“Found” Narratives

Artist Statement

World issues like global warming is a real problem. We know that it is a problem, the solution is there but for the sake of economic advances, no one would actually do anything. Pretty ironic.

Concept

The concept for this found narrative revolves around the living inhabitants of Antarctica, where glaciers are melting and these animals are losing their home. We are seeing the consequences of global warming through the eyes of this animal that is narrating.

Technical Decisions

I kept my footage looking natural and realistic, not adding in too many effects and transitions, referencing to Nat Geo videos.

The video starts with an overview of the landscape before diving into showing the animals. I wanted to show the audiences this world that the animals lives in, then hit them with the reality by pulling some heart strings on how their homes are being destroyed.

timeline

I also mainly use atmospheric sounds like wind blowing and currents hitting the coast to keep it sounding realistic. Risers were added to build up the suspense as the next line of my VO  starts too.

I did not want to change the colours of the footage at all because of the style of what I was going for. Subtle, and not overdoing things brings the focus to what I am saying in the VO, which I feel is the best way to delivering my message.

Transcript

“This is my home.

My friends.

But,

I can’t live here anymore.

Please save this place.”

Text Premise

Antarctica. A cold world with wide landscapes of ice caps and water. A place where many animals calls home.

But not anymore.

They are forced to flee as they loses their home to increasing global temperatures and melting ice glaciers.

Where can they call home now?

References

  • National Geographic: A very realistic approach to story telling, in which we observe the lives of animals and the world. A report like style to the narration too.
  • 4k Drone footages of landscapes. Stefan Forster on Youtube does some amazing work with drones.

Credits

  • National Geographic: The Life of a Baby Polar Bear – Ep. 4 |Wildlife: The Big Freeze
  • Luke Bell: Antarctica – The Frozen Continent – 4k Drone Video
  • Exposure Labs: “CHASING ICE” captures largest glacier calving ever filmed – OFFICIAL VIDEO
  • MW: Large Iceberg Breaking near Ilulissat
  • Stefan Forster: GREENLAND – LAND OF ICE 4K

Revealing Emotions: Disappointment

Pre-Production

We struggled a bit on defining what disappointment was. We kept linking it back to sadness, which is fine but it should support and tie in together with being disappointed and not overpower it.

The next thing that we were trying to make out of was how to have different levels and interpretations of disappointment in the same situation. Why do we feel disappointed? Is it because of something that has happened? Because of someone? In the end, for me, I felt that it’s not being able to have things go a certain way that I want when I feel disappointed.

I thought that it would be interesting if we are disappointed at a situation that cannot be changed. And that the people that are involved are disappointed at different things, but still at the same situation.

The dead sister is disappointed at the alive one, that she was late, and that she wasn’t able to save her. But also at the same time, she knows that what’s done was done, and nothing could be changed anymore. Looking at her sister, sometimes it’s harder for the ones that were still alive, because their time hasn’t stopped yet and that they have to live through it for the rest of their lifes.

For the alive sister, she is disappointed at herself for not being there and also at this hopeless situation. There is nothing she could do but to accept what had happened.

//

Locations wise, we wanted to keep it simple and just stayed in 1 location, preferably in or near NTU. The had 2 bus stops in mind and choose the 1 at Clean tech in the end as it was nearer and because our actress needing to leave at a certain time.

Production

It was quite a bit of a challenge shooting with the cars and with people alighting and boarding the buses. We blocked and had some tech runs when there were people around and went for takes right after the bus left, clearing the people in the background.

The tracking shot needed a lot of precise blocking and coordination between the camera and the actors. We tried many things like changing where the kidnapper should sit to things like where should he drag her out. (due to the lighting)

Everyone was really supportive and did a really good job and I’m very thankful to have had the opportunity to be in this team.

Hyperreal Composite | breathe

 

before
after

Process

A mask was first created for the human. I also enlarged the background to fit the canvas.

Next, exposure and colour for the composite was adjusted to make it feel like its in the same world.

exposure

Then I adjusted the overall exposure and tried to change the highlights to a yellow tint.

yellow highlights

Then green for the shadows, and a little accent of red.

green shadows

Lastly, I dropped a blue layer on overlay to darken the overall image and added grain.

after

There were a few attempts before this final composite:

This one was too normal for my liking.

attempt 1

This was too yellow overall. It looks too flat.

attempt 2

Artist Reference

  • Josh Wong

I really enjoy looking at how Josh manipulates the yellows and greens in his work. There is such a surreal feel to them.

  • Sang Han

Sang Han’s uses more blues and greens. His work gives off a dream-like melancholic feel. The grains adds a tone of rawness.

.tiff

Self Portrait | Contained

Artist Statement

I am someone that feels a lot. Sometimes I feel like I’m drowning. Not the struggling kind, but the the calm and subtle type. It is something that I’ve come to terms with. I acknowledge this side of me. It’s not wrong to feel a certain way, what matters more are the actions I choose to do.

No one can truly understand another person completely. Everyone in this world has got their inner demons. It’s a constant struggle, and really a battle that only I can fight alone.

I didn’t want to get wet because these emotions are contained, even though I feel overwhelmed by them, I am not actually drowning. I just feel like I am. I’m also carrying them to show that I’m trying to hold these bags of emotions inside me, and to not let them spill into the world around me.

before
before
after

 

Technical Decisions

The original image was overall very dark due to the sky being very overblown.

