Narrative is a story line, a structure of start, middle and end. To understand the story you would need to watch through all three stages. For this reason, narrative videos are best exhibited in a place where an audience can give full attention. Somewhere like an art museum would not work as well as people view art and then move on. It would be taken out of context and the whole idea of the video would be lost. If it was shown in a cinema, 99% of the audience would stay throughout the entire piece. This is because a cinema is created for the viewing of videos, and the audience will give their full attention when viewing it or they would get lost.
Non Narrative videos have no storyline, they have concepts but no structure. You would be able to walk in half way through the showing of one and still be shown the meaning behind it. This type of video is best exhibited in an art gallery, where people can pass in and out as they please.
Girl Chewing Gum by John Smith is a Non- Narrative video as you would be able to walk in half way through and understand.
Doll Face by Andy Huang has a very strong narrative. Its beginning is just as important as the end, the middle is just as important as the beginning and the end is just as important as the middle. Each section is another part of the story and without all three the audience would not be able to undestand or view the art in the same way as its purpose.
Some videos are a little of both, this could be done by using a non structured video and a voiceover telling the story.
Some films have simple structures and some are more complex. The structures arent always; beginning, middle and end. Sometimes they can start in the middle, go back to the beginning, then to the middle again and follow on to the end. Sometimes this allows us to understand the storyline better even though it seems it would make it harder. Sometimes the structure is produced like that to make it harder for an audience to determine the storyline.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
2. The Use of Technology, Techniques and Styles
The use of technology and techniques and styles.
Obviously as we grow, technology grows with us and we are able to do more things, like make certain parts more realistic, tweek certain mistakes better and add more unusual special effects.
We can reproduce things that no longer exist or have never existed like dinosaurs and we can create destruction, making things break and dissapear.
Weve advanced a lot from cave drawings.
Just because we have this technology however, we dont always use it in videos. A video with no special effects and special technology can be just as powerful as a film with a lot.
This all comes down to the craft of the piece; the idea that it is supposed to be very subtle or rather that it is to be overflowing with video animation and other effects?
Telling Lies by Simon Ellis was created in 2000 and is nothing more than a blank screen, voiceovers and text. This simple format of the video was what made it so empowering. Even though we had the technology, it was useless for this idea as it was supposed to be very plain and simple.
Koyaanisqatsi on the other hand was made in 1982, a time not so overflowing with techology but enough to barely sustain the proffesional quality that we have today.
Taking almost 2 years worth of filming to get those amazing shots that make you question their authenticity. Both videos are very powerful and both are created in two very different ways.
Obviously as we grow, technology grows with us and we are able to do more things, like make certain parts more realistic, tweek certain mistakes better and add more unusual special effects.
We can reproduce things that no longer exist or have never existed like dinosaurs and we can create destruction, making things break and dissapear.
Weve advanced a lot from cave drawings.
Just because we have this technology however, we dont always use it in videos. A video with no special effects and special technology can be just as powerful as a film with a lot.
This all comes down to the craft of the piece; the idea that it is supposed to be very subtle or rather that it is to be overflowing with video animation and other effects?
Telling Lies by Simon Ellis was created in 2000 and is nothing more than a blank screen, voiceovers and text. This simple format of the video was what made it so empowering. Even though we had the technology, it was useless for this idea as it was supposed to be very plain and simple.
Koyaanisqatsi on the other hand was made in 1982, a time not so overflowing with techology but enough to barely sustain the proffesional quality that we have today.
Taking almost 2 years worth of filming to get those amazing shots that make you question their authenticity. Both videos are very powerful and both are created in two very different ways.
Review 6. Muto
Muto
A wall painted animation
Created by. Blu
Muto was made using stop frame animation, and a lot of time and effort.
It was created on street walls in Buenos Aires.
The most vivid concept i thought, was the idea of life, death and rebirth.Throughout the entire clip we are shown this concept. In one part Muto stands there and its stomach opens up like a door, and another one of himself steps out, the new ones stomach opens and one steps out from him and so on.
