So it’s a bit of a big day today where students are obliged to present a five minute video to their peers and tutors and receive feedback.
What
The Symposium guidance states:
“This involves giving a formal 5 minute video presentation on your work followed by questions and discussion”. (Unit Assessment Brief)
Thus the question of what we included and excluded within our video presentations is wide open. Jonathan had previously emailed to suggest we draw on our ideas in the research paper and show how this has impacted on our practice.
How
Back on May 11th I posted my initial thoughts and preparatory work in regard of the today’s presentation. This work allowed me to decide how to approach the video and I came up with three criteria.
- I would structure the video by using a variety of different tempos in it to give the viewers variety and try to keep their interest.
- Upbeat: the central section needs to be upbeat and lively to keep engagement as this is where my interest began to drop off in viewing others videos from previous years.
- I would adopt a filmic approach as opposed to a presentational approach. (Ie use some talking heads and keep slides to a minimum).
Structure
The video is structured into five parts
- Part 1 is a simple schedule of 10 slides lasting 16 seconds that aims to identify the subject areas I have been working on and the process of research that brought clarity to what I was doing. I’ve used sound to support this process of gaining clarity.
- Part 2 is over four times longer at 1.05 seconds and tries to use the “talking heads” approach offering viewers a sense of my outlook and motivations. Hopefully the faux documentary style will engage people.
- Part 3 is the core of the presentation and is a simple video of my resolved body of work – in other words: the book. However I haven’t laboured on each picture or page but rather whipped through it at a pace just to give viewers a flavour of it and to change the pace of the video. I have also used an upbeat fast soundtrack by the Dirtbombs (Ode to a Black Man creative commons) to the same end. This section is the largest at 2 minutes.
- Part 4 lasts for 36 seconds and moves viewers from the book to the exhibition material indicating the media used for each piece. The upbeat sound track used in the Part 3 continues here.
- Part 5 Lasts 40 seconds and shows the exhibition pictures in relation to each other and so the viewer gets a sense of their size and the discourse.
Thoughts
I am pleased with the result but know that is very rough and nowhere near a standard for showing publically. However, and in my defence, I’ve only ever created four videos and have the most rudimentary knowledge of Movie Maker.
Even so I hope that the structure used and inclusion of a little humour, initiates and sustains interest with the MA cohort in a way that does not undermine the seriousness of the approach and focus on my research and final work.
Only you can judge whether I have succeeded or not.
Result
————–
MA Visual Arts 2015-16 Unit Assessment Brief, University of the Arts Camberwell
anomiepete 