Amanda Godfrey @amandajaneg - Tumblr Blog

Casting my head

After a lot of research to find a quick and easy way to make a cast of my face (that was also safe and wasn’t going to leave it stuck to my head), I decided to use plaster strips.

I started off by using liquid latex to glue a plastic bag to my hair and eyebrows to protect them being torn off my the plaster strips. I then covered my face in vaseline so as the cast did not stick to my skin when it had hardened and allowed it to be removed smoothly.

Next, I took the roll of plaster strips and cut it up into medium strips, some half that size and also lots of little strips to allow my to effectively get around areas such as my nose and eyes. I made sure to make the cast quite thick by using around 3/4 layers to avoid cracking, I also casting down my neck and quite far back on my head. This was to ensure the cast would make quite a thick mould. This was quite a messy and fiddly process but ultimately didn’t prove very difficult. After covering my entire face I left it to dry for ten minutes before removing.

I repeated this process three times, this was to give me a few casts that I could experiment with when it comes to making my moulds allowing me to try multiple different materials.

This was my first attempt at the cast. I was very pleased with it but for the next one I decided to part my lips slightly as its quite hard to actually make out the lips in this one.

For the second I used slightly less plaster as I made the first one very thick because I was afraid of it breaking when I removed it. Although, it came of a lot easier than expected and i felt that making it slightly thinner will make it much easier to remove after pouring the mould into it.

My third attempt looks much the same as the second although I made the eyes slightly smaller to make it less noticeable when I comes to filling them in for the mould.

Generally, I was very pleased with the outcomes of the casts. I was actually quite surprised at how well each one turned out. The only thing that I think I would change about how I did this would be to cast my eyes within the face. I avoided the eyes for obvious reasons as I was afraid of tearing my lashes of as well as the difficult task of not being able to see while doing it. I think if I try this again I will either cover my eyelashes with clingfilm of a clear bag like I did for my eyebrows (if this is possible as I will still need to be able to see while doing the rest of my face) or cover my lashes with a thick layer of vaseline and get someone to help me when I get the that part of the face.

Inspiration from Antoni’s work

Personally, I thought this sculpture by Janine Antoni is an excellent piece of work and it sparked up many of my own ideas. I felt that this would be a very creative way to express the idea of self destruction and the way in which we can have very little value for our selves at times.

I decided to experiment with creating a cast of my own face.

‘Lick and Lather’

Janine Antoni

I began researching different artists to try and trigger some ideas with the idea of self-destruction in mind. I came across an article on the website ‘Flavourwire’ called 10 Artists Who Destroyed Their Own Work by Alison Nastasi.

Within the article I read about an artist called Janine Antoni who created a sculpture piece called ‘Lick and Lather’. For this sculpture she created casts of her face out of alginate and then poured soap and chocolate into it to create a mould. For the chocolate mould, she re-sculpted it by licking the sculpture. With the soap, after making the replica of herself she took in into the bathtub with her and spent a few hours washing it down.

When asked why she decided to create this piece of work, Antoni responded saying she had been thinking about how one describes them self and how one can feel uncomfortable with how they look on the outside. She said that this piece is about trying to have a relationship with her image. She describes the process as “quite loving” but says that she is also slowly erasing herself. “For me, it really is about this love hate relationship we have with our physical appearance”.

This stuck me immediately as a great idea for this topic as it would be an excellent way to portray the idea of self-destruction through making a mould of my head and literally destroying it. I think the idea of taking something that is usually just in your head and actually making it physical can be very effective.

Self Destruction

I began to do some research on self-destruction to fully understand what it means.

Self Destructive behaviour

Behaviours that negatively impact our mind or our body as a result of the choice that we making in life.

Most people our unaware of their self destructing habits.

Self destruction can be mental and physical.

Examples of such behaviour are things like:

Setting yourself up to fail

Detaching from friends and family

Excessive need for approval

Self-pity

Over sensitivity

Not taking care of health

Not allowing others to help

Info retrieved from: https://www.state.sc.us/dmh/telepsychiatry/selfdestructive.pdf

Simplifying

Moving on from this, I decided to think more about what exactly I want my video to be about. The idea of “How people value life” is very broad and I am beginning to struggle with this title. I feel that the best way to solve this problem is to simplify this idea down to something much more specific and to go from there.

To do this I went right back to the beginning of the project starting with Concrete. I decided to look through the words that we came up with as a group once again and something that stood out to me, still with the idea of Value in mind, was Destruction.

I felt that these two words actually went very well together in terms of ‘Personal Value’. This allowed me to start thinking about ‘Self-destruction’. In life we all value ourselves in different ways and it is not uncommon for people to put themselves down and to ultimately self destruct.

Motivational Videos

The next thing I began to look at was motivational videos as they seem to really tie in with my idea of focussing around how people value life. I like these kind of videos as they definitely make you think- regardless of how cheesy they can be.

