When I set out to record the piece to camera that would become my reflective submission, the first attempt didn’t exactly go to plan. I had a site in mind that would provide a suitable backdrop, a quiet corner on the edge of a shooting estate. It was bordered by plantation woodland and was far enough removed from the beaten track to be visually suitably rugged.
The track abruptly ended on the other side of a new gate, the fence itself was also new with the signs of a prior electrified on discarded amongst the heather. On the corner of the boundary, a large stile was the only part of the fence to still have old timbers (the semi-rotten steps a sign of the estate’s priorities). It was perfect.
Like my previous pieces to camera, my intention was to “perform” a semi-improvised presentation. I had a predetermined structure to work from and a series of crib notes to work from with relevant quotes to read from, but it was going to be a fairly free from recital. The choice to do so in plein air was made based on feedback from staff and peers on previous test pieces.
My feelings were that being in the space was vital for the authenticity of the work. This coupled with the improvisational element, being on a hillside would provide a suitable stage to respond to. This was further reinforced by the video work exploring transferable skills in drug addicts that Charlie Hackett presented in his seminar. The work discussed in a freeform presentation, the topic of the addict’s journey. This was done whilst walking through the physical spaces that are common to the addict’s experience. This potentially formal presentation was then given depth and authenticity by being made within the physical space relating to the research, thus grounding the resolved outcome in its context.
So far, so sensible, then the summer ended.
Up to this point, every day I had gone to make images this summer had been a typical day in the summer of 2018. Dry, sunny, unbelievably bright. This day had cloud cover, which excited me greatly, it was a shame they were the wrong kind of clouds. Whilst I explored the space and took some images I became aware of that all too familiar misty haze rolling over the next hill, the rain was coming and it was heading in my direction.
Before long the smirr had taken hold and began maturing into proper droplets of rain. With eyes peering to the hills and ridgelines int he distance, I would have been kidding myself to think that the rain was going to be short-lived, so I sat down and waited. After a while, I knew what I knew to be true to be the accepted truth. Circumstance had forced my hand and I would need to record the piece to camera as audio only in the form of a podcast, which could act as a voice over.
I had really not intended for my word to be a VO (even in plein air) as this technique is all too commonly adopted within my own work and the work of other contemporary artist working with moving image. As I was reflecting on the topics raised during the seminar program and how they coloured my thinking of my own practice, I felt it important that I appear on camera to present those thoughts.
But the rain had other plans*.
I set myself up with a lavelier mic and set the recorder running, I was unable to monitor the recording and record at the same time due to feedback. But one of the usual strengths of a lav mic is the consitinecy of the signal due to the fixed position of the mic.
I do not know if it was a loose connection within the mic or if some moisture got into the element, the cause is mostly irrelavent. The outcome was a buzz, a horrific constant, unfilterable buzz. That even more frustratingly ends of its own accord about halfway through the 18 minute recording.
So what I had time allocated to be the final ended up as a damp squib of a rehersal on a hill. This forced me to reshoot and therefore allow to to produce what I ahd intended all along, albiet with a more genric background.
So as proof of the excercise, I have posted the unusable recording in its raw unedited state. enjoy.
Bad audio
The finished video
Finished reflective with good quality audio with enforced reshoot.
*strange that I would personify the rain, it would be more accurate that the conditions forced a change of plan and that my plan B was also, not impervious to the weather.