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| poster design before placing photos |
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| poster design after placing/adjusting photos |
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Project 4 | Preliminary Poster
In the last class time, I designed the general layout of my poster design. I made three strips that would be divided into sections where my photographs would go. There are also three images that will stand out against the rest of the images. At first, I just wanted to show a general layout of the poster, so I placed text (describing the picture I had in mind) in place of where the images would be. Once I was satisfied with that layout, I placed the images in their designated positions. In order to make the three larger images stand out, I made the rest of the photographs have a lesser opacity so they fall back somewhat. The next thing I will do is adjust the photographs if need be, and also find some way to treat the text to incorporate it more with the images. The critique will be helpful because I'll be able to ask people what they think I should also incorporate into the poster or what I should change.
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Project 4 | Content
I chose to document the day before Thanksgiving (November 23). I made sure to write down everything I was doing during the day and the exact time I was doing it. I also made sure to take a lot of pictures, because I knew that I wanted to design something that involved imagery. I didn't really do anything too significant on the day that I documented, so it was more of an average day rather than an extremely exciting one.
When I started designing in class today, I was focusing on trying to find a way to chronologically organize my day. I had two ideas in particular that I was working with. My first idea was to design the poster based off of a game board. The path would start when I wake up, and continue through different elements of my day until it ends when I go to sleep. There would be writing on the path spaces that play off of what I did during the day (ex. "stuck at the car wash...skip a turn"). The other idea I had was to arrange the photographs I took in chronological order and highlight a few activities of the day that were either significant or took up a good portion of my day. This arrangement of the photos would resemble a film strip since I spent a lot of time with my family over break watching various movies. I originally had the poster in a portrait orientation, but realized after a while that it would be more effective if it was in a landscape orientation. In the end, I decided to pursue the "film strip" design idea. The next thing I have to do is place pictures on the design I created in class, and adjust the design as needed. I will also find a way to highlight the few images I bring out to make them stand out against the rest of the poster's images.
When I started designing in class today, I was focusing on trying to find a way to chronologically organize my day. I had two ideas in particular that I was working with. My first idea was to design the poster based off of a game board. The path would start when I wake up, and continue through different elements of my day until it ends when I go to sleep. There would be writing on the path spaces that play off of what I did during the day (ex. "stuck at the car wash...skip a turn"). The other idea I had was to arrange the photographs I took in chronological order and highlight a few activities of the day that were either significant or took up a good portion of my day. This arrangement of the photos would resemble a film strip since I spent a lot of time with my family over break watching various movies. I originally had the poster in a portrait orientation, but realized after a while that it would be more effective if it was in a landscape orientation. In the end, I decided to pursue the "film strip" design idea. The next thing I have to do is place pictures on the design I created in class, and adjust the design as needed. I will also find a way to highlight the few images I bring out to make them stand out against the rest of the poster's images.
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| Original poster sketches done in class |
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| Written document of the various activities of the day I documented |
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Project 3 | Synopsis
This project was very different for me, since I've never worked with the programs I used to create this video. I had to watch a lot of tutorials about iMovie and animation for Photoshop before actually starting the project to see exactly what I could and couldn't do. One of the hardest parts of this project was actually choosing the song. I searched through dozens and dozens of songs and finally settled on the song "Photographs and Histories" by Isaac Graham. I knew going in to this project that I wanted a song with lyrics so I could incorporate those into the video somehow. I liked this particular song because it sounded simple and fun, and also had a nostalgic tone to it. This feeling of nostalgia helped me develop the overall theme to my project which is a family photo album theme. In iMovie, there is actually a pre-loaded theme called "photo album", so I used this theme as a base for my video. The theme came with an opening sequence (of showing the cover of a photo album as well as several transition options (panning from one "photograph" to another). It might seem like using the theme would make things easier, but it actually made possibly more work because of the multiple variables that make up the theme (transitions, timing, video images, etc.).
