More on quick shots/long takes

There have been two distinct reactions to the editing in the beginning of Sean's video: it was engaging, versus it was amateur. The seminarian who looked at my work professed an appreciation of longer, lingering shots, and while I am also a fan of contemplative cinematography I decided to edit Sean's morning routine in quick succession and with a certain disjointedness between each shot to further illustrate his rather rigidly sequential nature. However, in order to accomodate a cross-examination of a more lingering, illustrative sequence of shots versus faster, more pronounced editing, I have edited Alex's video with many more long takes and drawn out scenes than I allowed for Sean (or at least the earlier part of his day). This also corresponds to the less linear and sequential, extended monologuing qualities that define Alex's work in relation to Sean's, and in a sense I have found it exposes a certain drama in the proceedings that is itself drawn out and prolonged seemingly indefinitely, similar to Nuri Bilge Ceylan's use of long takes in Uc Maymun.

Still from Uc Maymun. (Source: http://www.europeanfilmacademy.org/2008/10/10/uc-maymun-three-monkeys/ )

Alex soldering jewellery in preparation for a core assessment.

Editing Sean and possible Alexandra

At the moment I am trying to edit the video I took of Sean together sequentially, something proving harder than I had anticipated. However, there is one line of continuity I can look for inbetween videos: on the day, Sean was suffering a recently swollen elbow, and was having trouble reconciling this with the relative hardness of his computer desk and the plastic arms of his chair. Because of this, during the course of the day he cycled through three different computer chairs, at first switching to a nearby chair with padded, elbow-friendly arms, and finally, finding even this too much to bear on his joints, he threw caution to the wind and comandeered an armless chair from the main administrative office. I am therefore using these separate chairs as technical signifiers for a sequential narrative of continuity - one of several narrative structures in Sean's day I have discovered retroactively. Below are screenshots of his first and second chairs, as well as his hasty acquistion of the final chair.

























On an unrelated note, I have secured another volunteer for the project - a jewellery student named Alexandra. Now, I need only negotiate a date for filming and make the necessary preparations.