imagine that only which you can't

--speed
slow vs. fast vs. something you can't figure out
gradient

--direction
left to right
right to left
up to down
down to up
corner to corner (diagonally)
inwards [internal, progression]
outwards [shake it out, inevitability]

--collisions of the above
different time colliding in the same place (2x fast at the same as slowed down)
speed colliding with direction (same movement faster colliding with inverted & slowed down)

--texture
relationship of distinguished shape/facial structures (when do they show up, when can you pinpoint outlines)
curly vs. straight - normal vs. abnormal
skin vs. hair
smooth solid vs. smooth fuzz/follicle

human. familiar uncanny.

hair as a limb that has its own world of gravity + exists in ONLY the above rules which bring about your own perceptions on the matter. feeling it on your own skin.

--ARC--
I DONT KNOW - but something familiar, so i'll stay and watch.
I THINK I KNOW - it's turning into something that i relate to.
I KNOW - ok, i know what this is and it's doing (semi)normal things in an abnormal environment.
I THINK I DONT KNOW - maybe it's not what i think, or do i know anymore?
I KNOW THAT I DONT KNOW - i know what it is, i know what its doing, but i don't know anything else and that's beginning to be ok and i want to ride it again.

The space between the thing we see and the thing we don't.
The haptic texture occurring through the human relationship between viewer and video.
Perspective of going into a place that you cannot physically go to.
Step away from an experience that you will feel subtly and subconsciously, on your own body, the way your neck moves your own head.
You have donned dreads, you have donned extra limbs sprouting from your thinker.
Time has constrained your movements but this experience has set time free into new physicality.

ABOUT THIS WORLD:

-"a world with its own rules/physics"
-"a neverending, looping poem video experience which grasps at you and cannot let go."
-"a world where there are opposing forces"
-"something that never ends but it is constantly beginning and always stopping"
-"something that is constantly moving, following a journey you wouldn't normally follow on a journey"

The above are descriptions taken from the previous post that have been distilled into the final concept.
On a simpler level, what my final product will be is a 9-channel video installation that takes the viewer on a time journey exploring the space before and after a portrait photograph. The video follows a complex algorithm, inversing the time it takes to get to and from "the moment" that a portrait is taken.

This is a visual of what the time funnel will look like


This is how the time funnel visuals will be transfered into the 9 squares


This is the PROCESS:
1. Film video of person flipping hair, then STOPPING ["photo" is taken] then flipping hair again [either dreads or long hair]

1a. Make sure the amount of frames in existence are at an ODD number. Split in half. Middle most frame is the PHOTOGRAPH. Radiating from the photograph is inversely half/half/half/half of the first devision:

2. Split up the time of the video into a FUNNEL that will be converted/squeezed down into pieces that which are almost exactly equal in time length.

3. Each piece is then duplicated 9 times and put into each square, one after the other, to show the transgression into still image of a portrait.

4. Fades happen in the top right and bottom left corners between each person, so the video never ends and is constantly moving, while also constantly being at a "stop" in the middle. We follow each "thread" through time as each person moves across each square screen. A "breathing" affect is achieved.

LOGISTICS:
-Need 9 people with either dreads/long hair.
-Hair needs to be a gradient from blonde to black for color palette
-Movement needs to be directly from side to side of the screen to maintain a following eye line and hence story line, hence a type of "loose narrative" of spacial orientation of a figure in each square through time that the eye can follow on its journey spatially while it is going through time stretch

WEEK 2 - 4.7 - Raitt 205
Students meet to present detailed 10-week plan for thesis, outlining goals and planned progress for each week leading to the exhibition opening. This should include plans for critiques, both mid-term and final (what will be displayed? where?)

>>>perfect technique with existing footage, prepare sketches, work on documentation technique and SCORING technique. ask roxie about using spiffy video controlling program that may make my life easier.

WEEK 3 - 4.14 - Raitt 205
>>>Find actors/actresses/ confirm day for shoot [possibly m/t/w of week 4]

WEEK 4 - 4.21 - Raitt 205
Students meet to discuss exhibition logistics; layout, PR, website, cards, opening evening, etc.

>>>shoot all footage and prep for post

WEEK 5 - 4.28 - Fremont
Midterm critiques: Students present near-completed thesis works to classmates, instructor, and guest grads.
Group A

>>>show half of installation footage with color correction/half of the funnel

WEEK 6 - 5.5 - Fremont
Midterm critiques:Group B

>>>keep working on post, complete part 2 of funnel

WEEK 7 - 5.12 - Raitt 205
Students meet to finalize exhibition logistics; layout, PR, website, cards, opening evening, etc.

>>>render, polish footage, work on timing, perfect flow

WEEK 8 - 5.19 - Fremont
Final critiques: Students present completed thesis works to classmates, instructor, and guest grads.
Group A

>>>present, plan installation [projector, look into getting small monitors, screens]

WEEK 9 - Wednesday - 5.26 - Fremont
Final critiques: Group B

>>>extra week for failures, reshoots that could cause schedule to move down, polishing, rendering time, etc.

Thursday - 5.27 - SOA
Install begins at 5PM in SOA galleries... continues through weekend

>>>install, be merry, help everyone else

WEEK 10 - Tuesday 6.1
Exhibition opening 4-6:30

>>>breathe and bring my plastic water bottle

My excitement has not been at par for where I was hoping thesis would bring me, so I have been having meetings with myself to get my brain and heart onto the right track for this project. Lots of great stuff is finally emerging that I am more into.
I am realizing that the viewer has to care about whatever ends up on my screen, so the idea of a loose narrative, or at least figuring out WHAT are the rules of my world in the sense of character, story, aesthetic, happenings, etc. do I want the viewer to be able to be engulfed into. I do NOT want to create a direct narrative video but something that has unique textures to it but still a deep, unexplainable emotional connection. I want to make a neverending, looping poem video experience which grasps at you and cannot let go.

an interesting version

TECHNIQUES
2.5D using after effects
stop motion
photography cut outs
magazine cutouts
green screened movement
textures
compositing all the above

DISCUSSIONS
made object into real space
real object into made space

AESTHETIC
-create my own style of figures
-composite layers under layers under layers so you get a in camera rotoscoping effect.
-put sensors on the body in forms of black marks TRACKING marks so you can put layers into that tracking- a new way to track things

WORLD NARRATIVE/RULES
-a world where there are opposing forces-- time lapsing versus very slow motion things to look even as opposites: shoot something really macro such as cotton and make it clouds, shoot clouds and make it cotton- there is constant movement from something that is slow in the world, versus something that is usually moving really fast is slowed down to minute details.

[[put camera on something moving and do a time lapse video that is moving fast, but then using the tracking mark put something that is very slow into it.]]

STORY POTENTIALS:
-a deteriorating or blooming world, it is indecisive [[maybe it is interactive this way]]
opposing forces :
-things that are moving really slow move fast: slugs, chewing, timelapse
-things that are moving really fast move slow: water, wind
-something that is constantly moving, following a journey of something you wouldn't normally follow on a journey [[specific movement] that tells a story, like a car tire---[[make camera rig for this?]]
-something that never ends but it is constantly beginning and always stopping

ASSIGNMENTS:
--do not use people as emotion inducing characters in the film. perhaps unorthodox ways: skin as a landscape for a foot to walk on, textures of the human as the substance of the world, machines walking around

stretch the human fabric of skin, eyes, nails, hair into a world, make the urban the "natural and raw" within the world textured by human textures
eyelashes, tongues, lips, teeth [but not gruesome]
the eye is the sun
hair is the wind
the leaves are the people, they are moving--backlight leaves

-this is a poem with no end/a video with no end [controlled by immediate environment around the video?]


MORE EXPERIMENTS:

1. film an arm/hand moving in space with markers up and down it. motion track things onto the markers
2. green patches on the arm, green screen the arm with patches with patches into it--skin is a bit off--do the same movements but have patches that are off so the skin looks like it is breathing
3. experiments in techniques, keep getting comfortable with after effects

I just wrote a really long post and it got deleted, I am extremely frustrated as my ideas finally started coming together and I lost everything. I hate technology. Ugh. Will try to recreate....

It's being held back. It will come soon. All I've been experimenting with does not feel quietright. It feels like reality is being held back, accumulating in a pocket that is almost ready to burst full speed ahead. It's close, I can feel it.

goodbye world, hello after effects tutorials for the rest of the night.

i also have e-mailed these people

a story may begin, my writing might have to explode. so ready.

VIDEO PROJECTIONS


Arun Sharma did a video installation of blooming flowers on bodies. click me.



I've been going through after effects tutorials and had a good shoot on Sunday within which a LOT of lighting techniques for photography FINALLY clicked and now make total sense to me, so I feel a lot more in technical control of my camera and the still image.
I'm having another shoot this week-end and will combine a short reel of my after effects tutorial experiments on my own footage to show next week.

///Have been having an extremely super stressful 2 weeks, more than ever. Probably the toughest quarter since I can remember in college yet far.
///The space in the art basement bummed me out completely =[ There is something about having work shown in the public and in a gallery. It's a whole other learning experience that I've been looking forward to for 4 years and now sound like won't happen. Just very, very disappointing.

this is one of my favorite all time animations. i cannot fathom how they did this.


This could be useful to those of you interested in sound/graphics stuff...Rob? Jason?
http://vimeo.com/4696823

My shoot is coming together, now will have projections of digital textures onto the body, and suspended bodies. I am building some garment stuff for my other class that is inspiring but really I just want to build within non-physicality eventually. Or combine...yes.

no worms.

all i can think about is my upcoming shoots [experiment 3]
i've met with my designer and make-up artist and have about 25 models ready to work with me.
i am shooting on saturday morning from 10-3 in the art building studio.
the plan is to shoot video with projections. maybe green screen.
sounds like this will be a good start.


also, i am revamping my first 2 experiments to focus on learning new techniques in after effects and experimenting with stop motion, maybe not so much natural textures. i was dreading doing that experiment and turned out i couldn't do it anyway. so yes, expect some after effects tests this week.