"But now the rains weep o'er his hall,

with no one there to hear." - The Rains of Castamere

It has already been a long journey just to get to this pitch, and I have already learned so much. Starting out I had no idea if I should pick Fields and Frames, or Dance Video - I had ideas for both, and at first I figured I would be able to do everything. I quickly found out that that was not the case.. Since then it's been a rollercoaster, and believe it or not, the pitch is ready, the dancer is found, and the location is almost ready too - can you believe it ? Now, there is still a long way left to go, I've got most of the pre production left, and the project is far from getting signed off and ready to shoot yet, but you know, lets look on the bright side, we're getting there.

My dance video is heavily influenced by Bill Violas video art installation "Tristan's Ascension" as in it will feature falling water and one performer. I will combine this with dance elements from casual street dance and martial arts. This piece will show a narrative that reflects the constant battle between nature and humans, and how in the end we might be better off if we could find a way to work in harmony, and live together, side by side, without obstructing the other.

The set itself is fairly straight forward - just a black room, with a spotlight, and water raining down from above - but its the dance that tells the story between the two characters. In this narrative both the dancer and the water itself will play their respective parts as two opposing forces, who are both trying to achieve an action, but is being obstructed from completing that action by the other part. The water wants to do what water wants to do when it rains, to reach the ground, and the human wants to complete these movements without distraction. 

The video will start with the dancer performing their moves undistracted, but slowly the water starts dripping, and increasing in amount. After a while the water is now physically making it difficult for the dancer to perform the moves, and as the water pressure increases (we will achieve this by using a hose, or just increasing the amount of water being poured), the dancer also increases the intensity oh their moves - making them more powerful and aggressive. It will be obvious that the dancer and the water is out of harmony with each other, and that they are in a way egging each other on to become more annoyed, and more tempered. There will be a crescendo in this part of the video where it becomes intense until the point where the dance can't go on, after this the video and the dance will almost come to a full stop, before slowly starting up again as the dancer realised that its possible to dance with the water if they just change their moves slightly. At this point the dance will change from the previous more aggressive and combat inspired dance, and transform into a more flowly, abstract dance that's inspried by the art of Tai Chi. The dance goes on, but this time in harmony with the water, letting it flow with the body, instead of interrupting it. This goes on for a while until we get to the end of the video where the dancer and the water is in complete sync and camera pans out. 

The North Pole melting

Now it wouldn't be much of an art uni video if it didn't have a deeper meaning now would it? Well of course it does, and this time I don't feel like it's very subtle. It's about humans and nature having to learn how to work together and live along side each other on this earth, instead of constantly slashing away at each other. Like in the dance, the two parts keep egging each other on - we destroy the atmosphere, the water heats up, and natural disasters come more and more often, and round and round we go. Now, there have been made countless documentaries and films about this subject, and this is my contribution - and my wish - that maybe one day we can learn to work together and take care of each other. 

TJ

"Editors deserve so much respect"

Avid - The choices I made

 

Over the course of three weeks we were tasked with editing the rushes from our studio shoot late last year with Avid, the editing software we have been taught through the Professional Toolkit unit. I chose this unit because I this year wanted to improve my technical skills, and become a better artist by being able to better edit and complete my own projects. Avid is probably the most complicated software I have ever been taught, and I would be lying if I didn´t say I found it very difficult. 

So starting off I wanted to make an edit that was different from the script and the planned story. Having been DoP for the studio shoot I was a big part of the pre production and production of this film, and thusly I´ve had a very close relationship to how the film developed and ended up. For this reason I wanted to challenge myself and create something other than just the normal narration of the film. 

Trailers

The last month I have been obsessed with the trailer for the upcoming movie "Logan". It´s a very simple trailer, but it really intrigues and catches the watcher, and by the end of it you almost can´t wait for the film to come out. 

As you can see it resembles the beats of many trailers, in that it has an old song, it crescendoes towards the end, revleases just enough to intrigue, and tells part of the story. I think trailers are their own unique type of media and they don´t get nearly enough credit compared to films. Of course films take way longer to create and edit, but when it comes to the financial success of a film, a trailer can either make it or break it. I want to create a trailer for Exhale, My Love, and try to create that sense of intrigue and interest that the trailer for Logan did. 

