Tagged: Week 5

Let It Go

I’ve gathered footage over the past few days for various things, but they are all pointless. I can’t think of ways to incorporate these into my assessments or even archive them in my personal collections. It may see drastic but I am going to let it all go. I’m not going to completely destroy them from existence, but I am going to move them all into a new folder I’ve created call “COMPLETELY RANDOM AND STUPID THINGS THAT DON’T NEED TO TAKE UP SPACE BUT I MIGHT AS WELL KEEP THEM HERE”. Some of these clips are of my friends as a test drive for my 3rd project, and also some of them are downright terrible quality images that hold nothing but memories. If I’m going to be a professional in this industry I am going to put a higher standard on how I produce my own content. So this is my pledge to hold myself responsible to create better and more useful content, rather than just sitting around a doing things when convenient.

Reflection

Found Footage.

When I heard we would be using found footage in our next project I was ecstatic. I had millions of ideas running through my head of specific clips and shots that would enhance my portrait, but then I actually looked at the criteria. The found footage that they wanted us to use had to be granted permission to use. That meant no dramatic Avengers shots, or hilarious Disney scenes. I had to limit the amount of things I could use then, but that didn’t discourage me. After looking through some of the suggested sites, I saw that there was bountiful free to use content available. Even in one silent film I could see potential re-contextualization in almost every shot. It gave me hope that I could improve on my storytelling ability and editing, and I could see that this certain requirement could play well to my advantage.

It’s just very exiting to consider all the different ideas and ways I could execute this project, but like always, just because I like the task doesn’t mean I will begin it on time. I know I can accomplish so much in this project, I just hope that I actually do complete it on time.

 

The Final Me

This was my (horrible) attempt at showcasing a realistic version of myself. It included 3 main factors in my life. My love for parodies (in this case of superhero films), my dependency on friends, showcased in my scripted brainstorm session with my friend Jon, and my ability to procrastinate no matter what was on the line. It took me a while to come to these conclusions about myself and also figure out a way to depict all these things within the criteria, but I decided that I should play to my strengths and produce a sketch, albeit not an entirely funny one, to reflect my personality. It isn’t the most abstract of videos, but it did result in something very meta. It is a video about me making the video, which was probably accurate and scarily predictive to how long I would let the idea sit in my head before producing the final product.

The video includes 3 photos which go by very quickly, and this was done to show how fleeting these ideas came into my head. In hindsight I realized that I had spent too much time on figuring out the concept of my video and not enough on the photos and content, which is obvious in the amount of screen time each photo is given. It came across more as an afterthought, which is how most of the things I think of end up as. The images were of me avoiding studying, the outside world and attention, and all three add up to my avoidance of responsibility, and this ties in with my theme of procrastination which I was trying to achieve overall.

In the end I believe I successfully conveyed the fact that I am a serial procrastinator, but the subtle nuances in my film don’t actually hit their mark. The general tone of the video is very awkward, but it also adds character into the video. I find humor in awkwardness and with that tone you get the feeling that the video shouldn’t be taken seriously, just like how I shouldn’t be.

https://vimeo.com/123534494

Thinking Out Loud

11:54 – I am hopelessly scared as I upload my self-portrait video to Vimeo. Before I officially post my final assessment piece online I wanted to give a little context about my journey to the end result that my entire class will see tomorrow. Collecting pieces and artefacts for my first self portrait was difficult for me since I didn’t really take a lot of photos or keep memorabilia of my personal life. Everything in my life has been about the things I enjoy. Books, TV shows, movies, friends, music, these were the things I defined myself with. When the focus came upon me I wasn’t sure how to present myself. Did I go for a flashy slightly skewed but better version of Jenny Pham Vo who was efficient and productive and appeared reliable, or did I go with the truth and showcase all the laziness and sloppiness of my life. In the end I chose to show the world the truth, even though it was embarrassing and completely un-artistic. I didn’t use any symbolism or follow through with motifs like my peers, I chose to show a blunt, gluttonous, sloth who always chose to avoid responsibillity and find the easy way instead of the right way. And in the end create a sef-portrait that I could proudly say encompasses the real features of me. It’s not going to be the best self-portrait made, and trust me it’s not, but it is the best I could achieve at this point in time. It is now 12:05 and I need to upload this video to my blog. I shall see you on the other side I guess and hope for the best.