Tuesday, 6 October 2015

MEDIA ROUNDABOUT: CONFESSION VIDEO

This was a collaborative task. Each person on the foundation course was involved in some way or another, whether it was providing the content, by speaking on the film, or working the camera or set directing.

There were four roles in this task, which everyone rotated around in the group to try each one. There was the director, camera operator, speaker and personal who covered the speaker's eyes. The director managed the set, and called for the camera operator to start and stop filming. The person controlling the camera had to frame the picture, and direct the person covering the speaker's eyes, to make sure the face could still be seen but the eyes couldn't. The speaker had to provide appropriate and honest content for the piece.

This piece was a homage to Gillian Wearing's 'Confess All On Video. Don’t Worry You Will Be in Disguise. Intrigued? Call Gillian' (1994). This idea behind the piece was to create a safe space where people could make a confession, the twist was to establish a sort of anonymity so although the confession was made, individuals were still protected from what they had done. Rather than physically disguise the speakers like Wearing's original piece, we simply hid the eyes of the speaker.


Because of the personal nature of the work, our tutor made three rules; first, that all confessions made must in fact be true. Second that we would all be given time to think of an appropriate confession to use, and lastly that no one would be mocked or ridiculed in anyway for what they had to say whilst being filmed, that it was a safe space.

The studio had a stool for the speaker to sit on in front of a blackout curtain, this worked to create the illusion of an infinite space behind the speaker, and also kept your focus on what they were saying. Before each speaker began, the studio lights and sound levels had to be checked. To do this the speaker had to attach a microphone to their clothing and speak for a while, sound levels had to be adjusted so people were speaking at the same volume on the final video. Getting the speaker to talk before hand, also worked to make them more comfortable when they were making their confession.