During the editing process I sadly didn´t take any screenshots, but I can explain everything I did and why I did it. To begin with I created bins for all the rushes (one bin for day 1 of the shoot, one bin for day 2, one for the audio, one for the foley etc) I then proceeded to go through all the clips, marking what the contain and if they were of interest for my edit. I wanted to build my trailer traditionally with it starting out with one or two scenes from the film to establish the conflict and set the story, and the give a glimpse of the rest in short clips meant to intrigue. 

I decided to use clips from scene 2 were Elliot first started coughing, and the following scene when they visit the doctors to find out whats wrong. By showing these two scenes in not too much detail but enough to give a rough idea of what´s going on I show the viewer the main plot of the story and what starts the conflict, without giving away the course of how the story evolves during the reminding scenes. 

Poster by Natalie Hodgins

The editing process itself was fairly straight forward, for the short clips I used bits of the film that I knew would be interesting, and would make people want to see the film itself. For an example, there is one suspenseful shot of Elliot sitting by the table eating and looking very angry and upset. Now, if you know the film you that he´s not actually angry, but rather confused and ill, and the scene it actually showing the straining relationship between him and Bella, but by using that clip out context I hoped to create some wonder about what the film actually about, and make the viewer question in what direction the film would go after the intial scenes. 

I ended the trailer with two longer clips around the title because I wanted to slow it down towards the end to let the viewer relax and process what they just saw. The final clip is of Elliot crying before you see the clock on the wall start to blink. I wanted to make that the final clip to make people wonder what the blinking meant, and why he was so upset about it. Is it an alarm? How is it connected to him? Does it have anything to do with his disease? Those are the types of questions I want people to have after they finish the trailer. At this point I was happy with the length of trailer and the clips I had used. I am aware that it´s shorter than what the brief wanted, but I felt that if added more clips it would feel drawn out, and crowded. 

After that I moved on to sound. First I muted all the audio tracks that belonged to the actual footage, and then added 4 more audio tracks. Mono left and right for music, and mono left and right for foley. For the foley I looked for key sounds that would give the clips some dimension and space. In the beginning of the trailer I added sounds of the keyboard, walking, cereal, and Elliot sighing. I mostly only wanted foley in this part of the trailer because I wanted the music to take over after the first scene and towards the crescendo, before dying out after the title and the final clip. In the final I again added the sounds of Elliot crying, to bring the trailer back to reality, and to the seriousness of the film. 

"Cello Suite No. 1" by Beethoven

As for the music for the trailer I wanted something that increased in intensity, but almost had a beautiful seriousness to it. I know it´s very in to use music from the 70s and 80s in trailers nowadays, but that wasn´t the feeling I wanted for the trailer. But when in doubt, classical music to the rescue! This piece by Beethoven not only fit the trailer perfectly, but it also fit my edit - as in that the piece became more instense around the part of the trailer where I started to increase the intensity. I then made it die off at the title, so that the impact of the final clip was more effective. 

In the final part of the edit I did colour grading. I didn´t do too much here because I didn´t want to change that much, but I did want to make the hospital scenes lighter, and the room scenes a bit darker. I did by adjusting the hue and gamma in the colour correction tool, to fit the scenes, but also depending on which character was in the shot. Our actress for Bella has a fairer complexion than our actor for Jacob, so in scenes with her I would get rid of things like redness. 

All in all I´m very happy with my edit. I think that as a trailer it does what it´s supposed to do - it creates intrigue, and it prepares you for the film without giving too much away. 

TJ

"My most challenging project yet"

 Dance Video Idea

Consider this my treatment pitch. Going off my previous research post I have combined multiple of my ideas into one final one. My dance video will be a 1+ minutes long, and will consist of a minimalistic dance with smooth and fluid movements that correspond with the raining of the water. It will be filmed with a black background and a spotlight on the dancer, I only want the dancer and the water to be in focus. I really like how Bill Violas work almost feels sentimental and nostalgic, so I want to try to create that atmosphere with the low light, and black background. As for the sound I want it to be as little of it as possible, almost nothing at all. The little I want to have will be very experimental and abstract, and will serve the purpose of helping the atmosphere. As far as my crew goes I have 2 or 3 people who have said they would like to help me, but I have not assigned any roles as of yet, because I think we will have to a bit of everything. I want to work very closely with the dancer, and develop the choreography while filming, with maybe only one or two rehearsals before. I have some shots in mind, e.g. a static wide shot and some static close ups, but other than that I want to feel what seems natural to capture with the dancer, the same way I want the dancer to tell me what movements would feel natural for the video and setting. 

