Category: Comm Lab

Balance

 

By Santiago, Alaric, and Karla

 

A: Concept & Idea

 

We originally conceived the idea for this project when sharing excerpts with each other, we realized that the main ideas of Luthen’s speech and the quote from Fernando Pessoa’s Book of disquiet were strongly correlated. Both of these works involve goals; working towards them, dreaming of them, but neither characters are likely to see these goals accomplished. Luthen, a character from the television series “Andor”, tirelessly works towards a dream that he will never live to see realized. He is well aware that he will never enjoy the fruits of his labor, and that his work will cost him everything important to him, yet he continues to push forward regardless. Conversely, the Character Bernardo, from Fernando Pessoa’s “The Book of Disquiet”, is captivated by everything, yet does nothing to achieve these goals. Bernardo finds that while he has many dreams, he also has an inability to find lasting engagement in anything, leaving him in a perpetual state of dreaming. Both characters are detached from their goals, but for opposite reasons. Both of these messages resonate strongly with us, especially considering our experience at NYU. All of us were originally supposed to graduate in spring 2023, but are still working towards our degrees for various reasons. Juxtaposing these two excerpts gave us an opportunity to metaphorically express all the uncertainties, sacrifices, and setbacks we experienced throughout our time at university.

 

B: Creation Process

• Started w storyboard
• Location    
• Trouble encountered 
• Editing & Screenshots
• What we learned

 

We began with a storyboard, allowing us to visualize the overarching ideas we wanted to portray and the general direction we wanted to go in the project. 

 

After discussing the general ideas and the atmosphere we wanted to create, the next step was finding a location to shoot the different scenes.

For Alaric’s scenes, we wanted to visualize the quote from “the Book of Disquiet”, so we knew we had to shoot somewhere dark and isolated, to evoke the forlorn and dissatisfied feelings the excerpt explores. We found an alleyway in Jing’an that we felt worked perfectly for this, the dark lighting, isolated surroundings, and occasional piles of trash all helped to create the desolate, fruitless feelings we wanted to evoke. Some shots we would end up doing several times, as we didnt have a fully controlled environment and occasionally had someone walk through or occupy the space we wanted to shoot in.

 

C: Collaboration

• We each had specific roles, acting, voice over, directing, editing etc
• My role
• Appreciation
• Everyone had different ideas/interpretations, we had different inputs and ideas even if all were not used.

I (Santiago) was in charge of directing, video editing (besides the title cards, and sound design. This gave me full control and oversight into what I wanted to do with the project and allowed me the most flexibility in terms of editing as a whole. I was open to the ideas of my teammates and actors, and I think we created something that well all liked in the end.

 

D: Aesthetics and Results

• Shots (, medium
• Color correction
• How did this all inform the tone?

 

In the first part we filmed, we began with a medium shot. The character, played by me, occupied the center of the frame as the focal point. In the shots following this, we mostly used long shots where I was walking away from the camera, and the focus shifted more to the surroundings. This change in focus helped to create a more barren, bleak and isolated tone, emphasizing the loneliness of the surroundings, and the feelings of detachment from Pessoa’s quote. The colors in these scenes were altered to have a 

In the scenes we shot with Karla, we headed to Taikooli and took a variety of shots that I thought would juxtapose well with the recordings of Al. Karla’s moments are meant to look busy, determined, but also stressed and nervous in a way. For one, we shot during the day instead of at night, and her shots are more dynamic.

In terms of color, I made sure to give Al’s shot pink and green highlights and tones to emphasize the lost, dreamlike emotion. Similarly with the sound design, I gave Al an echoed voice to further emphasize this. Karla’s parts are opposite. Her tones and highlights are opposite on the color wheel, which gives us a good quaternary color scheme that worked out really nicely.

Overall, the project ran smoothly and with the help of my teammates I was able to turn my full attention towards the editting and mastering process for the project. I couldn’t have done it without them.

The goal for this project was to create a sonic rendition of a memory using Adobe Audition. Right off the bat I knew exactly what it was that I wanted to create

The memory I chose was that of a summer memory with my best friend. We would often drive through the countryside and listen to music and I was always very excited to do so.

The sounds I collected reflect the feeling of excitement first, then a moving vehicle, and after that the arrival at the destination. I used sounds from inside campus, from beside the road, my own objects, and even my own voice. 

The editting process was actually rather straightforward for me. Many of my closest friend make music and I have seen them do it many times. This exposure to audio engineering gave me a solid foothold, and exploring Audition was easy. 

The Soundscape, I feel, expresses exactly what I wanted it to. a peaceful but excited experience with a good friend.

Mitosis is the second finished work in a series of artworks centered around my axolotl ring. The idea came to me after I took a look at my contact sheet and homed in on the picture I wanted to use as a base for my project.

Contact Sheet

I didn’t really have any goal or idea in mind when I was taking photos for the contact sheet. It was only after I took them and received feedback on the shots that I decided on my idea.

The base photo is a shot that I took of my ring while working on a drawing project for the Foundations of Visual Art class (a fantastic class). I took a picture of it under a set of spotlights to get three shadows of the same object. The drawing that followed is called Metamorphosis, and is about how I am as adaptable as the creature on the ring.

