LEARNING AGREEMENT: INDEPENDENT PRACTICE

Jonathan Saward: MA Arts Practice Proposal

What I Aim To Achieve. 

Having worked in the fairly mainstream side of TV but found the industry limitations and often formulaic nature of this somewhat confining. Due to my training and conditioning from my populist broadcast TV output I can also play it too safe and I want to stretch my practice, influences and approaches to factual filmmaking. Using this prior practice as a starting point I want to move away from my fallback position of a formulaic methodology and to study and move My aim is to see how far I can push the boundaries of factual, character-based narrative films whilst retaining the narrative and character based subject matter I love. However my work will always be within the service of the “factual” subject matter and the fascination boundaries and confines that this puts upon the factual filmmaker. My main areas of interest and aims are outlined below.

My aims at the start of the course were to push the boundaries of my current practice of conventional factual populist broadcast TV sphere towards a more creative, inventive and artistic approach. My aim was to see how far I can push the boundaries of factual, character-based narrative films whilst retaining the narrative and character based subject matter I love. However I wanted my work to always be in the service of the “factual” subject matter and the fascinating boundaries and confines that this puts upon the factual filmmaker. From my previous work on the MA work and my research and development I feel that these themes are what I will pursue further as my continuing areas of interest. Moving forward my aims and objectives are outlined below. 

1: Investigate Factual Film-making Form, Fictional and Avant Garde Film hybrids. 
When does a factual film become a work of fiction? When does it become avant-garde? What happens to fact when it is mixed with fiction and an approach with an art aesthetic. As well as being stylistic I want to develop my studies into the deconstruction of documentary modes and stylistics and the definition of what a documentary is, should be and could be. I want to experiment and subvert documentary form modes and boundary crossing into other areas.

2: Explore Documentary Style and Create More Visually and Aurally Creative Films. 
I wish to continue to explore the possibilities of the reflexive documentary style borrowing from other areas of the arts and moving image with more emphasis on the aesthetic to tell the story in a more emotive way. I want to investigate ways image can be used to tell a factual story and move away from simple expository documentary formula of talking heads and GV’s to a more and imaginative, inventive visual and aural style. This may include the fusion of animation, abstract images, use of music, motion graphics, sound design and sophisticated camerawork styles.

3: Push Possibilities of Character Based Factual Storytelling and Representation 
I have really enjoyed exploring the notion of representation in factual cinema and works and the fact that nothing can be a 100% true representation so it this important. Werner Hetzogs “ecstatic truth” being a construct of the film-maker and Guys madins “docu-fantasias” explore how creativity, subjectivity and objectivity can be treated individually or as interesting bedfellows. Is bias necessarily a bad thing? How far can the factual film-maker go when creating representations of characters, places and events before the piece is no longer based on truth?

4: Utilize New Documentary Formats, Exhibition and Distribution 
I have made inroads into this but want to investigate it even further. I have started to challenge the documentary form and distribution to try and find new audiences and audience consumption through my move to installation pieces. I love the idea of not being confined to one screen and the interaction and interplay between multiple screens. How much does the venue or exhibition method change the content? I want to explore formats and dissemination more through of micro-docs, live worldwide docos (periscope), VR documentaries, more installations, site specific work, interactive documentaries and online formats that challenge and develop the conventional documentary.

5: Develop a Body Of Work Exploring the Aims Outlined Above 

Amen Brother
An installation piece exploring the interpretation, sampling and post-modern aspects of art but with a focus on music and sampling and using this as a window to explore, plagiarism, homage and re-purposing of art. At its core will be the Amen Break by the 60’s funk band The Winstons. It is a 4-bar drum solo (break) performed by Gregory Sylvester "G. C." Coleman in the song "Amen, Brother". Lasting just under 7 seconds this one tiny drum solo has been sampled in 2263 other records to date across a multitude of decades, music genres and variety of artists. I aim to It will be either multi screen or on a large scale with emphasis on sound as well as visuals. It will combine a mixed version of tracks and visually it will name-check the artists by building a motion graphics/ kinetic typography of “Amen”. I am researching into the appropriation art movement both as idea and ideals and also possibly exploring religious themes given the hook of the song title.

