White Room Scout @ 110416

The crew initially had some issues with the transitions between the scenes. What are exterior shots of buildings? What are cutaways? Can we cut that away? Yes, yes we can. Director and DP felt none of these shots usually used to transition between scenes worked for any of us, so for a few afternoons we cracked our heads trying to think of something else that we could have in place of above-mentioned transitions.

The good thing about Two’s A Crowd is that it’s pretty quirky by itself, so there were some creative freedom that we could work with for the transitions. DP + Dir thought we could try an almost minimalistic approach – Crow Woman standing in front of a white screen and dancing/moving/playing with her kendama.

One fine afternoon we decided to go scout the school for white walls! The only problem was that ADM doesn’t have readily available white walls. It’s an art school. White walls just feel like asking for a whole lot of trouble. Who has white walls?? Photography people. The good thing with ADM is that it’s not just an art school, but also a media school. So with some shifty-ness we headed upstairs to photo store to ask Azahki if he could give us access to the photography lab, and he very kindly just lent us his whole access pass.

#trust #thankyou #filmphotoFTW

Unfortunately there weren’t any photos of the first room we went to, because forgetful producer is forgetful. The photolab had a small cyclorama, but it was slightly too small for what we needed. It was roughly maybe 2m x 2m? DP + Dir needed a wideshot… It was worth a shot, I guess. There were also large sheets of white paper cloth (i think??) but none the size that we needed. We poked around for a bit, Dir + DP ‘wahhh’-ed at some of the equipment and props that photo lab had, and we left.

After returning Azahki his card, of course.

#trust

Dir managed to remember that one of the IM students had his exhibition at this white room at the basement of ADM, so we headed down to have a look but it was locked. Some calls were made, some friends were contacted, and nothing came out of it except that we could wait 2 hours for IM guy to head back. And then someone suggested another IM workstudy Year3 who was a super nice guy and who also happened to be in the film store at the moment.

#savior

Forgetful producer magically remembered to take photos:

Blurry shots to build up some anticipation (1)

Blurry shots to build up some anticipation (2)

Honestly, I’ve just lost photos of the room. MY BAD.

TL;DR, however, – it’s a really white room. The entire back of the room was white canvas, with some chairs and computers around the area:

Back of the room was a white stretch of canvas, as can be seen from above ^

There were some wiring across the floor – not sure if the students were halfway through setting up an exhibition of some sort? There are power sockets on the floor, however, which could be useful.

Floor wires

Overhead rigging

DP + Dir looking through phone. Art D looking at ceiling. Nice Guy at the back in red!

DP + Dir still looking through phone. Art D looking at you. Nice Guy at the back in red!

General conclusion was that the room’s panels didn’t work for the look of the film, so we couldn’t really use it. So we left the room and let Nice Guy head back to his workstudy.

Final conclusion was that we’ll probably use the soundstage if we do head for this idea in the end! But things are TBC.

Location Scout @ 160924

(featured image courtesy of Douglas!)

We went for our 3rd location recce this past Saturday.

Started off with lunch at Bishan Junction 8, before heading to Caldecott where Assigned Driver aka Douglas picked us up. That day’s agenda was MacRitchie Reservoir and East Coast Park!

MacRitchie Reservoir

To say it was hot was an understatement. To say it was blazing and the sun was burning the epidermis off our skin would be closer to accuracy (at least – that was how it felt).

I had an SPF130 sunblock that I did not bring. Bad producing!

Photos here all courtesy of Beaunice the Soundie’s phone cus I smashed mine. Thanks for lending me your phone Beau!!

We initially thought of MacRitchie for two reasons: 1. the juniors did a film here that looked aesthetically nice, and 2. Edmund took some of the very first photos of the Crow Woman for a photo class here (the concept of which eventually birthed Two’s A Crowd).

We headed straight for the boardwalk where Edmund took the photos. It was a Saturday so there was some human traffic but wasn’t anything too bad. There is a car park that we can access the park from and do unloading of equipment, but to reach the boardwalk it’s about a 500m walk from there.

