Self-Directed Project
Self-Directed Project
For this project we aren’t given a brief other than to create our own. This project is about setting our own brief and expectations, to create a final outcome of our choice. From this we have a lot of freedom to explore new avenues within illustration and play around with new mediums that we may not have used or have done previously and would like to continue to explore.
I started by making some notes to try stem some ideas. I thought about what I am interested in. I recently explored photography within my module and mainly focused on photographing buildings which isn’t something I tend to lean towards but it was something I quite enjoyed and was glad that I explored something different as it pushed me outside of what I usually look at so I would like to continue to explore looking ay photography. I also really enjoyed the stop motion project and creating my puppets, the process was really interesting and made me find a new interest in clay as well as reminding me how much I enjoy creating films.
We had our briefing for this project and were shown many examples of other students work and what we could potentially look at or be inspired by. After the briefing we were asked to get into groups and discuss our ideas so far with others and then present what we have discussed as a group. We each created two slides with images showing what we are inspired by. I discussed what i was interested in and spoke about my interests but also how I haven’t come up with a narrative for my ideas which is something I want to do next as It is important for me to be able to begin my process.
During the second part of our briefing we were asked to gather into small groups to discuss the ideas we have so far as well as create a presentation all together that we would share with the rest of the groups. We had two slides each to display our ideas so far so I decided to add images I found whilst thinking about what I wanted to do and the style I enjoy working in/looking at. I took what I had written from my note book and spoke about how I have an idea of what mediums I would like to explore and how i would put these together but wasn’t set on a narrative/theme for this project yet which is important as it will allow me to start creating images and exploring what works and what doesn’t and that was the feedback I received, to look at brain storming ideas for narratives and to bring these ideas in for our group tutorial the following week.
London Trip
Videos – IMG_1184 3 IMG_1199 3 IMG_1260 2 IMG_1264 2 IMG_1272
We were taken on a trip to London and were allowed to visit galleries/museums of our choosing. I decided to look around the Tate as it is somewhere I have visited a fair few times and have some very interesting exhibits. I also went to the V&A as well as the science museum. I wanted to mainly document photography exhibitions as that is what I am interested in for this project as well as any film that is being displayed. I linked a few videos of some footage that was being shown in different galleries that is inspiring me to look into film. I also found a theatre section in the V&A which displayed many costumes from various musicals as well as a lot of ways in which sound was used for these musicals and lighting, which I captured in one of my videos and would be interesting to look at if I am creating a film as I feel as though lighting can set the tone/mood for the film. I came across a display of puppets which is something I might look at further down the line. I enjoyed the trip a lot and found it made me even more sure on the idea of creating a film.
Before going in for the tutorial I had made some notes in my book on ideas of what narrative I could look a for my stop motion/film. I was mainly thinking about personal story lines whether that be a memory of mine or just documenting a day or event in my life. I also thought about looking into music as whenever I listen to music I like to create a story line in my head which leads me to imaging a music video and I thought about how I could translate or analyse lyrics from songs and maybe create a stop motion in response to a song. I brought that idea into my group tutorial and spoke about using lyrics to create a story line. I was told not to just start by creating lots of images and marks to music which I could then turn into collages and then move onto to maybe taking them into artivive to create animations that would be shown digitally. I wanted to look into the idea of making marks to music and maybe look at different genres and how that affects the marks I am making and then use these marks to make collages that could potentially be turned into animations/stop motion.
Melissa McCracken
Melissa McCracken is an artist that has synesthesia, which is a neurological condition when you can experience different senses when listening to either music or names etc. She found it difficult to describe verbally what she sees when listening to different sounds so she began putting it on canvas creating these beautiful paintings that express her version of the music she is listening to.
collages
After the group tutorial I wanted to start making marks in my sketchbook to different genres of music. I picked some songs I listen to on repeat and some that I don’t tend to listen to often/ever. I mainly used fine liner and posca pen for this marks and I was able to make the marks quicker but I also used paint that I watered down, which again allowed me to make those marks quicker.
