Today we were given our art forms that would be the basis of our own personal experimental sound design project. I got given the 1953 painting "Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X" by an Irish artist, Francis Bacon.


As the title states, it is a re-interpretation of the 1650 painting by Diego Velazquez,  "Portrait of Pope Innocent X."

Initial Thoughts

The look of the painting seems to reflect a very horrific and distorted image of the Pope, so maybe I could reflect that in my sound. 

One Pig: August// Matthew Herbert 




Joe showed us a few of these pieces depicting the life cycle of a pig and the noises that come from it. I got really intrigued by the August stage, showing the sounds of the pig being cooked and eaten. I appreciated the effort in the mixing to create a certain rhythm and pace to the collective sounds. I'd like to create a similar musical style pattern with my own, but probably in a more creepy way than this particular one. 

Merzbow  


Ultra Marine Blues


Pulse Demon

Worms Plastic Earthbound

These are the first sounds that came to mind when I first got given the image, so I imagine that I will use this as a basis as to the style I want to go down with the project. 

Space Sounds



I looked through many different sounds recorded from space and found a lot of them to be really interesting and some slightly creepy and unworldly. In this one of Neptune's sounds, at times I felt like it sounded as if there were faint, distant screams. 


Idea One


This one is kind of based loosely around The Twilight Zone and the sort of visuals that come from the TV show. The concept involves a person being sucked into another dimension- the fourth one (ie time when concerning physics). Based off the Tower of Terror in Disney, in which all the different objects in the ride suddenly merge into a mixture of darkness and stars, I'd like all three screens to display stars at one point panning upwards. 

Idea Two


This idea is centred around the phrase "time flies when you're having fun." The left hand screen will show the fun, exciting side which will be sped up so everything looks like it is moving fast, similar to how it feels as you're participating in the action. The middle screen will show more everyday activities that don't really effect our sense of time that much and therefore I will keep them at a normal pace. The third screen is focused on more boring situations, such as studying for an exam or taking a long journey before you get to your favourite place and therefore the action will be slowed down. 

Idea Three

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I thought about doing something related to past, present and future, but didn't want to worry about having to find costumes etc to represent each time period, so I thought about centring it around space. The first set of screens will show the beginning of the universe, the big bang. A rough idea -the  two left screens will show particles bumping off each other while the third will explode representing the bang. Afterwards the screens will move on to the present time, showing the universe as we know it.
Lastly, the final selection will show how the world may possibly end.

These are only rough ideas and which ever one I choose to pursue I will look a lot more in to detail as to what can be done with the story and style etc. 





I had a brainstorming session and made a list of vague ideas where I can choose which ones to look into and research further. 










Article Task 


Mine and Tom's  creative writing task where we made up a short paragraph out of different articles in magazines. 




"Books have taken a battering recently but professional advice is invaluable. What turns me on, the joy of extremely violent acts of dado-masichism or Gordon Ramsey. Where art thou? It's here! Britain's best T, everything you'll never need ritually buried"

 Individual Task 

We went through newspapers, randomly pointed at a word and then noted the word along with the 3 others either side of it. Then we formed sentences from these and were told to create our own little story in relation to the line we chose.

Line: Game is not one in which you take risks

 The following is based (loosely) on true events.

