Project: Video Jockey - Evaluation

New projects, new theme. That theme is music and as the title of the project suggests, we were assigned the task to create a music video for a song of our choosing. However, there were some restrictions as to what song we could pick because rather than create a music video that conveyed a specific meaning or message, our videos had to convey a feeling or emotion. Basically, an abstract music video.

I decided, due to technical complications, to create my video using stop-motion techniques. This is the song I chose because whenever I think of stop-motion styled videos I think of quirky, strange, happy little things and this song is all kinds of strange. The video itself displays a typical morning routine with some not-so-typical magical powers.

As I said before, the song is quite a quirky and upbeat tune. I was unsure of whether to use this 'morning routine' idea as it didn't seem abstract enough to follow the criteria of the project brief. But I feel like it manages to convey that sense of silly happy-go-luckiness easily without getting into anything too specific (except that mornings would be a lot simpler if you had magical powers).

Animated imagery is not normally something I do personally, so my audience would be able to see this as a bit of variety in my work. As part of my audience are those who would interview me for a job or a spot in university, having variety is very useful to have in my portfolio to show that I can do a bit of everything if it's needed. Those who I work with are also my audience as they actually see the process of creation throughout and we sometimes give feedback to each other which means that if I take their criticism on board then I am catering my designs partly towards their needs, making them my audience.

I tried two different methods of recording footage. I briefly used a video camera College provided, but I thought about how much of a hassle it would be having to constantly rent it out and lugging the huge thing about so I decided to scrap using that and as I had none of my own I went with the alternative. A 'photo' camera in which I can create a stop-motion video. That's when the real experimentation began as I had to try different angles and positions to see which would be the easiest spot to consistently take photos at without any disruptions or inconveniences. As for materials I didn't really have to go through much due to the simplistic nature of the video.

By using the little *poofs* to signify an object vanishing it creates this sort of fun happy atmosphere because of it's popular association with cartoons as well as the little *poof* clouds being clouds which are quite soft fluffy looking things. The same goes for all the little *clicks* and *alarms* in the sense that words popping up in correspondence to the sounds brings a comical effect to the scenes.

Throughout this project I never really 'managed' my time in the sense I planned it out. I simply did it whenever possible. It's just a good thing that "whenever possible" happens to be most of the time. When it came to actually creating the video things started to get a little hectic as I had to change my idea near the end of the project which cost me a fair bit of time that could have been spent refining any little bits in my work. I liked that last minute change though because I had previously wanted to make a stop-motion video but I thought that didn't fit into the outline of the brief where I thought we had to use the video cameras to create our footage. To be honest though I my time management became rather poor when it came to the creation of the video as I left it til last minute because of my fascination with the other project. At least it's something to improve upon though.

Stop-motion requires a lot of patience and motivation. Patience is definitely one of my strong points as I have to constantly wait around to get anywhere as well as what little experience I have with stop-motion. I also happen to really like the results of such techniques so being able to get through all the mistakes and having to do it all over again because the camera tilted VERY SLIGHTLY to the left.

Even though I actually liked my last minute change of idea, I really could have done with having my own video camera. That way I could have stuck with my original idea, saved a lot of time, and still be able to record footage whenever I wanted without asking College for permission.

I believe my improvements are most needed in my research now. I feel like I'm lacking in variety and quantity for it. I'd also like to improve how my sketchbook actually looks as well. After all, it's a creative course and I should be showing that I am also creative in everything I do. It may make the difference in whether I pass an interview or not :). Oh, and I feel like my video lacked quite a bit in content. The fact I had to resort to looping says it all. All of this just comes down to managing my time better though which I can be sure of doing so in future.

Project: Music Inspired Imagery - Evaluation

DFB = Dead Flag Blues

This is always fun to explain. We had to choose two different songs, one of our own personal choice and the other from a selection of handpicked songs by Mark. Then we had to create one storyboard for each of the two songs we chose which we then pick two stills from each storyboard which we then create and turn into still images.

So basically it went like this:
One Song > One Storyboard > Two Still Images
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One Song > One Storyboard > Two Still Images

My personal song choice was Brunch - Imagine, and the song I chose from Mark's selection was Godspeed You Black Emperor - Dead Flag Blues.

DFB:
The images I created for the DFB song were photo illustrations where one was a centered shot of an underground sewer with shadows of people, but there is no one there to cast from, only shadows. The other image is a rather dirty scenario where a simple book is on the ground surrounded by rocks.
Imagine
For the Imagine song, one image shows a tangerine falling down a hill which leads to a bright and promising path. And the other image shows two people walking along a path that seems to lead nowhere as one side is covered in rocks and the other covered in hills.

