Film & Digital Art (from Sept 2019) studying the experimental and creative possibilities of moving image, photography and hybrid digital practices at UCA Farnham
Our new first year have been asked to use their smartphones create a 2
minute digital media work as a fun activity for Induction Week.
They have been asked to explore their relationship to the environment and each group group of three will research into artists, filmmakers, factual information, literature
or other relevant sources to come up with a concept by using the wonderful UCA library as well as searching
online.
We've told them that their moving image work could be linked
episodes of short videos, animations or a series of stills and their challenge is to use at least one of their
favourite apps to capture or manipulate their material but to use them more critically and to reflect on how they are used on social
media for representation and interaction.
“When I was young, most people just assumed the
permanence of the fragile system which we were living in. Now we cannot deny
the interconnectedness of everything we do” Olafur Eliasson.
We are excited to see what they do tomorrow. Check back here to see what they come up with...
Two more videos from our 48 hour smartphone challenge now uploaded on our YouTube channel! Check them out below!
Wow wow wow! Everyone made an amazing attempt at the challenge and hope you all had fun. There are still some wonderful films saved locally on our archive drive to upload so this is not the end of it. So much talent in this group and we're all so excited to be working with them. Keep watching this space...
After making my Graduation film last year (17/18) I used Film Freeway to enter it into a number of film festivals. My film is a personal experimental art film and therefore isn't obviously suited to any particular festival. After doing research I entered a number and it paid off as I was fortunate enough to be selected for The Big Shoulders International Student Festival in Chicago which is run by DePaul University. I was selected as a screened film and a finalist in the Experimental Film category. This festival promoted a diverse range of films wanting to showcase both student films and film makers all pushing forward and showing skills in their relevant fields. All film makers were invited to attend. I took a gamble and decided to go as they were offering accommodation for my visit and access to many other exciting events along with the festival. I booked a budget flight, got myself ready to go - and I am so glad I did as it was an amazing experience! If you ever get invited to attend a festival (and you have the time and funds) I would highly recommend this. I had the best week meeting other young film makers and students who were all trying to reach a goal similar to mine. Here is a summary of the week:
- I arrived on Wednesday 30th January and was met by my host/buddy Katie, who was a film student at DePaul University. The festival had provided a host for anyone wanting one and I was fortunate enough that mine met me at the airport. This took the stress out of travelling and allowed me to talk to her about her film work and student experience. We spoke for many hours about films and life as a student. She took me sight seeing for the first two days so I could take photographs of the city and experience Chicago. This was difficult however with the polar vortex happening and it being -26 degrees. We still made the most of it though. I saw the bean, went to china town, went up Willis Tower and more. It was such a fun time.
- On Friday 1st February the official festival activities began. We started off by going on a tour round Cinespace studios. This is a large set of studios where TV shows such as Empire, Chicago PD and Shameless have/are filmed. We got to see some of the studios that DePaul students get to use and learn it. It was amazing to see and also such a good opportunity that these students get to work in this large professional studio space.
- Later that day we were then invited along with DePaul students to an advanced screening of the film 'Fighting With My Family' directed by Stephen Merchant. The film was great to see, especially being a British film coming from a British Director. I found this however meant that a few jokes were only laughed at by myself and a few other British filmmakers that attended due to a very British dialect and specific jokes. The best part was that Stephen Merchant himself attended and did a Q&A session afterwards. It was inspirational to hear him speak about the ways he works and find out about how stressful film sets can be even on a much larger budget for a feature length.
- We then had another screening afterwards we were again invited to with the DePaul students. It was to see three short films by Qui Yang and Constanze Schmitt, including the 2017 Winner of the Cannes Palme d'Or for Short Film, “A Gentle Night". These films were very artistic in style and therefore really interested me. Director Qui Yang has such a unique style using very minimal but long choreographed shots which really pull your attention into the detailed but implied stories. We had a Q&A session with them both afterward which allowed us to learn a lot more about their working processes and really inspired me to keep pushing my own style, the way he has pushed his.
