Hey! So just to say I have began a new blog for my second year as a Media Production student, why not take a peek?
https://grantsnaithyr2blog.wordpress.com
UNITED STATES – CIRCA 1950s: Woman with surprised look. (Photo by George Marks/Retrofile/Getty Images)
Here is the first video that I have produced from my time in Istanbul. With this video I set out to show the city of Istanbul, the only city where the Western world meets the Eastern world. I show the city and its people in a culturally fascinating city of history. Not all of my footage was available to me for this project so I will likely return to update this video at some point. Feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
Vicarious
Experienced in the imagination through the feelings or actions of another person.
The poetic piece entitled ‘Vicarious’ starts off with a blurred shot of light particles crackling from the side of the screen, this slow and beautiful visual lures its viewers into a false sense of security from the
get go. The initial idea of using this visual was centred around the idea that it was the glow of the television screen just out of view and that as the video progressed we were going to be viewing the television set and we would then end on the same visual to suggest we had turned away from the violence presented to us by the controlling media.
I wanted to play around with the theme of eyes through out the entirety of this poetic piece for several reasons. Firstly, the eyes are the gates through which we allow this violence to flood into our systems and the visuals successfully show this by interjecting as the violence of each clip increases, becoming more and more rapid in movement and ‘distressed’. Secondly I wanted to capture emotion in my piece to help the
audience feel an emotional tie to the themes behind the poem, I don’t think I successfully achieved this target as well as the first because of the quality of some of the eye clips chosen were blurry.
Some of the shots of eyes carried a little more significance than to simply convey ourselves as absorbers of the media. There are two shots of eyes that I chose specifically to show; one of an eye being removed and another of a lobotomy procedure. Both shots whilst very different in som
e respects were chosen to represent connotations of how the media experiments on us as viewers and consumers. I know that this was a great choice as a few classmates even commented upon this visual. The final eye shot was without careful examination completely similar to every other shot of the eye before it however I chose that particular shot as it focused on the retracting of the iris to suggest a moment of realisation or an ‘eye opening’ experience.
At one stage of the poem the following lines occur “Bloated on pain and swollen on suffering” for me this was a brilliant part of the poem as I felt it really emphasised the feeling that we simply cannot get enough, however I had trouble thinking of a visual for this piece. I eventually came to the realisation that a simple twisting and swirling black and white visual could be great here. Its intended purpose was to symbolise the discomforting contortion feeling of being bloated.
Overall, ‘Vicarious’ is a representation of a human coming to terms with the brutality we are spoon fed on a daily basis by the controlling media. It points the finger at you and asks the question what is wrong with humanity that we feel the need to see such misery and violence and enjoy doing so. I hope that this has opened your eyes to this frightening reality of modern day society.
“For all its material advantages, the sedentary life has left us edgy, unfulfilled. Even after 400 generations in villages and cities, we haven’t forgotten. The open road still softly calls, like a nearly forgotten song of childhood. We invest far-off places with a certain romance. This appeal, I suspect, has been meticulously crafted by natural selection as an essential element in our survival. Long summers, mild winters, rich harvests, plentiful game—none of them lasts forever. Your own life, or your band’s, or even your species’ might be owed to a restless few—drawn, by a craving they can hardly articulate or understand, to undiscovered lands and new worlds.
Herman Melville, in Moby Dick, spoke for wanderers in all epochs and meridians: “I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas…”
Maybe it’s a little early. Maybe the time is not quite yet. But those other worlds— promising untold opportunities—beckon.
Silently, they orbit the Sun, waiting…”
I came across this short film after watching a news update on the video game Star Wars: Battlefront, which is being produced by the game company behind Battlefield, DICE. It had been rumoured, that the art team behind the Star Wars game had been in touch with Erik Wernquist, the man behind this short film ‘Wanderers’ to help them build an art style similar to his. So, I checked out his short film and I can honestly say it is beautiful, its visuals dominate you in a sense of awe that makes me wish I owned a telescope. Its certainly an inspiration as I move forward with my own short film.
Heres a small video tutorial I found very useful whilst trying to get my head around using the Adobe Audition CC software that I was first introduced to in the first few weeks of my course. The software was tricky for me to adapt to as it requires a new mode of thinking; using sound rather than moving image was a new concept for me. So I hope that this can help you guys to get to grips with this useful software.
The Journey Begins 