New Idea for Luna Nova Video

I want to start with a pan shot from left to right and stop on the figure and the TV.  The TV will only display fuzz.  The figures eyes will be fixed on the TV with little to no motion.  I've thought about having close ups on the figures face and close ups on the TV, but I'm not certain what will work yet so I plan on shooting lots of different angles.

I'm still going to use the same piece of music.  I've decided to portray one of my other painting/drawings.  This one focuses more on dependency on technology and looking to other people for answers.  It also deals with isolation and uncertainty of what to do in dire situations. 

LunaNova music and storyboard

http://lunanova.org/2008audio/combustion2.mp3

I am going to try and make a video that represents one of my painting/drawings.  I have a rough storyboard, but it might change depending on the feedback.  I might use more zooming than initially thought.

I (or the person I get to act in this) will be wearing a black suit and covered with an orange survival blanket.  

The idea of showing someone trying to light a fire in a white room is weird.  I think it will hint at the absurdity of trying to perform basic survival techniques without actually having to go out in the wilderness.  Also, not even using basic survival skills.  They will be completely dependent on technology.

Write up for Instructional Video

After finding the best shot of me yelling, "Hey, you wanna buy a chicken?" I tried to find the perfect point to loop.  This proved to be quite difficult.  I began by looking for a spot where I was standing completely still.  That was out of the question.  I wasn't standing in the exact same position at the end of the shot as I was at the beginning, so I started scrolling through the clip to find a spot where I was in motion.  After about 5 hours of going back and fourth I finally found a pretty decent connection.  I'm not going to say where the loop begins and ends, because that's all you will see if I tell you where it is.

Editing seems pretty confusing after first but once you get the hang of it and remember what all the buttons do it starts to flow pretty naturally.  I would like to try and make a piece similar to one of Martin Arnold's videos, but I'm sure that stuff is way beyond my skill level at this point.  I'm pretty satisfied with my results.

Assignment Write up for Instructional Video Shoot

After the first shot at the beginning of this project I realized how ridiculous it is to yell, "Hey, do you want to buy a chicken?"  I pretty much ruined every shot because I was smiling and on the verge of laughing.  After that I decided to widen the shot and get a few good takes.  I ended up looking quite stern in the next few takes and decided to shoot the first part of the joke from both distances as well.  (Just in case I ended up using one of the closer shots.)  I plan to use one or two good shots and loop them.  I want to try and line up the beginning and end of each one so it looks seamless.  

If I do decide to have side by side shots, I'm not sure how I want them to play.  Either a call and response style or just let them talk over each other.  I think if I let them talk over each other it would be more confusing, so that might be the way to go.  I'm not 100% certain I'm going to like the white room rather than the shell, but hopefully it will come together nicely when I edit.  Actually I think the white room will work out fine.  Now that I think about it, the shell would add too much meaning to the piece that I'm not intending.  

quiz 2

1.Explain standard 3 point lighting set up.

Main light is the Key light.  It should be the brightest light and positioned at the 7 to 8 o'clock position.  The 2nd light is the fill light.  It should be more of a flood light in brightness and set up around the 5 to 4 o'clock position.  And the 3rd is the back light.  This lights the hair and should be positioned above and behind the person in the shot.

2. How can you lower high contrast?

You can lower contrast by using bounce cards and reflective surfaces that have an off white or dull finish.  

Storyboard for How to video

I now plan on shooting two shots in the white room.  One will be-

 "You know how to sell a chicken to a deaf person?"

and the other will be-

"HEY, YOU WANNA BUY A CHICKEN?"

I'd like to show these videos side by side.

For wardrobe I plan on wearing a plain white t-shirt and either tan or blue pants.

 

NEW instructional video outline!

I now plan to shoot at the shell.  I am going to have multiple angles. 

Starting with over the shoulder shot to view writing on tablet.

Next I will shoot the deaf person.

More text.

Then close ups and ending with zoom out.

Instructional video outline

I'm going to show you how to-

"Sell a chicken to a deaf person."

