An Interview with Myself (2015)

An Interview with Myself (2015)

Development
I thought it would be an interesting idea to create a film where Shirley interviews me and I interview Shirley. The key would be to see the difference and change in personality depending on whether I was in costume or not. 

This began as a "sketch", an experimental idea; I didn't consider lighting and setting at this point. I began with a list of questions for me to ask Shirley and for her to ask me. I wanted to use some of the skills that I had learned from VestandPage's performance workshops and allow myself to answer these questions on the spot, through improvisation and spontanaeity, as myself and my alter-ego character. This was so that my response would seem more natural. I did not want to act as I do not consider myself an actor. I overlaid some of the frames using a fade transition in order to see my face and Shirley's face overlapping one another, to show how we are two versions and sides of the same person. I liked this effect but if I were to develop this, I would need to make sure Shirley was positioned exactly the same in the frame and to the same scale. 

It was interesting to look back and reflect on the first interview, Shirley interviewing me. However, if I were to carry on with this idea for the film I would need to consider backdrop, lighting and props in the background to differentiate the characters and to emphasise that Shirley is a fictional character.

From this, I decided to use the sound recording of me interviewing Shirley about herself, as I felt the visual was not going to be strong enough. This is what led me to my sound/mirror installation, 'An Interview with Myself' in the Anatomy Rooms, Aberdeen. I used the audio from the interviews and played it through headphones on stereo so that each side to me had one headphone; I asked questions in one headphone and Shirley answered in the other. I had a mirror with a transparent image of Shirley transferred onto it. This was to enable the viewer to look at themselves through Shirley's eyes.

The most compelling and interesting thing from this was what I learned about Shirley when I allowed her to answer the questions naturally. I liked how it was obvious that my confidence and attitude changed when I was in costume. Shirley is an exaggeration of the different persona I create depending on who I am with and where I am. She is a representation of how we (as humans) change our behaviour in order to feel comfortable in society. 

‘An interview with Shirley’, Sound and Mirror Installation, 2015

This installation features a sound recording of my alter-ego being interviewed by my real self. Each headphone has a different voice; the right headphone features myself asking the questions and the left headphone features my alter-ego (Shirley) answering the questions. Above the headphones, there is a mirror installation on the wall with a lazertran, printed photograph of Shirley which means the audience are forced to look at themselves through Shirley’s eyes, as they listen to the interview. Shirley is the most obvious example of one of my personas. However, she is a representation of how we, as people in our society, feel the need to act in a certain way and change our behaviour (or our persona) to fit in.