Experimental Video Evaluation

After making my experimental video, there was parts i was really pleased with and parts i wasn't so pleased with and would have done differently. I also got feedback from those who watched during my exhibition.

Overall i was pleased with how things went during the process of making my experimental video. The thing i was pleased with the most was during post-production and being able to emphasise the lights on the car by using a video effect on Final Cut. This is what i hope to have happened in my video as when i got my idea from watching Koyanisqatsi, the lights on the cars there were like red and white lasers so i tried to get an effect like that. I also thought the music went well with the video as it was relaxing and set a calm mood.

My video turned out differently to what i had orignally planned. The first part of my video was planned but the second part i had to change due to not having the people to help me. I would have liked to pull of my originl plan as i think it would have looked good with a person walking really slowly so that when i sped it up in post production, the peron would be walking normal speed with the cars going fast.

After exhibiting my experimental video, i looked at the feedback that i received from my questionnaire and was pretty pleased with the reaction that i received. The thing most people enjoyed about the video was the music and the lights. I was pleased that people enjoyed the music as it took a while for me to come up with something that i thought would make the video enjoyable and relaxing to watch. When asked what you would change about the video, some people suggested that i should change the location of the 2nd shot which was fair enough as that was the shot i had not originally planned. Other than that, the audience's reading of the video was one i intended as most of the people understood the meaning and the context of my experimental video.

If i was to do my experimental video again, i would try and stick to my original plan as i think it would have been better, also i might have tried to film over a motorway as there would be more cars and also it would be a lot faster.

Exhibition Plan

I have chosen to show my experimental video in my car. I will show it on my drive way at night because it is relevant to my video and the people viewing it might get a feel for the video if they're inside the car.

Diary Entry - Post Production

On the 16th of November 2009, i started to import my footage onto iMovie on the Mac's. As i had 2 hours of footage, it would take a while for the video to import. Whilst waiting for it to import, i started to make my soundtrack using Garageband. After having just over half of my footage imported, i encountered a problem. There wasn't enough free space on the drive to keep my footage as it was around 16gb. I then decided i wasn't really comfortable using iMovie so asked if i could work on Final Cut after having previous experiences with it.

On the 17th November 2009, i had to find a way of getting my footage onto another Mac so i borrowed an external hardrive to store my work. It would seem a lot easier to just work off the external hard drive. Once i transferred my work onto Final Cut i could finish off importing the rest of the video i captured. Now i had my footage imported, i could finally start to edit my experimental video.I started off by speeding up my footage to 10,000% which turned 2 hours video into about 2 minutes. After i had done this, i added fades to join the 2 clips together and put in a visual effect that would emphasise the lights on the cars. I had to play around a bit to make it look as effective as possible.

On the 23rd November 2009, i had pretty much finished editing my experimental video and all that was left to do was to finish off my soundtrack on Garageband and import it onto Final Cut to go with my video. After that was complete, i burnt my experimental video onto a DVD.

Diary Entry - Production

Entry 1 - On the 5th November 2009 i started my first piece of video footage for my experimental video. At the end of the day i set up a camera in room T41 by the window and set up the shot to look over the main road outside the college. Once i set up the camera, i asked John to just press record on the camera as he was last to leave the room and then the lights in the room would be off, and would be starting to get dark outside. The camera would then record for about an hour as that's how long the battery would last for. The next morning i went to go check the footage i captured and whether it would be good enough for what i needed, which it was so i was happy.

Entry 2 - On the 15th November 2009 i had to go shoot the 2nd piece of footage for my experimental video. Unfortunately i had to change my original plans due to my friend dropping out. I had to come up with something quick so decided to do something similar to my first piece of footage and just record the road. This time i was at the side of the road and parked my car in a lay by. I set up the camera next to my car and recorded the traffic for about an hour. Once i got home i checked the footage i captured and was relatively pleased with what i caught. It could have been better if there was more traffic and also at times the camera started going out of focus but hopefully it wouldn't be so noticeable once i speed it up in post production.

