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Time sure flies fast, a week has passed and you definitely realized the previous post was filling last week’s spot.

So, ignore my imperfect blog maintenance.

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Excuse my handwriting. Side note: DIPLOMATIC was later changed to ADAPTABLE, I’ll explain later.

As you can see from above, these are my finalized equations for EGO. (Spoilers~)  I got to admit all these properties might seems hard to be hard expressed by my concept: Using aspect ratio 16:9 and frame photos like it was from a film shot, and present it accordingly like it has a story accompanied by linear perspectives. The photos are not shot in color but monochromatic, which will later colorized monotonously with Photoshop to present hand-painted photo effects.

IT is a long concept name and I’ll explain how they were thought out. Firstly I wanted to show my interest in terms of future major in the project (as suggested by Ms. Joy.) and film’s usual ratio 16:9 is the obvious way to present what I planned to do in my future career. Soon, I came across a video that analyze Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.

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I’ll focus on its visual rather than its message. That’s in another level.

Edward Hopper’s usage of colors was simple yet striking and memorable. It shows a simple perspective planned picture that we might see in real life. I then wondered if I could achieve this effect as there’s always too much complicated background colors I can’t alternate, and I am not such skillful painter either. Either way, I have to come out with something. So, I sketched out my compositions first.

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Somewhere in the pages you can see Wes Anderson’s name, a director who utilized perspectives, symmetry and colors to produce stunning shots.

Soon after, I remembered there’s once a time when filmmakers painted the films frame by frame to produce color films. The part of colorizing black and whites sprung from my mind while I was composing the final frames.

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I must admit, it’s Scorsese’s Hugo that taught me about one of the pioneer of filmmaking, George Méliès

Ms. Joy suggested more artists who did the same to not film but photography during the consultation. She told me to study the following artist: Felice Beato, Enami Nobukumi, and Kasuka Kimbei. They are pioneers in color photography as well and try to understand how and why they choose their colors when they were given the ability to do so. I’ll present my research of them in my next post and now I have to move on to my equations first.

As I said, most of my properties given by my classmates are formed through experiences and mistakes, some only appeared to certain people. I’m not saying they’re not my sincere personalities, but there are some traits that portray me from the start to develop these latter traits. For instance DIPLOMATIC is a word I agreed initially, as I always performs as the middle man among friends and dislike unnecessary conflicts, basically try not to speak the wrong words. ADAPTABLE on the other hand isn’t born with me as well, but it does summarize my ability to cope various environments, which happens throughout my life. I’ve always considered my daily routine flexible wherever I go. The same statement goes with me among my friends as I am usually the one who compromise. It’s a good thing for trying new stuff, but too passive in a way that I usually follow along where life took me to.

As for the rest of the properties, they’re subconscious flaws that sometimes stop me from advancing. Sometimes I was slowed down due to traits I lack, therefore these traits ended up in the BETTER/IDEAL zone.

I am eager to show you my finalized frames but I rather show them in my next post. It is because they’ll reveal too much and were incomplete as well. I obvious won’t hide merely 10% of it. So keep on anticipating!

(To be continued….)

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Bless the people who make info-graphics, they’ve saved and produced people with short attention span like me.

Secondly, I need to personally thank Ms. Joy for providing us the color wheel so I don’t have to switch on electronic devices just to get the colors right. I think it’ll be useful in many ways.

Thirdly, let’s take a moment and appreciate the efforts of the researchers that define some thing we take for granted intellectually. Imagine if there’s a whole aspect of the world out there and we are missing it because we don’t have the organ to perceive it? (—The internet) I’m glad we had eyes.

Let’s talk about colors from the things I love, films. My fellow classmates have been doing a lot of research on colors so I don’t think repetition will be the best choice.

So first stop, monochromatic. There are great films in the colored movie decades use monochrome like Schindler’s list or The Artist. Sadly I didn’t get time to watch this masterpiece. So I will be mentioning 500 days of Summer as my point. It uses monochrome in one of the scene where the lead characters were placed in foreign European movies, saying ambiguous dialogues. Monochromatic sets the mood of seriousness, every colors are either absent or fully combined. The lack of vibrancy leads the viewers to focus on the context rather than the pictures. It also focuses meaning from the scene so viewers won’t get another idea from the color.

Analogous are be often found in unified movie settings like Harry Potter franchise, and Zack Snyder films. I found they are usually chose to set the overall mood like how chaotic and dim the wizardry world has become after the resurrection of Voldemort in the fourth movie. After Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, superhero movies tend to go dark. Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel went to the extreme and was criticized for darkening the symbol of bright and pure justice.

