Went along to the art block after creative writing class, and experimented projecting onto water. Instead of using the white fix tray, there was a transparent one, and Rob suggested we used that, sliding a sheet of white paper underneath. I have to admit, that originally my ideas for projecting onto water, weren't that creative. Basically my tick boxes were i) tray of water ii) good angle from projector iii) ripple effect for the scene link. But Rob gave me lots of good ideas, trying things out with canvas and mirrors, and coming up with interesting reflections. After adjusting the focus on the projector, it turns out that the quality of the video is fine. The sound was good, too, so I'm really pleased with how the film's turned out.

Deciding on how the installation was going to be, took a while. I realised that projecting downwards would be almost impossible, unless you have someone stand and hold the projector at that particular downwards angle. In the end, the tray of water sat upon two stands/benches, and we carried on seeing what other ways we could come up with. To be honest, mostly it was Rob whom came up with the variating ideas. I was content with just having the boxes ticked, but when we tried something, and it seemed to look amazing, I was really inspired to try and find the best way to get that ripple effect. There was the idea of projecting from underneath the tray, and Rob put a sheet of photographic (we think?) paper/plastic into the water, to see what effect it'd make. The film came through but it was a bit too dark, and I think there was a strange greenish tinge to it.

So the sheet went, and I got back to projecting onto canvas, only this time, with the projector pointing from under the tray. That way, we could see the ripples in the water with the movie, which was perfect. The only things left I had to adjust, was the positioning of the structure (had to watch out since some people had already marked out where they want everything to be) and the angle of the projection. I kept using blocks of wood to try and get the projector resting at the perfect slot, since one of the problems, was with the grooves in the tray itself. They form a large cross, which cuts up my movie, so I end up losing the impact at key points of the film. I kept trying to position the projector just right, so the footage would be shown closer in, and between the grooves, avoiding the distraction.

After a lot of chair-to-stool swapping, and fumbling with chunks of wood later, I managed to get a good angle. The only thing I regret, is not being able to project the movie bigger, as I feel impact would increase along with the size. I liked the idea of projecting onto the ceiling, but since it's a very uneven surface, the footage would end up really broken up, although, that also created an interesting effect, if not relating very much to my theme. Another experiment I liked, was to simply project the film at an angle against the white wall, creating a long, skewered picture, which seemed rather dramatic, but there'd be no ripple effect, which is too important to ommit.

In the end, I found an unoccupied space and Rob helped to put up a clean, blank board onto which I could project, resting against the wall, with the tray of water infront, and the projector underneath. There was actually one last question, and that was how I was going to create the ripples. Messing around with the water gave the idea of simply flicking droplets onto the surface, though I'd have to watch the projector. Another thought was to 'have a leak', as suggested by Rob, from above, so that there'd be occasional droplets into the tray. I thought about filling up a balloon with water, and pricking it to make that 'leak', but I'm too scared of the thought of it coming undone, and falling down, splashing and getting the projector wet. Wouldn't be wanting that! I picked up that see-through sheet of card/plastic, and just wafted it gently at one end of the tray to create small waves. It looks pretty good like that, I think. And since I'll be standing there, I might as well dabble my fingers in the water at the appropriate times to create alternating ripples. After all, you can't time and control a leak!