Bringing the project to a conclusion

I haven't posted for awhile as I have been busy preparing for the pitch...

However, I think the last week has proven to me how quickly I can pull things together once an idea becomes clear in my head....though it takes me quite a long time to get to that point (unfortunately)!

I decided to make an intro movie for the pitch and filmed my kids galavanting about in George Square to emphasise the play element of the work. All the footage was filmed in just one morning and I came away with about 59 short clips which generally varied from a few seconds long up to a minute and a half. I was really interested in how kids move in such a free, chaotic and unconscious way...which I tried to capture in the footage. Half of the footage was just the kids being themselves, moving in an entirely unscripted way. I also had a definite idea of what movements I wanted them to 'perform'. This part of the movie was much harder to capture than I imagined. I think the saying 'never work with animals and children' came to mind a few times. I think this process also really highlighted to me how difficult it is to give verbal instructions for a movement (especially to young children) and the best way of actually doing it is to demonstrate it. One of the other difficulties was in the filming process in a public place. Being in such a public place meant that people would invariably walk into your frame when you are not wanting it.

As for the editing, I had roughed out a story board for the filming but in the end, I found the footage that I actually got just naturally guided me in the editing process. I wanted the movie to have a definite structure and found that having title cards interposed between different scenes helped structure the movie (I was also influenced here by Mclaren's films and Brinkmann's video documentation of his work Upside Down). Possibly the longest time I spent was on editing the mapping scenes. Rather than taking a large series of frames to create the animation effect, I exported the clip using movie to image sequence settings in imovie to create a number of frames that I imported back into final cut to create the animation. Initially I was just going to use the sequence as it was, but I later thought of drawing on the spots to actually demonstrate the work. Each frame was then worked on in photoshop to create the coloured spot.

I also spent some time experimenting with the different frame rates to create the best animation movement and picture clarity. I the end I chose 2fps as it gave me a more realistic workable number of frames that I could cope with without compromising too much on the movement.  The biggest problem I came across here was that I think the imovie process of converting the image to file sequence causes quite a bit of image compression such that when run in final cut, it appears blurry. I will definitely need to investigate why or how I can get around this. The problem with having this blurry image sequence against the sharp HD movie sequences would mean that they would look out of place, so to get round this I decided to apply a projector effect...which helped make the sequence look more believable as a stylistic or conceptual decision. I chose to have silent movie music score to accompany the mapping sequence because it created a kind of light-heartedness feel to the movie.

In the actual pitch I showed a version of the intro movie without the out takes but I think they are almost as interesting as the movie as they point to the process of getting the movie made. The out takes can be viewed in the video clip below:

In terms of the actual pitch I planned to structure it in a way that would come across as an actual pitch for an art work rather than to go through my whole process as I felt that with only 10 minutes I would  otherwise not have enough time to cover all the key points about the proposed work.

Norman McLaren Talk + Film Screening

I went to the McLaren talk on Wednesday and have come away with some great quotes for reference:

I like movement for movements sake - Norman McLaren

 Dance is movement, movement is life -  Ludmilla Chiriaeff

The Friday screening of his student films was accompanied by the Glasgow Improvisor's Orchestra. The experience of watching the films was definitely enhanced by the music. The orchestra often play/improvise to live performances so I am going to include the orchestra as part of my pitch. I regard the motion of the pedestrians as an improvised 'performance' of sorts so I feel the music would complement the work.

         

I think seeing McLaren's films have given me a better idea of the direction I want to take with the intro movie, that is to create a part-movie, part-animation. I think that the way I am 'plotting the motion' with coloured dots is almost animation-like in a sense, as it kind of breaks down a motion/path i.e. like a dotted line, so making the whole film in that style will give a more cohesive look. I also like the idea of using title cards for the scenes as it helps to narrate the animation.

For the animation I will probably use a combination of stop-motion photography as well as converting footage into quicktime image sequences. The above film was originally shot as a film clip but I converted it into 1 fps files.  I edited out the dropper action so there is a bit of a jump in parts of the sequence, but overall I think it is getting close to what I want to do. 

