The aim of this ethnographic short film is to portray the adaptation of the circadian society in the University of Kent and the development of different flows of styles, performances and materials used to act both privately and publicly.
Some of the issues that I have encountered when working on this project relating to the Circus Society are: funding cuts, health and safety considerations, risks and hazards and the developmental side of my perception of what Circus and its features are as a society. Furthermore, it was greatly rewarding as I was able to work on the development of my own understanding of cameras, ethnographic films and editing software.
I have grown exponentially in my own skillset; I am now able to record, edit and create a video of my own, additionally my understanding of the Circus Society has provided me with a new hobby and friends. Although this learning journey has improved both my anthropologist and ethnographic understanding, the undertaking of the project was incredibly taxing, learning all of the new skills came at the cost of long, arduous recording and editing. Another learning experience that allowed me to progress with my understanding was the development of a balance in the video that could be explanatory and visual at the same time. When the time to record and portray many circus activities came, I was not be able to come up with a cohesive and graphic storyline that allowed the story to speak for itself. These kind of dynamic and lively activities were hard to carry out while being interviewed, because the participants had to focus at the time, which was a limitation. Hence, I decided to add explanatory audios of the interviews in the background to make the narrative more fluent, attractive and enjoyable to view, but furthermore to really promote the diversity of perspectives, ideologies and mindsets in the Circus society faithfully.
Regarding some technical underpinnings, recording fast-moving lights such as fire and LED lights was one of the biggest challenges I had to work in post-production. Half of the recording sessions were documented outside, normally in open spaces such as parks or halls, sometimes late at night. Therefore, balancing the contrast between dark backgrounds and colourful, intense lights was one of the main goals of the video in order to avoid drawing too much attention away from the original narrative. White balance was used to match the light source and different temperature of colour under different lighting conditions. The dynamics and movements of the instruments recorded were premeditated in order to be aware of how the light is going to project in my subjects and how I can play with the wide range of shades it creates. Changes in focus were also thought-out so to give a more dynamic sense to the narrative.
With some insight about the ethnographic style, this production has remained true to my unbiased perception of how an ethnographic film could portray aspects of human culture and behaviour in visual terms: it tries to represent a temporal and spatial orientation or atmosphere realistically via other methods such as light, sound, movement and even mood or rhythm. The focus and of the biggest issues that arose from this project was the lack of appropriate spaces to practice fire spinning and more hazardous for the camera, which involved a calculated camera movement, height and angle to capture the most faithful scenes while keeping the equipment safe within a combination of long, medium or close-up shots.
In terms of methodology, at the beginning the zoom was used too often and it created an undesirable effect at the start of my filming that created a feeling of motion sickness. Although some scenes were used in filming as I was able to compensate through editing and stabilising, however some scenes needed to be re-shot with the tripod, taxing time further. Camera use is something that I have had very casual experience with and at first this really showed in my recording. I had to work hard to improve my skillset with the camera and further understand how to make skilful steady shots without the tri-pod. Although I have had some success with the freehand movement in the future I would use the tri-pod more often and with greater planning for the shots that I am taking.
This ongoing research has taught me many valuable things on how this society is imbricated in other social spheres at the same time, and how they all interact with each other, developing a community’s cohesiveness and bringing people from all kinds of backgrounds together by warmth through movement.