Moving on from the sketches developed in the initial stages of the Post Industrial Media course, I had to literally scratch my brain to think about what I’d want to produce as my final MINA film.
I was sure that I wanted to propel my ideas based on the ‘front camera’ feature of a mobile phone that would reflect in the shoot style of my production. The most eminent functionality of the front camera is the self shoot experience that it offers. Based on this, I tried to think of various concepts for the video that would complement this shoot style. The front camera feature of a mobile phone functions as a companion, helping you shoot yourself without the help of another person.
As I sat in my room, amidst my family of soft toys, I began to think about their point of view towards the world; towards me. Who knew if they felt the same way as we did, thought as we did, but kept things to themselves, like we do? I wanted to convey this ‘interior state’ of a soft toy through a ‘point of view’ styled video. I imagined the video to have a story line starting with me finding a teddy bear abandoned on the street. I pick it up and walk on. However, I hadn’t thought about the structure of the soundscape of the video. The initial idea, was to plug in a ‘voiceover’ of the teddy bear’s mental state – his happiness of being accepted by someone. After a further contemplation, I scrapped the idea thinking of it to be a very ‘done to death’ deal. The idea that followed suit, was to incorporate the functionality of the ‘JamCam’ app which embeds the music you are listening to, into the video you are capturing. Probably, the songs that I keep listening to could reflect the fluctuating moods of the teddy bear. I’m still not convinced enough to execute this, and hence haven’t incorporated any sound in my video.
The iPhone 4 does surprise me sometimes with its ability to create magic even without fancy video enhancing features. A drop of rain on the front camera gave me an amazing ‘foggy’ effect. The Hyperlapse from Instagram app gave me the fast moving effect. I compiled all the visuals captured but couldn’t flesh out a soundscape. At this stage, it’s just an initial attempt to achieving a better, much refined production.
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