Here you will find an archive of all my experience with art projects from various mediums: photography, video, and audio.
3/10/2010- For a final project, a team of my class mates were required to make a video to support awareness of an on-campus cause. We chose to support the UCI Sustainable Garden Initiative. Enjoy!
Additionally, we worked on a website for a local non-profit organization, Musical Mentors. I am quite proud of my composition of the text on the page. Here it is:
www.musicalmentors.typepad.com2/12/2010- I am actually pretty proud of my appropriation project; I took clips from trailers for Kourtney and Khloe take Miami and Keeping up with the Kardashians, and crossed it with audio from a BBC trailer that was made to look like an educational video for women.
This video falls under the fair use guidelines because it is both forming a critique of the behavior of the Kardashian women on their television show, and also is illustrating a point about evolving opinions regarding the conduct of women in general.
Additionally, it comments on the nature of "reality" television; although some will claim it is real, I would not recommend using any reality program as a guide to living your life. Thus, by mixing clips from a reality sho with a fictional public service annoucement, I am attempting to point out the contstruction of realtiy that exists in this programming.
2/5/2010- This is my attempt at a 30 second audio plotline. I was challenged by this assignment because I consider myself to be a highly visual person; audio needs to be sustained and supplemented by an image. Here is the story of a similar experience that all students can understand
1/23/2010- In another assignment for my art class, we had to create a 30 second film with numerous different camera angles to complete the cinematic experience. Because 30 seconds is so incredibly short, I chose to forgo dialogue and see if I can be expressive without words.
This particular story captures a familiar moment in my relationship with my boyfriend, and that is play fighting over food. Although we were instructed not to have a "button" ending, I'm pretty sure I have a button ending, as all the other plotlines I attempted were even more Hallmark than this one. The cuts are also a little shaky, but overall, I think I did a pretty good job.
I "composed" the music in rock band, because without dialogue or sound, there had to be something that appealed to other senses.
Enjoy!
1/17/2010- This is a panning project with a fairly simple narrative structure. I started filming two of my friends chatting in my sorority living room, and as I panned around the room, more and more people started showing up.
1/5/2010- Unlike my peers, or even most of the population, I have a hard time with youtube. In fact, watching films such as this on youtube inspires an ambiguous feeling. At first, I see that the site is overpopulated with footage that is both completely useless and otherwise insipid. However, in some ways it is a way to exhibit talent that otherwise would go unrecognized.
I came across this particular video from my brother; he emailed me the link to one of their earlier films titled "Annoying", because whenever we go on family vacations, he and I always share a room, and something of this nature ensues. However, it is an early film for this group of friends: it is funny, but does not demonstrate much cinematic skill, as the camera is stationary the entire time. This film, "The Most Dramatically Normal Day Ever", exhibits a step in the development of that skill.
In order to play up the drama of normal situations, the filmmakers cut between several shots of the same scene, normally with a medium shot. Occasionally we see a few close ups to conclude a sequence of action, which progresses from no more than a cowboy shot, to a medium shot, to a close up. Also, they seem to utilize zoom quite frequently, without a cut. There are some variations in order to capture action: the scene where one character is vacuuming is fairly wide from an unusual angle, but it is necessary to see him engaging in the act of cleaning. Also, the scene depicting a single character running features a classic progression- wide shot to encompass the entire setting, medium shot as he turns the corner, into close up of face only to capture the dramatic expression.
One of the more sophisticated sequences occurs with an insert shot of the remote. It works almost like a POV shot, but not completely. The close up of the remote signifies it being located, then they cut to the two characters celebrating. This could introduce the POV shot, of a person with an object. Next, a cut to the remote without batteries, and then cut back to the characters to capture their emotional reaction. The only step never achieved is the person from the point of view of the remote:
12/16/2009- Like my blog, communication breakdown. I am concerned with all ways of communicating. More recently, I have been examining the novel form, whereas in the past I have looked at the meanings and origins of words and phrases. For my final project in class, I chose to comment on social networking, more specifically, communicating through the site Twitter.
I followed the tweets of one individual, and made a silent film from her actions. I chose the silent film form for many reasons: it conveys major plot elements through text, it is very theatrical (as social networking, in my opinion, is often dramatic), and despite its onomatopoeic name, the user engages with Twitter by reading text posts and feeds, without sound.
So, here is my silent film for all to enjoy:
