This week was exciting as I finally got to use the green screen.Brough my friend with me because she is great at filming and has filmed stuff for me for years.It turs out you need to book the equitment for the green screen prior but the woman that runs the AV store was happy enough to just lend us out the equitment there and then.We used a Cannon DSLR to take some stills and a sony camcorder on a tripod for the rest.

Our main concern was getting the table onto the right part of the floor and the mess that would be created from the mucus covering the floor but it turnsout the paint table that we used was so long that it never traveled off of it even tho we used plastic sheeting and blue paper towel.

A concern I should of had was the fact I was wearing green which some how bypassed me even tho I work as an extra on the side and know the rules about not wearing green for the green screen.I was also suprised that my friend didn’t remember this either.I spose to the i.t technician and he managed to get the green to become a grungy brown which still looked disgusting but would people get the idea of it meaning to be mucus and would it matter too much whether it was percieved as mucus?And prehaps it was just fine with it looking disgusting as I would still recieve the reaction I was looking for in the first place but maybe not the understanding.

I would say I was pretty much contend with the shots especially the part where i move my head around in the costume gave a particulary eerie feel.I also liked the ending where I threw my hands up in the air.Looking back tho I do think it would of been good to of looked at an invisable watch as if to look at the time it was taking the mucus to spread.I think the use of mucus was a good idea because altho not every person who gets covid has the mucus in there throat and chest it is a very well known symptom of it and what causes the total dog bark style cough.The way the mucus slowly seeps between the cups was a great way of showing how the infection spreads and how it particualry happened at house parties/partying as red cups in America in particular are connected with house parties which links in with the interview with taylor talking about how her housemate had been going to parties and spread the covid amongst them.

My original idea was to have taylor cone in and wear this ‘anonymous’ amazon bag (due to the shame and stigma of having had covid) on her had which allready has a sad face due to the Amazon arrow so I just folded the top of the bag to make it even more so and to have her bitch about her flatmate with it on whilst i antogonise her more so by telling her what her flatmate had been known to of said about her. Then I hoped to switch from the video of taylor to the video of the covid monster and as she talks about the tension building between her and her flatmate the cup fills to filling point anf overflows and to have a close up on that but the i.t technician had said that this could end up rather blurry.My tutor had also mentioned having a lay over of taylors voice on top of the video and the mucus from the jug to move in slow motion.

Sadly,Taylor didn’t turn up to the green screen for her shoot but after listening to taylor ranting about her flatmate again i decided to there and then iterview her and get her to let it all out.She thought it would be better if it was scripted but I thought it was much better when she just improvised and went with how she was feeling there and then.Taylor had memtioned getting hold of the voive recording machine as the recording would be much higher quality if i just decided to use her voice so i will do that later on in the week and experiement with what would work better.

Rachel Maclean Green Screen Workshop.

On Friday I went to see the Rachel Maclean installation and took part int he workshop.I have allwasy been a fan of her work so was great to see her installation a public high street and listen to the reactions that the staff had had from memebers of the public and how a higher majority of people had been curious and loved it then not. Altho my expectations were that i would be learning more about how to use the green screen it was more just a fun workshop and making objects from found items that could be used on the green screen.WHich I had a whole lot of fun with and made the ‘baggy wifes for lyf’ and a family including a baby which i acted out a scene with on the green screen (which had been kindly donated by Rachel Maclean and we were told we could use the green screen for free at the weekends where we would be guided on what to do and how to use it.I thought this would be a good idea altho i wouldn’t be able to use it untill after xmas due to work.

I loved the initative of the whole project and that it was there to educate nto only the public on contemporary art in a place where contemporay art wouldn’t ever reach but also high school children as I think that this is extrememly important considering how it is completely missed out in the curriculum and yet children are expected to come straight from highschool and to know what they are doing.It made me realise more then ever how i would love to run classes within the community and how important art education is,especially in an era where the arts has been ‘dismissed’ by goverment.

Above is my friend wearing the Morph suit for the greenscreen and the ‘Baggy family’ the found object activity was such a great idea for groups and I imagine high school children would of loved it.