Southbank compilation..

My first visit to the site.

What do i look at?

People's paths.. Their moving directions. What is making them choose the particular way, what makes them go right, left, slower, more hastily.. Is there any boundaries and ways of moving that was planned for us? What makes them different from each other? Are they only our paths? Do they have any other meaning? 

 

 

 

then, as i was walking through i got to the very interesting point, these stairs, which combine a couple of elements, an open space, airy and light and concrete construction, heavy and closed, sort of claustrophobic..

 

 

 

 

the journey through was to get from the open and airy space through the small and narrow stairs, to reach the large terrace. it became a theme of my first movie about our experience, the feeling what we could have while having this walk..

  after my first movie i looked at a props to stabilize the camera to get a quite smooth and stable picture.

First one that comes to mind is of course FIG RIG, which was created by Mike Figgis, a British director who made movies like "Leaving Las Vegas" or "Sopranos-Cold Cut".

Fig Rig is a surprisingly simple piece of equipment.

basically, its a circular (but not necessarily..) frame with a cross bar to mount your digital camera to. it allows you to produce steady and smooth travelling shots by absorbing all the vibrations and shocks by the arm muscles that hold the frame.

 

and so i did it! 

Instead of £250 i paid 18 for my fig rig, but i prefer to call it pipe rig, as i build it from PVC pipes and connections that i found in my local DIY store. It was pretty easy and I'm sure that i will be using it in the future! Magic that works!

 

the parts are easy to assemble so they are easy to remove also, by changing the top and bottom "curved" pieces and adding straight bars i wanted to create a stabilizer that would allow one to take pictures from a knee high, as you yourself holding it in front of you, or with a friend, holding it from each side can easy walk or run and take realistic footage of first person view without too much of a trouble. this also allow one to shoot a running sequence. unfortunately, don't have a picture of two people holding the device, but it does work!

 

 

by removing only the bottom "curve" you can grab the top and lower the camera even more to create stable footage very close to the ground.

 

later on the fig rig changed it size as i found it too big, couldn't move freely in my narrow site.

 

the next step was the "from the bottom to the top" series, where I was going to show how and what one is able to see while having a camera attached to a different part of the body. 

also i will try to show what advantages my pipe rig can bring..!

its pretty amazing, you wouldn't tell that this is happening, until you see!

 

there was 4 different body parts that created the series, the ankle, knee, wrist and forehead, each one recorded a different image, as positioned on different height and with different dynamics..
also we have here a comprehension between the stability of filming with fig rig and body movements..

by that i have created a recording of the site from a different point of view, as never looked at from a ordinary pedestrian. 

this recording was put into one movie, but as not very successful, one more was created. i think its important to see it as its entirely combined with the project, also leads to the next step.

to help me with that movie i did a series of drawings which helped me to understand the space and its mysterious vibe, because the do have something unique and a bit spooky.
in the movie we have an image on the left which is done with a fig rig, a stable view of the space, undisturbed by anything. in the centre we have a set of movies that show us the same path but from a different angles which are staggered on top of each other to show the LEVEL OF THE RECORDING but also the PATH UPSTAIRS, our climbing up.

on the right we have a set of drawings that show witch moment of the path seemed most interesting to me.

 

that gave me an idea of exploring this subject. how do we feel in this space? does it do anything to us?in my opinion this stairs combine a very narrow, claustrophobic and heavy space with a large and airy opening of the terrace. it almost feels like we going up, carrying something heavy, and quite scary on our shoulders.
like something is pressing on us, something that we can not really explain.. but its there.. and we have to get through it at all costs to reach the safety of the opening.

i looked at the drawings that could hep me to grasp that feeling.

THE HOUSE OF STAIRS by M.C Escher, a lithograph printed first time in November 1952.
It depicts the interior of a tall structure crisscrossed with stairs and doorways at paradoxical angles.
The basic structure of the stairs and platforms is modeled on the "impossible triangle".

 

how to show the complexity of the staircase? 

the dreamy aspect of going up, the almost hypnotic side of it? 

maybe there is a way to show the scariness and unknown part of climbing the stairs? 

the example of Sesame Street's Monsterpiece Theatre is a simple and clear direction.

Also music depict the mood of the movie.
Clear example of great usage of cinema tricks to create spooky mood.. :)


also i looked at Shining by Kubrick.

I looked at this very famous scene from SHINING by Kubrick, i was interested in how does the feeling of suspension is created.
these are some points that i got from it;
- we are fallowing Danny and really, we don't really know what is around the corner.. maybe something is waiting there..
- camera continuously is behind the kid, moving with him with the same speed, but at some point, just before the room 237 slowed down a little, magnetized by its mysterious power signalizing that something unusual is happening there..
- the space is wast, sort of empty, we are going by same sort of doors, same carpets, same type of light-creates hypnotic atmosphere..
- our trip through the hotel is slow and calm.. even more hypnotic..
- we do know that something is not right, because of the calm beauty of the space, sort of not awaken evil is sleeping here.. 

- symmetry and continuity is giving extra spooky effect.

this leaded me to my recent movie, where I'm trying to show the feeling that one might have one walking through.
i tried to emphasise the calmness and symmetry, quietness of the space, also the grandness of the whole construction. the weight of it that can overwhelm us.
i think that a bit of Lynch got to this picture, but i hope that it only bring more to it..