Platform leading down to the boardwalk

Beaunice on platform leading down to boardwalk

Scattered crew

It was very pretty and very quiet, which was a huge plus. There were sounds that sounded like construction work in the distance, fairly low level to our ears but likely easily picked up by the mics. Might be a point we have to consider.

Only thing that might be an issue: buoys in the water

View from the boardwalk area, to the right. The color gradient of the water was very pretty – almost turquoise!

To the left – there were two platforms jutting out into the water.

The two platforms meant we could probably play with angles and cheat a little, which could be interesting as a tool to get the shots we want.

Dir + DP on the boardwalk

The reservoir also had canoeing programs during the day. Halfway through our recce we noticed people bringing canoes out into the water. Useful to note for actual shoot day.

Info 1

Info 2

Hi Edmund

It was pretty hot, but right near the boardwalk there is a small pavilion, which could be useful if we decide to shoot here. At least it provides some form of shelter, which is always good.

Shelter in the Sun

DP was taking some shots with some app thing on his phone that, after some input settings, could mimic what we would see using certain lenses on the Alexa.

DP Shot (Photo credit: Douglas)

DP Shot (Photo credit: Douglas)

There were some pretty good ideas for this place – again, another serious KIV.

We were done with this spot at about 1.45pm, and then DP wanted to go look around the area to see if we could find the spot where the juniors shot their film. We were kinda unprepared, I think – but away we trekked, into the heart of MacRitchie!

Just a summary, because there was a lot of green, a lot of leaves, a lot of trunks, and a lot of boardwalk winding straight through the forest, and we didn’t take many photos:

We spotted a whole bunch of wildlife, the first being a monitor lizard just lounging by the side:

Monitor lizard monitoring us. Sup?

DP + Dir taking photos. Take note of Dir’s choice of footwear

The boys were pretty excited about the animals we came across. A look at Dir’s feet will tell you how prepared we were to go trekking.

It was a healthy day (Photo Credit: Beaunice!)

We didn’t get assaulted by the monkeys, they were pretty friendly. There were loads of them in the general area, even in the more human-populated spots. We spotted a couple of babies!

You know the pun is coming…… *deep breath* NO MONKEY BUSINESSSSS

We also almost stepped on a long thin slithering thing:

Bottom Left: Snek Snek Snek. Boys will be boys. Hahaha.

DP risking his electronics to take a photo (Photo Credit: Beaunice!)

#TeamSelfie

It was about an hour’s trek, and we didn’t find what we were looking for in the end. But more than anything it was still a good couple of hours just spent being outside – with the sunlight, and the trees, and the shadows casted on the boardwalk in the quiet afternoon.

Everyone welcomed the break. It was good to be away and outside of school for once.

2. East Coast Park

It was a fairly long drive to ECP, and we reached the area around 3.30pm.

Sun was still hot. I regretted forgetting my SPF130.

Beaunice had a fantastic idea of renting bikes to make moving around within the park faster (vs having to get on and off the car and looking for parking each time), so that was what we did. There was also a funny episode in the car earlier on when we got confirmation that DP knew how to ride a bicycle.

We parked towards the end of the park (near to area A or B). Right off the carpark was a bicycle rental place.

$10/hour, and $4 every hour after that. Good quality bikes and pretty darn good pricing too, compared to the ones near the more populated areas. We got some cold drinks before setting off – them drinks were a brief and welcome respite.

DP adamantly didn’t want the bicycle with the pink bell but eventually had to take it because it was the only one that fit his height.

We stopped at a couple of stops:

No swimming

At this point we were still looking for rocky places, and that pretty much set the look we were looking for this recce at ECP.

This first one looked alright at first place, but it was too small and too short for us to do anything concrete with it.

(It’s not concrete, because it’s made of rocks. Geddit? Geddit?)

Hydration is life. Hi Soundie!

Set off again after barely 2 minutes at the above location, and maybe 5 minutes of cycling later – we hit jackpot.

LOOK AT THE BEAUTY that is this formation of rocks

DP taking photos of Dir

We reached this… I’m not really sure what this is called. Not exactly a breakwater, but….? something along those lines.