I looked at the hungry hippos set. I had to win. The English had promised me a sack of potatoes. A WHOLE SACK. Probably from lidl but whatever, a potato is a potato no matter of origin. I had promised Nachos that if I lost I would do a parody of "What does the Fox say?" for his video, an obvious joke from my name. I told myself not this time. The suspense of waiting for the balls to emerge, glistening like silver pools of icy water in the gleaming moonlight was too much. There was too much at stake for me to mess this up. I had one chance and I wasn't going to waste it. Suddenly, like a beam of lightening across the sky the balls were released and my heart skipped a beat with the tension. The group watched me intently to see what would happen and how I would react. Would I be fast enough? Only time could tell. Katherine gazed on at me with the vacant stare of the typical essex twat that I'd become so accustomed to since starting uni but I wouldn't let this put me off...stop me from achieving my goal of obtaining the most balls. My hippo nom'ed for what seemed a century before finally all balls had vanished, and the board returned to being as deserted as the sahara desert. All of us had beads of sweat forming on our foreheads from the intense work out and Josh gave the nod to begin the counting, whilst trying to release the tension."Do you want a finger?" he asked. He handed me the chocolate which had been reduced in sainsburys to a fairly decent price which I thought was pretty reasonable indeed. I lifted each ball slowly from the compartment...one...two...three. Time had slowed down and everything was spinning as if I'd been put in a giant bingo wheel. I couldn't take anymore. I got up in silence and stumbled to the corner where I sat down rocking back and forth, tears streaming like a waterfall down my reddening cheeks. Suddenly strange people, dressed in suits burst through every hole in the room...doors...windows. They came closer encircling us and I screamed as I watched them carry my friends from the room. "Kaaaattt! Tooooooommmm! Someone help us!" I yelled as loud as my lungs would allow. I tried to run but they closed in grabbing me by the arms. Everything went black. I woke up, heart beating fast. Had it all been a dream? I sat up and realised I couldn't move. I was restrained by something...what was this? I looked down at my struggling body and realised the hell that was containing me. The straight jacket was too tight, yet felt cosy and snug. I looked across the padded white room and noticed everyone from the game was also there. We all looked at each other and then all at once began to chuckle, the sound of insanity playing like music in our ears. Haha I remember now. We're dfsa. We're the crazy ones. This was home. We were finally back where we belonged.

 And that folks is my beautiful story.

We created an audio book for it as well which you can listen to here. Tis v dramatic. Enjoy!



PAPER MEMORIES from Theo Putzu on Vimeo.
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I've done some research into how memories have been represented in previous works to gain some inspiration for my own work and hopefully to inspire some ideas. 

Drunk// Ed Sheeran


About the 3.00 mark the camera swoops towards the selection of polaroid photos that are on the wall and then cuts to a moving image scene of the same photograph, transporting us into the 'memory.' I really liked this effect and might see if I can incorporate it into my own. 

Moments// Will Haffman 


I've mentioned this video before in relation to Time Art but I still thought I could reference and re-look at it for the Reflections project as well. While not really directly showing memories, I think it could be cool to maybe incorporate the idea of smaller moments in life that are not necessarily remembered/ appreciated very often but that are quite important in making us happier during our day. In my case the smaller things would be focussed on hugs, being able to chill and coming home to see my dog bouncing round my feet as he greets me (when I'm back home in NI that is - didn't appreciate that until I left!). 

Twinkle Lightly// Nanalew


My friend first showed me this during the first few weeks of uni cus he thought it was very relevant for us. It kind of blurs the past, present and future to show different memories between the main character and her friends and there is an effective use of overlaying the images to merge them together . One of my ideas was to maybe show the difference between my life back home and now after starting uni in another country and this is a technique I could look into applying in someway between the 2 projects.

Paper Memories// Theo Putzu


This video uses stop motion which really gained my attention as I love this form of animation. I thought it was a very innovative and intriguing way to film the video and I really liked the idea of how the actual photos within the film appear to be moving, such as when the woman is shown walking along the beach in an old picture.

Memories// Hampus Karlsson


I like the old, vintage style colour correction in this video. I also thought the use of sound proved to be very effective, following a similar old style which makes it flow nicely. This brings me back to the idea of doing something with polaroids etc to represent the past.

Memory By Design// Nathan Punwar


This has possibly been my favourite piece so far as I love the use of sound and how it creates a slightly uncomfortable feeling. I like the fast paced nature and quick editing and I think it shows memory in a different unique manner. 
We were asked to make a re-enactment of a historic event of our choice and as a person from Northern Ireland I think we all instantly came to a collective decision for me to do the potato famine. I thought I would lighten the tone up though and make it mildly humorous and a wee bit ridiculous, as it's been definitely a mocking point surrounding me from my friends since I've been in England.


