For this unit, we needed to choose 3 different mediums. I choose film, possibly intertwined with After Effects, photography and photo manipulation. I may create a soundtrack as well.
I started thinking about my story for the video, but didn’t have any original ideas for a while. I did have some very rough ideas that I hadn’t thought through, but none of them really stood out to me or I just didn’t see myself being able to pull them off.
For quite a while I’d been thinking about what the world would be like if people just didn’t willfully lie, so one of my ideas was to create a world where no one understands the concept of lying and would only say something false if they were genuinely ignorant to it, until the main character has a dream which changes their perception of the world. I was thinking of twisting it at the end and making the character find out that the world was as it is in reality, and that only they have been deceived and never lied. However, I didn’t see myself currently being able to execute this idea.
Another idea I had was inspired from an acquaintance I used to have. He had split personality and he always told me about it because, as I understand, just letting it out and telling someone exactly what he was thinking was beneficial and helped him cope with it. As a result, I now have vast knowledge on the condition because I know exactly how someone who has it feels about it. He was very confused, didn’t know what he was doing half the time, couldn’t figure out which is his actual personality and had trouble remembering certain parts of his life. As a tribute, I was thinking of a story about someone who has split personality and how confused they feel. From my acquaintance’s descriptions, it really seems like they’re in a never-ending dream their entire life. I thought it would make an interesting story of someone trying to understand what’s real and what isn’t, and how they manage to deal with their flawed perception of the world around them. But in the end, I didn’t think I could create a film as it plays out in my head. I certainly don’t want to be disappointed with my end result, so I didn’t think I should go with it.
There was another vague premise that came to me – a backwards world. It’s just a surreal scene that easily fits within a dream, and it made me think about how people could be speaking backwards or I could get them saying something backwards and then rewinding it so that it sounds awry. I was also thinking about some clips of a person walking backwards when everything around is normal, and then rewinding it so that it seems the person is walking normally and everything else is happening backwards. I was thinking about shots that I could realistically film, perhaps I could use them for my final story.
As I continued my research, something sparked up a basic premise for my main idea – when I was checking for spelling errors on my research on a clip from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me by David Lynch, as I noticed about the flickering light effect and the shots changing during one of the flickers, that immediately made me come up with an idea I was satisfied with.
This is my quick draft when I was first putting my thoughts on paper. At the top, I had written down the main inspirations for the premise – the flicker from Twin Peaks and also the game SCP: Containment Breach.
On the top right I quickly wrote down an idea for a shot so that I wouldn’t forget it later.
To sum it up in a more organized manner, my basic premise is a film from the character’s point of view, and each time he blinks, he transports to another location. He doesn’t realize it at first because everything just seems logical in a dream, but in one location, he does something to look at his own hands, for example, checking the clock, and he sees his hands are distorted. That’s when he starts to realize something isn’t right, and tries to snap out of it by doing different things. None of them work, but then something significant happens and makes him wake up. He then rubs his eyes, doesn’t transport anywhere else, and figures he’s back to real life.
I asked for a classmate’s opinion of my idea right after I’d written it down on paper, without any addition details to it.
William thought the idea would be difficult to create, although he did not criticise the premise or sequence of events. He agreed I should film it from the character’s point of view. I don’t mind a ‘difficult idea’, because there’s always a way to solve a problem, either by changing the idea a little bit or adding more to it.
I also asked my sister who’s living back in Latvia to record herself giving her input. I added subtitles to her video because the sound quality is bad and the volume changes at parts.
She also liked my idea. She focused on a particular shot I’d mentioned – the character looking at his hands. She’s right, it’d be difficult to pull off by myself, but perhaps I could use a green screen for it. Film the location as it is, then the hands in front of a green screen and key it out in After Effects, and then add the shot as the background.
I was thinking of making it a comedy when I jotted down the note, but I changed my mind now. I think I should give the character some depth, some reason to be seeing this dream. He should evoke emotion for the viewer, so the character must be the main focus. I could achieve this with either subtle details, like a shot of seeing himself in a reflection of a window or someone else’s eye when he’s looking directly at them, and also just warping the entire story around him, giving life to him. I’m not yet sure what the backstory should be, but I’ll return to that later on. Currently I’m focusing on outlining the general ideas for each medium I’ve decided to work on, with random details that first come to mind, but I’ll refine them when I’m happy with the basic premise of each.
For my photography projects, I will take all photos by myself and edit them with Photoshop. I may even intertwine them in After Effects and use them in a video.
