After somewhat a 100 tries of exporting, I finally got the video out.
Category: Assignment 3
Artist Statement
Tay-irteen:
You have always been here for the past 13 years of my life, until then. With everything else changing, thankfully this place still remains the same. Everything is still where they are supposed to be and these never fail to remind us of your presence, something I treasure deep down.
“Tay-irteen” is a short documentary exploring him as a person back then and his various interactions with the people around him.
Process of editing and learning how to use imovie for the first time (without internet access)
After getting the 8 clips, I proceeded to consult Prof Robert regarding the content of the clips. He said that the content was fine and that my grandmother has a comfortable voice (AHA!). However, since most parts of the clips are in Hokkien, I will need to do a translation with their respective subtitles in the video.
I went home for the weekends with the thought that my grandmother will be there for me to do any more touch-up interview if needed while editing. However, I went home to face another crisis again. My home phone lines and internet connection was down from Friday till Sunday. I actually survived without internet access on my laptop and meddled with imovie functions by myself and learn it manually instead of the usual youtube tutorial method. (And in case of what you are thinking, nope, I only have 100 Mb worth of mobile data a month so hotspot was out was the question.)
I spent ample amount of time learning how to get the functions and effects I wanted fro the imovie and a huge portion of it went to finding ways on how to put in subtitles on my images. Afterwhich, I began editing slowly and edited the audio and trimmed out the unneccesary portions. I also looked for relevant visuals in regards to the conversation as well. After much frustration (without internet) and bullet sweat drops, I finally got the editing done.
However, I was faced with another problem. No matter how hard I tried, I could not export the imove project. I tried about 53 times if I did not miscount. Hence, I have no choice but to present from the laptop instead. (Special thanks to Margaret for loaning me her Mac)
I will find way to export the video and post it on OSS some time soon. (sorry about that)
Meanwhile, here are some screenshots of the editing.
Initial ideation and their difficulties
Initially, I wanted to do a video regarding a day in my grandfather’s life but then I was faced with the lack of materials. After consulting with Prof Robert, he suggested that why not I do an interview about him with my grandmother instead. It will be more raw and real then.
After deciding on it, I made a short list on what to interview my grandmother on and proceeded with it. However, it proved to be difficult to make any progression as my grandmother found it extremely hard to talk about my grandfather. She would sob heavily after an interview question and the audio will either be too muffled or filled with her high pitch cries, making them kind of irrelevant in the video making process. After several tries, she got angry and refused to carry on further.
I proceeded to consult Prof Robert on the situation the next week since I have near to 0 progression on the project. He felt that I can make a video on how hard it is for my grandmother to talk about my grandfather and it can be as raw as her trying to talk about it but she could not. However, I felt that it was kind of cruel to her in a way.
Subsequently, the next week, I resumed my interview with her and I landed myself in the same situation. She then asked if I am going to do anything with the sobbing audios I recorded. I told her the ideas and she was appalled. She then refused to do any more recordings again and did not allow me to use the sobbing recordings I had for the project and reminded me not to put them on the web or let anyone else hear them. Respecting her decision, I have once again landed myself with 0 progression with the project.
Prof Robert mentioned in the next consultation that it should be fine to just show the clip to the class and post it on OSS for marking and that I can always take them down after that. However, I felt that it was important to respect my grandmother’s decision.
The following week, I tried to psycho her and gave her long prep talks before the start of the interview and let her know that she really plays an important role in this project. After many tries, she finally began to relax and loosen up gradually. We did the interview several times and I got 8 clips in total.