by ·0 Comments

Password: wonderland

CONCEPTUALISATION
When we were first given the assignment brief, I was totally clueless as to how I should go about with this project. But after giving it much thought and looking at it simply, I managed to come up with an idea/concept. Since one of the suggested ideas in the brief was “Dreams” I immediately associated it with it as being whimsical of sorts. That led me to gain inspiration from Alice in Wonderland, one of my all time favourite films.

aliceinwonderland

The roadblock faced was when I remembered we have to show at least three key transformations in the sequence. My initial idea was simply to adapt a miniature concept based out of the film by making it have an “everyday life situation” kind of concept but realised I couldn’t bring out three key transformations.

I was stuck for a while but later on realised that I could achieve it by taking a step further having been inspired by the movie. Instead, I decided reference a famous quote from the movie/book:

“Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Alice

The six impossible things that she believed in are:

1. There’s a potion that can make you shrink
2. And a cake that can make you grow
3. Animals can talk
4. Cats can disappear
5. There’s a place called Wonderland
6. I can slay the Jabberwocky

I used each impossible thing as the key transitions for my sequence and formulate a storyline out of it, with each impossible thing being tweaked into a more realistic/personal context as follows. They were portrayed in respective frames (according to its order of appearance):

  • There’s a potion that can make you shrink:  I conveyed this idea this through photoshopping a layer of text over the original tagging of the teabag in the font of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ and the same text on the shrinking potion bottle found in the film.

potionshrink

  • Animals can talk:  For this, I got inspiration from medium techniques like Dadaism and collaging, superimposing open mouths over the animals to make them look like they are talking and also, them being significantly larger than me since I was small in that world.An artist reference used here would be Hannah Hoch (below are some of her works) in comparison to my frames.

hh hh1

animaltalk

animaltalk1

 

  • Cats can disappear: This was shown through consecutive frames, the first one filled with cats and the next without, similar to a stop-motion.

disappear1 disappear2

  • I can slay the Jabberwocky: Rather than taking the same story idea of Alice slaying the Jabberwocky (the dragon monster in that world), I decided to take on a personal approach of me conquering my fears instead. As I dislike cheese, the monster in this context is a Cheese Monster as created by me. I drew the monster and tried to portray me overcoming the fear of cheese by “shooting it away” using an imaginary catapult. Afterall it’s a dream haha.

cheesemonster

  • A cake that can make you grow: This is shown through the final few frames when I return back to the normal world. I felt that the idea of this particular impossible thing could have been further developed in the sense that there could have been frames showing me growing back in size since evidently I shrinked before entering the world that is Wonderland.

cake

cakegrow

  • There’s a place called Wonderland: This impossible thing I would say was this whole short sequence of 90 frames itself which conveyed the idea of an alternate universe existing and that I’ve visited that world, in my dreams.

EXTRA EMPHASIS: I made the duration of these two particular frames slightly longer than the rest so as to place emphasis on the timings. The first frame showing 8.05am and the second 8.20am. I wanted to convey the idea that this whole thing has been a dream. However I felt that this idea could have been conveyed better as I think one would only understand after hearing my explanation, that it couldn’t be interpreted without knowing the context.

Starting frames:
Me waking up to the sound of the alarm when actually it was in my dream that i woke up

wakeup1

wakeup

wakeup4

time0

Final few frames: 
Me waking up to the sound of the alarm again but this time going back to sleep after checking – the real scenario

wakeuptime

wakeup2

Below are some of the images and textures I created and combined to use as overlays over the frames to achieve the overall whimsical and nature theme of the short sequence. The floral ones were watercolour patterns found online. Whereas the others were images from my archive of photos.

peach-peony-ipad

watercolour-floral

transition

transition1

TRANSITIONS & PACING: The following few frames shown below were shot with the idea of using them as transitions. The similarity between these shots would be that they are mostly of converging paths and bright flares. And to give the idea that there’s a transition/I’m walking through that path without me being in that frame, I used the concept of pacing by increasing these frame durations to 3 seconds/frame instead of the usual 1 second/frame.

transition3

transition4

transition2

SHOT SIZES: I tried to achieve the idea of me shrinking while the world around me becomes significantly bigger in size through superimposing myself in various environments as a small figure with the help of photoshop. But there were some frames were just shots taken at wide angles/top down to achieve the miniature size with minimal editing required.

size

size1

size2

size3

Lots of close-ups and wide angles were used throughout the whole sequence for emphasis and to achieve the miniature concept in the other world (Wonderland) after I’ve shrunk in size.

