Self-Assessment, Project 1: beach
window
Identify
the central theme of your work. What drove you to create this image?
The central themes
of my work beach window are the
perspectives of the place, or a location, and the way by which they may shift,
or remain static. There’s always a
certain aura to a location, and in this project, I wanted to capture the mood
of a place. Adding an extra dimension, I
wished to explore the way in which associations will shift and change over
time, although the landscape physically may not—essentially, a shifting of
perspectives, or a lack thereof. The
inspiration for this particular theme is rooted in my own exploration of St.
Mary’s College, and the landscapes surrounding.
Although this particular landscape has physically changed very little,
my perception of them has made them, in my eyes, shift drastically. This project deals essentially with time and
memory, inspired in part by my impending graduation, but specifically memories
and associations that may be triggered by a certain place, and affected by the
duration of time that has occurred since the last memorable event
happened. These “happenings” are mostly
personal within this particular project, although in future works I may want to
focus upon events that have affected others, not only myself, and may be more
politically-charged in nature.
Talk
about how the process unfolded.
The actual process
of the work itself was a long one, and for the most part, quite sporadic. A good part of the project was spent simply
learning the technical skills needed in order to accomplish slow motion and
time-warping video, which were two techniques I knew I wanted to feature within
my first project. However, the process
behind the idea of the project was much more abstract, and involved quite a bit
of soul-searching and travel. Initially,
I wanted to pick up from a previous project that I had done as an assignment
for ART105, in which I strived to portray a “portrait” of time, through the
capture of a GIF image. This image, or
“portrait of a moment,” would represent a small snippet of a passed moment
within time. I was interested in the
concept of time and memory, and how the two may interact with one another in
order to create a series of “portraits” of a place.
My first actual
shoots that went towards the project took place in Washington D.C. with a few
friends of mine, as I experimented with slow motion video, specifically the
ways in which rising smoke could be captured on slow motion video. Although I managed to compile decent
material, the idea behind them was not fully realized, so the shots that I took
have been placed aside for the time being.
I learned a valuable lesson regarding lighting however, as the light requirements
for high-speed shooting is much greater than slower exposure times, and if not
armed with decent lighting, doing a high-speed shoot at night is virtually
impossible, even with a fast lens. My
next shoot, after this venture, took place at Point Lookout State Park, about
18 miles from the college. The weather
was cold, stormy, and snowy, but I was determined to capture footage of the
snow and high winds beating against the waves and the grass, as I thought that
the overall effect would be mesmerizing in slow motion. With a friend to help carry my tripod, and a
few paper towels to dry my camera from the driving sleet, we went out on the
rocks, capturing a few angles before I finally found the angle that allowed a
satisfactory view of both the ocean waves breaking on the rocks, and the waving
grass along the shoreline, being beaten by the driving sleet. Using the tripod to create continuity between
the alteration between still photography and video shots, and attempt to
prevent excessive shaking of the camera from the high winds, I captured a few
shots of 60 fps video, each spanning slightly over a minute, and accompanying
still shots of the same scene. My
original intention was to layer not two videos on one another, but a still
image of a wave breaking, and a separate layer of video featuring the grass
waving incessantly, the whole piece a looping video with selective motion,
similar to a GIF image. When I started
editing the video, however, I realized that in addition to further portraying
my intended theme of memory and time associated with place, the video may more
dramatically communicate this to the viewer by reversing the flow of the waves,
in direct conflict with the slow forwards-motion of the waving grass.
Examine
your process. What were your work habits? Were they effective?
My editing process
started admittedly quite late into the assignment, as I had little time
throughout the week to do shooting specific to the project, and I was also
waiting for the desired conditions—I had decided that a high-wind situation
would be most visually striking in a slow motion format. The shoot was finished successfully by
Saturday afternoon, but editing still lay ahead. It did not take me too long to acquire the
needed skills and knowledge of Final Cut Pro X in order to complete the
multi-layering and time-warping aspects of the project (after watching many,
many tutorials) but due to rendering issues with my laptop, it took me hours to
export the completed video. Even while editing,
the laptop would crash after running the program for longer than half an
hour. This stretched the time needed to
edit the project significantly, and I spent all of Sunday and some of Monday
simply attempting to prevent my machine from crashing. It would take several minutes for the
computer to acknowledge even simple tasks.
Since this occurrence, I’ve learned to certainly not wait until the last
moment for large assignments such as these, since although I managed to export
at least a piece of the completed work, I was still under massive stress having
my laptop malfunction on such a frighteningly steady basis. When dealing with new terrain in terms of
software updates and new techniques, it is definitely best to get the shooting
done as quickly as possible, leaving plenty of time for the final edit.
Address
the finished product.
Although I was hard-pressed to
complete the project due to computer processing and software troubles, I am
immensely satisfied with the final product.
Not only did it allow me to explore previously untouched territory in
film editing, but it also conveyed the intended idea in our classes’ crit
session. The end product is visually
thought-provoking, in the sense that the slow-moving waves and grass both
compliment and contrast one another—one travels forward in time, while the
other travels back. The colors are
natural, yet dark—the tones suggest a darker, underlying meaning behind the
relatively innocent subject matter. The
relationship between the moving grass and moving water is important, and is
highlighted by their manipulated timespan.
On first glance, the viewer may not perceive anything out the ordinary,
but rather a simple glimpse into a normal beach scene. However, upon further examination, it’s
apparent that there’s something out of the ordinary—the complete silence builds
tension, and the water moving backwards against the tide creates a dreamlike
scene. The rope, although subtle, draws
the viewer’s eye around the work. Although
the work is a video, the static camera treats the frame much as still
photograph would, allowing a strategic revealing and veiling of elements inside
and out of the frame. The viewer is
forced to focus upon this scene, contemplating it, with their associations and
perceptions changing the longer they view the piece.
Lastly,
give yourself a grade for this project.
I would give myself an A on this
project. I spent a good deal of time on
it, both conceptually and in practice, and I tried out many ideas before
finally settling on one that I thought fit my intention the best. I was plagued by computer troubles, but
learned from it, and was ultimately able to churn out a successful piece. It seems to me an advancement in the right
direction from the work that inspired it, and certainly leaves room for further
improvement and refinement.