Tag: 4D

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4D Final Project – “Where Is She?”

For our last project of this semester, we had to do it in groups so I worked with Xuan Wei, Shi Min and Nicholas.

Here’s our group’s proposal to know more about our work:

https://oss.adm.ntu.edu.sg/kohs0101/wp-content/uploads/sites/1857/2017/11/Where-is-She.docx_-1.pdf

IDEATION

Our group project was focused on making use of sound effects and immersing our audience into our story.  So we decided to do something like a “40-part Motet” work, where Janet Cardiff uses speakers filled with different kinds of sounds to pull the audiences in.  However, for our work, these sounds are coming from people that are having a conversation – where a story unfolds about a lost girl and in the midst of it, the audience have to uncover who is the prime suspect for her loss by paying attention to the conversation. We got this idea from “Serial” podcast and for our story it was inspired by the true story of Huang Na’s disappearance. We used that as a strong concept behind our final work.

PROCESS AND FINAL

We used 3 speakers, 1 panning out 2 on their own where each speaker voices out. Since we as the characters are telling the story, we had to test out numerous times to do our recordings. This is because we really needed to be in character. (as seen below, the amount of recordings taken to get the perfect one)

For more of our processes – to hear more of our recordings, to see the script we came up with to build our storyline, the different tries in trying to stay in character (bloopers too), click this link:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1cvw8dH2XLtFKw6zZvRrejP274YCl7_BY

We decided to have the final sound art in the Cinema Room @ The ADM Library, this is so as to get the audience more involved in the story by simply listening to the speaker talking, and concentrating on nothing else visually. Just the sounds. We also decided that for final presentation, our story will be divided into 3 portions so that the 1st group that enters will only be allowed to choose 1 of the 3 stories to have a listen. Similarly for the rest of the group that participates in this. This is so that we could give them the full experience of immersing into the story, by concentrating on the characters through their sounds, the tones of their voices at certain timings and such.

In the google docs it also provides our final installation, and how it end up being played. Do take a look at it! It’s been a fun and tiring process doing this, but we made it and this is a new experience I will never forget.

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4D Sequencing Images – “Am I Pretty Now?”

PROCESS: IDEATION

So in my group, there’s Bala, Hui En, Karen and me. We had 3 different stories. Mine was about  a friend whose life was going downhill when he took drugs and that was when our friendship just kind of strained. I wanted to continue the story in a positive light where he changed into a better person after NS.

Bala’s story was about a friend who was smart and also pretty, everyone in school would tell her to be a model. Hui En’s story was about her friend from boarding school, and how she see her change drastically in terms of looks by going for a lot of plastic surgery. She could not even recognise her friend after.

AND SO, we decided to go with Hui En’s idea and make our own continuation because someway somehow when we discussed, our ideas clicked on the idea of Fantasy/Tragedy coming from her story.

We came up with our storyboard and some of the props we needed.

(Leaving this space to post the fuller version once it’s edited properly!)

RESEARCH (for task 2):

In terms of image, I wanted the dark warm tone, but at the same time focusing on the lighting exposure on certain images to focus on the protagonist and depending on the mood at that point of time.

One of the films I was inspired by was Pan’s Labryinth (2006) as we were leaning towards the idea of Fantasy. And I wanted to focus more on ‘Dark Fantasy’ which was what this film is all about.

Because I loved the film, I went to look at Guillermo del Toro’s (the film director and producer of this film) other works such as Crimson Peak (2015).

I loved how he managed to use dark tones to portray the dark mood. Which was what I wanted in some of my photos.

I  tried out B&W just to see how different the effect will feel and look. I changed it to a slightly warmer tone to make a vintage-y effect as I thought it will look good. I added on a whimsical creepy music to further portray the dark fantasy. But overall, I didn’t quite like it because I felt that it looked better with colour hence I decided this one should just be a trailer. And I did another for the main image sequencing. (the one way below)

I guess it was really tough for me in the process of this project because of the editing, as I was not familiar with any of the professional video app such as Audience CC or Premiere Pro. I was only familiar with iMovie BUT on my iPhone, not on Mac book pro. SIGH. So there was still alot to learn. Overall I think I like how it turned out. It could be better if I learn to better pace out my time during the process.

