Research – Yay cake.

Bare

Production team: Debbie, Grace, Liying, Yiwen

Tracks :
David Jwoll- Cymbal Roll
Houses-Big Light
Novo Amor- Gold
Perfume Genius- Sister Song

Artist statement

We selected this children’s story to reinterpret as the message it conveyed is very relevant in our day and time. The puppets in the story were an apt metaphor of how we too are knowingly or unknowingly collecting and distributing labels, based on characteristics that are extrinsic. This phenomenon is greater amplified with our heavy dependence on social media, and how easy it now is to base our worth and image on how others deem fit.

In this trailer, we challenge the idea of conventional beauty and how it should be measured. We also explore the connection of beauty with self-worth: are certain, idealised, physical features prerequisite for someone to be able to feel comfortable and confident in their own skin?

We approach this classic question through the eyes of a modern spectator by bringing in a modern twist – social media, increasingly prevalent not just as a tool for communication, but also as a quantifier of social standing.

Story

Original story: You are Special- Max Lucado
http://www.aikentdc.org/You_Are_Special.pdf

The nugget of treasure lies in the puppets’ daily exchange of spots and stars and how much importance was placed on this. Puchinello the protagonist in the story eventually learns that his importance shouldn’t be based on other’s opinions of him. The analogy is a simple and easy way to explain this truth to both children and adults alike- that we are all special in our own way.

Symbolism
We needed to come up with a replacement for the signifiers in the story, namely the dots and stars. To make our story more realistic, we used scars as a visible, tangible ‘dot’ on the protagonist. We decided to use social media – Instagram in particular – as a system of validation, much like the stars.

Turning point

To recreate the climax in the story where Puchinello meets the stickerless puppet, we decided to create a character with a scar similar to that of our protagonist, but with a vastly different outlook on life. She befriends the protagonist, teaching her how to feel comfortable in her own skin, and that the opinions of others don’t- and shouldn’t- matter.

Title

bare

(bâr)adj. bar·er, bar·est

1. Lacking the usual or appropriate covering or clothing; naked
2. Exposed to view; undisguised
3. Lacking the usual furnishings, equipment, or decoration
4. Having no addition, adornment, or qualification
5. Just sufficient; mere

tr.v. bared, bar·ing, bares

1. To make bare; uncover or reveal
2. To expose

Process

Storyboarding

Even though we did not follow each frame exactly, it was immensely helpful to have the storyboard for reference and to keep the whole team on the same page. It was easier to visualize each shot better with the storyboard as well, totally not a waste of time!

Scriptwriting

We initially ran into problems trying to rewrite the fairytale in a plausible, modern context. One of the main concerns was how we could reinterpret the ‘dots’ in a visible, unoffensive manner that was still within our abilities to create. Another major complication we faced was how we could engineer the protagonists to meet, once again in a believable and workable manner.

We were limited by manpower and material resources – it was difficult to find other actors, and we did not have professional special effects make-up to create the scarring. As such, we had to constantly revisit and tweak the story to work around these complications.

Another issue we faced while writing the script was how to concisely tell a story within a limited time frame. This forced us to pare down the story sequences to the bare minimum that could effectively convey the essence of the story without leaving the viewer guessing.

Scene sequence
Next up was to do a rough breakdown of the various scenes into its respective locations to identify what we were going to achieve. Since it was a silent film, this served as a sort of script for the actors.

Location planning
Initially we wanted to chose locations that were unique and could convey the mood we were going for. Light was one of the major factor we took into consideration as good lighting=good shots. However as the days rolled by, we decided to pick locations on campus for convenience sake.. Despite that adjustment, we managed to bring across the emotions with the locations we picked.

(planning is CRUCIAL)

Inspiration
“Lalin”

We really appreciate the mood of this short film, with warm colour treatment and soft lighting. The message of the video is in line with our own theme, which has to do with letting go of labels and feeling comfortable in your own skin.

Kinfolk

We like the subtle text effects that helped bring out the mood of the video. Inspired by this, we attempted to play with simple text effects in our film.

Challenges
Scar:

We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure this out. It looked rather straightforward on the tutorial but… lets just say that makeup artists really know their stuff. Eventually we made a rather passable scar with gluestick, BB cream and some lipstick.

