Free Day Wednesday 29th February 2012 TIme Machine task

Wednesday 29th February 2012 Time Machine task

Today I have watched for the second time my copy of Rome open city. Having made three pages of notes I've set about completing the task of writing a brief review of the film;

Film Review

Rome Open City

‘Roma, Citta Aperta’

by Roberto Rossellini

1946

Characters

• SS Major Bergmann; Main SS protagonist and Gestapo officer
• Ingrid; (Bergmann’s assistant) a selfish social degenerate and lesbian
• SS Major Hartmann; First World War veteran who commanded firing squads in WW1
• Italian Police commissioner, sympathetic to the Germans and working for the SS
• Don Pietro Pellegrini; Catholic Priest and sympathiser to the resistance a selfless man and one of the main characters of the film.
• Pina;  A single mother and selfless Catholic, pregnant with a child belonging to Francesco whom she has known for two years. She has one son, Marchello from a previous relationship.
• Francesco; Partner to Pina
• Romelleto;  Child and fierce anti Nazi/resistance supporter. One of a gang of children who become responsible to bombing a Nazi supply truck
• Sexton; A slightly comical character
• Policeman; Sympathetic to the resistance
• Lauretta; Pinas selfish sister who associates with Germans and works with Marina
• Marina Mari;  Mistress to Manfredi. Friend to Loreta (through work)
• Giorgio Manfredi;  Real name Luigi Ferrari. A long time communist, anti right wing/anti Nazi. He takes on the false name of ‘Giovanna Episcopo’towards the end of the film
• Austrian Deserter; Fleeing the battle of Casio*

(*Thus dating this film to 1944-after the death of Mussolini . Dating this film to a period in time when Rome was designated an ‘Open City’ by the Germans who ruled in place of Mussolini. An ‘Open City’ was by definition not fortified or heavily defended, a designation intended to save historic cities from Allied bombing and major destruction)

This film set in Occupied Rome in 1944 concentrates on the story of a handful of people living under Fascist occupation. It is a story of their struggle to survive and support the resistance. Giorgio Manfredi  is an underground resistance leader (real name Luigi Ferrari) who comes into the life of Pina (a selfless pregnant) woman engaged to be married to Francesco whilst he (Manfredi) visits a girlfriend (Marina Mari). Assisted by the priest Don Pietro Pellegrini every effort is made to assist him and his resistance movement. Alas the local children bomb a German Supply vehicle and the Gestapo believe Manfredi is to blame. They instigate searches for local men, resistance fighters, deserters and especially Manfredi. During this search the priest saves the local children by preventing one (Called Romelleto ) from attacking the Germans with a grenade from the rooftop and by also hiding his weapons. Unfortunately Francesco is rounded up and as Pina chases after him she is shot dead in front of her son (Marchello) and the priest. Manfredi (Luigi Ferrari) is betrayed by Marina Mari who sells his location to the SS (for a fur coat) via Ingrid (Major Bergmann’s assistant). Manfredi is tortured to death in front of the priest (Don Pietro Pellegrini). The priest is then put before a firing squad (who being Italian) deliberately miss him, leaving an SS officer called Hartmann to kill him with his pistol. The film ends with the gang of children who supported their priest to the end, showing their humanity and solidarity.

Visually the film is shot often on location, using hand held cameras on occasion. The use of sets is restricted to the Gestapo HQ. Film stock was hard to come by so much was ‘procured’ from the American occupiers and the film used varied in quality which adds to the documentary feel and look of many of the images. Natural lighting is used with no gimmicks, no flashbacks, and no special effects to create a humanistic and simple approach to the film. Innovative for its time upwards facing shots were used to create drama and danger. Shots looking down upon the Germans created a view point those looking down from apartment windows in fear. When Manfredi was tortured the lighting was stark and dramatic, with strong use of light and dark. Shadows cast to create a 'film noir' feel and look to the scenes, emphasising the fear and drama. Music is used sparingly to build drama and close ups are also used for the same effect. Editing uses simple transitions from one scene to the other using ‘wipes’ occasionally. Much symbolism is entwined into the plot with the careful positioning of buildings, religious icons and symbols, uniforms, pose, stature etc.

