It's been quite a journey! No, not the trip to The Hayward Gallery - that's just a few stops on the tube down the Northern Line - I'm talking about the adventure of producing a 30sec. film from scratch in one week. That's coming up with a concept from a given brief, filming, editing and deciding on the best format for the output... and succeeding in outputting it :)
Here the brief :
Ruscha Film Challenge Brief
Ed Ruscha has been at the forefront of American art for fifty years and this film
challenge gives you the chance to respond to the Hayward's current exhibition in a
creative, inventive and imaginative way that will communicate some key aspects
about the artist and his work to the general public. Your work can use any form of
moving image including animation or graphics, but must include an installation shot of
at least one of the selected works and last a maximum of 30 seconds
My idea for the 30 sec. film came quite quickly. The filming only presented one mystery which I couldn't resolve in time but bypassed (temporarily) for the sake of having the quality of footage I wanted to work with. The editing went so so.... I had a small challenge with the sound and with ending the clip on the last frame instead of the end turning to black ... I wasn't sure at all how to solve that ... Fortunately, I remembered Lee! I met Lee on a forum about the Sony HVR V1 camcorder which we both work with. Lee is a fantastic guy and a very accomplished filmmaker! Trouble is, he doesn't live round the corner... He is in Florida!
So, I sent out an S.O.S. e-mail to Lee and almost immediately my inbox chimed with that lovely "ping" to announce Lee's prompt reply. He diagnosed the cause of my trouble and gave me a immediate solution which I applied to good effect. But as it happens this was just the beginning ...
I sent the clip over to Lee via "yousendit" (marvellous way of sending large files). He liked the film and added some good comments and valuable advice - back to Final Cut Express I went and tweaked a little here and a little there. Done - the refined version was sent off into cyberspace!
Looking good!
The real challenge, however, came when it was time to burn the film to DVD. I won't bore you with that saga. Suffice it to say that it took a whole day to get it right and I definitely couldn't have done it without Lee's long distance help!
I had to also make sure the film can be viewed on a Mac (what I have) and a PC. A phone call to my lovely neighbour Edmund, a retired Art teacher and PC user, was my next move.
"Of course came over and let's see if the PC can read the DVD."
Edmund is amazing, he is on the computer all day (and half of the night!) and always has fantastic projects on the go.
To my relief the PC was also able to play my movie.
"I like it, it makes me want to go and see the exhibition."
Wow, how cool is that!
Mission accomplished! Well, not quite, Edmund is not part of the panel who are going to judge the 50 odd entries...
But hey, I did my best. I handed it in on time and hope for the best!
Of course I would love to win which, actually, is not like me ... in my days as a rider and competitor I never had the urge to win. I always wanted to give the horse a good ride and show it off as best I could as opposed to maybe having to push it that bit harder just for the sake of coming in first.
However, when I won the title for Best International Equestrian Photographer of the Year things started to change. Now it was only down to me - it is about challenging myself and not pushing a horse as well. It's about winning over myself and never giving up! And this is what I have done by taking on the Ed Ruscha Challenge.
So yes. I would love to win the Ed Ruscha Challenge. There are prizes too, by the way. The Top one being a Canon HDV camcorder which would come in handy!
Stay tuned, the results will be given on December 11th.
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