Filming on the bus:

It was terribly shaky and we were trying to complete our shots before the bus driver spotted us.. apparently filming on buses is not allowed. Oh well.

Filming with children:
This was a lot tougher than we expected. The children we worked with didn’t really understand what we were doing as they were quite young. Halfway through there were some tantrums and unhappy faces but it all turned out well in the end.

Filming at the wholesale club:

It isn’t really allowed to film at supermarkets soo…we had to be sneaky.

Post editing

The use of color treatment really enabled us to convey certain moods we wanted to achieve. Also it helped to ensure coherence throughout the entire film as the light conditions were not the same during all our filming sessions.

Reflection
Taking an old story and making a modern interpretation was an interesting experience. We identified a modern-day social issue that we can all relate to, and paired situations in the original story to match our current time. Exploring the use of different camera angles and overall moods took our film to the next level, and helped us convey a message.

On the whole, we all have gained a deeper appreciation of the work that goes behind putting a film together. Having a taste of it, this experience has truly been one that is meaningful and insightful but more importantly a whole lot of fun!

Dream a little dream

I’ve heard that we don’t dream in color, but isn’t that just sad? I’ve always wanted to dream of a color that I’ve yet seen. Better yet, I want to invent a dream collector, plug it in my head when I sleep to collate all the wonderful things the subconscious creates.

This project is a little like my dream collector createds based on dreams I’ve dreamt and dreams that I want to dream. The saturation of colors are manipulated to represent the richness of the dreamscape, although it might come across as slightly gaudy, I wanted to bring across the feeling of exuberance and joy. The general theme going on would probably be whimsy and magic.

There are repetition of scenes as in dreams the concept of time is distorted, and events are hardly sequential. Also very often I go back to similar recurring dreams and I wanted to capture that familiarity in the repetition.

The dream can be broken into 3 parts.
/A caricature of myself enters into my head, into the dream, almost like Alice in Wonderland falling into a strange place. The character then begins to explore this trippy, strange place with a slight hesitation but with curiosity. She wanders around, interacting with the landscape. Here I chose to repeat the sequence twice hoping to convey the character’s increasing comfort with the space as she has seen it all before, yet with a slight twist./

/I awake mid-dream, and carry on my morning preparation with half opened eyes before going back up the bus to fall asleep again (which I usually do)./

/This time as I go back to sleep, the dreamscape changes with a creepy undertone. Repeatedly I try to force myself awake thus explaining the black screens yet fail to do so. In this portion of the dream I keep trying to get out of this strange place laced with all of the things I do not like or fear (i.e: BIRDS, LIZARDS etc etc.) Yet I did not want to make it to completely creepy, reducing the fun factor of the entire series. Finally I do manage to get out of my dream, lingering there till the brightness of the lights awaken me./

As this was my first foray into digital image creation & Photoshop, the quality of the editing skills aren’t top-notch. The general composition and editing was kind of flat? Whereby the entire background or setting would be shown in the frame. I did try to play around with some cropping and zoom-in images, and perhaps the next time around I could be more adventurous with the image composition. The character represents me, so this series of images are from a third person’s view point. I am quite pleased with the results and did enjoy creating this imaginary place. I’m so glad that there was a soundtrack that fitted the theme I was going for as it sets the mood for viewing. What I would have done better would be to plan my thoroughly to ensure that the message that I wanted to get across would be translated more clearly, especially during the presentation. Besides planning I felt that editing the overall concept is an important skill that I’ve yet grasped, at some point maybe it might have come across as “too much”

Lastly, before the presentation began I gave everyone little bags of meringue kisses- just as how a parent would kiss a child goodness and wish them sweet dreams.

So here’s a virtual bag of meringue kisses for you as you dream together with me!

Research & reference

Music: Golden- Szymon
Images:

Project 1b- FIRE & ICE

Fire and Ice
Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

We were required to create a pictorial interpretation of this poem written by Robert Frost. After reading the poem a couple of times, I figured that ice embodies the characteristics of coolness- being unfeeling, uncaring, indifference and fire represented warmth, passion, love and courage. Even though we could use photoshop for this project, I decided to stick with paper collaging which I’m more comfortable with.