MUSIC USED: For the background music, I chose this particular instrumental track from a Korean drama that I’ve watched previously as I feel that it further helps to bring out the whimsical and magical feel of the sequence.

SOME INSPIRATIONS: Prior to conceptualising and shooting my frames, below were some of images i used as reference to help me get an idea of how I want my frames to look like in order achieve the whimsical feel.

c8d562c644539ad6aeb58bf0bc6d5bae

c4lwirwpn4j36iwsbjej

enchanted-forest-1920-1052-fantasy-fairy-dragon

I think the biggest challenge for me while doing this project would be the storyboarding as well as the editing process. Coming up with 90 frames wasn’t easy especially for someone like me who couldn’t exactly visualise it in frames. Rather, I shot the frames based on the on-the spot feeling that I had.

All in all,  I feel that this project has allowed me to exercise my creativity and to apply most of the concepts i’ve learnt thus far in 4D. For example, various shot sizes to achieve a certain mood and message of a frame or a tone as explained above.

I had fun doing this project nonetheless! 🙂

by ·0 Comments

1_dsc0307 2_dsc0267 3_dsc0314 4_dsc0322

Q1.What is your interpretation of the poem? What theme do you think Frost is addressing? What mood does the text evokes? It may help if you re-read the text and reflect.

The poem discusses the potential end of the world, either destroyed by fire or by ice. On a more metaphorical level, intense emotions are what will bring an end of mankind. Ice suggesting sharp coldness that bites at one’s skin represents the intensity of hatred, while fire being ferocious signifies desire and passion. Overall, there is high tension between the two contrasting elements. However, the poem ends without a conclusion of the initial discussion as Frost suggests that both fire and ice are equally capable of destroying the world.

Q2. Without being too literal, what are imagery will you use to express the theme and mood of the text? It may help if you start by working on small section of the text.

We will use water to express the theme and mood of the text. Water is expressive, full of potential and energy. A single drop of water may be insignificant, but a large body of water like a tsunami becomes undoubtedly powerful. Ways in which the water is manipulated creates different connotations to the image. For example in our series of images when water splashes are taken, it expresses the outburst of energy and when a water vortex is taken, there is a sense of chaos present.

by ·0 Comments

We were taught the Signifier and Signified in our third week of class and had to choose and object to illustrate both concepts. I chose an empty drink bottle that was full earlier when I bought it before class. Well here’s what I got:

SIGNIFIER

20160822_161841

20160822_16212220160822_163800

A direct representation of the object would be as such. In the 1st image, a drink. The 2nd image, a prop in the popular game of “Truth or Dare” among youngsters (more info about the game: http://www.playtod.eu/how-to-play-truth-or-dare/) and lastly, in the final image, the bottle as something that can be recycled.

SIGNIFIED

20160822_162626

IMG_0227

20160822_165435

Following the signifier, these set of images are the signified. The way they are shot connotes a new meaning to the object. For instance the first image, the bottle is balanced on the palm to establish the sense of gravity. The second image shows the inside of the bottle where the symmetry and geometrical interior design of the object gives it the look of one peeking into the eye hole of a kaleidoscope.  In the final image, the bottle is taken from an illusioned point of view, making it look like it’s a vase holding the stalk of flower. The bottle is actually in the foreground of the image while the stalk of flower in the background.

To conclude, I found the exercise interesting despite having to rack my brain for ideas on how I could shoot the object and give it a different connotation. But it was through this exercise of having to illustrate these concepts (Signifier & Signified) on objects we can easily find around us that made it clearer how something can have new meanings to it when shot in a different context rather than in its literal function.