The History

The beautiful, glorious specimen that is the potato seemed like it was made specifically for the Irish, thriving in the cold, damp environment and being surprisingly easy to grow, creating a high yield in such a small plot of land. Between 1780 and 1845 it doubled the population in Ireland from four million to eight, but this resulted in a sudden increase in demand in both land and food and thus the potato became a reliant resource because of the previous reasons mentioned. A third of the population ended up totally dependent of the potato for food by 1840 which meant if anything were to happen to it there would be dire consequences. In September 1845 that's just what happened when the potato blight arrived, brought from the cargo hold of ships. Within three years 3/4 of the potato crop had been diminished causing starvation along with susceptibility to diseases like cholera and typhus. The reaction of the blight lingered for many years until 1852 and by that time up to 1.5 million people had died as a result, with over a million more emigrating to places like America and by 1911 Ireland's population had return to about 4 million. 

Research

1800s style 







I'm aiming for a typical look more like the last picture as it will be easier to re-create and appropriate for a more farming look.







The Five Obstructions// Lars Von Trier and Jorgen Leth 






The idea behind this documentary style film was that Von Trier was to set his mentor, Leth, to remake his move The Perfect Human five times, with a different obstruction for him to overcome each time. 

The Perfect Human// Jorgen Leth (1967)



Obstructions
  1. Leth must remake the film in Cuba (but with no set) with no shot longer than 12 frames, and he must answer the questions posed in the original film; Leth successfully completes this task.
  2. Leth must remake the film in the worst place in the world but not show that place onscreen; additionally, Leth must play the role of "the man". The meal must be included but the woman is not to be included. Leth remakes the film in the red light district of Bombay, only partially hiding it behind a translucent screen.
  3. Because Leth failed to complete task 2 perfectly, von Trier punishes him, telling him to either remake the film in any way he chooses, or redo obstruction 2 in Bombay again. Leth chooses the first option and remakes it in Brusselsusing split-screen effects.
  4. Leth must remake the film as a cartoon. He does so with the aid of Bob Sabiston, a specialist in rotoscoping, who creates animated versions of shots from the previous films. As such the final product is technically an animation but not a cartoon. Nevertheless von Trier considers the task to be completed successfully.
  5. The fifth obstruction is that von Trier has already made the fifth version, but it must be credited as Leth's, and Leth must read a voice-over narration ostensibly from his own perspective but in fact written by von Trier.

Thoughts

At first the documentary style was a little confusing but I soon picked up the pace of the film. I liked the way it cut to show both directors' meet ups in between each obstruction and found it interesting to see the ideas and viewpoints each of them had. It was both funny and intriguing  to see Lars' reaction each time to the finished pieces that Leth produced. At times it did seem rather random/ odd though...I also had some trouble keeping up with the dialogue and watching the screen at the same time which is something I don't normally have a problem with when watching foreign films which was weird! Overall was an enjoyable and interesting watch. 



My original idea was to find the most random adverts and compile them together to show just how ridiculous many ads have become, however this didn't really have much of a thought process or meaning to it. I then thought about getting together clips of a good school report and editing in clips of students drinking, doing drugs and generally contradicting what would be being said. However this proved difficult to find adverts for and after some research decided to take a different approach. 

For my final idea I gathered lots of adverts for reality TV shows such as Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Next Top Model and mixed them in with extremely cheesy infomercials. The concept was to imply how fabricated and fake reality TV has become, comparing them to the obviously contrived, badly acted and overly ridiculous ads. I understand that this wasn't exactly clear in the end of editing, however I think maybe my generation may find it easier to get as many of us have grown up watching similar things. The beginning may have been confusing for some as I didn't put the static in as my thought process at the time was to kind of do a quick scan through the infomercials before beginning the main focus of the reality TV shows. However after viewing the final thing it now seems like I was a little rushed which is not the impression I intended to give off. Editing is very important and I think maybe I could have thought of a more clearer way to get my message across, however I do find it funny to watch which I guess was one of my personal aims for the exercise. 


As a beginner at After Effects I've been looking into tutorials that interest me and seeing if there is any way I can incorporate them into the project, so as to broaden my skills while keeping me engaged. At first After Effects is very daunting but after Simon's tutorial I found it might not be as bad, providing you do the research to understand how it works. Here are some tutorials that I've come across that I found helpful and for me to possibly use in the future of the project.

Simple animation of a character

Motion graphics and typography


Simple animations


Cool text



Earth animation


Just a quick update about the workshop today. Vicky showed us a lot of her own work and talked about how to do effective research. I thought it was cool how she had used bits of the body to make her films/ art, such as painting her feet and walking over a film reel. I found these to be interesting ways to show human movement through video and it got me thinking about if there are similar ways in which to show time.