It was rocky, it was large, it was flat, it was Rock, it had plenty of space to move around, it had a fairly clear horizon.

Dir + DP testing shots (Photo credit: Beauniceeeeee)

Down the other side of the structure

The only danger was the DP might fall backwards into the sea if he retreats enough, but well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We all gotta take risks sometimes, mirite?

JUS KIDDING. Serious concern. We have to be very careful – probably set up some barricades and a couple of spotters.

#PonderingFeetSelfie

We spent close to perhaps half an hour here. DP and Dir were talking shots, DP had his camera out, Soundie and Producer were stand-ins, the sun was still beating down on us, but by the end of it Dir was pretty sold on his location. On the structure itself the waves were really loud, but for some odd reason just behind the structure – as we stand on the sand – it was surprisingly muted, which is great because Soundie can take wild lines here.

Random mound we found

BBQ pit next to the structure. Dir suggested we hold our wrap party here. DP kindly declined.

By this point it was pretty much set where we would like to film (i.e. this spot), so we wandered around cycling for a bit just to try our luck. DP was leading everyone else, when we heard the words “Free Ice-cream!” and then saw him make a U-Turn.

You can’t deny a man his food.

Dir and DP approve

Haribo was giving out free popsicles to promote their new marshmallow candy

The areas from then on started getting really populated, + the horizons were increasingly being dotted with ships, so we decided to head back and try the other direction instead.

No pictures – we did stop at a few places but none had the appeal and the look and feel that we immediately got from the breakwater place, so they were quickly scraped.

Again, DP took some shots with his app:

DP Shot (Photo credit: Douglas)

DP Shot (Photo credit: Douglas)

We eventually returned our bikes, and went to get more drinks from 711.

#hydrationislife

I think it’s safe to say this is our final scout. Sunburnt a bit, but this was a really fruitful session. Next up is to decide the final locations we want, back-up locations, and then a recce to get the final details down in terms of potential equipment and everything else. We have to confirm about the permissions for shooting at these places too.

This Thursday we will be looking to go pick up some wardrobe pieces from our Wardrobe sponsors, and we’ll update again then!

160923

Early day in school —

Day 1 without phone 🙁

To Do List:

Script – Characters, plot
TAC – Finish proposal, reply emails

160921

Today’s view from the Table:

Location Scout @ 160917

Second location scout /
For Two za Crowd /
Yo /

–

Day started off bright and not so early at first location – the House. Crew was supposed to meet at 1PM.

This first location was not so much a scout as it was for Douglas the DP to make some measurements, and to introduce Beaunice the Soundie to some of the areas we’d be filming in (she wasn’t here during the first location scout a while ago).

No pictures, unfortunately!

After lulling around for about an hour, we moved to a check out a canal area near the place for the chalet walkway scene. This was a pretty desired choice because it was 1. Near the house, and 2. REALLY NEAR the house.

Look Left

Look Straight

Look Right

Our hopes were pretty quickly crushed because the canal was a) too big, and b) had no vantage point for a high shot they were hoping to have. The roofs of the shophouses looked convincing enough to be passed off as chalets, but any slight shifts and we would expose them as shophouses.

We considered further down the paths of the canal but they started to look more and more like residential areas. The bridge at the far end in the above picture looked like it had potential though.

Another big No-No for the producing end: C o n s t r u c t i o n W o r k —–

Scaffolding that folded our dreams of shooting at the canal

Completion @ second half of 2017

It was decided that the location wasn’t ideal, so we went for lunch at a nearby coffeeshop. The bridge mentioned above was a traffic bridge, but we spotted another one nearer to the other side that was a pedestrian bridge. No pictures, because certain elements didn’t work with it – e.g. we could see the entire coffeeshop and roads beyond easily. Unless Tracy was going to be looking at the ground the whole time, it didn’t seem the most feasible choice.

Along the way back to the car we spotted a nice path:

Tree-lined Walkway

Tree-lined Walkway with Laundry

We spent at least a good half an hour here;

Pros:

Plenty of tall buildings for vantage points
Many trees to hide things and play with foreground
It looks like a chalet path
Near the house!

