Ok, so watching videos of the most ambitious projects already done is probably not the best preparation the weekend before a filming trip but I was absolutely blown away by this video by Michael Maloney and John Hooper part of the 'If You Could Collaborate' project.
Essentially a very simple premise, a rotating video taking in a 24 hour panorama of the Lake District, nothing is ever that simple.
My intentions are to capture some time lapse imaging, both using SLR photography and HD and Handycam recorders, but due to battery life and the fact that the only ameanity with the very remote chance of being able to top the batteries up is a pub lying 600m up, I will have to be realistic in my approach.
In analyzing the video in terms of it's elements it has a similar premise to my own intentions. Listening to the score and viewing it's effect upon the music has given let me think of way's in which I will approach my own sound piece. The basic elements of this soundtrack are entirely diagetic and the tempo and overall mood shifts in time with the footage. for example the sparser more reflective elements of the piece are most audible at the start of the 'dawn' period of the film with
there are also a huge variety of tracks in the piece which add further depth to the video itself.
Whether the sound was intentionally been created for the film itself or simply been employed for the piece is interesting point but the way it ties in so well hints that it was or that the video was moved round the sound, but given the vast complexity of the footage I would say this isn't the case, and it was more likely a bespoke soundtrack which my own accompaniement will be.
Whilst I still intend to improvise in the recording of my piece I very much intend to include diajetic recordings of the landscape and incorporate them in post-production with music, although just how experimental or orthodox i make this will be decided in the process.I feel this will further tie the two elements together and in doing so increase the link they each have with their subject matter.
In analyzing the video in terms of it's elements it has a similar premise to my own intentions. Listening to the score and viewing it's effect upon the music has given let me think of way's in which I will approach my own sound piece. The basic elements of this soundtrack are entirely diagetic and the tempo and overall mood shifts in time with the footage. for example the sparser more reflective elements of the piece are most audible at the start of the 'dawn' period of the film with
there are also a huge variety of tracks in the piece which add further depth to the video itself.
Whether the sound was intentionally been created for the film itself or simply been employed for the piece is interesting point but the way it ties in so well hints that it was or that the video was moved round the sound, but given the vast complexity of the footage I would say this isn't the case, and it was more likely a bespoke soundtrack which my own accompaniement will be.
Whilst I still intend to improvise in the recording of my piece I very much intend to include diajetic recordings of the landscape and incorporate them in post-production with music, although just how experimental or orthodox i make this will be decided in the process.I feel this will further tie the two elements together and in doing so increase the link they each have with their subject matter.
In the catalogue for the If You Could Collaborate show, director Michael Moloney and photographer John Hooper discuss their piece, filmed over 24 hours on a hill in the Great Langdale area of the Lake District in Cumbria in the north west of England.
"We shot continuously for 24 hours with the camera rotating twice through 360º, coming away with over 5,000 photographs," says Moloney.
The pair were keen to introduce a series of man-made elements into the film, and so added various lighting effects that gradually reach a crescendo during the night shoot.
Hooper explains that they used "camera flashes to give us a controlled, brighter light source with minimal power supply. For us to achieve a film through 720º, we needed a very precise motor to turn the camera in increments of 0.16º – this would give us 4,500 increments at 25 frames per second and we would end up with a three minute film."
Hooper then contacted Marc Kairies of MK Panorama Systeme, who agreed to hire such a motor to the filmmakers. But how to power the thing, 2,500ft up a mountain?
Well, they borrowed a generator from a friend at Honda magazine and lugged it up the hill with the help of some locals. How collaborative is that?
"Once the sun went down, we ran up and down the mountain for the next 14 hours setting off the flashes to a script devised by Mike based on a future music score of 96bpm, " says Hooper. The score itself was eventually composed by Tim Phillips.
And the outcome?
"I'd only a vague idea of how the final film might look," says Moloney, "and for me, that was the most exciting thing about the project – not really knowing if it would work until we put all the individual photographs together."
24 hours, Pavey Ark is on show at If You Could Collaborate – which runs from 15-24 January at the A Foundation Gallery at the Rochelle School, London E2 7ES. The gallery is open 12-6pm and until 9pm on 21 January. More information atifyoucould.co.uk/collaborate.
Also accompanying the exhibition is a 312-page catalogue (£15) that sheds light on the various creative processes that the artists used to create their pieces of work (and from which the above quotes from Moloney and Hooper were taken).
Moloney is working on adding an HD version of the film on Vimeo.
