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Alas, the video for this project has finally come together. The journey to finalising my concept for this 1-min video was not easy at all… but I guess I had the easier hand when putting the video together as it was largely made up of past footages based on my concept (so I did minimal filming). All in all, I’ve learnt a lot from this project – How to write monologues and also developing a story from a tiny little small idea you have at the beginning.

It was a challenging but super fruitful project. 🙂

The Dreamer

password: srt

Alter Ego: Sandra Riley Tang

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CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT & RESEARCH | CHALLENGES

Identifying which character to portray was my first problem. I wasn’t sure which character to go ahead with. Even during the first in-class inspiration file exercise we did – writing a letter as a monologue, I was still undecided. I went ahead with Emma Watson, one of the characters I’ve narrowed down under the public figure category because of how I found an affinity with her because of her introverted personality beneath all the confidence she exudes when under the public eye.

Then came my second problem, the storyline. After consulting Lei, she advised me to go deeper into the character. If I was portraying Emma Watson though the quality I’m focusing on is the introvert side of her, I would have to give thought as to why she’s like this. Is it because of her family background? (the reasons behind it) but I was unable to get answers. Especially on the surface she comes of as a feminist with strong confidence but I’m the total opposite of that.

So I gave up portraying Emma Watson as my alter ego and moved on to the character as eventually portrayed in my final video, Sandra Riley Tang from local band The Sam Willows. Somehow it was much easier for me to come up with a storyline and act out the alter ego based on her. As mentioned in the earlier post, my affinity with her was her determination and drive to pursue the things she love and then the achievements you get out of being as such.

The concept:  An inspirational one of sorts, with an influencer tone for the monologue. From young to me now present day, the things I achieved through the same passion I had since young using footages from my archives of the interviews I’ve done, the events I partook in etc. It will end of with flashbacks of my achievements and then an open-ended kind of feel for the end.

The underlying message: The last sentence in the monologue “Dream big and never stop trying. Who knows what you can achieve”. Basically being determined/driven to pursue what you love and to have dreams, the qualities of my character.


STORYLINE

Moving on to storyline… Following the identified affinity I had with my character, I came up with my own storyline of my journey in pursuing what I love, the arts and the things I was able to achieve with that same one passion since young across the span of growing up.

FILM/ARTIST REFERENCES

For my particular concept, it was more of referencing empowering speeches, inspirational and motivational videos of sorts given and done by public figures/influencers so as to figure out the right tone to have when writing the monologue.

Count myself REALLY lucky. Sandra recently put up a 2-part motivational video on her Instagram account. It even had a monologue. Thus, bulk of my reference for this project came from these videos. Taking inspiration from her video,  I came up with my own monologue based on my story and had myself narrate it in an influencer tone to get the inspirational/motivational effect.

PART ONE: One of my major highlights of 2016 was seeing my own face on Nike.com. TBH I still can't believe it happened; it was seriously a dream come true. I was having a conversation with a friend 3 years ago, and the question was, if you could be the face of ANY brand in the world what would it be? Instead of a like Gucci, I said Nike. Hahaha. And these kinds of questions are always just hypothetical, you know? Like I want a pony as a pet kinda thing. Haha. 2016 was an amazing year with a lot of firsts and achievements. And there's only one thing left to do for 2017, just keep moving. Being a #nikewomen has pushed me to be #betterforit. To accomplish things I never thought I had the guts to do. If you're looking for a sign, that push you need to do something that scares you; here it is. Don't overthink it, just do it. 2017 is your year. ?? P.S Dreams really do come true. ?:@oszkid Special thanks to @najeeb_rahim, @zahidmukhlis, @sarahjusto, @kkbyong, @benjaminkheng, @evolvemma, @fitnessfirstsg and of course the @nike team for making this possible. ❤️ #NikeBeautifulxPowerful