I had to first increase the contrast and brightness of the image. I wanted a more fantasy looking atmosphere like David Uzochukwu’s work. Masks for the grass, sky, human and skin were made for me to have more control. The human in particular was too bright and in the wrong colour tone compared to the background. An orange mask was applied in overlay mode as an attempt to blend the subject and the background together. Colour balance was applied to both the sky and the grass. I was going for a more orangey and magenta tone.

Artist Reference

  • David Uzochukwu

I love how David Uzochukwu uses natural body positions and gestures to convey the emotions. It’s not overly dramatic and very raw. The backgrounds of his work are also very simple and clean. His work leaves me with an impression of the loneliness we feel within ourselves in this big world that we live in. This feeling was something that I want to include in my self portrait.

  • Laura Zalenga

The look and tone of Laura Zalenga’s work was something that I want to include in my self portrait. The use of body gestures and minimal props was very similar to David Uzochukwu, but again, this really brings the focus to that of the model, which was something that I want to achieve

 

LINK TO PSD & TIFF

Why our screens make us less happy

Adam Alter began his TED talk with how Steve Jobs limits technology and screen time with his kids.

This made him think about what screens were doing to people.

He collected on data how much time we were spending time with our technologies. The time we spend per day with them were increasing year by year.

The weird thing is that we were actually spending more time with apps that doesn’t make us happy.

Why is that happening?

Adam Alter said that it was because there were no “stopping cues”. Back when I was much younger, in primary school, I used to watch dramas on TV. There is no such thing as binge-watching, I had to wait till the next day/week to watch the next episode. That was my stopping cue, a sign for me to go and do something else, something new.

But with the way we consume media nowadays, there is always new content rolling in from different apps. There is no stopping because we are so connected with each other. Stopping cues are non-existent, there is nothing to stop us from looking at our screens and move on to do something else.

We need to break away from technology once in awhile. We need to breathe.

Being disconnected and giving ourselves some real alone time is a very important and healthy thing to do.

 

Minimalism Show Reflection

 

MEGA DEATH – TATSUO MIYAJIMA 

The perception of human lives in the form of data.

Mega Death is a work that talks about the lifes that were lost to war and conflict in the 20th century.

Miyajima attempt to portray this circle of life through the counting down of digits symbolising death is so fast, that it’s gone before I am able grasp and ponder upon that 1 life amongst the data of millions.

Time waits for no one, death represents not the end, but simply just part of the cycle of life. In a sense, we can say that death is the birth of a new life.

 

ROOM FOR ONE COLOUR – OLAFUR ELIASSON 

The perception of the world around us.

By reducing the colour we see, we are removing “distractions” from our world of sight. This forces us to focus on the details of the things we see. For me, I was carefully observing the features of the people around me and fascinated at the forms of the veins on my palms.

“How does colour help to shape how we view the world?” This was 1 question I had in mind in the installation.

There is this theory of colour perception that we don’t actually see the same colours. A colour I label as blue might not be the same colour in another person’s eyes. These labels were just taught and programmed by us humans to tie what we are seeing to a common name we could use to communicate.

My One Demand

My One Demand is an interactive film about unrequited love. It’s an one take, continuous shot using a single camera, and comments from a live viewing audience.
The shoot is actually happening right outside the theatre simultaneously as the audience are seated inside watching the broadcast live.
Audiences were engaged and encouraged to interact live by responding to a series of questions posed by the narrator about, unrequited love.
Selected answers received will be added to the script. This makes the script unique as 1 will never be the same as another screening.
As the film comes to an end, the narrator asks the last question about what is something you wish you could change, but couldn’t? All the answers received are projected onto the screen.

MOD’s narrative is not just to tell the narratives of the characters in the film to the audience. But also to pull in snippets of the narratives from the audiences themselves.
This is especially so for the last question. As they watch the answers of what the others around them has to say, they wonder about their narratives too.

2ch – vtol // brain to brain communication

 

Dmitry Morozov is a Russian multidisciplinary artist based in Moscow. His work is based around media arts including sound and robotics.

2ch is an interactive instrument of communication between 2 people using brainwaves. The brainwaves are measured using the headset, which is an EEG (electroencephalogram) reader. It is a sensor that is used to measure electricity in our brains. Our brain cells communicate via electrical impulses and are active all the time, even when asleep.
The recorded electrical activities will be translated into sound, motion and video images.
The 2 users connected to the machine are supposed to synchronize their minds, guided by pitch, mechanical motion and visualization.

The point of modern day computer interfaces is to connect our brains to the system/computer interface. An example is a mouse and a keyboard that we can use to translate our thoughts into data that can be seen or heard. The surface acts as a bridge for us to connect with other people.
This project, however, works as a brain to brain interface, which skips the step of having this bridge by allowing the EEG headset to “read” the data (thoughts) in our minds directly and outputting them to the other user.
I feel that that communication in this sense becomes more raw and pure, because translation in any form can never be 100% accurate. Comparing to us using an interface and telling it what we are thinking and letting the interface read our minds directly, the latter will probably have a lower loss in translation.
In vtol’s words himself, “the machine is not the end point of your thoughts, but the mediator to another person”.
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References
https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/ez53d7/cybernetic-device-turns-brainwaves-into-telepathic-art
https://www.fastcompany.com/3063203/this-pyramid-sculpture-is-an-interface-for-brain-to-brain-communication
Pictures: http://vtol.cc/filter/works/2ch