Complementary can be found on every commercialized franchise movie poster. i.e. Bourne series, Mission Impossible series, James Cameron Avatar, and M.Night Shyamalan shameful Avatar. The dark blue and orange makes every component stands out of one another. The combo makes them a memorable poster, and a reason to add excitement in it like fire, explosion, and scotching L.A.

Split complementary, triads, and tetradics, schemes that used more than 2 colors are usually found in Marvel movies, animations, and light-hearted genres. The combinations create richness to the scenes and emphasized on their aesthetics. They don’t intentionally imply the mood, but try to achieve realism, so you can feel that you’re in the settings and related to the environment.

These just show how important is color grading/correcting.

(The research is based on generalized knowledge and personal analysis. You, who have a better knowledge of the aspect, might disagree with some.)

To be frank, I am not a colorful person at all. Emotionally, I don’t express much. Verbally, I can’t express much. Technically, colored media just isn’t my best tools. Since I was young, I felt that the god of color materials must have something against my pass-life and cursed my ability to use His creations. Just kidding, but I’d always screw up in coloring. I have the sense of color but my last art exams screwed up badly due to my color practice. (Yep there’s other reasons too.) That’s why I’ve always envious about how my sister who’s an artist too utilized her color so well in her works.

But thanks to our eyes, we’re able to appreciate color. So I am not going to repel it but to work with it. THIS is one of my challenge for this next project. To be honest, I never realized or understood how these theory exist. Maybe I’m oblivious about them even if I found some combinations of them in various media and thought, “this is nice.” So the discovery for the theories fascinates me and makes me wonder how will I apply them into my Project 3.

I’ve once read a book about color psychology. The author made her point well on how colors affect us. As people who uses color as tools, artist possesses great power to affect people. Why reject it just because I not good at it? And to start with painting myself is indeed a good way to learn to control the colors.

Whether to stand out like complementary, or harmonious like analogous, or as vibrant as triad, or less tension like split-complementary, the overall goal of my colors will have to be balanced and making sense, and more importantly, represent myself. Either way, it’s all going to be determined by my concept, my ego equations, which will be revealed in another post next time.

Thanks for reading!

POST-BLOG

The awkward feeling when everyone did an incredible job in conceptualizing their project in such amount of time, even though they’ve told you they’re just getting started. Damn productive guys….They just can’t stop making me think I didn’t write enough 😀

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Okay maybe just because I’m a little late for my project 2 wrapping up. {That featured image looks desperate to let everyone know who wrote this post…….}

It’s the start of something new this week and Ms. Joy gave us a head start for our following project — EGO. The familiarity in G1 is just right to explore everyone’s ego and mess with them as well. I mean, we’ve been together long enough to realize everyone’s hidden side they’d never show on social media. We just can’t hide that long.

For the first activity, we got old pastel as the nostalgic to present what we know (and wanted to show) about ourselves. So, I wrote about what I liked, what I hated, what I irresistible with, what I care, what I’m confident about, and what I ain’t confident about. After a round of passing, the paper returned as this.

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How about my writings on others’ paper. I wrote about all I know about them and the impressions they gave throughout the semester, and what I got are the most beautiful words I’ve see about me since my arrival! Be satisfied b*tch [me]. This is so freaking encouraging that I felt good being myself. Ain’t G1 great?

So all the journey I had for the activity got concluded into point form.

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I repeat! Lots. Of. Inside. Jokes!

The next activity is to picture the world 5 years from now. At first I felt the world won’t change drastically in 5 years so I scaled it down and think, “My view in Singapore would probably filled up by skyscrapers because they are building a lot right now. ” Then I drew myself, in suit, probably finding a job after graduation. [Who had never try to seize the stability standardize by modern society before leaping out of the box?] This might shows the pessimistic thinking of mine, but I believe that is just a safety net keeping me from screwing up. Then I drew myself, partnering with my friends, in T-shirts, working as free (as in independent) production team. Only the clients and inspiration start our work. I considered this as my initial ambition after graduation. I’ve always envy those who are 100% in charge of their own work, and happy to do so too. Thirdly I drew a myself alone not in a suit in between. I’d probably end up someway in between my previous visions. Freelance? Part-timer? There’s no absolute in life.

Same process occurred and this came back.