A video posted by SANDRA RILEY TANG (@sandrarileytang) on

PART TWO: '…and every journey starts from nothing.' I've realised in my life that everything I have or have achieved started from just simply a thought. A little mental note sent out to the universe. And perhaps that's all you need to begin with, faith as small as a mustard seed. And then you start to water it with love, trimming off the negativity and just growing among others that love and support you. Even if you get crushed, don't lose hope, you have to keep growing. I find myself being an optimistic realist, excited by small things, because the truth is, nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm. ?❤️ The journey with The Sam Willows has been incredible and almost unbelievable. Thank you to everyone that has supported us. We wouldn't be where we are today without you. This year is going to be incredibly exciting. NEW MUSIC coming soon. ?? Special thanks to @oszkid for shooting this, @najeeb_rahim and @zahidmukhlis, @benjaminkheng for his writing prowess, @hypebong for shooting the throwback shots, @thesamwillows for being family and the @nike team for making this happen in the first place. 🙂 I am filled with gratefulness. ❤️✨ #nikewomen #Nike #sandraxnike #parttwo

A video posted by SANDRA RILEY TANG (@sandrarileytang) on

As for video angles since I was using a lot of past footages, camerawork was everywhere and somehow I felt that my video comes off seemingly like a vlog… And because of that my references were mostly of YouTubers and how they vlog to get an idea of how I’d like the remaining shots that I’ll be filming to look like. 


STORYBOARD

To be honest, I don’t have the habit of doing up storyboards just because I’m unable to visualise my shots prior to shooting them. I think that I’m more of a get-the-feel-on-the-spot person. Meaning I’ll just try out a variety shots on the spot and go with the flow from there. Same thing happened for this project again. Only several storyboard frames went according to prior planning. The rest were spontaneous shooting or already existing camerawork by other videographers since I mainly used past footages of myself.

storyboard1 storyboard2

MONOLOGUE

Growing up,
I’ve always had a penchant for all things creative.

Took up art classes at 5,
the one subject in school I would always score the highest in.
It was my favourite

Flash forward to 17,
I went into media studies.
Dabbled in areas like broadcast and even got to interview celebrities through assignments.
Still, I enjoyed the creative modules most.

That was also when I found craftwork.
I was able to create something out of nothing as friends see it.
I love doing it as a pastime.

Showcased my works through an art mentorship programme
and won my very first design competition all in the same year at 20.

Those were things I never thought I could achieve with that very same passion I had since young. It was self-affirmation for me.
It made me feel like I was doing something… right.

Dream big and never stop trying.

Who knows what you can achieve.

 

VIDEO FOOTAGE & MUSIC CREDITS
Since my video was pretty heavy on using past footages/online footages of the events that had me in it…(Footages not credited were self-taken)

SHINE Festival Urban Arts Mentorship Programme:
https://www.facebook.com/shinefestival/videos/1026106494092598/
https://www.facebook.com/shinefestival/videos/1021363687900212/
https://youtu.be/NCc65mjjfpA?t=1m51s

*SCAPE The Invasion 2016 (Design Competition):
https://youtu.be/kVwmT33VkoE?t=59s

Music: in love with a ghost – we’ve never met but, can we have a coffee or something? 
https://youtu.be/0XZJ5mD6nSU

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For the first part of the project, we were tasked to list out 5 characters whom we have a special affinity with from across three different categories – literature or fiction/public figures/people we know or met. It can be qualities that we find similar with the identified characters or qualities that we admire and aspire to have. And so I realised my affinity with most of the characters identified are mostly on the quality of being an introvert…

Here’s mine:

CHARACTERS FROM LITERATURE/FICTION

  1. Piglet from Adventures of Winnie The Pooh
  2. Go Dok Mi from Flower Boy Next Door 
  3. Charlie from Perks of Being a Wallflower
  4. Dara Morgendoffer from Daria 
  5. 8th Prince from Moon Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo

PUBLIC FIGURES

  1. Emma Watson – actress
  2. Audrey Hepburn – actress
  3. Oon Shu An – actress/influencer
  4. Mark Zuckerberg –  co-founder of Facebook
  5. iNCH (Inch Chua) – musician

PEOPLE YOU KNOW/HAVE KNOWN/MET IN PERSON

  1. Sandra Riley Tang – musician
  2. Nathan Hartono – musician
  3. Bernadette – friend
  4. Hsien Wei – cousin
  5. Abigail – cousin

Top 2 in each list & my affinity with the character

LITERATURE/FICTION

Piglet from Adventures of Winnie The Pooh

piglet

Piglet’s known to be a small and timid character who braves up when when faced with a crisis and given sufficient encouragement from his friends. These were traits of him that I identified myself to have an affinity with. I’m petite sized and I guess more often than not I’ll brave up and step up taking the role as a leader when the situation calls for it. If not most of the time I’ll just stay in my little bubble and shy away.


