11th October 2014
First Week
My first week as a Graphic Communication student has been both insightful and challenging. On the first day we were given all three of our briefs for the term. Coming from Graphic Design we were always given one project at a time so being given all three was very intense. However, I do prefer knowing exactly what I need to do for the whole term, rather than being rushed into a one week project.
Each project was very different and required separate outcomes. Create an image based on Passing Time, produce typography within a certain setting and create a motion image focusing on the narrative of soundscape. I decided to focus on generating ideas for each project before develop each one. I found myself coming up with lots of ideas but struggled to find unique ways of expressing them.
I found 'Passing Time' the most difficult when it came to developing my ideas. Although I could think of lots of ideas I never felt passionate enough to want to develop them.
I am still struggling with this brief but am happy with my ideas for 'From point to Pixel' and 'Organic Kingdom' and am looking forward to developing them further.
I am still struggling with this brief but am happy with my ideas for 'From point to Pixel' and 'Organic Kingdom' and am looking forward to developing them further.
15th October 2014
Passing Time Ideas
I've been struggling a lot with the Passing Time brief. I've been able to think of quite a few ideas but I don't feel passionate enough to develop them. I want to do something personal.Like my passing time, from when I was younger to now.
Maybe focusing on how my looks have changed over time. I want to use personal old and new photos within my work. I'm going to start experimenting with ideas and trying different things. Perhaps merging photos together as a college or weaving them together. I really like this piece of work I found on Pinterest.
I might try to recreate something similar using my own photos. I think rather then cutting two photos up then weaving together for this photo they weaved on top of the photo to get a different effect. I could try both ways to see how it looks. However I'm not sure how I would develop it. Perhaps make a poster.
22nd October 2014
Stop Motion
For the Passing Time brief our given medium is image. If I could choose I would prefer to make a video as my final outcome. I'm not sure whether I would be allowed to do this, but I've had an idea of creating a Stop Motion video.Stop Motion videos are made up of 100s of images, so best of both worlds. Although I'm not sure whether I would be allowed to create a video for this brief I decided to start investigating Stop Motion Films anyway.
I decided to look at existing Stop Motion videos. If I was able to create a video I would want to use personal photographs throughout, so I wanted to find other videos that also use photographs for inspiration. I came across these two video on Vimeo. The first is a Stop Motion Reverse called Ballpoint Barber by Peter Simon. Multiple photographs are taken of the model, the pictures are then printed off and become interactive with the person behind the camera. I really like the idea of making the photographs interactive giving the video a more playful and fun feel.
The second video is called The Pen Story. Which involved shooting 60,000 pictures, developing 9,600 prints and shooting over 1,800 pictures again. The video shows the story of a man from his younger to his older days. The story is narrated by photographs, each changing slight showing the mans travels, experiences and growth. One of my favourite aspects of this 3.00 minute video is that the photographs interact with the their surrounding. The furniture, stairs, objects. I think this works really well and shows that the video doesn't have to be in just one place.
24th October 2014
Stop Motion Practice
As I have never created a Stop Motion video before I though I should have a practice and play around with a few of my ideas. The first is very basic, I really just want to get a feel for what a stop motion video is and play around with a title sequence.
I decided to keep both quite basic and keep the camera in the same place throughout with just a plain background.
Unfortunately while taking pictures for the second video attempt my camera ran out of battery so I had to rush the ending
This is just a practice but it really helped me learn about Stop Motion first hand and if I was to develop this further what ideas I liked and what didn't really work. Also I'm not sure whether or not to have a title. I quite like the way I introduced my name but I didn't like the opening title sequence.
Also I want to show my age and I think just writing it on a scrap on paper is good enough. I defiantly need to discuss this with my tutors and get there advice.
If I am able to develop this idea then the next time I practice I want to play around with the surroundings and make the pictures really interactive. Although If I am not able to create the film I thought I could possibly make a flip book. I would rather it be a moving image but I want to try and think of different outcomes in case I can't.
I decided to keep both quite basic and keep the camera in the same place throughout with just a plain background.
Unfortunately while taking pictures for the second video attempt my camera ran out of battery so I had to rush the ending
This is just a practice but it really helped me learn about Stop Motion first hand and if I was to develop this further what ideas I liked and what didn't really work. Also I'm not sure whether or not to have a title. I quite like the way I introduced my name but I didn't like the opening title sequence.
Also I want to show my age and I think just writing it on a scrap on paper is good enough. I defiantly need to discuss this with my tutors and get there advice.
If I am able to develop this idea then the next time I practice I want to play around with the surroundings and make the pictures really interactive. Although If I am not able to create the film I thought I could possibly make a flip book. I would rather it be a moving image but I want to try and think of different outcomes in case I can't.
