I C U

I C U: Los Angeles Connections

I don't know if any of you have heard/seen this, but I just stumbled upon it a few minutes ago. Katy Newton, video journalist, finds the faces behind Craigslist's lost connection ads. They can get really cheesy with the content and soft focus, but that's what partially draws me in. For lack of better words, they're so cute. Humble? Human. I like the one about the guy waiting for the dad he never met. Waiting for parents- seems like something we'd leave in our childhood but it's not always that case. Check them out, you'll either love them or hate them. They kind of remind me of the eHarmony tv ads but on a broader spectrum, a real life spectrum w/ real open ended endings. Realistic utilization of the internet in a sappy/hopeful light. I r sap.

MA-MAMIYA!

Finally scanned a couple rolls i took in Hong Kong. I was really happy to see these turn out. The first couple rolls I shot were so blurry so I went from ISO 1oo to 400 or 800, can't remember. Here are some of my favorites from Stanley St. I wish I took more pictures with the Mamiya while abroad.

These eggs are not for sale. Or maybe...

Above; Kazemir Malevich, Marcelle Duchamp, Iosif Brodsky

In his project "Project of the Century," Vladmir Tsesler creates an egg for twelve stand out creative minds of the 20th century. I'm usually not a big sculpture person, nonetheless eggs, but I found these quite beautiful and so simple... I really like the variety of detail in each egg. With eggs being simple in shape and color, the transformation of each piece is really heightened and works well with each showcased artist/creative mind. Textures, shades/color, depth, reflectiveness - he really transformed these "eggs" into something else. Eggs are the beginning, and so the concept of choosing the best of the best minds in a century to individualize these eggs fits. These big shots are the beginning to countless art/philosophical/literature debates, living as inspiration to others by stemming thoughts outside the box. I'm not gonna lie, I'm not familiar with half of the people he honored in egg form, but the personalization of each one really engaged me and kept me reading about this project. Check out the rest of the eggs and the little synopsis of each highlighted person. The link is on his name.

Project Description II

Project Name -tbd

Project Description - Project Name -tbd
Project Description - I've had this one scene of a person breathing in my head lately. I'm debating between a stop motion but I'm not sure yet. I might do a stop motion which includes this breathing scene and keep the stop motion fairly simple w/ various moving portraits. All I know is I want to stick with photographing people. Portraits! Have you heard the wind today?

Music-wise, do I want music? I think it would have to be ambient w/ minimal/if any lyrics. The one I automatically think of is "Rock My Boat" by Dntel, however, the voice in that song is such a strong part which I don't know if I want to pay too much attention to.

Conceptual Concerns - Haven't come up with one yet... I'm really unsure about it, so we'll see. Michelle suggested I put ideas/words that I connect with my original idea in a hat and see where I go from there. I think I might try that... kind of like a hands on brainstorming device.

I realized I don't feel well making art when I begin with concept. I really lose track when I do this generally because I like to make art from my gut; I make art that innately feels right. If I am too quick to label my ideas I lose sight of the initial beauty and get too hung up about the technicalities of everything. In the middle of the last project I realized I was trying to way too hard to stick to this "concept." It started out with displaying emotions through cinematography and colors. However, in the end it became a personal exploration of the emotions I couldn't pin point and it took me till today to realize that I actually really like my photographs. I feel like a lot of people may not be able to connect with them, but that's okay. The photographs became the personal indescribable moments I wanted them to be. By labeling my series with the "concept" I confided my work within those topsy words I mustered to describe them. I'm not great with words so of course this doesn't work for me.

Anyways in short, my project will revolve/deal with breathing and will grow based on the music I choose to use for the stop motion. If I decide not to make a stop motion then I'll probably make a series of portraits; people using air in different ways? To calm down, inhale oxygen, laugh, stifle emotions, play an instrument?? I really don't know, we'll see.

Technical Skills Covered - If I make a stop motion then I'll probably play with iMovie or perhaps pick up Final Cut? In the end I'll be working on my editing and lighting again. In the last stop motion I made I had white balance and exposure issues so I'll watch out for those.

If I do another series I'll probably shoot with the Mamiya, scan the negs, and print digitally. We'll see.. I'm interested in both of these options. 5 -7 prints.

Formal Guidelines - It depends on all of the above. Due date will be the due date that is assigned.

Artistic References - movies, self awareness, the specifics will grow and come together

Readings - tbd

Grade - based off effort, composition, quality of video/prints, completion of prj, finished by deadline, personal satisfaction

Goals List - experiment with a variety of idea, find the right music, decide stop motion/photographic portraits, be open to change yet stick to my guns.

Project Evaluation

Hmm, well. 

My strengths:

- I did my research. I went to the library a couple of times, checked out books, constantly looked at artists online, and constantly looked for inspiration. 

- I avoided major procrastination. Although I did put off shooting till the last two weeks, I finished my work by the due date and I put in a lot of effort. 

- I chose something I felt passionate for.

- I think my lighting was strong...

My weaknesses:

- Something is missing. My pictures look good but they aren't amazing because I feel like people can't connect with them. In my project proposal I wrote about color communicating emotion but while working through everything I ditched that idea, and I'm okay with that. I started to move towards attempting to evoke the emotions that are the hardest for myself to comprehend... Confusion, voids, moments of emotions clammering for identification, numbness, the in between times where our minds settle. I'm not sure if I got that across... I don't think I did.

Resolutions:

- I don't know, I feel like this is a recurring problem with my photos.

Next prj- I'm still thinking about it but I've been thinking about a stop motion on breathing for quite some time. Since last year, one scene keeps making appearances in my head so hopefully I can recreate that. I'm wondering what the audio should be... I automatically think of a few songs I'd like to use but the presence of a voice might ruin the simplicity of breathing. 

