Staging and the process of clarity

Having had the chat with the Lecturing team and having had a long chat and created a plan around expectations, I realised that I needed to put down visually the process I had completed , - it formed as a type of flow chart to retrospect and also note down a way to slow my mind down. It may not look clear but it creates a series of boxes that could create further opportunity to discuss. 

In staging - the initial thoughts were this: The piece that was being created was an intimate insight into a very private occasion, this for me is extremely rare, with myself and my words at the core of this, For me it is a very bold choice. The elephant in the room no doubt.
There is a core audio - I am reading the narrative of the letters, these were chosen to reflect prior, soon after and a year. It is open to have a final ending piece that will be added before the piece is completed, but this is to be decided. 
An underlay series of notes that carries the viewer through the piece and reflects the outer world.
The overlay film representing the viewer and mindset of the artist.

To experience this it important that ideally this would be a private experience, as if the viewer is stepping into the piece. 
In order to do this, I felt that it would be best to identify a space, to think how I wanted it to be experienced. Forst thoughts were projecting onto the ceiling - this gives the viewer the ability to focus solely on the piece, however the brief needs the group to be able to share the experience at one time, so up to 10 people at any one time. This is simply not possible, both the height adn texture and free projection space onto the ceiling was not possible as we have limited space. The next thought, was use of radio/ wireless headsets which could mean that the piece could be experienced individually, also i then explored the ability to watch the AV via a VR headset, to provide an individual expereince not dependant on the external environment. 

So to recap : Idea 1
Projector AV - Sound ? 

Idea 2
Projector AV - Sound Radio Headset

Idea 3 
VR headset ( basic) linked to device ( viewer own in this case) - Sound on Headphone connected to the device.
VR headsets were explored, VR filming was also explored - how did I want this to look, was this an idealistic development opportunity? Cameras for 360 degree were explored and fuelled further thoughts, but these resided outside of the current project, as I have not used one before so this idea was put aside for further development.

Idea 4 
Isolated location: The best way for this piece to be seen after all of the other possibilities had been explored was to then look at different spaces in rooms within the Turner Building at Writtle. 
4a. Location - Stairwell -Project from 1st floor across to the open area:
Pros:-
Good size image
Space to watch
Power 
Sound via headset 
Ability to hide tech behind the door

Cons, 
Space is not clear black/ white box, the brickwork has images on there which would need to be covered and there is also a light bleep. 
Projector is at its limit in lumens and focus, meaning that image will be less resolution.
The stairwell is used and is an emergency exit so therefore would have to be managed in terms of using the space in anyway that may engage or require the viewer to be still and watch. the other issue is that this space cannot be neutralised as easily, images insitu covered, etc.

NOT SUITABLE 
 Idea 5 
Projector or screen / Radio headsets. 
The photography studio on the ground floor at Writtle measure 2.4 w x 3.4l x 2.7h. At present it has grey brick patied walls and lots of photography equipment in it. 
There is a a photographic cyc at the far end.
The space is small, it is not likely that it can house a full group in line with COVID safe  guidelines but it could house potentially 6 at anyone time - so lecturers and the Year 3 -  Daisy and myself are not present at the time. this would mean that the Year 2 could watch at a later time.

I managed to ask a friend to borrow some headsets - but it meant a drive to London, however before I committed to this, I thought it should test out the space with sound, to see how the room reverberated with small speakers. 

Photographic studio

The next decisions were this:
Will the space be more suited to using the studio with decent speakers, would the brickwork also provide a rebound which will add to the piece rather than detract from the piece.
Having played with the small cheap speakers used on the classroom PC this was proved that could be effective. 
IN terms of image, the projector again did not provide the image quality required so I decided to bring in a large screen.
In order to turn the room into an exhibition space quite quickly the following considerations were looked at:
Time studio available: I had been made aware that the photography Studio could only be used for a limited time due to it being necessary for other students. This meant that the install  needed to be quick easy and simple. 

The decision was made to use the space as is, but to create a void. One way of doing this is to remove the light: 
So to black out door window panel. I felt it important that the space be the space. it is like the piece, a little rough, it is functional and it can be used to express stuff, so why hide those things. The only adjustment I would make - this is pre-showing is possibly the removal of the white cyc so that the plinths and tech sit in a bricked wall space. 

Timings fro tech install 
Pre-production testing and rending footage 
15.11.21
0800 onsite, move furniture out of space
0815 - move plinths down to space and sweep floor
0825 - Bring in tech from the car and set up.
0845 - run first check film - ensure that it is ready to run.
0900 - breath -  Send film to Masaki and share in teams for those not able to attend (drop onto webpage share link)
0905 - stick instructions if needed on the wall outside 
0930 - announcements  -
0945 - start film - leave for hospital - Charlie to record feedback 
13.00 - watch again, critique development and log in blog.
breath
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