We were also put into groups and told to discuss our ideas with each other, which proved to be helpful as we were able to contribute ideas to one another in order to make improvements and provide inspiration.
Over Christmas we were asked to do a little project in which we had to find a memory we wish to remember in six different ways. I chose to do my memory of going to Florida over the summer, one of my favourite places in the world.

Firstly the word 'reinvent' stood out to be in the brief and in true Christmas spirit noticed old, plain baubles that could do with a little touch up. In Downtown Disney they have a Christmas shop that my mother always liked to browse around for decorations for the tree (In summer - I don't know why?), but a nine hour journey home with highly breakable items isn't the most ideal for them so I thought it'd be cool to have a go at making my own now. Something we can use on the tree next year I guess.


At first I grabbed the acrylic paints and worked out how to draw the Disney castle logo using references from pictures online. I kept it traditional with the light blue.


Fireworks are a big part of Walt Disney World, holding them in front of the castle each night, and definitely one of my favourite parts as I have never found another display quite like it anywhere else yet. It seemed only fitting fireworks made an appearance around my version of the castle. Trying to be creative as well as resourceful I used a variety of media to create a firework illusion, such as tinsel, glitter, jewels and paint. 


Imitating the classic Disney signature was done entirely out of glitter which proved harder than it looks as it got everywhere! I swear I kept finding flecks of it for the next week on me. 


A closer look at the variety of fireworks.



Going a long with my desire to make things from different items, still trying to be resourceful and after messing around so much with the fireworks on the bauble, I decided it might be fun to make my own firework. So rummaged around the kitchen to find supplies.


The final outcome,


The top was meant to be as if the firework was about to explode, using tinsel I created the beginning of a spark like effect.


I wasn't sure how I was going to give an effect of the firework in motion but luckily I managed to find a lot of party poppers (which I then had a lot of fun popping) and added the confetti string to the end, as if it was taking off. 






I wanted to show my trip in some kind of story like sequence and this got me thinking about how we show things in pre-production. I liked the idea of creating my own story boards of the major events that happened on the holiday, reminding me of all the things I got to experience.






The storyboards were originally done in 2b pencil and then coloured using acrylic paints. While storyboards aren't usually coloured and are not traditionally too detailed, I thought it'd be an interesting way to shake things up a bit and make it more interesting. This also could have been just a way to display a sequence of otherwise seemingly unconnected paintings.

From all my trips to the theme parks I have gathered an extensive amount of maps and after thinking they would come in handy some day they finally did (take that non believers)!


I created a map of the state of florida, cutting out sections of the maps such as certain rides and areas that meant something to me, or that I particularly enjoyed.


I added the seas to give off more of a feel, however the main focus was on the actual state collage.






This was done using an outline of the state and placing it on a piece of card which was then stable enough for me to stick the images on to. 


As a film student, a video was alway going to make an appearance at some point in this and admittedly it was the first thought that popped into my head when I heard the brief. I took clips that I had taken and made a short display of memories from the entire trip, the ones that I really, really wanted to remember. The song used is by a Northern Irish musician Foy Vance, and this was used due to my constant playing of it almost every night on our journey back to the villa. It also felt like it meant I could put a little bit of Northern Irishness into it and relate it back to me a bit...just a personal touch I guess.



Lastly I created a playlist on youtube, a simple idea but one that I can connect with and brings back a lot of good memories which is the true point behind this. Originally I thought of creating a music playlist with all the songs from the different parks etc however I changed my mind and decided to go a bit of a different path, making one consisting of all my favourite roller coasters. As a bit of a roller coaster junkie this allowed me to briefly feel like I was back and made me long to go on all of them again! You can view the playlist here if you want.
We were shown a selection of experimental art, as well as more traditional documentary videos. I liked this as it meant we got to see a range of different style clips and it kept me more engaged and interested in seeing films that were not similar.

Dial History// Johan Grimonprez


In my opinion this was a very unique way to display a documentary. It's cheery music and upbeat nature (as shown in the trailer) strongly contradicts the images that are on screen, such as that of planes crashing. The sense of uneasiness provided by this gained my attention and the film stuck with me for a while after the viewing.

