Movement Films

During my tutorial discussion it was suggested to continue to make some films involving movement. Below is a selection of the films I have made.

1. Movement in a shopping mall

A shopping mall is a bounded environment which contains a number of micro-environments. I decided to record the movements within a shopping mall which is due to people moving between these micro-enviroments (individual shops, restaurants etc.) I have increased the speed of the film on the left to emphasise the constant intersecting movement components (people walking, escalators, stairs, the lift, the lights of the lift etc) which act as links within the space.

2. Moving/Rotating camera to record a still setting

I recorded the footage for this film through rotating a camera continuously along a surface and panning along the surface. I then duplicated and stitched the footage together emphasising the movement of the camera in the recording process. The film shows a view of a setting in a way we would not normally perceive it, creating abstract forms of the environment. The film seems to turn this three dimensional setting into a two dimensional abstract image sequence, focused on bands of layers created by the viewpoint.

3. Changing forms through movement

Having watched a number of the films of Charles & Ray Eames, I was particularly interested by 'Tops' and the simplicity of using a common object. Inspired by this, the first film in the sequence above shows how an object can change and obscure its visual identity through movement. This bauble appears very different during movement in comparison to when it is still. The second film was taken from the window of a train at sunset. What I found particularly interesting about this film was how the movement of the train interacted with the internal/external environment; so as the train moved the visual image of the external environment would be interspersed with reflections of the internal environment(the camera and activity behind this), governed by light and the immediate landscape. The final film in the sequence is a time-lapse film of the sky formation change, a natural form of movement. I thought that it was interesting to juxtapose this slow moving film with the two others and to have it there as a comparison to the skies in the second film.

4. Revealing/obscuring rotated screen

These films shows how the movement of a rotated screen can be used to reveal and conceal. Again making an internal/external comparison. The film to the left shows how the opening of a blind negates its purpose by revealing a reflection of the internal environment, instead of the external environment which is in fact there. The film on the left shows that by dimming the lights, the external dark exterior begins to be revealed. There is an element of suspense created by the simple opening of the blinds.

5. Stop-motion

Using stop-motion to make a physically still series of photographs appear to move through a sequence. The movement of the hand reveals and conceals a series of everyday objects.

6. Controlled paths of movement

Sometimes buildings can have controlled and intended paths of movement through them. Frank Lloyd Wright's Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York drives visitors directly up to the top of the building in a lift, in order for them to view the art on a spiralling descent. Le Corbusier coined the term promenade architectural, to emphasise an unfolding experience of architecture as the viewer moved through it. For this film I was thinking about how retail space design can control the movement of a customer through the space to encourage purchasing. Ikea is a prime example of this. On driving through the barrier, I was directed up the building to find a car parking space. I then had to climb the building along moving walkways to enter the building on the top floor. Arrows, a grey pathway, stairs and more moving walkways directed me and descended me through the entire shop, through every section, until I was plunged into a huge parts warehouse. I then passed through the checkouts, through the exit and then back up a moving walkway to find my car and drive back down the ramps to exit this controlled movement experience. This film records my movement through the shop, which took me a total of about 15 minutes (purely on a mission to record the sequence, it would take the average shopper an hour at least). This speeded up film emphases the obscurity of moving so far up the building to enter the shop, the immense distance travelled through the space and also the extensive number of products this retail space houses.

7. Forward/Reverse

This film involves one duplicated film playing forwards and in reverse, simultaneously. The location of the film is a pillar lined walkway in Covent Garden, a place of instigated directional movement. I decided to combine the film clips into a film which portrays imagery of a journey in both directions. Subsequently, a film of the current, past and the future all playing concurrently.

8. Beyond the walls imagery

Whilst walking around Covent Garden I came across this construction site boarding, which is being used to conceal the construction and regeneration process of a series of buildings. The building has a notation of revealing what is beyond the walls, and there is an ambulant nature in the arrangement of the graphics.

9. Sequence montage

This film is comprised from a sequence of stills. The idea was to record this space within the university college, where there is usually a great deal of movement along these crossing axis. I took the images at the end of the day when there were few students around. I also recorded the space by taking images through gradually rotating the camera, whilst advancing/retreating into the space. The resulting film produced was about recording this space at its stillest part of the day, but referencing back to its usual dynamic character during working hours.