Go Dok Mi from Flower Boy Next Door 

godokmi

The character in this show acted by Park Shin Hye is an introvert who refuses to leave her apartment. She hides from the world and dislikes interacting with people. I identified ‘the apartment’ as her comfort zone and her character I dare say is pretty much me 70% of the time. I see her in me after hanging out at gatherings and taking part in socialising activities, drained.

PUBLIC FIGURE

Emma Watson

emmawatson1

One of my all time favourite actresses and probably one I’m slightly more biased to too because we somewhat share a bit of the same name. Her full name is actually Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson. That aside, I was surprised to have chanced upon interviews of her revealing that she’s actually quite an introvert behind the confident and feminist image she exudes. (read: http://www.wonderlandmagazine.com/2014/02/the-bloom-of-the-wallflower-by-derek-blasberg/) The introvert quality is an aspect of hers I can relate to, being socially awkward at parties and all and her confidence is definitely something I look up to.

Audrey Hepburn

audreyhepburn

The classic actress. It’s hard to believe especially when these public figures are actresses and constantly under the public eye, taking interviews and appearing on shows. Especially with the characters Audrey Hepburn played. She was quoted: “I have to be alone very often. I’d be perfectly happy if I spent Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That’s how I refuel.” Which is totally me, introverts tend to take time spent with themselves as time to recharge.


PEOPLE I KNOW/HAVE KNOWN

Sandra Riley Tang

sandrarileytang

A member of local band, The Sam Willows. I’ve interviewed her before for an assignment and through interviews, I’ve got the impression that she’s really quite a talent. She ran her own art collective previously, co-founded a home concept yoga studio, makes music dabbles in acting… She’s also an individual who is extremely driven and motivated to pursue the things she love and she never stops trying, something I find an affinity with in the aspect of my passion. Plus she loves doing hands-on DIY stuff too.


Nathan Hartono

nathanhartono

Another local musician I’ve interviewed for an assignment too back in poly days. Through the interviews done with him, I’ve learnt that he’s a learnt extrovert but introvert by nature because of his profession as a musician. He has to perform in front of crowds and mingle with people. And I guess because of that he believes in throwing yourself into situations you fear most and to take on what you think might be impossible to achieve will only make you stronger and you might just surprise yourself along the way. #inspiration

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Right from the start I had trouble identifying a character as my alter ego for this assignment as most of my shortlisted characters/figures from each category only had small aspects which I felt an affinity to. I was stuck between choosing characters that were public figures at first – Mostly celebrities. Realised it was quite a challenge unlike fictional/literature characters that originally had a story to backup their personality and qualities.

My chosen character for the project is Sandra Riley Tang from local band, The Sam Willows. More about her, the qualities of hers I have an affinity with and also how I eventually got to choosing her as my alter ego in the final post coming up! (it’s a long story)

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1. SONG LYRICS

Roar by Katy Perry

“I got the eye of the tiger, a fighter, dancing through the fire
‘Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar
Louder, louder than a lion
‘Cause I am a champion and you’re gonna hear me roar’

I identified my character as a fighter, one who always challenges herself to break her own boundaries and come out successful and confident.

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

” Don’t you know that
there ain’t no mountain high enough.
Ain’t no valley low enough,
ain’t no river wide enough.
To keep me from getting to you, baby.”

For this song, as literal as the lyrics are it shows that no matter how hard obstacles and circumstances may be, never give up as continuing is the only way to get to the end point. I feel that this song reflected my identified character’s personality well, very driven and motivated to get to the end point.

Survivor  by Destiny’s Child

“I’m a survivor
I’m not gonna give up
I’m not gonna stop
I’m gonna work harder.”
This song sings of one staying committed and working hard to reach their goals. Having a strong mindset and to never stop chasing their dreams. The message of the song is very similar to the song above and is very much alike to the character’s motto.

