Look Up - A screening and analysis of my practice research into the photographic approach to filmmaking

Banks, Liz

Abstract

In 2009 I began a practice research MA exploring the representation of landscape within artists moving image. This was a new direction for me since my background was in documentary and short film, with films being broadcast or screened in cinemas. How would my methodologies change when making a film for the gallery? How would my philosophy and process change when studying moving image within a fine arts context? How would my technical approach to image-making change and how would this new approach create a different aesthetic and outcome to previous films I had made? This presentation seeks to answer these questions through a screening of my short film ‘Look Up’ (2012, 5.04 min) and a paper that explores the filmmaking process and interdisciplinary research into the visualization of our relationship with time and space during periods of grief. The paper will suggest that during times of grief our relationship with space and time shifts – sometimes quite radically, but often rather imperceptibly - and we experience a different type of embodiment within the everyday. During this suspended state memories mix with dreamtime to create a less linear temporality, allowing us space for grieving and – on occasion - spiritual uplift. Taking a phenomenological approach, I argue this experience is not purely mental, but is felt, sensed and ‘interactive’. The film attempts to demonstrate this ‘being’. The film is also the outcome of a period of study on the representation of landscape in moving image. The screening will show how landscape’s potential for evoking nostalgia and specific moments of recall can serve as a mirror for the process of grieving. I will discuss how the filmmaking methods of C. Welsby, W. Raban, M.Tait and others influenced my methodologies and how the use of split sound and image were central to my process. I will also discuss my use of the DSLR camera to produce still-but-moving images in the film and how this was key to the film’s aesthetic. Finally I will address the importance of the film’s exhibition to immerse the audience in the temporal dimension of loss and grief.

Citation

Banks, L. (2015, June). Look Up - A screening and analysis of my practice research into the photographic approach to filmmaking. Paper presented at Photography in the 21st Century: Philosophy, art and technique, Central St Martins, London, UK

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: Photography in the 21st Century: Philosophy, art and technique
• Conference Location: Central St Martins, London, UK
• Start Date: Jun 5, 2015
• End Date: Jun 6, 2015
• Publication Date: Jun 6, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 6, 2019
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: memory, grief, landscape, photography, film, moving image, place, space
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/833024
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : Photography in the 21st Century: Philosophy, art & technique