Playlist I made:
I made a playlist on spotify of a mixed genre of songs that I could listen to when mark making. Most of these songs I listen to often but some I haven’y listened to in a while so thought it would be interesting to mix the two and see the result of this through mark making.
I made a series of marks in my sketchbook along to the music. I used a variety of mediums such as paint, ink, pens and even used sugar paper for one set of marks. Some marks were quite messy and quick which look more natural whereas a few look a little too planned out. I am mainly drawn to the ink marks I created as I drew the marks on separate pieces of paper and then pressed them down in my sketchbook which curated some nice prints of my mark but it also smudged the original mark a little too much in some cases. Looking back now I could have definitely made way more marks and used more mediums but once I had created a few I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I felt I was creating the same marks over and over again.
Edits
I scanned in my collages and sent them to my ipad to work on procreate. I digitalised my collages and then began to play around with layering them on top of each other as well as playing around with different features on procreate such as a swirl affect and merging the layers. I am drawn to the aesthetic of these collages and its nice to see them layered over the top of each other as its like it has created a whole new image of marks and even creating a mixed genre of music. I feel as though working with images like this digitally is an excellent way to experiment further as there are endless possibilities but when working with the actual marks I was limited with what I could do. I’d like to continue mark making and see if I can allow myself to work more freely rather than a set idea of how the marks are going to look.
Poster Research
I went to the library and found two different books, one that looks film posters and one looking at rock posters. I thought I would take these books out and have a flick through as it could be a way forward with my mark making and even give me some inspiration in what direction I could potentially take my marks.
More Mark Making
- david bowie
- a song from basquait playlist
- song from gummo playlist
- song from gummo playlist
- glue beabadoobee
- venom little simz
- ice water loyle carner
From the poster books I found some film posters that drew me in to look at their sound track which i then used to create more marks, I also used some of the artists I looked at previously. This time when making my marks I used larger sheets of paper which definitely helped me feel less restricted and make bolder marks across the page and made me want to make as many marks as I could. I also tried not to make these marks look a certain way but to just make them along to the music so they are more raw. I used different mediums this time which also helped, I was a fan of using the charcoal as I could make really scratchy marks but also smooth as well as when using the ink. The ink allowed me to move the brush along the page smoothly so I could get more marks down quicker whilst the music was playing. I also over laid mediums onto my mark such as pen ontop of my ink marks which was interesting to see the combination of the two different textures. As well as creating my marks on the paper, I stuck down masking tape which I then peeled off afterwards and it left large bold lines in my marks taking away some of what I did and leaving gaps in the work. I enjoyed making these marks more than the last as I listened to even broader genres and felt I worked more freely.
Marks over Posters
When drawing my marks I had the idea of using posters of the artists whose music I was listening too and draw over the top of them. I took two of the film posters and then the rest were the music artists posters. I used posca pens and oil pastels, my favourite between the two was the oil pastel because of the gritty texture it left on top of the posters as seen on the loyle carner and beabadoobee poster. I am drawn to the Gummo poster out of all of them as I love how chaotic it is whereas the others can be quite simplistic, again me planning the marks in my head. Looking back I could have enlarged the posters so I could make larger marks but i am still happy with this experiment.
Animated Marks
Beabadoobee Animation Loyle Carner Animation Little Simz Animation
I had the idea of animating the music poster marks, not for any particular reason other than more experimentation. I used procreate to do this as it has an animation setting allowing you to turn your layers into animations. My favourite is the loyle carner animation simply because of the textured brush I used to recreate the effect the oil pastel makes and the movement of the marks. It could be interesting to create a stop motion using marks and could be something I potentially look at later.
Music Videos – Mixed Media inspiration
I recently started watching music videos when listening to music as it’s not something I often do, but something my housemate does a lot. I started going into a spiral of music videos and came across Avey – end game music video which included a lot of mixed media editing and drew me into to find even more. I was so consumed by these music videos and they have really inspired me to take my mark making further. I was drawn to how a simple shot using a camera could turn into such an interesting sequence using mixed media overlay and how it can potentially add a whole new meaning to that one scene.
