Sophie Wardle

Now, you know I am a recent addition to the student population. I am a few weeks into my MA course and this is what I’ve learnt thus far…

• my brain is still there, who knew?
• Occasionally it works too…

Witness, a panel discussion this evening where, although I admit my long word radar was going off the scale, I found myself making some connections between what was being discussed, and coming up with some original (I hope) ideas and questions to explore at some later date. As follows:

• if fiction breeds sentiment when making a film then is nostalgia based on a lie? Rather than being a warm fuzzy remembrance of things past is it a deliberate attempt to redact the unpleasant aspects of our own and others’ history?
• Does being political In a film (or other medium presumably) make things less interesting? I think not, but one of the speakers put this forward as an opinion. No one disagreed!
• Even if you want to be ‘authentic’ and represent the truth in a film by using facts as inspiration (photos, diaries etc) you still can’t help but introduce artifice and thus will you always be creating an unreal record?
• Do you have to rely on falsehood in order to convey the truth? When making a film I think so because you can’t ever replay a moment unless it’s filmed real time and even then it’s fraught with pitfalls.
• A song was chosen deliberately to be used in a film with the intention that it would come on the radio ‘randomly’. I thought of this as being ‘deliberate chance’.  A paradox.
• There was a discussion about the venue where you show a film. To me the venue, the nature of how your audience sees your film, must be really important. The venue must act as an amplifier for your idea behind the film. Certainly, if you see a blockbuster In a tiny cinema you lose the vavoom Hollywood intended!
• There was an extension into how some artists are very specific about how they want their film, piece, whatever presented eg Bill Viola. To me it’s a no brainer, if I want a film to be received in the way I intend then I will be anal about how it is presented. If it was a painting I wouldn’t say, oh, you choose the frame and where to hang it. I’d make my demands. Nicely of course.

Lots more but these are my main thoughts. I’m going to explore some of these ideas a little more, when I don’t know. The image is my note page from the panel. Can you decipher it? I can now, ask me again in a week!