This type of video gets a very clear message across quickly. It immediately gives the viewer a clear understanding of what the message is and quickly encourages the viewer to apply it to their own life. For example, this particular video is telling the viewer not to stay in something that doesn't make you happy whether it is a job, relationship etc. It makes the viewer apply what the voice over is saying to their own life as they begin to think if they are in this situation themselves.

Although I enjoy watching these videos and feel that I would enjoy making something similar, I have decided that this isn’t exactly the route I want to take with this project. I feel it is maybe too straight forward and may lack creativity due to being done so many times. The style of video is also somewhat cheesy which is definitely something I try to avoid within my video work. I prefer to make videos that requires the viewers full attention and really makes them think about the point the video is trying to make as I think this is much more effective and generates a much more creative and original piece of work.

Something I might considering using from this research on motivational videos is the voice over. I feel that this could be very effective in other styles of videos if I do it creatively. For example, I could potentially have the voice over saying things that are not 100% relevant or do not make sense with what is happening in the video. This is something I might experiment with at a later date.

Video Work

Now that I have decided to work with the idea of Value in a more personal way, I feel that the best place to go with this idea would be video work.

The aim of my work is always to leave an impact on the viewer, to get a message across and to really make them think. I feel that video work is the best way to do this as it generally enables the artist to reach out and connect with the viewer in a way that most other medias can’t do quite so easily.

I want to make a video revolving around the idea of how people value life in general. At the moment, I am not entirely set on what I want my video to include and the style of the video but through further research and experimenting I will quickly piece this together.

Valuing others- Oglivy & Marther

Before I even began research on work revolving around value, this video came to mind. I came across this video a while back on Facebook and I felt that it left quite a big impact (something I always try to achieve though my own video work).

The video is actually a Thai life insurance advertisement called “Unsung Hero” and is the work of Ogilvy & Mather which is one of the largest advertising networks in the world.

The tear jerking video shows one man going out of his way to share kindness with other people and things around him. The video goes on to ask the viewer “what does he get in return, for doing this everyday?” “He gets nothing.” “He wont be richer. He wont appear on TV. Still anonymous. And not a bit more famous.” “What he does receive are emotions. He witnesses happiness. Reaches a deeper understanding. Feels the love. Receives what money can’t buy. A world made more beautiful.” The video then asks “And in your life? What is it that you desire the most?” These thought provoking words and use of direct address make the audience think about how you don’t have to get something in return for doing a nice thing for others and that the value of helping others is worth something that money cant buy.

Now that I have a clear understanding of what the word value means I decided that the most interesting place to take this project would be to look along the lines of ‘the value of life’ or ‘what people value in life’. I made a mind map exploring the different things that people generally value the most.

Value

Value, has many meanings and can be interrupted in multiple ways depending on the context. Value according to Oxford Dictionary is described as:

1. The regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.

2. Principles or standards of behaviour; one's judgement of what is important in life.

To me, the idea of ‘value’ and the way in which different things have different values to different people is a very important part of each of our lives. It determines what we put first and what we spend most time thinking about and doing.

In life we all value certain things more than others giving it a greater importance. For example, someone may value their family more than anything in the world, where as another person may value their job the most. This is a completely natural part of life and it is simply how the world works.

Conrete

For our first project, we are required to select one of eight set texts as a group. Together we agreed on concrete as we felt that this was very broad and that it was the best text to allow us all as individuals to create the most interesting, creative and unique work.

Through mind mapping as a group we came up with countless words that could be associated with ‘concrete’, for example words such as demolition , re-used, imaginary, brutalism and foundation, although the word that stood out most to me personally was VALUE.

#brzydki #livinlavida

Evaluation

For this project, our objective was to transform an everyday object from ordinary to extraordinary. My starting point was ‘Mirrors’ and immediately I began thinking of the ways in which we see ourselves. I began to think about the idea of ‘distorted reflections’ and how it’s very common that women in particular see themselves differently to how others see them.

Initially, I started of this project with the theme of how the ‘media’ affects women although once I had started to create my video it became obvious that this was unnecessary to include into my video and therefore my aim became to create a video that explored the theme of ‘Distorted reflections’ and ‘how women see themselves differently to how others see them’ taking out the media aspect completely.

I felt that video work was the strongest media platform to use with this theme as it allowed me to create something that will really make my audience think and feel. My video includes mostly shots of my model completely natural standing in front on the camera while I filmed her doing nothing. This created a completely real feel to my video as my model genuinely was uncomfortable and feeling self conscious. Filming a young women in front of a plain white background was actually very effective as this put her into a ‘frame’ which allows the audience to judge her the same way she judges herself.

