Initial Ideas

The project being entitled "Sense of Place" gives the two of us quite a bit of freedom to pick and choose what we would like the piece to become, but it also sadly allows us the ability to walk down the same trodden path that other people may choose to take. I think Megan and myself should try to be as unique as we possibly can in relation to what we include in the piece, by trying to stay away from the generic sound of the city routine and perhaps concentrating more on going to a deeper place. I'm not trying to take anything away from that particular concept, but if pursued with anything less than a fresh outlook could prove tedious.

The main aspect of the piece that we both decided on quite quickly, was that we would split the piece - both sound and image - into three one minute sections. I would take the first minute, Megan the second and it would culminate with the two of us putting a joint effort into the final segment. So when embarking along on this creative process, my initial idea was to capture a definite feeling of isolation and alienation within my own minute. I felt that I could create this kind of atmosphere by using one static shot, this shot then slowly zooms inward toward a discarded nondescript object - a coffee cup left behind on a train station table was genesis of my idea. The use of the slow zoom was inspired by a scene from the film "Somewhere" directed by Sofia Coppola. The scene in question focuses on the main character - portrayed by Stephen Dorff; the character is sat motionless in a chair, his face totally obscured by prosthetic clay. The shot begins from a very wide perspective, but over the course of several minutes slowly zooms in closer towards the characters covered face. For myself at least, this scene proved to be very powerful for numerous reasons. The most prominent probably being that the shot was able to be held for that amount of time without becoming uninteresting or self-indulgent. So by drawing from various sources of inspiration, I hope to achieve a feeling of isolation that will really set the piece off in a unique direction unto itself.

When I heard Megan's thoughts on her minute, the two ideas seem to fit together perfectly and although we had not initially set out to create a more structurally inclined piece, a the various elements began adding together in a way that couldn't be ignored. Her idea focussed around a seaside location and she had taken cues from the idea of my minute and tried to incorporate a similar theme - namely, using an object and location that personifies and embodies the feeling of isolation and loneliness we were aiming for.