Assessments, Media 1

Project 2: Creative self-portrait

Rather than attempt to sum up my entire self, for Project Brief 2 I decided to dial way down to the micro level and create a short sketch based on what I’ve been doing (watching, reading, listening to) over the last couple of weeks. This gave me an opportunity to further experiment with Adobe Premiere Pro and rhythmic editing, and still functions as a self-portrait even if it’s not literally so.

Each “section” of my video uses associative form (something we discussed in my cinema studies class two weeks ago) to evoke a mood or feeling unique to that section. For the most part this worked OK, and gave me an opportunity to record some nicely abstract footage and play around with colour and effects. One thing that I struggled with was finding a visual way to represent the “film” section of my video without actually using material from the films themselves. I never quite resolved how to achieve this, and as a result I’m not happy with how that section ultimately turned out.

This was my third or fourth idea for PB2, after I discarded earlier ideas for being too ambitious or too unoriginal. I’m already looking forward to Project Brief 3 and representing someone else in my videos, which is much more in my comfort zone.

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Assessments, Experiments, Media 1

Timelapse fail

Yesterday I started to film one of the shots for my creative self-portrait — a timelapse of swirling clouds that will be used towards the end of the video. As Melbourne’s hot weather started to give way to a cool change it created an incredibly beautiful cloud pattern over the east of Melbourne, and I was excited to be able to film such a striking visual image for my project.

So I got up high (shooting through glass on a second floor balcony) and set my phone up on a small tripod so I could film the entire 10 minutes without my phone being moved too much by the wind.

But since it was such a bright day (great for the shot, not so great for being able to see my screen), I didn’t notice that a subtle reflection from the glass reflected people walking behind my phone — completely ruining the take.

I didn’t notice this until I finished shooting the entire video, but luckily I had time to film multiple takes of varying lengths (hoping to experiment with the speed and duration of the clip in my final project) so I’ll be able to use a later take which was filmed from above the glass panel.

This video is a cautionary tale — watch those reflections, and always give yourself enough time to re-shoot anything you completely stuff up.

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