I have some general ideas about the kind of feeling I want to focus on – uneasiness. It doesn’t have to be fear or danger, but it can be, along with an uneasy feeling of some sort. It’s the kind of feeling I’m most familiar with because I often dream negative dreams, and they’re also intriguing to talk about with people I know, so I’d be set for varying opinions.
This was one of my ideas because it’s possible for me to execute. The premise is a dark silhouette behind a shower curtain, illuminated by an unidentified light source from the back, sitting in the bath. It looks like a human, its eyes are brightly shining, and it’s staring directly at the viewer. There are receipts flying around, some farther, some closer, and there’s liquid spilled on the floor. I want to convey an uneasy feeling because of the silhouette staring at you, and the receipts would symbolize debt or wasting money on pointless things, so the dream represents guilt, an unnerving atmosphere and self-consciousness. The liquid on the floor – blood – would symbolize wasted time. You buy things you don’t actually need and waste your life away. The dream doesn’t always make sense entirely, but there may be a meaning to it.
This vague premise is a female in a dress floating or as if she’s underwater. There are several cuts, her body’s chopped up in pieces, but they stay in the same position. The basic meaning is that beauty comes at a cost.
This sketch is a premise of another person surrounded by his own problems and often having breakdowns, represented by the dream. His body is in an unnatural position, in complete darkness, illuminated by an unknown light source and tearing apart – there’s an odd texture on the side of his body, crumbling off and floating away as if he’s physically shattering. The symbolism is having issues that are difficult to deal with and breaking down, being unable to deal with them or not getting support, thus experiencing physical pain and fear. I can relate to experiencing physical pain when trying to cope with mental issues because I have social anxiety. When in an unknown social situation or being confronted by an authority, my heart often starts beating abnormally fast, I have cold sweat, sometimes numbness in hands or feet.
This idea isn’t as negative as the previous few – it’s a dream about everyday life, a routine you follow from day to day without much change, but in this dream you have the ability to warp your surroundings or lift objects with telekinesis. The girl in the sketch is on her way to school or a shop, near trees, so possibly in a park. It’s autumn – there were fallen leaves blocking her way, so she freely swoops them away from her path.
Another positive dream idea I had was a somewhat simple premise. As my favorite animal is the cheetah, and as it’s an exotic animal which I wouldn’t be able to easily hang out with, the dream would fulfill my wish and allow me to be near a bunch of friendly cheetahs, at least temporarily.
This sketch doesn’t show an idea itself, but an outfit I liked that I noticed a stranger wearing in the city. I was unable to take a photo, so I drew a sketch as close as possible to the girl’s appearance. I noted all the details quickly and drew them out afterwards.
Walking around Trafalgar Square, I spontaneously came up with a possible idea for my photography project because of the statues. I imagined a picture consisting of all statues and one person in the middle, looking almost like a statue, but standing out. The idea was to convey negative feelings of when you’re unable to do anything, to change anything. the person would be turned into a statue, unable to move or speak, but aware of what’s going on. I could play around with the concept of being turned into a sheep – one of the crowd to fit in.
Another idea that just sparked to me was when I saw an open telephone box. I thought I could create a positive picture, the box floating in the sky with a person almost stepping outside of it. It’s not a fully developed idea by far, just a thought that immediately came to mind when I saw the telephone box. I thought I could have animals floating around in the sky as well, to make the picture more bizarre, and also make me think about creating it believable, in a sense. Just making the animals not seem completely misplaced, but actually looking like they’re floating – it may be a slight challenge, but trying to achieve it would develop my skills for sure.
For my film pathway, I selected some of my clips and quickly made a short preview video trying out the blinking idea with the simple Dip to Black transitions between the clips.
The transition does resemble a blinking effect, but I can’t see how I could show the idea to make sense to the audience. It looks pretty decent visually, but story-wise it’s just too random. I don’t want to use any dialogue, but perhaps I’d have to, in order to convey the story. I’ll have to refine the idea and get more shots accordingly or come up with a different premise.
A spontaneous idea that just came to me was when I was messing around with long exposure shots with a few lights.
I was trying to get the lights to look like heartbeats on a cardiograph, continuing to convey feelings of uneasiness and urgency. (More info in Unit 4)
I may intertwine the idea in the video pathway, working with a photo in After Effects. I was thinking I could create an effect making the heartbeats appear from darkness, experimenting with opacity and masking.
I used the chance to experiment with more long exposure photography when my dad and I were waiting for a concert to begin in the Royal Albert hall. It was dark, but illuminated by different colored lights, so I had some interesting results.
