https://drive.google.com/file/d/101VoWtQMSDBaF1mp7Oyzh15xL7O96788/view?usp=sharing

I have appropriated someone else’s song in order to create my own film. To view the film, click the link above.

I filmed all of the footage for this project before I even decided what I wanted the sound to consist of.  I felt uncomfortable appropriating someone else’s work in my film but due to the approaching deadline I didn’t have much scope for other options. I have also put my own sounds over the top, and cut a few bars out of the middle section of the song to allow the film to be shorter. The fantastic thing about using a pre made song was that I was able to use it as a structure. As my film has no particular narrative, the song was an integral framework for my editing.  In the context of this first film I think it is justified as I don’t intend to use it for commercial purposes. I plan to make another, longer film with more of the footage I didn’t use for this initial one and I will avoid using someone else’s music because apart from the fact that getting copy rights can be a difficult process, I like the idea that the whole thing is my own intellectual property. My view is that I wouldn’t want someone else to use my work and take the creative credit for it, and therefore in this instance I feel uncomfortable doing the same thing to someone else.

Here you can see a woman in the back of a car with a man’s arm around her shoulders. She looks away from him, her expression is sombre. There is a large gap between the two of them and the man’s face and body is cropped out of the frame. The distance between the two figures appears to be not only physical but there’s also a great emotional distancing. This photograph is one of a series called ‘Parts’, in which Lee has photos of herself in different scenarios with different men and in every case the man is cropped out of the photo, apart from a nondescript part of his body, commonly his arm. I feel like Lee might be making a point about the fact that there is always more to a story than what one can see at a glance. Even though this is a photograph, and the nature of it is still and silent, I can imagine that this car journey was almost as silent as the photograph itself. There appears to be some sort of disdain and discomfort coming from Lee towards the man in the car. He desires more intimacy and she does not want to comply. Lee may have made this photo to highlight how many women feel trapped in relationships that aren’t good for them. There’s no obvious evidence that he has physically abused her but the distant look in her eyes looks like she could be close to tears. There is not any amount of affection left for him. It doesn’t seem like a temporary argument, this photo seems to represent a long term scenario. The way Lee has used the technique of cropping a larger image effectively visually emphasises the sense of unease and discomfort.

Anon, (2017). [online] Available at: https://nmwa.org/blog/2013/11/01/fluid-identities-the-parts-and-projects-of-nikki-lee/ [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].

Tonkonow.com. (2017). Nikki S. Lee. [online] Available at: http://www.tonkonow.com/lee_parts.html [Accessed 6 Dec. 2017].