1/

The first picture is an interpretation of the line

“Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.”

I cut out pointed shapes out of a marble textured paper to represent ice-cold, hard, piercing shards. For fire, I drew it in happy warm colors to symbolize bubbles of fire. This is rather ironic as fire isn’t always seen as something fun and gentle. Yet with this use of shapes, I hope to bring across the coolness of ice can sometimes destroy burning passions. Such a snide remark or disapproval may cause interests and passions to fizzle over time. A crinkled silver tissue was used as a background to give it it an overall steely feel. The trapeze artiste and explosion is used to symbolize how when fire and ice interact, things (people, feelings etc.) can get destroyed in the process, disintegrating them into pieces. In layering the different backgrounds under the main object (the trapeze artiste), I wanted to create depth to make the image more visually appealing.

Inspiration

a mosaic look for the ice portion

Pattern ideas for fire bubbles inspired by Estella Ng

Resources/references
Marble paper: http://designerwallcoverings.com/WallpaperStore/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=33819

Trapeze artist: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/28/54/5a/28545a652cb623c9c9cd35e0b8252461.jpg

Explosion: National Geographic Magazine

2/

For this image, I wanted to capture how an unfeeling world would look be- flat and decaying.
I chose this image which resembles a dilapidated room and cut it in a circular shape just like how the earth is and would become if everyone stops caring for it. The waves are stilled and the green hills fade into blackness, everything with lose life when we stop caring for it. I left the circle in the center as the main focus and had the sea take up a third of the canvas to create a more balanced look.

The third picture is an interpretation of the line

“From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.”

What I was trying to convey with this image was that those who have experienced warmth of the flame, who have tasted desire (in my interpretation have wanted something, love, experiences, recognition etc.) they would not want ice (ie: destruction)

Destruction here is represented by an explosion of the bomb and desire, by the shiny lips. The sequins is just an extra touch to depict tasting. The blue paint is used to simulate ice, also to block out unnecessary background & bring focus to the explosion in the center.

References/resource
Background explosion: National Geographic
Lips: http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lyda63heD31qz6f9yo1_r1_500.jpg, http://thisisnthappiness.com/post/16472648287/sticky

The last image is an interpretation of

“I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great”

This last image depicts many warships sailing on a sea of molten lava, the entire image is encapsulated in creased clear tape to assimilate ice. I wanted to show how in a war, the attacking side does not show any regard of the opposition. Even though it involves guns and bombs/fiery elements, what it really is a display of cold, hard hearts which do not care for humanity.

Reference/resource

Lava: http://img.shockblast.net/2013/03/ShockBlast-Sean-King-Volcano-Lava-Flows-Hawaii-16.jpg
Battleships: http://www.amazon.com/Revell-Germany-Battleship-Bismarck-Plastic/dp/B003E47HLE
http://www.amazon.com/Motormax-MOBNJ-Giant-USS-Battleship/dp/B001KXML0I
http://www.vectis.co.uk/Page/ViewAuctionLots.aspx?AuctionId=5&DayNo=1&Section=0&Start=320

Project 1a- Photo series on SELF

#1. SELF

Venue: Botanic gardens

Storyboard

For this series, I wanted to express my life mantra, that in the entirety of time, I am but a speck of dust.

Inspired by the lyrics:
I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapour in the wind

I decided to take this series of self portraits without my face because I don’t really like to be photographed as I feel that I’m nothing much to look at. Therefore I chose to give myself a face by painting eyes (from the phrase ‘Beauty is in the eyes of its beholder’) on my palms.

I photographed myself hiding or being immersed in trees & foliage to represent my desire to be like a tree in this short span of my life. To be strong and resilient in stormy season, to bend with the wind, to be deeply rooted and to grow upwards towards the light.

There were many rejected pictures in this series, some of which I tried showing just my back or isolated parts of my body, though eventually the best shots were the ones where my entire body isn’t present to remove distractions.

Most pictures were taken with a tripod, though I had a friend to help with pressing the button (because I had no clue how to use the self timer…). The most technically challenging picture would be the last one featuring my painted eyes in the foreground. The photograph was taken from a bottom up angle and the lack of light did not help the situation. We resorted to using our phone torches to light up the main subject and..tadah! much better.

