Assignment 3: Entourage

I went to CNM dept to borrow the camera because I realised the normal digital camera's effect is not as good as those professional ones. It is a Canon EOS 400D. And when I started using it I simply fell in love with it! I am so tempted to save up and get one for myself. It can take real good pictures esp close ups. So cool! Anyway, I brought it with me where ever I go to collect as many pictures as I could. So here is an entourage of all of them.

Assignment 3: Revisited

Well after much thoughts, imagination and visualization, I thought that I should change my idea. I think it is not strong enough to portray and communicate what I want to the audience. Mainly because the lack of people in the photos I guess. Rebecca, Sam and Rash was suggesting some sort of inclusion of human elements and I have to agree that adding figures in will help. BUT I don't want to make it seems like some sort of random photos and that I don't have as much talent as Rebecca in capturing people and THE moment. So as I was thinking about it. I recalled something that I once saw. It's actually someone's collection of photos and the photos were so well taken and photoshop-ed. I simply love them. The photos has one only person as a focal point in each of the different photos. The backdrop were against some amazing photos the person managed to take. So I had this new idea:

- Focal point: There must be a human subject as part of focal point and as a need to bring out the storyline. It is hard to tell a story without any human subject or central character (like my previous idea). Thus in the earlier parts, the focal point/human subject will be me. In the later parts, my boyfriend will come into the pictures.
- Concept: I wanted to portray the idea of loneliness and the feeling that you are transparent, on one can see you and you are the only person living in this world. Thus, I am going to take photos of myself and photoshop onto the backdrops in non opaque form. That is, makes me seem like an apparition. However at a later stage, which is the turning point, I will photoshop my boyfriend in and the colors will of the backdrop will change from dull and lifeless to full of colors. In the meanwhile during the transition stage, I will slowly gain back my 'opaque-ness' or so to speak.
- Song: I need some sad but enlightening and the most important part the song must have some sort of turning point or extra inclusion so that I can fit in the whole story nicely.

I was searching for the song through Rebecca's recommendation and this website call freeplaymusic and finally... I found it:




The song at 1:40 has an inclusion/turning point. The repetitive chord has a new feel to it and this is where I am going to have my turning point included. Thus, perhaps at 1:30 I will start including my transition photos.

So here are some photos to start with. They are my friend's. She went Africa last December and got them. The backdrop and the feel is what I wanted. So I got her permission to use it for my assignment.

Assignment 3: Comment and Defend Exercise

Rebecca Oh said...

i have a website that has plenty of classical music and best of all it's royalty free!

http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/

try it out. Hopefully u can find the song you want in there. One of the songs i'm thinking of using comes from this website.

in addition to the element of death, how about going to various cemetaries and taking picures of it? You don't have to take the tombstone but maybe you can take the things surrounding the tombstone? like flowers, the old and chipped vases etc.

hope my comments made some sense =)

My reply:

Thanks for the recommendation! Save me out of my miseries for having to source for songs. I get what you mean for the death part. I still think it's scary though. Haha. I will see what I can do. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Hey girl. I really liked your idea of using things that you see on the road to depict loneliness and stuff instead of using typical symbols of love. I see that you have used the Chinese funeral to show loneliness. Ok. One issue that I have with that is, and this is a personal opinion, is perhaps the funeral picture is a bit too strong to show loneliness and to include in a movie about love. I don’t know. What do you think? Other than that, I think the other images are fine. Looking forward to see the final products. I am stuck with the music as well. =(

My reply:

Heys. Thanks for your comments. Sorry for not being clear. The death part is actually part of my real life story. I lost a kin on the journey I meant my love. So I trying to include it in to make enrich the storyline. But I will be considering taking it out if I cannot link the part well. Thanks for your comments!

Mark said...

Heya,

I have to agree with the, funeral being just a tad too strong for the single bit ba... the other shots of lonliness are pretty understandable too though, as for the camera bit I'll post during the "defence" part of this elearning thingy.

Anyway ya, to increase the sense of lonliness with the bicycle you could try placing it in an open field and take a long shot of it might increase that feeling of "voidness"

as for music I can reccomend one too, but its kinda like the music i use for mine, google ghostnotes

yup, hope my comments were useful, cant wait to see ur test vid :)

-Mark

My reply:

Thanks Mark! For the recommendations and the tips. I will retake the pitures! But I am trying to borrow the professional camera instead. It's really hard to achieve the kind of effects like yours. Hopefully I will get hold of the camera soon.


Chris Ong said...

