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Reflecting Loop

I was pretty happy with this project, mainly because I was very close to giving up on it, for something I was more comfortable with. I tend to try to be too cleaver with thing , but in this project I stripped it all back. It didn’t need any complicated ideas or fancy execution.

Although my initial idea was flawed and was cut back to just running the part of the idea that suggested just viewing feet would be interesting on a cognitive level as well as visually interesting was sound.

I also liked that the more I worked on this the greater emotional attachment I gained, my whole idea that me returning is study is about running. (running away or stopping me from running away ? not sure ). The initial concept was so that the viewer would think the people were running away or running towards depending on where they started watch from, and in this version instead of me trying to force that on them for a small amount of time, they are free to make and change their own mind.

Visually It works well the low camera angle is interesting the legs and feet contrast nicely with the surroundings, its cut tightly to keep motion the going throughout each shot. The audio adds a personal feeling to things as if you are there part of it rather than just a casual bystander watching someone run past.

I was possibly a bit lucky that the footage turned out ok, I need to be more conscious of not just the focus of what I want to shoot (in this case the feet) but also what is also going to be in shot. (other clothing etc). Also I should have looked at using other recording devices to avoid camera noise I think having it so close to the ground increased this problem.

As a loop it is engaging I find myself staring at in for longer than I should. I go to turn it off but find myself looking at it for “just a bit longer”.

The different speed versions most the most interesting thing to come out of this. Just how much our perception of time affects how we relate to things. I thought about being able to change speeds with this project but, I don’t think it needs it and I’ll leave that whole concept of playing with time to future project.

* Safari seems to struggle with this file it plays nicely in firefox etc.

Here is the slow version of the loop.

I tried youtube and then embedding and adding a loop property to the video but it kept buffering even when fully loaded. So I have gone with a flv. As mentioned in earlier post the loss of quality here detracts substantially from the footage, if its going to be slow it needs to be high quality.

I actually though about audio from the outset of this project, options were feet running, breathing , bush noises, simple repetitive strum of guitar etc.

But when I cut the footage together I liked the on camera audio, you could hear breathing footfalls, even the occasional bird call.

There was unfortunately a bi of camera noise, that I mostly filtered out (not quite all unfortunately)  and my son making some odd squeaky noises that stamped a very obvious looping point but I moved some foot falls from another part of the video and replace that.

I even liked the slowed down version of the audio, although others though it a bit odd maybe menacing, I think it adds to the sense of impact when a foot hits and the slow audio gives it a slightly more unworldy feel, but it was possibly to loud In its original form if it was far quieter it would just add to the sense of things rather that over power it.

Finally I managed to get a very odd feed back loop today when testing a microphone, not sure if I could record it without something else to record on to but it made a great sound that could actually fit with this project. But as the project is due shortly I don’t think it will make the cut. (next time maybe)

I think the loop went down pretty well, most people thought the fast version was better, Fuel up on anxiety and coffee I would have to agree with them. But its not quite that simple the slow version also works on a level, its just a more subtle level that the full speed one, thats why after staring at it all night the slow version took over as being my favorite, so my answer is to keep both. I think they are both valid pieces and although the exact same footage they read very differently. Choosing which to submit is dificult but I think It will have to be the normal speed version, mainly because this video is for online viewing, some quality is lost and the viewing window is small, online video needs to grab the users attention and the normal speed video is going to be better at doing this, the slow version is better if the viewer to be in the right mood they may well click on to the next thing before the slow loop has time to capture them.

It took a lot of messing around but finally I found a setting where the slowed footage works at about 1 third speed. I was up very late playing around with the slowed version tying it with and without dissolves. In the end I had some footage I really liked it seemed to have greater impact that just the standard speed a final version at last.

But not quite morning came, the morning of the critique and I had to copy of the renders to take in to , I thought I would take a slow and a full speed one to show, but when viewed the slow motion version it didn’t seem to have the impact, the full sped one felt much stronger in comparison. Maybe its just my paranoia, I’ld wait and see how it went down.

I imported all the footage from my camera and out of interest fired up iMovie 09, I heard it’s actually meant to be a useful piece of software as apposed to previous versions.

Its actually fantastic for making a rough cut, I could easily see every piece of footage got a preview on mousing over. the dragged a selection of bits that where useful and dragged them straight to my project. In no time at all I had my long list of possible footage.

Maybe it was just procrastinating or maybe I actually had something I kept playing the footage then cutting out what didn’t work and re-ordered shot when they didn’t go together, but the more I cut the more time I spent watching the loop.

It already was working I found myself drawn to watching it over and over, then make a small adjustment and would get stuck watching it again.

I looked at going tighter cuts, with iMovie, it looks like you can do it but I would probably have to read some instructions or do a tute. No time for that I’m having fun cutting this so I export out for premiere so I can get on with it. (But I think I’ll be using iMovie for rough cuts next time)

I was very tempted to drop this idea, was worried that i was trying to force something out of a flawed idea that was already compromised before even really starting.
The lecture on the loop spawned many ideas, of all of which I could do and ideas that stood on their own. Also these ideas would let me back into my comfort zone a bit of digital trickery to make something look good.

So was that it was I running away from making something with a bit of raw footage where I couldn’t hide behind effects.

Running away from my running idea.
Right thats it the running project is going ahead, most of me going back to study is to stop myself from running away.

The are some good shots there, the whole running concept has suddenly become even more important, and the one figure running works the best for this.

Inspired again lets edit.