I want to set myself the goal of creating an edit using a music video from my list of music I had used for my mark making and then create my own stop motion/moving sequence. I would like to attempt to create a short video that looks as if it was shot by using stop motion and then use different mediums over these multiple images that I can then put together digitally.
Mixed Media Stop Motion
From looking at the different music videos using mixed media stop motion, I decided to make my own. I took screenshots from loyle carners music video for ottolenghi which is one of the songs I listened to when making my marks, and printed them out. I then began to use paint, thread and even scratching into the images to replicate some of the mixed media I had seen in the videos. I had no direction for these marks other than to be playful. I enjoyed scratching into the images as I was taking aways layers and sections of the image by creating a whole new image itself. I then used my stop motion app to put all the images together to create a mixed media stop motion. This didn’t work well as you can see the boarder of the images and the background that I laid them against which just makes the stop motion look very messy, I should have scanned them in but I didn’t really think about that at the time. I did enjoy this process and would like to continue with it.
Below are links to my pdfs that show each screenshots I took from the different music videos:
bakar little simz B 4,5,6 B 1,2,3
Link to my mixed media stop motions:
Little Simz Mixed Media Stop Motion
Beabadoobee Mixed Media Stop Motion
I took screenshots from Little simz music video, Bakar and Beabadoobees to create more mixed media stop motions. I printed each pdf off and began to do the same process as before, adding marks on top of the images. This time I used oil pastels as well as using black and white versions of the images, as seen in the little simz pdf and beabadoobees. I really enjoyed the process of these stop motions and even seeing them finished made me sure that this is what I would like to continue with. Using the oil pastels on the images is my favourite medium to use as again, the texture is so gritty and really adds the aesthetic I want to go for which is grainy and old looking. I think that the most successful stop motion was the ‘little simz’ beccause of the flow of the images as well as the movement of the mixed media, it flowed nicely and I feel as though using the black and white version of the image over the top, again adds to the style I am going for. The least successful was the beabadoobee stop motion as I didn’y used enough images so it doesn’t flow as well and just looks quite jumpy. The mixed media for that stop motion was the one I enjoyed doing the most but overall I just don’t think the stop motion flows as well as the others.
Calligraphy workshop
We had a calligraphy workshop where we practiced using ink and sponges to write different fonts on the table. I really enjoyed this workshop as in previous projects I used ink to for my text, so looking at it more closely was fun. We started off by practicing with the ink and sponge, trying not to go over lines we had already created but I found that part difficult. the second half of the workshop we wrote words to do with out project so I wrote town the title of the songs I had been looking at. Using the ink was really enjoyable and reminded me of mark making.
Analysing Lyrics
In one of my tutorials with Jeremey, we spoke about how I can introduce a narrative or text into my stop motions. I mentioned how I might look at writing my own narrative using the lyrics and thats when he told me about chat gpt. I picked the three artists that I have focused on the most and the songs that I listen to the most. I then went onto to chat GPT and asked the AI to “Analyse the song {song title} by {artist} “, to which it then wrote about each song and the meaning behind it. I thought it would be interesting to see what the AI would come up with, knowing that it can use internet sources, compared to what I would say i personally feel the song is about. When listening to each song I usually visualise my own story, whether that be just listening to the words and analysing them or creating my own film in my head based off of what I am hearing. I found this quite useful, seeing the lyrics explained can potentially help me with moving forward to looking at creating my own videos in response, in the style I have been working in so far. I have very much enjoyed working with already made music videos and turning them into my own mixed media stop motions but moving forward I am going to use my own images from videos and start to look into my own sounds. I also want to narrow down my narrative for this video as at this moment in time I am looking at multiple songs which is making it more difficult to create my own video. I feel as though I need to either pick one song or create a story line using references from the songs I have been looking at.
Analysing Lyrics
I also decided to analyse the lyrics myself but rather what I see when reading them to help myself visualise the lyrics. This was also really helpful as it created scenes in my head that I could then take forward into my stop motions.