Muto by Blu

I recently watched Muto by Blu, which is made using stop frame animation. It is made using street walls which have been spray painted white and then had the image painted onto it. This involves a lot of craft and would have taken a long time to make. I think the concept of this video could be re-birth as the character in the video goes through life, dies and is then born again.

Girl Chewing Gum - John Smith

After viewing this video by John Smith straight away i got the impression it was old as the colour was black and white. The craft of this video is quite clever as the director uses a technique which is trying to trick the audience. He does this by making you believe he is there at the scene and as soon as he gives out an instruction, it happens straight away. It's not till quite a while through the video that you actually start to think he's not actually directing it. What he's done is watched the original clip, and then written a script for it and recorded a voice over to go with it. This video is very conceptual as it makes the audience believe what the director is saying until of course they realise he's not controlling it.

Gisele Kerozene - Jan Kounen

I recently wathed this film by Jan Kounen. First of all i made me laugh as it was quite random how these weird looking witches were just casually flying round Paris. There is a lot of craft in this video though as it involves a lot of stop frame animation which would have taken quite a long time to produce. Even though there is a lot of craft involved, it's hard to work out if their is any concept in the video.

Chapter 3 - Narrative and Non-Narrative Structures

After watching Dollface by Andy Huang, it's clear to see that this video has a narrative structure. This is because it has a beginning, a middle and an end. I would only understand this video if i watch it from beginning to end. However, an example of a non-narrative structured video could be Paul McCarthy's Material Gestures which i saw at the Tate Modern. This is because it has been made so that you can start watching it from any point as it has no story. This is an ideal structure for a gallery as people can walk in and out at any point from the video and it doesn't matter if they haven't watched it from beginning to end.

Chapter 2 - The use of Technology and Techniques and Styles

Technology and filming techniques have been changing all the time over the years. In the 50's or 60's they were making films, with what back then were regarded as the latest technology but nowadays, we wouldn't use the equipment they used back then because technology evolves so now we have even better equipment to be using. We now use computer animation and stop frame animation for example. It's interesting to see how well the people coped in the older days without having the technology we have today. However, i don't think that the meaning of these video's change in any way as people understand when the video's are made and the amount of money that has gone into it. If a video with low budget turns out to be really good, obviously people's opinions of it would be regarded higher to one of the same quality but has been well budgeted.

Chapter 1 - Discuss both Past and Current Artists and Works

I have recently viewed three pieces of work by different artists. Dollface by Andy Huang, Girl Chewing Gum by John Smith and Godfrey Reggio's Koyaanisqatsi. These had some interesting points about them.

"Dollface" is computer animated and has a lot of concept ideas behind the animation. One concept is that television is giving us the audience the idea that by changing the way we look, it will make us feel more comfortable and happier as a person. This is an example of how media can brainwash us into changing who we are.

"Koyaanisqatsi" by Godfrey Reggio was made in 1983. In this film there is a variety of shots that are being used, from flying around the grand canyon to then gliding through the streets of New York. The concept of this video is slightly weird but also very effective. There are images of destruction and bad things with calm and peaceful music. There's also a contrast of old buildings and new buildings and shots being played very slow and then others really fast. The film is showing a glimpse of how our world has changed over years. I think Godfrey Reggio is trying to get us to look at these shots at a different perspective. Comparing this film to "Girl Chewing Gum" they are very different in terms of visual images. They are both quite old films but Koyaanisqatsi uses high colour which is clear whereas Girl Chewing Gum is black and white and not that clear. Dollface is different to both these videos as it is using computer animation and was produced much more recently.

Even though all three of these films have their differences, they can compare to each other in terms of perception. Koyaanisqatsi is about the perception of time, Dollface is the perception of beauty and Girl Chewing Gum uses the perception of truth.

6. Audience, and Audience Interpretation of the Work

It's very interesting to look into audiences and how they interpret different pieces of work. It's interesting to see all the different reactions that the works receive. Are they positive or negative reactions? I think it's good that people have their own opinions and reactions towards the pieces of work because it shows that they’re not afraid to express their feelings about it and that they don’t have to copy other people’s reactions. If the artist created his piece of work with just one intentional meaning behind it, he then,without realising might have created lots of other different meanings which the audience read into. At the Tate Modern, Robert Therrien’s Table and four chairs was a giant dinner table with big chairs in a big room, and some people were looking at it in silence with slightly confused faces but others were turning this piece into a joke by saying, “Imagine eating your dinner of that!”. It was good to see this because I think it doesn’t matter that we all have different perspectives on the work as we’re all individuals and shouldn't be looking at work with the same feelings and opinions.

Chapter 5

I've been thinking about ideas in which i can use to make my experimental video. After watching Koyaanisqatsi, it's giving me some ideas and shots in which i can use for my own work. There's a shot used where they're filming the road which has been sped up in post-production. I think this would be very effective to do at night as the lights from the cars would make it look like lasers. Also its a calm and relaxing thing to watch and shows how night driving is an enjoyable experience. The concept behind this idea could be thinking about time and how traffic can be very fast and the next thing, its really slow! I may also play around in reversing the footage as well as playing it fast and slow.

Koyaanisqatsi

Director: Godfrey Reggio. Duration: 1hr 23mins

Visual Images

At the beginning of the film there are images of an old cave with tribal drawings which zoom out for a while before it cuts to shots of the grand canyon. The camera moves over the canyon very slowly. We then see three different shots involving buildings. One of the shots shows the camera moving around New York buildings, then we see shots of some really old buildings and then we see big buildings that are being demolished.

Audio

With the cave drawings at the beginning, there is some tribal/ritual music and also chanting which gives some atmosphere to the scene. With the shots where the camera movement is very slow, the audio used is violins an old-fashioned classical music but quite up-beat. Then with the fast paced shots such as the destruction of the buildings, the tempo of the music changes and really slows down and is really calm.

Concept

I think the concept of this video is seen as slightly weird but also very effective. We see images of destruction and bad things with calm and peaceful music. Why is this? There's also a contrast of old buildings and new buildings and shots being played very slow and then others really fast. I think the film is showing a glimpse of how our world has changed over years. A lot of people are left wondering what the film is about as there's no speech or acting. After thinking about this film, i think Godfrey Reggio is trying to get us to look at these shots at a different perspective.

4. The use of exhibition space to create meaning

If a piece of artwork was shown in different spaces, it would have a different meaning each time you look at it. For example, if a peaceful picture of swans in a lake was shown in school canteen, people wouldn't appreciate the image as much as they would in a different location. People in a canteen would be loud and having banter with their friends and when they look at this picture, it would have no strong meaning to them. However, if this picture was to be displayed in a gallery on a wall of its own, people are there to look and admire the pictures as they feel it's a place of importance. This environment will give more of a meaning to the one in a school canteen.

After visiting the Tate Modern gallery I could see how space would create different meanings. It was also interesting to see how other people would view the art. I went to see a piece of video work by Paul McCartney called Material Gestures, which we were warned, contained very sexually explicit images. The room we entered was dark and quiet and people didn’t really go far into the room, they stayed near the exit. This may be because they felt disturbed and not comfortable to explore further into the space. Not many people stayed in the room and looked shocked by what they were seeing. As a group we felt happy to be right in he middle of the room and felt comfortable to even share a joke about what we were seeing. If we were to watch this video in a different environment such as the street, I think people would be even more disturbed and disgusted. This is because at the moment its being shown in a dark room, warning you about what you’re watching but if you were to watch this in the open world and come across with no warning, people would end up upset and angry.

I'm not sure though whether the nature of this video is even acceptable for a gallery as i couldn't quite understand what the meaning of it was. Even so.. if you were to show something of this nature, it would be best suited for as gallery as its in a quite location and out of the way, not attracting attention to itself.

Dollface - Andrew Huang

The craft of Andy Huang's Dollface is computer annimated and has a lot of concept ideas behind the animation. One concept is that television is giving us the audience the idea that by changing the way we look, it will make us feel more comfortable and happier as a person. This is an example of how media can brainwash us into changing who we are.