Generally, I am really pleased with the outcome of my video although I still feel as though there is room for improvement. Timing when filming my video was a bit of an issue as I definitely under estimated how long setting up would take. When I filmed my experimental video I had a very basic set up but used a much more complexed set up for my final piece. This is were the problem occurred as I was unaware that it would take so long therefore limiting my filming time. If I were to do this again I would firstly book the studio for longer and secondly use the same set up for my experimental video to ensure it definitely works and to get an idea of how long it takes to set up. Another problem I faced was with the way in which I edited my video to fit perfectly with the music eg. the shot changing in time with the music. This became a problem when I had to go back and fix a clip as the following clips where therefore out of time with the music. If I were to repeat this I would ensure each clip was edited to the best of my ability before moving onto the next.

Ultimately, I felt as though my video went really well with the exception of a few minor setbacks. I was particularly pleased with the new editing skills I acquired, how I edited certain clips to rewind themselves in time with the music and how I was able to edit the video to fit perfectly in sync with the music.

Presenting my Work

I decided that the best way to present my video was to project it onto a plain white wall as I wanted the video to be big and almost ‘life size’. This was because I want the audience to watch the video and judge my model the same way my model judges herself. I felt that through my use of shots that have her looking directly at the audience, shots of her looking real and natural (standing around fidgeting etc) and through having her projected big onto the wall that I could achieve this.

I think this ultimately looked really effective and I was really pleased seeing it finally completed and projected onto the wall.

The inly issue that I had with this was finding somewhere to put everything as it could not all be sat on top on the table. I decided to position the speaker and media player below the table and to only have the projector sat out on top. This looked much better and put all of the attention back onto the video as opposed to the mess on the table.

My Final Video

* Due to the size of the video I have posted it through Youtube *

Editing

Initially upon editing my final piece, I struggled. I had planned on using the same music that I had used in my experimental piece but after toning it down slightly as I felt in was too much like a horror movie. This proved much more difficult than I expected as I am not experienced in editing music and sound. After some further research I came across a track quite similar to the one I used in my experimental but much more upbeat and a lot less sinister but still somewhat eerie.

I was actually really pleased with the new track and after some minor editing I cut it down to one minute three seconds long. The new track changed the way in which I would now have to edit my video as it was faster than the first track and had a lot more going on. This, in my opinion, worked in my favour as it enabled me to make my video much more complexed and to show more advanced skills to what I was able to show in my experimental video.

I watched each clip that I filmed and labelled each one saying whether I could use it or not. This really helped when I was importing the clips into my editing software as not only did it save time but it reduced clutter from my workspace. I began by listening to the track a few times and started selecting whichever clip went best with that section of the music.

I used my editing skills to really transform these clips to make a much more complexed video than my experimental. I edited certain clips to rewind themselves or to speed up.

A key part of editing my video effectively was the way in which I edited most of the shots to change on the stronger beat of the music, much like Terry Richardson’s work. When the music sounded as though it was building up to something, for example, the heartbeats that get increasingly louder after the first two shots of my video, I had a blackout here. As the sound suddenly changed I had a shot that quickly panned down my model, fitting with the speed of the music.

At a point in the music when there are four strong beats quickly following each other, I have 4 separate shots of my model cutting from her head, to her shoulders, to her waist and to her feet then quickly panning up again as the music changes and speeds up.

This is the way in which I edited the entire video. The way I have edited really ties in with my theme of distorted reflection and the way her mind is constantly thinking about what others think of her and the way that other people see her. The fast paced and quick changing shots fit really well with this as it represents the way her mind is working when she is seen by others (many different thoughts flying quickly through her mind).

I am really happy with how my video looks taking inspiration from Terry Richardson’s music videos and editing my video to fit in time with the music so as most shots change to another on the beat although, this created some issues which definitely lengthened my editing process. When I had to go back and change a shot earlier in the video this completely knocked everything that followed out of sync. This wasn’t a major issue and I was able to fix it although I think if I were to make a video like this in the future more planning is required before I begin editing.

Filming my Final Piece

Generally, I felt that filming my final piece went really well. This went smoothly as all I needed to rely on was my model and I only had a few minor issues finding a day that suit both of us to film. My piece was relatively easy to film as I was basically just filming my model standing in different natural poses.

I used a uni-pod to achieve steadier camera movements as in my experimental some of these were very shaky as a result of filming free hand. A uni-pod allows you to move much more freely with the camera than one can with a tripod but is much steadier than going free hand.

Problems

Timing was a bit of an issue as setting up took longer than I expected and only having the studio booked for an hour and a half meant that I had to work quite quickly.

Another problem that occurred was ensuring that I had all of the shots that I needed and that they were all filmed to the highest standard possible. Even with filming some shots a few times, it wasn’t until I began my editing process that I realised the edge of the white backdrop was visible in the corner of the shot. I was able to fix this when editing my video by cropping the sides of the clip slightly but this reduced the quality of it. If I were to do this again I would consider bringing my laptop with me and checking through the shots on a bigger screen while I am in the studio as its easy to miss things like this as well as shots being slightly out of focus when reviewing it on the small camera screen.

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Amanda Godfrey