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Evaluation

Time Based Media Evaluation

My Final out come for my time based media unit is a story made out of four cinema-graphs. It starts a of with someone texting, the next shot is some one playing poker, then a wrist watch and finally someone opening up there wallet looking like there giving someone money. I think when I look at what went well from the research side to the testing, I would say most things went well. I knew early on that I wanted to use cinema graphs as my source/ technique for my final out come. This meant it gave me more time to research cinema-graph artists to get ideas. But also and just as important it gave me time to practice making them. This was important for me because I’m not to confident with photoshop. I know the basics and a few advanced things, but I was not used to working with video so deciding early on what type of time based media to use, made more time for me to practice editing. The testing side of this unit went well for me. Normally testing can be annoying in away, even though its normally always necessary it can still be something that can slow you down. I learnt/ understood the steps of shooting a cinema graph and editing it in photoshop quite quickly, which in the end just gave me more time to practice and also to think about the narrative, I was going to shoot.  Going back to the planning and I would have to say it wasn't very hard at all to find artists/ photographers who use cinema graphs. This meant I could get a whole range of different sources to look at for ideas. Another thing that went well was at the start when we did tasks in pairs at the start. Unfortunately I lost my first cinema graph footage but I, still remembered what I learnt that day. It was a nice change to see how someone else goes about shooting a Gif or cinema graph. And from those couple of times pairing up with someone to learn how to make one of the techniques I used what I learnt and practiced them when testing outside of college.// Moving on to the narrative. My narrative is about two people who play game of poker then one ends up losing and paying the other. Watching them all together as one kind of continues sequence, I would say they work but maybe it could of done with maybe a couple of cinema-graphs to explain whats going on in a bit more detail. I already said the order of the cinema-graphs earlier on, now ill talked about what I tried to show in them. The first cinema graph of someone texting is supposed to show someone texting there on there way. I did this by freezing the entire phone screen except from the text bar. This froze everything and gave the effect that the letters were typing themselves. The second cinema-graph I shot was of a game of poker and someone lifting up there cards. Once again I froze everything and only showed the cards lifting up. The third cinema graph I shot was of a wrist watch indicating that they play for a long time, thinking of it now maybe a time-lapse of the wrist watch or a clock would of been better, but I think the cinema graph works fine. The fourth and final cinema-graph is of a valet and It show money lifting out. It looks quite cool as the hands/ fingers of the person are not moving only the money. In a summary my narrative is basically about two people who meet up, play poker and then one person ends up paying. Everything I do in photography theres always something I can improve upon. This time was no different. The first thing I could improve on would defiantly be when shooting a video making sure the lighting/ the quality is not lacking. I had a real problem with things shaking when making my cinema-graph. I had two cinema graphs that involved someone wearing a watch and someone texting. Naturally people cant stay completely still so I fixed this by getting them to rest there hand on the table or press up against a wall. This actually worked and made editing a lot easier for me. This could of been avoided by giving more time to filming the video and not so much to the editing. Which leads me on to my next point which is that, you can only do so much in photo shop. I thought because it was a video it would mainly all be done in photoshop, but after making so many I now know that shooting is just as important as it is with taking a photo. What I mean is I was so focused on shooting the video, that unlike when I'm taking a photo and I’m thinking about the out come like “what the colours are gunna look like”. I was thinking about if the tripod was shaking or is my hand moving to much. Which even though they were important things to keep in mind, often when watching the cinema graph back I could see that it looked bland. I could defiantly of avoided this from looking at more videos on how to shoot video and get a good outcome. The other thing I think I could of improved on was learning how to do more technical things like, setting up the tripod properly. Which although isn't very technical it definitely slowed me down.// My original ideas were mainly all to do with the shooting side of the cinema graph. This meant that I cant really say that my idea of the narrative I was trying to display changed because I couldn't think of a narrative for ages being honest. But if I compare what I did write back at the start its not to do with the narrative but all to do with the shooting of the cinema graph. One of the original ideas I had was to use a mirror as an effect, to show two emotions at once. I perhaps could of used this technique but in the end for my narrative it just wasn't going to fit in. Another thing I never did in the end was shooting in the studio. This was because of a couple of reasons. The first reason is down to practicality, its easier to use all the things around you (locations and props) at my house than brining suff to college. The second reason was because its more believable using other locations to tell a story.// I have already talked about, why the testing was an extremely important part of this Unit. I shot a lot of cinema graphs at home and practiced editing in photoshop. This defiantly helped as I learnt a lot by testing more than normal partly because it was all so new to me. One thing I picked up on when testing was that when editing cinema graphs its always good to watch the final out come a few times and zoom in on photo shop to make sure there are no frozen bits left. If there are then it can ruin the final outcome.// In this Unit I have learnt a lot. I had no idea before on how to make a GIF or Cinema-Graph. So from the shooting to the editing I have really just been learning. But I would say my strengths are editing the cinema graphs I got the hang of it near the end. One thing I could develop on would be the shooting of a Cinema-graph and I could develop this by just allowing extra time because most shoots require several time to get the right bit of video. In conclusion the research and planning stage went well but I had a few errors shooting with the tripod. If I did it again I would make sure to stop any tremors, to help make it look better and save time in photoshop.

