Pot Head
The Art and History of Pottery
Pot Head: The Art and History of Pottery
Trailer
What the trailer here:
Pot Head: The Art and History of Pottery
Watch the full film here:
About the Film
Artist Statement
While a being a visual designer, my other passion and form of escape is found in pottery and sharing the art form through different forms of media. This is why I created a full feature film documentary name Pot Head: The Art and History of Ceramics. The film goes into depth showcasing and informing the viewer about the history and techniques of pottery through ceramist in the DFW, including myself. Not only is this film for ceramic artist but the general public who might be interested in either art and/or history overall and how it can impact a life time of generations.The documentary consists of my skills in ceramics, storytelling, and audio/video production. The film is mainly made using the tools: ProTools, Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, Zoom audio recorders, DJ Mimo tripods. My main inspiration and resources for the information was from YouTube channels: Timeline - World History Documentaries, Northern Clay Center, and The History Channel. Other inspirations, based around visuals were ceramic Youtubers: ONDO STUDIO and SHINOBU HASHIMOTO. The music choice was important as it needs to reflect the ceramic community, which is quite calm and accepting. The break down of the film consisted of seven chapters: hand building and history, the wheel, the kiln, glazing, pottery manufacturing and lastly, a reflection part; representing the stages of historical inventions and steps of the ceramic process. One essential parts of my film is the interviews so finding creditable ceramic artist in the area and creating custom questions for each was dire to showcase different art styles and historical information.
Overall, the main goal of Pot Head: The Art and History of Ceramics is to inform and showcase the ceramic community. As pottery is a difficult skill to master yet, is something that is extremely addictive and I hope that the documentary will also encourage that!
Making of the film
idea
The overall idea of this project was formed due to the lack of information on the internet, more specifically the lack of a general knowledge of ceramics in one form of media. It's easy to find information on one form of ceramics (such as hand building and wheel) but not everything at once. It seems that usually information often only is purely going over the steps of creating, leaving out this historical or vise verses. This is seen in many forms of media such as books and video. That is why I wanted to create a centralized film that discuses both art and history.With that said I got to work. I began creating outlines of what my references were and what exactly would be in the final film would roughly look. I had to questions like what is a necessity, how deep should I go in the craft, where will my sources be, and more. Once I had all my ideas out there the planning really took off and I created this filming schedule based off of my ideas.In the end I stuck pretty close to the original plan, other than adding another chapter by splitting chapter 5: Glaze into two parts. The Chapter seemed too long based on the information so I changed it to split at Pottery Manufacturing.Other choices that were made were those of marketing, for instance the tile. I needed to make sure that the tile was eye catching yet still relative to the content and feelings of myself and the pottery community. That is when the name Pot Head came to mind. Being a play on words, the idea that this form of art can be so addictive is that one is a literal pot head and all they have on their mind is pots and pottery.
Filming
Filming was a very long and extensive process with me making a lot of executive changing through the project from beginning to end. The biggest change was my camera angles for the entire first chapter and having to re-recording. Another hurdle was over all limitations I had, as being the sole maker in this film (planning, researching, recording, creating the pottery, and editing). I was more difficult to check my work in the moment, especially in chapter 2. Though once I got my flow down and the feeling I wanted to convey, being this welcoming and cozy environment, filming became much easier.My absolute favorite part of the entire filming process was the interactions with other fellow ceramic artist. I felt deeply connected and reminded me of just how amazing the ceramic community is. The ability to sit down with individuals with very different backgrounds and learn along the way was really amazing. It was really the interactions I had with everyone that made me want to push this film as far as I could, giving it my all and more.
Editing
The editing process took the longest, majority working in VEGAS Pro and proTools with some editing in Premier Pro. I began edited based on chapters, similarly to my filming schedule.I realized soon that with all the content I had that my film would be well over my initial length of 15-30 minutes. With that said I was not worried due to my extreme interest in this project.Once I had all my chapters edited, I began work on editing the interviews. I edited them after the full film so I could make notes while editing each interview to see where to place them in the film based on their answers. In addition, I also find source material that fitted within both the context of the interview and overall appeal to the documentary and noted the placement of them as well. After the editing and taking notes, it was easy to add it into the chapters.With the film was fully put together I then adding royalty free music that fitted the excitement in each scene, transitioning from song to song in a cohesive manner. With the film final completed I was able to create my credits scene and rendered out the full film.
