Analysis of Experiments for Final Piece

'TIME IS THE FIRE IN WHICH WE BURN'

The first word I want to create is 'TIME' which I am going to write in matches using PVA glue. I have some screen shots of my first try with writing it. It didn't go according to plan and for some reason the matches struggled to stay alight. Whether it was the fact I am using different matches now, or maybe even that the flame is being put out by the PVA glue?


As you can see, the T and the I went pretty much straight out as soon as they were lit. I am going to try sticking together more of the tips so they are more likely to keep re lighting to see if this helps.

I re lit the T from the bottom and although it stayed alight, it became a danger because the top was heavier than the bottom so it was about to fall off if I hadn't blown it out. 

I've been trying out different things and the glue isn't affecting the fire but I think it is the matches themselves. Before I was using Swan matches and they were very good and stayed alight until the end of the match. Where as I now am using Cooks matches which aren't so great. I will go and buy some more swan matches to continue my experiment.


I want to make the words 'IS THE' out of the remains of the matches. To do this I need PVA glue again and to crumble the dust onto the letters.

I practised filming myself blowing the dust away from the letters and it looks really good. However I will need to have somebody else holding the camera as I do it or the other way round because the camera moves as I do it.

I want the whole background to be white too in the final film. And I want much more black dust in the first place so it is more dramatic when it's blown away. This will have to be the final shot I take though because i will need to use all the ash and dust from what I have burned in previous shots.



For the 'WHICH WE' shot I am going to burn a piece of scrunched up paper with the words written on it and film it and speed up the film. I have to use a friends garden for this as there is no chance I would get away with burning large pieces of paper in a small flat!


It was surprisingly easy to do this and the videos came out really well! I caught the film for the final piece too and am really happy with it.

I collected all the ashes and remains from the paper and kept them for my shot of 'IS THE'.









I have also bought lots more packets of the Swan matches to use for my final shots as the flames off them were lots more dramatic and effective.
I had intact already made several letters out of the cooks matches ready to burn but they just weren't going to be good enough.

 As you can see from the photo on the left, for every letter I am doubling the matches up so the flame is more dramatic in the final shoot.

 I did a little test to ensure the matches would burn well and to see how the black background (black card that I bought today) looked. In the final film the plasticine will be either black or white. I am only using the coloured ones in the practises so I have plenty of black or white for the final.

These are all of my letters I have made using matches and PVA glue and I am waiting until it is dark to film them for added affect on the lighting. I am quite nervous about it as it could easily go wrong. But if it does I will just have to re make some.

I am in two minds about what to do for the sound in the background. I have removed the actual sounds from the films because the films are being sped up therefore sound ridiculous and squeaky. I am unsure whether having music in the background would go but will do some research into sounds to see if they suit. Either that or it is silent so that all attention is purely on the visuals.

This is my filming 'studio' made up of black card and black plasticine. I also had a wet towel next to me ready in case it got out of hand.

This was my first attempt and sadly it didn't work.  First of all the lighting was all wrong and it was too dark and secondly, I realised it's not going to work by just lighting it the one time. I need to go back and re light areas of the matches so it really catches light and gives me the affect I want. This is okay though as when the film is sped up it has a really great affect with the hand coming in and out. I now need to make the word 'TIME' out of matches again and re burn it and hope that it works second time round!

This is a screen shot of the success of the word 'FIRE'. The lighting is much better and I re lit other elements of each one and it worked brilliantly! I am very happy with the results. This was the case for all four words that I made out of matches and burned (TIME, FIRE, IN, BURN) 

I decided I wanted music behind it and after thinking long and hard and trying out different sounds to go with the film I finally found something I think is perfect! My partner suggested the album 'The Piano - Soundtrack' and we decided that 'The Promise' was the best one for it. I wanted to steer away from anything that had voices in it and a piano piece is beautiful. It makes it feel more dramatic and emotional as well and suits the speed of the video perfectly. 

This is the last shot I had to take and it is of the words 'IS THE' written out in the ash remaining from the shot of the paper being burned and the black burned tips from the old matches that I kept. I decided to stick with the black background and had my partner slowly blow the ash away so that all that is remaining is the letters that I wrote out in PVA glue. It worked really well which was a relief as I didn't have enough ash or matches left over to make another one.