This is my FINAL LOOP project

I will include a copy on DVD in my journal incase the quality of this video is too poor.

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This is an earlier version of my loop project. NOT the final version!

From the crit on Friday, I have realised that 'less is more'. I am going to simplify my project even more than I already have. I started by going through all the footage I had and selecting out the pieces I might use. I then cut down on these depending on the quality and variety of shots I had. I was able to get rid of footage where there was too much grey floor visible. I then moved around the clips on the timeline, played with the speed of them - fast forwarded some, slowed some down, played them backwards. I also cropped quite a few of the shots, so there was a bit of a graphic aesthetic to them. At this stage the loop was about 2 minutes long. I decided this was excessive and a got a bit boring by the time the loop came around. From there I cut it down to roughly one minute, which was the piece I showed in the crit. 

For my final version I have cut it down further and added some audio. I was going to use the audio that was recorded with the footage, but although it suited the sort of 'bloopers' in the earlier versions, it didn't really fit with the new one. I considered using some silly sound effects to match the absurdity of the footage, but I didn't want the piece to be too thematic. I wanted to keep the random feel about it. I chose to use a section of music from a Daft Punk song because its beat matched the movement in the clip and gave the piece another amusing aspect. I think the music makes it seem like this completely ridiculous bear takes himself/herself pretty seriously and thinks he/she is pretty awesome, but actually looks like a complete fool! 

I filmed my friend hula hooping today. I have never laughed so much in my life. I hope I can do the experience justice with the editing and final product. She wore a skin tight lycra suit, 'bedazzled' with blue, red and white sequins and also a bear mask/head thing. I was a little worried in the initial stages of filming as she was having trouble hula hooping for more than 2 or 3 seconds. However, this provided some very amusing footage of the time between attempts which I will have to include in the loop piece as they are hilarious. I plan to cut up all the footage so I can limit the amount of time the hoop spends on the floor! 

For my loop project, I am going to film my friend, dressed up in a ridiculous outfit, hula hooping. 

I think this will be interesting because the action of hula hooping kind of reflects and contradicts the idea of a loop at the same time. I guess the aim of hula hooping is to keep doing it for as long as you can, but inevitably (unless you are the worlds best hula hooper) you will muck up and the hoop will stop. By filming the action, I can make it go on forever! 

I want to make it entertaining, hence the ridiculous outfit, to keep the viewer engaged. I will film it from different angles and distances, to get a variety of shots to keep it interesting.

I am unwell at the moment (pretty sure it's not swine flu....) and was unable to go to the critical session today. I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to get any feed back and advice on my piece. However, I have been able to show it to my family members today and have got some ideas as to adjustments I need to make. These include slowing a couple of the bubbles down or making it so that there is more of a chance to read more of the text, I think this can be done and still maintain the idea of fast moving, overlapping thoughts that come and go before you can really consider them. I also plan to show some other people, friends mainly, over the weekend and see if there are any common observations and suggestions made which I could work on. I have shown a couple of people in my e-media class over the last week, and have had some responses which pointed out good things, such as the aesthetically pleasing 'stream-like' movement, vibrant colour to engage the viewer, and an interesting concept relating to 'automatic writing'. Some people suggested that the text moves too fast to read, this generally happened before I explained the reasoning for this. However, I understand that as a visual piece it needs to be engaging, hence the decision to make changes previously discussed. Unfortunately, missing out on the crit means that I will have to show it to as many people as possible, to form my own sort of 'crit'.

I am also considering changing the background to something with a little more depth, as I feel it is looking a bit flat at the moment.

I have a rough version of my text project ready for the crit tomorrow. I am a bit worried that it is lacking something.... it seems a bit flat.

I still need to add: 

audio -  I think I will use a sound clip of 'under water' because it was like the sound in my head while I was doing the automatic writing task. It was a sort of low, irregular humming, and seems to suit my piece as I felt submersed in my thoughts. As they became more erratic, I felt my heart rate rise a little and I felt excited and inspired. If I was to put this feeling into a sound it might be something with a higher pitch, perhaps the sound of a glass being tapped. After the lecture on sound, I would like to create my own sound clips, but I guess it depends on how much time I have.

I might slow a few of the bubbles down, some which are at the front of the screen, so the viewer has more of a chance to read some of them. Although, the main point I am trying to convey is the feeling of frustration and dis-order I experienced in trying to record all the thoughts that went through my mind while I was automatic writing. I did the task several times and found that each time, my thoughts started off slow and orderly but as I relaxed into the task, I found that my hand wasn't able to keep up with my head as thoughts came and went before I could record or finish recording them. They were overlapping and intertwining.