25th October 2014
Photography Weaving
As well as my Stop Motion Idea I still want to experiment with image based outcomes.
One of my first ideas was to create a photo weave using two of own photographs.
Weaving them together to show the difference in my looks. I thought this would look good as a large A1 poster or perhaps a magazine with different weaved images. So either one large poster or smaller series of images.
Using two A4 images, one of myself at four and another at seven I weaved them together. I think it would have looked better if I did it in black and white.
28th October 2014
Stop Motion Image?
I've been unsure whether or not I am able to create a Stop Motion for the Passing Time brief as I wasn't sure whether it fit into the category of Image. I spoke to my tutor about this and he told me I had to figure it out for myself.
A stop motion film is a collection of images put together to create a narrative. Although the pictures change I think it still stays more like an image rather then a moving image or film. I really want to pursue this as my outcome. Although I am unsure whether my tutors will see my Stop Motion as a Film or image so I also want to create a print based media to work along side.
Using images from my Stop Motion I want to create a print based piece of work. I have a few ideas so far that I am going to look into.
Poster: Like one the examples on the Brief, create a poster full of all the images from my Stop Motion. I want to have them in order from left to right, up to down, printed onto A2 paper. Close up will be able to see each individual image while far away it will look like a huge collection of images.
Overlap: Create a Image/Poster of all or some of the images overlapping each other. I could turn down the transparency on some images or make it so the images are just line. I thought I could also present this as a magazine.
Book: I had the idea to create a book, either something like a flip book of a single image on one page or like the poster a collection of images.
I going to test out some of these ideas to see what works best along a stop motion.
I decided to experiment and try making a poster using some of the pictures from my Stop Motion. It took me a long time to put them together and I used hardly any compared to how many I took but it help see what it would look like. Obviously there would be many more images on the page. I quite like how it looks, both in colour and black and white but I need to try and more things as it is still quite boring. Although I do think it shows the narrative of the stop motion of well.
I need to think of creative ways to show type within my stop motion, without having it seem to text like. I want to show my age throughout, and perhaps my name. Show type in creative ways, perhaps within the photographs, as long as it works with the images.
Individual Letters
Hand Written
Cut out of the Photo
Fold the photo to show type
Written on my hand
Paint/write on photo
Background on photo
Show one of the photos on an ipad and then slide to text
Photo cut out in shape of number
Make a number using hand signals
Fold edges of photo to reveal a number
Make number out of photo
Water colour resistant
I am really pleased with my final stop motion outcome. It looks how I imagined it would. Somethings did go wrong such as the title comes up on my iPad and the water colour number skips but apart from that I think it went really well.
Editing the video together was very time consuming and frustrating. I decided to use the software Vegas Movie Studio to edit together my stop motion.
I decided to experiment and try making a poster using some of the pictures from my Stop Motion. It took me a long time to put them together and I used hardly any compared to how many I took but it help see what it would look like. Obviously there would be many more images on the page. I quite like how it looks, both in colour and black and white but I need to try and more things as it is still quite boring. Although I do think it shows the narrative of the stop motion of well.
1st November 2014
Type as Image.
 |
| Paint number on photo |
Individual Letters
Hand Written
Cut out of the Photo
Fold the photo to show type
Written on my hand
Paint/write on photo
Background on photo
Show one of the photos on an ipad and then slide to text
Photo cut out in shape of number
Make a number using hand signals
Fold edges of photo to reveal a number
Make number out of photo
Water colour resistant
22nd November 2014
Preparation For Outcome
I had to do quite a lot of preparation for my outcome. This included making a storyboard so I knew exactly what I needed to film in what order, printing off all the images I wanted to use and setting up my camera and lighting (in my dinning room).
I set the lights up either side and balanced the tripod at an angle. Which meant I had to work around all the equipment.
24th November 2014
Final Outcome
I am really pleased with my final stop motion outcome. It looks how I imagined it would. Somethings did go wrong such as the title comes up on my iPad and the water colour number skips but apart from that I think it went really well.
Click here to watch on YouTube
25th November 2014
Editing
Editing the video together was very time consuming and frustrating. I decided to use the software Vegas Movie Studio to edit together my stop motion.
Everything was very time consuming, inserting each clips and constantly having to re-size them. Getting the timing right was the most difficult part of editing the clips together.
I edited the whole thing straight through but I wasn't fast enough so I then had to go back and make each clip slightly shorter. Unfortunately I made them all slightly too fast so I then had to re-re-edit everything. I wanted to use quite upbeat music to go with my video, I decided to use Colour Kings - Ghost of Love which I found on a free music website.
26th November 2014
Development Work - Flip Book
I decided to produce an additional outcome which was print. I printed around half of my photos (in back and white) and created a small flip book. This doesn't work as well as I would have liked and I don't think it's as strong as the video but I am still really glad I produced it.