 

 

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Artist Reference – Research for Task 1 and 2

FOR TASK 1

NAN GOLDIN

“Untitled Variety #71, 1983 ”

Nan Goldin is an American photographer known for her deeply personal and candid portraiture. Goldin’s images act as a visual autobiography documenting herself and those closest to her, and in most of her works, she focuses on the LGBT community.

I used her as a reference as I was inspired by the film photography she does and the way she could capture emotions well in her films. The colours in her photos and the lack of lighting. It sets the right mood and tone on all the topics she touches on – love, fluid sexuality, glamour, beauty, death, intoxication and pain. Goldin’s photographs feature her life and those in it. And this is what i love about it, the way she documents topics such as beauty, pain, love and such. She stated that “My work has been about making a record of my life that no one can revise. I photograph myself in times of trouble or change in order to find the ground to stand on in the change. I was coming out of a melancholic phase. ”

“Self Portrait writing in my diary”, Boston 1989

Looking into the picture above, I admire the way she could portray such a melancholic mood using her body posture which is very important here. The lighting is also a key point to the way her film photos turned out. She said she was “coming out of her melancholic phase”. It is well portrayed here in her body posture – she may be lying down but her upper body onwards rises, her head is tilted up, she’s looking out.  It’s darker on the other side of the picture but she’s inclining more towards the light by looking out towards it. Thus it could perhaps suggest the idea of “looking up” and “hope”. Hence coming out of her sad moments while  jotting it down in her diary.

That itself inspired me to take the pictures i take. I do not have a film camera to produce such shots but i do want to focus on the melancholic phase, the nostalgia that is present – I wanted to show that that itself is part of my story and I wanted people to see it visually. I figured that even the smallest object I have picked out, a butterfly necklace I have been wearing for the longest time now, that is significant to me, could also allow me to portray the way i feel about it and what it symbolises through the use of of  light in my pictures and also the importance of body posture and facial expression. All of that elevates the photo by giving it a meaning, a symbolism, it helps to give off the mood I intend on portraying.

Another artist (female too) that I would like to touch on is Sally Mann.

SALLY MANN

Sally Mann is an American photographer known for her intimate black-and-white portraits of her family and for her documentation of the landscape of the American South. Her images appear antique due to her interest in early photographic technology. She experiments on bromide printing process to achieve that ‘old’ effect in her photos.

I was pulled into her photography works because of her portraits of girls captured in ephereal moments between childhood innocence and womanly sophistication. I loved her works produced in one of her photography book called “At Twelve: Portraits of Young Women (1988)”. (some of her works from it as seen below)

 

1. “Untitled, At Twelve Series (Lisa and her Tab)”

2. “Untitled, At Twelve Series (Juliet in the Chair)”

She has the ability to capture them beautifully, portraying something dark – sad but moving. Something purely female. I also like how her photos involve those young girls – it gives a sort of story behind young girls. An image of a child with a dark story. And I would want that image to stick as my inspiration for my photography works as the object I am relating it to has a story to tell behind my childhood. It would make a perfect reference.

“Candy Cigarrette, 1989”

I would also want to reference a huge inspiration of mine. Alessio Albi

Most of his works focuses on the looking-away gaze, expression & emotios and lighting too. I am just a huge fan of his works.

FOR TASK 2

WOLFGANG TILLMANS

“Louisiana, 1996”

I referenced to Wolfgang Tillmans as I was intrigued by Tillman’s diaristic photography, large-scale abstraction, and commissioned magazine work. “I want the pictures to be working in both directions,” the artist has said. “I accept that they speak about me, and yet at the same time, I want and expect them to function in terms of the viewer and their experience.”
That is exactly what i would want to portray in my photos. I want the viewer to interpret what they want to from the picture of “my world”, give their own thoughts but at the same time see it as the way i do, to step in my shoes and see how the place fascinates me.

“In the back”, 2010

In the photo above, I like how Tillman experimented in dark room and played with the shadows and warm light to capture this image – it’s dark and gloomy but at the same time the bright yellow light from outside tries to overpower the darkness inside hence it makes you feel warm and cozy.

I used this especially as a reference to play with the lights and shadows at the place i took my pictures at, as i chose to take it when sun sets and during night time. Thus this specific work of his plays an important part to how my pictures turn out.

I was also inspired by this photographer i found on instagram.

His works inspired me in terms of getting the vibrancy, colours that just makes me feel like joy, and all the lights and bokeh in dark surroundings, which i was planning to use in my photos.