In my piece, I attempted to re-create this feeling for the viewer, in the overwhelming movement, speed and directional changes in the thought bubbles.  

The idea of my piece is not for the viewer to be able to read the text exactly, but to able to experience the feeling my particular flow of thought and stream of consciousness. 

I wanted to capture the concept of 'automatic writing' - an unpredictable, uncontrollable, continuous, unedited and at times confusing and frustrating process. 

I want to represent the flow of consciousness or 'stream of thought' as water. Movement of thought bubbles in a stream/flow. They will be thought bubbles to represent the thoughts which travelled through my mind during the time I spent 'automatic writing'. 

There were several moments during this time when I felt frustrated because one thought would slide into my mind before the previous one had finished or had been resolved. I want to re-create this feeling in the viewer by creating a scene where only some of the text is readable. This may be because it is moving too fast or there is simply too much to take in. I think this also adds a sense of intrigue and the viewer would feel the sense of frustration I did as the text would disappear before they got a chance to read it or finish reading it. It keeps the viewer on their toes.

This feeling was particularly relevant in the early stages of my automatic writing as my thoughts started out very orderly and organised. 

I want to display the change in my state of mind and consciousness which I experienced during the automatic writing. To begin, my thoughts were controlled and orderly - as if I was trying to organise and categorise my thoughts. As time passed, my thoughts became much more chaotic, random and non-sense as I relaxed and could forget about previously 'dealt with' thoughts. 

I plan to depict this idea of change through changes in the movement of the thought bubbles. Starting off evenly paced and moving in the same direction, gradually becoming more erratic and chaotic in movement, pace and direction. Eventually the buzzing thought bubbles fill the screen. 

a sort of 'screen shot' of what the clip might look like at some stage...

Water - idea for backdrop. Represents the idea of a flow of thoughts.

Just a few ideas for the upcoming Automatic writing project.

I'm thinking of thought bubbles containing the text from my 15 minutes of automatic writing, floating around the screen. Initially, my thoughts were very orderly, I was trying to organise my mind. As I relaxed a little, my thoughts became more abstract and senseless. I would like to reflect this in the presentation. At this stage I'm going to have several thought bubbles moving at the same pace in the same direction. These will contain the 'organised thoughts'. Gradually these will be replaced/combined with ones moving in all different directions at different intervals and paces. These will contain the chaotic and nonsense thoughts, reflected in their movement. 

I will scan in some drawings and handwritten text instead of using computer generated images and text, this would better suit the chaotic thoughts. Perhaps computer generated text would work better for the orderly first part....

 

NOTE:

Please disregard the dates published by the site on the following posts. They had been recorded in a hand-written journal for the last 6 weeks, and I am only just uploading them now...

Here is the final version of my ident clip!....

week 6

31/3/09

Today I have put my clip onto a dvd, I originally wanted to have my artists statement on the dvd also, but was told this isn't possible unless I did it with screen shots. Instead, I made a cover for the dvd case and typed up my statement to slide inside the back cover of the case. I think I like the presentation of the actual disc and case better than the contents of the dvd!

Undertaking the ident project has been a huge learning curve, mainly because I have never used any  filming equipment or film-editing software before. I guess I have to be pleased with the end result because of this. 

week 6

30/3/09

After the critical session on Friday the 28th, I realised there were changes I needed to make.

I had totally forgotten about adding audio to the clip, which I had intended to do.

It was also suggested that I play with the brightness and contrast of the background to try and eliminate some of the shadows. Also, I was encouraged to go back and be really precise with the editing and cutting to make sure the animation flowed really well.

Today I added sound to the clip - popping sound effects to correspond with the movement of the doll and a sort of whimsical/light-hearted tune in the background to tie it together. The popping sound effects also managed to create a more constant flow with the movement of the doll, as I didn't have time to change the editing and cutting. I tried really hard to change the brightness and contrast of the background, but due to a lack of program knowledge and time, I was unable to get it to look better. 

week 5

25/3/09

This week I have been editing my footage in preparation for the critical session on Friday.