The biggest problem I'm facing moving into pre production is location. I of course also have to be really careful with my use of water in combination with the spotlight, but I feel like that can be easily protected through my risk assessment, and careful set building. As I mentioned in the previous blog post, the location will be my biggest problem as I will need somewhere with enough space for the project, and a place for the water to run off. I am currently still looking for affordable places to do this, and I am also considering doing it outside (something which would solve my water problem, but might create new ones like weather, and lighting.) 

In my risk assessment I will discuss everything from taking care of the dancer, to health and safety when it comes to studio or outside shooting. 

TJ

"Does the camera dance too?"

Dance Video - Innovation and Interference 2017

For this project we are tasked with creating a dance video, where we learn a greater understanding of the relationship between the choreography, the dancer, and the camera. We can create whatever sound we want, and be as experimental as appropriate - and I'm assuming that this means we can go nuts as long as we still fill the brief of the unit. We will explore rhythm, beat, dance, sound, and choreography throughout this project and if successful we will incorporate all of this in the finished video. 

I think the biggest challenge for me will be how to capture the choreography and scene with the camera to best show the extent of the performance. I also struggled during the editing process of last years dance video, so I also think that will be a challenge - I might have to ask for help from some of my course mates to crew and edit. But as far as the brief I don't I will have any problem with creating this. I already have multiple inspirations I want to look at and incorporate. 

Bill Viola 

Bill Viola is a visual artist from New York, who does a lot of work with the elements in his film. He creates almost miraculous visuals by manipulating time, and incorporating the elements in ways that makes the frame look almost religious at any point in the video. The one that especially caught my eye was a piece called "Tristans Ascension", in which water slowly rises up around a body. During the duration of the piece the water rising becomes more and more intense and the body even starts being pulled with it. I assume he used suspension cables to do this and then removed them in editing, but nonetheless, it makes for a stunning visual, with heavy religious undertones. I really want to use this effect of water and time manipulation in my dance video as I think the movements of the dance would look amazing with these kinds of effects.

 "Tristan's Ascension" by Bill Viola (2005)

 The challenges I would be facing with this idea are many, as it is a very complicated and craving project. I would have to find a dancer who would be comfortable with the water, and possibly getting cold and wet. In the risk assessment I would have to make sure that I will take care of my performer as far as this goes (Bring towels, food, and possibly something warm to drink, etc). I also have find a location where I could use a large amount of water with a safe way to dispose of it, maybe like a large warehouse or a garage. This is definitely an idea I want to incorporate in my final pitch, but I also have other ideas that I want to pursue. 

Stop Motion

The second concept idea that sprung to mind was stop motion. I am researching this idea more for my own interest as actually creating a dance video using stop motion would take weeks on end, and I might end up with something that doesn't even fit the brief. I have been interested in stop motion for a long time, but I haven't tried to create a full on stop motion project since creating a short film for my university application. It was just a silly video, that was meant to be a lot bigger and more developed, but I was only a crew of myself, and stop motion is really difficult.

I don't know who reviewed my application, 

but this was the end result of my little project.

I also had a look at the behind the scenes making of Wes Andersons "The Fantastic Mr. Fox", and that just confirmed my earlier suspicion that using stop motion for this project would be impossible. I do really want to use it for a future project though as I think it is a fascinating way of creating film. 

Minimalistic Dance

A still from the music video for Flume & Chet Faker's "Drop The Game"

 We all have strengths and weaknesses when it comes to life, and although I agree that we should always try to strengthen our weaknesses, and try new things - I have to admit that creating choreography is a massive challenge for me. I have never done dance in my personal life, and I'm a very stiff person in general. So I want to make the dance as minimalistic and simple as possible - if anything I think that would be considered playing to my strengths, rather than hiding my weaknesses. While looking around for this on youtube I found this music video for Flume and Chet Faker's song Drop The Game. It features a man in his 20s dancing in the street, but instead of it looking like a overly planned routine, its rather a collection of casual movements that seamlessly fit the music. I think that these kinds of movements would look stunning if maybe combined with the water and time manipulation I explored in the Bill Viola section of this post. It would require that I have very close contact with my dancer, as I would have to work them to create the  dance as it has to look natural for them to perform it. 