Outside of class

So art wise, what have I been up to outside of class? Along side the usual doodles across pages of notes, this semester I started illustrating for the Union Weekly. I'm not too content with the drawings I've been submitting, but I feel happier just by drawing more frequently. I would like to take the future illustrations into a more imaginative and less literate area but I'm not sure how to when I'm trying to describe an article. I either go into cartoon mood or portraits. Maybe it's one of those things where the less I think about it, the more spontaneity will work for me? We'll see!

Along side the Union, I've been trying to hone my lighting skills. This week my fashion major buddy wanted me to photograph a shoot for her so this was a good opportunity. The image above is one of the outcomes. Prop look familiar?

Future works- I want to start painting. I hate mixing paint with a passion, but I think it's time.

More commercials :D

you guys gotta watch these! this is art too!

Axe Effect / this is just funny

Adidas / this is beautifully imaginative and simple + the music is perfect

Director Spike Jonze 

Song- "Hello Tomorrow" by Karen O

Levi's/ so flirtatious and mischievous

Song - "Strange Love" by Little Annie

i love commercials

well, i love good commercials. a lot of times they're better than the main feature. no, most times. over the years anti-perspirant commercials have become a favorite genre of mine and i genuinely find myself giddy when favorites find air time while i'm in front of la tele.

here's one of my recent favorites:

do not deny it, just accept it.

that's right.

aw for the simplicity and the cute factor

ffffound.com

one of those things i look at and think, 'bah! i wish i thought of that'

print, print, print... soon.

Michel Gondry has some amazing videos

Personal favorite: Hyperballad by Bjork

Gregory Crewdson

I love the tension he creates at the dinner table. Ah! I love that photograph- the way the mom is framed in her sunshine kitchen, the subtle placements of the empty chairs, the gross wallpaper, the overall temperature... and at the same time I can't stand looking at it too much because it's so depressing. 

I shot two more locations for my project but it's not working out. Maybe I'm putting too much thought into the color of light rather than the location of light. Also, by focusing on color light I'm forgetting about beauty of white light. I need to get back to the basics. 

Duarte Amaral Netto

Tutorial

For my tutorial I wanted to do something that I'm personally interested in. Although we went over this in 406A, I completely forgot how to make a stop motion in Photoshop and really wanted to relearn everything.

1) I was struggling at first, but it's quite simple once you get over the first hump- loading the images together. To do so, make a separate folder containing the images that will compile a scene (in numerical/alphabetical order). When you go to File > Open > click on the first image of this special folder which will then enable you to check the option "Image Sequence" located under a File Format box.

2) After doing so a window will open up asking you to choose the fps (speed of your animation aka frames per second) with given rates between 23.976 - 60. If these speeds don't do it for you, you can click Custom and put in your own input. I think movies usually use 24 or 25 fps.

3) An easy shortcut to play your animation is the space bar.

Now there are a few things to enhance your animation...

a) Add another image sequence onto to current project/layer

- Layer > Video Layers > New Video Layer From File 

- the image sequence button will automatically be checked and the fps will automatically be set to your original settings

b) Change opacity/placement/style of image sequence

- First make sure that you can see your Animation Timeline (Window > Animation)

- Click on the gray arrow to the left of the layer(s) that you want to enhance. This should open up three more timelines for opacity, placement, and style.

- Click on the clock located left of the feature you want to change. For this tutorial let's use opacity.

- To add a change, drag the blue arrow (current frame indicator) to the location where you would like to change the opacity.

- Go to the Layers palette and drag the opacity to your liking. This should automatically place a gray diamond where your cursor is placed. 

- You can continue adding more points throughout your timeline. If you make a mistake and want to delete a point, simply click on the yellow diamond in between two arrows. This will undo the point you marked.

If you wanted to change the placement of an image:

- Drag and drop (or Command C and V) an image onto the strip which will make another layer in your project. You can also begin with making a new layer and then dropping your desired complementary image in the new layer.

- Follow the same steps to get to the Placement feature. By dragging the blue cursor and then dragging where you want your new image to move to, your image can float across the screen to your liking. 

It's the same concept for style, except you choose your styles from the layers palette.

In the end, it's probably easier to do all of this through Final Cut Pro. But if you don't have that option (like myself) the next option is to make shortcuts for all of these animation actions. 

- To do this go to Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts (or simultaneously press Shift, Option, Command, K)

- Next to "Shortcuts For:" click on Panel Menus

- Two Animation options should come up, Frames and Timelines

- Open up each one by clicking on the gray arrow and assign keyboard shortcuts to your liking.

To save your animation go to File > Export > Render Video where you can also customize the format of your video (size, fps, compression).

example w/ use of opacity, placement, and style

Taste testing light

quick shots while testing out different intensities of light/color

Richard Moran

Not much to think about, but how can you just deny pictures that look and feel good? He's got a range of things, some good some not so good. Here are some ones that I connected with.

work day

Today I got the lighting equipment I need for the project and the locations down. After messing around with the lights I feel like I don't need them as much as I thought I did although I'd like to incorporate them. Or maybe I do need them but can't control them to my liking. Either way, I'd like to go out of my comfort zone with this project and do more experimental lighting since I usually use natural/available light.

Getting ideas of where and narrowing down the elements.

meh

So originally I wanted to do a tutorial on making stop motion through photoshop since I forgot how and wanted to relearn the craftiness. BUT after trying to relearn it through multiple Lynda tutorials and searching it on google, I still couldn't figure it out. Someone, help me out. I have a better grasp of "actions" but I still want to figure this out. Hopefully I can give my "tutorial" on Wednesday instead of tomorrow.