Death and seperation are shown with Muto being broken up into lots of other things and later they join back together to form again.
the animation is designed to be able to interact with it's surrounding environment, by moving around real life objects and even onto the pavement.
There are many transitions between locations that I didn't spot the first couple of times I watched it.
Everytime i watch it i see something new that i hadnt spotted before, like the many transitions between locatioins.
The non diagetic sounds add to the emphasis of Muto's actions.
A wall painted animation
Created by. Blu
Muto was made using stop frame animation, and a lot of time and effort.
It was created on street walls in Buenos Aires.
The most vivid concept i thought, was the idea of life, death and rebirth.Throughout the entire clip we are shown this concept. In one part Muto stands there and its stomach opens up like a door, and another one of himself steps out, the new ones stomach opens and one steps out from him and so on.
Death and seperation are shown with Muto being broken up into lots of other things and later they join back together to form again.
the animation is designed to be able to interact with it's surrounding environment, by moving around real life objects and even onto the pavement.
There are many transitions between locations that I didn't spot the first couple of times I watched it.
Everytime i watch it i see something new that i hadnt spotted before, like the many transitions between locatioins.
The non diagetic sounds add to the emphasis of Muto's actions.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Review 5. Everything Turns
Everything Turns
Director. Max Hattler
Duration. 1 Minute
2004
Inspired by Durs Grünbein's poem Vertigo.
Life makes your head spin, and before you know it,it’s over. A very short film about time, life and death.
Everything Turns is produced in a surreal way but with a very real Narrative.
The craft is stop frame animation with simple drawings.
It begins with a clock ticking and a spinning childrens playground ride. The clock turns into bubbles that pop and the ride flattens into a clock. Time is shown going very fast through the speed that the hands on the clock are moving. The ride symbolises the beginning of life, childhood and that then turning into a clock shows childhood goes to quickly.
Next appears a scratchy barcode next to numbers that are counting down. These numbers are in digital form, once again reminding us of time.
Eyes then appear and turn into a woman and man having sexual intercourse. We can see the womans heart beating. The mans penis then turns into a baby in the womb. Obviously this represents birth but also a very important time in life, it is one of the key events.
Next a hand wipes over the screen and we hear a baby cry.
As the hand moves back over we see a fast food box land and a black splodge spread across the screen as it does so. Words begin to appear on the fast food box; "fast," "fast food," "live fast," "faster," "fast food." This represents that bad food will only make our lives shorter, making time obviously go faster. The repitition of the words, i believe symbolises our craving for bad food.
We then see a fruit being sliced and fall into a machine, along with words all jumbled together.
I believe that the machine represents us and our life and everything that we put into it.
The screen then begins to flood over with white. The white is water and we see ducks pass along over the screen. Next to the pond is an old man, this is a very stereotypical image of elderly people feeding birds. The man begins to shrink, aging rapidly as he does. As he becomes shorter and older he turns into a tombstone. Which is the most obvious symbol for death.
At the beginning we see the childs playground ride and at the end we see the old man with the ducks. The similarity between the both is that they are both fun for their age and the idea that as we get older the games and fun we have differ.
The sequence in which it is shown is the sequence in life. If it had been shown in another way the idea of life moving too quickly would not have been as powerful.
Director. Max Hattler
Duration. 1 Minute
2004
Inspired by Durs Grünbein's poem Vertigo.
Life makes your head spin, and before you know it,it’s over. A very short film about time, life and death.
Everything Turns is produced in a surreal way but with a very real Narrative.
The craft is stop frame animation with simple drawings.
It begins with a clock ticking and a spinning childrens playground ride. The clock turns into bubbles that pop and the ride flattens into a clock. Time is shown going very fast through the speed that the hands on the clock are moving. The ride symbolises the beginning of life, childhood and that then turning into a clock shows childhood goes to quickly.
Next appears a scratchy barcode next to numbers that are counting down. These numbers are in digital form, once again reminding us of time.
