Reflection on Last Semesters Work - Part One

A lot of my video work this semester has involved toys from my childhood.

I like the boots walking to the sound of a train leaving a station. The boots are the oldest thing i have from new, they have been near me all my life. even as i type they are hanging above my desk. its as though they seek me out.

I think the soundtrack is as important as the visuals, the self composed track in the Dads Trains video really captures the feeling of travelling on a train to go on a family holiday. soundtracks are going to be a driving force for me this term, all my images will have sound to accompany them, or may be all my sounds will have images to accompany them?

A soundtrack that i think really works is in Mem One with the star wars figures where i walk through, the abrupt changes in pace and style make it feel like a dream or nightmare, on the other hand i don't think the visuals here are that good, i will need to look at ways to improve them, computationally, technically (Green screen issues) and dramatically.

An ongoing aspect of my research for this project has been to watch mainstream films and try to analyse they are about, for example, ET is about a boy coming to terms with his parents divorce (i think anyway!). from my research i have found that in all Spielberg's films there is the underlying issue of loss, even in The Temple of Doom!

I recently watch the Twilight Saga, not a series of films aimed at me, but in the interests of research and to see what the fuss was about i watched them. What i found was that although there is a small amount of silly mooning about, i really enjoyed them. the location and atmosphere contributes perfectly to make you feel the melancholy mood they are trying to show.

I also found it was about growing old, the fear of growing old, but the choice to become immortal comes with a price, a price you cannot appreciate in any way until you have to pay it. would you really want to live forever?

It was after watching these movies i realised what i was experimenting with in my research for this project. i thought my project test films so far were about the memories toys bring when you look at them again. Actually i think the short films are more about growing up, specifically growing old. Although i am getting older i don't feel inside the age that i am. I had a happy childhood, and my adult life has also been equally happy (baring teenage years obviously). Also in having a daughter and having toys around i have rediscovered the joy in playing with toys.

On the subject of becoming a father, i remembered there was a time when on finding out i was going to be a dad i felt i had to grow up and turn into my parents, for two years or so i didn't listen to new music, play video games, go out. It felt like a part of me had disappeared. I had become bogged down in babyland an nothing else mattered (as it should be perhaps). But as my daughter became a toddler i started to regain the person i was before. I didn't have to become old to become responsible. maybe my short films are about life cycles?