 "Drop The Game" by Flume & Chet Faker (2013)

Martial Arts

The last idea I have researched and want to discuss in this post it martial arts, and how it can be used for this project. I have been a fan of kung fu films since I was very young, even though most of the film are very dramatic and over the top. But the choreography that goes into that kind of fight scenes must be incredibly dubious, and well thought out for it to look real. Now, I am not a martial artist, nor have I ever created a dance using martial arts, so of course this is a stretch, but I also think that if combine it with either of my other ideas I might be able to create something that will look absolutely beautiful. While writing this post a memory came to mind about something else I could use in combination with martial arts and Flumes style of dancing. It's a bit silly, but if translated to a real choreography I think it would look amazing. I am talking about the children's cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender that ran on Nickelodeon in the 2000s. It's a show about people who can control the elements through certain gestures and movements that correspond to the element they can use. For and example if you want to control water you need to have very fluid and soft movements, while if you want to throw rocks around it requires stomping and rough movements. 

This idea would also require that I have good contact with the dancer, as I need to make sure that they are comfortable with the style of dancing, and they believe it can be done. 

This is all the research I have done so far, and I will in my next post put together a pitch so that I can get started on pre-production as soon as possible. There are clearly very many challenges with this project, and I am really pushing myself into new territory, but I truly believe that I can creating something unique, and raise my standard as a video artist.


TJ

Maps and Networks comes to an end

I have now come to the stage of this project where I have to think thoroughly about my installation while also finishing my project. I have my clips, and I just have to edit them properly - maybe remove some noise without losing too much information. But that comes further down in this post, first I want to talk about installation. 

Hallway Gallery - advantages/disadvantages

During my first presentation I said that I simply wanted to have three screens right next to one another in the hallway. A simple way of showing all three colours and the contrasts between them. Since then I have a thought about many different way of doing it - projection, have the screens on top of another, make a three wall thing in a corner - but they all sort of do the same, they just show the pictures without adding anything. The whole point of putting thought into your installation should be to a) give additional meaning to the project, and b) make people who pass by want to stop and have a closer look, preferably standing there for a while. At this point in my work I decided to do two pictures instead of one. This lead me to think about duality, and how I could show this through my installation. Red and blue are very contrasting colours that both catch the eye, and it is my thinking that if you put them right next to one another you might lose some of that, because they lessen each other. Another thing I wanted to show was that these emotions that the images are based on don't necessarily flood your mind at the same time - they usually linger in intervals. When you're extremely sad and lonely, you feel less passionate, but it is still there in the back of your mind waiting for its chance at the wheel again. 

To portray this I want to place my two screens on opposite walls. 

Considering that its a narrow corridor, and that at multiple point there is a wall directly on either side, I think it would be perfect to have one screen showing the blue footage on the left wall, and one screen showing the red footage on the right wall. That way when you look at one of them you have to turn your back to the other one, just the way emotions do. I think this definitely adds to my project and I hope it can be done. 

Completion of my work 

As I discussed in an earlier post I decided to switch over to Premiere Pro for my editing, as Photoshop didn't quite work out. To be honest that did simplify the process of my videos a lot, and maybe it very easy to complete this task. I simply made sure I had the point of where the screen/phone flickers off, and then alternate between normal footage and reversed footage to make it look more fluid. I did this in Premiere Pro, so that I also could add the tone and bars, and countdown clock. 

This is my finished work: 

Blue

This my final blue piece, without bars and clock. I feel like this video accurately depicts loneliness through colour and visuals. I am also satisfied with the flickering of the screen. Although a lot of people won't realise that it spells out S.O.S. I think it adds a lot to the project. 

Red

As you can see the red is slightly noiser than the blue. I tried very hard to get rid of this and by adjust the original light source, but what you see in the final version is the best I could get. I like the colours, and I like that it has captured an "intimate moment". I also think it works very well in comparison to the blue. 

