This past week I have been ridiculously ill. I honestly cannot remember a time I have been this ill for this long. At one point I swear I was hallucinating, and don't even get me started on my fever dreams. This morning I woke up, feeling somewhat human again. Oddly enough, I felt as though my brain could start working again too. It was as though a mental block had lifted. Perhaps a week's worth of completely shutting myself off from everything and sleeping to my heart's content allowed me to rest, not just physically, but mentally and spiritually as well. As the fog of illness lifted, some ideas of my current project became much clearer. I have come to a final decision for my film. In my initial proposal, I wanted to incorporate elements of a narrative (revolving around romantic relationships), memory, and objects. As mentioned at my pitch a few weeks back, the last image that I added to my slides turned out to be the most relevant. The convict love token. The history that surrounds "love tokens" is rich and tragic, and fulfills every need of my story. It has all of the elements I could hope for, and better yet, it's true. I will of course be telling a fictionalized tale of these love tokens, but include as many historical details as I can. Some added bonuses are that I can delve into archaeological and historical research as well. I am rejuvenated and fully ready to delve into my project headfirst, and with all the confidence in the world. Let's hope it stays! On a more practical level, I was able to do a few experimental shots with the Canon c100 yesterday. I really wanted to work on focus pulling and focusing on objects within the shot. I was quite pleased with the result. It is very reminiscent of a piece that a fellow group member, Tanja Schangin, showed me. She created a film based around hands - she documented an argument between a couple, but only showed their hands. I did something similar, but tried focusing more on the objects (a key, in particular) instead of the hands. I also wanted it to feel a bit voyeuristic, and also wanted to emphasize the editing, almost as though the viewer were "blinking" and so I left gaps between each edit. I also wanted to draw the attention to the objects more by adding sound. I couldn't justify sounds, so I just decided to let silence tell the story. It may not work, and it may not be "my style", but I'm really trying to push myself to experiment.
I'm not quite sure yet how the experiment will fit into my finished project (if at all), but it did feel good just to get out there and pick up a camera.