I got all of the video clips from the Internet Archive site, and all of the videos are from the same person and feature the same family. I wanted to make sure that the video clips I used were cohesive, and in order to fully show the nostalgic theme, the videos had to be related somehow to keep the viewer connected. I also wanted a family's real home movies to show candid, natural shots of the family instead of having people be posed (which would feel less homey than actual home movies). The video clips I chose also add to the nostalgic theme because of some of the situations and settings of the videos. These videos were from around the 50s, so they have a very old-time feeling, and most of the shots involve family gatherings, so this relates back to the nostalgic theme. The viewer can tell that this is all from the same reel of home videos because of some of the repeating family members as well as the dogs that appear in multiple videos. This gives the viewer the cue that this is all one family instead of a compilation of multiple families' videos. When I was choosing the video clips for the song, I wanted the clip to go along to the lyrics to the song. In various spots, the setting of the video will match up with what is being said in the song. For example, there is a line in the song that says "And I'll escape towards the open seas," and the video clip that goes along with that is a shot of a boat on the water. This will relate the video clips back to the song so the whole video seems more cohesive. The video clip at the end of the song is also a good conclusion because it shows a car driving away from the person taking the video. After showing family gatherings in the rest of the video, this gives the viewer a sense of closure as they watch the family leave and also gives a definitive ending for the video as well.
Another important feature of my video is the use of some lyrics that appear on the video. I wanted to make sure that the song wasn't just a background element, so bringing some of the lyric text into the video almost forces the viewer to be aware of the song. With so many different clips of video, the viewer might become distracted with that and not realize what is being sung in the background. The text slides onto the screen on a "scrap of paper" to relate it back to the photo album/scrapbook theme of the video. The font is the same as the font on the photo album cover in the beginning sequence of the video. The lyrics on the paper come onto screen just as those lyrics are being sung in the song, so everything is timed out so that the text will appear on a specific beat in the song. The word "memories" is treated differently because I believe that this is an important theme to the song, and wanted it to stand out against the other text. This also gives this feature of the video a little variation. Overall, the use of text throughout the whole video is a repeating element to tie all of the parts of the video together.
The transitions are also a key element to the video. There are multiple types of transitions used in the video, and each is in a specific location. The page turn transition is used before each new section of the song (verse, chorus, bridge...) to reiterate the change in the song. The transitions within the verses and chorus show a pan from one "photograph" to another. When this pan is shown, there are also other "photographs" shown in the shot. Instead of being arbitrary, I chose each of these photograph images one by one to make sure there was variety and the images fit well within the photograph frame. The transitions also had to be carefully timed out (especially the transitions that go from one photograph to another). The transition starts on a beat of the song, and ends on the beat of a song as well, so each one had to be timed out individually. There are also different transitions used in the bridge portion of the song. Instead of the page turn or photograph to photograph transitions, the bridge instead uses a cross-fade transition. This is because since the song changes, I wanted the video to subtly be different as well.
I got all of the video clips from the Internet Archive site, and all of the videos are from the same person and feature the same family. I wanted to make sure that the video clips I used were cohesive, and in order to fully show the nostalgic theme, the videos had to be related somehow to keep the viewer connected. I also wanted a family's real home movies to show candid, natural shots of the family instead of having people be posed (which would feel less homey than actual home movies). The video clips I chose also add to the nostalgic theme because of some of the situations and settings of the videos. These videos were from around the 50s, so they have a very old-time feeling, and most of the shots involve family gatherings, so this relates back to the nostalgic theme. The viewer can tell that this is all from the same reel of home videos because of some of the repeating family members as well as the dogs that appear in multiple videos. This gives the viewer the cue that this is all one family instead of a compilation of multiple families' videos. When I was choosing the video clips for the song, I wanted the clip to go along to the lyrics to the song. In various spots, the setting of the video will match up with what is being said in the song. For example, there is a line in the song that says "And I'll escape towards the open seas," and the video clip that goes along with that is a shot of a boat on the water. This will relate the video clips back to the song so the whole video seems more cohesive. The video clip at the end of the song is also a good conclusion because it shows a car driving away from the person taking the video. After showing family gatherings in the rest of the video, this gives the viewer a sense of closure as they watch the family leave and also gives a definitive ending for the video as well.