Photoshop

My first attempts at using photoshop were  miserable, as I didn’t know that photos needed to be rasterized before you could do anything to them. After that however, I was able to ply around with my idea. Expanding on the theme of my drawing, I had made a painting beforehand that depicted en evolution of the drawing in a sense, with a single white ring splitting into rings of different colors. This represents the different kinds of person I can become, with no real limit as to what I can be.

I overlapped the painting with the image I took for reference for the drawing and duplicated the shadows to create a circular visual. By resizing the individual colored rings, I was able to further augment the feeling of adaptability by creating a variety of shapes. 

Mitosis

The name come from the biological term for replicating cells during growth, which is another main idea I wished to express. 

I think the biggest takeaway from this film is what we are capable of achieving creatively when we are forced to push the boundary of the status quo. When we are pushed to do the unconventional we can create marvels. 

I think this is the case in everything related to art or anything we as humans create. For example, when I am working on any art piece, I ask myself, “How can I make this in such a way that nobody can ever replicate it?” Inspiration from others is important, but individuality and your mark are critical to anything we create. 

These mind bending situations also allow us to explore techniques that we wouldn’t have thought to use otherwise. In many cases, achieving the unique requires using unique methods. Your tools may be different than others’, the temperature could affect your work, the sun could be shining at a different angle; all these things and more are factors that contribute to creating not only a unique work, but a masterpiece you can be proud to put your name on.

SOMEWHERE BEYOND OUR UNIVERSE is a visualization of what I experienced when hearing one of my favorite songs for the first time, as well as my very first Adobe Illustrator work. 

The song I used is called GERONIMO! by the Korean artist DPR LIVE. DPR LIVE is part of a larger group of artists and producers called DPR, or Dream Perfect Regime. The people under DPR are all some next level music and video producers, and the music they make beggars belief. 

The first time I listened to GERONIMO! I was going through a miraculous experience. It was as if I could hear every note and instrument and sound that was used to create the song. I could see myself going on a journey through the atmosphere and into space, passing stars and planets on my way.

The Background

I wanted to create the black background of space without using a flat black background. Specifically for two reasons: 1) I wanted to emulate stars in the far distant background and 2) as you go through your journey, the space around you gets brighter and brighter. I figured that I needed a shape that offers both a lot of positive and negative space, and ‘W’ fit the bill perfectly. To generate that brightening effect, I lessened the stroke and spacing between rows of W’s to gradually shift the work from negative to positive space. The objects that are then placed over the back layer also follow the shift.

Stellar Objects

Throughout the song, there are shifts in beat, flow, etc., and I chose to represent that with a variety of stellar objects such as stars and planets. To help with the definition of space, I made some objects appear bigger than others. In addition, I included stars that were closer to the viewer.

Letter Choice

When it came to picking what letters I wanted to use, I chose those whose sounds I heard in the music. V’s, O’s, H’s and U’s are prominent throughout the piece.  

Direction

The last thing I want to point out is the path of the ship that helps to direct the viewer’s eyes through the work without missing anything. The song takes you through this adventure and ends in a huge crash, so to simulate that I lead the viewer into a black whole.

Technique

The song sounds futuristic, so I used a modern-looking font. In addition, I tried doing the most I could by keeping it relatively simple so that the work could be clear.

My first iteration was really not much different from my final, it was me more or less figuring out what I was going to depict in the final work.

What I aimed to depict to the aliens is not exactly a human invention, but a human discovery that led to the invention of many of the things on earth that we as humans take for granted today.

While the usage of fossil fuels today is frowned upon as we look for more renewable sources to sustain our constantly growing energy consumption, it is important to remember and acknowledge that the discovery of crude oil was one of the biggest moment’s in human history. It began the shift from a coal based economy to an oil one. From how we navigate our planet to how we cook our food, the majority our homes and vehicles run on oil. The energy plants that generate our electricity also run on fossil fuels such as oil. We use it to lubricate machinery and in plastics that we use every day. The extend to which we rely on crude oil is massive, and if any alien civilization wanted to know what of the keystones of our society today, oil would be one of the first things that I would introduce to them. 

In my plaque, which is read in a circle starting from the top left and flows clockwise, I start with a depiction of plant life. Specifically a fern and a Wollemi pine tree, which are both plants that grew and existed during the Mesozoic era. Over time plants like these compress underground into peat and eventually into oil. This process takes millions of years, but given the Heptapods’ uniform perception of time, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is the process.

The next part that I depict is a couple of barrels of oil. I kept this pretty straightforward but also visually explicit. The plant life turns into black gold over huge stretches of time and encase it, making it ready for use in all sorts of things.

The final piece shows a moving car, a leaving airplane, a rocket taking off, a lightbulb, and a stove with a steak on it. This is to show them how much of what we do depends on the usage of oil. It powers our homes and fuels our expansion into the stars. Without it, we might not have made it to where we are today.

 

Artboard 1

Song: GERONIMO! by DPR LIVE