Taking on board the review of the last assignment and wanting to delve deeper into a response to the topic given I choose to continue a similar narrative. Using the idea of movement even during ‘still’ frames and having played with the Pan and Zoom effect of Ken Burns previously in the weekly challenge, I decided to base the video again in the photo montage. I used stock images and expanded these out to cover the entirety of the main part of the video. Taking on board the response feedback, I included a still of two of the quotes I used. Music I kept the same intro music to delineate this from other media I produced during the Trimester, and added to this by including a song over the credits so they were not silent. As required in the brief, I included a spoken to camera piece, staging this purely as a more personal aside at the end of the video trying to give a clear delineation between the ‘work’ and my personal summation. Using the rule of thirds both within the spoken piece and also in the photo montage choosing imagery which delineated the screen.

I tried to include a varied range to reference points without losing the message, I admit this wasn’t hard given the range of reference material for the topic of surveillance, but hopefully, I did the topic justice in my quoting around the topic. Foucault is still fascinating to me, and Crime and Punish is a book unlike most in that you can pick any page and garner a quote from it. If anything this made it harder to not just overuse Foucault’s views as the sole basis for the work. As a secondary academic reference, I picked up on Peter Fussey’s work as a Sociologist of Criminality from Exeter University. His viewpoints on notions of Criminality via Surveillance where again something very on topic. Fight Club by Palanuk is a modern-day piece of literary genius especially in terms of how it deals with the notions of masculinity, modernity, and the rejection of the consumerist narrative. Similarly, Tyler’s voice through the book holding a lamp up to the realms of modernity made its inclusion an easy addition considering the idea of surveillance and commercialism. Which is obvious such a big part in the narrative of modern surveillance. Finally, I happen across the poem of Snickerdoodle by John Wedgewood Clark whilst searching Flickr for images to use as a part of the photo-montage which I felt summed up beautifully the message I was trying to conjure up.

The only difficulty I faced was in terms of trying to find space and time to film the spoken to camera piece. I still find these difficult with a busy household around me, although the rather cluttered desk could become a catchphrase of sorts. I specifically populate my two screens with different images by Banksy as I felt they summed up the message well and added an Easter Egg of sorts. I also made a couple of recordings of this piece and worked to fix myself within the screen to make the inevitable editing together of parts easier. I am still unsure as to whether I should have included a spoken of camera Introduction but felt given the limited time frame it would be convoluted at best, although I will try this in the future. I will certainly keep making videos and probably even more on the related topics we have covered. I think the editing and format style of the intro and outro sequences I have worked up in the titling and choice of background noise could easily be recycled in future projects now I have the timings better suited.

References:

Foucault, M 1979, Discipline & Punish: the Birth of the Prison, Vintage Books, New York.

Murray, D and Fussey, P 2019 ‘Bulk Surveillance in the Digital Age: Rethinking the Human Rights Law Approach to Bulk Monitoring of Communications Data.’ Israel Law Review, 52 (1). pp. 31 – 60, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021223718000304

Palahniuk, C 1996, Fight Club, W. W. Norton, New York.

Wedgewood Clarke, J 2015 Snickerdoodle,York Curiouser, York.

Dark Theme by Alexander Blu (CC BY-NC 4.0) http://www.orangefreesounds.com/dark-theme/

Dial Up Sound by Alexander Blu (CC BY-NC 4.0) http://www.orangefreesounds.com/dial-sound/

Images & Video:

FBI Aerial Surveillance of Black Lives Matter Protests – Baltimore, MD 4/29/15 Video 2 by Federal Bureau of Investigation (Public Domain Mark 1.0) https://archive.org/details/1D3001Part2

Global surveillance by Amir Appel (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/TMqXjC

SURVEILLANCE(1) by MANYBITS (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/pWHSKF

SURVEILLANCE(2) by MANYBITS (CC BY-NC 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/qAWEky

Bridge Blade Runner Atmo(1) by Valeri Pizhanski (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/23DTchY

Bridge Blade Runner Atmo(2) by Valeri Pizhanski (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/23rzBGh

Milano, Blade Runner 7:01 AM by Marko (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/yA78Ly

Empty face by Dmitry Boyarin (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/ak1Yj8

surveillance job by gato-gato-gato (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/2irVmcD

London, England by Dan Sakamoto (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/6tLxp2

You’re being watched by Atomic Tace (CC BY-SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/6BHmqV

Who’s watching who? by far closer (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/6hmAsu

bansky by JapanBlack (CC BY 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/4X9xks

The Rat by Gordon Joly (CC BY- SA 2.0) https://flic.kr/p/7Qemz