Future Ideas

Coming towards the end of term and the end of my first year of this degree, I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do in the future. I've been uncertain about what career I may want to eventually enter into for a very long time and I still maintain this uncertainty. My interest in music production is starting to become more of a fascination and a passion, the hours of effort I dedicate to learning about it and practising it don't feel like work and it doesn't feel like a hobby and I'm starting to think it could possibly start developing into a skill - although I'll be very hard on myself before I reach that point.

However, I still maintain my passion for film and my interest in writing. I don't feel ready to concentrate all my creative thoughts onto one specialism and I also don't think it's necessary. Although I have decided that, for now, I want to integrate music, in one form or another, into as much of my degree work as possible. And I've been thinking about things I want to attempt next year.

I know one of the modules next year involves documentary, so I'm attempting to put together plans to create a music documentary and see how feasible this idea will be. Hopefully I'll know more before the summer and can plan it properly then. I have an accessible band in mind who would make an interesting subject and I would be able to get access and interviews with quite a few industry professionals and other, established bands if it worked out. However, all this rests on what my course dictates in terms of whether I'd be able to take on a project by myself or in a small group rather than a group of 4 or 5 and whether it's possible for me to travel to Brighton and London for a period of time to complete the bulk of the filming and production.

I'm also thinking more seriously about creating a website for artists to showcase videos of their songs, but with a few "obstructions" (taking influence from the work in our second term based on Lars von Trier's method of obstructing the creative process with various rules). These rules would be something along the lines of; the song must be a 'live' performance and not be pre-recorded and must be performed in an area not accustomed to musical performances - interpreted as you wish. This could mean filmed in HD or on a handycam, or even on a mobile phone anywhere from in a kitchen to on a bus or in a lift (inspired by Vincent Moon and the previously mentioned Blogotheque, and the concept of 'Guerilla perfomances'.) This is something I really want to have a stab at.

The main problem here - I know nothing about web-design. So this week I've got myself a copy of Dreamweaver CS4, a copy of 'Dreamweaver CS4 for Dummies' and some time with a Technical Instructor at Uni next week to start showing me the basics.