DFB
I wanted to make the sewer scene to be a very dark and creepy place which left a haunting effect on the audience. It's meant to correspond with the line "and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides". I thought I'd keep the location in the sewers because that can be quite a scary and uncomfortable place as it is. The lone shadows are there not only to haunt you, but to show you that something did happen here and as you may be able to tell by the dark style it wasn't something nice. The other image with the book is about the reality of what is happening. The book is there to symbolise made-up stories that are often not true, but outside of this book is a real messed up world of horrific happenings. This isn't a fairy tale, it's real (kinda).
Imagine
Firstly, this song is all about hope, happiness, equality, and breaking down the barriers that keep us apart. There is no second. The image that shows two people walking down a path is a literal metaphor for choosing their own path, which is why you don't see where the path leads to because it's there for those who take it to interpret it as they wish. The buildings and the hills are like sides of an argument in basic terms. Throughout the storyboards there are pathways to either buildings or hills and so rather than following these defined paths of specific actions the two people are taking their own path. The second image is very similar, but slightly more metaphorical. There is still a path which is also about taking your own path, your own journey, but the tangerine is the focal point as the tangerine, in Japanese culture, symbolises happiness, wealth, prosperity, and most importantly, hope. Hope for whether this path shall lead it to happiness.

Audience

I put a fair bit of effort in trying to improvise with my photos. Due to the weather a lot of the things I needed like hills and water were quite hard to get clean shots of. The hills were either too dirty or completely covered in a cloak of white snow or the rivers were frozen up in ice. I had to try and make my own water which I tried to do in my bathroom, but the water didn't have any colour or definition to it so I couldn't use that as you wouldn't even be able to tell there was any water there. I never actually tried creating an entire room from raw textures either so I had to kind of go along as it developed when making it, but I didn't quite count on a few things colliding with each other. I intended on darkening the whole thing anyway though so I wasn't too worried about a few imperfections as they would be hidden within the shadows. For some of the key objects like the tangerine I tried making my own 'light studio' of some sorts using a particular arrangement of taped up paper and torches (very professional) so I didn't have to do much editing on the computer to blend the different photos together.

DFB
I think just about every photo I used had some sort of dirty quality to it which really helps make people think negative thoughts when looking at the images I made. The fact I used photos meant I was using real objects which also let the audience 'feel' for those who may have been involved in these scenes I created because they are real things we see with our own eyes as we're out and about.
Imagine
The tangerines I used were a very key element in using particular resources to communicate my ideas across. I'm not sure if many will get it at first, but hopefully the focus on the tangerine will make them think that there 'is' a message and the composition of the image will eventually lead them to realising the meaning behind the image.

During the design process I was quite organised in the sense that I planned a day (one when I'm not at College while the day is still light) where I would take all the photos I needed for my images and then throw them all together in Photoshop. Whenever I couldn't do something due to some sort of complication I would then do something I 'could' do like my evaluation for the images I had done, so I wouldn't waste any time.

When I did begin the Photoshop my knowledge of photo manipulation came in handy as that was all there was to do after I got all the resources I needed. Even though I tried doing a few things I hadn't done before (like creating a room from textures) I managed to almost pull it off (there were still a few noticeable imperfections).

The weather was the only thing preventing me from completing my designs with ease. It covered everything in snow which wouldn't have suited my images because then people may have thought I was trying to convey something with the snow. It also made finding flowing rivers impossible as they were all frozen solid, so if there was anything I could have done differently it would have either been the ability to control the weather, or build a time machine so I could go back in time and take some clear photos then.

Project: Video Jockey - Stop-motion

Even though it is rather late to be researching into anything right now, I figured I should at least take a look at a few examples anyway just so my idea can be as good as it possibly can be within it's restrained time limit.

Punch Drysdale

I was looking for something exactly like this. A showcase of a regular morning routine being displayed through the wonderous (new word) potential of stop-motion :D. It's more 'how' they take advantage of stop-motion that I find interesting and useful for ideas on the techniques I myself could use for my video. The way they remain stationary as well gives me some ideas about remaining in one position throughout the video regardless. Or maybe do something where everything remains still, yet things happen. For example, I could be making myself some tea (even though I don't like tea) and rather than showing me pouring it the milk in the mug, the glass of milk could magically empty out and the milk just pops right in the mug. Basically I'd be taking out the process and only showing the results.



ALARM

While this is not the kind of stop-motion I want to use, it does have nearly the same exact idea I have about a morning routine in a comedic style. What I really find interesting about these short films is that they almost never use any words, and simply let the actions speak for themselves. It kind of lets you get into the flow of the movie because you're only hearing a steady flow of sounds rather than an abrupt voice popping out every now and then.