Experiment with Audio and Visual Style, Modes and Formats 
I want to try and avoid the conventional talking head and record interviews which I will then cut together and use shot footage, animations, archive footage, roto-scoping, re-enactments, creative audio and motion graphics over them. They will also be playful with documentary modes and formats and what Hertzog termed “The Ecstatic Truth” a truth created by the author uninhabited by the constraints of reality. I aim for these to be short piece(s) aimed at an online audience and for film competitions online and physical. It will enable the exploration of a variety of styles as mini experiments to increase my skill-set and creative which will then combine into the finished film. This will be through one of of the ideas below.

1: The Nature of Love? 
An experimental documentary exploring the nature of love in all it’s facets through the eyes of my 92 year old grandmother. She has had two very successful marriages one lasting until middle age and then she remained single only re-marrying in her late 70’s. However she still carries a torch for her first and true love a pilot who she only went out with a few times but never made it back from one of his missions. Within the context of these three relationships I want to try and frame the three stages of love lust, attraction and attainment.

2: Anonymous. 
A documentary created back to front as trying to shoehorn creative style and formats onto documentaries has been to the detriment of the idea. So this will be a back to front approach on deciding the styles and formats I would like to use and then finding an appropriate subject. I like the subversive idea of the documentary subject being anonymous and not appearing except possibly a voice and working backwards finding a subject)s) to whom this would be appropriate. To this end I developed the anonymous idea of potentially working with subjects who wish to remain anonymous such as graffiti artists, political and environmental activists and criminals.

Cinematique
This piece will be site(s) specific and explore the love of cinema and viewing film as a collective audience and how that effects consumption. It will deal with the ways of seeing art from different perspectives and blurring the lines between audience and participation. The piece will be a site specific installation based in a cinema either real of created. However the audience will be the film and I want to explore multiple screens representing the cinema audience each one possible a talking head of an audience member explaining their love of the act of “cinema going” and cinema. Screens will be placed around the site sharing their experiences and reflections and the audience will be able to go around and choose whose recollections they want to hear. On the cinema screen will be the image of the cinema auditorium so shining a mirror back on itself and the audience interacting with the screens.

Global Warmning
A multi screen installation piece charting the history of global warming (now climate change) and the debates surrounding it’s validity. It will pitch the facts and figures, sound-bites from both sides of the debate, u-turns, alongside visual evidence of the phenomenon. The piece has interest and possible support from Greenpeace. It will be a collage of news sound bites, audio, images, video, physical representations, photos, motion graphics, animations and kinetic typography. I envisage the screens displaying the physical evidence of natural disasters, melting ice caps, shots from space and ozone imaging.

Planet Splendid 
A factual style TV program disguised as a children’s animated TV series. This will be the development of a the script, visuals animatic and possibly a scene heading towards a pilot. The pilot will be centred around a character from outer space in this case a planet with all angular edges and shapes. Coming to earth (Plant Splendid) he will learn about curves, wheels etc and take these back to his planet. Other themes colour, manners, music etc…

Natures Test Card
This will be an attempt at deconstructing the typical nature documentary down to it’s core elements then re-imagining them. Very similar to the trend in restaurants to “deconstruct dishes”. It will use image and picture to create a loose narrative but within the confines of a test card that will be created for experiencing in a virtual reality world inside a VR headset.

Residue
Currently still in very early research stages it will be an exploration into the notion of memory and it’s selectivity. I would like to work with alzheimers patients creating one off bespoke personal documentaries about the key events in their lives to act as memory triggers. Possibly extend to life lessons from older citizens for today’s youth.

Indicative Reference Material: Factual Film References 
I have a profound interest and cultural awareness of a huge variety of filmmakers working in the field of documentary film today and also those from the past. Far too many to mention here but here are some pieces of work that I greatly admire and continue to draw inspiration from.

Zero Days: Alex Gibney (2016) 
Uses an actress to play an amalgamation of interviewees about the Stuxnet virus malware cyberweapon “allegedly” created by the US NSA and Israel to destroy Iranian enrichment centrifuges that spread worldwide. It uses CGI imagery to disguise the actress on screen. 

Tower: Kevin Maitland (2016)
An innovative telling of Americas first campus mass killing. Told by actors voicing the words of those involved 50 years ago and also shooting new footage and rotoscoping the action over archive footage, reenactments, photos and animations. It brings the story to life and makes it feel contemporary.

