Creative Journal
As with the previous two units – I plan to keep a Creative Journal for the duration of my FMP. I find this a useful way of documenting my thoughts and ideas, to refer back to as I progress through this last chunk of the FAD course.
Planning
My to-do lists, and project schedule are documented on the following page.
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Research & References
For my FMP I will be collating research notes and references onto a separate page, to be able to easily return to them as required. This page also includes my bibliography.
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Pecha Kucha & Project Proposal
At the beginning of the process we were asked to each create a Pecha Kucha (short presentation) of our FMP concept at this stage, before presenting them to a group of other student-artists, and our tutor – for feedback, which we in turn reflected on. The presentation, and reflection, formed the basis of my Final Major Project Proposal.
Remember Something London
Experimental Processes
Shift in Ideas
As predicted, there are aspects of my FMP Proposal that have evolved beyond the original ‘archiving memories of London’ concept. In short – candid responses are hard to gather. The questionnaire I created has been a great starting point for my ideas, references and inspiration for the project as a whole. London, too, continues to be my biggest influence. This combined with a lot of the photography and videography research I’ve done has lead me further into the realms of accurate documentation. I’ll be a bit more specific to say – I wish to leave illustration to the side, at least for now, and explore the use of photography and film as a means of documenting places and times.
Following some other forms of documenting my surroundings, such as taking down snippets of overheard conversations in specific locations – which I explored during ‘Documentation 20.03.2026’, and the day-long project To/From/To – A Walk – this will be another consideration I make as I begin this next part of my FMP journey.
In spite of all the inspiration, I have felt somewhat disappointed that I haven’t had more reasons to explore London. I wasn’t expecting to receive a great number of results from my questionnaire, and did predict I would at some point have a shift in ideas, out of boredom, or necessity as I may lack contributions to act on in order to produce what I perceive as an impressive/ worthy body of work for a project of this scale.
So, it was back to brainstorming, more or less, which I regularly call on peers for – to help me ‘think aloud’.
At this point I had been researching Essay Films, and already liked the idea of documenting something about London from my own perspective – perhaps with a fictional angle. No doubt utilising montage sequences that I’m already fond of collating and editing – having begun to undertake something similar for a poetry project about London that I began work on in 2024.
I still felt a little uncertain of which direction I should push the project into – I considered tracing my own experiences throughout London, however, I was swayed away from this idea down to the lack of coverage West London would get – I still wouldn’t be discovering anywhere new, and perhaps that particular challenge was too fitting/ specific to myself. After all, I am interested not just in my own perspective of London, but also how London is perceived by others – thereby creating more scope for argument, conversation, and my own new experiences throughout my FMP journey.
With this in mind, I had a discussion with my tutor in which I established what I would most like to pursue is the documentation of (Greater) London itself. I will explore how I find or see myself within the inevitable various contexts that will come from documenting such a widespread, and diverse capital city. It seems logical then, considering also that I wish to undertake somewhat of a challenge, to see how many Greater London town centres I can visit and document within the FMP time constraints. It may even be a project that continues past this point, although, I of course hope to get to each of the 241 town centres listed in the London Plan 2021.
Title Changes
Having had a few more ideas relating to my FMP, I have decided to change the title of my project to This London. This is still a working title at this stage, but one I feel more accurately supports the concept for my intended piece. Other ideas I had considered, but later disregarded included – “My London“, and “– for him, for her, for, them, for you, and for me.” I felt they were accurate for the sentiment of my work, and the basis of my thinking, which ultimately has lead to the altering of my proposed idea, however, I think that a shorter, slightly more ambiguous title embodies more the essence of London, and the sometimes vast differences between people, and places in the city.
I have been experimenting with various forms of documentation, by creating few different archival elements, per trip around London to document as many town centres as possible (hopefully all 241) – I’m keen to not limit myself, and what I can produce at this stage by choosing just one single medium/ discipline, or format for display.
For the foreseeable length of my FMP (and, of course, it may adjust still) I will be continuing to film town centres, and documenting overheard conversations. I’m not entirely set on how or whether or not I will be including these collected quotes in my FMP – and so I plan to continue experimenting with techniques or methods of displaying these, along with the location they were heard in. I find that paying attention to my surroundings in this way helps me to stay grounded and focused on what’s happening in the moment.