Cons:

Streetlamps weren’t visually nice (they had solar panels sticking out of them)
Some human traffic
Quite some human noise – we were surrounded by a few HDB blocks on one side, and quite a number of landed properties on the other

Hoomans live here, and hoomans generate noise

The corner DP + Dir were considering

Dir + DP talking

Hi Ah Moon

Director and DP went walking up some of the HDB flats to look for vantage points, and Beaunice and I found this very friendly cat that wanted pats.

It was a pretty decent location and possibly a pretty solid KIV.

We headed to the next location at Toa Payoh, another location again for the chalet walkway scene.

Douglas was designated driver for the day

It was roughly a 20 minute drive from the previous location.

DP came here for a shoot once, and Director had been here for his first ever shoot back in Poly. Director was ecstatic. It was sufficient to say they were both quite partial to the location.

Final Destination

Director and DP were seriously considering it. Soundie and I were also seriously considering the level of noise coming from this:

Highway and roads in the near vicinity

We headed to the vantage point:

Nice holding area

Pros:

Vantage point
Long walkway that fits DP + Director’s visions
Ulu enough

Cons:

Near roads! More time for wildlines + post production audio work
Relatively near a golf course and stadium (?)
Some level of human traffic
No near-by toilets/coffeeshops so it’s all systems go before crew comes to this location

We wrapped up this area, and this was roughly at about 3 or 4pm in the afternoon so we headed to the beach locations.

Punggol beach!

Trying to get a parking spot was a wee bit troublesome because there was 1 free-to-park carpark that had about 40 – 50 spots and was completely filled, with a few others waiting. The only other parking facility was a paid carpark that was nearer to the beach, so that’s additional cost if we were to have a production vehicle parked there through the duration of the beach shoot.

There was quite a bit of human traffic since it was a Saturday, so that was one other point to note. The horizon actually looks pretty good here at this location – there weren’t a lot of ships in the distance, meaning quite a bit of the sky and the sea could be seen. Which is nice.

We wandered around the populated area for a bit – there were many food restaurants here as well as a 7-11, so food wouldn’t be a problem. However there were no public washrooms though. The closest washroom was roughly at least 5 minutes walk away.

We wandered to a more beachy part. Dir + DP had visualized the main character sitting/standing on rocks, so that was mainly what they were looking for, and that was what they found:

Rocks

Rocks we had to clamber over to get to the beach

By this spot of the park the beach was more of a small strip of sand, so access to it wasn’t super well built, probably because they assumed people would be at the other ends where the sandy areas were bigger. So at this spot there weren’t any paths going down to the beach, just the rocks above ^

It might be an issue bringing equipment down, but we might also be bringing just a very skeletal crew and equipment (DP says no lights) so it might still be quite manageable. No parking nearby so if we do bring any equipment we will have to wheel it all the way.

However, conclusion towards the end for this was that it was not a place that the Dir + DP had “feel” for (the rocks didn’t look quite right) so this location was put on the back burner.

Boarded the car again to the next place, and on the way out we marveled at how nice the roads leading in to the park were. No pictures but they were straight and again, tree-lined!! Very hollywood-esque. (Controlling traffic would be a pain in the ash though.)

Next stop: Sembawang Beach.

Big Blue Sky and Small Blue Sea

Again, a very picturesque place. It was so blue!! Right across the straits we could see right to Johor, Malaysia. This was a good amount of horizon too, very minimal and free of ships or construction.

That said, there was construction on our end of the sea though:

Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Construction was a little far away to find out more information (e.g. how long it’s going to last) but the noise it generated was definitely not far at all. Floated right into our ears. It certainly made its presence known.

Director And DP Conversing By Railings, digital medium, 2016

View!

The sunlight that we needed, but couldn’t have

DP was saying if it was going to be a dreary day such as this during the actual shoot, we wouldn’t be able to get the effect of backlit-sunlight-golden-hour-everything-drenched-in-golden-rays look that was desired.

