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A Typical Day Two Weeks Before Uni’s End

Byrichard
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Just put on some music and now I’ll tell you about a typical day, just two weeks before the end of uni life for me. My phone is set so that it rings every morning at 9 am and the reason it gives me is “catch a flight” because I had set that particular alarm to wake me up before one of my numerous flights.

It doesn’t often get me out of bed, I usually snooze till about 11 am and that’s when there’s noise from the cleaners. I open up the laptop and I start surfing around the world wide web syncing up with what’s happened whilst I was sleeping. It’s not until about two hours later than I do something productive like get out of bed, take a shower, and then get on with the public phase of my day.

a few times I’ve woken up and got straight into one of the three assignments that are due within the next three weeks. I stop working when either it’s at least an hour later or I’ve run out knowledge and because it requires research I decide it’s easier to get sidetracked by something else.

Around 2 pm I go for a walk, as an excuse to listen to a podcast. I get myself what is required for a sandwich and get some ice tea. Time to relax whilst eating.

Until this point there’s a chance I haven’t been sociable so I walk over to the uni library, it’s only 5 minutes away so it’s no struggle. As I arrive there I go from one friend to another, getting a little insight into how well they’re doing with assignments.

With certain people you find that they’re halfway through the dissertation, others are finished. Some were working on their advertising module course work and others claim not to have started writing. I’m glad I have. (slight understatement)

There are a few groups of people I hang around with. Sometimes I go to a venue and I film a friend’s gig, as happened or I go to the SU bar (which hasn’t happened for the past two weeks and won’t happen before next Monday. The third option is to hang out with more friends in halls.

Once I get home I do some more work, sometimes another two or three hours. I found that at one point I was so anxious and worried about my work that I couldn’t go to sleep before I had progressed with my dissertation.  I’m lucky that way. My mind has become the perfect nag. I’m grateful for this.

Sleep is easy, I lie down, pull the laptop screen down and see that it latches. Listen to my ipod and fall asleep.

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Nick Broomfield

Byrichard

Yesterday I bought a series of six of Broomfield’s documentaries and I watched one of them today. Chicken Ranch is interesting because Broomfield lets the camera appear in shot, through mirrors and more. He also allows himself to appear, although only fleetingly, at least in this documentary.

He makes observational documentaries and allows the viewer to come to his own conclusions. This is a style of documentary where the action happens in front of the camera, with no use of voice over. Intertitles are enough, similarly to people like Vertov.

They are interesting documentaries because you can see that they have not been scripted. they document life, becoming more biographical and reflective of reality.

They do not strive to tell you what to think but rather encourage you to see and intuit from them.

How many documentaries do you watch that breath, that do not tell you what to think? Most attempt to say “he believes that” whilst “they believe that”. This is a more mature form of documentary making, one where the characters are the story.

I still have another five documentaries to watch and we’ll see what else I learn through watching them.

I found another documentary book today. It’s got many interviews with a variety of directors and I really hope that they help me understand the question that I want to ask and research without it being too broad.

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World’s biggest silent disco was small

Byrichard

The World’s “Biggest silent disco” was made up of only 200 people but they danced for over an hour to all the music they had on their ipods, mobile phones and other mp3 playing devices. It was very amusing.

I arrived over an hour early and scouted out the area seeing where the event would be most likely to take place. As I did this I looked around, seeing which people were likely to participate. I saw two or three groups of friends, then some more. Around 1830 a lot of people were standing around and waiting. Within a few minutes more and more people were coming and you could see them all watching the clock. They saw the counter switch to 18:42 but it took ten to twenty seconds before people started dancing.

My camera was ready and rolling as soon as 18:42 was on the clock. I was listening to my own music and was filming. I saw lot’s of people start dancing and laughing. I saw some individuals synchronise their music, others shared. Some came with only small earphones whilst others came with big headphones. Some of them danced in groups. Overs danced alone and many people took photographs and video.

Conga lines and waves were formed as the individuals listening to their music formed into groups of people who danced the evening away under the arches of Paddington station.

I filmed for fifty seven minutes and I’ve got over 300 individual shots of a variety of people dancing, interviews being carried out(I can’t be bothered with interviews and I didn’t have a mic anyway) and more.

There was a small police presence but they did not intervene until the very end when some musicians started to play. The crowd loved it though.

When I started editing last night was the first glimpse of how surreal the event must have been for the by-standers watching the dancers. I can hear lot’s of squeaking shoes and conversations can be heard loud and clear since there was no loud music. It’s hilarious to see such an event and when it happens again I’ll definitely participate in as many as I can.

I’ve been looking at what people say about it on facebook and there are many people that I recognise from the video footage.

Overall it’s a great bit of random fun at a random time on a random day and it’s great to see.

Tomorrow the multicam starts

Byrichard

Today’s been a long day, beginning at 9 with lectures and finishing at 1800 with tape logging and transcribing. It passed through some studio work, laying the floor, and such.

Tomorrow we start at 9am and continue till night in order to get all our shots finished with. We’ll get a lunch break so have to factor that into any planning.

I should have an early night but it’s halls and there’s alcohol around so others are drinking the night away and forgetting to adjust their volume control.

Vivement Samedi

I hate slow connections

Byrichard

I hate slow connections, they force you to wait patiently whilst the content you desire shows itself. It forces you to select more carefully the content you are about to read. When the connection is fast you skim through the pages reading the first paragraph before jumping onto the next page until several hours have passed.

In contrast with slow connections you look through articles of interest and start downloading them. As one arrives you read it without rushing. There’s no point. You’ve got time.

Whilst I was in the southwest of England every Sunday I would go to a pub where I’d order a coke and find all the newspapers. I would have four or five papers and I would skim through each paper looking for articles of interest. On occasion I would read the entire article, learning new things as I went along. It allowed me to keep up to date with what was happening.

It was a method of escape, of relaxation. There was no rush, nowhere to be. It was directed daydreaming rather than free. It was directed by the article. The eyes read the text and the mind translated it into pictures and thoughts, spreading and converging. Occasionally those daydreams meant that the eyes were reading the text but the mind was thinking of something else. That demonstrates that the article was not written as well as it should have.

La Grande Illusion des Quatre Cents Coups

Byrichard

C’est deux films que je vient de regarder.

I’m watching a lot of DVDs at the moment. I have neither television nor a fast connection, therefore, I take advantage to study the cinema. It’s a good way of spending time, of being transported into other timezones, towards other cities

I constantly find more information as the days’ progress

Only a few more days till my group’s multicamera and I’ll be busy every day until the end of the week. On the positive side, I haven’t been to the student bar to socialise. I have busied myself with work instead and my productivity has gone up.

I no longer see the appeal of going to a bar or nightclub where there are three or four people checking for trouble makers. Where alcohol is served to intellectuals great conversations ensue, where it is served to the less enlightened there is nothing but “ruine de l’ame.”

Last night I dropped by the library and explored the index pages, looking for information on documents. I found something about Arte and the films it selects. I found a few articles about Chinese cinemas and tributes to Jean Rouch. I photocopied them and have yet to read through them and digest the information that they provide.

I am getting closer and closer to the point at which I feel I can begin interviewing the relevant people as part of my research. That should be the best part of the work I’m doing at the moment.

I want to try making an observational documentary again, exploring new ideas, and getting an insider’s understanding of what I’ve been studying.

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