Narrowing my idea...

After a tutorial today, I realised that it is probably best to just concentrate on my video. While I really like the stills idea it is more of a project in its own right and perhaps not connected enough to the video. With the help of my tutor and my peers I also realised that I really need to narrow my idea down.

The objective or the aim for the video is exploring time, but obviously that is a pretty wide category and to make my video the best it can be I have to be more specific and really nail down what aspect of time.

I went back and looked at the video from my last assessment to try and help me think and also took into consideration what we spoke about in the tutorial. I'm quite interested in how time passes from the point of view of the people making the journey. Particularly from the point of view of the driver. Sometimes you'll be driving along and you'll suddenly realise that you've passed six more junctions than you thought.

Or for example, the subconcious levels of driving you do. That state where you are concentrating, but you're switched off on some level and just going through the motions until something snaps you out of it. Usually a set of traffic lights, or a roundabout, or a traffic jam. Something that forces you to really pay attention. You almost start to think how out of it you must have been because of the things you've missed or stuff you haven't noticed. I tend to find this happens more if i'm travelling alone rather than with company.

To achieve showing this in my video I was thinking that time lapses are best. Playing with how fast or slow I use clips of video and quick edits that change a lot. For example they may skip large chunks of the journey in the way they're cut together and will go from lots of fast, changing footage to the real-time of the car going around a roundabout becuase it's those sort of things that snap you out of the subconcious, driving like a machine and doing it all but really just going through the motions rather than concetrating. I already have one piece of footage which is good for this that I shot when I went to Swansea. My Dad was obviously in that subconcious zone as we approached a roundabout and ended up going through the lights when he probably should have/could have stopped.

For more research on this I'm going to try and pay more attention when I travel to and from Plymouth in one day on Saturday. I'll be driving so I won't have an oppurtunity to shoot, but i will be able to see how much or when i slip into that realm of driving but not really noticing my surroundings.

Other things that might help achieve my aim:-
Repitition, or building a rhythm:- The dashed lines, barriers, all straight and all continue on roads, they pass by so fast and half the time are just a blur because you know they're always there.
The noise:- The different noises each road make and how they vary depending on the weather and the speed. In my last video that was something that accidentally worked really well and I want to maintain this.