Let me just send an email to the sky to notify it of our filming dates.

DP mentioned something about having a genny on standby. I did not hear anything.

Ahmoon didn’t quite like the feel of this place, so again, it was scrapped. We talk about East Coast Park and Sentosa, and how those locations might yield better results.

On the way back to the car, we came across this big patch of field.

Swag shot of DP, Dir and Soundie

(Sorry, over-exposed sky)

Beaunice looking at grass

We proposed to Edmund the idea of changing the beach scene to something else instead, like say….

a grass field?

There was a bit of talking and discussion and talking of shots and then conclusion from Edmund was we could see what the scouts at ECP and other beaches yield, and if there were still not many good places, we will start considering other scenery e.g. fields.

We also talked of wet weather plans in the event it was rainy during the day of shoot.

Potential fields:

Grass patch @ Sembawang Park
Grass patch @ White Rabbit on Harding Road

Potential other wet weather locations:

Mt Faber (If it was only the park raining)
Indoor locations? TBC (If it was the entire Singapore raining – very possible, considering it would be the monsoon season)

DP raised a point that no matter which areas we go to shoot eventually, or even whichever areas that we are considering mentally, there should be no leaning-over-the-railing shots. If the characters are to lean over a railing and it’s nothing but an open drop from there, there wouldn’t be any way he could get frontal shots of the characters for that scene. That would severely limit the shots that they would be able to play with.

—

At this point it was about 6pm, so we decided to call it a day.

Second location scout – OVER!

Next Location Scout:

East Coast Park
Mt Faber?
White Rabbit?

Location Scout @ 160914

Here are some photos from our first location scout around school. Photos are a little blurry/uneven, think the settings in my cam were a little messed up. Sorry!

Purpose of the scout was to look for locations for:

Corridor for scene 2
Corridor for scene 11
Study area for scene 1 & scene 9
Office for scene 12

Started off along North Spine where the newer areas were, above the new food areas and the library. That didn’t quite work because there was too much greenery, and the cafes there didn’t look like study areas.

Wandered down towards south spine instead, and came across Starbucks.

Potential sort of furniture for study area scene

First study area we came across; did not linger long

Walked to this:

Everyone knows this study area near the South Spine

The crew spent a longer time here trying to see if it would work.

View from the other end

Pros:

Lots of angles to play with
Edmund likes the tables
Have to be mindful of the sockets along the sides of the tables

Cons:

Too messy, too much greenery going on
Pumping a light through the plants would result in reflections all along the leaves and that is not Art-D approved
“Ugly walls” – Alicia Ho, 2016

Search continues. Like bees, we headed to the Hive, and spotted the area we wanted to look at.

Crew arriving at area

The other side of the study area.

On the producing side this is pretty ideal because

a) there’s plenty of space for loading/unloading of equipment
b) there’s plenty of space for holding of equipment,
c) there’s plenty of space for cast/crew to rest,
d) there’s plenty of space for each department to have their own corners,
e) there’s plenty of space in general

It was also sheltered – so in the event of rain we don’t have to scramble – but also open, so plenty of natural light. Koufu was also quite nice so if we need any food urgently, resources are available.

Director & DP get comfortable as they discuss potential shots

We were wandering around upstairs when halfway through announcements came over the intercom for people to evacuate the building. We had no idea what was going on, but people started wandering equally confused out of classrooms so we got out.

~*~ S A F E T Y F I R S T ~*~

Walked to HSS, to these corridors along the basement, which director Edmund remembers as the ‘Creative Writing Corridor’ (because he used to take CW class here)

A Crew Contemplates a Corridor. (Digital Photograph, 2016)

Along the outsides we found this nice brick pathway:

Might work as walkway for Chalet scene?

WE
NEED

CORRIDORS

Headed back in, and went through 3 sets of corridors in very quick succession:

Outside staff rooms

Small, tiny, but good.

Outside more staff rooms

Bigger, not that tiny, but still okay.

Crew caught attempting to budge wall decorations. Alas – it was not to be.

Too big. Crew concern that the wall deco might be distracting.

