Shooting The Breeze

Shooting The Breeze is a short film and accompanying soundtrack produced by Duncan Kenning, a Fine Art BA student at University College Falmouth in Cornwall, England. The premise behind the film was to produce a viral internet video that could be spread via video sharing and social networking websites, in doing so targeting an audience that most physical galleries have yet to tap in to.

Filming and editing

Shooting The Breeze was filmed over a 7 day period in May, 2008 at Carland Cross windfarm near Truro in Cornwall. Almost 2 hours of raw footage was shot on location before being edited down to produce the final 4 minute, 15 second long film. All footage was shot in MiniDV format and edited using Apple Final Cut. Over 100 hours went into the production process. The picture above shows the editing timeline in Final Cut which shows the complex nature of the video edit.

Location

Operated by Scottish Power, Carland Cross windfarm is set against a backdrop of Cornwall's north coast, situated beside the A30 near Truro. The fifteen 400 kilowatt wind turbines first became operational in August of 1992. Occasionally, workers who carry out maintenance in the turbine rooms at the top of the towers forget to turn the work lights out when leaving and in the evening some towers can be seen emitting an eery glow.

Soundtrack

The accompanying soundtrack was produced prior to filming. Self-recorded and free to use internet samples were mixed together to recreate, with some artistic liscence, the effect felt when walking between the 60-metre high wind turbines at Carland Cross. Various props were used to create the sound effects including a damp towel flung in front of a microphone to replicate the sound of the wind turbine blades passing through the air and a Jacobs Ladder or 'climbing arc' science experiment from which electrical buzzing noises were captured. Unfortunately, due to time restraints the sound track was only mixed for headphones and subsequently sounds poor on speaker systems.

Distribution

Many video artists are cautious of releasing their work on the internet, either because they feel it will lack context outside of the gallery environment or simply because video compression technology which aids in reducing video file sizes can often compromise the appearance of the final video when uploaded to the internet. However, Shooting The Breeze was produced specifically for distribution via the internet through video sharing and social networking websites, regardless of quality restraints or any context that may be lost or placed upon the video during transmission. There a global audience for video art and the internet provides all the tools, free of charge, for artists to reach them. Shooting The Breeze is intended to act as an example of how video artists can harness the power of the internet to tap in to this burgeoning audience that physcial galleries seem unable, or unwilling to engage with.