Ok truthfully... the funeral pic looks a bit out of place. I guess overall for the video you need to achieve the "maximum understanding with minimum explanation" thing. How you're going to do that, i'm not exactly too sure. But maybe for the flower photos, its possible to use them... just need to do some tweaking in photoshop, or get shots from a different angle i guess... hope that helps...

My reply:

Like I said earlier, my apologies for not being clear. Haha. The funeral is reflective of my life journey in meeting my love. So yeps. Will try to connect and portray but in the event I can't I will remove that added bit. I will try out for the flowers bit you suggested. Thanks.

Rash said...

Hello there, I think your idea of adding the funeral picture may be a bit strong if your other pictures are pretty straight forward (things which we see normally see). Perhaps you could add a balance by adding some shots of death too, e.g an old man sleeping on his bed alone, longing for his past wife or a man with tears, looking at an old photograph of himself and his late wife. This way, I think the funeral part may not seem as a strong visual to depict loneliness.

My reply:

Hi Rash, thanks for your comments. But I don't think I will incorporate the shots of death or it will divert from the main topic. It will seems like love and death. Not something that I want to portray. It may turn into some disconnected random pictures. Thanks for the suggestions though!

Anonymous said...

Pei, I feel that your pictures didn’t adequately portray the feeling of loneliness. Perhaps you need to compare and contrast to show it? For example, you could show a group of friends laughing together while a lone person standing by his own looking sad. Or you could show a couple hand in hand smiling and skipping along while a lone person walks dejectedly without anyone beside him. Or two flowers side by side followed by one lone flower. Something like that?

My reply:

Hi, thanks for your suggestion but it is not something I want to portray. I think I will try to play with the sequence to do the compare and contrast you recommended. You have touched on my fear that it is inadequate to show the loneliness. So actually I am keeping the option of dumping my whole idea and restart at the drawing board...

Jennifer said...

hi,

just wondering... is death supposed to portray loneliness? I think that picture of the Chinese funeral is too strong compared to your other lonely pics...

My reply:

Hi Jennifer, as of my other replies, it is part of my life journey in meeting my boyfriend. I have yet to work on the development of that aspect so yep, it is to portray loneliness in the extend of facing darkness. So I will be doing it along the lines of: I lost my closest kin... Things went dark... Colorless... Lifeless... Till... one day... you came into my life... you saved me... etc.

Ozeona said...

Is it only the portrayal of loneliness? If that is so, maybe u can incorporate a character in the story, who had passed away or something, then you can link the element of death with loneliness. =)

My reply:

Hi Ozeona, yep it is actually what I want to portray. Sorry for not being clear in my blog description.

Hui Yi said...

i thought your initial idea was cool as it really showed how many things comes in two.. and it brought me to think about how it'll be like if it becomes one..

i jus thought that the funeral part that you added in was jus a little too....... harsh? it was like a huge jump for my emotions..

My reply:

Hi Hui Yi, thanks for your comments. I am considering taking it out. But my rationale is to tell my story on meeting my boyfriend. I wasn't clear in explaining so maybe it jumps out. But if you read my above reply to Jennifer perhaps the picture is clearer.

Sam said...

Hey Su Pei, i agree with the above comment by anonymous that the pics dont really bring out the notion of loneliness/destruction. The funeral pic is also out of place.

It is a good idea to contrast things so as show loneliness. Without a context to your photos, it looks a lil something like an excursion to Pulau Ubin. Do pardon me if i sound rude.

May i suggest an improvement to mark's suggestion for loneliness instead of a bicycle in a large field. Put a person instead looking up. The photo should be framed in such a way as that the person looks small in relation to the field and sky.

However the missing link of the photos to loneliness/destruction could be adequately covered by your narration. So perhaps the sample vid would give us all a better pic.

nice creativity with the single yellow line and double yellow lines on the roads.

Cheers !

My reply:

Hi Sam, thanks for your honest commends. You sound sincere not harsh. No worries. Anyway, I will be trying out in the video format. If it is not satisfactory to myself I will dump the whole idea. Because I fear that the pictures are not strong enough. Although some said they are pretty clear and all, I would want mine to have great impact. So yeps. I will work hard on improving it. Thanks.

Assignment 3: Review and thumbnails_2

So I presented in class and everyone seems pretty fine with it. But when I saw Chris's I thought it was touching and the effect is there. In addition, Julian says he wants the movie to have a story plot. So I decided to add in more elements from my real life. Guess I have to narrate and tell the story then. (I hate to but no choice I guess. And I still can't find a good song! Sigh. I have a friend who composes but he is very busy. Then my friend's friend composes songs too but his is more of the rock ballet kind. Which is not something I am looking for. I am looking for piano, violin, those smoothing kind of music. Those that would be inserted into dramas during the sad scenes and once you listen to it you will cry the hell out of yourself. Haha.) Any kind souls to help me out?