Cut Up Machine
Jeremey also mentioned a game called cut-up which is where you cut up sections of text into either sentences or words and mix them up. He showed me another website called Cut-up machine that cuts up sections of text by each word and it creates a whole new text. I decided to add the lyrics of the songs I had been looking at into the machine and see what it would come up with. It was interesting to see these lyrics jumbled up into a new order as it can create a completely new story line, which it did, but also confused me a lot and I found it hard to visualise the lyrics in my head, so I decided I would do it by sentences. I printed off each of the songs and cut them into strips, I then jumbled them up and pulled them out at random and stuck them onto a page. I feel as though this method worked better for me as the new order really helped me visualise a completely new narrative for these lyrics, especially the beabadoobee song.
From this cut up version I imagined it to be a conversation between a couple and them saying goodbye, before going off somewhere. I already knew it was a love song but this adaptation of it encouraged me to think more deeply. I’d like to look at this version of cut up lyrics as a reference for a stop motion.
I also did the same thing but added all the songs together which created one giant story with mixed genres.
Collage response
After experimenting with the lyrics I decided to create collages from some of my favourite lines as collaging was something I wanted to look at from the beginning, as well as it helping me create more experiments. Starting off with the lyrics from the Loyle Carner song. The first two lines already set a scene so I used that as a starting point. To create my collages I used letters from a magazine as I like the messiness of them not matching and for the images I used cut outs from a collage book I own that uses a lot of vintage/retro images. Out of the two for the Loyle Carner collages I prefer the second as I like the layout of the images over lapping an how literally I took the lyrics, as well as the mash up of different letters working together. As for the first collage, I feel it is too simple. I could have looked at the lyrics from a different angle and maybe created something more broad. I also am not happy with the way the letters are the main focus when I wanted the image to set the scene rather than reading what was going on.
These are my favourite collages out of all the ones I created. I think that they are both strong collages, the colour theme of both the images and text work well together as well as the layout. I also like the theme of the lyrics and how the images match them well.
Using the Beabadoobee song i created these love themed collages. I think the first could have been thought about more. I don’t think the colours work well together and the background is too bold for the text and images on top of it. It would have been stronger if I added more images and used smaller lettering. However the second collage is much better as the colour theme works well with both the images and lettering. I used the love lettering to act as if it was tangled around the people which I thought was an nice detail.
From creating these collages I had the idea of creating a stop motion using the beabadoobee lyrics as reference like I mentioned earlier and feel as though I can make a stronger response to the lyrics. I liked the idea of the storyline being about a couple that are having a conversation before one of them leaves. I also thought about the aesthetic of the stop motion and how I could use imaged from my collage book because of the vintage/retro style.
I gathered lots of materials such as card board and all of my images and created a set. I was going to create a story board and draw a design of the set but I just wanted to start making it instead before I lost my vision. I created a tik tok of the process I took to make my set which I enjoyed documenting. I then used the stop motion app once I had created my set and had my characters in place. Rather than moving the characters around I used the camera movements to act as them talking to one another. I also thought it would be funny to add the song over the top of the stop motion but in the order of the cut-up version. I enjoyed this process a lot and has made me think I might take my stop motion in the direction of set making.
PDFs : scene 4 Scene 3 scene 1 Scene 2
Mixed Media Pdfs
It was really interesting to see the mixed media lyrics over laid on the original stop motion. I can see that the oil pastels are still working well on top of the images as well as the posca pen, they both stood out well against the image. I would like to maybe look at using more than just the oil pastels and pen as when i first started looking at mixed media I was using paint and the same images but in black white over the top of my animation. I had to focus all of the movement in the camera. I knew when making the set, that would be the case. I wanted a small amount of movement in the images as if there wasn’t any, I’d just be adding the lyrics and doodles over the same images and the only thing that would have been animated would the mixed media I added on top. I want to go back to using stills from videos but this time my own, but before I start shooting my own videos I want a solid narrative to follow as at this moment in time I am using multiple lyrics from different songs but I want to create some sort of story or poem that is inspired by the cut up lyrics.
I used to watch a lot of video poems when I was into poetry and thought about how they use videography as a way to visualise the words in the poem. I found a few on You tube that I thought were beautifully filmed and worked well with the poems they were visualising. I want to continue with the theme of music so maybe looking at using my own lyrics or poem and then adding music over the top would stay in the theme of what I have been looking at.
