The Installation

My group got assigned the back room that is significantly small and has windows in it.  I am not sure how all the art we picked will fit in the space.  The picking process was interesting because we were connecting completely different pieces of art together with the single idea of linear.  My group seems to agree on all the art we picked, with not much opposition which made the process go a lot smoother then some of the other groups. We also planned out how the pieces will be put in the space.  I feel a lot of that will change once we are actually in the room.

Studio work

I started to develop a script and story board my work in order to give it more structure.  The video I have been working on, called "fox", was a random snip-it with not much grounds other then to show the class my idea for the final thesis project.  I have decided I am going to focus on the de-modernization or the breaking apart of film.  I have figured out the methods I will use in post production but I need to start shooting more meaningful footage.  In order to figure out what this footage would be comprised of I have to story board and write out my ideas creating a significant composition.  I want to make my video shoot go as smoothly as possible so I need a shot by shot description ready before hand.  So this studio work day I worked on story boarding ideas and creating a script.  It was successful in organizing the direction I want to go with my final piece.

Critique

The critique I had was very useful in the development of my project.  Also, it is very nice to be able to get other eyes on my project.  I am going to have to have smoother transitions between tripod shots and moving shots.  I had a question as to keep the entire piece desaturated or to have certain scenes with red only for dramatic effect.  It seems the consensus was on keeping it in all black and white as the red is over used and does not help the main ideas behind my project.  Finally, the most important piece of information I gathered was seeing my piece go from the computer screen to the projector.  The darkness of the video was completely different on a giant projection.  This has got me to think how I want to display my artwork, on what medium? I feel I will stay away from projections because it requires a dark room and tends to lose quality.  I do not feel like giving myself those restrictions when I can use a TV.  A fun aspect of the critique was I got to see the work from other concentrations.  It was nice to see what my peers were working on and hearing their reasons behind it.  I am looking forward to the next critique.

Progressing

I shot some video the past weekend.  The shots looked great but I ran into some issues with the sound in post production.  I did not use an external mic while shooting the video which I know is always a mistake but I did not anticipate the intense effect it would have.  The further away shots have a much quieter sound and the close-up shots are significantly louder.  I tried a fix in soundtrack pro, however the cricket ambience is consistent through every shot so changing the dB's will not work.  I am probably going to have to do a voice over.   Re-shooting would be tough because I do not want to keep bothering my friends for a video shoot.  This shoot had some arguments involved and was a bit more stressful to complete.  Maybe I will take my friend out to dinner then ask him for his help if the dubbing does not sync correctly. Otherwise, compositionally, the shots looked great.