Can you hear that? Sounds like a sound project. So fresh and audible.

First things first, this is the second time I've ever played around with sound. The first time I was convinced I could create the next big party tune, but alas, Adobe costs money, also, creating a Billboard Top 10 hit takes a lot of time. (Needless to say I benched the project. Watch out though.) 

But this also means that I'm excited to get back to it and play around with actual, professional sound editing software magic. 

Nothing like some fun photoshopping to procrastinating making a blog post. 

Experimental sound project, let's go! 

In our first lesson with James we were told that our piece should be based of an image. We were presented with 8 (I think it was 8, oh well) different images, and among the herd there was one that I recognised. 

"Guernica" by Pablo Picasso 

HISTORY LESSON 

In the spring of 1937 the Spanish Civil War was raging. And long story short, the Republicans, supporting the left-leaning government, fought against the Nationalist forces led by Fransisco Franco. If you know anything about history, then you know that Franco isn't necessarily known as a nice guy. If you need any convincing of why he isn't a nice guy, then you should know that he was supported by both Mussolini and Hitler, two of Europe's least nice guys.  Anyway, Hitler and Mussolini, who both were very right-winged in their political ideologies figured it'd a good idea to have Spain as a ally, but also that this civil war was a great way to test out their weapons, as to show the rest of Europe that they packed some real fire power - essentially one big scare tactic. 

Well, in 1937 Guernica was the next target. Italian and German air-forces bombed the poor city to rubble. It was completely unnecessary. History lesson over. 

I guess I have a certain soft spot for this part of history, as a town were I have roots, Dresden, also was bombed without reason not a mere 10 years later. Anyway, let's get to recording. 

What I want

I have a very clear idea for what I want to create. I want the piece to start out quiet with a steady beat. I then want it to come more and more chaotic, with planes and bombs whizzing by. It's a simple project, but I feel that this is what I hear when I look at this painting. 

-TJ

After effects is enough to drive any sane man to the brink

So the filming went swimmingly, with the help of my girlfriend, a tripod and a camera held upside down. I did this to easily film my feet without having to crouch. I then cut it all together in Premiere Pro, and of course rotated the footage. I'm not showing the step for step of this because I'm assuming that you're strictly interested in what I did in After Effects and not Premiere Pro, as that was last term. 

(I also transported my Premiere Pro sequence to After Effects using dynamic link. Very useful. 10/10 would use again)

So the first thing I had to do was stabalise the footage as it was rather shaky. I wanted to do this though without having to crop too much. I used a tool called Warp Stabilizer VFX, and these settings: 

I had to change these settings slightly after this screenshot to ensure that it also cropped, not only stabilised. I kept all the other settings like this. 

And boy does this take ages. I'm not even sure how long I watched this screen: 

Good thing I've got nice feet.

After I was happy with the stabilisation, I went on to add text, and to make it appear. I chose the point where I wanted the text to exist, and then I added a mask so that I could control when it would appear. 

To make it swipe from left to right I selected Mask Path, and then selected where in the time line the entire text would appear. I used the same effect during the entire film, so that it would have disappeared again by the end. 

These are all the effects I used in my project, because it's all I needed to create my vision, but as I want you to know that I know about them, there are other effects I could've used. For an example the whole concept of Keying, and how to use a green screen, or get the green screen effect without there actually being a green screen. I made a blog post about it right after the lesson because I found it so fascinating. I will most likely use it in future projects. There are also an immense selection of different effects one can add to whatever project. Most of these helpful tools can be found under the window tab, and after that on the right hand side of the screen. 

Sidenote: I wanted to add music to this project. Some tribal drums that would increase in volume, but as I didn't have that idea until the end of the project, (The day before the deadline) I encountered a problem when using the dynamic link and the file was unusable in After Effects. 

This has been my first time using After Effects, and I must say I found it rather difficult at first. It's time consuming, complex, and the possibilities are endless. I've found out that the best way of working with it is to try different things - some work, others don't. There is simply too much stuff you can do for being told all of it, most of it you will discover by accident :) 

Have a wonderful Easter! 

-TJ

being reunited with Phil was absolutely lovely

So when we were first assigned this project, not gonna lie, I thought it sounded like a piece of cake. Walk in the park. Like stealing sweets from a baby. (Theft is bad. Don't steal kids.) But would you look at that, after effects are kinda difficult and complicated! 