After this we had to head back to ADM, which we did. No pictures from here on, but basically looked at the glass rooms along the 3rd floor, outside the staff rooms. Main concern was that there were too many reflections, and too distinctive as ADM.

Rough conclusion at the end of the this first scout:

Corridor scenes at HSS
Dean’s office scenes at HSS
Study scenes at Hive

Next Location scout:

Saturday, 17 September 2016
House > Toa Payoh golf range > Punggol beach > Sembawang beach

—

Here is a montage of Alicia looking at things:

Alicia looking at Sky

Alicia looking at Cup

Alicia looking at Camera

Production Meetings – Friday 9th September 2016

Busy day today guys – thanks for all the effort in taking part in both meetings despite them being back-to-back + lunch coma!!

Brief notes on the things that we covered:

CREW MEETING @ 12 – 2pm

POTENTIAL LOCATIONS FOR LOCATION SCOUT

Beach
- Tanjong Beach (Sentosa)
- Palawan Beach (Sentosa)
- Punggol Beach
- Sembawang beach
Corridor
- Senior Syarf’s Film Prod 2 area?
Dean’s Office
- 3rd floor glass rooms
- 3rd floor small room by elevator
- Staff lounge @ 3rd floor
- 4th floor new room by elevator

2. SHOOT

Location Recce + Tech Recce to be combined
Change first shoot day to Day 0?
- Schedule to readjusted
12 hour turn-around for callsheet

3. CREW

Cam team: 1 Gaffer, 3 Grips
Sound team: 1 boom op
Art Dept team: 1 makeup/wardrobe, 2 – 3 art assistants
* PAs need to carry heavy furniture @ Yuwei’s house
* Douglas to send list of equipment and things he need

4. GENERAL NOTES

All depts to send final cost requirements by mid-October latest!!
Schedule to be uploaded on GDrive by tonight
Schedule for Tech recce, rehearsals to be compared against crew’s shooting involvements in other FYPS
- Tech rehearsal possibly in November
Tech + art to be at a single rehearsal to test camera/wardrobe/

CREW + PROF BEN MEETING @ 3 – 4pm

1. LOCATION SCOUT

Take photos for easy email reference
We can request for Ben’s assistance in facilitating room bookings for other schools if necessary
For beach: minimal ships, few people2. POST PRODUCTION
Can ask Ross for help for audio!
- Avoid last minute requests – give everyone some time
Able to use foley name, prep for possibility of ADR

3. OTHERS

Leonard in Slow Motion – 120fps for main character, 24fps for everything else!
- Sorry can’t find the BTS 🙁 Will post if I find it!

Consider editing the crow woman in post so she looks different
Sample sound idea to figure out pacing and rhythm for the shorts

Thanks all again for the meeting today!

2AC Represent

Producer chipping in.

To be edited.

Featured image from woman.com.au-

Week 3: Female Patron of the Arts

Initially as I was just researching on females patrons of the arts, a woman caught my eye right from the beginning. Her name is Sheikha Al-Mayassa.

Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, born 1983, is the sister of Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. She holds degrees in political science and literature. She has appeared on Forbes’ The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women, Time 100, and ArtReview’s Power 100. She has also been in NY Times extensively as a profile, and is currently serving as the Chairwoman of Qatar Museums, the lead body of the museums in Qatar.

Hailed as the most powerful woman in the art scene worldwide currently, she is known for having made purchases for some of the most expensive art pieces in the world, spending over USD$500 million on works from Paul Gaugin to Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst. With the Middle East’s extensive history and culture, Sheikha Al-Mayassa builds from it, creating museums from scratch as she aims to bring Qatar to the forefront of the arts communities in the region, for it to become the Middle East’s destination for arts and culture.

All this, because of a goal to create an art scene to shape the Qatari national identity.

It’s inspiring to see someone like her doing great things for her country. Most people would think about creating a Fortune 500 company, or to create an economical environment for their country that businesses would jump to invest from, or to build labs where local scientists can research for the next medical breakthrough or on sending the next rocket to Jupiter. Most people think these ways when they about impacting their country, and as someone who is studying and will eventually go into the creative scene, as someone from a country where we are still trying to build up a stable arts community, it’s heartening to see someone out there who actually has a goal to build up this community for the people in her country.