All pictures were slightly edited with iPhoto, changing up the saturation that the colors may be more vibrant.

#2. OBJECT

Venue: Outside my home

Storyboard

I chose a cake as my object as it signifies a time where I had to gather all my courage and be brave. Before entering university, I had two gap years. The first was planned, the later was not by choice. As I didn’t have a school to attend, nor a job, my parents told me to start selling cakes to earn some money to get by. It was really difficult for me to put my passion and hobby on the line by making a living out of it. More terrifying was putting my creations on a pedestal, allowing people to criticise my heart work. The one year of running TeaxCakes wasn’t the easiest, many times I had to fight the urge to cave in to the long nights and insecurities, but I am thankful for the encouragement people gave that got me by.

For this series, I wanted the cake to take center stage as my customers rarely get to see my face; more often than not they would see my cakes, which are an extension of me. As I only do customized cakes, each one I sent out was my interpretation, my creation. I wanted to capture how much work & dedication goes into crafting a cake, therefore in the first picture there’s a glimpse of my “working face”. I daresay not many have seen this side of me, most of the time I have a permanent smile plastered on my face.

I tried experimenting with various shooting styles (Close up, half body etc.) as well as sketching out several poses. However many were rejected in the end as they looked too posey and looked rather awkward.

This set didn’t have any digital editing as the lighting and white wall made it easier to capture nicely lighted shots.

#3. PLACE

Venue: Fort Canning Park

Storyboard

This was the most difficult series for me out of the three as I did not know how I could capture emotions in a space. Initially I wanted to photograph the church that I attend, but i decided against it since the lack of light would work against me. Subsequently I decided on Fort Canning Park as it was where I had my first date. This series represents all the things that it was and all that I hoped it would be. As usual I omitted any humans in the pictures because we don’t photograph really well. So! I tried to use items that would signify the presence of us.

-The bags
-The shoes
-Half eaten food
-A magazine

These are the props I chose to represent us.

1/ This picture represents the long conversations we had on a bench under the dappling sunlight.
In reality, we were both terribly shy and awkward so you can expect no real conversation really took place.

2/ The flight of stairs is a representative of the long journey ahead and the accidental blurred effect could mean that we didn’t really know what lies ahead of us.

3/ Waiting by Gothic Gate for 20 minutes, wondering if he didn’t want to meet me anymore. I composed it such that the gate would frame the path and the magazine propped by the side, hoping to achieve a sense of anticipation.

4/ Picnic that never happened then, and ever since.

5/ I tried to use the shoes to frame the iconic fort canning arts center. I tried waiting a cloud to cover the blistering afternoon sun, but it did not happen. This resulted in a slightly overexposed shot. Wen lei suggested using the flash to reduce the brightness, will try it next time around!

FINAL PRESENTATION

I chose a little nook by the stairs with paper dandelions running up the edge to assimilate a garden and to bring across a fun and informal mood.

For the first set on Self, I arranged the pictures upwards at an angle, just like how the branches of the tree would grow.

The second set Object was arranged in sequential order, just as how it would be if I were actually making the cake. I distributed mini cakes at the end of this set to encourage my classmates to be brave as we all begin a new season of life in school.

The third set Place I had them arranged in a mess overlapping each other, which is how I feel as I look back on that day. Sometimes the sequence of events get jumbled in my head, but it would always be a dear memory. Right at the corner I’ve included a tiny illustration, for those who are curious to see the faces behind the objects they represent.

Reflection

To be very honest I was quite surprised by how honest my classmates were with their photographs. I am very thankful that they should be so kind to let me in and give me a glimpse of their lives. I found this an interesting and practical way to practice the composition theories we learnt in class such as the rule of thirds and applying colors in an objective manner. I really enjoyed myself, and through the process of photo taking I’ve developed a newfound admiration for photographers- not just those who wield fancy dslr cameras but those who put in effort to take great Instagram shots with their camera phones, two thumbs up to you!

Kaya toast …

goes well with eggs.

Runny eggs.
Not hard boiled eggs.