Now the theme in itself wasn't very difficult, and that in itself might've been one of the reasons for why I postponed it for so long, and focused on other projects. But I still had this idea swimming around in the back of my mind, I wanted to make a statement about how we as digital artists show you a world that in no way is real. I think that's easy to forget sometimes. I mean, just have a look at our course - Digital Film and Screen Arts. 

What I'm saying is this, humans and technology has come very far. So far in fact, that it's almost impossible to see where one ends and the other begins. And I think that we, film makers, show that as well as any other group of people. Even when we made a documentary we edited, colour corrected, added sound, cropped, and changed what we would then portray as a piece of real life. 

But it's not is it? I keep hearing people say stuff like "We'll fix it in post", "Don't worry about the lighting, I'll colour correct it." "Just pretend you're saying your lines, we can record the actual lines in the studio later, and then overlay them." Are people aware of this? 

So I had my concept, now how would I portray that, and how can I make two screens, and after effects work for me? 

As any good artist I started researching, and I came across loads of artists discussing whether digital art was real art. This wasn't exactly what I was looking for, and after hours of looking I couldn't actually find anything to inspire me for my own statement. After all what I want to achieve is to show people that we we show them as the final product in no way is real. 

I decided that whatever video I ended up making it should be very simple, as to show that even the simplest videos, the ones that look raw and organic, aren't. This is wha t I settled on:

The left video is a video of legs walking around, exploring nature, and in general enjoying life. Something easy, away from machines and computers.

The right video however I have decided will be a screen capture of some of the editing process. This will show how this simple clip has been remastered, and added to. I also want the right video to add to my statement about digital content not necessarily being a true adaptation of life. 

I know this is a text heavy post, but the next one will have pictures of the process. 

-TJ

"Revolution is about the need to re-evolve political, economic, 

social justice, and power back into the hands of people.." - Booby Seale

These are all my final pieces except Haiti, and as you can see, my hands feature a prominent role in all of them. (Also in the Haitian one as the stitching is a clear sign of human hands.)

I did this for a number of reasons. 

The first one is possibly that revolutions are all about the hands of ordinary people. It's never royalty that fight, no, it's the people. Everyone average can have their hand involved in a revolution if they dare. But it's not only that. It's also about the context of me recreating these flags. I am a boy in the 21st century who is creating flags of importance, over a hundrer years after they were first made. 

Does that not connect me to these events? I think so. I think that the more connected we feel to these events that changed history so drastically, the more we can learn from them. 

When I read about the Cuban flag, and then recreated it, I pictured the Cuban dawn, and now whenever I see a dawn I immediately think of the Cuban revolution, and what they fought for. 

Same with French! Look around, maybe you'll randomly see three people walking next to each other wearing red, white, and blue. Then think of how bravely they fought to gain equality, and liberty. 

 That's why I wanted my hands in the work. They are what connects me to these fantastical happening, and they remind me that although I was never there, I can absolutely still bear those memories with me, and learn from them. 

I had a look at an artist who uses hands in his artwork in truly amazing ways. His name is Guido Daniele.

I tried using his work as an inspiration for how to integrate my hands into my work, but I found it a bit to professional. But I did realise that I could blend in my hands in casual way that you might not notice at first. And example of this my France image, where I use my hands to frame the picture, but it is out of focus so that they don't take away from the picture.

-TJ

"this post was not made the day before the deadline"

Welcome back to the thrilling finale of my five digital stills project! As we know this project is all about revolutions, what the flags of the revolutions mean, and how far they have gotten today. 

Cuban Revolution: 

Now, the story behind the Cuban flag is quite amazing. Apparently freedom fighter Narciso López woke up one morning to the most beautiful dawn sky. He could see a red triangle of the clouds announcing the dawn. In the middle of the red he could see the morning star Venus shining. And to finish it all off, two clouds had broken off and sliced the sky into three parts of blue. 

Another story says they took their inspiration from

an American flag, but lets go with the myth.

This seemed almost too good to be true, and of course I had to use this story as the base for this picture. My only problem was how. I thought about painting, but I had already decided to use paint for my American, and Soviet pictures. Considering an event such as the one López explained isn't just gonna show up because I need it for my project, I had to try to recreate it. 

This is my final product: 

And to be completely honest, I'm not all that happy with how it turned out. It sort of works, and the mix of image and material fits my style, but all in all I feel like the final outcome didn't quite reach the finish line I had made for myself. If I had more time I might've changed what revolution to focus on, or tried to do more in after effects, instead of using practical effects. 