Eyes then appear and turn into a woman and man having sexual intercourse. We can see the womans heart beating. The mans penis then turns into a baby in the womb. Obviously this represents birth but also a very important time in life, it is one of the key events.
Next a hand wipes over the screen and we hear a baby cry.
As the hand moves back over we see a fast food box land and a black splodge spread across the screen as it does so. Words begin to appear on the fast food box; "fast," "fast food," "live fast," "faster," "fast food." This represents that bad food will only make our lives shorter, making time obviously go faster. The repitition of the words, i believe symbolises our craving for bad food.
We then see a fruit being sliced and fall into a machine, along with words all jumbled together.
I believe that the machine represents us and our life and everything that we put into it.
The screen then begins to flood over with white. The white is water and we see ducks pass along over the screen. Next to the pond is an old man, this is a very stereotypical image of elderly people feeding birds. The man begins to shrink, aging rapidly as he does. As he becomes shorter and older he turns into a tombstone. Which is the most obvious symbol for death.
At the beginning we see the childs playground ride and at the end we see the old man with the ducks. The similarity between the both is that they are both fun for their age and the idea that as we get older the games and fun we have differ.
The sequence in which it is shown is the sequence in life. If it had been shown in another way the idea of life moving too quickly would not have been as powerful.
Review 4. Contraction
Contraction
Director. Christopher Hewitt & James Cambourne
Duration. 3 minutes
2009
Contraction follows the idea of life literally being pushed back into a person and how it effects the immediate surroundings
It starts off with a close up of a mans face, he is still and his face is emotionless, the shot lasts approximately 30 seconds, before this shot ends he closes his eyes and the screen turns black.
The next shot, he is laying on the floor with a woman, perhaps his girlfriend kneeling over him. She attempts to give him CPR and the audience is immediately pulled in. As she pushes down onto his chest, the paving slabs surrounding them lift up as though the impact of pushing life was shaking the ground beneath them. The more the woman pushes the higher the slabs lift up. This creates suspense and the audience feel emotionally attatched to both of them.
The man starts pushing his body upwards just like the slabs, the idea of life being impacted into a person. He gets up and the next shot we see the woman ask the man "where did you go?" The man does not reply. There is light above them and to me this is a very spiritual sombol of God, and the light raining above life.
The film is very abstract and uses digital and 3d editing to create the lifting slabs.
The makers of this piece wanted to create something that would make the viewer question, what had happened before and this does that. It makes the audience want to understand.
There arent many concepts in this piece other than the most obvous ideas which are; life being pushed back into someone and the impact that it has on the surroundings, and the light symbolising life and maybe even spiritual beings.
The idea of contraction is to depict the concept of rebirth, this is something that is followed by many religions and this is the main concept of the video and also the reason that the video was made.
Director. Christopher Hewitt & James Cambourne
Duration. 3 minutes
2009
Contraction follows the idea of life literally being pushed back into a person and how it effects the immediate surroundings
It starts off with a close up of a mans face, he is still and his face is emotionless, the shot lasts approximately 30 seconds, before this shot ends he closes his eyes and the screen turns black.
The next shot, he is laying on the floor with a woman, perhaps his girlfriend kneeling over him. She attempts to give him CPR and the audience is immediately pulled in. As she pushes down onto his chest, the paving slabs surrounding them lift up as though the impact of pushing life was shaking the ground beneath them. The more the woman pushes the higher the slabs lift up. This creates suspense and the audience feel emotionally attatched to both of them.
The man starts pushing his body upwards just like the slabs, the idea of life being impacted into a person. He gets up and the next shot we see the woman ask the man "where did you go?" The man does not reply. There is light above them and to me this is a very spiritual sombol of God, and the light raining above life.
The film is very abstract and uses digital and 3d editing to create the lifting slabs.
The makers of this piece wanted to create something that would make the viewer question, what had happened before and this does that. It makes the audience want to understand.
