hmoortonmajorproject2018

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

BROKEN KARAOKE (final film): SCREEN ONE

https://youtu.be/STStDfYGJ1I

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

BROKEN KARAOKE (final film): SCREEN TWO

https://youtu.be/DWB-jRM-TE0

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

FINAL STATEMENT

I began thinking back to my dissertation “The Early Stages of Colour Film and the Technological Advances Discovered” and how far colour has progressed throughout the years, it progressed towards an exploration of the colour wheel specifically looking at primary colours.

I was completely drawn to projections, reflections, repetition, colour and light. I feel I was not confident in the slightest all throughout the beginning of this project, however, it was important that I experimented as much as possible, this brought me gradually to my conclusion.

I was completely attracted to the 70s era, specifically disco, I thought about one of my other pieces “Party for One” and how I am mesmerised by bright colours. I don’t entirely know how I came to realisation that karaoke was the way to go. The idea itself came to me after I experimented with mirror reflections and light, while also projecting colours onto different surfaces. The experimentations I produced created an entirely new colour scheme which reminded me of 70s disco.

I thought about the music that was released in the 70s, all still music I listen to today and are completely familiar to people all over, I liked the idea of creating a karaoke machine, however, this idea didn’t seem stable, it didn’t totally excite me, my experimentations where the pieces of work I was most excited about.

All throughout this project I explored glitches and creating my own glitches through an app called “Glitché” and it was when I produced lots of glitched photographs my piece starting coming together. I feel a lot of my work questions anxiety, its often light-hearted and whimsical but as a whole can be quite therapeutic when making. When I began to question anxiety within this piece I thought about how nerve-wrecking it is to get up on a stage and sing, karaoke is seen a relaxing thing to do with friends but I feel it can often be quite the opposite.

When I speak in public I tend to stutter, I see this as a human glitch, something I can’t really control or fix but its only minor and nothing I need to totally worry about. This is when the idea of “Broken Karaoke” came to me, the idea of songs being in complete, broken, played with and reversed correlated with my initial thoughts on reflections, projections and repetitions.

There are moments in which the two monitors sync up, visuals-wise, and these moments i really enjoy, due to the loop and the different lengths in montiors the pattern in which the visuals and lyrics match will differ but in the moments where the visuals match it briefly connects the two monitors together, demonstrating a real purpose for the smaller monitor.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––

This piece excites me, its restored all my motivation that I felt I lost through previous projects, and I’ve been able to sum up my dissertation and my allure to colour all throughout this project. For me the end set up is the beauty of this piece, the use of monitors really captures the glitch and 70s themes I have be researching and making it look like a karaoke machine (including a mic) makes it all quite authentic.

This piece to me may come across as silly and just a bit of fun, but it means a whole lot to me, exploring an era I have such interest in while developing my love for colour and music, reginiting my passion for animation and bringing together all the elements of film making I love. 

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

screenshots of the edit.

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

animation process.

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

small monitor

so there is a small monitor above the big one which contains all my initial research into colour, but for me it is all there for a reason, it does serve a purpose.

firstly i think the small monitor represents a club setting, bright visuals, reflections, colour and light––i think as a whole this element gives the piece more of a purpose as opposed to it just being lyrics (on the big monitor)

secondly all the clips on the small monitor sum up my research, i produced a lot of experiments throughout the project and without doing all of that i would’ve never come to this conclusion therefore i feel its completely necessary to include these clips

they aren’t all randomly put together, it has some form of structure, and theme, i really like all my work with the mirror disco balls.

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

reflections and repetition

i’ve spoken quite a bit about reflections my initial idea looked into light reflections and projections through colour, as that developed i looked quite a bit into repetition, i bought some small mirros and hung them around and when they would catch the light they would reflect off each other, creating weird otherworldly reflective shapes.

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

lyric fillers and glitches

in september there are a lot of lyrics that just say “yeah yeah” “bah dee ah” etc. etc. and these to me come across as flourishes of colour its almost like colour through sound and voice. i was thinking of cutting the songs down and just having the lyric fillers but for me i wanted at least some guidance through the lyrics but completely follow my title “broken karaoke” and have intentional glitches which may confuse a viewing.

for example, there is a part in supersition where the whole thing rewinds and starts again.

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

an aesthetic decision to have a plinth and a mic.

so originally when i tested my piece i wanted it to be on the floor, i quicky decided i hated that idea and wanted it to be intentionally at waist to neck level, as if you were standing singing karaoke and the screen is in front of you, in some ways like a podium. 

to make it seem ore intentional i would like to paint the plinth to fit my colour scheme and i really want to have a karaoke mic attached as of yet i am undecided if i want the mic on, im leaning more towards it being on as it could create quite an interesting perfomance interaction element to it.

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

the songs

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

why these songs

upbeat was my first thought, it orginally started with september by earth, wind and fire, i then thought to myself that one song is a bit too much of a statment especially if i have no specifc reason as to why i chose this song.

i began to look at 70s music and that era in general, exploring the rise of disco and all the amazing colours this era produced and combined. its all very funky.

for me i thought it would be good to have a song from the beginning of the 70s and the end of the 70s, i then decided i wanted three songs because one song and then two songs wasn’t enough, three to me seems intentional and works as a whole summing up the sort of music i was looking for.

i wanted songs that were either 1, familiar to a mass audience, 2, upbeat and in general happy, 3, songs that didn’t contain many words (so therefore why would you sing them in a karaoke bar, and 4, songs with intriguing accompanment, that could match the visuals on the smaller monitor.

the three songs i have selected are 

september    earth, wind & fire

superstition    stevie wonder

video killed the radio star    the buggles

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

destroying a song

songs are always familiar to us, your favourite one never changes, it always plays perfectly through... what happens if you break it apart and it gets damaged.

i’ve been looking into glitches and sort of finding a correlation between glitches and every day life. glitching as a human is almost like stuttering or twitching, it can appear through stress or anxiousness, putting this into my work and creating computerised glitches brings my work together.

i just really like the relationship between a human and a glitch. with this being expressed through karaoke, which supposedly is a fun acitivty to with friends, but is equally a nerve-wrecking out of the ordinary experience.

[hmoortonmajorproject2018]

Blue (1993) Derek Jarman

“Blue 1993 is a film by the British artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman which features a single static shot of the colour blue with a voiceover and musical soundtrack. The voiceover, written by Jarman, consists of a diaristic and poetic text documenting his AIDS-related illness and impending death at a time that he had become partially blind, his vision often interrupted by blue light. The film is Jarman’s last feature and was completed only a few months before he died. Consequently, Blueforms a direct counterpart to the late painting Ataxia - Aids is Fun 1993 (Tate T06768) in its evocation of Jarman’s final illness, albeit from a very different standpoint.”