Meeting with Callum Rice - 07/03/24

I had a very productive meeting with Callum and discussed more practical topics rather than thematic which was very helpful. Briefly went over what I did last semester and discussed the points of tension that I have discovered at play in my work, re the body, emotion, fear of the unknown etc.

One thing I have been struggling with is articulating what I am visually imagining for this project, and Callum gave me some useful tips for this. Rather than a list, turning the paper landscape and making a timeline mindmap is how he approaches his films which I think I will have a go at. Seeing as there are a lot of themes at play that all talk to each other, I think this will be helpful in terms of structure and pulling all the threads together in my project.

I also raised the point of literal thinking, which I often fall into the trap of, and that I am now taking a step back from my fairly narrow ideas to take a broader approach to my subject matter. He suggested that I leave room for things to be open to interpretation for my audience, which I agree with, as films that force a specific point of view in that very 'auteur' sense, always seem heavy-handed. I need to find things that fit into that liminal space of literal and abstract so that I can achieve meaning and be open to interpretation. Essentially, I need to accept the whole idea of 'The Death of The Author' that Barthes was on about, that when it's out of my hands and in the world, it is no longer just my work. The audience is where the interpretation happens.

Practically, he had some really cool ideas with filming techniques and also recommendations for lens filters to try out. Old glass lens filters like Hoya Pro Mist where the top of the list, as they give these really cool in-camera effects of haliation, and light blurring. Similar to what Sophie is experimenting with, but less refracted. He also suggested playing around with putting the organza fabric over the lens, perhaps even the thin plastic that performers break out of to see what that looks like.

As Callum's specialty is observation documentary filmmaking, I wanted to pick his brain about his approach, as a lot of what I'm filming, whilst not being a documentary, follows these ideas of observation, and having an observational eye rather than an intrusive eye (at least for now). He spoke about connecting moments in his films, and finding moments that talk to each other in the edit, before, during and after, each shot, which I found very helpful. Hopefully I can apply this principle to the edit, and this will help me link sections of my film together so it feels cohesive. I think the thing I am most worried about is my work ‘landing’ with my audience, and that what I see and feel can come across when it’s watched. I appreciate that in earlier experiments, I made the links between ideas and footage too hard to see, even though to me it was incredibly obvious, so going forward I think this is something I need to work on.