Time Art - My Ideas

My 3 Ideas:

1.
I had this idea where on each screen you will see one person; close up shot of the torso, barely showing neck and waist. The first person on the left is holding an old book, looks nostalgic and dusty. When they open the book, a memory appears to be coming out of the book, almost magically. The book, still in view whilst the memory is playing controls whether the memory can be seen or not. As the person closes the book the memory closes with it. The person then hands the book to the next person who is on the next screen. With the same motion as the person in the previous screen, the person opens the book again and another memory will play and close. The memory will be a different type of memory, maybe something that person didn't particularly want to remember, like they're scarred. They might have one arm, opening the book, and the memory is of them losing the arm. The third with the same motion, different memory. Each of them are 3-3 and a half minutes long, enough time for a decent visual of a memory for each person.
I cannot honestly tell you where I got the inspiration from to do this, it was more like a vision I had. In all fairness I could of chosen any object for the memories to come out of, but I chose the book. I chose the book because the book has depth to it. The knowledge you can get from books is like no other source. The power of your mind reaches its peak, allowing your imagination to run wild and free, the possibilities are limitless. By choosing the book this allowed me to create any memory I wanted to. So I've thought carefully and chose to go with 3 different types of memories; one for each person; one happy, one sad, and one hopeful.
I want to create an effect like the ones I have found below regarding the book, almost magical transactions occurring. I was torn with what colour the background should be in the final video(s), either black or white. I chose white because the colour white to me is more free and never-ending, I just feel that the colour black will restrict me from a few shots, and it wouldn't really work with a happy memory, whereas the colour white can be interpreted in many different ways; new possibilities, the light at the end of the tunnel, the start of a new life, practically anything.

The apparatus that I desire to execute this video instillation are the following:

• Standard Camera x3
• Tripod
• Green Screen
• 3 participants
• A book (prop)
• Editing Software such as Adobe Premier
• After Effects

Because I need a green screen I would shoot my footage in a studio on campus, so I will need to hire out a studio. To get the desired look I want of the book I will stain the pages using tea bags, give them a few rips to look more nostalgic, as if it's been in the hands of a lot of people.
I will also film the memories coming out of the book using the standard camera in different locations. I will then use After Effects to execute the transaction of when the book is opened and when the dream is played.
Shooting would take place on Monday 17th February. The Location would be in a studio situated on campus. That's IF I can hire out a studio. If I am unfortunate to do so I will book it on the next available date. The shots will take a day in the studio to master, to get the timing right and to get the motions right, so the majority of the day will be practice until we get the perfect footage.
I will film the memories in locations such as a nearby field (there's plenty around here), a nearby road (not a busy road, just any road will be fine) and in a room in a house. All memories will be shot in POV, to engage the audience more.
The memory that will take place in the field will be a happy memory, maybe a young couple laying down enjoying one another's company.
The memory that will take place on a nearby road will be a memory that has effected you tremendously. Picture someone on their bicycle riding along when suddenly they fall into the road. They injure themselves quite badly, but then they see a car coming towards them and it looks like they can't slow down properly. They start honking their horn, the closer they get the louder the horn gets, and as soon as they get real close up the memory fades to white.
The memory that will take place in a house will be of a mother, nursing her new born son. (I'm not going to use a real baby, I will use a prosthetic one which will look somewhat realistic). Her partner will walk in, stand over the mother and new born, kiss the mother on the head, maybe the baby too, then walk off as the mother smiles and gazes out of the window. I could have a scene where as soon as the memory finishes the baby you saw in the memory will appear in the actual video, only difference is that the baby will be a little older, holding onto the mothers hand when she shuts the book.
The shooting for the memories will take place on Tuesday 18th February, giving us plenty time to master the effects and editing that is greatly needed.


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2.
There is a person in each of the screens, all of them holding pieces of cardboard. In the background will be a time-lapse of busy places with lots of people. All 3 of them will turn each card around to the camera simultaneously. The card will show the viewer a message. Each person will tell their own story. The viewer won't be able to read all the messages at once, so I figured it will give the video some sort of replay value. The messages, that I haven't properly finished yet, will be short, yet powerful, keeping the audience's attention. In the end all of their cards read the same message "Time Waits For No Man". Each story will be linked to this phrase, giving different angles and perspectives on it.





3.