Anyway, I collected more photos. I will be starting on trying out in the imovie and see if I can achieve the effects while continuing to find more photos and music. If the effects ain't there, then I will have to change it within the mid-semester break. I still don't have the eureka moment in which I know it is the kind of design and feel I want. Hopefully my intuition is wrong this time round...

The new thing I am adding in is actually death. This is actually a Chinese funeral casketing 'advertisement'. They print their number and information on the back of the tent in which they set up for funerals. It is more of a Chinese culture thing in which the others may not understand. May violate the thought that I want something more universal but I guess there are some parts on culture that just can't be universal... And it was scary to take this picture. I have to say sorry and excuse me first because it is a real funeral (Chinese has this superstition that you should always say sorry and excuse me if you need to do something that may offend the spirits. Ask for 'their' understanding first. But other than this I am still looking for ideas to add to the element of death.

Anyway, other than that, I have collected more photos:





These for for the lonely and destruction parts. For the colorful part, bright and happy part... It dint work well. Quite clueless of what to do about it. Won't be using the flowers I guess. They say nothing. Unless I could capture a flower blooming like the Linkin Park's MTV. I'm still trying to brainstorm on how I can do it.


In addition, I will be flashing our pictures very quickly at the near the end of the show. Sort of like the climax and last impact.

So the things to do next for the coming week:
- More and more photos
- SONG. sigh.
- imovie pretest

Assignment 3: Brainstorming and Thumbnails_1

Actually I once did an imovie for my boyfriend last year for our anniversary. I was using our pictures to illustrate the love between us and to thank him. Coincidentally, now this assignment named My Valentine gave me another chance to make a imoive for him. And our anniversary is nearing... But this time round the key difference I thought is that I have to use something more universal. Because this video will not be just for him but for others to see and understand the love between us. There is a need to communicate and let people feel about it. And I guess the main theme is somewhat larger because it encompasses the spirit of Valentines'.

Idea 1:
- The collection of couple candid photos, to capture 'the moment'
- The idea behind: the game of fate and destiny. Amongst so many people I found him, and we got together.
- I got the inspiration from the the book and the movie "Turn Left Turn Right".
- So the idea is to make the movie seems like I'm flipping an album or book:



But I wasn't too happy with the idea. I guess the feel wasn't right. The communication element is not there. Does taking pictures of other couples show anything? And random pictures doesn't tell a story too. The requirement of the assignment is that the video must be 2 - 4 min long. If the random pictures takes up 1/3 of the whole video, it may get boring and shows nothing! So I just continued to think about it...

Idea 2: Then I saw this lonely piece of leaf on the pavement. It is the only wilted leaf on the pavement. So it gave me the idea of jotting down the feeling or the journey towards meeting my boyfriend. So I decided to capture lonely things. And things that are supposed to come in double or many but are alone and singular to bring out the idea of loneliness. Then upon meeting him, things changes. I see colors I don't feel lonely etc.




And if you realised the things are heavier on the right. There is a Chinese saying call 'male left, female right' or 'nan zuo nu you'. So the loneliness will also be portrayed through the left being empty. Hopefully I can achieve what I want to achieve. But the key is whether I can portray and communicate the kind of effects and message through objects. The thing that is different about this from assignment 2 it is more complicated. Because of the size limitation and the nature of the topic - Just Another Day, itself it is simpler than assignment 3. Thus the objectification of things is possible. However, in this case, things might get really tricky. I will be collecting more photos and try out to see if the results are satisfactory. If not I will dump the whole idea and restart even if I got very little time left to work on it.

Assignment 2: Review

The comments I got from the class and Julian were:

- Good idea, creative
- Reflect/transform the last frame to match the previous frames where the photos are facing each other.

I tried to reflect but the result is bad:



The guys look as if they were in love with each other! (Hahahahahaahahahaha~) So I decided to keep things as it is. I muddled with the layout of the template to make the website centralized and adjust the fonts and colors to make the theme more cohesive. Here is a screen shot of how it looks like:

Assignment 2: Website

I had problem mounting the pictures onto the template. Lucky I managed to learn html skills in NM3217 so I applied it onto the assignment. Had tons of problems compressing the whole folder to 180kb. My initial frames were:













However, I had problems compressing the whole folder into 180kb. So I had to remove quite a lot of frames. I did some photo cloning to clean all the background to make sure that the focus is on the main object. In addition, I did some transformation to bring out the idea of preparing for date, meeting (converging) and dating: