Visual Metaphor Documentation
The Gaze
by Rachel & JingyiI. Concept & Story
Basically, this story is telling about how a girl lives under society’s gaze. No matter what she has done, she has been criticized by everyone. This idea comes from feminism and the social events, and also the things I’ve experienced. Through the things I’ve mentioned, I feel that women are heavily limited in this society, and what’s more, most of the girls may be influenced by such kinds of minds, and begin to gaze at themselves too. With this video, I want to remind everyone that we should not be influenced by such kinds of minds, but learn to live our own lives.
II. Creation Process & Execution
*The storyboard had been uploaded before.
As I shoulder the role of shooting and editing, I would like to speak of the process of these two jobs. Our project had been changed many times by listening to the advice of the professor, classmates, and friends. In the beginning, we have only decided to use the eyes, hands, and mouthes these elements, but when I start to edit, I found that the elements couldn’t support us to finish the whole video, so I decided to add on the elements of the words. At first, I only used the freeze words, but after the professor’s suggestion, I added some animation which turns out to achieve a really good effect.
As for the color effect, it has also been carefully discussed, and we decided to make the screen turn redder as the time flashes by, including the nervous environment for the audience. However, professor Inmi and Tiger have suggested that this effect may also attract the audiences’ attention and made it into a horror movie, which is the thing we haven’t cared about.
Also, the audio parts have been adjusted many times, for I adjusted the gap between the different audio clips many times, trying to find the rhythm and using the quicker audio to add to the nervous environment. Jingyi suggested that we can add some “error” audios to show the gaze from society, which is also a success. This part’s success should thank the training I’ve got from the last program.
Our creating process is very smooth, the only difficulty may still be that we are limited with the shooting space. The storyboard initially designed the story that should go in the storyline from the inner room to outside, but as the lockdown askings, we finally shoot all the scenes down in the parking lot. Although it was the only space we got, in another aspect, the special lights that a parking lot has also add to our video’s feelings, which is an unexpected achievement.
III. Collaboration
I shoulder the tasks of real creating, such as shooting and editing, and Jingyi shoulders the process of coming up with the story and drawing the storyboard, also comments on the things I’ve done and I will improve them. Our cooperation is really well, everyone has done the things she is good at, thus making our project a perfect one.
IV. Aesthetics & Results
Speaking of the camera language, the way we used is something that runs out of our minds, for we will focus the camera on the things we want to emphasize, so most of the camera language is the close-up angle. There are some clips that are shot from the angle of chasing a girl, which was inspired by the actress, who thought this angle is a useful way to show the girl’s struggle. I would like to mention at the end of the video, that is the girl’s hand wants to catch the camera, which is a camera language I learned from one animation called “Iscream 冰菓”, that the main character mentioned that this kind of camera language can make the audiences feel more engage into the movie. This is one of the shining points we think our video has.
As for the color and pace, I’ve mentioned the creating process above. And I think the training we’ve received from the whole semester helps a lot. I also learned a lot from this program, including having more accurate feelings about the video’s pace and editing skills. I really appreciate what I’ve done, and I also need to thank the professor’s education and my classmates’ help.