Category: Communications lab

Visual Metaphor Proposal

 

 

1.   Project Title: The Fish　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
2. Team Members:  James, Bonnie

III.  Concept | Storyline:    

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

Our project will be based on the poem “The Fish” by Marianne Moore

       2). What’s the story about?  

The poem is about a fish, using the ocean as a metaphor to represent the unknowns of life.

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

We are going to utilize the entire piece.

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

Seeing as the poem has nothing intrinsically human about it, we are going to stray away from using humans as actors in the production. We are going to do mostly shots utilizing objects that represent the metaphor being portrayed.

1. Execution Plan: 

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

    We will be using a DSLR camera, and a tripod, as well as a sound recorder and shotgun microphone for recording audio. We will also use multiple photography lights.

   

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

We will be shooting this indoors likely during the day to utilize the lighting available, as well as to have control over the environment for conditions we may need for sound/video quality. We may require some shots at external locations (fish market for example) just for brief shots.

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

We could face the challenge of including the entire piece of poetry within 60-90 seconds, as well as being able to aptly visualize the metaphorical aspect of the poem.

   

       4). How will you collaborate? How will you divide work? (Gantt Chart)

James: In charge of audio/narration, editing video

Together: Material Preparation, Shooting Video

Bonnie: editing audio

 

1.   Storyboard Draft

 

Narration/Poetry Section	Scene Ideas	Shot ideas
Wade through black jade.   Of the crow-blue mussel-shells, one keeps     adjusting the ash-heaps; opening and shutting itself like an injured fan.	-Dark Room -Tank of water with sand in the bottom -Illuminate water with flashlight -Drop object in water to break surface-”wade through the black jade” Using 2 actual fans to mimic the behaviors of fan shell.	DSLR camera Tripod Microphone/Tascam Flashlight Photography lights
The barnacles which encrust the side of the wave, cannot hide there for the submerged shafts of the sun, split like spun glass, move themselves with spotlight swiftness into the crevices— in and out, illuminating the turquoise sea of bodies.	-Use cloth to represent the enclosed side of the wave -shining light through the cloth and the tank -”Turquoise sea of bodies” use a shot of actual fish in tanks at the fish market	DSLR camera Tripod Microphone/Tascam Flashlight Photography lights
The water drives a wedge of iron through the iron edge  of the cliff; whereupon the stars,pink rice-grains, ink-  bespattered jelly fish, crabs like green lilies, and submarine, toadstools, slide each onthe other.	-Flat surface  -splattered jellyfish piece	close shot; slow motion probably
All external  marks of abuse are present on this  defiant edifice—   all the physical features of ac cident—lack  of cornice, dynamite grooves, burns, and hatchet strokes,	-External marks of abuse can be shown literally through destroying a piece of paper -Cut, tear, burn, destroy the paper all with the use of one angle and multiple visual cuts.	DSLR camera Tripod Microphone/Tascam Flashlight Photography lights
These things stand out on it; the chasm-side is dead. Repeated       evidence has proved that it can live on what can not revive its youth. The sea grows old in it.	-Bring all props together back into the fish tank, fully illuminated -Slowly remove lights, allow props to sink in the water -”kill” the scene	DSLR camera Tripod Microphone/Tascam Flashlight Photography lights

1. Gantt Chart*

 

Task	Owner	Start Date	Due Date	Duration	PCT of Task Complete
Preparing Materials	Together	12/5	12/6	12:30-3pm
Shooting	Together	12/6	12/12
Audio recording	Together	12/8	12/8	30 minutes
Audio Editing	Bonnie	12/9	12/13
Video Editing	James	12/12	12/15

Bonnie Wang,  Options

-to be updated upon the final resubmission

Concept

In this diptych project I want to present the how options, freedom and desire correlate to each other and how free of choice is intriguing for the ones who are being locked. The photoshopped picture shows the options for the cats: being home pets enjoying sufficient food and warm shelter with limited space or be an outside wanderer, explore the world as much as they want but facing the threat of hunger, coldness and unpredictable danger. The photograph picture shows a kitten locked up in a cage grabbing the guardrail with its paws, while its eyes shining the light of craving for freedom. This 2 pictures works side by side, illustrating a world full of possibilities with comparison to a cold, small cage. I was inspired when recently I rescued a small kitten near the dorm and took her to the vet’s. I came to visit her everyday, seeing her in the cage, which is a hospital room for her. I was distressed for her situation and the feeling is more intense when seeing her trying to broke the cage and crying. So I did this diptych project, visualizing her feelings and possibilities.