Video Poems
sentences
I looked back on the cut-up lyrics I experimented with previously and focused on the page where i stuck all the lyrics in a jumbled order. When reading this version of the lyrics I thought a lot about a certain theme which was summer which I got from the little simz lyrics and being with your mates from the beabdoobee lyrics, so I decided to make a note of what came into my head when reading it which was memories I have from last summer. I chose to write these memories in really short sentences rather than the exact memories. I was really drawn to three in particular which were ‘Jungle Type Beat’, ‘cheap wine’ and ‘cigs in the sun’. I like how simplistic these sentences are but also the memories they hold. I want to use this text to focus on to create my film/stop motion.
Jungle music/culture
I want to look into jungle DnB for my music as the genre reminds me of summer and also gets me in the mood for summer which is the vibe I want for the film I am going to make. Jungle Dnb is a genre of electronic dance music that became popular in the early 90s in the UK rave scene. Djs and producers would experiment with a lot of different samples of music such as dub, reggae and hip hop to create a unique sound which was and still is heavily rooted in UK urban culture. It also has avery strong connection to Jamaican sound system culture, but the genre has raised questions of copy right infringement as well as cultural appropriation but is also seen as a genre of music that creates a community amongst its fans. Jungle is often played at raves and parties. Jungle is one of my favourite drum and bass genres and a style of music I enjoy listening to often, it helps when I am struggling to connect with my work and encourages me to become more creative. One of my favourite djs/producers in the jungle scene is Nia Archives and I listen to her most days, I am also really inspired by her music videos which I am going to look into later on when I start putting my video together.
Text Experiments
RPReplay_Final1683035611 RPReplay_Final1683035631
I am starting off by experimenting with my chosen text. Living in Brighton you see a lot of graffiti and thats one thing that I thought would work with the type of music I want to focus on. When looking around you notice a lot of stickers and a few times I have seen these ‘hello my name is’ stickers stuck around and i thought I could use them as a base for my text so i took my first sentence and wrote on top of the printed sticker sheet, that I downloaded online, using oil pastels as well as star stickers as stars are a shape I am obsessed with at the moment so I wanted to add a personal touch as well as another element of mixed media. I took the scanned versions into procreate and turned it into a stop motion but I was not happy with the result as I feel as though they aren’t strong pieces and I should focus more on how I am presenting my text.
Graffiti Culture
(Tate Modern: Graffiti Art)
Graffiti started in New York, particularly in urban neighbourhoods as a form of expression in the 70s and overtime spread globally. Graffiti is associated with illegal activities and can be quite controversial but is seen as an art form that explores self-expression by many, but can also be seen as political activism, that involves spray paint and even markers. A lot of graffiti artists are commissioned to create beautiful murals or art projects. The reason I have chosen to focus my text font on graffiti is because I think it goes well with the genre of music I am now focusing on as well as living in Brighton, graffiti is seen everywhere, some being amazing pieces of work and overs just doodles or tags.
font ideas
I want to focus on the font so I went onto a website called dafont that allows you to use fonts freely and personally. I used the graffiti section to find multiple fonts and the one that stood out to me the most was the first. I am drawn to the sharpness of the font as well as how it looks like a lot of tags I have seen around brighton in the graffitied areas. I used both the sentence “cigs in the sun’ and ‘jungle type beat’ when looking at different fonts.
flashing – inspired by young-hae chang
Own Image.
Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries is an art collective that consist of Korean artist Young-Hae Chang and North American artist Marc Voge. Their work focuses on storytelling through text-based animations, that were “composed in Adobe Flash” (Forma) which typically consist of simple black and white text set against a plain black ground as well as being accompanied by self-composed jazz/electronic music. These animations were curated to been seen online, which are accessed through their website and in a gallery setting. YHCHI’s works are seen as very thought-provoking narratives, bringing up issues both “social and political” (Tate). One of their most famous works is “Dokata”, a flash animation that tells a story about Doktata, a Woman that travels to new York to pursue her dreams, this animation is again very similar to the exhibition I have spoken about and seen, as it consists of a series of black and white images that are timed to a hypnotic jazz soundtrack. Another notable work by YHCHI is ‘Samsung’ which is about the south Korean corporation of the same name. The flash animation talks about the companies practices and the effects is has on south Korea through quick flashes. Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries flash animations are proof of the power of multimedia animation and able to curate work that is both visually stimulating and as well as exploring contemporary themes
Animations
I used my chosen font and took it into procreate to create flash animations inspired by young-hae chang heavy industries, whom I focused on in my task 2 essay. I created separate layers and then used the animation setting to put them together. I also added a free to use jungle dnb tune over the top and I really liked the flow of the words to the beat of the song. As much as I like the animations, I am not too keen on the background as it doesn’t really fit the style that I am going for, which again is a grainy, old looking aesthetic.
Digital Experiment
I decided to use a video i took on my digital camera a while ago of a wall covered in graffiti and layer the flashing text over the top. I am much more happy with the aesthetic of the animation but still think it could look grittier as the font is very bold and stands out a little too much against the background so I decided to turn the images into a pdf, print them off and then hand write the graffiti style text over the top. I then scanned the images back in and took them back into procreate to create an animation. I am pleased with the final result and feel it works much better with the style I am looking to work with. The images were ruined a little when printing them off but I also again think it adds to the aesthetic.
Physical Experiment
Pdf –
Stop motion using scans
Stop Motion – Stickers
Looking back at the use of the stickers I still wanted to incorporate them somehow so I used my graffiti font and my second sentence and wrote the individual words over the top of my stickers as well as the whole sentence. I then had the idea of taking these stickers to different locations and taking photos of them as if I came across them. I went to different places outside that either had a lot of graffiti already or would look interesting if they were tagged with graffiti. I then used my stop motion app and took photos of the stickers stuck in different places, making sure I keep the sticker centred using the onion skin layer, so I am able to see the previous layer.
This was the final result of the stop motion and I really like how it turned out. I like the flow of the video and how the sticker stays centred throughout making clean transitions to the next image. I would like to incorporate this into my final film when it comes to the time of editing.
Third text experiment
I wanted to be able to create my own graffiti mark without using spray paint so I wrote out each letter quite large and then painted each black to replicate a sort of spray painted look. I knew that it wouldn’t look exactly like spray paint but I wanted to create my own version. I then stuck these to the wall in my garden and began creating different stop motions, looking at placing the letters individually as well as the movement of the camera as if I was out on the street taking photos of graffiti I came across. I am pleased with the final result, especially the stop motions.
Final Text Experiment
I wanted to make a title/end card for the video explaining what the video would be about. I used the same font and wrote out the letters onto my card and then coloured them in using a red oil pastel to curate a sort of spray paint texture as well as the gritty effect I am looking closely at capturing. I also drew star symbols on it as it is a shape that I want to reoccur in my film, again being a personal touch and some scribbles at the bottom to represent the mixed media I am going to add. I then filmed a few different stop motions, including me moving the card around, so that the viewers can see the artist who made the video as well as the fact I just wanted to be featured in my own video.
Inspiration for film
Links to screen recordings:
RPReplay_Final1682791805 RPReplay_Final1682792236 RPReplay_Final1682792777
https://www.instagram.com/delphino_productions_/?hl=en – shot and directed music videos as well as Nia Archives herself
I have been listening to Nia Archives a lot recently as she is a producer/DJ that inspires me and when listening to her music on spotify I noticed the short clips they show and I was really drawn to the way they were filmed. They look as though they are filmed in the style of stop motion. I decided to watch one of her music videos that shows the stop motion in more depth and I was really inspired. The video was shot by Delphino Productions, who I explore in my professional practice essay, as well as also directed by Nia Archives. A lot of ger videos have this stop motion theme as well as using a time-lapse technique which is also re-occurring. Also the aesthetic in which the music video is filmed fits into what I would like to look into. The music is obviously produced by Nia Archives and fits in the genre of jungle so the video is made to fit the beat of the jungle track which has a very fast beat so when making my video I have to consider the timing of my stop motion and clips.
