“As we follow a person through their day, we see the world through their eyes and observe how one’s feelings affects their perceptions. Dialogue is one way to get one’s inner thoughts across, but there is beauty in the subtlety of the variance in hues that can still evoke a certain emotion.”
i mean, i’ve been getting better at it – but for pete’s sake, it’s been a sem and i still never remember to update oss or even document my process. so here it is, a day before submission. collated from the depths of my computer’s files and my snapchat memories.
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issues:
some night footage was so grainy it could feed a family of 5
then not a lot of edits could be made before pixels reared their ugly heads in
acoustics were absolute rubbish in places like the bathroom, south spine, etc;
also, wind. need i say more?
the public made some of the footage unusable
nonetheless, besides that llao llao scene, the rest of the film pretty much looks the way i wanted it to look. also, i learnt a few things on premiere pro that i could use for future films. i have no patience so this really was a test. and also i’ve never used microphones for filming so there’s that.
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process:
as you can see, because of the nature of the footage and the location, there wasn’t much room to play around. but apparently there should be more subtlety in the colour changes, and i discovered the wonderful world of tints, so problem solved.
also because of my shaky hands, i thought i could salvage some of the footage using the stabiliser function on imovie. but i don’t know why it did this random motion thing that gave me motion sickness. so i had to deal with shaky footage in other ways.
then there was dealing with the general public. these kinds of variables are really a test of patience. they wouldn’t just walk past – oh no that would’ve been fine. they awkwardly stopped mid-frame then walked backward and people even pointed and i just….
most importantly,
it was hard to keep the film looking aesthetically pleasing while still following the outline. i’m not used to having vibrant colours in my work so i tried to make it work with the film. but anyway only subtle colour changes were needed to make things work so it all came together in the end. all in all, even though i thought the subtle changes weren’t enough to give off the desired effect, it came through in the end and it worked with the outline quite well.
i tried.
just saying – i learnt how to use illustrator just for this assignment. and yes, i am telling the whole world.
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2. colour palette:
i chose these colours bc they are not so jarring. since this project is personal, i chose these to represent me – a mild person LOL. more importantly, jarring colours aren’t as pleasing to the eye and your brain is more likely to take in calmer colours better than bright, bold colours.
shirley also suggested integrating graphics into the squares either as the background or within the subject. i tried it out to see if i would like it even though i thought i wouldn’t. turns out i did.
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this is the example of a graphic i embedded within the popsicle. i took a picture of strawberry ice cream and cut it out in the shape of a popsicle. the track colour is probably pretty accurate bc when i run i look at the floor so i’d say i’m an expert.
i used purple for mountains because sometimes rocky mountains beyond mist/haze look purple. i got inspired by “the karate kid” because while doing this, “eye of the tiger” kept playing in my head and mountains seemed appropriate.
when i think of tanning i think of the beach. beach = sun, sand and sea. so the background of the bread is a sea-green colour that gets darker along with the bread. the toaster is a regular grey metal toaster with a sun on it (to represent the outdoors; the toaster contextualises it).
the orange symbolises warmth and liveliness (btw polar bears despite living in cold countries are quite warm beneath their fur). after late nights, when you don’t get quite enough sleep, you end up looking like a panda: panda eyes (i.e dark circles), drool accompanied by white noise going on in your brain due to the severe exhaustion and sometimes even going “numb”.
me, a cassette tape, having a wild night out (the background is meant to symbolise the party lights) = unravelling. need i say more? i wanted to put hands holding the beer and mic and mug but they just looked like trapezoid entities rather than hands, so…scrap.
3. how the colour palette helps:
the colour choices follow the theme of each row. the first one is a pastel version of the actual colours just so that it would have a pleasing and calming aesthetic. second one follows a beachy theme, so sand/brown/teal/orange colours. the third, warmth (orange) then coldness (blue of the night sky + the room). fourth, has grey to symbolise electronics and the last panel’s shade of grey is duller like when you have a hangover. the middle panel has bright coloured triangles to symbolise the shining of lights.
4. difficulties:
naturally the biggest issue was using illustrator. aside from that, initially i didn’t really understand what i was supposed to do for this project but after sitting in on consults and clarifying doubts, everything was good to go. also i felt like integrating graphics might being a hit or miss so i was quite apprehensive to try. i added in subtle bits (ice cream, white noise, etc) to test the waters out and i liked the outcome. i also had to make the middle panels the ones with the most intricate while also bringing focus to the other 2 which proved to be quite challenging. by adding subtle colour changes and graphics, i think it turned out quite okay. nonetheless i still have (and always have had since the beginning) that niggling fear that it’s too plain. whatever, i’m happy with it and if i’ve learnt anything in adm it’s that i shouldn’t compare with others.
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i really did enjoy this project and i was quite excited to start on it (i literally started trying out illustrator in anticipation the day we got the project brief) and once i understood the practical use for this project it made it even more fun (because i am a very practical person who likes practical things)
LINK TO PDF: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8_vWHiGxD-7STdjeGxpWndhN2M/view?usp=sharing
G02 – Group C
Crystal Sim
Tan Yi Lin
Adithi Surya
the creative progress has been pretty linear since the first test.
m’storyboard. didn’t stick to everything because my original subject couldn’t make it. but the subject isn’t the focus of this film, it’s the setting’s colour scheme. so it’s fine.
i have the first draft of the film, only thing that’s remaining are the night shots. but the nighttime shots are harder to manipulate because the lighting sucks and there’s not much to work with. so i can more or less only play with saturation because editing contrast is pointless and brightness is only going to cause film grain. that’s why i left it to the end and focussed on the day time shots because they required more editing and attention and they take up more time in the film.
i have some technical stuff to tweak but this is more or less a rough draft of the final output.
clearly i am not a film student…but A for effort