Radar // Volker Schreiner

Being an old fan of horror this appealed to my interests and brought me back awhile to when I used to watch scary things well under age! The editing, lighting and sound all play an important part in creating the eerie atmosphere and Schreiner has clearly carefully chosen specific clips from different films to merge together to add to the effect.


The Century Of Self: Happiness Machines// Adam Curtis



This style is very traditional and Curtis has specifically selected moving images that fit well with the narration. This was obviously some of his earlier work as it is a much different approach from his usual tactics with documentaries. 



This was our first day back after Christmas, and Rosie gave us the brief for what we would be doing this semester in the reflections module: A digital film project and a series of five photographs based around the idea of memories.

Afterwards we had a screening of several short films to get us thinking about the projects.

Watching Paint Dry// Jo Ann Kaplan



I found this an interesting piece as I love fine art and thought the self portrait was done very well, focussing on her ageing self. The choppiness of the video and music means it is slightly more low tech compared to the others, but the focal point is clearly aimed more towards her motions with the paint and how it reflects against her image.

La Jetee// Chris Marker


This was probably my favourite piece from the screening and I thought the idea of telling the story through pictures and narration was very clever. Subtle diegetic sounds could be heard at times and this added a bit more depth to what was happening on screen, as of course there was a lack of moving image to depict this. However it was obvious the main focus was provided by the narrator to explain what was going on in each scene. It inspired me to start thinking more about different ways to display memories.

Blue// Derek Jarmans




This piece was hard for me to relate to, however I respect Derek Jarmans for putting it in to perspective what it was like to be in his position. It really allows the audience to see through his eyes and experience the art of story in his own unique way and I think the result is very thought provoking.


Sound on Film: Blight


I really enjoyed how this documentary started off as a bit of a puzzle and worked backwards to reveal the true meaning. It was an interesting was to mix the sound and video clips together, and at times it seemed slightly like a music video in terms of the editing etc. The also thought the ending was very effective in showing the message. 

The lesson was very practical and I found this very helpful as I was able to remember important details from actually doing it myself and learning from any mistakes I made. We were shown how to mount the flash and use it in relation to the lights.

After a short break we were put into groups to test the skills we had just learnt and told to re-create this famous Steve Jobs portrait:



We each had a different role to play in the recreation: Lucy on camera, Amy on light meter, Joel posing as the model and me moving the lights around into position. We learnt about the importance of communication between all members of the team and how necessary talking to each other actually is to create a nice shot. For me, I was initially nervous about doing lights as I know how expensive the equipment is and I can be very clumsy at times! However the experience was very worthwhile and I learnt a lot about the different ways lighting can be changed to create tones and shadows. Here is my groups final recreation shot:

In colour


Black and White (like original)

Looking at the final outcome I think we could have centred Joel slightly more, as well as making the shadow on the right hand side of the photo not so prominent, but overall I was happy with the result and took away a better knowledge of how to work the flash system. I am looking forward to using this more in the future. 

Time is a very open topic, and the amount of ideas that come with it are endless. However choosing an idea that will mean the three screen installation will work effectively is very tricky, as well as considering what different aspects of After Effects to add to the video. 




I found this really interesting as Brian Eno talks about time in a manner of being able to 'specify a starting point' but just like the garden he mentions the ending will be unpredictable. I like the idea of movement within time as well as the fact we can't really control certain things, so maybe I could try and incorporate that in the video in someway.


This short film on moments got me really thinking that sometimes time isn't about doing just massive things, but that it should be spent in the little things that make you happy as well. It's such a simple idea but for me is massively effective. It shows different time periods in people's lives such as birth, chasing after a bus, crying and tying laces to name a few, stuff that everyone goes through in everyday life. I feel like it makes the video a lot more relatable to the audience and the viewer becomes more engaged in appreciating a more tinier, but equally important aspect of life.




When listening to some music, these songs came on and it definitely got me thinking about the aspect of Time again. I thought about how time is running out and how quickly it can move sometimes, particularly when having fun. In the grand scheme of things are life is short and over quickly...this is something I'm definitely going to consider.