Concept & Story 

The concept of Sharren and I’s project was the constant battle within a person who is indecisive. We were inspired to create this project on this topic because I felt as if there was a lot potential with scenes and different metaphors that we could include.  With the project, we wanted to define indecisiveness and what it could look like in our daily lives from the point of view of someone who is indecisive. We wanted to explore this topic because we felt as if we could somewhat closely relate to it and were excited for the outcome.

Creation Process & Execution

Sharren and I decided to create a new storyboard(shown below) after we went through each line of the narration and decided on what to film and how to film. I felt as if it was easier to do so we could get a glimpse of what we potentially wanted the outcome to be. Therefore, we filminess based off of how we planned and then created a storyboard that fit. 

We decided that we would each shoot scenes that were accessible to us for an example, I had a broken clock at home so I would film the clock scene. Most of Sharren’s scenes were filmed at home while mine were mostly outside. As for the lighting, we decided that it should be natural lighting and if needed we could adjust on premiere pro in which we did end up doing due to the high exposure when we put it in the timeline. Some challenges we faced were not being able to film some scenes such as a person standing in a crowd because we both were limited to where we could film. For my editing process, I basically just compiled the clips together and adjusted the scenes to make it fit the voiceover. Additionally, I have to adjust the lighting and brightness for the clips because we both had different lighting and it was overexposed when we put into the timeline. We also decided to use a split screen for one of the scenes to show two clips at once which I think for the voiceover pretty well. 

Collaboration

For this project, I wrote the script for the narration and recorded myself and then revised after with the help of Sharren. I also filmed half of the clios for the project as well as drawing out half of the final storyboard. Even though Sharren and I are in complete opposite timezones, I really like how we were able to easily communicate and get things done in a timely manner. And if we had any questions, we would not hesitate to ask eachother. When brainstorming what to film and how to change the narration, Sharren really helped me think outside the box and gave me a few suggestions which I really appreciated because sometimes it really helps to have another person give you suggestions and options tat you would have never thought of.

Aesthetics & Results

For our project, Sharen and I decided to go for a modern, casual, everyday aesthetic because we thought others may be able to relate and enjoy. The concept for our project is also very straightforward so the audience does not have to guess what our project is about and they can just enjoy what we have put together. I do feel like our project is on the faster pace side but I think it works well because the narration covers a lot and in order to keep the audience interested, we wanted to include scenes to help the audience visually the narration. We also used shots that we learned and class such as medium shot, point of view shot, etc to create different feelings for different types of scenes to move the story along.

 

All in all, I had a lot of fun making this project and am so grateful to have such an amazing partner!

 

link to project: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T9PccHE57RxjBXgO2SWya4ieIR9GowX2/view?usp=sharing

Project Title:  This or That ?

Team Members:  Ellen and Sharren 

III.  Concept | Storyline:

       1). Who are you going to interview? Or What is the piece (article, poem, story) for the narrative voice over?  

We will make our own narration

First part-definition 

Different type of indecisiveness: choosing about food-life paths 

       2). What’s the story about?  

The story is about a person who is indecisive and how indecisiveness has dominated her whole entire life. She feels unmotivated and is trying to search for a solution. 

-Choosing food/life path; applying university,opening new business/

       3). Which part of the story are you going to focus on? 

The way she battles with her indecisiveness 

       4). What kind of style/aesthetics are you going to pursue?

Modern, everyday life, simple

1. Execution Plan: 

       1). What equipment are you going to use when shooting the movie? (cell phone, DSLR camera, sound recorder, stabilizer..)

Cell phone 

       2). Which locations will it be shot at? When is it? time/night/unknown? Why? 

The setting of our video will be inside the house. We can also shoot some scenery to fit our narration since the focus of our project is the character and her story.

       3). What are some challenges you might  encounter and how will you prepare?

Our time zones are completely different so we need to arrange times for us to work together that are convenient for the both of us. Another challenge may be the way we film because we both are filming by ourselves and we have to take lighting into consideration so the final clips don’t look too different from each other. 

1.   Storyboard Draft

Firstframe: Medium Shot of person holding up two choices, looking left and right, confused on what to choose

Second: Person waking up and choosing what to eat for breakfast

Third: Procrastination, close up shots of her desk and her working, sleeping on desk, on her phone. 4 way split screen, needs to choose her major (sticky notes on wall)

Fourth: Feels dominated by emotions and indecisiveness. Medium shot of her feeling frustrated

Fifth: Tries to find motivation, full shot, wide shot of sceneries

Sixth: Lessons learned, finds inspiration, looks at time, starts running

1. Gantt Chart

 

Task	Owner	Start Date	Due Date	Duration	PCT of Task Complete
Write narration.	Ellen + Sharren	4/26	5/3	1 Day	100%
Storyboard (Draft)	Sharren	4/26	4/27	1 Day	100%
Final Storyboard	Sharren +Ellen	4/27	4/28	1 Day	0%
Shooting without character	Ellen	4/30	5/7	8 days	0%
Shooting with character	Sharren	4/30	5/7	8 days	0%
Editing Draft 1		5/8	5/10	2 days	0%
Final Editing		5/10	18/12	2 days	0%

Narrative: This or that

If someone asked me to use one word to describe myself,

It would be indecisive.

According to google, being indecisive is not having or showing the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively.

And that is exactly what I have to face everyday.

My indecisiveness can range from a simple what do I eat in the morning? 

Cereal or Egg…

To my actual short term and long term goals.

The solution to my indecisiveness?

Procrastination.

Lately I have been struggling to pick my major because of my indecisiveness,

What if I don’t like it after?

What if I don’t find a good job?

What if I find the classes boring?

Everyone around me seems to know what they’re doing. But me? I honestly couldn’t tell you.

All these questions make me unmotivated to do anything.

I stare at the wall and my mind is blank.

So many choices but what do I choose?

I look back at the clock and realize I wasted a good 5 hours contemplating my life.

I think it’s time to find motivation.

 

link: https: //youtu.be/2SBxS5J6shk

Concept

Since my parents have always been busy at work, I started to learn how to cook starting in middle school. Of course I started from the basics which was cooking noodles. Once quarantine started, I no longer had to cook noodles because my parents would always cook for me. This memory soundscape is basically about a dream I had about cooking noodles but waking up to my parents cooking breakfast for me during quarantine. That feeling was a good and heartwarming feeling because as soon as I woke up, I had food on the table. It is also a very nostalgic feeling because now, my parents are back at work and I either don’t eat breakfast or just have a bowl of milk and cereal which isn’t half as good as their food. 

Process

When it thinking about cooking, the first words that come into my head would be boiling, water, stove, timer, etc. I tried my best to incorporate these sounds into my memory soundscape so it sounds like the listener is there and listening and watching me cook noodles.  Boiling always takes the longest time when cooking so the sound of the water boiling is present in more than half of my memory soundscape.  As for the alarm/ timer, I wanted to incorporate that because it both shows that the noodles are ready and my alarm trying to wake me up in the morning which meant that me cooking noodles was actually a dream. I used a lot of echo for the boiling sound so it sounded like the water kept on boiling. I also used reverb for higher perched sounds to emphasize them. But most importantly, I used a lot of panning and I think that’s what made my project come together. By using pan, I was able to make the sound travel left to right and vice versa.

A problem I encountered during this project was the continuous echo sound after my soundscape had ended. I did not know how to make the audio end so I had about 25 seconds of constant echo of  noodles boiling. 

Conclusion

I got feedback from Professor Inmi about how I was able to make the soundscape sound more like a dream as well as how I could have recorded sounds from a further distance so not everything is upfront. If I had more time, I would take Professor Inmi’s advice and lower the sounds in the background so when the alarm rings, it would seem more like a dream. I personally do think it was hard to tell that it was a dream because of the way I edited the audios. Additionally to make the project better, I would have recorded more sounds and experimented with more effects to make the memory soundscape more interesting. 

 

Steyerl talks about how the “unbroken belief” of the documentary form is challenged. How might fiction inform the truth?

Steyerl mostly talks about how documentary forms are not always authentic and can actually manipulate how the audience feels by portraying something a certain way. She states that “the uncertainty that documentary truth provokes is a central component of a general incertitude” and we can “no longer ask whether documentary images correspond to reality or not”. Fiction may inform truth by portraying something that might fiction and has no not happened but in reality, it may “shows something that does not yet exist and maybe come one day.” By the way Steyerl discusses this, it seems as it if it is meant to be seen as a call to reality or a predication for the future, which is why documentaries are strongly influential  yet manipulative.

What is the significance of the authenticity and representation of the truth in the media that you consume on a daily basis? What is the role of a live broadcast?

In my opinion, the authenticity and representation of truth in the media is very important because I feel like a lot of us are very vulnerable and get most of our information, opinions and beliefs from the media. Also due to visual representations provided, we usually only believe what our eyes see no matter if it is the truth or manipulated. As Steyerl mentions, documentary forms “convey, regulate, and administrate huge emotional potentials that they both keep in check and unleash explosively.” They may be used to ones advantage to manipulate the way we see something and can we used as “a political instrument”. But ultimately, it is up to the audience to interpret what they see. The role of a live broadcast is to be as  authentic as possible. In a live broadcast, every is raw. There are no cuts, editing, manipulation, etc. so it makes people very vulnerable.