I will also be documenting the routes I take on each of my trips to film, by drawing out my journey, and including stops made to film, and details of transport. Above all I’m really enjoying the process of remembering and recording where I have been. It feels I am gaining more geographical knowledge of London, and this is definitely a reason I wish to continue with the process.
An additional material I am working on for my FMP outcome, is an A5 sized, 38 page, booklet in which I am typing the quotes I overhear as I make my way around, documenting town centres.
Experimental Processes .2
This London: The Making Of
Why an ‘Essay Film’?
I feel I should acknowledge the ‘why’ of my FMP, given that it has changed considerably from my initial Proposal idea. I have decided to create an essay film, as an artistic documentation of my own experiences within London, a city which I love but am aware it’s not always a favourable place to live. Personally I have always found London to feel like home, and this is something I am trying to put across through the dialogue I have written to be the main audio for my project.
I feel as though in the original stages of my FMP I was very much hoping to gain responses to my anonymous online questionnaire that would in essence allow me to create visuals representing others’ experiences of London. To put it bluntly – I was disappointed with the amount of responses I didn’t receive from my questionnaire, however, in turn felt inspired and driven to ‘show up’ for myself.
I took on board what pleased me most about the responses I did gather – being that the overall reflections on experiences had in London were positives. In the two examples of ‘negative’ experiences I had recorded from my questionnaire, they were not comments I dismissed or disagreed with. On the contrary, I felt I understood entirely the argument that was put forward in terms of why these experiences weren’t described as ‘positive’ – London isn’t for everyone. It’s overwhelming and full of constant change, in fact the only constant often seems to be the degree to which things increase in expense here. Nevertheless – I can’t seem to get enough of it all.
I have enjoyed reading essays throughout my year on the FAD course, however, I have several times found the formal literary decisions made within written essays to be elitist and feel quite isolating for someone such as myself – who can perhaps put on a formal tone in order to articulate my point, and yet often struggles to understand complex grammar. This was something I felt I wanted to confront somewhere within my work, albeit I wasn’t quite sure how I would tackle such an endeavour.
Within my essay film I wanted to ensure my argument was understandable to as many people as I am able to convey it to. This included me using colloquial language and dialectical phrases. A lot of the time I was unaware of myself adding in as many ‘you know’s as I did – although I wrote a script that I followed when recording dialogue, I allowed myself to be familiar enough with what I wanted to say that at times I would be able to embellish my point.
An influential aspect when considering how wished to present myself and my views within the film was to take on board comments from the essay In Search of the Centaur: The Essay-Film, Phillip Lopate, in which a basic summation of the content of an essay film was discussed and I particularly kept the point of a ‘for’ and ‘against’ in my mind as I showcased my own first person experiences and opinions.
Another two big influences that I must mention are the podcast Strangers on a Bench and the docu-series How To With John Wilson. Both of these shows hugely influenced the style in which I chose to portray myself. I wanted to come across as myself – the person I am for my accepted differences, as well as the things that make me like anyone else who could be watching/ listening.
Disruptions
As I progressed with my Final Major Project, visiting as many listed London Town Centres as I could and documenting as I went, in true style of life, a positive opportunity to move house came suddenly and I found myself taking up the offer. This meant me having to compromise how much time I was able to spend travelling and filming for my FMP. At first I felt reluctant to renegotiate any of my plans, however, as more time passed and therefore less time remained to move house or complete my FMP – I decided to focus on editing the footage I had gathered so far. By that point I had been to seventy town centres listed in the London Plan, and had as many videos, plus extras that I had taken in between destination points, and I deemed this enough to at least make a start.
Production Stages
This London – The Final Film
Feedback & Reflection
I have now sent my completed film to a few peers – both creatives and non-creatives, and on the whole have received very positive feedback.
Most commonly people have been telling me that after watching my essay film they feel a longing for London and a sense of pride and nostalgia. This pleases me greatly as I therefore feel I have presented my argument well. I feel have no specific target audience in terms of whether my essay film is aimed at people who like, or instead don’t like London. My film is for people like myself who are interested in engaging, even if only for a moment. Perhaps that moment can become a moment longer than usual, or lead to another moment engaging in the world around them (‘them’ being the people viewing my work). This is a concept I am considering in more detail as I plan for the FAD Final Exhibition.
