When I originally videoed some clips for the film, I felt even though they were portraying my ideas, they weren't doing it in the most effective way. It could have been misinterpreted and seen as a contradiction against what I'm actually trying to display/ depict. I really liked the distorted effect I had created on my video of the 3D breast (3D Fun Bag in The Unknown.) I further researched artists who distorted their images and films. Once I researched about Pipilotti Rist's work - I'm Not The Girl Who Misses Much, I felt inspired to distort and deconstruct the images and videos I have taken of the female body as I think it will be more effective for my work and the message I'm trying to portray.
I want my videos to reflect subjectivity as a lot of this language refuses to accept or acknowledge women's selfhood and ipseity. I want it to show that I'm almost giving the viewer a snippet of what is being shown to them (what they want to see) but because it's so overly edited and fragmented, it can't be sexualised by them. This removes the control they have over the videos I will be creating as I'm in control of what they can see and it removes the risk of over sexualising/ objectifying myself and my work.
I edited this video with multiple different effects and filters. I think the overall out come of this clip is really playful and feminine. I really like the pink filters I've used as the colours look very vivid and acid-like. I altered the colour balance in the video too, to create a more pink fragmented image.
In this video, I didn't want to take too much away from what is actually happening. This video visualises the slang terms to describe breasts "Milk Jugs", I experimented with different ways in which I could distort it but felt it was taking too much away from the purpose of it. I decided to continue to change the colour balance of the video and further experiment with pink filters and washes but add less effects to ensure the milk is still visible. I also used a reverse effect which I think was very effective and will explore further.
I think combining overly edited video clips with videos that aren't as edited or explicit will be very effective as I want to edit them altogether eventually with some digital animations so I don't want to make the animations look out of place or underworked against the edited film.
There is more euphemistic slang exposed to women and girls than men. This is because women are thought/ expected to be ‘ladylike’ meaning they should be well mannered, polite and concerned about their elegance. Referring to your own genitalia with the correct language is far too common and soooo un-ladylike.
I created a short stop motion to visualise the phrase "Lady Garden". I really like how it shows the flowers being picked out one at a time, this could suggest that through highlighting these euphemisms and words used to describe women's genitalia, I am pulling these ridiculous ideals apart and embracing/ owning my own and other women's bodies for what they are.
Again, I used a pink filter as it's thought to represent femininity, playfulness and the ideal of being fragile. I think this only adds to my videos as through editing the clips, I'm making taking away the fragility of the videos and giving them a more distorted/ grotesque look.
I wanted to further distort/ experiment these videos by flipping them and changing the viewpoint so the videos become even more unrecognisable.
I really like how you can't quite tell what is going on in these videos, there are only small snapshots suggesting what's going on. I found this to work really well when exposing a lot of my body, especially when the posture and facial expressions in these videos could be thought to suggest sexual readiness. Through this, I didn't want to encourage the normalisation of female objectification.
I filmed all of these clips in my house, using my kitchen as the main location. I did this as my kitchen is painted pink and I thought it complimented the action in the videos.
I have thought of different ideas I can use to explore slang terms and phrases-
Women’s genitalia are defined by men as potential space or absence of land. (A Cave, A Hole, A Tunnel or the Grand Canyon.) So I could use this as inspiration to create another image/ film. Possibly exploring the use of a toy train track? Many men also describe women’s genitalia as containers or a place to put things in (Bucket, Box, Furry Letter Box, Slot, Honey Pot, Willy Warmer, Wank Shaft, Shag Box) Paradigmatic women are holes, spaces or containers that men want to fuck. I could create something similar to Sarah Lucas' work, where she uses a bucket to represent a vagina?
Abjection is another way women’s bodies have been viewed and the way women’s genitalia have been described constructs the idea that they are smelly, dirty, leaky and uncontained. (Dirt Box, Front Bum, Chopped Liver, Meat Seat, Smelly Hole, Stench Trench.) They have been described in relation to money, not necessarily about the amount or value of the money but a clear reference to it. Other indirect references to money (Lettuce, Bacon, Clam, Dough) have been used to describe women, which could simultaneously mean/ link to prostitution.
To accompany the videos, my good friend @cigarettes.scratchcards (an up and coming music producer) helped me edit and rerecord the song "That's Not My Name" by The Ting Tings. I wrote new lyrics for the song's chorus. I thought this would add humour and create irony so I can use it as a weapon in political protest.
For example, some of the lyrics are:
They call me Baps,
They call me Fried Eggs.
They call me Jugs,
They call me Rack.
That's not my name,
That's not my name,
That's not my name,
That's not my name,
They call me Beaver.
But I'm a Vulva
The Hairy Handbag
Always the same,
That's not my name.
Here's a small section of the song -
I didn't want to make my lyrics sound exactly the same as the original song. I used both male and female vocals within it and thought by doing this the voices could sound like snippets of conversation or almost shouts in protest. I think this will be very effective and reinforces the ideas that the slang terms and phrases used by men is not the correct terminology. I wanted the lyrics to call attention to the fact that referring to vulvas, vaginas and breasts in this way aren't calling by their 'names'.
BAPS -
Frequent references to meat and food are used (Badly Wrapped Kebab, Meat Curtains, Bacon, Ham Sandwich, Hanging Gammon, Meat Mountains, Fried Eggs, Rack, Love Muffin, Burger and Baps.)
These words/ terms convey the idea that women are for consumption, ready to be consumed by men.
I experimented with text in this video. After cutting the 'bap' open, I edited the word 'BAP' onto it. I don't think this had the effect I was hoping for as it didn't stand out very much. I will further explore the use of text in different ways.
Maybe I could use the text to further distort or fragment the videos/ images? Or I could use text as 'titles' just a flash (for a second or so) across the screen?
Here, I have tried a few new ways to experiment with text.
I experimented with different font colours. I knew I wanted the text to be basic (either black or white and a basic font) so it didn't take away from the video itself. I think I prefer the text being in while as the black stands out too much against the pale, pink colours of the video.
After deciding I preferred the white text, I experimented with size and opacity. I really like how the text covers the majority of the image and is vivid enough to be seen. But it doesn't take away from the image as I turned the opacity down to 30%.
I will use this in my final film but may only use it for a couple of seconds, instead of the whole clip. I feel it'll be more effective only showing flashes of it. Or I could use the text throughout the whole clip but just turn down the opacity even further? Maybe just for the chorus so it fits with the lyrics? I will experiment with different clips and images to see which will work best and be most effective.
I added text to the majority of my clips and turned the opacity down to between 50-70depending on the colour of the videos background. Some worked better than others - it didn't work as well against white backgrounds meaning I had to turn the opacity up to 65/ 70 for some of them.
After editing my final film, I am very happy with the outcome. I have used a combination of vintage, chrome and glitch effects as well as different pink filters.
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