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Artist Research

Julien Douvier is a french photographer who makes cinema graphs.

I used him as my main form of research and ideas when it came to making my cinema graphs.

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These are my final cinema graphs

1 - file:///Volumes/BEN%20WEST%202/gif/text.gif

2 - file:///Volumes/BEN%20WEST%202/gif/watches.gif

3 - file:///Volumes/BEN%20WEST%202/gif/poker.gif

4 - file:///Volumes/BEN%20WEST%202/gif/money.gif

I made them into a slide show but couldn’t upload them like that.

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Feed back and Evaluation on Personal Brief

In the personal brief I spoke mainly about ideas I had when it came to sooting my final outcome. Partly because I wasn't completely sure on the narrative/ story I was actually going to tell using cinema graphs. Knowing that now I can see where referring to my personal brief is helpful for ideas on shooting but not the telling of the narrative. The feed back I got was mainly positive. Both the people who read my personal brief liked some of my ideas. But going back to what I'm going to do now I’ve changed my mind slightly. This means some of the ideas I had won't fit in now. In conclusion I think I will keep a few of my original ideas, and I still will be looking at Julien Douviers work for ideas.

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Experiments

This was one of my first shots I did for my final. As you can see the watch face is very shaky and it just doesn't look right. I ended up fixing this by taking another shot of a watch face but having my hand pressed down on a table to stop the shaking and it worked. I had a similar problem with another one of my cinema graphs where I show someone texting and the phone looks shaking and things don't line up so i just made sure the second round time the phone was still. 

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Personal Brief

I aim to tell my story through the use of a cinema graph. I plan on using a mirror so that it gives the effect that the person is only moving in the mirror, which I  think looks quite cool. Aside from it being a cool way to do a cinema graph, it allows me to tell the narrative. For instance Im not 100% sure what the person will be doing in the mirror. But for example if they were crying, it could tell the story something, and I really like that by doing this cinema graph in a reflection partly you don't know what someone else is feeling or what has happened to them. This means it gives me more choices when it comes to me shooting it and deciding on what narrative I show. Going back to the question being what will your narrative be about ?. Although Im not totally sure story wise I know that I or one of my friends will be the person in it, and as I plan to use the mirror to portray two different emotions I guess it would be partly about the fact you don't always know what someone is feeling or what has happened to them.

When it came to my ideas/ inspiration for cinema graphs, I liked a mans work called Julien Douvier. His work is really creative and a lot of his work do have a narrative or try and portray an emotion. Their is no point putting a picture of one of his cinema graphs in because it wouldn't look right so this is his link http://juliendouvier.tumblr.com. Another thing I really like abut Juiens work is that he covers a lot of things from animals to buildings and cars. One thing I will probably try and take from his work and attempt to put in to mine is how he gets very small things to move like a finger or drops of water. These can really add effect to a cinema graph especially when your trying to tell a narrative. An idea I had for this was, as I plan to have the person move in the mirror or reflection of something. I could get there hair to move or something along those lines just to add more depth to the cinema graph. Otherwise it can look bit boring and that not much care went in to it. But lastly and probably most importantly about his work and in other cinema graph photographers work I really like is the way its taken. This now leads me on to my third paragraph.

Which is how I will shoot my time based narrative. I have already spoken about how I plan to set it up briefly, ie the mirror and emotions. But I have not spoken about the style it will be shot. What I mean by this is what lighting and view point I will use. I have given this bit of thought and I plan to probably shoot from the waist up. I may change my mind but for now I feel that when telling a narrative through the use of a cinema graph the upper half a persons body is more expressive when it come to portraying a narrative. Like I said earlier if someone is crying they might have there hands to there face but the legs of someone unless they are hurt do not tend to move and if they do they don't tell us anything unlike the face and arms. When it comes to lighting I like to shoot out doors but it might not be the best Ill have to do some test ones before hand. When we looked at cinema graphs I liked the way some other people got it to look blurry to portray anger or whatever it was I thought it was really creative.

Moving on to my final paragraph. This will be about what type of look and feeling I will tel in my time based narrative. I think I want that that cinema look to it just because it fit in better with the type of narrative Im trying to do. One I need to keep In mind is that I can always edit it more on photoshop.

