Once everything was done we dressed the installation and decided where the various media was going to go. We then moved the lights around until we were happy, adjusted the code accordingly, set up the LDRs....and were ready to go.
Set dressing
Pasting the research
I started to sort through all the research that we had ripped out and strategically pasted it around the room.
On the side of the boot machine, themes of magic, voodoo and identity.
On the side of the transmission machine, themes of space exploration, transmission and UFO
On the side of the praxinoscope themes of sea exploration and eccentricity.
Whilst I was doing this James took care of the wiring and tweaking the original code to fit our needs and Faysal dressed the dark room
Table mission
We found an old printers which was full of tables and other interesting odds and sods. The guy in there was clearing the place out and said we can have whatever we wanted. We were pretty worried we were going to be without tables but now we have more than enough.
Valiantly we guided this noble steed through the streets of Hackney.
Painting the Animation
I painted the animation, using vibrant colours which will hopefully cause a pleasant juxtaposition with the dark space. It will be unexpected and jump out at you, showing the characters charming hope of escape within this abysmal space in which he confines himself.
Dark Room
With the machines completed, we decided to build the dark room.
This involved creating a frame around the sink area which already exists in our studio. We then boarded it up in order to make it a separate room from the rest of the space. it will later be filled with various photographic equipment and the 35mm photographs of the cult dead will be hung from rope. It will also have a red light in it which will hopefully look fairly sinister, complementing the dark overtones of the photographs and, of course, follows dark room conventions.
Periscope works
The periscope idea works and has been mounted, it looks great, like you are staring down a deep tunnel with a boat at the end of it.
Back door board up
Me and Faysal boarded up the back door, it gives the space a sense of dereliction, character and looks fairly sinister. It also conveys the sense of reclusion that our character felt.
Boot Machine Mount
For the boot machine we decided to use rotary cams to lift and drop the beaters similar in the way that Michael Kontopolous has done so in the video below
Machines that Almost Fall Over from Michael Kontopoulos on Vimeo.
We have built the rotary cams at uni using the fine art departments facilities, we then used dave to weld a mount onto the motor in which a rod can be screwed. We took this to hackney and attached it all to a larger mount we previously built, and to our amazement....it works! Another success, a little too successful if you ask me....watch this space.
Binoculars x Persicope
Our initial intention to just use a set of binoculars is not going to work if we want to viewer to see the animation through the praxinoscope machine. The praxinoscope is too low, so we have decided to combine it with a periscope turned upside down.
This works in theory, but we have not actually mounted anything yet.
Animation
I took it upon myself to use the animation departments facilities that I had access to last year for the animation module. After trying to decide whether we would go for a model animation or a drawn animation we went for drawn. This was because we were unsure as to how the model animation would work when viewed through binoculars from a distance, a flat image would be easier to make out.
Me and Faysal designed a few different boats in our sketchbooks and decided on the final boat. I then took it to the animation department and drew 12 frames in the correct size for the praxinoscope. These were tested out when we got back to Hackney and worked well, they will later be mounted on stronger card and painted.
Praxinoscope Build
Ok, so turns out a praxinoscope is no easy task! We underestimated how fiddly it would be to cut mirror, get all the measurements right and glue the whole thing together along with the bike wheel!
First of all, we found the circumference of the circle, which Faysal's maths qualification came in very useful for. Then we divided this by 12 (the praxinoscope's we saw in the childhood museum had 12 mirrors so we thought we would do the same) after doing this we attempted to find the middle of the circle, however this proved fairly inaccurate because the garden sieve we used to attach to the wheel was not perfectly circle. After this, we constructed a dodecahedron (12 sided shape) to glue the mirror panels to in the centre of the praxinoscope. So far, so good...now the hard part: cutting the mirror.
We found the mirror outside James and Faysals flat, it was very thin so we thought this would make it easier to cut. Turns out it was pretty old and therefore brittle, so it was a real challenge getting 12 panels out of it with a glass cutter. With mirror shattered all over the place we eventually managed to get a set of 12 mirrors and 2 spare ones. They have a few cracks in them but we feel this will add to the DIY aesthetic.
So once it was all superglued and screwed together we attached the motor and powered it up...it works! Now all we need to do is put the animation inside it, mount it and it is sorted.
Blueprint printing
Whilst I was at work, James and Faysal printed the blueprints onto acetate and prepared the paper we had chosen from Atlantis for printing on. Leaving them to dry ready for us all to print the blueprints.
I was really excited about this process and I feel it has worked very well.
First of all we took all of our designs and paper over to textiles where they have a UV press, which means that the process was a lot quicker than using sunlight. We printed them individually, exposing the paper through the acetate for 3 minutes and 10 seconds per print. Then putting them in a light safe box and taking them over to the specialist darkroom for washing. After an initial test, we went ahead with printing all three in this way and they looked great.
We were always nervous that this process may not work how we intended it too, that the text might be blurry or any other problems may occur. But it looks spot on, genuine blueprints have been created from my crude drawings, which to me is brilliant and a new technique learnt for the future.
the initial test
UV press
washing the prints....almost there!
finished!
Blueprint designs
I have been working on these for quite some time. My concentration has been mainly on Fig 1. (boot machine) and Fig 2. (praxinoscope) while Faysal has been working on the transmission machine. The idea is to print the final designs on acetate and use cyanotype printing techniques to finalise them.
