Visual Literacy Final Project

Artist's Statement:

PRE-PRODUCTION:
This concept came from two places.  It came from a general dislike of smoking, mostly due to the effect of the smoke, and a need to fulfill this assignment.  Once it was decided that a PSA would be done, other PSAs were looked at to try to mimic the same style.  They used a lot of different angles and usually had very dulled lighting which was how this project was pictured.  There was no formal story board to this, but with a friend, a script was laid out and the location of the track was decided to go along with the script.  The main difficulty here was finding people to act in it on such short notice, but once that was done production flowed fine.

PRODUCTION:
The product of this project can be broken down into two parts.  First, the filming of the project took about an hour or so, and the editing took about 3 hours.  One major problem that was run into was that my initial filming of this project, either the camera was left running with realization or the record button was hit by accident because for that last 3 shots of the film, the recording was off so the footage was missing.  It wasn't until the editing phase of this first filming that it was realized that these shots were missing.  As such, because of scheduling conflicts with the first two actors, two new actors needed to be found.  Luckily they were able to on even shorter notice than the first two.  The talent that was eventually ended up on were Dana Al Ghusain and Samantha Raphelson.  As stated above the filming of this project took place on the track on campus and filming began at around 5PM or so, so the sun actually began to set before filming was completed.  This project was filmed on a digital Flip camera and the editing was done in Final cut.  As for the filming itself the scenes were filmed in order, because it was just easier that way for everyone.  To help it flow better, each shot ended with the line from the next shot so the dialogue wouldn't seem too choppy.  It worked out fairly well in that regard.

POST-PRODUCTION:
The final project was pretty close to how I imagined it, but due to a miscommunication about the length of the film, on my part, it ended up being longer than the syllabus said a PSA should be.  The initial footage was also lost and because the final project had music playing in it the entire time, it wasn't possible to edit it down to fit the time.  Also because the sun went down, and color correction was used on the last shot to make it match the rest of the film, the final shot of the film in much grainier than the rest of the PSA.  If time had permitted, I would have liked to redo one of the shots in the PSA entirely. The shot id awkward because the two people I was able to get for the project weren't exactly comfortable in front of the camera.  They tried to fill in intentional pauses in the script with dialogue, and even though it was able to be muted out, the shot still seems off.  However overall the project is nice, and while parts if it sometimes move slower than necessary, it doesn't hinder the final product too much.  Right now what's next is up in the air, we'll see where my filming things like this ends up.

Visual Literacy Art to Film Group Project

Visual Literacy Assignment #6

This video is a quasi-parody music video featuring a song by New Zealand parody rock band The Axis of Awesome.  The song points out that many of the most famous pop songs of the last 4 decades basically use the same four chords, hence the songs name.  Most of the shots in this video are medium close up shots of the individual band members singing there own parts, mostly just lasting for as long as one line from whatever song they're singing.  However, the video also features shots of two or all of the band members together ranging from medium close-up shots to medium long shots, and in one case either zooming or dollying out to a long shot.  The first time a band member sings, the shot remains on him without cutting away for the length of three verses.

What works best about the video, aside from how catchy the song is, the wide array of costumes and actions performed by the band to parody the performers of the songs they chose for this version of the song.  The video is also very colorful, despite it's consistently white background, which makes it effective in both drawing in, and keeping viewers interested in it.  This works in it's favor since the song is over 6 minutes long.

As a parody, there isn't much wrong with this video, since it's visuals support the mocking nature of the song.  However, the biggest flaw in the video, which isn't really a production issue, is the ending.  Ending on an advertisement for the bands other videos is a needless tack-on to and already pretty long music video.   It also seems pointless since this song is the bands most popular song according to iTunes, so this is what would bring the audience to there channel, and curiosity would do the rest.

If I were to change this video, I probably would have made the background more interesting. This would most likely mean changing it from a white screen to a green screen so other video clips and images could be use to enforce what the song is saying.  I would also change of some of the shots so that the majority of the video isn't just singing into the camera, even though that worked for this as a parody video.  Lastly, I would get rid of the ending since it really had no reason to be there.

Visual Literacy Group Photo Assignment

For this project, what worked well within my group was the different takes on our word that could be taken by having everyone work separately.  By splitting up we were able to think of our own ideas for how we envisioned our word and those different takes allowed us to reach out to a larger audience and therefore make our word easy to guess.  However this also lead to what didn't work about our group dynamic, the lack of communication.  There were a few people who were in constant contact with everyone, but aside from that we didn't really talk about the project, aside from the word we chose, until the very end of our work period.  It turned out well, but that didn't make the working process any less stressful.

If I had to do something differently, it would definitely be meeting up with my group more so that I at least would know how everyone is doing, and what I could specifically do to enhance the project as best I can.  It also would have just been nice to talk to my group about what they were doing so that I could have gotten general ideas on what I could have done, because I was basically confused throughout this entire process.

That being said, the finished product worked out very well, all of the images were complimentary of each other.  More specifically, I didn't feel that my images conveyed our word as well as they could have, however when it was placed with the others it felt like it displaying it more clearly.

Probably the most important thing that I learned from this assignment is how important context is to displaying a message.  Like I said, I wasn't proud of my images on their own, but when they were put in context with then rest of the groups images, the message became more clear.  Usually my thoughts on how to display a message would be off of an image on its own merit, but now I can see that using a story, or in this case other pictures, to enhance the image is just as important as the image itself to let the audience see the meaning behind it.

What works about this image is the contrast of colors between the oranges of the sun rise with the blue-grey sky and the black silhouettes.  It gives the picture a more calming feeling, especially along side the the glow across the horizon that the sunrise is producing.  Also the sun being off center makes the image more dynamic due to rule of thirds, and since the sun is the brightest and most colorful thing in the frame, your eye is drawn right to it.  The gentle texture of the clouds really helps in getting the shots message across.  Also, because everything that had a definite shape and line structure is in shadow due to the sun, there are no harsh lines or textures to distract or take away from the idea of the picture.

Visual Literacy Assignment #5

Assassination of Asanuma, 1961

I don't think this image could have been taken any other way to get across the same message that is trying to be displayed.  Even without any colors being shown in this image, it still does a great job of catching your attention with its dynamic posing and framing.  First of all, the shot is taken in a medium long shot, so both Asanuma and his assassin are in the frame head to toe, but the shot is still focuses in on them.  Their bodies need to be seen to display the fully message of the photograph, since the assassin on the left is shown in what is clearly an agressive pose, while Asanuma's pose is passive.  Also, the shot is close enough to see the sword in the assassin's hand, as well as the fear on Asanuma's face, any further away an you really wouldn't be able to tell what either of them were doing.  The two are the only people that are fully in the shot, everyone else is either out of frame, or obscured behind the two, so your attention is solely on them, just assassin an target.  The background also frames them near perfectly, without distracting from the action of the shot.  The vertical white sections frame both the assassin and Asunuma, and not really anything else, and the pure blackness of the background makes you focus more on what's going on in the foreground.  It's overall an effective picture.

What really drew me to the photograph was it's composition, it had a very engaging action going on in the foreground, with very little distracting from the two men who the photo is focusing on.  This combined with the contrast between the grey's of the foreground and the black and white backdrop, really made the image stand out, even without any color.

Eyjafjallajokull, Lucas Jackson, Reuters

This shot does a great job of showing both the scope, and the danger of the volcano eruption over Iceland.  The red and orange contrast very nicely with the black of the ash spewing from Eyjafjallajokull, and really gives off a sense of danger, making it look like a fiery, dark, yet somehow empty void.  The lightning itself seems even more menacing that usual, with it's somewhat uncommon orange color, instead of the usually blue or white you usually see, which make it seems harsher and vern more uncontrollable.  Also, this is done in a long shot, and the fact that even with that distance the smoke is still blanketing the sky, you can tell just just how massive this eruption truly was.  It's hard to tell though exactly what point of view this is being shot from, it kind of seems like the photographer is either flying nearby, or on a point above the ground about the same height as the volcanoes mouth, but really far away and zoomed it.  But despite that, the image is still very interesting to look at, and gets it's meassage across well.

What's most interesting about the shot is that it seems like a digitally rendered effect that you might see on a SyFy (SciFi) channel original movie.  So the fact this took place in real life is nothing short of amazing.

Visual Literacy Assignment #3

 

Visual Literacy Assignment #2

I chose this image because of the contrast between the subject, and the background it's placed in front of.  The color or the ball, in this case being red, contrasts fairly nicely with the grays of the rug.  This makes the ball stand out more even though it's fairly small in the frame.  That being said the ball is also framed very well in this shot, the lines in the carpet seem to point right to it, and the fact that the ball is off center, makes it seem more interesting.

 In this shot, the ball is more prominent in the shot, and the light hits the ball in a way that makes it shine, an therefore draw more attention to itself.  The back bag behind the ball helps it stand out more effectively, as well as the gray carpet again.  I also liked the way that it seems to balance on it's own shadow.

I like the way that the ball is reflecting the light here, It makes it like somewhat fiery, or at least more intense than the previous shots.  The light is also giving off the appearance of there being multiple colors on the ball instead of just red, getting some orange and yellow on it as well.

The ball in this shot has very much the same intensity as the photo above, but it's also framed very well within the circle of light that seems to be emanating off of it.  The red and orange of the ball are the most interesting colors in the shot, due to the heavy shadows behind it making everything but the ball and small bit of carpet seem completely black.  Also the fact that the ball is in the corner of the frame and not completely visible is pretty cool.

This shot shows the ball as a cross between the light and the shadow.  Once again, the black backdrop makes the red stand out more, but this time it's coming from the natural shadows instead of another object.  The position is more dynamic than if the ball was dead center, and once again, the red is the most interesting color in the shot, which helps draw the eye right to the subject.