Mission:
Divisions aims to show the impacts of development at the street level and its ability to give an identity to a street that is starkly different from a street just one block away. This impact is shown in our parody of a developer’s promotional video, showing Clinton street and its outdated development and architecture as a thing of the past in comparison to Division street and its block-long developments.
Abstract:
Divisions is thematically split into two parts. Part one begins by showcasing Clinton street as a charming “Old Portland” filled with a theater, bikes, and a video rental store. We filmed shots on Clinton mainly using the Diji Osmo as we walked through the streets to emphasize the feeling of scale on the street. Most of the buildings are no more than two stories and experientially focused on the experience from the sidewalk. Clinton street has rhythm of one block of restaurants and shops followed by a block of single family residential buildings which we show to later contrast with the very commercial oriented Division street. The shots are sped up by fifty percent to mimic the low frame shots from old timey videos. Final touches at achieving the old timey look was to make the shots all black and white and overlay the images with a reel effect.
We transition into part two by doing a timelapse walk down the block onto Division to show how close it is to Clinton. The shots are cleaner and tighter, and not as focused on the human experience. Shots of buildings that could be anywhere and do not seem to have any context to their site are shown. The idea of “sameness” is the focus of part two. Similar materials, architectural styles, even storefronts are shown as a whitewash over whatever was there before it was developed. We show two different yoga studios, the overuse of exposed concrete, and trendy places to drink coffee. The driving shots are shot at a different angle than the driving shots on Clinton to show how massive the developments are, taking up entire blocks. Part two ends with a shot of a construction site in action, showing that development is continuing to happen and continuing to shape the neighborhood.
Project Development:
Divisions began with the desire to speak out against the gentrification that is happening in Portland and the desire to be comical. We had always had the two streets in mind to show how development can be done differently; one within the fabric and context of the existing community, and one done out of context that aims to create an entirely new street experience. Our first film session we tried to get as much film as we could and utilized the DJI stabilizer. As we began to edit and pivot into making a parody of developer’s promotional video, we made more visits to Division specifically to get tighter and cleaner shots.
Course Reflection:
Videography is a powerful tool to share experiences. Architectural videography can be used to sell an experience of a building to clients or possible visitors. This course was entirely too short to get into the specifics of filming for architecture. It could have been better organized to be more than once a week so that we could have had more feedback and more motivation to work on our projects more than once during the week.
