Time Final Project

June 22, 2015 · by · in ,

If you take away the presence of time from a film or experience in general, you are left to focus on the feeling and stimuli connected to the experience.

My final project for Time is a further exploration of movement. I began experimenting with movement in my Studio project, with the images of various mediums (ink, fabric, smoke, water) and the shapes they create when photographed at high speed. I wanted to further explore the movement in the images that I felt when looking at them. Some of the images I used that really highlighted the movement are on this flickr page; https://www.flickr.com/photos/teaganwest/sets/72157654240193760/with/18841985926/

I created a film of these images, in a specific timed order based on what I felt when viewing them. I wanted to create a piano sound piece for the film, but am not musically talented! I got my sister Delaney in on the project and collaborated with her to create the sound; we went through the film of the photos together, and talked about the movement we felt as it progressed. Then she took that mental stimuli experience and created a sound piece on her keyboard. It was so great to get another mind involved; I’ve always wanted to do a collaboration, especially with my sister.

I then was ready to project this movie and play the sound to create a full multi-sensory experience. I set up the projection and sound in the 6th room floor, and set up my camera to film myself moving in front of the projection. Here’s my makeshift tripod setup to make sure the film angle would effectively capture my movement and the projection! IMG_6666I recorded myself dancing multiple times, from multiple different angles and zooms in front of the projection.

The next phase was to take the film recordings and create a smoothly-flowing final film, using Delaney’s music as the soundtrack. I had to make sure the film effectively translated the movement and the stimuli I felt during this exploration. As I edited the film, I overlapped different cuts and angles ontop of one another, because I wanted to really exaggerate the FEELING of the movement rather than the piece as a linear video. (If you take away the presence of time from a film or experience in general, you are left to focus on the feeling and stimuli connected to the experience.)

The write up goes more in depth with my process and thinking behind the piece, it is here; concept time final

I spent a long time editing the multiple shots over one another, but once I added my sister’s sound piece, the feeling of the piece being a “video” dissolved and it really did come together as an experience you can see in the film! Here’s the video link; https://drive.google.com/a/newschool.edu/file/d/0B0FofKl-7q_2cDNYak04TFNoc00/edit