ruth jeo-en johnson blog

Thursday, 27 January 2011

a minute of your time continued .... again

yesterday was spent filming the footage for the film, which involved filming a close-up of my mouth in a darkened corridor with the aid of a mobile phone light.
the result is something quite ambiguous, a little eerie and kind of disgusting, (i think i've been eating too many sweets, but .. anything for art right?) like a fleshy cave or some other clammy orifice. maybe something a surgeon might see after inserting the little camera?
the audio is of popping candy in the mouth, which actually sounds quite amazing.
we played with volume by opening and closing the mouth and chewing, chomping etc to create texture and i actually really like the final outcome. i think it's sort of funny that we've used something that has such a novelty, nostalgia and childishness about it like sweets and made something quite disturbing and thought provoking.
i just tried to upload it to the blog but the sound doesnt seem to be working, so i'll try and post it tomorrow after the crit. good night

Tuesday, 25 January 2011

a minute of your time continued ... sort of

so, change of plans!
proposed idea decided too complex, simplified idea:
close up of mouth/inside mouth with sound of popping candy, a little abstract, really highlighting noise.

its all still a little vague ... but hopefully it will come together, it's group work so there are alot of ideas ...

Monday, 24 January 2011

a minute of your time

The next project brief:

Background:

a minute of your time is a video project to examine time-based media as a precious material.
It's an opportunity to focus on:

1. sound, movement and perception;
2. design, direction and production;
3. camera, choreography and collaboration.

Brief:

How long is a minute?
Create a one minute, un-cut, "in-camera" video;
Use physical, visual language; with live sound - no pre-recorded music, without editing or post-production; in groups of between six and eight people.

................................................................................................................
So ... yeah anyways i got thinking about sound and, in particular annoying sounds and how we can make them entertaining or comical ..

some notes i quickly printed before the lesson:

So as a group we discussed the idea of creating a video around the action of eating sweets and playing with the idea of sound with noisy wrappers, chomping, chewing, blowing bubbles, popping candy etc to make a playful video.

We then later discussed who would be eating, what kind of a character, location, clothing, camera positioning etc, and decided upon having one of us dress in business like attire, sitting on a swing in the park.

So it's kind of like a 'sweet escape' the idea that we grow out of confectionary, or feel as though snack time should now consist of ryvita and coffee ... to basically suggest that everyone needs rest-bite from the hum-drum existence behind the desk and the idea of embracing childishness.

So we discussed the opening scene, and decided upon panning downward to then focus on a young lady sat on a swing wearing a business suit type outfit.

She looks around in a self-concious manner, and then sneaks into her purse and pulls out a boiled sweet, the camera then focuses on her hands as she pulls either end of the wrapper and then pops the sweet into her mouth.

We then zoom into her mouth as she very animatedly sucks on the sweet, crunches it and swallows.

She then looks around, both with a sense of guilt and pleasure, we zoom into her bag and a hand from off camera reaches inside, pulls out another sweet and hands it to her.

We then go through repetitive imagery of sweet eating, each time more hands handing them to her, in an ever more greedy manner, the final sweet being the popping candy.

We also discussed possibly having the hands/arms from offscreen be painted different colours etc, or maybe wearing candy jewellery or painted nails in candy colours?

anyway, we plan on starting to experiment with film tomorrow, and i have to make a story board...so..

to be continued...

also.. stuff i picked up on way home .. well, the stuff that didnt get eaten: