For the final project, I eventually settled on the POVs of money!

 

Money from the POV of Scanner is Illegal

I was mashing up the idea of scanning money, and the repercussions of doing so. Hence the visual of money being “scanned” turning into handcuffs, denoting the illegal nature of the activity.

Suggestions were given to have two bars of light a-la a real scanner, but upon trying, I just didn’t seem to like the aesthetics as much. Hence I stuck with the single bar of light in the middle. I did however go with the suggestions of making it a little thinner, and adding some chromatic aberration. Though, I think I could make the aberration a little better.

Money from the POV of a Beggar is a Can

Another thought I had was about how people collect cans to trade them in for small amounts of money.

So quite literally the can is “money” with the design of a one dollar US note, showing just how minimal the sum of money they could get amounts to.

If I could though, I’d like to have made it with the look of coins instead, with the embossed face sticking out from the can, which would also probably be closer to the amount of money they get per can.

Money from the POV of a Drug Smuggler is Risk

People who smuggle drugs across borders usually do so through their luggage, through objects, or even themselves. In a way, people are smuggling themselves through the system. I thought it’d be pretty cool to do a play on that imagery.

As Gary mentioned, I do think my previous iteration looked better. I also just realized, that I could have added the on-screen info around the edges of the frame for more “immersion”.

Here is the WIP that I think, as Gary also mentioned, looks much better

I didn’t use this as the scale of the object just didn’t feel right, and the bag didn’t feel very “luggagy”

Money from the POV of a Tree is Skin

Though money in Singapore isn’t made of paper, I still wanted to give this idea a try. Since paper is from trees, thin slices of paper would translate to being the “skin” of a tree. I also had the idea of drawing parallels between the “skin” of the tree, and the skin that people often have at the sides of their fingers, that if pulled too much, results in some bleeding. Hence the blood across the notes and dripping on the tree. I think, I was technically limited in the gear, but with what I had, it was pretty fun. I was really worried though, that it wouldn’t fit with the rest of the images. Though funnily enough it was picked as out of place for having a different currency than the rest of my image (USD).

Personally, I think some of my other shots, like the image above, looks much better, but I thought one portrait layout was out of the rest of the layouts and there wasn’t enough time to warrant a redo of the other ideas.

I also accidentally left the money in the tree and went home. When I ran back and saw a police car turning in to my estate I was paranoid for a second considering someone seemed to be looking at me from the second floor (roughly the same height as the slope I was shooting at.

Money from the POV of a Counterfeiter is Detailed

Money has all sorts details spliced in to hinder counterfeiters. Thus, a counterfeiter would have to take note of all these minute bits and pieces to successfully fake a note. Hence, like a fingerprint, some of these details wouldn’t be apparent until closer scrutiny. It also signifies the criminal aspect of the deed, with the allusions to “dusting for fingerprints”.

Money from the POV of a Tribe is Redundant

My initial idea was to show that to tribe, money would hold no significance to them. Similarly, rappers try to portray themselves as rich and that money “ain’t a thang”. My first visual idea was that I’d show a someone from a tribe, having all sorts of “bling” and chains around their neck. Surprisingly, when sourcing for images, I found out that the tribes had copious amounts of adornments embellishing themselves all around. It was hard to make the chain standout and have any significance, let alone finding a spot to put the chain in the first place.

Some suggestions were to show the comparisons of their commodities. Hence I went with a comparison of their different adornment and their plants of choice, so to speak.

 

I kept the faces out as I wanted the focus to be on their jewelry, and the square formats further enhanced that aspect by abstracting their forms. The presentation of an object in a different manner or outside of it’s “natural habitat” was something done by Michael Grecco, a photographer. He photographed dildos and such for a “coffee table book” but in a manner closer to product photography, on a plain white background, with just the object places in the frame. His aim was to draw attention to the objects in a different way and that was a similar mindset I was going with for this one.

Here are some of the WIPs that didn’t exactly work out, especially the colourful backgrounds that were too vibrant. It was also the first one I started working on, hence the huge deviation from the dark looks of the rest.

These pictures were pretty fun to make, and I do like the aesthetic, tho it reminds me and others of PSAs in their dark and somewhat sterile nature.

Apologies that I don’t have the pictures at the moment, they’re all at home, and I deleted the copies in my thumb drive to make space for 4D footage ;____;

EDIT: PICTURES ARE IN

“Watch me get this money…“