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Ain’t great friends always put a smile on your face? Damn this is just optimism at its best. Thanks guys for picturing an exquisite future for me.

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Within limited time, this is the summarize conclusion for the activity.

I was able to see more inner-self of my classmates, and understanding about their vision as well. Okay, some of the paintings ended up an opposite direction but who knows? The future might end up what they joked about. The uncertainty about future is just exciting sometimes.

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Lastly we had to picture the future in words. I took it serious as I think it won’t differ much from what I see in the people around me. Many friendship throughout my life faded but didn’t disappear. They just don’t shine as bright as they used to. I once believed that the common cliched reality won’t happen to me. Yet there’s a reason people keep producing ‘”so true” post on the internet. It happens, to everyone. I guess if the down side of future reality happens, we just have to improvise. But liked I said, future is exciting for its uncertainty. The list above isn’t that gray as well. Art peeps tend to create opportunities for each other and I think that will be the ones that spark excitement in my future-5-years.

The activities was fun and it’s been a while since I think about these topic sitting besides the toilet. (I thought about them on the toilet, I forgets about them after washing my hands. True story.) I like it when it doesn’t require too much brainstorming but letting my imagination run wild at the same time. It reminded me of how much I know myself and how anticipating I am towards the future. However, to integrate all of these into the EGO project, well, that’s a whole lot of process to go through. Hope it’ll be as amusing as this.

POST-BLOG

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There are two kinds of people in a self exploring activity.

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Finding yourself

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Being yourself

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You’ve saw the title. Project 2 ended as everyone planned and my classmates never cease to surprise me with their wonderful job. Everyone has been using the same supplies of Dingbats but the results are unique, thought-out, and mind blowing. They saw their own shortcoming in the process and resolved the problems by creating more astonishing dingbats. With new dingbats, their new product covered their themes perfectly. It’s always fun and inspiring to see how my classmates think of their final product as you can literally see their thinking process in their works.

I’d say our presentations were a success as every of them was clarifying and intriguing to us. The amount of post-it notes pasted during the session proved everyone’s concentration and cooperation as listeners. I finished the challenge I gave myself before the session as well, which was comment on everyone’s work, whether compliments or suggestions. Although they’re not well written, yet that was the longest attention span I ever had within the decade.

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I’m actually quite satisfied with my work too. Comparing to my last project, I put more thoughts and did some unconventional attempts in my work. These are the action that considered rare in my past products. The printing did a great justice to my work, and so are the others’. They all looked better than on screen in my opinion.

20151025_211421Fortunately, Ms. Joy and my classmates liked the ways I introduced my concept and at least understood every part of my work. (Which is honestly a relief.) In fact, they offered some great suggestions in their comments, which formed another challenge for my next project.

I’m glad I paid efforts in the project as the satisfaction is a big deal for  me. Although there are still A LOT OF space of improvement in the project, I felt willing to take my next project in a more serious manner, push it to the next level.

 

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Every comment is so damn encouraging. Not only in mine, but others as well. I wish this wonderful spirit of G1 will forever live on.

 

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Finally after a week of considerations, my nursery rhyme was set to be ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE. I don’t need to explain that this IS a rhyme since almost everyone who was born before the millennium knows it. A progress is a progress, so I shall place the full rhyme below.

One, two, three, four, five,
Once I caught a fish alive,
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Then I let it go again.
Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
This little finger on the right.

I felt nostalgic when I saw this rhyme during my research as it was one of the English nursery rhymes I first encountered in the language. So I figured, it has a perfect flow of story and able to be visualized with real objects, suitable for my choice of nursery rhyme.

The first challenge I faced was the concept. Then I remembered that DADA artists uses things we can immediately recognize to convey their intentions in a unconventional way. In other words, try to be indirect with iconic symbols, in this case, dingbats. So my orientation will describe the words indirectly even for “one”. Thus the following visual journal sketches were created.

20151012_223013 20151012_223018 20151012_223024 20151012_223032The arrangements were made by copying the selected dingbats on my computer screen. I figured this way of planning can shorten my processing time. Also, I always have a clearer mind with it comes to hand-drawn sketches. After a few modifications, I am happy with my sketches and thus moved on to the software.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the main character of the rhyme is the fish. It got caught and bit its catcher for its own escape. I can’t just find a fish dingbat to fill this badass place. To be honest, I just can’t find any fishes in the dingbats collection considering it is a basic creature. Thus I thought of being ‘resourceful’ in my own way and built a fish from the remaining dingbats. As you can see, this fish was made out of a bee, a pair of woman lips, leaves, flower petals, SBS double decked bus, and an umbrella.