The designs have gone through many changes, which are documented in mine and Faysal's sketchbooks, and the finished designs can be seen below:
It was my concern to hand draw the blueprints on A3 paper, whilst Faysal scanned them in and worked on them using photoshop. I joined him after finishing all the drawing and James stepped in at the end adding a few final touches.
I am happy with how they have worked out and feel they meet our expectations and intended aesthetic of a cross between amateur and official.
Ripping Research
We always knew this would be a big task and I feel it will be ongoing over the next few weeks. Over the duration of the project we have been buying relevant books for the research which will be plastered onto the walls. Me and Faysal have been looking through all the books finding relevant information which we can rip out to later do this with.
Super 8 shoot 2
Me and Faysal set out on a days shooting people in groups of three. We had the idea to just pick people we see in groups of three whilst we wander around the local area. It was supposed to feel slightly awkward, with the subjects looking directly in the camera, like in a still photograph, but moving. This was to allow the method of scratching out the middle person to become simpler and also was for subtlety, to avoid overwhelming the spectator in our installation with loads of moving imagery.
To our suprise, not many groups of three were to be found! We got a few people, some kids, professional types on lunch break, that sort of thing. But the most successful was probably of three butchers. We may chop these up or leave just one of them as the loop. We decided however, that we should postpone handing in the footage for a week as it gives us time to gather more shots in this way.
I later discovered an old english folk story about three butchers who decide to fight of some rapists in order to rescue a woman. It involves the two butchers wanting to run away, whilst the third insists on fighting but is rewarded by the woman stabbing him to death. Perhaps this is the ill fated one? However, a nice reference to the kind of 'old wives tales' and superstitious beliefs that this shoot is dealing with.
Black and White 35mm
We set out to develop the Black and White 35mm immediately, however...when we got into the dark rooms we felt a bit out of our depths having not used the equipment for quite some time.
It was decided that we wouldn't do it until later, when we could read up on it a bit or receive help from friends more acquainted with the dark rooms.
While I was at work, the day after the shoot, we thought that we should just go for it. James and Faysal went into uni and did a great job in the dark room and printing. After I finished work they showed me the prints and I am very happy with the way that they have turned out. I am kind of dissapointed that I didn't get to do it with them as I would have liked to have got involved in the dark rooms. It is, however, important we get this stuff done so it is out of the way in time for building and because I work two days a week it is unavoidable that I will miss out on some things.
The Shoot
The shoot went really well and we shot 4 rolls of 110, just under a minutes worth of super 8 and a few rolls of slide/black and white 35mm stills.
In the morning we got to Uni about an hour before all the actors were due to arrive. A room was booked so we used it to lay out costumes and had a small selection of sandwiches for the actors. We had to start early as Dave Turner needed to be away by 12. When he turned up we were ready to go, which meant he wasn't waiting around and we got straight to it.
In costume everyone looked great, Faysal took control of Tin Foil hatting people whilst I discussed with Dave and the actors the shot we needed and James set up the camera positions. The super-8 shoot was a collaborative process between us all with James and Faysal manning the camera whilst I directed the actors. Whoever wasn't on camera, got in shot, face down as background filler. After the initial super 8 shot, Faysal and James shot some black and white 35mm of the same scene.
I am eagerly anticipating seeing the film developed!
Running up to the Shoot
So we have the main actor now, which is great, however we are finding it difficult to get many of our friends to stay on board during this critical time in their degree's. We have cemented about 8 people however and feel this will work, the cult was always in our minds as fairly small and close-knit anyway.
Dave Turner is confirmed and we have a suit and glasses for him to wear which came from the boot fair.
Props have been assembled into suitably weird contraptions.
A location has been chosen; the woods next to Northwick Park hospital.
image
We have shot here before and achieved great results, the particular area we have in mind is a clearing just in front of a concrete wall, suggestive of a compound, which could be the cult's settlement. This particular spot has recently been visited by the council, who have left a bunch of chopped down tree segments which form a nice semi-circle around the clearing. It reminds me of a camp, circled around a fire, sat on logs...perfect for our shoot.
We decided that we would improvise the majority of shots in an attempt to create a snapshot aesthetic that feels authentic and not staged. We have bought all the film we need, including the super 8mm cartridge from the Widescreen Centre in Baker St.
wimbledon Car Boot 5
Quite a promising boot fair this time, we also had access to James' parents car as they were in London for the weekend, so filled it to the brim.
Our main finds included:
A kids bike, which we will take apart and use the wheel-and-chain mechanism for the base of the praxinoscope.
A box of clothes. This was free and will be used for costumes on next weeks shoot.
Various electronic parts/tubing and other such oddities which will be utilised as the paranormal activity research cult's crude detectors/transmitters.
Search for Actors
For the shoot involving the paranormal research group narrative we decided it would look interesting if it was a collective of young people led by a much older man. We wanted to create the idea of the father figure which many cult leaders assume the role of. An example of this is Jim Jones, famous for being the leader of The Peoples Temple and instigating one of the biggest recorded mass suicides to date; the Jonestown massacre.
It will be easy for us to obtain a reasonable amount of actors to play the roles of the cult, apart from the leader, through using friends. For the role of the leader we searched online databases and have identified a few potential actors who are the right age and appearance.
After sending out various messages we received a few promising replies and have decided to work with an actor named Dave Turner. He seems very interested in our idea and looks great for the part.
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