-TJ

"were you ever happy? and if you were, did you realise at the time"

- the best years of our lives (2016-2026)

Loneliness, anger, happiness - and the headache of it all

After the presentation for this project I left that room with a number of thoughts swirling around inside my head. There were so many things I wanted to do with this project - things I wanted to accomplish, things I wanted to explore. One idea I liked a lot was the idea of changing the haiku I had planned to something a lot simpler, like "help" or "sos". No only does simplify my editing process, but it also fits the simplicity of my idea - the emotions I want to explore are after all basic; the primal feelings that we all feel. 

RED - SEX AND PASSION, image from foot end of bed, raised back, hand on wall, bathed in red light,

BLUE - LONELINESS, asleep in front of computer

YELLOW - HAPPINESS, two people eating together having a good time,

Later in the project I decided to not do yellow, as I feel like red and blue have a nice duality on their own. They are both darkly lit, and portray strong passionate emotions, while yellow might look like an odd out. I also had an idea for how to present it in my installation that would suit two screens better than three. More on that in my post about installation choices.

I've decided to do these images because they represent those different emotions and feelings to me. I am the happiest when I socialise with friends, I am the loneliest on late nights on my own, and I feel the most passionate during sex. 

I've looked into cinemagraphs for this project as well. A cinemagraph is essentially a gif, were the image is frozen, but one aspect of it is moving. I think this would look really cool for the morse code, as it is a subtle way of implementing it into my installation. 

I think this would look awesome

After looking into cinemagraphs, and how to make it, I started thinking about how to use it in my images. In subtle ways, that makes it seamless and not out of place. For the red I was thinking about having the light under the door go on and off, for the blue I want the monitor in front of me to flicker, and for the yellow I want a phone on the table to flash. 

I think I'm ready to do my first shoot, to see how they turn out. 

I decided to first try with the blue image. Right of the bat I ran into some trouble as I had to redo all my setting in my camera to make the quality as good as possible. These shots will happen in very little light, and with that comes noise, thats pretty much unavoidable, but I can try to make it as little as possible. My first try was horrendous. 

As you can see, there is a lot of noise and grain. But I did choose to use this clip to experiment with cinemagraphs. 

Making the cinema itself didn't turn out to be very difficult, but that doesn't mean it was successful. I did it in Photoshop by importing it as frames, then deleting all the frames I didn't need. I then created a copy of the first frame in the sequence - this would be my static layer mask that keeps the video frozen. To then only make the computer move I selected the brush tool and marked the entire area of the computer so that the remaining frames could be seen through the mask. This was all well and good, but after that I encountered two problems. 
1. Because the top frame was a still, the light from the computer would still light me up, even after it was turned off through the mask. This just looked weird, and out of continuity. 
2. I could only save this as a GIF file, which would only be accessible through the internet. This in turn gives me a lot of trouble for the installation, as it would be dependent on the internet. 

How can I improve this, and make it work? 

Well, first of I can change my camera settings. I kept my ISO under 1600, and turned my aperture down to 4.0. Ideally I would use a lens that can go as far down as 2.8, but I don't have that at this time. (I also discovered that my camera was only recording in 720p this whole time. I of course turned it up to 1080p)  Furthermore I can make sure the frame is slightly better lit. I do want the image to be low lit, and moody, but to make up for the reduced ISO, I will have to increase the light. 

Instead of using Photoshop, I will move over to Premiere Pro to keep it as a video, instead of turning it into a GIF. Because of this choice I will have to limit the movement in frame as much as possible to still almost create the cinemagraph effect. The tiny amount of movement might even be in my favour, as it could give the image more emotions. 

-TJ

"try to think of a new colour"

What do colour means to us, and why?

"Notes on a page" (2016) by TJ Tvedt

For this unit I want to do a lot of research into colours, and why they mean what they mean to us. I mean, I feel like personally know they mean for me, but that might not be universal. I think a lot of people will have different connotations to the colour than me, just based of memory and experience. For me, red is the colour of anger and passion, but for someone else it could represent fire. This could be for number of reasons; maybe their house burned down. That's an extreme example, but you understand what I mean. 

BLUE.

