https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDCgD6_edAs

This sketch was based around telling a narrative through the use of different phone apps that allowed you to take photos, edit them, and share with friends. I ended up using Snapchat, Instagram, and the built in phone app of Iphone. The main narrative of the sketch was getting from point A to point B. I went to St Kilda Beach and walked on the pier, taking snaps along the way with different functions of the phone apps. After collecting a few images, I placed them in my editor.

I wanted to see what it would look like with different styles of photos placed in a linear order. It’s something that everyone does when they go on a trip – take images from different apps, either it be on Instagram, Snapchat, or photos shared on Facebook and social media. The end result doesn’t work as well I would’ve wanted it to – I should have taken more images. However, it does show the difference in what each app can do, and what limitations/advantages it has. You can add text and emojis to Snapchat, Instagram has a lot more filters and editing options, and the Iphone photo app allows for panorama photo taking.

I almost think if I had kept the phone interface in there, it would’ve worked better to look more like a narrative. The end result slightly feels like a slideshow. However, you can see the progression of shots, and again it shows what elements I could take from these apps and apply them in the future, for example the ability to draw and put text into the content I create through Snapchat in a really easy way.

I’m an avid user of Snapchat. One of my favourite functions of the app is the story, which is a essentially a video diary of sorts. Snapchat is essentially a video/photo messaging app, where people use a lot for sharing funny or special moments with each other. If you message with a snap, the person you’ve sent it to can only see it for the duration of the snap. However, if you add it to your Story, friends can see it for 24 hours. Thus, the story mode I feel is a more effective platform for our genre of a travel/video diary hybrid.

The sketch I did was on the day of my cousin’s wedding which took place at Mt Dandenong. However, all the way over there, there was no reception whatsover, and thus I couldn’t add any snaps to my Story after my first three which I had already shot earlier in the day. Two of these were stills, while the last shot was a video, of the car travelling through Mt Dandenong.

The thing that is interesting about Snapchat is that is technically a narrative, but the way your snaps look and feel can be jarring, which again adds more to the concept of a video diary. It takes the best things you see in the day and highlights them for your friends. I can definitely also seeing it applied to something like a travel video. Even the Snapchat team themselves update a story based around a location or event, grabbing snaps from different people and compiling them together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OE0n0xfjzwU

The idea for this sketch came from one of the set criteria sketches, where we had to base one around the concept of an unconventional narrative style. Thus, with this in mind, I decided to try to create a narrative in a non-linear format, with the video jumping from different timelines. In the video I recorded myself walking towards the train station, and then getting on the train itself. In the train, I record the movement of the outside whizzing past. When I brought it into my editor, I cut everything together in a pattern, with the walking scenes followed up by a cutaway of the train setting. The video ends with me with arriving on the train, followed by a shot of me leaving it. It kind of ends where it starts.

This sketch allowed me to play with form and structure, which was something I didn’t focus a lot on. The non-linear structure is something I’m not sure would work with a ‘video diary’. Although I was trying to tell a narrative, it didn’t come off as well as I wanted – it is hard to see a narrative through it. However, as I was recording throughout the entire journey, it definitely allowed for some heavy data collection, which did give me the chance to experiment with the footage I got. Also, the jarring cuts suit the video diary genre. It isn’t ‘travel’ video-like though, which may be something we can try with it moving forward.

https://vine.co/v/eatOuMbnJ5D

I was a new-comer to Vine, so I was excited to see what I could do with it. Vine only allows for a six second video, where it is played on loop when viewed in the Vine app. It’s interface is really quite simple, and takes an old-school and DIY approach to the way the user ‘cuts’ in their video. Holding down on the touch screen will allow you to record, and letting go pauses your footage. So, using such a user-friendly tool, I tried to apply what I had taken from Project Two, and apply it to Vine.

I went down to St Kilda beach, and there I took three separate shots for a Vine video. With this sketch, I was editing and shooting all from my Iphone, so I wanted to create the same kind of feel that I had emulated with the sketches of Project Two. I deliberately added a lot of movement to my shots, with pans and move ins. However, what I really love about this is the sound. The constant crashing of the waves and the beach ambience I think adds a very documentary feel, and plays more into that video diary genre we had wanted to explore as well with the travel video style.

This is probably one of my favourite sketches of Project Three. I think Vine has a great DIY element that plays perfectly into data collection – it’s just so easy to capture and record moments with this app. I can definitely see this becoming something we can expand on in later stages of our project.

Kim and I started off our Project Two sketches with the theme of online travel videos – using Devin Graham and Philip Bloom’s work as case studies. This type of genre allowed us to play around with technical filmmaking and learn about techniques, but we were told we needed a bit of a look into ‘structure’ and ‘content’ – how would we create some form of a narrative with this type of online video. Thus, when coming up with ideas, Kim and I took this into mind and tried to come up with different themes that could produce 14 or more sketches.

1.  The first idea we had was a ‘first person’ narrative exploration. This idea came from Kim’s teleportation sketch, which had a positive reaction when we presented it as it explored a narrative of some kind – the camera moving through Melbourne to arrive at Queen Victoria Market. However we both felt it was too specific, and that it would be hard to produce a lot of sketches out of something that was so ‘on the nose’.
2.  The second idea was to focus on using specific devices, such as a DSLR camera, GoPro, or mobile phone. We’d be exploring what limitations there were, different effects you’d get with the camera, and how it would play into the travel video genre.
3. The third idea is what we ended using as our chosen theme to base Project Three around. The idea is to use data collection software from mobile phones to create a video diary of some kind – to play around with these different applications and to see what we could do with it and how it could play into travel videos as well. As we talked more about it, we found it we could create some kind of hybrid of travel video and video diary, using software that every day people use.

A video diary mixed with the travel video genre we’ve been exploring could be an interesting combination. It’s so different to use high production cameras than phones. However, this will give us the chance to play around with different apps and also work more on narrative form and structure rather than just playing around with technique.

The main things we will be exploring are:

How can we successfully create a narrative through different data collection softwares? What limitations and perks does each one have?

What can we take from our sketches in Project Two, and apply it to this style of a ‘video diary’?