Using ‘waves’ as a starting point I carried the concept into the abstract and the surreal by taking ordinary notions, such as liquid spilling out of a bottle or stones rolling along, and paired them with obscure counterparts such as legs and wings. In doing so the inert becomes animated and objects begin to take on a life of their own.
My first thought about time was its never ending repetitive quality. Through this video in which a boy travels and gets caught in a plant cycle, I sought to reemphasize the theme of the “timelessness” of time. The continuous death and births of all living things is apparent but also mysterious, mundane but also very interesting at the same time. There is no real end to things because in one way or another they continue to live on through different means. For example, the seeds from a plant blooms another plant, a person passes on the values of life and lives through his/her children, etc.
I chose to create a short film with a concept only vaguely related to my original one: here time feigns organization as ‘moments’ from across the world realign themselves. This orderly motion parallels the idea that time is in our control, it is rational and fair. Yet my soundtrack increases in density and complexity as more languages filter in and soon begins to obscure what is going on. A more decisive moment than the rest arrives, hushing the voices, in the confusing and unexpected form of a bowl. Nature, here represented by water begins to overwhelm the time we once thought was ours. Finally a rather pathetic human hand creeps onto the scene only to awkwardly collapse, a gesture that captures the failing of mankind to really dominate time. This final motion represents the reality that time is actually not something we control; an orderly facade is both created and destroyed by unknown forces.
DUE FEB 11
1. Assignment #3 – See below.
2. Post all drawings from the first day on the blog. Please remember to title your images and add the appropriate tags (choose from the most popular tags) and add your own and don’t forget to mark the category “Exercises.”
Good luck and have fun!
Amber
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Assignment #3 – Stop Motion Sound
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DUE Feb 11
The task for this week is to create a soundtrack for your stop motion piece (Assignment #2).
Collect or create a series of sound clips that relate to your piece. Your sounds must be diegetic, found, or self generated. You may use voiceover. This assignment asks you to express your concept of time through sound by creating a rhythm and/or procession of sound events that relates to your visual animation. Please listen to the sound in Chris Marker’s La Jetée for reference.
Use this assignment as an opportunity to improve your stop motion piece from Assignment #1, keeping in mind the class critique. Remember your original intention (word/s), but don’t be afraid to dismiss any components that are not working. This means that you should feel free to edit as you see fit.
NOTE: If you feel your animation simply does not benefit from sound, you have two options. 1) You may create a 60 second sound piece about time that stands on its own, or 2) you may create a new BLACK AND WHITE stop motion animation with your new sound track.
The final output should be a high resolution Quicktime “.mov” file.
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TECHNICAL TIPS
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- You can record/generate your own recordings or edit found sound through Audacity, which is free, open source, easy-to-use, and downloadable software for use on a Mac or PC.
- You may collect sound from the web. Search for free sound clips on Google. archive.org is also a good source.
- You can also use Quicktime Player to record sound.
- Once you have all your sound clips, you need to find a way to synch up the sound to your images. I suggest either using iMovie, “Keynote” for Mac, Powerpoint.
- Be resourceful – Ask Google, and if you still can’t find an answer, email me, ask your classmates or a friend to help you. Don’t be shy! We are here to help each other.
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BLOG TIPS
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- The login url for the blog is -> http://camp-er.net/teaching/sp09/foundations/wp-admin
- Please use the appropriate titles, categories and tags. Add tags as needed. If you have questions, please ask!