Day 64 Tuesday 28th February 2012 The Commission (Tutorial-Research)

Tuesday 28th February 2012 The Commission (Tutorial) 10:00 with Steffi Klenz (SK)

Last night I printed out a blog and ensured my contact sheets were in my document case and ensured my blog was u to date regarding my progress regarding this project. Four members of team one attended (one being sick) and the session lasted about an hour and a half with each of us explaining our ideas and progression.

Steffi advised that I look at the following photographers/artists: Jane & Louise Wilson (Sealander)

Jane & Louise Wilson (Sealander)  http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/photography%20%26%20film/art52708

Jane & Louise Wilson (Sealander)  http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/photography%20%26%20film/art52708

Jane & Louise Wilson (Sealander)  http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/photography%20%26%20film/art52708

My own images

My own images 

My own images 

My own images 

Interestingly I have previously photographed  bunkers myself in locations Jane & Louise Wilson and especially Paul Virilio have also shot.

Also I was advised to look at: Erasmus Schroter (who I have blogged via Edvardus informative research) This work is beautiful and architectural with artificial colour/lighting used to transform the subject matter.

http://stylemetothemoon.com/scapes/bunker-fascination/

Also Tacita Deans 'Spound Mirrors' project from 1999 http://www.mariangoodman.com/exhibitions/2000-02-22_tacita-dean/  This work is interesting but Sound Mirrors only exist on the south coast and thus fall outside the remit of the brief, also I am aware that they were covered by another student on the previous environment project, so I will continue to try to meet the location requirements of this latest brief in relation to my subject matter.

I've slso found the following research information interdependently(via this website http://culturalpolitics.dukejournals.org/content/7/1/79.full): 


The defensive systems of fortified bunkers built during the twentieth century have become, especially since the end of the Cold War, objects of troubled fascination for artists, architects, and archaeologists. Images of bunkers proliferate in contemporary art and photography, and the heritage business has become increasingly interested in exploiting public curiosity towards the remains of recent conflict. This article positions current work about bunkers within the context of postwar debates surrounding modernist aesthetics – minimalism in art, brutalism in architecture – and the latent connection between modernist concerns regarding shape, form, and materials and military construction. Recent interest in bunkers is linked, it is argued, to the ongoing reappraisal of postwar modernist art and architecture and its relationship not only to the violence of World War Two but to the secrecy and passive aggression of the Cold War. As such, the bunker as a site of power in much of the work discussed is approached not merely as an historical artifact but as a deeply ambivalent structure that speaks to contemporary anxieties regarding the location and accountability of the systems of authority and control the bunker represents.


The bunker is both anomalous and ubiquitous in contemporary culture, the embodiment of contradictory implications that, as Jacques Austerlitz says, “betray the degree of our insecurity.” One of the most compelling contradictions that bunkers appear to articulate and which animates much of the cultural work about them is the sense that bunkers are at the same time necessary and useless. The solidity of the reinforced bunker invokes both the power of the weapons it is intended to repel and something of the folly of the attempt to seek any sort of shelter from them. As such, the bunker is both a sign of industrialized warfare and of there being no escape from it. The continuing fascination with Hitler's bunker has its source not only in the imagined thoroughness with which Nazi space was militarized, but in the fact that it ultimately offered no protection. The satisfaction in knowing that Hitler could not secret himself from Allied assault gives the lie to the bunker's promise of security but in doing so inadvertently also calls into question the usefulness of the bunker as defensive redoubt. Hitler himself had already demonstrated this by steering his invasion of France around the Maginot Line.

The bunker's redundancy as a mode of defense is seemingly confirmed by the remains of thousands of pillboxes, blockhouses, fallout shelters, flak towers, observation posts, gun turrets, command centers, and test sites that litter cities, coastlines, and landscapes from rural East Anglia to Kinmen Island in the Taiwan Strait. These are the ruins of the twentieth century, of ideologies, conflicts, and dreams of mastery through reinforced concrete. Yet the reassuring pastness of the ruin's conventional aesthetic function is not so easily achieved by the wrecked or abandoned bunker, which continues to shape and structure affective responses to the environment within which it squats.




This series of bunker images (in link below) were created by photographer Uta Kogelsberger (http://www.utakogelsberger.com/work/bunker/index.htm)

“Like beached whales the blockhouses in Uta Kögelsberger’s photographs appear washed up on the sand. Functionless, decaying, desolate, they are reabsorbed into the landscape.” Francesca Fuchs
http://www.photofusion.org/gallery/photography/exhibitions/past/archive/kogelsberger/kogelsberger.htm

Uta Kögelsberger 

Uta Kögelsberger 

Magdalena jetelová also has an interesting series of bunker images and text. (http://www.jetelova.de/projects/atlanticwall/modul.html)

Magdalena jetelová 

Magdalena jetelová 

Day 63 Monday 27th February 2012 Fashion Constructed Image weekly Production meeting

Monday 27th February 2012 Fashion Constructed Image weekly Production meeting

As usual we held our weekly meeting using the agenda and miniting the meetings (created by myself). Actions were reviewed and new actions agreed,



Team One


Production Meeting Agenda 27th February

Apologies- None


1. Minutes. Checked and agreed all ok


2. Review individual actions from previous meeting.

· Action: SS to investigate wallpapers further and acquire prices

· Action: MW to acquire year planner and populate

· Both of the above tasks have been pushed back to our next meeting (Action both to complete by then)

3. Narrative Tutorial/Basic set build workshop outcomes and options.

· As a team we discussed the output of both Sam Chicks (SC) Tutorial and Colin Jacksons (CS) workshop, CS had explained that sequencing was of upmost importance. Colin stated that once you have the set designed all the details such as: props, costume, and decor, colour schemes, all come next. From this idea we discussed further our model of the set, we agreed on a more dynamic angle into which the camera/viewer would look into the room. Out of this discussion we drew out ideas and AO took an action to try these options using the model she had created.

· We reiterated the desire for the room to continue to have a western (Anglo American) theme with an Asian female model.

· LN introduced the team to a potential model during the meeting

· AO and SS discussed decor to some depth and it was agreed that they would work together to bring some more detailed selections forward in a visual format as soon as possible.

· We also discussed the type of documents being viewed by the male character in our image and from this a fuller props list was discussed. SS showed a profession props source and we agreed this was a good fall back, should we be unable to source what we needed ourselves. SS spoke to the company during the meeting to discuss prices etc

· Action: AO to try alternate window positions/points of view (by next meeting)

· Action: LN plans to complete a detailed blog entry on what was taught at CS’s Set Build workshop (as soon as possible)

· Action: AO and SS to work together to bring some more detailed selections forward in a visual format as soon as possible

· Action: All to start to look for free/available props

4. Set Design/Models. This was covered during discussion of items in the previous agenda point (3)


5. Collaboration. We have the offer of assistance from Tom Williams via LN, Tom is a fashion student at UCA Rochester with a background in hairdressing as well.

  A.O.B. (lead reports)

· IW proposed that due to mounting work load we increase number of meetings to two per week, all agreed and MW proposed this Thursday 1st March as the best day (due to workshops) All agreed

Day 63 Monday 27th February 2012 The Commission

Monday 27th February 2012 The Commission

After Michael's Time Machine Lecture I processed two colour films, and created the contact sheets for those. I also scanned all of the negatives this evening.

Dockyard

Dockyard

Dockyard

Dockyard

Hoo

Hoo

Hoo

Day 63 Monday 27th February 2012 Time Machine (Full brief)

Monday 27th February 2012 Time Machine

Today the brief was issued complete with a full description of the task in hand.

There are two components to the assessment. An Essay and supporting Research and Development Powepoint as described below. Both components must be submitted in order to pass the assignment

Written critical assignment 40% (LO3)

You are asked to produce a 2,000 word written assignment. Choose an example of contemporary visual culture from within your own area of study. Discuss ways in which historical and cultural perspectives might be used to interpret its meaning. In your response, make reference to key ideas encountered in the lecture programme. Specific attention should be paid to academic conventions.

Research and development 60% ( LO1) ( LO2)
You will submit a research document in the form of a Powerpoint presentation. Important: Powerpoint’s MUST satisfy the following research criteria:

1) A clear introduction to your presentation, which should include the different
published sources you have used and your reasons for choice. You should use
no less than 5 published sources to inform your presentation. These should not
be Wikipedia references.

2) A clear definition of key ideas relating to your given topic, with supporting
evidence in the form of, no less than, 3 quotations from 3 different published
sources. Quotations must be interpreted and their importance discussed, they
should also be referenced correctly using the Harvard method.

3) The cultural context (political and social) in which the topic came out of/was in
reaction to.

4) An illustrated ‘who’s who’ of key individuals associated with given topic, with a
clear explanation of what you think their significance is and why.

5) Historical examples of key words/images/artefacts associated with given topic
and an assessment of their importance.

6) Contemporary examples of key words/images/artefacts associated with given
topic and a comparison to the historical examples.

7)A ‘bullet point’ conclusion.

8) A bibliography and illustration list correctly set out using the Harvard method

Free Day Sunday 26th February 2012 The Time Machine

Today I spent quite a while catching up with several outstanding blog entries and tweaking others.

I also watched the DVD 'Rome Open City' which is one of the listed films we are to review by the first March. I'll watch this again and start my notes. I plan to complete this task on Wednesday 29th February

Tomorrow I plan to take in my two exposed films and process those (The Commission project images)

I'll also complete an agenda for tomorrows Fashion Constructed Image projects production meeting and publish that in the dropbox.

Free Day Saturday 25th February The Commission (Hoo Shoot)

February The Commission (Hoo Shoot)

Today I visited three of the bunkers that I had researched on Thursday (and last night). This involved a trip from Dartford to the Hoo Peninsular and thankfully the preparation worked well and I was able to locate the bunkers.  The long walk to remote locations was made easier by the fact I was assisted by a good friend (Jenna). I shot using my Mamiya RZ67 on a 90mm and 65mm lens using colour film. Blog images were taken (As usual) on the G11 just to record events.

1st Bunker which is a Type FW3-24 is three quarters of the way down this road, Kingsnorth Power Station in the distant background.

1st Bunker three quarters of the way down this road, Kingsnorth Power Station in the distant background.

Close-up of the Type FW3-24 Pillbox

Opposite side of the Type FW3-24 (complete with plenty of litter). Image Care of Jenna Williams

Image Care of Jenna Williams

Image Care of Jenna Williams

Inside First Bunker/Pillbox Type FW3-24, with an idea of how trashed these bunkers generally are.

Second and third bunkers on the 'sea wall' Hoo. this is in fact the Medway rather than the sea. Image Care of Jenna Williams

Bunker two (Type 28 pillbox and anti-tank cubes), this is an anti tank bunker that would have housed a six pounder anti tank gun (this image is the rear of the bunker). Image Care of Jenna Williams

Inside Bunker two (Type 28 pillbox and anti-tank cubes) showing opening for anti tank gun, the inside was full of litter. Image Care of Jenna Williams

Me inside bunker two (Type 28 pillbox and anti-tank cubes), complete with litter. Image Care of Jenna Williams

Bunker three which is a Type 24 (complete with more litter!) Image Care of Jenna Williams http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-505302-type-24-wwii-pillbox-on-seawall-of-river

Bunker three (Kingsnorth Power Station in the background) Image Care of Jenna Williams. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-505302-type-24-wwii-pillbox-on-seawall-of-river

Image Care of Jenna Williams

After the shoot i decided to visit the Royal Engineers museum in Chatham http://www.re-museum.co.uk/ to see if they had any information on display about local fortifications. They had a display on Upnor Castle, and a nice model of a German Atlantic wall bunker as seen in my previous blogs. But nothing specific to the type of bunkers I'd been photographing today. What they did have was a rare weapon used in Cliffe Fort, one of the initial locations I researched, the 'Brennan torpedo'. Interesting that the weapon itself should be in a museum but the fort itself has been left to decay.

