studies (35%)
Over the course of this class you will be assigned a sequence of seven short applied studies (5% each) to practice engaging analog and digital audio and video technique and the theories and threads of audio-visual art. These studies will be complete independently and critiqued collectively and between individual peers.
These studies are as follows:
À la Lumière
Using a stationary video camera (or phone), record one minute of footage in a natural environment that contains some movement. Natural, here, means an environment that isn’t significantly constructed or designed (e.g. a designed set), but rather is found. Additionally, use camera settings that are comparable to the human eye (not overly exposed, too zoomed in, etc.).
After you’ve recorded your minute, first, strip the video of sound (or mute it). Then, take your minute of footage and edit it down to 10 seconds, using only basic editing techniques (see below), and, at most, 10 edits. Your scene might not be very visually active, but explore movement, rhythm, color, etc. as best as possible. Make every edit count.
Submit an SD (strictly less than 1000 x 1000) version of your 10 seconds to the Box account, in the Study 1 - À la Lumière folder in a folder with your name. Additionally, include a PDF describing where you shot your footage, your strategy for making your edits, and how successful you felt your edits were. If you have any questions about your process or product, include those as well.
Basic Editing Techniques
YES: Trim, cut, copy, paste, reverse, varispeed
NO: video effects or transitions, opacity changes, multiple simultaneous videos
Jack Foley’s Lunch Break OR The Acousmatic Film Editor
Jack Foley’s Lunch Break: Record the foleys (performed diegetic sound design) for a film (choose strictly from one provided below) without editing. You may do multiple layers of sound (one for each type of foley, for example), but cannot significantly edit the timing of the recordings or put them in one by one (“spot” them). You may change gain and add things like reverb/echo, for example, but cannot alter the timing of the recordings. You may go for realism, hyper-realism, or pure surrealism, but your end result should have a tight synchronicity between the action onscreen and the foleys you record.
Jack Foley’s Freelance Project Portfolio:
Animals.mov
Food.mov
Sports.mov
Tools.mov
Walking.mov
NOTE: Each video has two shots; considering creating foley for each separately. Additionally, consider slowing down/speeding up footage and creating foley to the time-altered version, if needed. Final version should be at original speed.
ORThe Acousmatic Film Editor: Edit a film using its sound alone. This means having the audio and video linked in software, but being unable to see the video as you edit. Editing the audio, strive to create interesting rhythms, transform the sound using basic editing, and engage musicality, (much as you would do when editing sound alone), all while not seeing the video. Consider working with a video that has a significant amount of diegetic sound (particularly sounds of actions) or spoken or sung words. Your final edit should be between 20 to 30 seconds long. REAPER is a good tool for this assignment, as it allows you to edit a video without (by default) seeing it, and additionally has good audio-editing capabilities.
Submit your video to the Box account, in the Study 2 folder in a folder with your name. Additionally, include a PDF describing which Study 2 option you chose, any difficulties you overcame, and how successful you felt your final work is. If you have any questions about your process or product, include those as well.Flip Book
In order to explore visual design out of the context of a computer, create a flip book with at least 20 frames. This can be made by hand (with paper and pencil), or by using an animation software (but not one that significantly alters the manual labor required to create a flip book frame-by-frame). Depending on your artistic ability, you’re welcome to tell a story with or without characters, or simply play with shape/color/form, or explore gestalt principles, and/or cartoon physics.
Montage Study
This study applies Eisenstein’s Montage Theory. Using shot or found footage, create a 30 second video with at least 7 edits. An edit is defined here as a cut from one video to another video, so you must have at least two different videos as source materials (but will likely have more). In your video, make direct use of at least two Montage editing types (e.g. metric and rhythmic, or rhythmic and tonal, etc.). Sound is optional. You’re welcome to go silent, include the natural sound of the material you use, create foley, and/or add any kind of music. If you do have sound, make sure it doesn’t distract from your edits, the focus of this study.
While creating this study, you’re welcome to focus on metrical and rhythmic edits, but if you want to challenge yourself, strive to create edits that generate the dialectical collisions that were the original goal of Eisenstein’s theory: juxtaposed shots that demonstrate emergence, that have more meaning together in sequence than separately. When used responsibly, this can be a very powerful visual (and sonic) tool.Submit your video to the Box account, in the Study 4 folder in a folder with your name. Additionally, include a PDF describing where you shot/found your footage (and/or sound, if applicable), which two (or more) Montage editing types you used, any difficulties you overcame, and how successful you felt your final work is. If you have any questions about your process or product, include those as well. Additionally, clearly disclose any content warnings.
Medium-Mapping (Max/Pd)
Gesture-Mapping (TouchDesigner)
Computer Animation (Processing)
My Virtual World™ (TouchDesigner/Other)