I have cut the footage to fit inside 10 seconds. It looks alright, pretty basic though!  I kind of like the hand-made look to it though. I really enjoy sculpture and making 3D things (as you can see in the letters in the clip), so for it to have a hand-made, unpolished look sort of suits it I guess. However, it would be really good if I could spend more time getting to know Premier Pro, so I could improve the look of it. 

week 4:

16/3/09

Today I filmed my previous idea, with the letters of my name etc. I think it went pretty well. I couldn't manage to get the lighting exactly as I wanted it. I wanted a really white, bright light, but it came out a little yellow. Will see if I can change this in the editing. The following pictures are basically what I followed to create the animation....

week 4

15/3/09

I have an idea which might make my ident clip a little more interesting as an animation. Basically, it involves the doll unfolding, then my name (in letters hand made from polymer clay) coming out of the biggest doll. They will then go back inside the doll and the doll will then pack itself up. 

The pictures probably explain my idea better. 

Today I started editing my footage of the babushka doll. 

I ran into some problems. I don't have enough footage, as the roughly edited version only lasts 7 seconds or so. Its pretty slow and boring for a stop-motion animation too. I used the quicktime software, but I will have to go and re-shoot it with istop-motion and add something to it, to make it more entertaining and snappier (faster). Whatever I add to the clip should also be something relevant to me. I have been advised to aim for at least 100 frames in istop-motion, which is a hell of a lot more than what I currently have. 

week 2

5/3/09

I have decided I am coming up with ideas which are too complex. I have to remember that I don't know what it is going to be like to use the equipment etc, so I think the simpler the idea, the better in this case. I am going to go with a Babushka doll to represent the many sides/aspects of me, which basically can't be jammed in to a 10 second video clip. I will simply film (in a animation style) the doll unfolding, then folding up. I might zoom in for a close up of the dolls face for the final frame. I might speed it up, so i can have it unfolding and folding up several times and fade out to black at the end, to suggest this process could go on forever, like an identity is endless.  

Week 2

2/3/09

I scrapped the previous idea as I thought it was too literal and found it difficult to find enough objects which had some significance to me and were interesting. I didn't think it would be a cohesive piece. So I decided to think about things like "where have I been?, where am I going?, where am I now?" I guess this was in regard to various stages of my life. I thought of having a porcelain model of a house to depict "where have I been?". To me this would represent a physical, mental and emotional place I have been. The next section of the film I thought about using a book to symbolise being at uni, knowledge, learning and inspiration etc. I haven't thought of anything for the final stage yet. I realise I need something to tie it all together. I like the idea of the clip being a representation of time, as I believe it plays a part in defining an identity. This could be achieved through a quick flash of a pair of shoes, to symbolise a journey.

The following images and posts are from a hand written journal I have been keeping so far in e-media. The date of this posting is not the date they were created. There will be dates on them to indicate when they were created!

Week 1

25/2/09

Ideas for the ident project:

A series of frames where there is an action/object/image depicted for around 2 seconds. Each frame contains something different which says something about me....e.g. what I value, personal traits, experiences etc. It will be fast paced, with sound effects juxtaposed between the frames, e.g. 'thump, slap, rip, whistle, water trickle, pop'. Some frames are of moving images, some of still images. Maybe could be in black and white, with a couple of images in bright colour...maybe starting or ending with a frame in bold colour. I could use colour accents in the editing proccess? black and white with everything green highlighted? I will have to be careful not to make it too literal, in the objects I depict. I will need to find out if this is achievable, if it will be too difficult to edit or too time consuming for someone like me who has no idea how to use any of the equipment or editing software!

e.media

ident

To depict my identity in ten seconds, I chose to use a babushka doll. Its various layers represent the different sides of me. The handpainted floral detail on the dolls gives reference to my attention to detail and 'perfectionist' attitude. The letters of my name; millicent, are made from polymer clay which is a material I like using and have used for a while.

Initially I just wanted to have the doll unfold, then 'pack up'. However, this was insufficient as the footage didn't last long enough. I realised that in order to have a half-successful stop motion animation, I would need to add to the content of my clip and have more footage.
I re-filmed using i-stop motion which enabled me to film the various stages quickly and efficiently. I had more footage to play with and more choice when it came to editing.

From the critical session, there are a few things I would like to change. I need to add audio, perhaps some sound effects to correspond with each stage (popping noises?) or some sort of whimsical music to reflect the nature of the dolls and aspects of me.
I intend to play with the brightness/contrast of the clip in order to remove some of the shadows and to brighten and whiten the background. I would also like to do some more editing to make sure each stage is the same length in time to ensure a good sense of flow. This would also make adding audio easier and more appropriate.