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Cinema-Graph Research

A cinema Graph is a mix between a video and photo. It is a still photo with moving parts. They are used a lot in fashion and makeup advertisement. They are used often on digital bill boards to make it stand out. Like a Gif they repeat constantly. There are lots of artists/ photographers who create Cinema Graphs, one photographers I like who makes them is a french photographer called Julien Douvier. His cinema graphs are always different and creative and are great to look at for ideas. I decided to use Cinema Graphs for my final time based media project. Since I had to  make a story out of one time based media I thought cinema graphs would do a good job for what I had in mind. In conclusion I like creating and using cinema graphs especially because I think there a great way of showing a narrative.

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Gif Research

Gif stands for "Graphics Interchange Format - Picture Format". They are short video loops of the same thing, that constantly repeat. They are small files so are often found online more than cinema graphs. They can be used for instructions or even in photography to tell a narrative or just make your work stand out more. They are made by filming an action like someones finger tapping but making sure it ends in the exact same point that it started. This is important because when you put it into photoshop to edit and actually turn the video into a Gif it will look a lot smoother and it will save you time. An artist who makes Gifs is Rafael Verona. There work is quirky and unique and always tells a story which I think is a really cool way of using Gifs. In conclusion I personally like Gifs, I think just like other time based media (cinema graphs and video) they have there place and if used correctly can be, like I said earlier even a unique way to showcase your work. 

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My cinema-graph to test isolation in cinema graph. This links to my narrative as in the first scene/ cinema graph I planned to have either my finger tapping or my wrist turning to show a watch, which will hopefully show that Im waiting for someone. I think it turned out well, the mouse could perhaps do with some more careful work because it looks a bit unfinished around the end of the mouse. One thing I have thought about doing now or at least give some thought about is shadows. They give a cool effect showing that the still object in this cinema graph the hand for example was moving. But I can also take this skill and incorporate into my other idea using people. 

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Narrative Feedback

I thought the feedback I got from my personal brief was helpful and interesting. I was happy that the two people who read my brief understood it and they liked mostly all of it. They liked the idea of showing feelings/ emotions in the story to add more to it. But the most helpful part was defiantly the bit where they said I could improve on things. These were making sure I show why someone is upset or happy and to use different coloured lighting like red if I was trying to show anger. I had not thought of this idea and I really like it. They both agreed with me that a cinema graph, is most likely the best technique for me to use to tell the story I want. Someone also added that looking at a few short story’s might be a good idea which I agree with. I have looked at plenty of cinema graphs but not any short story’s. This might give me some ideas on how to actually tell the story. One thing they both agreed on as well was my idea to use a mirror to add an effect to the cinema graph. In conclusion I found the narrative feed back helpful and I now have more ideas when it comes to shooting it. This means that I might rewrite a shorter brief or a short plan before shooting the final cinema graph. 

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GIF Evaluation

After learning how a GIF is made, I looked on different websites with Shawn for some ideas. Me and Shawn both liked the effect created by gel to add colour and make it stand out. We decided to shoot in the studio as we needed a white/ plain back drop with good lighting. We mounted the camera to a tripod to stop the chance of the background moving. We then used a blue gel and slowly moved it in front of the cameras lens after each shot. This made the blue gradually come in. Saying this, it was actually quite difficult to do this as the person controlling the camera would also have to wave the blue gel sheet in front. Luckily on our third try Debbie came in to help which helped shawn or I focus on the camera. Aside from the gels we used one big light with a soft box. After taking the photos we needed, we headed back to the computer. The next step and the actual creation of the GIF was all done on Adobe Photoshop. 

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My GIF

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What is Time-Based

Time Based Media

What is meant by Time Based Media within the context of the Art world?

The term Time Based Media describes any artwork that has both physical and temporal dimensions. It involves: video, film, slide, audio/ music videos and gifs. Sometimes time based media is also called new media. Time based media can be found in a lot of adverts on your phone and bill boards. This is because they can be effective ways to advertise something through the use of cinema graphs. These are short videos where normally only one or two things are moving on a still photo. For instance on what looks like a regular flat 2D image the eyes might move which then makes it a 3D image.

What artists are associated with time based media?

An artist who uses time based media is a south african artist called William  Kentridge, who makes animated films. Kentridge makes his films by his ground breaking technique of photographing a succession of charcoal drawings, rendered for a single sheet of paper. His style is very artistic and his work has been put in countless exhibitions. When researching time based media artists I didn’t find a lot of artists like I would if I typed in a type of photography this is because, a lot of artists use time based media on the side so it doesn't tend to show there work up online. Another artist though that does all his work in time based media is a frenchman called Julien Douvier. He does a lot of cinema graphs and adds for fashion.

What are the characteristics of time based media?

A key characteristic of time based media is  that it requires timely delivery and processing. Another characteristic of time based media is the ability to create a 3D image.