dads which are both inspired by Gillian Wearing OBE and Francesca Woodman), also to inform the audience of what Gramp is responding too. Filming the writing in front of Gramp would cause confusion and could lead to the audio becoming more incoherent than neccercary. With me providing the questions the interview would also become more staged than I hope for.
Option three: Plain recording - I could leave a recording device recording in Gramps vicinity for several hours without him knowing, this would be difficult but could produce very interesting results. The problem I could face is that within the hours of recording he doesn't talk about the past, then the voice over to the video wouldn't really link with my theme of memory.