To help us understand the concept of time, we were asked to take 30 second videos that described clock (real) time. We were introduced to the different times from clock time, to experienced time, edited time, and biological time. Real time is the time that we are most likely exposed to the most on a daily basis.
The first example is of an elevator opening. As we wait for the elevator doors to arrive and open to when it does and a flood of people swarm out.
The second example is the planned swing of the fan hung in the female restroom. People claim that the video seems longer because the scene is repetitive and the subject remains static with little variation.
While this last example is quite short, I thought it was a very different way to describe clock time. Especially when the ambiguity of the door closing opens the mind to other possible real times situations that could be happening on the other side of the door.
For Project 3 we were asked to research and understand the connection between sound and emotions. Depending on the sound being played, it can change the entire emotion of a situation or event. For example, a horror movie is less scary when there is no sound. Sound can build or break suspense, cause excitement or sadness, and even make us believe in what is not visually there. Our project began by choosing a location, either fictional or non fictional, and imagining the sounds we would hear in this location and the emotion we would like to evoke. The collective sounds we would record for this project would be considered a soundscape.
PLANNING
I faced some difficulty with this project, not only was it the first project I had to incorporate sound in to but struggled to grasp what the project wanted me to focus on. This led to the development and scrapping of several ideas.
Brainstorm
My original plan was to film a short narrative about a girl who wakes up to find out that she is now an “adult”. Everything she did when she was a “child” seems to fail her. Yet her initial excitement of finally being able to do the things she couldn’t do (go to clubs, wear make up, drink alcohol) blinds her from the fact that she can no longer enjoy her favorite activities from her past. Eventually, she realizes that she doesn’t like adulthood as much as she thought she would. Instead of going to the door she originally left from in the morning, she goes to the door next to it hoping that she can go back to the past.
Original Plan (Lo-Fi Board)
However, for this plan I focused too much on the narrative rather than the correlation between sound and emotion. I wanted to reflect my transition from teenager to adult as I moved from high school to university. In the end, I decided to start fresh; focusing more on the sounds that I could create. This led me to my second idea. Subversion. A technique we utilized in project 2 where we were given an object to describe and change meaning to. My character would enter an alternate reality where everything is reversed. Like a mirror-world, where everything seems the same but is not. Everything is backwards in this world, from the sequence of getting ready to the sounds that you hear. The day begins with waking up at night with a full face of makeup. The main character then leaves the house after removing her makeup and wearing her pajamas. After heading out the character would proceed to eat breakfast at night, lunch in the afternoon, and dinner in the morning. Yet, when the character is eating her cereal for breakfast, you hear the sounds associating with eating a stale dinner. The story ends with the the character returning home to putting on pretty clothes and makeup to sleep.
Second Plan (Lo-Fi Board)Second Plan (Hi-Fi Board)
However, though I loved each project, I did not feel as if I was understanding the project fully. And after a fair amount of consideration I decided to change my idea. This idea I chose to stick with regardless of any feelings that would arise. The location for my idea was my head. I wanted to give people an insight into my head, especially the thought process that occurs throughout the day. However, I did not want to confuse the viewer because my mind could we a bowl of spaghetti at times. Which is why I chose to focus on my mind as the days lead up to a test. The goal of my video is to show the disparity between the outside world and my head. I tried to achieve this by playing a recording of my voice memorizing the information for my test over a soundscape of mundane everyday noises.
Final Plan (Lo-Fi Board)Final Plan (Hi-Fi Board)Final Plan (Hi-Fi Board)
My original lo-fi board for my video included an introduction into my mind. This would have helped the viewers better understand where the location of my video was. However, I decided to cut this scene from the final video because I felt that it broke form the first person narrative flow that is dominant in the rest of the video. This goes for the sixth thumbnail in my hi-fi board. Though it added to accentuate the contrast between my mind and the actions occurring around me (other people using the bathroom facilities), the break from the first person narrative broke the flow.
