Visual Metaphor
Concept and Story
Pancakes.
The entire concept of our project’s story is pancakes and their parallel to the fleetingness of life. We want to showcase this by presenting how quickly our first year of college went by despite having it feel so slow at times by juxtapositioning our time here in Shanghai with the process of making and eating pancakes. Additionally, we wanted to present the idea that life is made up of simple pleasures, such as pancakes, and that we often forget to enjoy simple things that make life so enjoyable.
Originally, we wanted to do something along the lines of showcasing our favorite parts of Shanghai as a way to end our first year in Shanghai as freshmen. However, we had to change our topic to a more realistic one since our original idea was quite ambitious and we encountered various time constraints. Whilst thinking of new ideas, Isa opened Instagram and one of her friends posted the most beautiful picture of a stack of pancakes. Combined with her intense craving for pancakes and a relaxing day in that we sat down to ideate and brainstorm on the development of our story, Isa suddenly said, “What if we make this about pancakes?”
We then used this idea to relate it to our feelings of nostalgia and reminiscence that surfaced alongside the conclusion of our first year of college. My team and I then discussed the beauty and simplicity behind pancakes and wanted to explore this topic since we wanted to create a meaningful relationship between something we all enjoy very much, pancakes, and the ending of our first year of college. Furthermore, we wanted to pursue this idea since we all very much enjoy pancakes and wanted to present a video with a central idea that breaks the box of conventionality.
Creation Process and Execution
Shortly after settling on the idea about centering our video around pancakes, we bought the ingredients and decided to film in my kitchen as it was the least messy. We decided to film with our phones as it was very convenient and permitted us to easily export video from our phones to our computers. We went up to my kitchen at the perfect time to film and cook as it was golden hour and the sun was hitting my window just at the right angle. This allowed for us to film really good close ups of the pancake making process and have a fun and relaxing time making pancakes with friends!
We also used a lot of old footage, mainly from Isa and Eddy, that we have collected from our time here in Shanghai to properly be able to convey the meaning we wanted to give our video. In addition to using old footage, Isa and I also went out to record horizontal videos of our day-to-day life and moments we found to be simple yet thoroughly enjoyable.
Some of the issues we ran into when looking for old footage was that a number of them were vertically shot, complicating the editing process and sometimes making the footage unusable. We ran into this same issue when we recorded footage of us making pancakes, as our phones would randomly change from horizontal to vertical every now and then.
Below is a picture of our Storyboard!
We didn’t have much of a storyboard and had just written a general list of things we wanted to include in our video. Nonetheless, this helped us get a flow of inspiration and structure how we wanted to edit our final product.
When trying to record the voiceover, we encountered some issues regarding ambient noise and the interference it had with the story we wanted to share. To solve this issue, we put our voiceover through audition and removed some of the ambient noise present throughout the recording. Additionally, when we first recorded the voice over, it was a bit fast so we had to rerecord to compensate.
Here is a script of the voiceover we used in our video!
Pancakes
So simple, so soft
So kind, so gentle
A hearty meal for a hearty day
A filling heart for an empty stomach
Cold separation
A crack in the silence
A stream of dew and essence
Fluffy blankets of wildflowers cloak familiar flavors
Sweet snow falls slowly onto the ice
A tremor that slowly forms stiff mountain peaks
Pouring in a myriad of colors
A silent enveloping of ingredients
A cacophony of flavors
Like a gentle pillow at the end of the day
Delicately placed atop a warm hearth
Carefully constructed and set to rest
Sprinkle a few drops of dew into the mix
The heat shall do the rest
Scarfing them down
Going to town
One moment they’re there
The next they’re gone
A fleeting joy that once was, still persists
The joy of having the opportunity to experience pancakes, and the hope that we will one day experience again…
Pancakes
When it came to post-production and editing, we encountered a number of obstacles. For example, we tried to use Premiere to edit footage but all three of us are much more comfortable using a different adobe editing software: Adobe After Effects. We all had a bit more of experience with After Effects, the software was much simpler to understand, and the color grading was easier to achieve. Furthermore, since we originally had the idea to make a mixed media video, it would be the best platform to give our video cool editing effects. Although we ended up going for flash cuts in the end, we stuck with Adobe After Effects so we could keep all the editing on the same program.
Collaboration
I edited the last 30 seconds of the video and compiled the parts Isa, Eddy and I individually edited into our final product. Additionally, I inserted the music and spliced our voiceover so that it would match the content displayed. I really enjoyed working with Isa and Eddy, not solely because they are my friends but also because I appreciated the contrast between the visions that we each held for the project as it allowed for an interesting mix of visuals and a unique final product. For example, I really appreciate the footage that both Isa and Eddy took as it reflected their personalities a lot, and their usage of it demonstrated their skill as editors. Furthermore, I really enjoyed the animation that Eddy created for the introduction of our video and I could tell he put a lot of effort and dedication to the development of it. I learned a lot about my teammates. The collaborative process and exchange of ideas with my team allowed our project to be a reflection of all of our members and the way in which we each related to the meaning we wanted to give our project.
Aesthetics and Results
I believe that the aesthetics of our project are effective because even though it’s not perfect, it communicates a strong message. Some of the things I believe make our video most effective are:
- The camera language: most clips are stills but the use of movement in the camera for close ups is very intentional.
- Color correction/adjustments: we left our video with very natural color adjustments simply to give the audience a message of “being real” with them about our experiences.
- Pace of video: We kept the video slow to show how the process of this year and making pancakes is slow and time consuming but it all comes to an end very quickly at the end when we eat the pancakes at a fast pace.
- Voice over: I feel like we have a very poetic and meaningful symbolism to why we chose pancakes where they mean different things to each one of us and could even mean different things to the viewer where they may relate to in a different way.
Here is our final result!