There arent many concepts in this piece other than the most obvous ideas which are; life being pushed back into someone and the impact that it has on the surroundings, and the light symbolising life and maybe even spiritual beings.
The idea of contraction is to depict the concept of rebirth, this is something that is followed by many religions and this is the main concept of the video and also the reason that the video was made.
Review 3. Khoda
Khoda
Director. Reza Dolatabadi
Duration. 5 minutes
Even in the mind, is escape ever possible?
What if you watch a film and whenever you pause it, you face a painting? This idea inspired Reza Dolatabadi to make Khoda. Over 6000 paintings were painstakingly produced during two years to create a five minutes film that would meet the filmmakers' high personal standards
Khoda has a very strong narrative structure, so in this way it is easy to identify what is happening. There are concepts throughout the video but they are not easy to identify.
Concepts are the meanings hidden by a video's narration.
At the beginning of the video it pans across some land. The land is very cartoonistic and surreal, it is very colourful and looks peaceful. We then see a house in birds eye view. A woman appears and we are taken into her eye where the scene changes.
The scene is now a cell, this is easy to see from bars on the window, a bed in the corner and the feeling of loneliness and cold that this image makes us feel. The room is dark and dingy with only a small ray of light shining through the window onto where the man is standing. I think that the ray of light symbolises hope, that one day he will be on the other side. I think it is a very strong and powerful image.
He then begins digging at the ground with a spoon, we see his longing and enthusiasm for wanting to escape by his vigarous actions, this makes us feel sorrow for him.
The man steps onto the hole and as his foot hits the ground grass grows around his feet, the grass starts spreading across his cell and we then see him in a field in front of the house from the beginnning of the movie. I think that when he stepped onto the hole that this was him stepping into the outside world and into his new life.
The image then turns to his face and everything turns red. He screams with rage and is backed against a wall. The next image is through his eyes at masked men pushing and restraining him. One is trying to put a needle into him until he takes it and sticks it into the masked mans neck.
One image in this scene is of a man whos face we do not see but he is wearing a suit, is large and pulls out a cigar. He matches a very strereotypical gangster so from this we percieve him as the leader.
After sticking a needle into the mans neck, the scene turns to him runnning looking behind him as he does so, as he is being followed by the masked people. This scene is in black and white and as they run they look as though parts of their bodies are breaking off into blocks.
This could be seen as though the more they run the more exhausted they get and are effort is deterierating or as speed blurs shown as chipped blocks.
The last scene he is in an apartment with an amazing view of a city. He begins to walk up to the window and as he does so is reflection changes into different people but only slightly.
I think that maybe this could resemble all the people that he had wronged or was running from.
The craft in this piece is amazing, it is all painted images, over 6000 of them and they are all very realistic. There was a lot of time taken to produce this piece. The pictures are very scratchy but i think that it adds to the realism.
Director. Reza Dolatabadi
Duration. 5 minutes
Even in the mind, is escape ever possible?
What if you watch a film and whenever you pause it, you face a painting? This idea inspired Reza Dolatabadi to make Khoda. Over 6000 paintings were painstakingly produced during two years to create a five minutes film that would meet the filmmakers' high personal standards
Khoda has a very strong narrative structure, so in this way it is easy to identify what is happening. There are concepts throughout the video but they are not easy to identify.
Concepts are the meanings hidden by a video's narration.
At the beginning of the video it pans across some land. The land is very cartoonistic and surreal, it is very colourful and looks peaceful. We then see a house in birds eye view. A woman appears and we are taken into her eye where the scene changes.
The scene is now a cell, this is easy to see from bars on the window, a bed in the corner and the feeling of loneliness and cold that this image makes us feel. The room is dark and dingy with only a small ray of light shining through the window onto where the man is standing. I think that the ray of light symbolises hope, that one day he will be on the other side. I think it is a very strong and powerful image.
He then begins digging at the ground with a spoon, we see his longing and enthusiasm for wanting to escape by his vigarous actions, this makes us feel sorrow for him.