Process

As for the first photograph, I took the camera to the hospitals every time. As soon as I began shooting, I realize that the kitten was very excited to see people and kept moving around. So I set the short shutter speed in order to get a clear picture of movement and  low ISO and aperture to get enough light. The I correct the focal length to ensure the whole body of the kitten can be fit in the frame clearly. Then I just keep waiting for the best facial expression and movment.

As for the photoshopped picture, I first had a close picture of bush prepared and corrected the color. I use it as a background image to show a wide range of possibilities. Then I cut off pictures of multiple cats, trash stations, and indoors cat supplies, arrange them in two sides to the first picture. The problem is I find it hard to make them look natural with the background picture so I use erasers and blurry tools trying to fit them in.

Conclusion

I would definitely try to make the pictures fit into background much nicer to fix the incongruity.

Image of Diptych

1. What does Ritchin mean with the “fluidity of the digital”? Give an example of digital imaging/digital photography that exemplifies this.

In the reading, “fluidity of digital” means that along with the development of digital technology,  photographs might not be trustworthy because they are always subject to modification and can be manipulated to capture  certain information/create certain atmosphere in the first place. That means photography under the recent technology revolution might lose objectivity more than ever. And Ritchin gives an example of manipulating photographs. The Time Magazine modified the original photo of O.j.Simpson upon his arrest to be “darker and out of focus”, which “fit the stereotype of darker and more sinister African-American criminal”. This manipulation cater and reinforce the stereotype, despite of what reality actually was.

 

 

 

2.Reflect on the extent to which photography is capable of capturing reality; and compare it to other media (technology) (e.g. text, video, virtual reality, books). 

Photograph can capture certain amount of visual information of reality in a moment, which means we can only look at it from one viewing angle. And by applying digital technology, it can be modified to some extent later on, which means the original piece of reality might be twisted. Another thing is that the photograph can be altered for the benefits of the power and the people who are accessible to the photograph and the technology. To conclude, photograph can only reveal limited degree of reality and it can be  less with the intervention of technology and the powerful people.

Comparing it with text, photography still reveal more reality. But with text, besides the above situation that photography may encounter, the description itself can be really subjective. Among elements of a sentence, only nouns can be assumed as objective. Adjectives, verbs and adverbs can be differ based on people’s opinion. And even the nouns can be replace with another similar but slightly different alternative since after all, language is man-made creation. Besides, there are always chance that people say things to make themselves looks good or out of personal benefits and it is much easier than make change to the photos. So there might be higher chances of deception through words.

For my Diptych project,  I prepare to create a piece that the photoshopped one is about an object or figure that shows strong emotion or have strong visual impact( through color, facial expression, etc), while the photoshopped picture might imitate certain outlines or texture of the first one but be more blurry and I might employ black, grey and white color. I might try to zoom in as well. I want to emphasize not only the similarity, the connection between those 2 pictures but also the prominent comparison. I wish to convey that even the seemingly most exaggerated figure can have another dim side.

I prepare to take photos outside in a good weather on the buildings, and probably a few people in the park. I might also take pictures at night manipulating with neon light. And this could be my candidate for photographed picture. And as for photoshopped picture, I plan to take close picture of the objects like trunk, leaves,  floor tiles,etc. By reposition, magnify and modifying colors of  those pictures, I hope to mimic similar patterns of the first picture, or create/ magnify certain features of the photograph to reveal the possibility of the capability of the first one transforming into different form. Or in other words, objects in the world have the connection with others and under circumstances, they can converse into one another.  It is a similar idea of cell totipotency in biology. 