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Picture 3 screens. The 2 outside screens are filled with stars from outer space, and in the middle you can see the world as a planet. Using after effects, I will spin the world, slowly, making it look kind of real. You will see stars slowly come in and out of frame, entering the next screen either on the left or the right. The globe starts to spin faster, more vigorously, again to make it look realistic I will move stars and other objects in sync with the world's spin to show the gravitational pull. Again the world gets faster and faster and eventually the world will unravel, like a carpet would, and at the start the countries will be how they were when the world first started, and then they slowly move apart, slowly spreading onto the other screens until they are in their correct geographical locations they are set in today. I was thinking of maybe including some video clips of evolution, as the world is spinning to show how fast the world is evolving. The clips would be semi-transparent, slowly gliding through each screen, as the world and stars are spinning.

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Let there be light

I remember learning about different types of lights used in photography, there purposes, and how they function. I decided to explore, more in-depth, the possibilities that can be achieved when using lighting correctly in photography.

I looked into Nadav Kander's work. He is a photographer based in London. Without even exploring his work entirely I can see that the lighting used is emphasised, not necessarily enough to take away any attributes the photograph already has, but in a way to compliment his subject.

Reflections - My Idea (so far)

A story fuelled by karma, revenge, regret, and sorrow. A young woman betrays her partner and then brutally murders him out of sheer fear. She convinces herself he is gone forever, but reflecting back on everything she has done she is rather unsure about the massacre.

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The film starts with a black background, and some white text fades in slowly. it will be a quote that reads:

If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die? And if you wrong us shall we not revenge?

William Shakespeare

The text then slowly fades out, and the film will start.

I've made a song to accompany the clips, the song will narrate what the female is going through, elaborating on her thoughts and her emotions. The song will play throughout the film, but half-way through it will stop and take a break, and then continue.

Picture a female, latest in her mid-20's, in presumably her bedroom at her desk. She's looking in the mirror, sharply, not blinking, deeply into her own eyes. On the desk are objects, that when she touches them, they trigger some sort of memory. Her hand slowly approaches an object and starts to hover over it, as soon as the she touches it in the slightest the memory triggers almost instantly, like a shock, as if adrenaline drowns out reality. The memory isn't pleasant, giving the audience vivid and short clips of the memory, not giving away what the memory is..

She then suddenly snaps back into reality, grabs the object with aggression and throws it at the mirror, smashing it, and then she runs outside.

Outside she runs as fast as she can, tears causing her mascara to run down her face, and she stumbles over near a lake. She hangs her head whilst crying, almost ashamed of what she did. She crawls towards the lake, dragging herself to the edge, and looks into the lake, seeing her reflection. Still crying, she sees a figure appear above her, her eyes widen, and another flashback memory occurs in the same fashion.

After the memory she turns around quickly and in a terrified manor to find nobody there. She then looks around to see if anyone is there, and then she looks down at the ground and sees a watch. She then has another flashback but this one is quick, showing someone wearing the watch. After she snaps back into reality she rushes onto her feet and runs into the nearby woods.

Shot of her running into the woods with a mysterious character's left middle part of their torso and arm coming into shot slowly, the arm/hand has blood on it that has been dried up.

The female, still running, stumbles a couple of times, running as fast as she can. Camera shots of trees passing quickly to show the audience how quick she is running; Like in an action scene. A lot of dynamic transactions to emphasize the speed she is running, with her heavy breathing because of stamina/terror blended into the shot. Here is an example: Woods Running

The sky darkens, which I'm hoping will give the video a scary feeling to it. Somehow I want to incorporate fire into the video, maybe a camp fire to keep warm as she is in the woods. She thinks she has out-run the scary figure. Until she sees a shadow of a man, getting bigger and bigger. I was thinking of having quick shots cutting back and forth from the shadow and her face/eyes fillng with terror.

he then wrestles her to the ground, and then there's a close up of both of their faces, on the mans face you can distinctively see the dried up blood that's surfaced on his dirty skin whilst her face will be portrayed as pure, clean, innocent. She's too scared to look at the man, who has both of her hands pinned down, almost motionless watching her squirm for freedom. Tears rolling down her face, begging for a saviour, whilst he is still just staring at her. (Note we cannot see his facial expressions yet).

She finally looks up and into the mans face, and instead of screaming (which I presume the audience will expect her to do), she will look terrified, speechless, in disbelief, her bottom lip starts to tremble, and more tears roll out of her eyes. The camera then cuts to the man, where you can see on the mans face that there are streaks of where the tears were. The man is not blinking, looking directly into her eyes, almost looking into her soul. He looks disappointed, betrayed and hurt.

The camera then turns back to the girl, still trebling with fear, still looking into his eyes as she doesn't dare to blink and give him the opportunity to hurt her. Her eyes are locked onto his, and with this connection, it triggers the ultimate memory.

The memory will be of the two characters, and how the woman betrayed the man. Before this drama occurred, the man and woman were an item, in love, together. I was thinking of producing a scene where the woman betrays the man by cheating on him, preferably with someone very close to the man.