The man steps onto the hole and as his foot hits the ground grass grows around his feet, the grass starts spreading across his cell and we then see him in a field in front of the house from the beginnning of the movie. I think that when he stepped onto the hole that this was him stepping into the outside world and into his new life.
The image then turns to his face and everything turns red. He screams with rage and is backed against a wall. The next image is through his eyes at masked men pushing and restraining him. One is trying to put a needle into him until he takes it and sticks it into the masked mans neck.
One image in this scene is of a man whos face we do not see but he is wearing a suit, is large and pulls out a cigar. He matches a very strereotypical gangster so from this we percieve him as the leader.
After sticking a needle into the mans neck, the scene turns to him runnning looking behind him as he does so, as he is being followed by the masked people. This scene is in black and white and as they run they look as though parts of their bodies are breaking off into blocks.
This could be seen as though the more they run the more exhausted they get and are effort is deterierating or as speed blurs shown as chipped blocks.
The last scene he is in an apartment with an amazing view of a city. He begins to walk up to the window and as he does so is reflection changes into different people but only slightly.
I think that maybe this could resemble all the people that he had wronged or was running from.
The craft in this piece is amazing, it is all painted images, over 6000 of them and they are all very realistic. There was a lot of time taken to produce this piece. The pictures are very scratchy but i think that it adds to the realism.
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
1. Discussing Artists
Doll Face, Koyaanisqatsi and Telling Lies are all based around everyday life and problems within the world, whereas Eel Girl and Muto are more surreal.
Koyaanisqatsi is a fight between nature and man, Doll Face is a fight between ourselves and Telling Lies is fighting with each other and in relationships. Although they are similar in that way, they are very different in the way that they are shown. Doll face is video animated whereas Koyaanisqatsi focuses on real life images, this makes the video more powerful in showing the problem. Doll Face is also very powerful but the way in which it is shown is more to enhance the concepts. Telling Lies uses neither of these techniques, instead it is just a blank screen with text and non diagetic voices.
Muto, is a wall painted animation. Using stop frame animation, the images look as though they are moving.
Eel girl is a very surreal piece, it uses the myth of a siren incorperated into the body of an Eel girl. The making of Eel Girl is extreme make up and special effects.
Doll Face, Telling Lies, Muto and Eel Girl are all relatively current videos whereas Koyaanisqatsi is quite an old video being released in 1982. Taking 6 years to produce Koyaanisqatsi was the one that took the most time. Because of its simplicity, Telling Lies took the shortest time to produce.
The video that had the most craft, is Muto. Taking a lot of effort to not only make the wall paintings move, but show the imagination and creativity that was put into it.
All of the videos had concepts. Some were shown more vivedly while others were more discreet, some took the concepts of problems within the world while others ranged between more subtle problems and fictional characters.
Koyaanisqatsi is a fight between nature and man, Doll Face is a fight between ourselves and Telling Lies is fighting with each other and in relationships. Although they are similar in that way, they are very different in the way that they are shown. Doll face is video animated whereas Koyaanisqatsi focuses on real life images, this makes the video more powerful in showing the problem. Doll Face is also very powerful but the way in which it is shown is more to enhance the concepts. Telling Lies uses neither of these techniques, instead it is just a blank screen with text and non diagetic voices.
Muto, is a wall painted animation. Using stop frame animation, the images look as though they are moving.
Eel girl is a very surreal piece, it uses the myth of a siren incorperated into the body of an Eel girl. The making of Eel Girl is extreme make up and special effects.
Doll Face, Telling Lies, Muto and Eel Girl are all relatively current videos whereas Koyaanisqatsi is quite an old video being released in 1982. Taking 6 years to produce Koyaanisqatsi was the one that took the most time. Because of its simplicity, Telling Lies took the shortest time to produce.
The video that had the most craft, is Muto. Taking a lot of effort to not only make the wall paintings move, but show the imagination and creativity that was put into it.
All of the videos had concepts. Some were shown more vivedly while others were more discreet, some took the concepts of problems within the world while others ranged between more subtle problems and fictional characters.