Soviet Revolution: 

Not gonna lie. I'm quite happy with this one. The idea is simple - this revolution was all about the peoples rights, and their flag represented this though the hammer and sikle. 

I wanted to make a piece that comments on how those rights are working out today. It's not a secret that there have been multiple homophobic laws passed in Russia over the last years, and same sex couples are not only shunned, but harassed and killed. So I wanted to recreate their flag with something that symbolises the gay agenda. What better symbol than the literal male insignia? I got to work, and this my progress: 

1. Get that precious cardboard. 

2. Paint it red. (Make it a rough coat though, I want this to have a gritty look as well)

3. Make the insignia. 

4. Take the picture. 

5. Put it through the edit, and voila: 

I'm really please with this one because I feel like it send a message subtly, and look kinda cool at the same time. 

In my next post I will talk about why I have chosen to feature my hands in all the pictures. 

-TJ

"Revolutions force nations to change"

My second idea is the one I went with. 

This is what I thought: It’s not only I who have grown up. The world has as well, and what events, what happenings have brought us to where we are today? And the answer is of course a lot. There are so many variables that it’s almost impossible to pin down 5 instances, but in the end I chose to focus on revolutions. Revolutions force nations to change, often for the better, and they are clear markers for change in the world.

I discussed this with Leah during our tutorial yesterday, and we both found it difficult to portray revolutions in five pictures. I was thinking about maybe recreating pictures from the revolutions, like this painting from the French revolutions: 

But we both decided that would be too difficult, and not necessarily original enough for my project. 

-------

I then happened to mention that the french flags colours symbolise freedom, and that that is because of the French revolutions. Leah then mentioned that after the Haitian revolution, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, took the French tri-colour, and ripped out the white part to symbolise the removal of white power in Haiti. This is when we thought of the idea that the story behind flags might be an interesting idea for my project. I decided to research other revolutions, other flags, and meanings behind them. I also had a look at the work of Alighierio Boetti. His work with flags is quite fascinating, and I will definitely use him as an inspiration. 

"bringing the world into the world"

The French Revolution: 

So as I said earlier in this post, the French tri-colour represents freedom, which is why so many countries today use the colours red, blue, and white in their flags. This is also represented in the revolution, which was all about liberty, equality, and fraternity. So I decided to create a picture of three people in the French colours hanging out to symbolise this equality. This picture also has a part to play in my picture for the Haitian revolutions though. 

The Haitian Revolution: 

Now, when I created the picture for the French revolution I already had a plan for what I wanted to do with the Haitian picture based of the story behind their flag. So, I will take the picture for the French revolution and rip out the white part, before sowing the two halfs together, thus representing the history behind the flag. 

(I was not able to put a picture of my Haitian picture on my blog because I did not have time after the stitching)

The American Revolution: 

Now there is a lot of wrong with America - no doubt. But their revolution were for a good cause, and it’s definitely something we can learn from. Standing up for your rights, and telling those in power that enough is enough, is a memory we should all use in todays society. But I did have a bit of a struggle coming up with an idea for this picture, after all, this revolution happened for a lot of the same reasons as the French one. Then I stumbled upon a haiku about the flag. Although the author is unknown, the haiku still has a lot of power: 

"American flag 

Is red with blood, blue with tears,

And white with privilege."

And I thought that this would be a great foundation for the commentary I wanted to make about the effect of the American revolution, how far they have come. The process of making it was quite interesting, so I want to go through it step for step.

1. Get cardboard from whatever back alley you can find.
2. Spray paint it white for a nice background

3. Dye some water with blue colour to make tears













4. Cut out the stars to float in the tears











5. And finally, make some bloody, red stripes:



After that all I had to do was put it through the edit to make it look grittier, and I ended up with something I was rather pleased with :)

In the next post I'll explain my ideas, and work flow for the Soviet Revolution, and the Cuban. 

-TJ

"now when they ask me about my age, they say how many, I say twenty." 

Memories fascinate me. And lately I have been thinking a lot about how my memories have shaped me, and why I have become who I am. I made a spoken word poem about it that I posted on my YouTube channel. It’s all about turning 20, moving away from Norway, and starting university. Have a look at it here:

Now my initial idea for this project was to take pictures from my childhood, and then recreate those pictures with my grown up self. A lot like what these people have done: 

I quickly dismissed this idea though, after having a conversation with Leah about it. 

My second idea was way better though! Sit tight.