2. POEMS

Dreams by Langston Hughes 

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

A Time To Believe by B.J. Morbitzer (excerpt)

To believe is to know that
every day is a new beginning.
Is to trust that miracles happen,
and dreams really do come true.

…

To believe is to know
that wonderful surprises are just
waiting to happen,
And all our hopes and dreams are within reach.

If only we believe.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (excerpt)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

…

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

The above three poems inspires me to come up with the monologue for my alter ego as my character’s all about pursuing her dreams, determined to succeed. She takes on challenges and is optimistic about life. To which I feel that all these poems have same message in common –to never give up on chasing your dreams and not miss out on golden opportunities as once they are gone, they are gone forever and it’s hard to come by.

 

3. ARTICLES/SPEECHES/QUOTES

“If you can dream it, you can do it.” – Walt Disney

“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit.” – Conrad Hilton

10 Success Tips from Today’s Most Inspirational Women

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/10-success-tips-from-todays-most-inspirational-women.html

These pieces I believe would serve as inspiration for my character to push herself even further, knowing that there are women figures out there who’ve done it/made it possible. Especially with the speeches/quotes by Walt Disney and Conrad Hilton, they speak on behalf of her spirit.

4. PICTURES

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Finishing a marathon

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Yoga practice

picture2

Concert scenario

The three pictures chosen reminded me of my character’s accomplishments in life. Especially the first picture, I felt it portrays one accomplishing something in life – the finishing point being a metaphorical representation and pretty much like my character’s personality, making sure to see that she work on her dreams until their fulfilled. It inspires me to write about my character and her accomplishments. For her story, it was reaching a milestone in her music career, venturing into her newfound passion and also learning more about herself (self-discovery).

 

5. HEADLINES

These are the headlines I chanced upon while researching and below are my reasons for choosing them and the stories I’m able to come up with based on them.

“Ups and downs of actor-directors”
Being a public figure, what you see of my character may not always be the truth. More often than not it may be all facade/a front my character is putting up to the public. So it can be a story to show the life she lives behind all the glitz and glamour.

“Seven tips to organise your closet”
My character is an avid DIYist, used to run her own YouTube channel project (The DIY Project) and this headline inspires me to write a story based on how this creative side of her came about and how this idea started and branched out into her pre-existent art collective business RileyArt.

“Chameleon of a performer”
This particular headline helps me in coming up with a story riding on the fact that my character is creative and very much all-rounded in different areas not only musically. She’s also a fitness inspiration, takes up BJJ and practices yoga. Plus she’s dabbled in acting, theatre and business ventures too. The headline works as a supporting title.

6. PERSONAL CREDO

I firmly believe that every individual is able to attain success and it’s possible so long you have a never say die attitude.

7. EMOTIONS

  1. Optimistic
  2. Eager
  3. Short-tempered
  4. Intrigued
  5. Stubborn
  6. Bubbly
  7. Challenged
  8. Confident
  9. Spirited
  10. Timid

Favourite: Spirited

I feel this particular emotion encompasses the qualities of my identified character really well. She’s full of energy, enthusiasm and determination and that trait of hers is very much evident in everything she does in life. She dares to take risks, venturing into a businesses and pursuing her interests.

Least Favourite: Timid

It’s the total opposite of my identified character’s personality. She’s one who never shy away from challenges and strongly believes in challenging herself.

8. SENTENCE STARTERS

  1. I love a good challenge.
  2. I have always wanted to do martial arts.
  3. I know what it’s like to have many interests and the struggle to stay committed to them.
  4. I remember my first failure.
  5. I would like to try out new things.

 

9. FOCUS OBJECTS

focus01

Bronze & Gold Medals

Medals signify a milestone in my character’s life, when she won her very first competition in something she was passionate about. It served as her motivation.

focus02

Yoga Wear

Yoga wear is important to my character as it’s a representation of a passion she found a few years back that led her to where is she currently, at another milestone/success in her life, the co-founder of a home-concept yoga studio.

focus03

Nike Shoes

A pair of Nike shoes. My character’s a strong advocate of the brand and she lives by their slogan – ‘Just Do It’. The brand is something iconic of my character. You’ll find her often dressed in sportswear, sporting a pair of Nike shoes.

