Concepts of Digital Imaging Assignment 3 – LIFE

Artist Statement

In today’s society a lot of us are going through motion and living life “safely” afraid of what makes us feel insecure. With LIFE, I wanted to show my take of what it means to live life to the fullest with combinations of sound effects, thrilling video clips and intense transitions.

The footage used in LIFE  are specifically chosen to convey what my voiceover is portraying. I used a combination of my personal footage and footage that I’ve found online to create something totally new. Throughout the video there are many symbols used to further enhance the storytelling. One such example is a crowded crossroad of people walking past each other almost as if there was a higher being controlling them like puppets to convey compliance.

I wanted to tell a story with the visuals that I used, accompanying it with sound effects to further aid the delivery.

The second half of the video focuses on risk taking, which inspired me to use clips like skydiving, rooftopping and other adrenalin rushing activities to help viewers get a better sense of what I am trying to say.

1 Minute Cut

Password: stevenmeisel

30s Cut

Transcript of Voiceover

In a world filled with conformists
A lot of us are comfortable with our lives
But through that comfort comes a lot of anxiety
A lot of worry
A lot of stress
Why? because we are still living the same old routine
Most people go though life following that routine
Going through life playing it safe is like a breathing corpse
The only way that you can grow, is you gotta risk
You gotta challenge yourself
You gotta take some chances
You gotta live out of your comfort zone
They say if you’re not living on the edge you’re taking up too much space
I choose to live by my own rules
How about you?
Short Descriptive Text Premise
With society complying to whatever that makes them feel safe, sitting through countless exams growing up and living life through motion, they become lifeless zombies being manipulated.
Only through breaking free and doing things out of our comfort zone can we fully live our lives and realise our fullest potential.

Technical Decisions

I used a lot of zooming and whip pan effects to transition my clips to create a fast paced, adrenalin rushing feel.

The beginning few clips were normal jump cuts to set the pace for the video introducing how mundane life is.

After that I incorporated layers of sound design like people chattering and a train passing by to create a sense of messiness. The whip pan transitions used in this segment of the video helped to create a sense of irritation and anxiousness.

Following that to emphasise how society is living life monotonously I used a clip from “Shaun of The Dead” where a series of zoom in transitions and quick cuts were used to show how the protagonist went through his morning routine.

Approaching the end of the video I used more zooming in effects to emphasise the rush I’m trying to compare to the mundane boring life of compliance.

For the last scene I used a zoom out transition to show my eyes closed and at the very last second I open my eyes almost provoking the viewer to question how he/she is living life.

Colour Editing Process

As for colour grading I did some basic adjustments to the existing colour graded footage such as desaturating the beginning clips to show lifelessness.

Before

After

The part where the VO was describing routine was colour graded to make the footage cooler to again show how mundane it is to always go through motion everyday. The zombie footage was also cooled extensively and darkened to create a scary feel.

Before

After

Before

After

Toward the end of the video I used normal saturation for the footage  and increased the saturation of some of the clips to create a drastic change in mood.

Before

After

Artist Reference

I was inspired by Edgar Wright’s “Shaun of the Dead”. Throughout the movie there are multiple scenes that are quick cuts to show a sense of urgency. For example, there is one scene where the protagonist goes through his morning routine using  quick cuts accompanied with zoom in transitions. Even though the effect was manually done during the shoot for the movie, I had to do it in post as I was using online clips. This transition technique allowed me to emphasise adrenalin throughout the later part of the video and came in very handy when the scenes were not related visually.

 

Outside of movies, Sam Kolder is a travel filmmaker that really inspired me to create the voiceover for this assignment. Apart from the story behind my video, Sam Kolder’s colour grading was a huge inspiration to me when I was editing the RAW footage that I shot on my own.  Focusing on contrast and saturated colours I took that and included it into the video to enhance the visual experience of living life on the edge.

For my final artist reference, I looked to Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream”.  Throughout the movie there are a lot of quick cuts used. Even though the quick cuts do not exactly show what is happening during the time period of the scene itself, it helps to tell a better story of what is actually happening in real time. Like the scene where the drug dealer was selling drugs, instead of showing how he sold the drugs and what they were used for, the director used a lot of quick cuts and closeup shots to show snippets of money, cocaince smothered, pupils dilated to give viewers the idea of what is going on in the scene.

Credits

30 Days In Japan by Itchban

Why? by MOE Singapore

Aerial shooting: Wave Pool (China) by HUMAN the movie

Massive wave hits ship by GlobalLeaks

Man almost gets hit by a train! Really Close! by Luciano Jesus

Shaun of the Dead Official Trailer #1 – Simon Pegg Movie (2004) HD by Movieclips Trailer Vault

Dream Jump – Dubai 4K by XDubai

Indecent Proposal (1/8) Movie CLIP – Kiss the Dice (1993) HD by Movieclips

Scary Parkour Compilation 2016 !! by Ardit Gola Films

 

Leave a Reply