Over the course of this brief i unfortunately suffered a hefty lot of absence due to winter eczema inflammations. After approximately one or two weeks of apologetic phone calls and hopeful promises, i managed to join the rest of my group and get up to speed. At this point, it was really a matter of flowing with the propositions the rest of the guys made and as i fully agreed and was satisfied with their outlines, everything subsequently fell into place. After group meetings and minute sessions, we all progressed well with our separate roles and our intentions came to fruition smoothly. As a group we accomplished a hell of a lot apart from just the work. We huddled comfortably and harmoniously, giving each other helpful feedback as well as consistent support.
The concept of the brief was very open-ended leaving plenty of room for our adventurously creative tendencies to run wild. From the beginning, the rest of the guys brainstormed, coming up with numerous ideas; looking at the essence of what could be lurking on the other side of a door, another world, a monster, time travelling through a doorway, working with things like dreams and emotions, how the experience of walking through a doorway can affect the senses and so on. There was also a key emphasis on a dollhouse. These all began as brief components to snowball with. We settled for a while on the concept of a doorway being part of a psycho ward and how we could initiate it as the envelope to some form of paranoid experience for the viewer. This led us to divulging in reference to films such as `Being John Malkovich`, `The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe` and `Alice in Wonderland` as well as various others.
Thanks to Elizabeth who had researched her ass off bringing many references to the table, she declared the idea of incorporating some form of mask into our work. This happily became a malleable focus to our progression and i, through no fault of my own, took up the pedestal to being the model. She had uncovered an image that looked as if someone had taken photographs of their own or somebody elses head then transferred these pictures onto some fabric and stitched the pieces together to function as a mask. We basically did the same by taking each profile shot of my head then applied it to transfer fabric and Elizabeth finished off the stitching. It was very successful.
After a full group minute session with our project mentor, Esther Freeman, we had an indulgent step back from our work and opinionated the stage at which we were currently at. We concluded that the primary foundation of our idea lacked slightly in substance and was blurry with how we could proceed with it further, especially in relation to how it could be exhibited. As a group we took the chance to transiting to a completely separate idea focusing more on the nature of the urban environment and how this can be viscerally transfused to the viewer. I think this was when we definitively decided we were to create a film as one element of our final product.
Our emphasis became more orientated toward the year trip to New York, which only myself and Steve attended. Unfortunately Elizabeth and Edwina did not have the money to participate. We deliberated over our preparations and everything that was necessary for each of us to do during mine and Steve's leave. The vacation obviously fitted really well with our momentary halt, as we could attain many references as well as as much footage as possible. Because of the set-up of the trip, myself and Steve ended up staying in separate accommodation, so it was difficult to be able to rendezvous and work together. Also not being able to actually get in touch made it practically impossible to coalesce. Overall though, the trip was awesome.
By the time we had returned Steve had collected the perfect amount of wicked footage that would compile just nicely as a montage of our decided storyboard. During mine and Steve's absence the girls were able to finish up the construction of the box pasting it with as much urban crap as possible and giving it a nice run-down glaze. By this point there was approximately one week left before the final deadline.
This was quite an intense period. All that needed to be done was to place and construct our door within our designated space, attain some black curtains and set them up as a backdrop for our door, collect shit-loads of garbage to scatter around our exhibition space, attain a plinth to display our research book and our mask, install a disco ball for behind our door, edit the footage we received and form a video, attain a Mac to display within our doorway tunnel and present our video...and be satisfied with it all. Throughout this time i think we all pulled our weight and managed very well.
In conclusion, i think we all deserved a small applause for the effort that we all put in and as a group i think we have walked away very much delighted as well as relieved to have come to the end. It was wicked to have had the chance to work collaboratively once again.
Here is our final installation entitled `There's Two Sides`.