Digital camera
Know that I had a rough idea of what I want my video to be like I began gathering and shooting my own clips. I want this film to be really fun and experimental rather than following a specific narrative. I want to add as many experiments as I can as well as my text experiments. I started by filming my friend Lucy, conversations we were having and candid moments. I also played around with close ups and different angles. I used my old digital camera to shoot these videos as I knew that I would get the grainy effect i want. I also gathered clips around brighton on my iphone as I wanted some location shots in my film and when taking these videos the weather was lovely.
I also filmed my digital camera as well as using my stop motion app on my phone to then film the screen of the camera as I was able to capture a really fuzzy and old looking style video. I am really pleased with the stop motions of the camera, again simply because of the aesthetic.
IMG_3255 IMG_3256 MVI_0985 MVI_0990 My_Stop_Motion_Movie(35) My_Stop_Motion_Movie(36) My_Stop_Motion_Movie(37)
Mixed Media PDFS
I then turned a lot of my clips into PDFs which I printed off and began experimenting with different mark making. I mainly used oil pastels, pen and star stickers for these experiments. I kept in mind the placement of the stickers and marks as I knew that when the images would be turned into a video, I would want them to flow nicely. I am pleased with the way I used the oil pastels and stickers and the placement of them over the images and the fact they stand out against the images drawing you in.
I also looked at using black and white versions of the images to layer over the top as when trying this on my little simz stop motion I really liked how it turned out. I also just wanted to experiment with just using paper rather than colourful stickers and oil pastels.
I liked the close up of Lucys eyes a lot that I wanted to take photos of my eye and do the same experiment but even more of a close up. I wanted to create a movement sequence using these images and I hoped that the black and white versions that I layered over the top would work and create a nice flow when I turn it into a stop motion.
I took the same close up video and used black posca pen and fine liner to draw over the top of the black and white images. I wanted to create as many experiments as I could using my images and was just testing different mediums. I am not too keen on the first row of drawings as i feel the thick pen is too bold for the image but the fine liner that I used to draw the stars works much better and is a simpler experiment.
I also did a sequence just using oil pastels to play around with that texture. I am not too happy with these as I don’t particularly like the marks I made but still want to try this experiment.
sticking with the theme of just using one medium I decided to do a sequence using just the start stickers as I was intrigued to see the movement of the star.
I also used the same image sequence to use both stars and pen, again as I was intrigued by the movement of the stars but also wanted to see how the pen would move too.
Lastly I used both pen and oil pastels to draw over the top of Lucy laughing and I thought it would be interesting to see how text would look using the oil pastels. I feel as though a lot of the images don’t match up so I think this sequence will be quite jumpy.
Collecting videos
Stop Motion
Here are all of the stop motions put together. Some I am more pleased with than the others. I am pleased with the quality and flow of the eye close ups of both mine and Lucys. I also think the the oil pastels and stars work so well together and really stand out against the images. All the stop motions have the gritty effect that I wanted but some look better with it than others. I think for my video I am going to use the eye close ups and both videos of Lucy laughing.
More Mixed media scans
I did one more experiment with Lucy laughing using pen, stars and oil pastels and really like the quality of the images as well as the layout of the mixed media. I would also like to use this image sequence in my film.
Music
As mentioned earlier I found a free to use Jungle DnB track on You tube. I was really drawn to the pace of the beat and thought it would work well with the vision I have for my video which is fast paced stop motions.
editing the video
To start putting my videos together I am going to use imovie as its a good editing software. I don’t have a particular plan of how the video will be laid out and I don’t want to follow one as I much prefer playing around with the order and timings along side the music rather than adding that later, I also feel as though doing it this way it would fit better with the timing of the beat.
I also decided that the video clips i took on my iphone and the camera would fit better in the video if I turned them into stop motions so I used an online software called ‘Clideo’ which allowed me to turn each of my videos into stop motions which I think fits better with the timing of the music and the whole style of the video.
