Hospital Videos

Well when I said I'll post footage shortly clearly I was lying, oops!
I've got another static video which I recorded of a window at the site which I think gives off that air that you see from films like 28 days later, whenever I watch it I expect to see something out the window...

The other footage I collected at the site was recording my journey into each building as I went in for the first time, so all of them are pretty loose and quick mainly because I was trying to keep in front of my fellow explorers so they weren't in shot! I've picked out 2 I like for projection.


Next time I go back I'm going to try and get some more detail in the shots, so move slower basically!

Harperbury Hospital

Finally a new place to explore! I didn't realise how much I'd missed it! This will likely be a very image heavy post, it's going to be very hard to wittle down my images. This was basically a quick visit to collect some footage for projection, so I will quite likely be going back soon (with a tripod!) to take a longer look around.

The last photo is easily my favourite of the whole set. It was quite eerie with all the feathers on the floor then the shoes on the rafters...very black swan!
There will probably be another post shortly of the footage I took at the site.

Bunker videos experiment

I decided to use some of the new footage collected at the old bunker to project onto my set up. I used the set up of having the chair facing away from the viewer and the TV facing outwards, there's just something a bit more voyeuristic about that layout.
Here are a couple of teaser style videos of each set up:



This was made using the video of walking around the bunker itself. I don't think this video worked at all well in the installation as there was a constant spot of light for most of the video, which gave it a bit of a stagnant feel, the only thing really illuminated was the TV and most of the time this was just white light. Although I do love the shot of the arm of the chair as it looms out of the darkness!



I've started to refer to this video as The Skylight, I didn't really have much hope for it working with the installation set up and it doesn't really, again because it's a very static shot and this just doesn't cast light and play with the shapes in the furniture the way I want, but I did like lining the piece of open sky up with the TV. I think there's something interesting about projecting onto a TV screen. It would be great to have the TV on showing static at some point in the installation.
So it seems I need to go out and collect some more footage, at least now I feel I'm getting a much better idea of what shots will and won't work in the installation.

Experiment 2

So I have a TV now and I did a little experiment of my installation idea with both the chair and the TV, so my set up now resembles a very basic bedsit type living room. Already with just the addition of a TV, the set up looks a lot more natural. Although I had to make do with a plinth on its side as a make shift coffee table for the TV.
Here's a little teaser trailer type video:



As usual I got distracted from just documentational filming and just filmed little bits and pieces

Bunker Explore

Decided to go on a little explore the other day to a place a friend suggested, which was the kind of place I hadn't really thought about because I usually like large sites to explore. This was a WW2 Signal Post that we found somewhere near Hertford, it was actually a really cool space, if a bit small! I'd be interested to go back there and maybe try to project some things into it and play around in the space.
I took some initial videos with the idea to use them in my dead space/ living space set ups, which I haven't tested yet!




So anyway, it was good to have a little explore, I'm planning many more!

Dead Space/ Living Space

So I've started experimenting with what I think will be my project for this year. I'm looking at the idea of dead space and living space and the effect of layering these onto one another. At the moment I'm experimenting with projecting my videos of abandoned spaces onto a set up of a living room I am creating, although I have very few pieces of furniture at the moment! This initial video shows little quick glimpses of a chair being projected onto in various positions in a room as I try out different set ups and views. I was experimenting with the chair's placement within the room and trying to get it to feel natural, living I guess. I was also looking at what type of shot worked best with the chair, for instance a still shot or a moving shot. I decided in the end that the shots where the actual camera moved worked best, the chair appeared to become more lost in the scene and the whole effect was more disorientating.

I'm back!

I haven't posted in so god damn long! There is a well founded excuse however: I've been working my arse off all summer and have had precious little time to go out exploring. However I did have a chance to go through all my old images, I mean right back at the beginning and have a look at how my whole development through photography has gone. I recommend it actually, you might find you weren't as awful as you always thought! So since I still don't really have anything new to show you guys, I'm going to pick out the best images I've found, I can't believe I forgot about some of these and completely skipped over others.

Enjoy! There will be new things soon!

Rambling

Just a little update on what's been happening over the last couple of weeks. There aren't many buildings to explore at the moment, so I've been contenting myself with good old fashioned nature walks, I need to practice my nature photography anyway! So here's a few images from those:

I was also alerted that today there would be an open day and a chance to look round an old Odean cinema in St Albans which is being restored...for free! So of course I had to go and have a look around.

It was quite odd being allowed to actually walk around a place like this, not because the excitement was gone, that's not what I'm about, more because the usual peaceful air about the place had been shattered by various proles and spawn stomping around...usually in front of my camera. I do admire the project though, it'll be nice to have an independent cinema showing films that aren't the latest releases.
Also I spotted an abandoned factory across the road and a whole row of empty houses, one of which had an unlocked gate...so all was not lost. I shall have to investigate those later!

Balham

I had a little wander around some of Balham the other day, I quite like some of the photos I ended up with

I really REALLY love this photo, maybe I should put some Helvetica across it or something, haha

It was a nice little explore anyway

Turbo Project

I just wanted to share the results of about 12 hours INTENSIVE work. One of my friends has been writing a play for a while now and approached me a while back about actually filming part of it to show to an audience. It took us about 2 hours to film, then what felt like a million to edit the whole thing and get it burned to a DVD, working until 3am was very worth while though and everyone was happy at the end of the day. I'm happy to see my first credit as Director of Photography too, yay!
For your viewing pleasure:

End of the year!

Well I haven't been updating a lot lately due to an essay proposal being due, then my wisdom tooth deciding to make an appearance, but here's a little update on what I've been doing:
I had a little experiment with overlapping videos using two projectors. I used the footage I've collected of underpasses. I really like the way the images interact as they play over each other. The actual video is a sped up version of the event, just because it's more of a documentation of what occurred rather than a piece in itself.

I've finally had an idea of what to do with all these photos of underpasses and abandoned buildings that I've been taking. I've had a little experiment with putting the photos in frames and actually putting them up in public spaces, such as the underpasses I've been photographing:

People seemed to react in a favourable way as they walked passed too, smiling, which I didn't expect but felt really nice. I want to move on with this idea over the summer and actually start leaving pictures in places, especially abandoned buildings. I really like the idea of only a very small group of people actually seeing them, I think that's just because of the whole chance encounter idea. Maybe it's just about showing people that they weren't the first ones into a space, I haven't worked it out yet.
Anyway, we're setting up for our final assessments today, so this is the state of my studio space at the end of year 2:

It's taken me a long time to decide what to actually do with these images, but now I have an idea I'm quite happy that I can run with it for a while. I feel like I could have done more work this year, but hopefully I can make up for it!

Doorways

Went back to Upwood again recently and started to think along the lines of collecting doorways. I like the idea of "building" a house out of all sorts of different doors and windows, this is mainly a video idea, but at the moment exists only in photo form. I did intend to do a lot of video here this time, but was rather put off by what looked like a security guard and a giant Alsatian, hopefully it was just a guy training his guard dog...anyway here are a few images I liked from the day, I'm sure there would have been more had it not been for interruptions!

Some entryways too:

I think stairways are one of my favourite things about this place:

Also the textures of peeling paint and wallpaper:

Quite an image heavy blog this week, but I do tend to go a bit crazy in this place, especially when the only other thing I've been doing is reading and making notes for my essay!