Our audio is the modern English version of Sonnet 98 from Shakespeare’s collection of sonnets.

“I was away from you during the spring when splendid April in all its finery made everything feel so young that even Saturn, the god of old age and gloominess laughed and leapt along with it. But neither the songs of birds nor the sweet smell of the various flowers could make me feel like it was summer or inspire me to go flower picking. I wasn’t amazed by how white the lily was nor did I praise the deep red of the roses. They were only sweet, only pictures of delight drawn in imitation of you, the archetype of spring. It seemed like it was still winter and, with you away, I  played with these flowers as if I were playing with your reflection.”

• Concept and story:

The metaphor portrayed here is related to the emotional journey an individual goes through when a loved one leaves. Spring, a season of livelihood and colors, is merely bland from your point of view. Life without them now feels empty, lonely, and often, will cause you to feel broken. But once you learn to understand that even though they may not be physically present by your side anymore, their footprints and the memories shared (represented in the video as rose petals) will keep you company this spring and continue to stay with you as you carry on with your journey. One day, you will realize that it will be your turn to make your departure as you leave behind your petals behind for someone else.

• Creation Process and Execution:

Our creation process was quite bumpy and rough primarily because in the early stages of this project we both lacked a greater understanding of what a visual metaphor would look like as well as how to portray our theme into metaphorical means. We initially had 2 unsuccessful versions of a storyboard that did not really work well with either the project instructions or did not depict our story well. However, as we started to experiment with filming, we both were able to come up with things we liked along the way to add to our project. Towards the end of the project, Dez and I just started working off with our own interpretations of our theme. This is why our projects were drastically different despite having a similar concept and sharing the same clips. 

I will attach the story board that I used for the final version of my project.

• Collaboration:

Throughout our project we equally approached each step with our own versions of the audio/voiceover, storyboard, and filming despite sharing a common general theme. This was for the purpose of finding a better fit and to see which one fitted our own personal tastes and preferences more. We agreed on this poem Dez picked out and started planning our storyboards. As for our shots, we had a shared google folder where everything was shared including our audios.  Dez and I were working backwards, but I’m happy our cooperation was very successful which made this process significantly easier.

• Aesthetics and Results:

In order to make the concept more apparent to the audience, I worked on customizing color a lot throughout my piece. Especially in the beginning, I used color isolation to make every color less saturated excluding the red from the rose petals. This is for the purpose of accentuating the dull, mundaneness of spring to emphasize the paradox. In the end I brought back the saturation of all the other colors to follow the flow of the metaphor and story.