Chapter 5. My Experimental Video
Belief is the main concept that i would like to portray in my experimental video.
The main point being that as we get older we lose the ability to believe. A child's belief is seen as imagination more than fact, even though the older generation believed the exact same things when they were younger.
The belief i am focusing on is magic.
The way in which i would like to show this concept, is by part of the video being of a woman with magical powers. I will be able to show this with stop frame animation and lighting.
The other part of the video will show interviews with members of the public. I will ask both adults and young children if they believe in magic, and if they do believe then what they think magic is.
I would like to switch between the two parts with either juxtaposition, change in music or a slight fuzz as if changing the channel on a television.
The main point being that as we get older we lose the ability to believe. A child's belief is seen as imagination more than fact, even though the older generation believed the exact same things when they were younger.
The belief i am focusing on is magic.
The way in which i would like to show this concept, is by part of the video being of a woman with magical powers. I will be able to show this with stop frame animation and lighting.
The other part of the video will show interviews with members of the public. I will ask both adults and young children if they believe in magic, and if they do believe then what they think magic is.
I would like to switch between the two parts with either juxtaposition, change in music or a slight fuzz as if changing the channel on a television.
The lighting would be dark to give the effect of mystery. I would like the majority of lighting to be from candles.
When exhibiting my work i would prefer for it to be indoors with insense and candles to create even more of a magical effect.
My main inspiration was my own opinion that adults need to regain their ability to believe. However, i was inspired by Doll Face, not because they are particularly similar but because they are real life problems shown in a surreal way.
Monday, 5 October 2009
6. Audience and Audience Interpretation of Work
An audience and their interpretation can completely change the meaning of a piece of work.
One persons opinion can influence another person.
So in this sense I agree that people’s opinions are very important. Although the artist themselves may have wanted to portray a certain concept, the audiences might not realise it and it will be lost.
In the Tate Modern, there were many ways in which people were expressing their thoughts and feelings towards certain pieces of art. The main reaction was quiet and stiff, which is the stereotype that people have portrayed onto people when they view art.
A few people had different interpretations of the work. The gory pieces had a lot of squeamish reactions, whilst some people found the work funny and exciting.
In some ways it Is important that we all perceive a piece of work in the same way, as this may be what the creators intentions were. At the same time though it is also very important for us all to have different views and opinions.
Once a piece of work has been created, the artist no longer has any influence on how we perceive the art.
If an artist is trying to show a certain concept and the audience misreads it or doesn't understand it then the artist has failed in portraying what he wanted to. I believe that it does matter as the whole intention of the film would be pointless.
Andy Huang's Doll Face has very strong concepts and they are shown very vividly, however; people still understood things in different ways and had some different opinions to others. Although all of the interpretations are similar, the smallest differences change the way people see the piece greatly.
One persons opinion can influence another person.
So in this sense I agree that people’s opinions are very important. Although the artist themselves may have wanted to portray a certain concept, the audiences might not realise it and it will be lost.
In the Tate Modern, there were many ways in which people were expressing their thoughts and feelings towards certain pieces of art. The main reaction was quiet and stiff, which is the stereotype that people have portrayed onto people when they view art.
A few people had different interpretations of the work. The gory pieces had a lot of squeamish reactions, whilst some people found the work funny and exciting.
In some ways it Is important that we all perceive a piece of work in the same way, as this may be what the creators intentions were. At the same time though it is also very important for us all to have different views and opinions.
Once a piece of work has been created, the artist no longer has any influence on how we perceive the art.
If an artist is trying to show a certain concept and the audience misreads it or doesn't understand it then the artist has failed in portraying what he wanted to. I believe that it does matter as the whole intention of the film would be pointless.
Andy Huang's Doll Face has very strong concepts and they are shown very vividly, however; people still understood things in different ways and had some different opinions to others. Although all of the interpretations are similar, the smallest differences change the way people see the piece greatly.
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