Draft 1
Here is the first draft, at the beginning of the video I stuck with the timing of the music but as the video went on I became more loose with it. I also tried to add my text into areas of the video where the previous or next clip is similar to the text as if it was telling a story. With my video clips and mixed media stop motions I wanted them to flow together so that it would go from the stop motion video and flow nicely into the mixed media stop motion which i think it did. There are some areas I would like to change around as it can be quite jumpy as well as the quality is lost on a lot of the stop motions, which you could say adds to the style I am going for but for some I think too much. I also think that the text is hard to read so when I go back to edit I am going to try and slow the clips down. I also need to add my title/end card clips.
FINAL VIDEO
This is my final video edit. I am pleased with the way this film has turned out. The flow of the video goes well with the pace of the music. The stop motions work well with the timing of the videos and go from one to the other nicely. The overall style of the video is what I have been envisioning throughout the process and I am so happy that my experiments have lead me to this film. I enjoyed the process of editing my video and seeing all my different experiments come together. The quality is still lost in certain places but that is something that will just have to be left as the time I have left to finish this is not long.
How is this video going to be accessed?
QR codes
Whilst at uni I saw this QR code stuck multiple walls around the building, so I scanned it and it lead me to this instagram page. Once I had scanned I thought about the fact that I was so intrigued to see what the QR would take me to, so I thought that I could make my own QR that people could scan rather than sticking to my orignal idea which was to just upload it onto my instagram as a reel which is something we had looked at in a previous workshop. I would like to have the QR code stuck up somewhere, maybe in one of the locations I used for my sticker text, so it is out in public on display.
I found a website that allows you to create your own QR codes and even edit the design of them as well as the colour. I pasted my youtube link into the URL box and it instantly created my QR code.
I created a few designs so that I can play around with a few of them. My favourite is the first and second as they stand out the most as well as they both involve stars which is a symbol that comes up multiple times in my video and has become my trademark. I am going to experiment with creating small posters just using the QR code and my instagram name as I would like this to also be part of my self promotion.
Poster Experiments
After making my QR code I wanted to produce some posters that I can then stick up so that my video can be accessed by the public. I created each poster on procreate as it is easier to play around with the layout digitally. I looked at using the font I used for my text to add onto my poster so that I could add my social media username and also the words scan me to catch peoples attention. I played around with the background texture by downloading paper textures as well as some of the lettering using news paper letters and even star patches. The two that stand out to me the most are the third and fourth poster design as both include the star patches which I thought was an eye catching touch. The third keeps with the theme of my graffiti font and the fourth allows the text to stand out. I wanted to print the posters out first to see what would like better physically.
printed Version
Out of the two I much prefer the second because of the lettering that stands out against the background as well as the overall layout. I also asked for the opinions of my house mates and they all agreed that the second stands out more and catch their eye if they were to see this when out.
Testing the QR codes
Testing to see if the QR code would work when printed and it takes you straight to my youtube video, so the video can be easily accessed through the QR.
For my self promotional piece I wanted to create a very short video of my work QR code being noticed by someone and then showing them using it which then leads to my video. I took a few different clips at different angles of my house mate pretending to be a passer by noticing my QR code and scanning it. I also put the clips through clideo to see if the stop motion effect would work with the video as thats the style I have looked at throughout but I thought that using more stop motion clips would be too much and wouldn’t allow you to differentiate the “advert” from the actual video.
Link to instagram reel – https://www.instagram.com/reneearttt/
Response to self-directed project
Overall, I really enjoyed the process of this project. I found it difficult in some places as I would be experimenting and then wouldn’t know where to take it after that but I feel as though all the experiments helped me to get to where I am now and I was able to create my film. My film is not meant to have a narrative but to be a product of experimentation and be playful. I want my video to be open to interpretation and be enjoyable to watch over it have to have a deeper meaning. This project was a step forward into me finding the style in which I want to work. I want this project as a whole to be viewed as me exploring new avenues and pushing myself to try new techniques rather than creating a perfect final piece as I don’t/ didn’t want my video to be perfect. I hope that my film shows everything I have worked towards and explained and is viewed as my stepping stone into pushing myself out to look at new ways to interpret illustration.