Another important feature of my video is the use of some lyrics that appear on the video. I wanted to make sure that the song wasn't just a background element, so bringing some of the lyric text into the video almost forces the viewer to be aware of the song. With so many different clips of video, the viewer might become distracted with that and not realize what is being sung in the background. The text slides onto the screen on a "scrap of paper" to relate it back to the photo album/scrapbook theme of the video. The font is the same as the font on the photo album cover in the beginning sequence of the video. The lyrics on the paper come onto screen just as those lyrics are being sung in the song, so everything is timed out so that the text will appear on a specific beat in the song. The word "memories" is treated differently because I believe that this is an important theme to the song, and wanted it to stand out against the other text. This also gives this feature of the video a little variation. Overall, the use of text throughout the whole video is a repeating element to tie all of the parts of the video together.
The transitions are also a key element to the video. There are multiple types of transitions used in the video, and each is in a specific location. The page turn transition is used before each new section of the song (verse, chorus, bridge...) to reiterate the change in the song. The transitions within the verses and chorus show a pan from one "photograph" to another. When this pan is shown, there are also other "photographs" shown in the shot. Instead of being arbitrary, I chose each of these photograph images one by one to make sure there was variety and the images fit well within the photograph frame. The transitions also had to be carefully timed out (especially the transitions that go from one photograph to another). The transition starts on a beat of the song, and ends on the beat of a song as well, so each one had to be timed out individually. There are also different transitions used in the bridge portion of the song. Instead of the page turn or photograph to photograph transitions, the bridge instead uses a cross-fade transition. This is because since the song changes, I wanted the video to subtly be different as well.
Project 3 | Preliminary Notes
Before and during the actual production of my video project, I did a lot of planning to make sure that I had the right timing of the clips, and the right clips that fit with the music.
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| Page 1 of matching up specific video clips (from one of three reels) to the song lyrics |
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| Page 2 of matching up specific video clips to the song lyrics |
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| Timing out the song according to where the verses and choruses are |
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Project 3 | Review of Final Critique
After the final critique on Thursday, I have a better idea of how to refine and finish up my video. I made sure to work hard on having the video come together in enough time to have the "finalized" version to show in class for the final critique. I wanted to get feedback on what I could improve or tweak instead of showing placeholder video and having it be incomplete. The critique actually helped out a lot. Prior to class, I was really happy with the way my video clips and transitions were placed, but some parts of the text that moves in felt unresolved. I wasn't sure how much text I wanted in my video, but after hearing the comments in class, I realized that I had too much text and it was starting to get distracting. Since I have been working on the project for so long, it was nice to get an outside opinion. Now I have two pieces of text that come in for each verse, and one that appears in each chorus.
The "Memories" portion of the text also felt out of place. Since the critique, I changed the font of the word, and also changed the placement of the word on the screen so it doesn't cover up important pieces of the video. Once I make a few more adjustments to the video, it will be done!
The "Memories" portion of the text also felt out of place. Since the critique, I changed the font of the word, and also changed the placement of the word on the screen so it doesn't cover up important pieces of the video. Once I make a few more adjustments to the video, it will be done!
Monday, November 7, 2011
Project 3 | Revised Storyboard
After figuring out what I wanted to do for this project and researching iMovie, I've decided to primarily do this project in iMovie instead of Flash. There is a preloaded theme in iMovie that does exactly what I want the images to do (panning from one "picture" to another). I will be using this theme and tweaking it to make the transitions coincide with the music. Also, I will be taking the whole video into Photoshop after it's done and add some of the lyrics to show up on the video as well.
So far, I have found all of the video content that I want and have arranged it on the iMovie program to the right times. The next step I will take is to add the transitions and tweak the timing so that the transitions fit in as well. Since I've made a few changes, the storyboard has also changed. Here are the images of the new storyboard:
So far, I have found all of the video content that I want and have arranged it on the iMovie program to the right times. The next step I will take is to add the transitions and tweak the timing so that the transitions fit in as well. Since I've made a few changes, the storyboard has also changed. Here are the images of the new storyboard:
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| storyboard 1 |
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| storyboard 2 |
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