1. Documentation of your process sketches / prototypes / notes / material explorations
2. Documentation images of your finalized piece
3. A written statement outlining your ideas / intentions with the piece
To tell the story of who i am today I made use of my past and the future I’m looking for. The beginning of the video shows pictures of me very young and growing alongside my relatives and evolving onto my current life in New York city. Between myself and my growth I make use of several elements to guide the viewer onto this message I nostalgically attempt to share. For example between passages of me and my family with the keys there are small quick but efficient transition with key words like “REMEMBER” to direct and give sense about what I’m trying to say. Each transition allowing me to translate my message are covered by other old quality videos, on top of the current ones playing. My use of audio allowed me to emphasize the feeling of nostalgia which the one and only Frank Ocean could perfectly contribute with his record. Trying to keep the audio parallel to the video, as certain words kept being repeated I made the current videos or pictures vibrate to create a comfortable flow. I kept my impact on the video quality itself quite moderate, however, to again create a better sense of nostalgia blurred certain cuts of the video which stimulated the viewer to go back and watch the video again and again, discovering something new each time.
4. A written reflection on the Bridge that includes explorations of the following:
– What was the most challenging aspect of this bridge project for you?
Learning how to be creative with adobe Premier produce and learn how to portray something reflecting nostalgia with the tools the software provides. I had never used Adobe Premier before so I really went in depth with the options I had especially with the transitioning, sound-video coordination. On the other end I also had to go to a laser cut orientation in which I learned how laser cutting works and it also allowed me to understand how to manipulate Illustrator in favour of the medium of my project. Beyond manipulating Illustrator I got more knowledge about what materials to use based on the size of the project in the software, for example in this finished project I was best advised to use masonite.
– Did you find anything surprising throughout the making / conceptualizing process?
Through softwares like Adobe Premier, one is able to access and adjust so many more layers of a medium like being able to produce and edit two videos on top of each other in parallel and same for sounds and pictures. I found that music and sound impacted drastically how nostalgic my video could be and that is why I chose the professional of this field Frank Ocean as my soundtrack. Through the use of symbols I found it quite easy to use them to portray my ideas, it was quite hard to think of anything else to portray my feelings in the project.
– What were some things you will take away from the feedback you received in crit?
I discovered that if I’m going to do a project involving both a video and a 3D object I should display a similar level of thought process in both of them. I realized that people couldn’t understand my purpose with the keys and the key wholes because of the way I displayed it, however, it was the complete opposite for my video which showed different levels of involvement. I thought it was quite important also that I found a way to play my video in a loop as opposed to pressing it all the time. On the brighter side I learned that my sound selection is quite accurate and that my wording, symbolizing and creation of flow through the video were decent enough for my project.
– What do you think was successful about your piece?
I believe I was successful in portraying the feeling of nostalgia and a creative flow to tell what was my story and what it is becoming.
– What do you think was unsuccessful about your piece?
I think I could’ve done a better job portraying my concept with the physical keys I had brought next to the video. Through the laser cutting I didn’t quite anticipate the correct way of structuring the piece for the time of presentation.
– Would you change anything about the piece?
I wouldn’t change anything except for the way I could better display the physical keys next to a looping video.
+ Any other additional thoughts /feelings / take-aways
I felt calling this project “Gift” could’ve been misleading for some of us. As I pondered for the initiation of this project I thought that what might be a gift for other might not be for myself and the other way around. Therefore as I portrayed a sense of nostalgia some may have felt anxious if they’ve been avoiding their past which derives my idea of a gift which is what I would’ve wanted to share.
