Time-Diaristic Video

Link to my video:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1S2nQj6lXNMVqoz_bC5_VuZDvLyDu76ok

 

Project Requirement:

Create a diaristic video, as we’ve been discussing in class.

This means making a work that is diary-like, entailing some form of self-documentation. Since this assignment is to make a diaristic video, your work may end up taking on / referencing the form of the vlog (I’m saying “the vlog” as opposed to “a vlog” because what I’m referring to here is not a particular vlog, but rather, the notion of “the vlog” — as a form, and as the pop-cultural phenomenon that it is, and all that’s wrapped up in it). If your work DOES mimic the vlog form, keep in mind: an artwork that references the vlog form is vastly different than a vlog, and the difference lies in intent, and in the critical distance. We’re making video art, so be sure to make an artwork, not a vlog.

 

That said, making a work that resembles a vlog is not a requirement. You don’t have to show your face in your video at all if you don’t want to, or your body, for that matter. Maybe we see your face front and center the entire time; maybe we see just your feet the entire time (sorry, Gabriela); or maybe your body appears in your work not at all. Any of these scenarios is fine; it’s up to you.

 

Keep in mind the works we watched in class as inspiration for this project (links are below), for example, Tracey Emin’s Why I Never Became A Dancer. This is a diaristic work despite the fact that, up until the final shot, Emin doesn’t appear once in the footage. The voiceover is what lends the clear diaristic component here. You may do this as well. If you record a voiceover I recommend recording it on your phone as a Voice Memo — it’s both easy AND will sound pretty decent—which you’d then insert into your Premiere timeline the same way you do a still image or video clip. (This Thursday in class I’ll be showing you how to do this as part of our Premiere demo.)

 

It must be a narrative video, which does not mean it has to be an overtly obvious “story”, but that it must be a sequential piece, as opposed to being composed of serial imagery / clips. So the order in which your clips appear must be determined by the sequence the work depicts, versus a collage-like assortment of clips that could be rearranged in any number of ways. This does not mean that the sequence you depict has to be shown chronologically, for example, the movie Memento  depicts events in reverse chronological order, yet is a sequential film, in that a sequence AS A WHOLE is being depicted, regardless of the precise order in which the pieces of that sequence are revealed to the viewer.

 

You do not have to be acting in the work, i.e. play the role of a character. You may, but if you do, think of Alex Bag’s work as a reference, in that she plays various characters in that video but overall the video has the sense of being diaristic, not just to “the student”, but to “the real” Alex Bag. Don’t make, like, a TV skit. Remember: Art, not Entertainment.

 

• Duration: 3 minutes
• Edited in Adobe Premiere. This project cannot be a single-take aka single-shot video. Needs to be numerous shots and needs to have numerous video cuts. (This Thursday in class we’re doing a Premiere tutorial, so this will become clearer.)
• Adding music not required (nor recommended), but it is permitted, as an additional audio component. Note: Putting music / a song into your video as the audio overlay (muting all other audio) for the entire video is not permitted.
• Due: Thurs April 4

 

Works we’ve watched as inspiration for this project:

• Alex Bag, Untitled Fall ’95 — http://www.ubu.com/film/bag_fall95.html 
• Tracey Emin, Why I Never Became A Dancer — http://www.ubu.com/film/emin_dancer.html 
• Yuri Ancarani, Il Capo (excerpt) — https://vimeo.com/108898457 
• Gillian Wearing, 2 Into 1 — note, the links of the two works of hers on this site are mixed up but the work at this link is the right work — http://www.ubu.com/film/wearing_confess.html 

 

Some others for reference:

• Nelson Sullivan videos — making these off-the-cuff, day-in-the-life diaristic videos, and making a TON of them, obsessively, is what comprised his practice — https://www.youtube.com/user/5ninthavenueproject/videos