Blue has been used in art and decorations since ancient times. It is a primary colour, and because it can create such a wide range of other colours by being mixed it has been heavily used for a long time, for an example in making up all the colours in screens. Blue has been used to represent the sky in paintings for as long as we have been able to dye stuff blue, and in modern times it has been used in flags that represent harmony and togetherness, like the European Union, and NATO. When asked through surveys people say that they associate with intelligence, harmony, coldness, distance, and sadness. It is also considered to be the most masculine colour, and dark blue is the most common colour for business suits. In Europe it was also chosen as their favourite colour by almost half the population. 

In modern times blue is considered a colour of royalty, which is ironic as in Greek and Roman times, blue was the colour of the working class. This was because blue was a colour that was quite difficult to make, and thus came into popular use lone after other colours like red, yellow, white, and black. It was also considered a barbaric colour as Julius Caesar reported that the Celts and Germans dyed their faces blue to frighten their enemies- quite a different meaning from today's "harmony". In Egypt on the other hand, blue was considered a divine colour as it was the colour the gods painted their faces to fly invisibly across the sky. This could be because Egypt had earlier access to blue, as it imported lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. I would not be surprised if these contradicting associations with blue are connected. The Roman Empire especially was famous for alienating every other nation that wasn't Roman, or "civilised", which would cause colours that for an example Egypt considered divine, to be uncivilised in Rome. 

But I think that the reason blue today is associated with tranquility, harmony, and sadness, is because of the sky. Staring up at it and its vastness you can feel calmer, but if you're sad already, it will only make you sadder. It is after all a very solemn colour, although I doubt you would feel calm if you had a barbaric Celt running towards you, screaming, with his face painted blue.

The Colour Circle

RED.

Red has been used in art for even longer than blue due to it being fairly simple to create. Iron oxide has long been used, and it is also what gives the Grand Canyon and Mars their colour. Because it is the colour of blood, red has since ancient times been associated with war, anger, passion, and sacrifice. The word red actually goes back to the Proto-Indo European word rewd, which is Because of this association with passion it was chosen as the colour for the ideologies communism and socialism - not to be confused with the original meaning of the Red Square in Russia, as red was considered to mean "beautiful" long before the Russian Revolution. But similarly, red was used to evoke passion during the French revolution, because they used a simple red colour as their banner. Red was used as early as the Egyptian Empire as make up to redden cheeks, and dye hair. 

YELLOW.

"Sunflowers" (1888) by Vincent Van Gogh

According to surveys in America, Europe, and Canada, yellow is the colour most often associated with amusement, gentleness, joy, happiness, but also envy, and jealousy. This duplicity of meaning took place because yellow became the colour associated with Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, in the Middle Ages and renaissance. This "trend" evolved into marking non-Christians with yellow, which in turn is the reason why Jews would have to wear a yellow star of David during the times of Nazi-Germany. 

Vincent Van Gogh was an especially fan of the colour yellow as he expressed that it reminded him of sunshine, although he also felt that the word "yellow" did not thoroughly enough explain the beauty of the sun - bright sulfur yellow, pale lemon gold. I have to say that I agree with him. I think yellow is a beautiful, very awake, colour. Because of this "awakeness" it is often used in warning signs. But even more so it reminds me of happiness, daytime, sunshine, and good memories. 
In China it is also seen as the colour of glory, and wisdom - which is funny, because in Europe more people associate wisdom and intelligence with blue. It is actually seen as a colour of nobility. Chinas compass has five directions; north, west, east, south, and the middle. Each direction is symbolised by a colour, and the middle is symbolised by yellow. China again is called the Middle Kingdom, and the Emperors palace is seen as the exact centre of the world. 

Thoughts:

I feel like I now know a whole lot about colours that I did not know before. Did I need this knowledge? I'm not sure, but either way, I know have it. One thing is for certain, this has given me a new perspective. I had no idea that one colour could mean such different things for people living around the world - how blue could be considered a divine colour in Egypt, while a worker class colour in Rome. But, although this is all very interesting, and knowledge that I might use in a future project/ future game of Trivial Pursuit, this specific project is very personal to me, and my own feelings. Therefore it is important that the representations of the colours I end up using are my associations, based on my experiences. So I'm sorry Egypt, you might think that blue is divine, I think it's loneliness and sadness, and that's what I'm going with. 


-TJ