When making my trailer, I worked from the final film itself. I watched over the whole film, checking for mistakes, and noted scenes to put in the trailer. Once both videos were complete I uploaded them to YouTube and shared it with close friends and family for feedback. Thanks to the feedback I was able to make my film more precise and clearer to understand; by adding and changing some sections.
Marketing
In order to promote the film I created promotional material. I used mostly Adobe Photoshop to create each design.
All the images used in the designs were those I either digitally sketched or took a photo of and then edited into the the software.
In addition to these two posters I made stickers of the logo and glaze test tile business card to fit in the theme of the documentary.
interviews
Chris Gray
Chris Gray is currently a ceramics professor at Collin College in Plano Texas, he has been creating ceramics for over 30 years; specializing in several skill set. Chris is well known in the DFW area for his experience in flameware clay, with many exhibitions and interviews showcasing his experts in the clay body. His desire to create functional pieces, such as his flameware pieces, are inspiring to say the least. His exquisite technique makes one watch and wonder in "aw". While Chris often creates more hand-built pieces he's wheel skills on not one to over-look. Not only is Chris an extraordinary ceramic artist but an memorable professor. His extensive knowledge in ceramic history and techniques are not only informative but contagious. He's form of teaching is humorously unique and will stay with you for an eternity!
Zosia Coffey
Zosia Coffey is currently studying Art History and ceramics at the University of North Texas. While professionally been working with ceramics for about 4 years, it has been present in their childhood such as making clay ornaments as a child. Zosia prefers to work with slabs techniques, she has been branching to wheel throwing. Not only is Zosia a phenomenal ceramic artist but a art historian. Their drive to learn more is apparent more than ever in her knowledge of clay materials and where they come from. Their pottery varies vastly ranging from structured- functional pieces to abstract, some humorous, pieces.
Isabel Sanchez
Isabel Sanchez is currently a student at The University of North Texas studying Ceramics. Isabel has been working with clay for roughly 6 years and majorly works with hand building techniques. She loves the to see human touch pottery and is outstanding at creating small figures, such as animals. Is it apparent in her pottery how important one's own personal, whether that is in culture, style, or any other factor.
Jordan Easley
Jordan Easley was a former ceramics teacher in the DFW area , where she was loved by her students and co-workers. Jordan's love for the wheel and glazes are taken to the highest regards and it shows. Only being a ceramic artist for 4 years her hard-work and dedication to the art form, without a doubt, can be reflected in her piece. Her desire to learn has aided her exponentiation while creating functional, Japanese inspired, dishware with clean and precise techniques. Jordan also does not mess around when it comes to safety in the studio! With the uttermost care for the safety of herself and others, she advocates and educates other in keeping a tidy studio and the dangers of not.
Work Citation
While majority of the film used testimonies from then interviewees I made sure to fact-check everything and grab outside source material. Most of this outside source material was images from museum, artist, or other credible sources. Since this documentary aimed to educate, it was crucial to make sure the views had a true understanding of the content due visuals and audio.
Source Images:
-Amparo Museum
-Cleveland Museum of Art
-Mary Fox
-Ceramika Artystyczna
-The Metropolitan Museum of Art
-Pucker Gallery
-Princeton University Art Museum
-Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (The Dutch Museum)
-The British Museum
-Anderson Collection at Stanford University
-Encyclopedia of East Asia Art
-The Brooklyn Museum
-The National Museum of Asian Art
-National Library of Medicine
-Denver Art Museum
-.Gardiner museum
-flyeschool
Additional Information:
-University of Colorado Boulder
-Smith College museum of Ancient inventions
-The Antiques Almanac-Pottery in the Ancient World
-SDS Industries
-The Pottery Wheel
-SKPG Fine Arts
-Skutt
-Jill Rutter