Last semester in ‘Editing Media Texts,’ a particular assignment presented us with a remarkable challenge. The task was to create a ‘audio visual self portrait’ which was somehow representative of who we are. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. The specific requirements and criteria we had to meet made the project deceptively challenging. For one, the piece had to contain content sourced entirely from the public domain, either non-copyrighted, or published with a Creative Commons license (due to last week’s readings on copyright, I thought this would be an appropriate time to post this!). To make matters worse, the piece had to strictly contain seven still images, two video images, no more than 50 words of on-screen text and four sound files – trimmed, treated and mixed. No more, no less. We were also encouraged to make the video close to two minutes as possible, although it could not exceed this limit. With slight apprehension, I accepted the challenge (yes, I realise I had to do it to pass, but that doesn’t sound as courageous), and after what would cumulatively add up to be days straight of work, this was what I was able to come up with!

Laura Doguet Audio Visual Self Portrait from Laura Doguet on Vimeo.

Just in case it didn’t translate, I will briefly explain what my intentions were with this piece – although like anything else, it is of course open to interpretation. The video is basically representative of my development and growth into the person I have become – from the shy, self-conscious youngin’ I used to be, to the confident and positive person I am today. I attempted to achieve this with particular focus on colour and pacing. By beginning my piece entirely in black and white with quite slow, dramatic clips, I aimed to denote my previous personal state.  As the music builds and heightens, I made the visuals intensify simultaneously, with bursts of colour beginning to appear. The colours appear more vividly and frequently as the film progresses, representational of progressive personal transformation. As the song finally reaches its climax and ‘drops’ to the upbeat and joyful track, I aimed to create ‘explosions’ of colour to symbolise the bubbly and colourful person that I am today. Overall I was happy with what I was able to achieve, and ironically I feel like my editing skills definitely ‘grew and developed’ as well.

To see a full list of attributions and sources for the material included in my piece, see the full video and description by clicking here! Peace.