It's a typical morning where the person doesn't want to wake up, but is continuously disturbed by several forms of a wakeup call. The way all of them eventually collaborates, it's almost like an orchestra reaching its climax. Then you realise this isn't an ordinary morning when he pulls out the Desert Eagle .50 and shoots the clock right in the face. From then on it seems to be relatively normal with the exception of some ninja-like skills being used to perform simple tasks such as fetching a glass of milk. Then he slowly realises he's drifting into a nightmarish world of ever-moving wakeup calls and intense toast-making.

What I really like about this is how there are all these slightly out-of-the-ordinary scenarios being created in such a casual form that they almost seem normal.



www.motionserved.com/Gallery/SAAB/292464
This one works well with my other idea for a video where I show the process of something being created from paper and then being brought into the real world. I doubt I would be able to create something as smooth and as realistic as this, but to show a clear transition between the object within the paper popping out of the paper and becoming real is my goal. There's one thing that I really like though, and that's the usage of sound. They don't just use the music as the audio, they add the sounds of each action like the light bulb being flicked. It really adds to each action being done and lets you get a feel for what's going on.

Project: Video Jockey - Reworking

Right! Due to a few particular complications I thought I would completely change my idea in a way that allows me to actually complete it within the deadline. I've changed the song, the style, and everything about it. It will no longer be a smooth-running video, but instead a stop-motion animation. Due to the nature of stop-motion though I didn't think it suited the genre/theme/style of my song choice, so that had to change.

I wanted to go with a happier 'quirky' theme of song because for me stop-motion is generally done in this form, and it's just a lot more fun to work with :). My mind instantly went to the soundtrack of Soul Eater, an anime series that just oozes quirky, fun, and really strange. I eventually narrowed it down to two songs, but both gave me different ideas for an accompanying video.

Soul Eater - In his mind, DB sways his shoulders and dances

As soon as this song played, my mind began creating a scenario of someone doing their morning routine combined with the capabilities and potential of stop-motion to make it slightly more interesting.



Soul Eater - 4242564

I had to think a little longer with this song, but then I got it! It's still somewhat vague but I was thinking of showing a process of something like a drawing, a sketch, or just 'something' on paper and then bringing that to life through the magic (lol) of stop-motion.

These are simply rough ideas at the moment, but that's why I'll be looking at a few different examples of stop-motion. I've seen quite a few that showcase the morning routine with a slight 'twist' to it before, so I know I can find some good ones for that. Hopefully looking at some examples will help me make a final decision in song choice. If not though, I'll just make storyboards for them and let that help me decide.

Project: Music Inspired Imagery - Voyage

Don't you just want to fall asleep? And not in a bad way either! I was already feeling rather relaxed and calm 'before' watching this video, but now I really do feel like simply nodding off :). Ok, moving away from the fact it makes you want to sleep.

Created by filmmaker, Marco Aslan, "nostalgia" is the perfect word for his work. This video in particular is quite useful for both of my songs because with "Dead Flag Blues" I think of old fashioned, and old, which are two words that can be used to describe the style of this video. "Imagine" is quite a fast-paced and joy-filled song filled with realisations, so rather than the style which is at a far slower pace I thought that the content was quite suiting because you see all these warm happy moments with lots of smiling faces.

I realise that we are simply creating still imagery, but I still believe that the style of the video and how it captures that perfect moment are still great sources of inspiration and ideas. The style is probably the main aspect I would like to try and interpret, but really all that is changing is that rather than using a video camera I'm going to use a photo camera. Anyways, time to nod off :)

Project: Music Inspired Imagery - Video

The Google Story, a lovely trip down memory lane to the times of the simple and watching as it evolves into the powerhouse of the internet. I'm not so interested in the content of the video though as it's more the way and style it is done in that caught my attention and made me think "Hey, this could be useful for my own video!".

The narrative form that this story took is what made me think of using this type of thing for one of my songs, "Dead Flag Blues", because that is also spoken/sung in a narrative form. What is being presented in the video is slightly quirky and fun which is basically the opposite of "Dead Flag Blues" which speaks of the corpses of dead babies, so I thought I could use the way it's shown from a birds-eye view and then have something different being shown. I'm not sure whether using the way the camera moves would be a good idea, maybe a singular slow motion across a horizontal line would be more fitting for the smooth melodic tone of my song choice.

I'm thinking of showing something like my actual storyboard, and then have it evolve into video footage of whatever I have planned for the final draft. Then it finally becomes this dark and lonely world of horror surrounded by some sort of negativity. Or I could simply skip the evolution bit and go straight to the video itself, but instead of a video I could do it in the style of a book with the video footage inside the pages (complete with turning pages!). This is where the styling comes in quite heavily in order to create this atmosphere that represents the contents of the video without knowing what the content actually is. I'll need to collect some more imagery that matches this goal of mine though just so I can explore all the possibilities.

