The Colleen’s Bawn: Single Projection [Film Loop]

password: movingimage

A film by Katie Carson.

Voiceover: Abie Dickey Bass Player: Alan Shields

The Colleen’s Bawn, [from the Irish – bábhún - meaning “cattle-stronghold” or defensive wall surrounding a farmland protecting the family, cattle and property from attack] is a multi-disciplinary video projection about the controversial dichotomy: The State versus the Individual. It deals specifically with the lack of women’s reproductive rights in Northern Ireland. The viewer’s reality of time is manipulated through the moving image medium creating a complex temporal zone between past and present. A meditative quality is created through the camera gliding in and out of different frames. Visual and textual manifestations raise ethical issues Northern and Southern Irish women face. Painting and drawing elements are presented as expressive animations which include sombre imagery. Presented in the stark landscape of Ulster, spanning the North/ South border, with an abandoned farmhouse, the audience is suddenly exposed to a room – a clinical stark exhibition space. A narrator shares a woman’s musings on evolution and reproductive rights accompanied by an experimental soundtrack.

Media Used: Canon 5D, Ronin Gimbal DJI, 35mm, Stop-Motion Animation, Super 8

‘The Colleen’s Bawn’ Statement

The Colleen’s Bawn, [from the Irish – bábhún - meaning “cattle-stronghold” or defensive wall surrounding a farmland protecting the family, cattle and property from attack] is a multi-disciplinary video projection about the controversial dichotomy: The State versus the Individual. It deals specifically with the lack of women’s reproductive rights in Northern Ireland.

Unlike other parts of the UK, Britain’s ‘1967 Abortion Act’ does not extend to Northern Ireland. The Eighth Amendment to the Irish Constitution in the South fulfills a similar pre-1967 function but a referendum to change the constitutional position is being held on 25 May 2018. In essence, abortion is illegal in Ireland except in rare circumstances, limited to the early stages of pregnancy and only where there is a fatal foetal abnormality or the woman’s life is in imminent danger. The fact a pregnancy may be the result of rape or abuse is of no consequence. The fact of recent deaths in the South of women refused abortion is of no consequence. Women and those who assist them can face heavy criminal charges. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission argues that the law breaches the European Convention on Human Rights as it discriminates against women on grounds of gender and religion.

It is arguable that the “State” (both North and South) has abrogated its responsibilities to the individual, permitting the Church whether Protestant or Catholic, to continue to dictate a religious dogma, rather than providing for an inclusive approach incorporating a secular perspective. The pro-life voice is loud with the full backing of the religious constituency. Pro-choice advocates are pilloried.

This piece is not only very personal, but also developed from pessimism that there will ultimately be no improvement in the lack of rights for women in Ireland. It is elliptical, rather than documentary in style, seeking to create an interior personal reflection instead of adopting the more obvious polemic, evident in the strident debate.

The Colleen’s Bawn, is an amalgamation of video, photography, sound, and installation. I manipulate the viewer’s reality of time through the moving image medium creating a complex temporal zone between past and present. A meditative quality is created through the camera gliding in and out of different frames. Visual and textual manifestations raise ethical issues Northern and Southern Irish women face. Painting and drawing elements are presented as expressive animations which include sombre imagery.

Presented with the stark landscape of Ulster, spanning the North/ South border, with an abandoned farmhouse, the audience is suddenly exposed to a room – a clinical stark exhibition space. A narrator shares a woman’s musings on evolution and reproductive rights accompanied by an experimental soundtrack consisting of double bass, experimental synth and found sound rings out.

Multiple green screen frames hang in the room presenting a collage of visceral imagery and poetic text signifying a window into another world, time and space - enhancing the idea of separation between the framed videos and the barren setting of the piece. I use a collation of multiple technologies, 35mm scans, digital, stop-motion. A performance element is introduced with my manipulation of the Steadicam. A triptych with three ornate church windows begins the 35mm scan section. Every image carefully selected, represents my take on the natural vs the unnatural.

I wanted to capture the interior, emotional struggles that a woman may experience in such a situation. I had originally included moving image clips with pro-choice and pro-life interviews/demonstrations rather than a narration. However, as I continued to develop the piece I felt this detracted from the idea of internal and intense personal reflections, and excluded them, working on presenting my ideas through animation, 35mm stills and green screen and including the voice over.

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After rewatching this edit I want to change a number of things that stand out to me. Firstly, I find the sound at the end stark in comparison to the rest of the video, it does not seem to flow as well as the other parts and compliment the visuals how I would like it. Secondly, at 01:37 the zoom should be longer into the clinical gallery space so the edge of the window does not cut out it flows fluidly into the next tracking shot. Thirdly,  at 07:04 the tunnel moves ever so slightly in the small frame and I find this little move distracting. Finally, at 07:13 the small frame turns white instead of keeping on the animation so I will make the stop-motion stay there for longer.  1) More sound at the end 2) 01:37 - zoom into window more so the edge is not visible 3) 07:04 - the tunnel moves 4) 07:13 - small frame turns white/ keep animation in a frame for a second longer. 

Editing Sound

After watching back previous edits I decided to play around more with sound and voice. I wanted to use more sound effects I had recorded or found and repeat the bass lines from the still section throughout to make it the main sequence throughout. In essence, I want to create an experimental multi-layered soundtrack with a smooth meditative voice-over that ultimately flows the piece together.  I began by making the voiceover sound less dry/flat by adding reverb.  You can see the reverb settings and adjustments I used. I did not make the reverb overwhelming, I subtly added it. 