Notes on Blindness; Peter Middleton & James Spinney (2014) 
A documentary on academic John Hull’s dealing with his impending blindness through an audio diary. Over three years John recorded over sixteen hours of material, a unique testimony of loss, rebirth and renewal, excavating the interior world of blindness and this documentary uses the recordings lip-synched by actors to illustrate this. It was accompanies by a fantastic VR recreation of visuals demonstrating how John built a sonic landscape through sound.

Exit Through The Gift Shop; Banksy (2010)
Banksy’s documentary on Thierry Guetta, a Los Angeles-based Frenchman who videotapes various underground art escapades, and later is transformed into an art phenomenon dubbed "Mr. Brainwash." The finished film overlaps and blurs the documentary between what is real and what might be fake blurs, as modern art and celebrity are put under the microscope.

The Possibilites Are Endless; James Hall & Edward Lovelace. (2014) 
A fusion of high art and delicate storytelling about the rehabilitation of Scottish singer Edwin Collins after a life threatening stroke. Always inspirational, never taking the obvious tabloid route.

The Arbor; Clio Barnard; (2010) 
A mesmerizing and beautiful documentary fusing narrative and documentary on the tragic playwright Andrea Dunbar.

The Kid Stays in the Picture; Nanette Burstein & Brett Morgan. (2002) 
A stylistic and creative documentary on infamous Paramount studio head Robert Evans. A real raconteur he is only on screen through clever use of archive materials from layered and moving photos tand archive film clips and footage.

The Filth and The Fury; Julien Temple. (2000) 
A wonderful documentay extracting often painful rememberances from the Sex Pistols against a mismatched collage of image and sound with a punk style aesthetic.

My Winnipeg; Guy Maddin. (2007) 
A crazy free-wheeling and intriguing documentary of the filmmakers formative years growing up in Winnipeg. Re-enactments, archive footage and dreamlike camera-work create a compelling and beguiling docu-fantasia.

Night Mail; Harry Watt & Basil Wright. (1936) 
A pioneering documentary and subtle propaganda of a postal train travelling from London to Scotland. It fuses poetry from W.H. Auden a score by Benjamin Britten to fascinating effect.

Other Indicative Reference Material and Inspirations Specific Works 
Vinyl Requiem: Lol Sargent/Philip Jeck
The Clock: Christian Marclay
Now: Chantal Ackerman
A Free and Anonymous Movement: Jane and Louise Wilson
Martyrs: Bill Viola
Can I Get an Amen?: Nate Harrison
Door Into The Dark: Anagram 4
0 Part Motet: Janet Cardiff
Raw Materials: Bruce Nauman
Palisades: Rachel Rose

Art Movements 
Pop Art, Post Modernism, Appropriation (Michalis Pilcher’s “Statements on Appropriation” (2009): 

Artists 
Claude Manet, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Marcel Duchamp, Jeff Koons, Sherrie Levine, Richard Prince, Barbara Kruger, Roland Barthes & Elaine Sturtevant.

Installation Artists 
Nate Harrison, Cory Archangel, Jane and Louise Wilson, Christian Marclay, Bill Viola, Nam June Paik, Chantal Ackerman and Anagram, Lol Sargent/Philip Jeck and Janet Cardiff. Also. John J H Phillips, Yayoi Kusama, Hannah Black, Ryan Trechartin, Andrew Thomas Huang, Gillian Wearing, Shana Moulten, Sue de Beer, Douglas Gordon, Yang Fudong and Tony Oursler

Resources To Aid My Work 
Alongside my own video shooting and sound recording kit I am likely to need the following to undertake my work and to extend my practice and skill base and to enable a more cinematic approach to my work.
• Use of 3D VR software and headsets for developing immersive content.
• Access to “full frame” DSLR cameras.
• Lens’s of various focal lengths to enable more cinematic qualities to my cinematography.
• Access to “grip” equipment. Track and dolly, jib arms, steadycame etc.
• Training and assistance with motion graphics software eg Adobe After effects.
• Possible refresher training on AVID although I may cut in Adobe Premiere Pro.
• Assistance with sound manipulation software such as Logic Pro.
• Guidance and technology for installations and using projectors for video mapping.
• Plenty of reference points from tutors on texts to look at and publications, reports on the areas I intend to investigate.

More support in art theorists, theories, movements that link into my areas of interest. 
• Audience & participation.
• Site specific artworks.
• Ideas of seeing.
• Representation.
• Sampling art, re-versioning, repurposing, recycling movements and art.
• Post-modernism.