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I had fun composing the fish. Suddenly, I thought, why not substitute it with the luxurious items I found among the dingbats? The fish in the rhyme can be interpreted as the material needs that we occasionally obtain. Sometimes these needs cost a certain price, therefore “bit” us in the finger. We can’t keep what wasn’t ours.

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Therefore, a fish composed from a bracelet, an unknown branded handbag, a sport car, a high heels, a Mac, an ancient coin, and another set of lips just to make it lifelike.

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A bear holding up a high five. Four well dressed lads. Three Trees. A balance scale which require two sides like the justice it represents. The one ring to rule them all.

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Ten fingers. A howling caNINE. Eight spiders. Seven saxophones (Saxophone is the closest thing I can get to shape like the number). 3 Satans’ mask, for the sake of satan’s phone number.

Why Hitler? Hitler was one of the victim of the needs — power. Also, his gesture looked like he was releasing a fish.

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“Why did you let it go?” Captain Picard says to the strutting Leo as the questioned tweedle dum/dee looks at him. Leo might think he’s an angel in heart for releasing the fish who secretly celebrates its victory. But Leo reveals the truth with diamonds.

Diamonds may not shape like fish teeth, but they certainly have the shape to form a vicious set.

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The little finger on my right, represented with a can of pills, signifies it’s the one in pain at the time.

Thanks for reading my whole process. I really had great fun doing the pictures. It’d be a good experience if it wasn’t constantly interrupted by my laptop’s faulty back-light. Hope you find my exploration interesting. See you soon in my next project!

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ACT 1:

Howard and May are the main couple in this story. Howard is an ordinary student, and so is May. When they first met in high school, it was at a high school library. You can say they fell in love in first sight, or maybe just because Howard accidentally pushed over a book and it fell on May’s head. Whatever it was, their meeting was considered as the good old cliche word, fate. Howard was from another school, and he was just visiting the library before a competition, which May was the opponent. They started text each other, quietly sat beside each other in a gathering movie session, they exchanged gifts, until Howard popped the question when he was walking her home.

Of course it was not WYMM, but the one before that. They were then official, to their friends. They kept their relationship secrets from their families. You see, May came from a rather wealthier background, that didn’t mean her family concerns about class, but more of a you-must-concentrate-in-your-study kind of way. As for Howard, well it’s basically the same but his family hoped that stability is his first priority. Even though going underground, they cherish every moment they were together.

After they graduated from high school, Howard got accepted into the local university. May was definitely happy for him but she had to break the news — she got to study abroad, in another continent. It was going to be a long distance because May can only return to her home country once in a year. They worried about all the problems they might face as most of their friends never even last a month after interstate relationships. After the consulting with his best bros and her sista’s who eventually study abroad together, they decided to give it a try.

The bros and sista’s gave their own LD survival guide throughout the first stage of the year, and tons of hilarity occurred, getting themselves into various troubles and embarrassment. But thanks to their “power of love”, they survived the first year.

May returned to her hometown and her man during the vacation months. They spent a lovely montage of moments during her stay.

ACT 2:

On the second year, Howard met a girl who developed feelings to her. At first, Howard did not notice all the signals the girl gave, and just considered her as a female-bro. But the rumours spread out quicker than their instagram photos, adding insecurities in May. Her sista’s thought of a way for her to secure her position, but ended up miserably with the couple fighting over Skype.

The “cold war” started. May had then starting to get used to a life without Howard, and this statement had shocked her sista’s. Her sista’s warned the bros to inform Howard about the situation. The bros confronted Howard and proved that the new girl had a crush on him. They gave Howard a choice, letting go or embrace her back.

ACT 3:

Howard went to find the new girl, just to tell her that he was belong to someone else. The new girl understood and sent her blessing to the couple, leaving with tears of course. Howard then found a way to get with May, or rather get with May.

May was feeling alone on the streets of the emptied dorm, due to her stay over the break. She started to miss the days with companionship, she thought about Howard. Howard surprised her by the gate of the University. The couple reunited and the cold war ended.

2 years later, the couple introduced each other to their parents. They have became the model couple among their friends as well.

Myth retold: The cowherd and the weaver girl. Focused on how they can only reunited with each other once per year.

Genre: Rom-com

Logline: A couple trying to get over the obstacle/relationship problem that not many movie had talked about.