A. Concept and Story
The concept of this story is that it is really hard to fit into society. The poem we used was by Esmiie Carter and we thought that the poem fit into what we are trying to convey. The pottery is a metaphor for people fitting into society by making themselves similar to others. However, it is hard to fit into society being someone that you are not. So as a result, the pottery is shattered which means that the person stops trying to make themselves into someone they’re not. People should be themselves instead of trying to be someone they are not.
B. Creation Process and Execution
The place we chose to film this project is in a pottery class in 南京路 which makes it impossible to change the lighting to our choice without editing it in white balance. Not only that, the pottery class had a lot of other people learning which makes it hard to film from different angles. The challenge of filming this project in a public space it has some background noise that we had to omit. It was also challenging to find a spot to shatter the bowl as not many places allow us to. We ended up shattering the bowl in a parking lot and cleaned it up right after In this project, we used a lot of fading effects from adobe to make the transition from one shot to another smoother.
C. Collaboration
My partner’s role in the filming part was to make the pottery and shatter it while I was filming it. For the editing and sound, Ian and I worked on it together. My partner taught me how to edit a video better
D. Aesthetics and Results
We mostly used middle shots and close-up shots as the location didn’t allow us to use long shots without getting strangers in the shot. The middle shot and close-up shot were mostly used as it is important for the viewer to see the stages of the pottery. The yellow lighting was implemented as a contrast to the harsh society. The video had a slow pace to show the process of the pottery from a blob of mud to a beautiful bowl. It was also slow to show how people are carefully creating themselves into what society wants and in the end, the pace was faster to show a person breaking free from being someone they’re not.