 

I realized that most of the memories I thought of when brainstorming for this project don’t have the potential of being turned into a sound. But working at my moms cafe is a memory that would fit this project since there are many sounds I could include.

My alarm would ring at 8am meaning it was time to wake up. There would be people mumbling in the background as I brushed my teeth and washed my face. There would be many footsteps as everyone got ready to head out. My parents would start the engine of the car and we headed to the closest BJs. After BJs, we would head to the cafe and prepare to open at 11am. Before opening, there are many things we need to do including brewing the coffee, restocking snacks, making green tea/ milk tea and cleaning the whole cafe thoroughly. I think this would make a good memory for the soundscape because there are many sounds I could include that will allow the listener to recreate the scene while listening to my soundscape composition. 

Ellen Wang

Reminiscing Youth

For my concept, I  wanted to show the yearn for youth as one grows older. I took a picture of a installation by Yayoi Kusama ‘LOVE IS CALLING’ which composed of a “mirrored room illuminated by inflatable tenticle-like forms”.  For the picture on the right, I took a picture on a Harborwalk which represents the dullness and unfiltered adult life. I wanted these two pictures to contrast eachother since I wanted to illustrate the difference between youth and adulthood. 

At first I was going to edit the first image to make it more colorful and bright and leave the second picture unfiltered but I realized that there would be too much contrast between the two pictures. Therefore, I decided to edit the second picture and include some elements of the first picture so the second picture somewhat resembles and connects to the first picture. As for photoshopping, I used the lasso tool a lot to select areas of an image that I wanted to paste and include in my second image. I also aded two cropped pictures of my feet from different persecptives which represents loneliness and solo adventures. On the water, I added elements of the first image to make it look like reflections and I also added wave to make it more water and ripple like. I also individually pasted the colorful tentacles and then used the paint brush to outline the edges. I inverted the colors of the tentacles to create a contrast between the brighter ones. Additionally, I included a subway map to represent the “adventures”. Problems I encountered was not being able to make the edges smooth after using the lasso tool but I figured out that I could change the hardness and use the eraser tool smoothen out the edges. 

If I had more time, I would most likely retake my pictures because of the time crunch, I wasn’t able to take pictures I wanted for my concept which is why I had to alter my concept to make it fit the pictures. I would also want to play around with making collages because it seems like an interesting technique to try.

Due to the evolving state of digital media and technology in general, the “fluidity of the digital” is the concept where people begin to manipulate media/ photos in order to deceive their audience to make a profit or benefit off of the manipulation. For example, “For a company, photography as an image design is an opportunity to sell more products and services”. 

Ritchin implicitly implies how photography used to be an easy concept, meaning it was  captured a moment in time with no type of manipulation so the meaning was just in black and white.  Compared to now, where there are many depths and meanings to one photo which might be manipulated in some type of way. 

One example that examples the “fluidity of the digital” are photo editing applications. In the reading it states that electronic retouching technology is able to “render the photographer, even the subject, virtually powerless.” This is because photo editing applications allow people to manipulate the image and ultimately alter it to the way they want as well as how they want the audience to view it . 

Photography is a great way to capture a moment of time but compared to video and virtual reality, it can be considered one of the weaker kinds of media that is able to capture reality. Photos are only one frame and capture a moment in time as video and virtual reality are able to capture many frames within a specific amount of time and sometimes with sound included. Photos can also be very deceiving based on who takes the photo and how they want the audience to view/ interpret it since they have to take angle, distance, focus, etc. into consideration. I do believe there are ways to manipulate a video to make it seem deceiving as well, but compared to photos, videos have more of an advantage when it comes to capturing reality. 

 

 

When we were kids, everything was like magic to us. Our world was made up of rainbows, unicorns and balloons. We were easily wowed and our biggest worry was if our pets on webkins.com were starving. But as we get older and older, we come to realize that the world is not all sunshine and rainbow. We begin to view the world in a different light as we carry on more responsibilities and burdens that were once non-existent. 

Therefore, for this project, I want to create something that illustrates the concept of youth and coming of age. I plan on taking a trip to Boston and visit some parks and museums to find inspiration. At the park, I will take pictures as I put myself into a little kids shoes. I may take pictures of other children and colorful things I see. Then, I may take another picture where there are not a lot of people and where everything seems dull. These ideas I have in mind will allow my audience to clearly see the contrast between the two pictures to identify the message.

For the editing process, I plan on making the youth image vibrant by playing around with the saturation of the image to make the original photo more colorful. The pops of color will show the colorful world we once lived in. Then in another image, it will be monotonous which will portray the concept of fading innocence as we grow up and face reality. I will most likely photoshop the youthful image to make it look unrealistic and leave the second image as is. I think leaving the second image untouched will allow me to further illustrate the unfiltered world we see through our current eyes.