Brennan torpedo as used at Cliffe Fort

Brennan Information

German Bunker

German Bunker design

Upnor Castle

Day 62 Friday 24th February 2012 HD1 workshop

Friday 24th February 2012 HD1 workshop with JS and SP
 http://www.hasselblad.co.uk/

Items needed for today's workshop and assessment (which I passed).

1. Hasselblad H1D Body and lens
2. Imagebank x1
3. Link Cable x1
4. Firewire (FW) 400 Lead
5. Handgrip (usually supplied with HD1 body)
6. Quicl Release Plate
7. Block (Wooden)
8. Tripod bush
9. Light meter
10. Grey card

Set Up

1. Turn Mac on
2. Set up Folder Hierarchy (Must be on desktop)
3. Attach Firewire cable from Mac to Imagebank
4. Attach Link cable fom Imagebank to Sensor Socket on Camera
5. Route cable over tripod
6. Turn on camera
7. Launch 'Phocus' (Always at the END, this is the last step ALWAYS)- Navigate to destination folder

If you have a red light on the imagebank this indicates a problem, seek help.

ALWAYS use a low voltage flash system such as Broncolor or Metz

The Hassleblad HD1 set up (note 'User' button set to focus lens via a custom setting). I found the autofucus  cumbersome with the shallow depth of field we were using.

Front of the system (flash sync on the LH side, conventional viewfinder set up, battery in the handgrip on the RH side, display panel on the RH side using a menu system and contol wheels to navigate the menus, with duel purpose command buttons)

One of the 'Phocus' system screens

If I look grumpy I had an epic back pain (which makes learning more difficult) and I suffered all day

Menu screen showing destination folders on the RH side

The 'Fast JPEG file option selected here (rather than the RAW)

Pop up screen displaying thumbnail

Day 61 Thursday 23rd February 2012 The Commission (Further research)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7698159.stm

http://www.kenthistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=10524.0

http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1549971&sort=2&type=&rational=a&class1=1&period=None&county=693349&district=786118&parish=None&place=chatham&recordsperpage=10&source=text&rtype=&rnumber=&p=3&move=n&nor=39&recfc=0
Two possible circular Type 25 pillboxes of Second World War date, situated near the eastern gate of Lodge Hill Ordnance Depot (Monument 1077634) have been mapped from aerial photographs as part of the English Heritage: Hoo Peninsula Landscape Project. The pillboxes are located immediately to the east of part of the Hoo Stop Line (Monument 1542577, 1542630, 1542646) where it crosses Dux Court Road. They were aligned along the road, 10m apart, and had diameters of 3.6m and 4.3m. The structures described in this record were very small and indistinct, and were only visible on photographs taken in 1944. The two pillboxes probably formed part of the in depth defences associated with both the Stop Line and the Ordnance Depot. Several other pillboxes (Monuments 1441600, 1545475, 1544248) have been recorded in the immediate vicinity.


http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-505302-type-24-wwii-pillbox-on-seawall-of-river
I've found further bunkers located outside of Cliffe Woods:
http://www.pillbox-study-group.org.uk/
http://www.ww2museums.com/article/23839/Pillbox-FW3-24-Cliffe-Woods.htm
http://graintowerbattery.co.uk/#
http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=49282

Research material

Link to Jonathan Andrews website, and further images of his bunker series below


http://www.jonathanandrewphotography.com/#p=-1&a=0&at=0

http://www.en.ozartsetc.com/2011/04/02/wwii-bunkers-by-jonathan-andrew/

http://www.en.ozartsetc.com/2011/04/02/wwii-bunkers-by-jonathan-andrew/

http://www.en.ozartsetc.com/2011/04/02/wwii-bunkers-by-jonathan-andrew/

http://www.en.ozartsetc.com/2011/04/02/wwii-bunkers-by-jonathan-andrew/