George Square Filming

I was out filming last night as I wanted to include a short film for the intro to my pitch with a clip of George Square changing from daylight to night. I took a series of short movie clips from 8:40 to 10:00pm which captures the change of light. I think the sequence on its own works quite well to indicate the passage of time...but I'm not so sure if it works with the overall idea of the movie  (which is to set the scene, indicate the subject matter of motion, mapping, relationships between people and give an idea of the process)...

I returned this morning to get more footage but the position I had set-up the camera the night before had been taken over by some tents and fencing...so I had to reposition myself. I also experimented with shooting some footage with my minicam attached to my boot to add a sense of motion to the movie.  None of the footage shot on the minicam could be analysed until it was plugged into the laptop so I had no idea what I got.

During the edit, I realised a lot of the minicam footage was just too jumpy and oddly composed to be used with the other footage I shot the night before (which was on a tripod). On it's own I think it can be an interesting way to experiment with filming...but I don't think it helps to convey the idea of the work. I will have to reshoot some of the footage.

In anycase, I decided to put together a very rough edit of the footage I have so far to give myself an idea of how it might work/look. Although I have done a couple of storyboards, I have found that only by actually do the filming and putting it together that it starts to become apparent how and what I need to do next.

After Effects Test 3

I spent a lot of time working on creating different coloured spots in photoshop and refining the movement of the spots in After Effects and I think this video might be a better representation of the movement than the previous one. I had planned to continue with this animation (populating it with more movement spots) so that I may present it at the pitch. However, I have come to a conclusion that I am going to use ink drops to mark the motion rather than computer-generated spots. As the work is very much about people, movement, and creation...I think there is a human, gestural quality of using traditional media which computer-generated imagery lacks. I suppose the time spent on using After Effects is not lost as it has been a great way of learning to use the program and for 'sketching out' motion ideas.

Katy Dove

                 

                                    

Katy Dove works with drawing, abstract imagery, watercolours and animation. I was interested to learn in the video above that she creates her animation by scanning an abstract drawing and then animating it. Camille Utterback also uses scanned in drawings/marks for the Untitled 5 work. I am not sure why I never considered doing this until now...

Much of Dove's work deals with her response to sound and drawing sound and as such she records her own sound to go with the animation. I think sound is definitely something I want to explore at some point as I feel that no exploration of the visual experience of rhythm/motion is complete without looking at sound as an integral experience of the work.

Ink Drawings

Accidental ink bleed marks  

I am experimenting with drawing the imagined motion/path of people across George Square using ink. Initially I used felt pens on chromatography paper and tried dropping water onto the marks as I wanted to create the colour separation as the water disperses the ink. I accidentally came across the idea when I dropped water onto an inkjet printed image and when I turned over the paper, I noticed beautiful ink bleed forms. I have chosen chromatography paper for this purpose as its high absorption and capillary action draws and disperses the ink much faster than regular cartridge paper.

The effect of water droplets on the ink creates an organic and abstract form though beautiful, is not quite what I am after. I want to keep the integrity of the form circular.

Dropping the ink directly onto the paper gives a much better result. I particularly like the transparent overlay effect when one drop of ink overlays another drop. Also, using ink drops from a mixture of two different coloured inks creates a lovely 'halo' effect. 

I like the idea of the drops of ink representing the path of motion of people as this links into the idea of drawing motion as in Takehito Koganezawa's work. This idea of using traditional media with technology also references Camille Utterback's work Untitled 5 where the motion of people is translated as gestural, painterly marks in an interactive video projection.  This idea makes the work become a large-scale collaborative work with the pedestrians in George Square collaborating in creating a time-based, temporal ink drawing. 

Each time a person enters the video-tracked area, they are 'assigned' a coloured spot that leaves a trail of ink drops in the wake of their path. In the experiment above I envisaged the path of a person generating two drops as they move through a space (like footprints), but I suppose this could be just one drop. Depending of the viscocity of the ink and how much comes out of the dropper, a certain about of 'bleeding' occurs. However, using the ink neat (i.e. unmixed with water) gives a much 'better' spot. I like the idea that when two people stand close to each other for a certain duration, or when their paths cross, this can be registered by the blending of ink creating a new dual coloured 'haloed' spot. Standing in one spot creates an ink spot that grows (bleeds) with the duration of the static position. 

Pitch Prep

I am considering making a short video to introduce/start the pitch.

Just a bit concerned that I have not left myself much time...