This is a very simple shot.  I plan on screaming- "Hey, you wanna buy a chicken?"  Although, it will be a silent video, so we'll get the perspective of a deaf person.  I'll then cut to different steps via powerpoint and back to video shots.

After the test shoot in the location I had planned to use, I'm not sure that it is the right setting.  I've been trying to think of the best location for selling someone a chicken, but haven't come up with anything yet.  I guess I could try and find a chicken farm or outside/inside of a grocery store. 

Strange bike safety

So I posted this awesome/creepy video about bicycle safety in a link on the right---->

The kids are all wearing monkey masks.  I guess because they're monkeying around on their bikes.  Anyway, I was really intrigued by the scratches on the film and the washed out color.  The kids faces are the best part by far.  I also posted 2 Martin Arnold videos.  They are amazing.

White Balance

White Balance is the measure of light and temperature.  The different colors are gauged on degrees of heat light, or Kelvins.  Depending on what type of mood lighting one wants for a scene the white balance is key.  

When viewing video, the whitest lights are composed of a multitude of different brightly colored lights.  However our eyes read them as white light.  Sunlight typically makes white light look blue, artificial light makes white light look orange, and fluorescent light makes white light look green.  The white balance can completely change the feel of a scene.

Genre Film

I choose the Western genre.  I've never been particularly fond of westerns, but when I read the description of the Western genre I become intrigued.  The Western typically portrays the conquering of nature by civilization.  Westerns also emphasize honor instead of the law.  They also tend to focus on nomadic people such as a cowboys and outlaw gangs.  

What really got my interested was the categorization of such films as No Country for Old Men and Die Hard as being westerns.  So I choose The Proposition.  This film is set in Australia in the late 1800's.  The English are trying to civilize the land and in doing so the local police in a small town are trying to capture the Burns gang.  Two of the gang members are captured and in order to catch the third, the police keep one gang member and set the other free to go kill the third.  The nomadic lifestyle of the gang as well as the effort to civilize the land by the police are dead giveaways for the Western genre.

This film was amazing.  The Australian landscape alone was worth the watch, but the acting and story were quite amazing too.  This film gave me a completely different opinion of what a Western can be.

Portrait "Light" Concept

I want to continue using my theme on human creation/evolution and the uncertainty of our origin.  I plan on using very little light and moving around the room on my hands and feet in an uncertain manner.  

The reason for very little light is to represent an inability to see where we are in the world and where we have come from.  I think a night vision view of this same type of video would also be very effective.  I want to convey a sense of uncertainty and uneasiness in one's surroundings.  

Dogma 95

I find Von Trier’s idea of what cinema should be very refreshing.  I get tired of flashy Hollywood films that are only made to rake in cash.  The stories are usually completely lost in the visual effects and bad acting.  Stories can be told simply and without all of the packaging that most films seem to have.

            These dogma 95 films have a documentary feel to them, although I recognized several of the actors in Julien Donkey-Boy, I felt they portrayed their characters very realistically.  However there is one part of the manifesto I’m not sure I agree with.  It says, “The “supreme” task of the decadent film-makers is to fool the audience.  Is that what we are so proud of?  Is that what the “100years” have brought us?  Illusions via which emotions can be communicated?”  Isn’t that what artists’ do though?  According to Plato, artists are deceivers.  So why can’t film be deceiving?  The act of looking at a flat image on a screen is itself a deception.

            Other than the whole “illusion” thing, I am really interested in this type of filmmaking.  I feel like The Vow of Chastity is great.  It’s like a set of basic rules you must follow and I feel like all art needs rules, otherwise it is untrained and ignorant.  It’s like breaking things down to its simplest form before exploring them to their fullest potential.     

Place Write Up

My work deals with evolution and what separates humans from animals.  Walking upright is one of the main differences that makes us what we are.  My video displays my feet moving through different places.  I began to think about these places and how they are different when I am moving through them.  I also thought about how I sort of felt like a different person in each place I moved through. 

 I found it somewhat difficult to keep the camera still while walking.  I'm pleased with the results, but when viewing the video in a large format, the quality is very poor.  I think if I had better equipment I could make a pretty nice piece out of this project.  I would actually like to travel around the world and do something like this.

Place Video