SOUNDS
All my sounds except the cricket and explosion sound at the end of the video. I chose to record (using the ZOOM recorder I borrowed from the school) mundane sounds one would normally hear on a daily basis. The sounds include the running of tap, the leaves rustling, the cars driving by, and even the trite elevator sequence. The use of such a commonplace sounds was to emphasize the extensive disparity my consciousness felt during even an every day situation. This discrepancy from reality is prevalent throughout my life, not just the hours leading up to a major event. Drawing from those previous experiences, I focused on not the big moments of disparity, but the trivial instances.
The sounds are then overlapped by a recording of my own voice that continues to repeat a list of information related to the test. The voice is almost robotic in the sense that it is played on constant loop and stays constant throughout the video. My mind is so focused on engraving those points into my mind that I am oblivious to the sounds around me.
My original plan was to use moving images to create effects such as time-lapse and continuous transitions. However, due to time constraints, I ended up using still images as my visual aids for this assignment. Though an unexpected turn of events, I feel that the rigid nature of still images adds to the distance I feel with ever-flowing outside world.
For our project 2 we were tasked with the mission of finding 4 quotes from either one or four different movies. Interpret the four quotes in our own unique way and create a black and white composition. We will eventually chose one of the four compositions and create a silkscreen that we would eventually screen on a tote bag.
Final Tote Bag in Action
Quote 1
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Meaning
This quote is from the movie Ferris Beuller’s Day off. This movie is about a group of three friends who decide to ditch school to enjoy the best day ever. They choose to enjoy their day to the fullest; from driving their father’s Ferrari, sneaking into a restaurant, watching a massive parade, and simply enjoying life. The entire movie is based off of the quote above, the world keeps moving and we keep missing those amazing opportunities around us.
My Take: I took the quote through an objective view point. I did not relate it to any personal experiences, instead I tried to make it more universal. Flowers are always the topic of beauty and meaning. Each flower carries its own meaning unique to different cultures. Yet we only cherish a flower when it is fully bloomed, that is when the flower is at its prime. But we humans are too busy studying about biology instead of observing it, working for nature but never involving themselves in nature, or immersing themselves in social media. We miss out the beauty of nature and the world even though it is right infant of us, proliferating right under our noses.
The flowers on the right are supposed to be dominating and overpower, the dominance of the flowers represents that even though what we should is appreciate is that obvious to us, we are still oblivious to it. The people are even on a vast grassy field open to new possibilities yet still chose to be absorbed in the material world. They focus solely on studies and work that I chose to switch their heads with the tools they need to study and work. This irregularity of the human form draws our attention to it and makes us do a double take on the form. Originally, there were several globes that made up a hot air balloon with a person inside watching the flowers. Only this person was watching the flowers, everyone else was too busy. Yet, the hot air balloon and the woman took away from the composition as a whole. The composition looked chaotic and messy, which is why I chose to remove it from the composition as a whole.
“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off)
Quote 2
“But it shouldn’t affect how you see yourself.”
Originally, I took this quote too literally. I would refer to the movie on more than one occasion and in the end my composition looked more like a poster for the film. However, after a group consultation with several members of my class I dared to reinterpret it differently. I chose to add a bit of a personal flare to the reinterpretation by relating it to my personal experiences.
As I was growing up, I dealt with a clash of different cultures. I would often be called a “twinkie” or “banana” as a joke between some friends because of my “Third Culture Kid” personality. Using the previously mentioned experience, I reinterpreted the quote. The quote to me is stating that though there are people out their would perceive you, want you, expect you to be a specific way just because of certain influences. Nothing should affect the way I see myself- I should be the only one having the final say about myself. Western culture tries to have a dominant influence in my life by “throwing” western culture in forms like media, morals, and ideas. There is nothing wrong with the influence, merely that I would like to keep a nice balance between the two.