The man could walk in on them, which will traumatise him. He then attacked the man who was in bed with his partner, and beat him to the pulp. These scenes are the snippets of memory the woman saw in the very beginning of the video, as she hovers over the objects, but now, the memories are clear, powerful, in detail.

In this memory, the woman then attacks her partner, with a lamp or something in that region, and smashes him over the head with it. He falls to the ground, bloody and defenceless. They both start attacking the man punching him and kicking him, basically trying to brutally kill him.

We can have a POV shot of the man getting beaten up, so it can show that by looking into her eyes it also triggered some sort of memory for him also. After they beat him to a pulp, they then wrap his body up in a black bag and carry it down to the lake (the same lake in one of the first opening scenes).

They throw the body in, and slowly watch the body sink. As soon as it sunk, the two people collapse in each others arms and turn their backs to the lake, they start to walk away, relieved. They keep on walking, and it looks like the video is about to end. With a shot of the lake, and the couple walking away, watching the lake ripples calm again, an arm emerges from the lake, bloody, shaking with revenge and hatred, and that's where the memory stops.

The video cuts back to the man and woman after they had the memory. The woman's lips read "I'm sorry", no sound coming from her, as she is powerless and vulnerable right now. The man's eyes go from forgiving to vengeance, tears still coming out of his eyes.
The camera slowly pans away from the couple, only showing the shadows that are caused by the fire. The shadows show us how he strangles the woman. She tries to escape, her shadow shows us how much she is trying to break free, but eventually she stops moving, and the man's head is hanging low, which could mean he is shameful or relieved that its all over, that's for the audience to decide.
Instead of the man strangling the woman, we can have shots where it looks like she is strangling herself, showing the audience that she did it herself, she brought it on herself, this is her fault and she should face the consequences. We can have shots cutting back and fourth from the 2 subjects, but the subject strangling the woman will change from the man to the woman, showing the audience what the woman can see, her facial expressions show us that she is confused and terrified.

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Overall I have decided to go with 3 characters all together. I realised if I got carried away with characters then the story would of became too complex and the storyline wouldn't be as intense as it is. I want 2 main characters; the woman and her partner, and another man to play the cheater who is caught with the other man's wife. The woman will be dressed so she is portrayed as almost innocent and vulnerable. Giving the impression to the audience that she wouldn't do something like that. The man will be wearing dark clothing, giving the impression to the audience that the man is the problem in the story (until they see the ultimate flashback). The other man wouldn't be wearing much as the only time we will see him is when he is with the woman cheating on her partner, and when they attack him.
I have several locations in mind, and I am still indecisive with some of them. I will require a house of some sort situated near a field or the woods. This will connect the scene from the bedroom to the woods. I want to include a lot of shots that make the woman and the audience feel uneasy and perhaps uncomfortable, perhaps obscure lens'/different colours inflicted within the scene to portray her mood, her expressions, her words. I want to also incorporate a ball of string. On this ball of string will be a message of some sort, written in red lipstick; because it will be bold, thick and it will be very visible. There will be a shot of someone dropping the ball of string, when they drop it the message starts to unravel and disappear. I want to incorporate it with the female, as she slowly unravels and breaks down until she is merely a piece of string.

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Ideas for my reflective image project

I have chosen some themes to help me with my reflective image project, they are:

Family
Destruction
Nostalgia
Evolution
Resemblance 

Black and white photo (old) in contrast to a modern photo. Same location/subject.

Portrait of a subject(s), with a distinct tear in the facial region, doesn't have to be a perfect tear, the more rigid it is the higher chance of the sense of realism will be inflicted in the photograph.

Gaming consoles - how they have evolved and changed with size and appearance and ability.












Polaroid style photos, gives the photo that nostalgia feel to it. Vintage filter to maybe enhance the nostalgic theme?

"some memories never fade" can use this quote as a theme. Can have the background blurred out, with the subject and/or memory in focus, with the quote subtly written in the corner, carefully infused with the amount of blur and focus.

I will use light rays if it is needed, I feel that it can give the photos that happy mood. I won't use it if the memories I choose don't have that sort of feel to the picture, in that case the whole picture will be adjusted to fit the mood of the subject and/or the memory.

Advertisement Project

Leah Gordon set us a task to do for Tuesday. We had to make a one minute appropriation film purely from adverts ripped from the internet which attempt to subvert consumerism in some capacity. We could show this in a humorous way, an ironic way, literally any way to get your point and intentions across.

I am going to go for a more ironic/humorous/contradictory video, kind of to expose the great deal of artificial belief and the false trust these puppets are inputting into these adverts. In my own opinion, I think they are trying to trick you into buying their product, in a happy cheerful voice, almost trying to sugar coat the fact that their product is complete nonsense and it is all just a money making scheme. 

