The great big mess last week has shrunk as I fixed many errors from last week. I'm still overwhelmed though, because I'm constantly thinking about everything from story to aesthetic.. which can be overwhelming considering I'm still in the organizational phase. Though it's been an incredibly tedious task to organize my footage while also ensuring the logging and transcoding is done right, it's also helped me get more familiar with what I have, and getting a sense of the "why," and the "how," I shot what I shot, and where it's placed in this project. Especially considering that most of my shooting was of the city, and not Rakan, then how are all these moving images going to relate to the subject? Because shots of Riyadh aren't just to fill-up spaces in interviews, or merely act as transitions. Both moving around Riyadh via car and the different static shots are not just a visual account of the city. I'm hoping the viewer can see/feel another aspect to this, and it's one's relationship to the city through the window. The disconnect from the urban space is visible, whether through this 'window' or through shots of the desert and 1 or 2 major hi-rise buildings that have somehow given a sense of 'place' in Riyadh, or lack of.
I wasn't planning on incorporating myself in this story, but am considering the tools at my disposal to help give shape to it. This includes my BB chats with Rakan, the announcement tweet about looking for 'subjects' and Rakan's response to the tweet. I'm digging through my phone, trying to think of all the different means of communication (and information) that I can somehow incorporate to give some sort of lead. (Including email, docs, SMS, tweet, bb chats w/ cameraman or assistant, etc.) This is not necessarily to make a point about the subtext of the process, but rather demonstrating the power of expression in the face of so much power and surveillance. It's also a sort of resistance to that power, that despite the obstacles of social interaction, social relations will still form. And that we have enough of a curiosity and motivation to tell our stories, or countering the official media narrative(s). I am not sure about doing this. I might decide later on that no, all these bits and pieces of text on the screen are distracting or aesthetically disruptive to what's on the screen. But I won't know unless I try and test it out.
Apart from completing the logging and 'cleaning up' my drive, and focusing on 'Riyadh city' footage, I also transcribed the shoots with Rakan. This helped me decipher the different 'scenes' with Rakan, which I added to the scene list, and am sure they will be further subdivided as I start marking those scenes and pulling out selects. Thinking about the Rakan scenes has also been helpful to get me thinking about what I specifically need in the next shoot (which is scheduled for mid-Nov.)
I started transcribing Dr. Faisal Al-Mubarak's interview, which was frustrating, as he's not a great speaker (so many incomplete sentences, and a very long introduction on his career.) Over the next week, I want to mark this interview and pick out what's relevant. There is a part in which he spontaneously starts drawing the suburbanization of Riyadh. I'm thinking about his sketch and voice can act as smooth transition before the animation (or become part of the animation all together.)
I chatted with Pascal and requested that he shares some maps with me, as I'm starting to prepare all the assets I will need for animation during winter. I'm meeting Miriam, my substantive adviser, tomorrow to talk about my fieldwork and how to go about putting this together over the next couple of months.. in terms of giving a visual account of Riyadh and how it is the frame through which we can make sense of JR (joyriding). Meeting Tristan on Friday to go over the hard-drive and other technical details.
For the next week, I plan on continuing with reviewing, marking, and adding comments on the footage. But most importantly, I want to absolutely complete all transcriptions. And I'll back up this hard-drive (with all the renamed and organized footage.)
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