- In the evening we were then invited to a private welcoming party for all the film makers and festival organisers and helpers etc. It was a great chance to meet and bond with all the other film makers and other students from DePaul. We all came from different places and all had very different films with unique ways of working and we spent many hours all talking about this. I have made some really talented contacts around the globe and I even handed out my business card to some of them. This was a great networking event, plus free food and open bar!
- Saturday 2nd Feb was the actual day of the film festival. Everyone was really excited but also nervous as we finally all got to screen our films to an audience and to each other (having met each other but not seen anyones films yet). The festival was split in two halves of the day, programme 1 followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers, then a short break and onto programme 2 and a Q&A. In total I watched 21 films including mine and it was amazing! I truly enjoyed each and everyone film and all for different reasons. There was such a great variety of films ranging from documentary to experimental, from animation to drama and so on. Many were strong in style and/or in the message that they were sharing. Watching my own film on such a large screen in front of a brand new audience was more exciting but also scary than I had even thought it would be. My heart was thumping the entire way through but thankfully the applause at the end let me relax as I knew that it had been well received along with all the other films. Besides bumbling my way through the Q&A (would always recommend having answers slightly prepared) everything ran really smoothly. If you are like me and don't enjoy public speaking then prepare yourself and think about what you may be asked. I only wish I had done this a little better as I was able to give answers but I know I can do better, but there's always next time anyway!
Here is the awards list:
Best Documentary: The Canadian by Fabian Lopez
Best Narrative: Yasamin by Julia Elihu
Best Experimental: Mommy's Lullaby by Anna Spacio
Best Animation: The Hoopoe and the Owls by Narges Haghighat
Best Screenplay: Innae (Perseverance) by Akram Shibly
Vincentian Prize: Dreamer by Jordan Berns
Best of Fest: Salty Blood by Sixmarling Then and Isabella Brenton
Even though I did not win my category or an award (cash prizes for each included!), I was just privileged to be able to be in the festival and be given this amazing opportunity to meet so many talented people and get to take part in so many activities while here. Every film that won a prize really deserved it and every film involved was there for a reason.
- Lastly the weekend was seen out with an After Party involving everyone who attended the festival. Again free food and open bar but also this allowed us a chance to receive feedback first hand from members of the jury, DePaul students, festival organisers and members of the public. I was overwhelmed by the amount of nice and positive feedback I received. Someone even said my film was her favourite and other people said that the emotions in my film were strong.
I am so happy to have attended and I really would encourage others to enter and attend this festival because they really do make an effort to look after you and offer you amazing opportunities. I have made lifelong friends and amazing connections across the globe and I also came back feeling more motivated then ever to continue working on my films in my style.
Another fantastic event attended by Will McGregor (who showed a sneak preview of his new feature - shh!), Ben Burdock (producer at Pulse Films), Iain Whitewright (editor at Whitehouse Post), Sam Heasman (freelance cinematographer), Laura Thomas (Freelance TV Co-ordinator - BBC, Channel 5, RDF and more), Shahid Abu (Audiovisual Tech/Engineer at Media Powerhouse), Charlie Akehurst (FX Technical Director at MPC) and Thomas Doukinitsas (Motion Graphics Designer at RT UK)
Accomplished careers in the creative industries were discussed along with tips for our current students to find work during and after their studies. Everyone agreed that you should get paid but perhaps occasionally take an opportunity to help someone for free and learn new skills. Also use your network - make work with your friends. Some of the most simple and best advice is in the presentation above - WORK HARD & BE NICE TO PEOPLE!
After a Q&A we went to the Hockey Gallery for the Private View of Milieu? our Y2 exhibition:
Students
explore maps and networks as metaphors, through inventive and imaginative interpretations
of space, memory, identity, surveillance, cultural anthropology, ecology and
sustainability. Spanning video, animation, multi-screen film, spoken word,
video games and installation, the work in the exhibition illustrates the
breadth and interdisciplinary nature of the course which enables students to
consider social, personal and political concerns through film and digital art.