Humans cannot live without art, without narratives or self-expression in their every day life. A happy society is one that is able to express itself in ways that it chooses to when it wants to – by doing so it is able to innovate and imagine, and eventually grow.

—-

Bibliography:

Unknown. (2012). Sheikha Al Mayassa. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/speakers/sheikha_al_mayassa
Unknown. (n.d.). Sheikha Al Mayassa Thani. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/profile/sheikha-mayassa-al-thani/
Unknown. (n.d.). Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa: Shaping Qatar’s Creative Future. Retrieved from http://www.qm.org.qa/en/her-excellency-sheikha-al-mayassa
Brown, M. (2013). Qatar’s Sheikha Mayassa tops art power list. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/oct/24/qatar-sheikha-mayassa-tops-art-power-list
Murakami, T. (2014). Sheika al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Retrieved from http://time.com/70911/sheika-al-mayassa-2014-time-100/

Picture credit: Doha News

Week 2: African Ivories

My knowledge of world history is weak, at best. Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America, the British had a huge empire, people had to sail around the Cape of Good Hope to get to Asia – basic stuff, we got that. How-eve-r, in the case of sailing around Africa, I’ve never given the topic much more thought than that, and this lesson changed that.

Our location on the globe and the current state of the world’s economy naturally means that – by default – we are somewhat removed from the continent of Africa itself. We live in Asia. We consume daily information and materials from the Americas and Europe. We constantly receive information input about these places.

The same can hardly be said for the African continent and its African culture. It’s really just due to proximity, I think (or rather, the lack of it). At the times when we do hear about Africa it’s often stories of internal strive, trafficking, starvation or the need for aid, that it’s so easy to forget the continent is also one of the most culturally rich places of the world. This lesson reminded me once more of what is really has to offer. This is one.

When we think of African art, we think of beadwork, face-painting, totems. We bring to mind pieces deeply rich with tribal influences and splashes of colors that we’ve come to associate with the culture.

(image source: Cultural x Tourism)

I will admit ivories are hardly the first, second or even top five things that pop into my mind if I hear a mention of ‘African art’. Why that is so I cannot explain, but it just didn’t. Looking back after the lesson it becomes glaringly obvious that obviously, considering how elephants are naturally found in Asia and Africa, a large portion of the ivory trade would have stemmed from the continent. This may sound obvious to some but it was nevertheless a new change for me. This is two.

Seeing pictures of the caskets, it struck me how detailed the pieces were – that the carvers had so much thought into every carving, and were able to incorporate elements that the traders/buyers showed or requested. The carvers may be illiterate but the art pieces were in no way inferior to those from other places of the world.

This I thought was important because it seems that might be an impression that these artworks are not as important and have lesser value because they were commissioned, in a sense, and didn’t carry any meaning (because the artists didn’t mean anything or didn’t know what they were carving anyway – that they were just following visual examples). I do not believe that is true at all. Perhaps the original motivation for a carved piece was commercial, but each piece still carries designs and motifs that are unique to its area and its time and place. By looking at how the artist portrayed an object or a thought, we can learn so much more about the people and the culture of that area. It opens up a wealth of information. This is three.

Africa was thriving, and it was rich, and there was so much going on in it. The artists were skilled in their profession – and it just comes across as a pity that all of these are lost to the outside world now, and that many do not get to see the beauty of the place.

(image credit: streamafrica)

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Additional notes from Ivory research:

Ivory itself is desirable – it can be carved into figurines, belt buckles, and various decorative objects. Commonly regarded as a symbol of status and wealth, it currently faces a rise in popularity in China, where the country’s economy has soared in recent years and its people now have a lot more disposable income and spending power.

Elephant ivory itself, is the most desirable out of all ivories, because it does not have the hard outer enamel that ivories from other animals have. This makes the ivory easier to carve, which in turn translates to higher demand and higher numbers of the animal being poached for their tusks.