I did not like the opening pizzicato bass and have opted for using a more primitive, tribal sound from the Tuvan, Mongolian tribes - throat singing. I have picked throat singing due to the low range of notes the voice can create whilst amazingly singing drones and other strange effects. The tone of the low notes is also similar to the bass and I want to keep the majority of the sound in this range with obvious exceptions. 

PASSWORD: movingimage After a suggestion by my tutor to remove the plinth and lights, I did a re-edit and found that it flowed much better. There was no abrupt feeling of what is happening now due to the involvement of a plinth - it flows much more fluidly. I initially had worries about the order of the frames I go into and thought it would disrupt the continuity, but after editing and watching back numerous times I realised the frames are modes to present a new idea or theme. It does not matter if it goes into one frame and comes out of another - there is more of a sense of meditative qualities and floating through this “gallery space”.  Now that I have got the final visual version with some sound I will be focusing now on the soundtrack and make sure there are no abrupt volume changes in the audio/monologue. 

password - movingimage An edit with the sound not fully complete and the frame on the plinth included. I want the sound to compliment the stop-motion. When something appears on screen or disappears then a sound is heard in sync. 

How the Film Loop works.

Then back to the first shot. 

David Hockney, ‘Ordinary Picture’, 1964

This postcard on my bedroom wall, influenced me with this shot and the concept of windows into different scenes and videos. Hockney was one of the few to take up the challenge of Picasso and Braque’s cubism as a way of seeing the world. The conventional view was that cubism led to abstraction, so it was another means of making a picture, another ‘artistic device’. Hockney, in contrast, accepted that it could be more true to actual experience, because, he believes, we don’t really perceive in the way Renaissance fixed-point perspective presents a scene – nor as a single camera lens projects it. Human beings look from different directions, with two eyes, constantly moving, as we ourselves move around and look, as Hockney puts it, ‘with memory’. This is why Picasso may depict a figure’s front and back view in one image: in the picture you are moving around the subject, having thoughts and feelings about it, just as you would in life.

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Here is the final edit of my animation of “TWO NAKED BODIES”. 

I edited the original animation and keyed the background orange colour putting Super 8 footage as the new background - the animation background is meant to be a textural quality. This fits better with the voice over, “God gave them his blessing and said make earth full...men the sower”. I then changed the animation from colour to B&W as I felt it looked better and did not look right with the B&W Super 8 footage. I prefer this animation desaturated. 

Tutorial 4: 11th May

I got some good feedback and helpful comments on how to improve my piece: 1) Zoom into the window and then go straight to tracking shot forward 2) Have no lights in the shot 3) Create an edit without the plinth  4) Slow the animations down 5) Peak sound at -12 6) Render the zoom itself into the window then create another mask and put the frame shot in it. 

The Colleen’s Bawn

The title of my piece is, ‘The Colleen’s Bawn’ and I have picked this name for a number of reasons.

1) A bawn is the defensive wall surrounding a house and was used to protect the house, family, property, and cattle from attack. ‘Bawn’ is the anglicised version of the Irish word bábhún, possibly meaning "cattle-stronghold" or "cattle-enclosure". 

2) The name Colleen is a name used widely across Ireland North and South so felt it appropriate to use due to its heritage. The issues I discuss are purely specific to these regions. 

Childish Gambino, This Is America

Childish Gambino’s, This Is America released yesterday is very powerful and beautifully shot. The film is directed by Hiro Murai, Glover’s frequent collaborator on Atlanta, and it is indeed ballistic. I found it extremely appropriate and worth discussing here. I want to raise your awareness on a few points I find important. 

The video is shot in a stark clinical warehouse environment, this is the type of setting I have used. These spaces are eye-catching and a blank canvas for the artist/creator to work on a wide range of themes, ideas. The camera glides around the space - similar to the camera tracking slowly in and out of frames - using one-take Steadicam illusion shots. There are so many themes and representations of the black-community being portrayed, that you need to watch it numerous times to take everything in. This type of bombardment of imagery is something I hoped to have achieved in my piece, through the various mediums presenting new ideas. 

This video is simply not just about the music, it is also a performance, an artwork and a political tool used to raise awareness. 

In his seminal essay Manifesto of Surrealism, the poet and top propagandist for the surrealist movement André Breton describes surrealism as a resolution of what appears, prima facie, as the contradictory states of dream and reality into “a kind of absolute reality, a surreality”. Given this definition, surrealism seems an apt tool for expressing some of the trauma of black life, one that can provide means of portraying what can feel at once like an out-of-this-world nightmare and the far too commonplace.

Breton further defines surrealism as expression that is “psychic automatism in its pure state”, one absent of the control of reason or aesthetic or moral concern. At first glance, an automated response devoid of reason or moral concern describes the often fraught treatment of blacks by whites, actions that can’t be defended as reasonable or moral. The full definition of surrealism becomes a way to describe the “absolute reality” that exists at the intersection of black and white lives, which is to say our America. Part of Glover’s brilliance is his resistance to using his work to proselytize or offer advice on how to reconcile the America made of our disparate experiences within its borders. Instead, he invites his audience to examine both the fore and background of their lives, to pose questions.

Hiro Mirai, the director explains that it’s symptomatic of our global state of demoralization: “There’s sort of a world-weariness in both this season and the music video. They’re both reactions to what’s happening in the world.”

Found Sounds I Used

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Test Animation  Even though this animation took me a long time to do, I will not be using it -  I find it too cluttered, messy and does not illustrate what I want to portray. I may use a section of the video (the top left Section with the charcoal lines) in the green screen parts of another animation section. 

I do not like the water-colour parts of the video - it distracts me from the other more “primal” black and white drawings/ paintings.