Harnessing creativity to technical know-how, intellectual curiosity to social responsibility,
Film & Digital Art affords students invaluable opportunities for individual
and collaborative expression and experimentation.
Digital Dystopia by Pip Brett Our student curators Brodie McBride and Ance Priedneice have done an amazing job of planning and co-ordinating the exhibition with all the Year 2 students helping out and our TA Billie Williams providing valuable advice too. Big thanks also to Laura Rowe, the UCA Gallery Technician, for her help and patience. The exhibition is open until March 16th so please come and visit.
Having now graduated from DFSA there are many projects I look back on as being moments of inspiration for me as a practitioner and creative. There have been projects that have shown me where my skills lie and have let me develop these, projects that have let me realise the areas I maybe don't want to work in and projects that I have enjoyed so much that they have been pivotal in my own creative journey. For me the Second Year Dance Video project was a massive inspirational and pivotal project for me which had many ups and downs but overall I loved taking part in it and learnt many things from it. Whats made it even more important for me and the crew is that our Dance Film has now gone on to achieve in film festivals and we are still pushing it out their now. Here is how we got there:
We began in second year with a choice for this unit between creating an experimental film for Fields and Frames or making a Dance Video. I began by exploring both these options and working on both, this is something I strongly encourage; you pay for the course so you might as well get the most out of it as you can! However Dance Video did start to steal my attention, especially after the original dance workshops with visiting teacher and professional Choreographer Rachel Deadman. She taught us the basics of dance (which definitely came more naturally to some than others!) and we then moved on to look into choreography techniques and how to start building dances together based on themes. These workshops were really helpful at inspiring us with ways to really dive into this project. This along with a lot of personal research into the medium and genre helped us to begin forming ideas.
I quickly formed the idea of phobias as this was something which had interested me at the time because of the obscurity and unknown nature of why people sometimes have certain phobias. During the workshops I formed a group/crew with other people in the class who were interested in this idea and passionate about making a dance video. The original crew consisted of 3 including myself (Billie Williams) as Director & Choreographer alongside a Producer & Editor (Katherine Whetton) and a DOP/Cinematographer (Sugini Nageswaran). These were the main bases covered and the three of us set out to work; tediously researching and fleshing out the idea and compiling and creating the needed documents and paperwork for the production. We had to take our prior filmmaking knowledge on all of this and transfer and adapt that to work for a dance video.
Production Photo from Avoidance
It took a lot of time and work from all three of us to make sure we have a fully realised and refined concept which could be demonstrated through choreography and visuals, in particular through the camera as the film techniques and camera work to us was just as important as the dance itself. With dance video it is best to realise this earlier on because the camera techniques are so key to really making a piece of choreography stand out in a video format. Thankfully I had a really talented DOP working with me who was eager to learn more about dance video techniques. She also utilised her knowledge on other areas too employing horror film camera techniques and shots she knew about as this worked with out theme well particularly to create fear surrounding the chosen phobias. In essence our final realised idea was to take three phobias which were chosen based on first and second hand research; Arachnophobia (Fear of Spiders), Claustrophobia (Fear of small spaces) and Astraphobia (fear of thunder and lightning). Then create contemporary choreography with a dancer that would embody and represent each of these phobias but also then demonstrate the fear behind these phobias and the way suffers feel to and about them. Overall we wanted to create an intense and immersive contemporary dance video which experimentally represents certain phobias to the audience making them feel vulnerable and therefore more understanding to the sufferers of these.