One day, as I was on the bus, I thought of an idea upon seeing some telephone lines outside the window. I thought of a landscape that I could recreate for my photography project, but when I thought about it, it didn’t seem feasible to do in a short amount of time, so instead I’ll just digitally draw that setting. I want to create a wide landscape – a meadow in darkness, maybe early morning, and it’s very foggy, but the main focus is on the telephone lines which look like crosses, conveying a macabre mood, accentuated by the fog. I’d seen a similar scene in a dream of mine, so I wanted to recreate that and include this idea. I also thought a raven flying by may contribute to the atmosphere, but I have some doubts about it. I think it’s better to not litter the scene with unnecessary additions and just focus on conveying the mood.
I also had an idea for a shot to create in After Effects – a man holding an animal’s skull and wearing a top hat, because it’s a scenario I’d never question in a dream but would find eccentric in real life. I could also feasibly achieve this, so the idea was more appealing; I have a top hat and a badger skull.. and a dad, so I could take a photo of the scene and edit it in Photoshop later.
Another idea I had was just when I was filming some sheep in dim light and when it wasn’t focusing very well. I thought I could make a shot when a sheep stops eating grass and looks up, but create an eerie mask to put over it and recreate movement in After Effects. It would add to the odd atmosphere of the dream.
As I was thinking of scrapping my video pathway idea, I had to come up with a new one. I’ve been experimenting with the feelings of uneasiness a lot, so I figured it’d be beneficial to continue with a similar premise, not a well thought out idea with a strong narrative, but just an unnerving atmosphere. I could use some shots I already have or work with photos in After Effects, thus intertwining my photography experiments with After Effects and video. I think I will definitely need some sound, and for that I’ll add some sounds together, distorting them to add to the atmosphere.
When I was looking though my video footage, I was slowly developing an idea, constantly tweaking it as I rearranged some shots. I wanted to create an unnerving atmosphere, a negative and dark mood.
At first, I wanted to show untouched nature and its inhabitants, then walking into a city and giving other hints of human interference, and as an example I focused on toxic fumes, which then pollutes the air and brings death to animals. I wanted to convey the feelings of guilt, inner conflicts, sense of responsibility and blaming matters on yourself, helplessness and uneasiness.
It’s a somewhat linear ‘story’ (or rather dream), but it’s not straight-forward; you would have a hard time assigning a solid meaning to it, but you could grasp the atmosphere, just like in a dream.
From my research and personal experiences with dreams, I see that there’s always a reason for them, no matter how hidden and ambiguous. Your subconscious was revealing the dream for some reason only it knows about, and you could think about it many times, but never be able to come up with a strong idea of what exactly it was trying to show. Perhaps you weren’t meant to be in any way conscious during the dream, which may explain why it’s so easy to forget dreams the longer you stay awake. That’s why I wanted my dream sequence to be confusing; there’s a meaning behind it that only I know and that the viewer could only understand when they find out what I’ve meant, but when they’re watching the video, I want them to vaguely think they know what I’m trying to show, but not be able to explain the exact idea or just come up with a unique meaning of their own.
I was inspired by David Lynch’s work, especially Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive, because he creates odd scenarios difficult to understand at first, or even watching several times, but people have different opinions of the story and meaning because it’s so unclear. Lynch refuses to reveal what he thought himself in order to maintain the mysterious feeling and allow more imagination for the viewers.
In the end, I improvised my soundtrack for the video, but I knew what kind of atmosphere I’d want to convey.
I wanted ambience throughout the entire video, just to add to the rest of the sound, but not be very noticeable.
The snail shot in the beginning gave me the idea to have the choir singing in the background. It was raining one day, and I’d gone out for a walk in the rain, but I couldn’t get any farther because I found that charming snail. I took it inside and for some reason decided to see how it looks in bright light, so I needed a white background – the bowl. It was a very nice contrast with the darkness eliminating any additional background elements and accentuating the snail on the bowl. I took some photos, but then I started filming..
I had paused the game I was playing in a dream-like location, and in that location the music included an opera singer. The slow, distinct vocal lines with the snail’s slow movement just fit perfectly, so when I was thinking in terms of creating the soundtrack for the video, I knew I needed to use a similar kind of sound for that snail shot.
When it cuts to the shot with telephone lines that seem like crosses in fog, I decided to cut to a sudden silence – no wind, no wild tracks, just silence. This idea came to me when I was editing my video footage in Premiere. I had cut the footage and worked on the placement of my clips. When I watched how it looks (and I had my headphones on anyway, even though I wouldn’t use any of the sound from the original clips), the video before had background sound, but the ‘crosses’, as I made it from scratch, obviously had no sound. I was astounded by how well the sudden silence fits according to my ‘story’.
kristinedejus 