After learning about the use of time in art and design, I relooked at the video I did for Project 3 to analyse how I used these 4 elements – rhythm, movement, causality and duration.

1. Rhythm

As this video shows the process of me putting on makeup, there is a rhythm created with the editing, of going back and forth between the objects and face. The rhythm is quite irregular, but there is still some consistency in terms of the objective of the shot sequence (i.e. show makeup – putting makeup on face – show makeup). 

There is also rhythm in terms of sound. When the ‘makeup’ is being applied to my face, the sounds featured are non-diegetic. When I am retrieving the makeup, the sounds used are diegetic. As the clips cut between the objects and putting on the makeup, the sounds also go from diegetic to non-diegetic to diegetic and so on. 

2. Movement

My video features mostly successional movement, as the viewer’s eyes move in one direction following the action of my hand (mostly). The absence of oppositional movement helps the audience to focus on that one singular action at hand and take in the weirdness of the situation.

In terms of sound, there is presence of attack, sustain and decay. I feel that the sustain (the climax) is the loudest fireball when I am done applying the lipstick. All the sounds before that make up the attack, as the sounds get louder and louder to lead up to the fireball. The decay is relatively short – it is just the sound of me getting up and leaving the room. The abrupt decay following the sustain creates a tone of ambiguity and almost a comical effect.

3. Causality

For my video, there were pretty clear expectations – when you see the makeup and everything laid out on the table, one would expect the contents of the makeup and the way they are used to align with reality. However, I did not meet those expectations. I used subversion of the objects to challenge reality, replacing certain parts of the makeup with other objects. Consequently, this changed the kind of sounds that were produced as well (e.g., lipstick applicator – replaced with matchstick – produces striking sound). The disconnect between the expectation and what was portrayed helps to create the idea of a surreality, which was the concept of my video.

4. Duration

I think the duration of my video was alright, as there was enough time to consider and process each action within the video. But I think it has the potential to be longer as noted by some of my classmates as they wanted to see more of the weirdness this surreality had to offer.