Name: Bonnie Wang

Title of the Music: Micmac A La Gare

Artist name: Raphael Beau

Concept and Design:

When I first begin to design it, I listen to this music and close my eyes, picturing a giant bold letter flowing tardily, with ambulatory lines dancing inside it like a ballerina. So immediately I decided to visualize this pattern. After comparing different letters and fonts, I chose the bold uppercase letter “M” because it occupies more space than most of the letters and gives me a strong feeling. But when I finished creating this pattern, I got a little stuck and didn’t know what to add for some time. Then I tried to listen to the music a couple of times, checked out the movie where this music is from, and see the examples given by the professor. I noticed many curvy fonts made those examples look mellifluent so I tried several thin and smooth fonts, wishing to create a moving image, but they didn’t look harmonious with the M pattern I first came up with. I finally looked back at my previous black square project for some inspiration, which I didn’t expect to gain much from it at first. I observed that I tended to create tilted straight lines to guide people’s eyes and arrange the composition of different elements in the black square projects, whether using positive or negative space. I realized that those straight lines are my style and they can also be applied to sound visualization.

So I put many uppercase Is adjacent to each other, aligned with one side of M, and extended to the top, forming a ladder-like and piano-key-like pattern to draw people’s focus. The rest of the designing process became quite intuitive, emphasizing the chromatic accents and the whole continuity of the music in mind.

During the process, I attempted to use similarity, proximity, figure/ground, and continuity from Gestalt theory and employ different textures to create a flexible, diverse image that intrigues people to look closely. The whole picture is a figure/ground design. Similarity can be seen from the I-ladder the Os and the Ms on the top. Proximity is prominent with the I-ladder. Continuity can be predicted with the lines across I-ladder. Also, the pattern of the top, the middle, and the bottom is very different so it makes a comparison among them which I managed to make the design rich and protean.

Process:

The first important step I took was to find my style and determine what is suitable for this music, rather than just referring to the interesting elements of other successful images. I corrected my mistake before further drafting.

Secondly, I find mid-critique very helpful. In the mid-critique, professor Lee advised that it would be better to make the 3 pieces like a whole picture by adding something(like more I-ladders) or changing the position of the elements. I took her advice and add I-ladders and an S letter connecting the top P to the bottom O. Besides those, I added leave-like down case rs many places to create echos between patterns and render the picture niftier, just like the music style.

Conclusion:

Despite the progress I have made, I think there is a couple of things I might pay attention to if I had more time. I might rethink the application of negative space to make this design looks neater. Currently, it fills more space than I expected it to. Another thing is the angle of the M-combination on the top. I didn’t find a perfect angle to set them but I hope it can create a harmonious balance with the figures below them.

Image of Project:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pLaxfnC_Mfgie8jrANBniXLFEtY-8vWW/view?usp=drivesdk

 

Introduce Human Currency System to the Hepatods

By Bonnie Wang

We decided to introduce the currency system to heptapods in the story. In our human’s perception, a currency is money that circulates in a specific place at a certain time, functioning as the medium of exchange. It can be any form of money, like cash and digital money. But in order to make it easier for the hepatods to understand, here we just use cash to represent all kinds of currency. 

 First of all, we arrange the picture centralized with a cash symbol, with other kinds of goods on four sides connected to it. We design it this way so that it looks similar to hepatods’ writing language, where their “semagrams”(writing elements) combined. It is a nonlinear conglomeration.

  Secondly, we choose four representatives of goods which are food, clothes, bags, and jewelry. The main idea is to convey the message to the heptapods that money can exchange for many things.

  Last but not the least, we put dotted-line oval between the money with each object, trying to say that there can be circulation between the money and each object.

 I would like to describe this plaque to the aliens in the following way.  First introduce the cash symbol, explaining it as an object constantly moving between people for exchange. There might not be  a forward direction for the cash flow because it can be exchanged for basically any other goods, including both basics like things to eat and things to wear, and fancy goods that makes people looks good and feel good. I will specify that not only people can get stuff by giving money to the goods owner, they can also earn money by giving stuff to other people.In this sense, there will be huge amounts of circulation in an area in a given time because people have different kinds of needs.

   We choose the current system to introduce to the heptapods because we think it is a nonlinear system, which accords with their writing and thinking pattern that is always centered and everything is connected. Also, the existence of currency is purposive, which is to get things of needs for people. This can be easily understand for teleological creatures like heptapods. Additionally, we usually view the currency for certain duration to see the total amount of cash flow,which correspond to what Chiang describes in the story: “by viewing events over a period of time, one recognized that there was a …goal…and had to know the initial and final states to meet the goal”(28). As for currency, the goal is to meet different needs of people and the means is to exchange with money.

 

Color scheme