Accessories - Rings

Accessories – Gold Rings

Rings are another iconic look of my character. Aside from her sportwear fashion, she would usually accessorize herself  with unique looking rings, often in the colour gold.

Percussion Set

Percussion Set

The final object that is important to my character is a percussion set, something I believe my character holds close to her heart. It reminds her of how everything started, her beginnings in music. In the band that she is in, she plays the percussion.

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Prior to the execution of the project, Pinterest was my go to site for inspirations. You can pretty much call it a heaven/library for art inspirations. I’ve never used it so Pinterest intensely before and every time I end up browsing off topic because one pin leads to another interesting one. ?

It helped me identified the medium and feel I was going for as this round’s project allowed us to explore any medium we wanted to. Here comes the problem. Whenever there’s more freedom in a project given, there’s so many possibilities and there comes the headache of narrowing down the ideas. It’s hard but it eventually worked out. 🙂 Right off the bat, I had mediums in mind that I wanted to try out on the compositions.

Below are some I was intrigued by and those I already had in mind as mentioned.

EMBROIDERY/PATCHWORK

embroidery

I love how embroidery is so versatile. It can even be done on plastic bags!!

Izziyana Suhaimi: http://www.izziyanasuhaimi.com/ 

An artist who does fashion illustrations with embroidered accents and accessories.izziyana-suhaimi

COLLAGE

Linking back to the Dadaism art movement, this medium was pretty relevant to the tactility I has in mind for the project as well. Here are some artist references I chanced upon while browsing through Pinterest.

research

beciorpinworks

More of her works: http://beciorpin.com/ 

CRAFTWORK

craftwork

More of her works: http://anneten.nl/

TYPOGRAPHY (EXTRA)

typography1

Example

Another idea I had was to try using word typography and translate it into a literal image from the words. Example would be like the image above. Using the word Cat to form an image of an cat from it. I thought I could apply idea/technique this to this project to form each equation and composition which I thought could’ve been rather interesting.

So in this case, something that represents ME, e.g. A flower. So using the word flower form an image of a flower. But I figured that it’d take a super long time to get the image-typography thing going as it would’ve been a challenge visualising.

 COLOUR THEORY RESEARCH & COLOUR INSPIRATIONS ? 

For this project a huge component of it was for use to apply colour theories. So before starting on the compositions our homework was to research on what they were. This was a table that I found to be a really helpful summary of the various kinds of colour theories around.

colourtheory

Another interesting aspect of colours was that it could represent one’s emotions and feelings. It could also symbolise something. Some examples of emotions as seen below in the chart. I later on applied this to my compositions as well.

colourmeanings

For colours, I really wanted to go for pastel hues or pop hues as they were colours that I recently took a liking to after follower a local embroidery artist and a local designer on Instagram. I particularly enjoy the range of colours they worked with and was inspired to take on a similar colour schemes for my compositions.

@teeteeheehee: https://www.instagram.com/teeteeheehee/

teeteeheehee

@ultraaviolets: https://www.instagram.com/ultraaviolets/

ultraaviolets

Besides the above inspirations, I got ideas from design seeds too. It’s this account on Pinterest that provides a wide range of ready mixed colour palettes. Based on these, I generated a colour scheme for each row of compositions using Adobe Kuler since we had to make apply colours in accordance to the colour harmonies we learnt and also taking in account my theme for each equation.

Bright Hues

brighthues

kateshaw

Another artist that used vibrant colours in her works, Kate Shaw

More of her works: http://www.kateshaw.org/?doing_wp_cron=1478882812.2931230068206787109375

Pastel/Muted Hues

pastelnmuted

Eventually I think I was leaning more towards the pastel and muted range of colours as my eventual rows of compositions weren’t highly saturated and hard on the eyes. You can see the end-product in my final post so keep reading 🙂

Through all these research, I’ve decided to go with the basic idea of having every composition start off with a digital “base” first and I will treat the surface thereafter with a traditional medium since during consultation Joy mention that the composition shouldn’t be fully 3D, ideally it should still have some 2D flat elements to it.