Over the past few weeks, our group has been able to establish a really strong concept and in terms of what techniques each member of the group were interested in exploring and possibly utilising for the final film. After the presentation and Mel and Ella’s feedback, over the next few weeks, we will aim to explore each techniques and try and find times to possibly meet up all together and hopefully film some footage together to explore different techniques and hopefully narrow it down as Mel did mention that there was a large amount of techniques that if all put together, might be a bit overwhelming/overdone. It was very useful seeing Mel’s perspective and for us to narrow down a focus on doing a fewer elements in a much more refined way. Over StuVac, we decided it would be best to attempt and explore and further research out our techniques that we were interested in and report back to each other with our findings.
The techniques I chose to explore were the use of mediums (i.e. textures, use of different materials to creature a sense of tactility), and creating a mood through the use of abstract visuals (including spaces).
Texture is a very sense orientated visual, it’s something that you see visually or physically that makes you either think of a certain sense whether it be auditory, tactile, gustatory or olfactory. This is an idea that I found interesting and wish to explore within our project in order to further our intended purpose and idea. I chose the visual reference of a music video by The xx and different short films that I found interesting.
Angels by The xx (image)
- Water/oil-like texture incorporated with subtle movements, refracted light and minimal color palette allowing the viewer to create their own interpretation.
- Interpretive – for the viewer to create connection to the visual
- Visually simplistic
- Minimal movement
“PAINTED” by Duncan McDowall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd2KM3qjcKk
- Contrasting colors (e.g. black background, focal points)
- Gives the image/moving image a feeling of movement and touch and associations
- g. the furry texture – some people might think cozy, soft and smooth or some people might find it uncomfortable
ANISH KAPOOR ‘DECENSION’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7sx0zsUjP4
Whilst often it is a mixture of heightening and targeting a number of human senses (auditory, visual, olfactory and gustatory), it is often the visuals that create the largest impact on a viewer in regards to moving films. Some films/moving images are able to achieve their intended portrayed mood through visuals alone without the help of audio.
Runaway by Kanye West
- Almost minimally visual – almost simultaneous and kinetic movements of the ballerinas from different angles (birds eye view, angled view, frames where not the whole group of ballerinas are shown – fragmented/cut off) –
- Creating movement within the images/frames
- Juxtaposing with the empty spaces surrounding them
- Muted color palette, juxtaposition of textures/surfaces – e.g. the tulle of the ballerina skirts and the hard concrete floor and rusty green wall – creating a somewhat reflective mood, open for interpretation and message of the song.
- Symbolism – dressed in white compared to the ballerinas in black.
- Visually rich, abstract and artistic
#1 – Emptiness” by Duc Thinh Dong https://vimeo.com/114795105
The only audio is from the raw footage itself, the train moving and the wind – the visual is must one frame throughout the whole film. Interesting and impactful decision to add in the caption (would not have had the same effect without the caption). Although the frame is not empty or portraying negative space, it still creates a mood of loneliness, emptiness – cold lighting from city and train lights
Lost In Lacuna 