When I consider the work that has gone into my FMP I feel very proud, and satisfied with the efforts I have put in. I feel excited to share the film with people; not least for the message I believe I am putting out about London for me. I hope people see it as an invitation to love and be loved, no matter the reputation of the place in which you live – hectic, noisy, and polluted as it may be.
Aesthetically – I am also pleased. Coming into the world of a Canon Camera with literally no more experience than a one-day workshop on Experimental Photography at the end of 2025, but a whole lot of enthusiasm for the medium and the subject, too. I like the idea that anyone can achieve what I have achieved with the making of my film – and I’m no more entitled, or qualified to make a film about London than most other inhabitants; in fact I’d love to see and listen to others’ direct filmic responses to This London. Again, this “anyone-can” attitude is something I wish to take forward into the exhibition stages of my Final Major Project.
Exhibition Planning
There have been several factors that I have taken into consideration when deciding how best to exhibit my Final Major Project –
- Audience access
- Audience engagement
- Other artist’s spaces
- Not over-complicating, or detracting from the film itself
- Aiding the message of the film – community, peace, and harmony within London (the main subject of the film & the location of the exhibition)
Something that I’ve previously noticed from having shared video work with peers, both creative and non-creative, is the level of engagement which people naturally give to watching a film, particularly in an environment that is either unfamiliar, or overly familiar. For example – it is my experience that people will naturally look away when confronted with a black/ blank screen, even if there is dialogue playing. This is sometimes even seen as a moment to speak over the film.
Whilst I do not want to dismiss or discredit open discussion about the work I have created – my messages within the film are my personal beliefs. Beliefs that I share in order to hopefully contribute toward a better, more open, communicative society.
I have therefore made considerations on how I can engage with audiences on an individual level, to hopefully convey the positive messages the film aims to bring about.
This itself was a decision influenced by a question I received in the initial FMP Pecha Kucha sharing –
Will it be something people can view individually, or something to just glance over?
This all ultimately lead to my decision to showcase my film on a portable DVD player I purchased specifically. The screen and DVD drive are one connected unit – aesthetically it’s the same as a small, but chunky, laptop. It’s very light, which is ideal as I will be inviting the audience to pick up the device should they wish, and adjust so they are able to see the screen clearly. This I plan to do on a single piece of notepaper, taped to the plinth on which the DVD player stands.
There will be one set of headphones placed on the plinth, on a hook – and again, the audience will be invited (one at a time) to put the headphones on and listen to/ watch the film. Alongside the invitational message, there will be clear instructions on how to operate the DVD player, and a request to reset the dvd/ device when it has been used ahead of the next audience member.
I had initially planned to provide hand-written instructions to accompany/ aid the watching of my film, however, after a few attempts at trying to write in a perfectly readable handwriting, without making any mistakes (three attempts), I remembered that I had previously downloaded the typeface P22 Underground – which is styled on the official typeface TfL use – Johnstone22, designed first by Edward Johnstone, and has since been modified. I decided this typeface would be as fitting, and it would be much less difficult to perfect the leading and kerning if I was able to use Adobe InDesign.
My original thought was that the handwritten message may show how dedicated I am to delivering the message of my film – though it felt a bit of a stretch, and could run the risk of just looking like a last-minute decision to include some text. I really like that the official-looking font I did use makes my painted, white plinth look even more like an official pillar for information. I’m glad I chose to keep/ repaint the plinth white because I think another colour or any more detail on it could detract from the film itself. This was also something that came to min when considering what I would play my film via for the exhibition. I think the portable DVD player works well, the screen quality isn’t brilliant of course – it’s quite an old piece of kit. However, to me personally, it feels suitably nostalgic, in keeping with the tone of my film as a whole. The portability of the DVD player, and the use of headphones was also a consideration I made to thereby stand more chance of gaining undivided attention for the message of the film when it’s being engaged with, as it is a 1:1 experience for the audience member (and the message of the film, undisturbed).
I included a request at the end of the typed instructions, to reset the video and device after use, ready for the next viewer. This feels reminiscent of honesty-boxes and local street-box libraries that are occasionally seen around, less often in London admittedly, but they certainly do exist here. I like the instant request from the work on the viewer to essentially start as we should all mean to go on – by helping, and communicating with each other.