Production Photo from Avoidance
One of the main triumphs for our group was managing to get such a talented dancer involved in this project. Through our Producers eager advertising round dance schools, collages, social media and in the area we had a fair amount of dancers apply and send us audition videos. We were fortunate enough that we had an amazingly talented young female dancer who was local to the area apply, she had done many dance competitions in America and round the world and she was very excited to give working with video a go! This was amazing and of course we followed all procedures like having an official meeting in person, signing paperwork and seeing her dance skills first hand but we knew she was the right dancer for the piece. She danced in a contemporary style, had a good understanding of dance and building choreography and was also skilled in gymnastics and flexible which was particularly helpful for some of the dance ideas I had in mind, again relating back to the horror and fear aspect of the piece. Myself and Grace (Dancer Colebrook) worked together to build the choreography using techniques learnt in the workshop and building off of the ideas we had already come up with as a group. With limited rehearsals we managed to get the three sections of our piece choreographed and we then went and refined this further after tutorials with Rachel (dance tutor). It was so fun and exciting to work with dance as it is so different to other film making processes in the fact that its a lot more hands on and I had the privilege of working with different types of practitioners in a more energetic and fast paced environment.
Production Photo from Avoidance
We also found through out the process of all this going on that out crew began to grow as we got more people interested in the piece and we also found we needed specialists in certain areas for things such as lighting. We gained a Gaffer, multiple runners, a clapper and camera operators. This meant we could really make sure that things were being planned and produced to their full potential but it also meant that things then flowed a lot better on set especially since we only had two shoot days to film this 6 minute dance video in. We also got a original sound track made for us to specs we set by the band 'False Idols' and this fitted again exactly with the piece the way we had wanted it to. All these elements came together in the end and so did we all as a crew/team and we managed to produce a 6 minute dance video which in our eyes was successful and turned out how we had hoped and envisioned.
Production Photo from Avoidance
We were so proud of what we had managed to produce in a few months, especially working in an area of film which was new for each and every one of us. We pushed ourselves to do something different and something bold (also something long) and we pulled it off. I am proud of all our efforts but also proud of all the skills we each managed to learn and develop over the course of this project. We overcame many challenges as well and managed to keep true to what we wanted to make. It also opened up a whole medium and genre to me that I can now confidently and comfortably work in (and have since) which has added skills to me as a creative practitioner and allowed me to expand into an area of film I really enjoy.
On Set Crew for Avoidance
Since making it we decided to enter a film festival the summer of the year it was finished (2017), however we found ourselves unsuccessful, yet we still got a lovely response from the festival. However undeterred by this, this summer I applied with the film to more film festivals. This time though I applied in particular for U.Dance film festival as it had been suggested to us by Rosie (course leader) and it seemed more fitting for our piece because it focused much more precisely on making choreography and dance for the camera/screen. This time our talents were recognised and we found ourselves winning alongside 7 other amazing dance films. The 8 films now proudly stand on the U.Dance Website and on their youtube. They were also displayed at live dance events in front of audiences this summer and we are featured in the events official brochure too. It's amazing publicity for us and has made me even happier than I was that I got to branch off into the exciting and extravagant world of dance video. And I haven't stopped their, I am now trying to spread the film out further now by entering some European film and dance film festivals! Fingers Crossed for those!
In June we were proud to fill three gallery spaces on the Farnham Campus with work from our graduates. Digital Film & Screen Arts (DFSA) places an emphasis on exploring the creative and conceptual possibilities of moving image and hybrid digital practices.
The diversity of projects by our graduates testify to the richness of the moving image and its dynamic role within contemporary art and the creative digital industries. These highly distinctive productions included single-screen and multiscreen works as well as physical installations, animation and sound-design.
Students worked both individually and collaboratively to synthesise critical, conceptual, creative and technical skills across the breadth of these
productions.
