Miyazaki, Murch & Time by Cormac Donnelly
So much of what we do exists and is created in digital spaces, such as screens and hard drives, but I love the focus on the physicality of craft and storytelling here. A fragment about time, certainly, but also about the labour and attention to detail that goes into every aspect of the production process, as well as nodding to the frustrations we’ve no doubt all experienced. How long did it take you to make this, Cormac – and did you start with paper and pencil? JS. More on this fragment here.

Our Television, Your Success: Tautology and the Simulation of Nature in Television Advertising by Jiaqi Li
There is something fascinating about the apparent coherence in advertising strategies across so many different brands and countries. Nature plays such a strong role in these ads, but also pacing, where slow motion footage is synonymous with high quality, high definition, high achievement. Only this week Sony launched their new RGB line of televisions, complete with CG hummingbird…in slow motion of course. CD. More on this fragment here.

Prey x Revenant by Jeffrey Romero Middents
The way in which this fragment brings two variations of American landscapes into dialogue is both absorbing and disconcerting; highlighting the incongruity between the relative smallness of the humans within these vistas and the enormity of their/our environmental impact, while also nodding to the ultimate force of the (super)natural world. The abruptness of cuts between each section is initially jarring but the few seconds of blackness serve the piece well and are, arguably, more affecting than running segments together without pause. It’s clear why Jeffrey deemed it ‘too beautiful, too tempting’ not to juxtapose these two films, and I would love to watch this on a bigger screen. JS. More on this fragment here.

House of Peaky by Jemma Saunders
What struck me watching this split screen was how the power dynamics in both these opening sequences are telegraphed to us through the physical position of characters in the scene and the camera angles chosen to reveal them. The omniscient eye following Tommy Shelby reveals the physical domain he controls, where the gutter level angle on Patrick Cochrane seems to root his influence with the men he stands (just barely) above. CD. More on this fragment here.

The Rub by Charlotte Scurlock
content note: nudity
These 4 frames highlight just how fine the line is (in this case, pixels) between these 2 media objects; a universally accepted advert for a well known (and well loved) soap brand and an exploitation film. The literal ‘rub’ here for me is the way that touch and hand gestures are coded so similarly across these 4 frames. CD. More on this fragment here.

Brummie Academic Rock’n Roll by Qinran (Leo) Wang
I appreciate the nested process here, where footage from an event dedicated to practice as research becomes its own fragment of practice as research (full disclosure, two of the editorial team appear in this fragment). Watching this again I am struck by how rebellious (and refreshing) it is to be an academic and be wandering around outside, aware of everything but not necessarily looking for anything. CD
Additional note: so true – we should make time to walk and talk more often! JS. More on this fragment here.

cruising by Samantha Wojcik
content note: nudity
Even as an ‘initial test’, this fragment still exhibits a coherence as clips, images and texts accumulate on the desktop. The title brilliantly captures both the subject and approach, as we cruise through two minutes of material, and there’s a clear sense of both curation and play. I’d be interested to see how a longer piece wrangles the opposed accusations (if that’s the right word?) and defences that are threaded throughout, and it also made me think of Ariel Avissar’s Screen Stars Dictionary entry on Tom Cruise, pondering anew his choice of ‘mask’ to summarise this iconic actor. JS. More on this fragment here.