Project: Music Inspired Imagery - Videos

Marilyn Manson - The Beautiful People

Right! What an image to start off a bit of annotating :D. Straight away you should be able to recognise the style of this video for what it is, really crazy, fast paced, and blinking creepy.

We're greeted with a lot of erratic movements setting the pace of the video showing all sorts of objects that, with the distortions (blurs, high exposures), are seemingly unidentifiable. But whether you know what's going on or not, you will feel that heavy sense of intensity being created. I'm not sure about anyone else, but the colour tones remind me of a sickly pile of puke in a freshly washed bucket smeared with leaked entrails from my bowels. The extreme nature of this video would attract anyone who's really into their hardcore metal and all things Gothic.

"You can't see the forest for the trees, You can't smell your ow n shit on your knees". What I make of this is that the forest is showing the big picture, and the trees are only what you see with your own eyes. Then the second part seems to be saying that you're such an asshole you don't even realise it. All-in-all the general basis of this song seems to be about perceptions and how they're misconceived from a lack of any in-depth thought.

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Massive Attack - Angel

Creepier and creepier. That seems to be a running theme in these videos. However there is quite a change in pace with this particular music video as the tempo has almost been completely reversed from incredibly fast, to rather slow. There's almost a calming tone to the song, until you open your eyes and see the wide-eyed corpse in the coffin.

The smooth melodic tone of the song is similar to one of my song choices, Dead Flag Blues, both of which have a negative vibe to their meanings although not quite to the same degree. Because of this I think experimenting with the style of this video into my own ideas will lead to some fitting imagery.

After analysing the few lyrics in this song I came to the conclusion that it is about a deceivingly beautiful woman who has a wicked side to her and tricks men, causing them to become nothing. I'm trying to think how that translates into the process of burying a dead body with an old-film style though. The fact there are very few lyrics though could mean that this video has nothing to do with the lyrics but more to do with the instrumental elements of the song. It seems though that what it's trying to show is that they really want to make sure this guy is dead when you see the two men at the ending sequence where they pound a big metal spike into the body.

The best thing to take from this video is definitely the style of film, even if we are only making still images. But I can still apply this style to my own ideas especially with one of my ideas that involve a closeup of an old man's mouth narrating the song. I'd rather have everything else in colour though or more likely slightly desaturated with particular pieces in full colour. We'll see during the trial and error stages.

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Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

"I'm staring into your soul, stealing your essence!". Ignoring that caption, this video for the song "Sledgehammer" brings us into a world of insanity, fun, and an immense amount of effort. I say effort because aft er being introduced to Peters face, you'll notice the rest of the video is done using the stop-motion technique. This is when a collection of photos are taken one after another and then placed into an ordered sequence in order to create the illusion of movement. It's also a really useful technique for defying the laws of physics and all things thought to be impossible, little things.

Simply because this is done using stop-motion makes me appreciate this video straight away without even needing to know the content. It is complete genius! I've done my fair share of stop-motion and I can definitely tell you that even if everything goes perfectly, it is still an incredibly time consuming process and when something goes wrong... I don't even want to think about all those hours I wasted because of a slight TILT!!! to the camera ><. Anyways! Enough of the technique, on to the content.

"Complete Genius"

Sex. Line after line after dirty dirty line of sex. Have a little read of the lyrics in this song with this in mind and you will easily notice the vast amount of sexual innuendos.

You could have a steam train
If you'd just lay down your tracks

Obviously this is not a literal offering of an actual steam train in which the conditions are that you must lay down the train tracks beforehand, so it must be a metaphor for something, but what? Perhaps the steam train is the penis, and the tracks being laid down is actually the woman spreading her legs?

"It feels like he's undressing me with his eyes"

You could have a big dipper
Going up and down, all around the bends
You could have a bumper car, bumping
This amusement never ends

Read that and tell me you weren't thinking of sex. The whole song seems to be about simply having some fun. There's also a bit that makes me think it's also about getting rid of the bad stuff in your life and just move on which goes exactly like this:

I've kicked the habit
Shed my skin
This is the new stuff

I'd also like to mention that this song is a definite head-nodder. The funky beat matches this strange and ever-changing world we're brought into. I don't think the video is meant to represent anything specific as there is just so much insanity going on here that you can't help but feel happy when watching those two dancing uncooked turkeys, or feel disturbed. Either way, it's definitely a video for those who just want to enjoy themselves.