Here are some photos and screen shots from the show:
Billie Williams
Umor Hussain
Tarald Tvedt
Sugini Nageswaran
Arturs Reinholds
Colin Cha
Ivan Uzunov
Ivan Uzunov & Arturs Reinholds
Katherine Whetton
Logan Gourley
Preston Hartley
Nicole Harman-Smith
Natalie Hodgins
Mary Novoselova
Jay Hayes
Rufaro Maumbe
Here is graduate, TJ's (Tarald Tvedt) review:
May and June marks the calendar every year as the University for the
Creative Arts Graduation Show, and this year was no different but what a year for artwork it was! So when the middle of May rolled
around it was time to start building the walls and hallways that would
eventually turn into the show, and even though the University has countless art
installations on display throughout the year, there was still a lot to do. Any
build transformation starts with countless piles of timber, nails, screws, and
a whole lot of paint – well that, and technicians and students working hand in
hand. And work we did! For three straight weeks we were sawing, hammering, and
painting like frantic art students, even though we almost do all our work on
computers, for now we had to exchange Adobe Illustrator for a real life
paintbrush.
Slowly, but surely, both G12 and R19 were starting to look more and
more like galleries. All the monitors, projectors, art pieces, and film
reels had to be finished, and time was starting to run out. The grand opening
of the private view was approaching, and there was still tape on the floor in
certain places! Not to mention that there were still no artist statements on
any of the walls! But with multiple students and technicians working overtime
during the last couple of days, we were as ready as we could be when the first
guests started arriving. It was time to blow everyone away.
So the doors opened and families started pouring in, everyone eager to
see what their son, daughter, or sibling had created. And they were not
disappointed! The moment you enter you see the most incredible work by the
glass and metal work (not sure what this course is called?), and you right away
know that this is going to be a good exhibition! After that most people had a
quick pit stop at one of the booths for refreshments to cool down on this hot
summer day, before venturing into the rest of the Graduation work. You would
not have to walk far to get to the DFSA rooms, with the first, R19 only being a
little bit down the spinal corridor and to the left. Upon entering you were met
with a great projecting on the far wall of an experimental dance narrative
called Gunpowder Mill. Upon looking around the room the guests could either
watch two experimental pieces, one about the experience of growing up black in
a white culture, and the other about the mythological Greek muses, or they
could sit down comfortably in one of two sofas to watch two of the longest
pieces the Grad Show had to offer, two documentaries - As a Man and A Journey with Vairavar. There were also six screens in
the back showing some experimental work about how to beautifully restore cracks
in your metaphorical skin using a traditional Japanese technique.
After finishing in R19, you could head straight to G12 for your next DFSA experience! In term time this space is a film studio, but our hard work turned it into a fabulous dark gallery to show our work to best advantage. Great projections about childhood
memories, music videos about love, loss, loneliness, and independence, but also
experimental work like Dog Favour, or Fine Art work such as Chloe Debonnaire’s critique of traditional fairy tales as projections on painted canvases. You
could honestly spend an hour in this room, and you would still not be done!
Everyone has worked incredibly hard to make thie curation of this work
come together in such a wonderful fashion, but we’re not quite done yet! There
is still the cinema room to discover! After walking for a little bit, or by
following the map, if you didn’t want to risk getting lost considering how massive the university is, eventually you will find W612 – the cinema room. This is where you could enjoy
a large amount of the work already on display in other rooms, plus some
exclusive work, in a dark cinema setting, to set the mood properly, particularly for our two cinematic dramas. Here you
could experience the almost the entire body of DFSA screen work, and watch it
in peace and silence.
It was truly a magnificent graduation show with all kinds of work on
display wherever you looked. It is sadly over for now, but do not worry, the
grad show will be back in June 2019 with a whole new batch of work for everyone
to enjoy! And if you want to watch some of work again, or for the first time if
you missed the show, most of the films, animations, music videos, and
experimental projects are available of the DFSA YouTube page. See you there!
On Wednesday this week bus loads of Foundation students from all UCA campuses came to Farnham for taster days. Here are some photos from the fun we had in the studio.
Thanks to first year leader Anne Parisio and third year students TJ and Chloe for leading the session.
Here is our Open Day Presentation for anyone who may wish to see it or revisit after coming to UCA Farnham. We encourage you to come see our amazing facilities and experience the campus so you get the vibe and meet the team.