The composition depicts a girl in a traditional Korean Hanbok, she is holding a banana in her left hand. The form of the banana is pointing towards the girl, drawing our eyes from the girl to the banana and then back to girl. The banana is meant to represent a “twinkie”. A twinkie or banana is a slang term used to describe someone of Asian race who has been strongly influenced by Western culture. The patches of designs coming down the right side of the compositions are a mixture of Korean and American symbols that are supposed to resemble a Scout’s sash. A scout’ sash is supposed to hold patches that symbolize a mastery of a certain skill, in my case, finally finding balance between the two cultures. The buckets of white paint lead our eyes down the composition to the girl. The white paint came from the idea of “white-washing”. Originally, I was going to leave the background blank but a last minute decision urged me to find a suitable background. However, looking back, leaving the background white would have been cleaner decision.
“But it shouldn’t affect how you see yourself.” (The Duff)
Quote 3
“좋은신발은좋은곳 으로데려다준다”
“Good shoes will take you to good places”
Meaning:
I chose this quote because I was feeling uninspired from my previous quote. I was taking my quote to literally and kept referring back to the film. So to counteract this, I chose another quote. I looked at this quote with a fresh mind and a new perspective. Instead of just accepting and agreeing with quote, why not agree with it but take it one step further. Yes you need good shoes, but sometimes you need something more. A good pair of Louis Vuittons or Jimmy Choos will not get you to where you want to stand (whether it be fictional or a goal), it requires hard work and thinking outside the box. This is why you see flightless birds finally flying because they thought beyond the norm and created products that would genuinely help them fly. They have finally reached their goals, which will allow them to bigger and greater things.
The galaxy background of the composition is meant to represent the endless possibility of “good places” that you can be a part of. The midground shows Hogwarts and a modern mansion. This creates a sense of symmetry between the vertical axis of the paper and a distinction between the background and the foreground. Hogwarts represents the fictional part (much like Land of Oz) and the mansion represents the nonfictional dream (having a successful and stable pay-giving job). And entering the deep forest to reach their dreams are a bunch of people who took the wrong pair of shoes from the discarded pile in the foreground. The discarded shoes in the foreground were left their by previous travelers who have either given or up or discovered the secret. The foot prints follow the line of the snowy hills and swirls out into the background by following the galaxy. This ultimately leads our eyes to the flying flightless birds
Final:
“좋은신발은좋은곳 으로데려다준다” “Good shoes will take you to good places”
Quote 4
“Feels strange to be going home, doesn’t it?” “I’m not going home. Not really.”
Meaning:
I took this quote from my all time favorite movie and book series, Harry Potter. Specially, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stones. This quote was at the end of the movie when the trio were boarding the Hogwart’s Express back home. Harry states that he is not really going home because he has realized that his home (after 12 years of never feeling comfortable at the Dursleys house) is Hogwarts with his friends.
When I think of home, I don’t think of one specific location. I think of several different locations. Because I moved around a couple times, witnessed different cultures, meet new people, I have realized that home isn’t always the place you grow up or where you’ve always known. Home is where you make it to be, the place where the memories are fondest to you or the place where your family or friends are.
The picture frames contain pictures of the places that I lived. The two empty frames symbolize the possibility of new places I will live in in the future. Below the picture frames is a family looking up at the different locations. The father is pointing his finger at the frames, teaching the girl about the places that were and the places that could be her new home. And to the right of the family is a train that protrudes out from the earth, ready to take its passengers (the family) to there next destination wherever it is. The train has a slight 3D effect where it feels as if it is popping out of the towards the viewer, emphasizing the movement towards the future.
“Feels strange to be going home, doesn’t it?” “I’m not going home. Not really.” (Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone)
I ultimately chose this design to print on my tote bag.
Tote Bag:
I printed my screen on different bags and decided to choose the best from the ones I have already printed. This allowed me to take into consideration everything, from the positioning, overall paint distribution, and the color of the tote bag. And based on the thread count of the tote bag altered the transfer of the design and how much pressure we needed to apply to the squeegees.