I will try to target apple, because they have successfully brainwashed a vast majority of customers, enticing them to buy their "brand new" product which has a slight alteration from the previous model, yet thousands and thousands of people buy the product, almost as if they are addicted to buying their products, like they're some type of expensive collectables. I know my opinion is very biased, but imagine this: I used to be a chef in a restaurant, and we would slave away for 12 hours a day to make roughly £400. Apple need to sell just one of their phones to make what we did in a days work. It just makes you think about how much money they accumulate when the boxing day "sales" are on. I find it disgustingly remarkable.  

I will also try target the companies who have been linked by the media for controversial behaviour, such as Marks & Spencer, and KFC. Of course these are two different companies with different intentions and achievements/goals, so I must focus and find a clever angle to link the two or more clips together.

I will try to arrange humorous yet controversial and hard hitting clips to get my point across directly. I will try to avoid clips where the vocals are not clear, as I am looking for a straight edge direct impact on my audience. 

I found this website http://www.tellyads.com/index.php which has an enormous database of advertisements, all corrected in alphabetical order. I think I will mainly use this website as all the adverts are in one place and their is a great contrast of nostalgic adverts and very recent adverts which will be extremely helpful. I will also use YouTube to find specific adverts and I will be most certainly researching and planning my video, as I need to be 100% accurate when composing a controversial video such as this.  

Xmas Project

We were set an assignment over the Christmas holidays where we had to memorialise something we wanted to remember in the future and present our work in several different forms of media. The spectrum was wide on this project so I had a bit of fun.

I chose to memorialise my family. I decided to present my work from different angles showing everyone different perspectives, showing key traits and key flaws.

I first made a one-minute song, a skit if you will.  This song basically highlights one of my very first memories of family arguments, and how I interpreted the situation. The majority of the song was me reflecting on loyalty, trust and greed.

Skit

The second form of media i chose was a phone call. In my minute-long song I showed the listener how my nan highlighted her flaws as a person, and how I felt about it. In this phonecall (which was not rehearsed in any way) my nan showed her affectionate and heart warming side, telling me that she loves and misses me and how she has prepared a lot of food for me when I come back. I chose to create this phone call to show the contrast between a person, and if we elaborate on that, how family is the first priority, and how everyone eventually relies, needs, and wants to have a strong bond as a family, and my nan realised that. My message is clear. Family first.

The Phonecall

My third form of media I chose was in the form of a poem. I decided to elaborate more on the contrast between forms of media 1 and 2. I aimed to go in to much more depth and literally spell it out for my audience.

Family
Over
Everything
But watch out for the foe
Anyone can snake you, that's just the way it goes
This potion is potent I'm in need of my medicine
Trust doesn't come round any more, that's evident
But what good is it when I can still hear the snakes in a room with the elephant
sssss's all round like they got a speech impediment
It's funny how money got the whole world runnning
brainwashing the masses, feeble antics
tearing families apart, brother I can't stand it
destroying ourselves whilst the top bankers are having banquets
It's saddening, and damaging
I feel more lost than Madeline
Am I the only one round here who is panicking?
The end is inevitable
You put this paper on a pedal-stool
No wonder young kids smoke green and get infused in the heaven smell
No wonder these kids don't feel safe in their own home
No wonder these kids just want to be alone
Selling their soul replicating a drone
Money is the ammunition
The bankers have the gun
Raising hell with the recession like it's a bit of fun
I've had enough
We should unite and end this
But starting a revolution is a death wish
I'm sorry to my dad if I have upset him
But I need to voice my thoughts, this anger I am venting
This ain't a home it's a house
This ain't heaven it's a cloud
I'm not deluded I'm profound
I'd rather go up in flames than accept defeat with my carcass in the ground
  

My fourth form of media was a text message. The message was from my mum, and it was a link to a photograph that was on Facebook. When I opened it up, my heart warmed up, that is why i chose it, the picture is very self-explanatory, just shows me that even in a time of doubt your family will love you and be in your corner, it made me feel safe.

My fifth form of media was a photograph edited on photoshop. It is a picture of a couple of people, of all ages, holding each others hands. I edited the photo and added the text: "family over everything" with each word on a separate line. I put the first letter of every word in a strong red colour to stand out. The letters FOE are in red, to kind of subliminally hint that foes exist within the family bond, if we explore this a bit more, we can say that some people are often delusional and without thinking about it trust their family members without hesitation. I'm not implying that you cannot trust your family, I am simply talking from experience, you need to be aware of your surroundings.