Polaroid timelapse tests

Click here to view Polaroid timelapse test #1: 'Forwards' version

Click here to view Polaroid timelapse test #2: 'Backwards' version

These two short videos were an attempt to create a timelapse video of a polaroid image developing. As I was using modern Impossible film, the development would take 30-40 minutes and I thought it would be visually interesting to try and record the process of an image coming into being, and then potentially alter this 'narrative' digitally.

The tests weren't a complete failure but were not without their problems. my first issue came with taking a still shot of each of the two Polaroids at regular intervals as they developed. My inability to do this led to an uneven series of images, with one of the polaroids coming out so dark in every image that the series was unusable without adjusting the the contrast in for every one in Photoshop.
The next problem presented itself when I took the successful images into Photoshop and tried to create a consistent crop of each image. In the 'forwards' version, with the image cropped to show the Polaroid as an object rather than an image, the frame jumps around a little and detracts from the overall effect.

Following this attempt, I used a closer crop and just focussed on the image itself. This time I reversed the flow of images to make the subject 'disappear' - I think this result is slightly more successful, as with the loss of the white frame, the physical 'shift' created by the inconsistent cropping almost becomes an effect itself. The closer crop, however, only seeks to highlight the differences between each version of the image.

If I was to repeat this experiment, I would try and film the development of the Polaroid rather than capture a progression of still images. This would allow me to capture the entire process and still allow me to edit it down after to create a condensed version, either by speeding up the film, or experimenting with the frame rate. Hopefully this would create a more consistent outcome. The downside of all of the videos shown here to date is that they were created in iMovie, which fine for testing, but I look forward to testing ideas in Premiere.

Journey to college video #4

Click on this link to view the video in high quality on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/147736304

This fourth version of the 'journey to college' narrative was created in response to feedback from the first group crit. It was suggested that the sudden change in narrative (going away from the college) could be matched to a change in the music, and that the music could build up to that point.
With this in mind, I added an edited version of Breton's '15 Minutes' to the video. The normal version of the track runs to 4m08 seconds with a moment 2m45 seconds in where the track explodes. Working backwards, I edited the track so that the first of the post-collage images coincided with this change in tempo.
The build up to this moment is perhaps not as mellow or subdued as I would have liked, and the track now just fades in at the start of the video, but the effect of the music and the change of pace in both the visual and the music makes for a great effect.
The build up to the 'explosion' features minimal use of the Ken Burns effect, and a fairly slow pace; after the change this comes into play as the images come thick and fast, and the 'camera' pans down and across the images. By this stage I was becoming more confident at using the effect and even in this rough edit, feel there is a dynamic momentum present.
As I now had a longer piece of music, I added more images and this time added different takes of the same scene, which also added something extra to the narrative. The three shots of the horse were a happy accident but serve as a basic form of animation that could be extended and further experimented with in future iterations. I feel that the Ken Burns effect could be more consistent but each time I go back to this version, I find new mini-sequences within the overall structure that have their own rhythm, which coincided with the attempts to create new narratives out of existing visuals that I was exploring elsewhere in this module.
Finally, in retrospect, this version would benefit from having the contrast / vintage tone on just the images in the build up section, which would then change to the bright colours of the new images which were added to this version, and enhance the overall change in tone.

Journey to college video #3 - upbeat version

Click to view on Vimeo: Journey to college #3 - upbeat version

While the first two videos were fine, I also felt that they were limited by their length and limited amount of visuals, so during the attempt to make a third narrative, I also decided to expand the range of visuals.
Hoping to create an upbeat, moderately paced version I recalled that one of my favourite pieces of music to listen to on the way to or from college was Professor Longhair's 'Go To The Mardi Gras' from 1959, a great piece of New Orleans carnival music, and one that never fails to put a smile on my face.
I liked it so much in fact, that when the 12 images were done, I wanted to add more and changed
the story accordingly, to one where I walked to college but at the last moment decided to go for a walk around town instead, and the new version of the narrative shows the places I went, and the things I saw.
There was a brief gap at the start of the recording and rather than edit this from the track, I decided
to add a very rough countdown effect so that the visuals and the music kicked in at the same time. Having added this 'vintage' visual cue, I began to add a grainy film effect to each still and upped the exposure as well, created a slightly aged, washed out effect. Even if the listener is not familiar with the piece of music, it sounds old and authentic and adapting the imagery to match this seemed to be a logical step, even if said visuals where full of contemporary objects.
The track has an intro and a break (about 30 seconds in) and I matched these changes in rhythm to the tempo of the visuals to try and create a more consistent result. Given more time, I would happily expand this version beyond the first 30 seconds of the track, but the relatively fast tempo had already used up a number of photos from my personal archive.
With this new, wider range of visuals, the narrative felt more complete and expansive and also (vaguely) resembled the still images from the opening credits to HBO's 'Treme', which I had already looked at in my research, and was also the show that had introduced me to the Professor Longhair track and the Ken Burns effect before I knew what it was called.

Link to Treme opening credits on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWaFD4S00mc

Journey to college - additional thoughts

While editing the different variations of the journey to college videos, I also considered other methods for capturing different versions of the 'narrative'.
What if, instead of taking a photo at every corner, I took a photo every minute, or just took pictures of everyone I met along the way (whether they like it or not)? What if I created some kind of typology instead and simply captured images of cars, cats, estate agent signs, road signs or graffiti?
All of these would create a different narrative and beyond that, if they were shown to people without any context or introduction, what would each story be, and how much would I be relying on there viewers interpretation of events?

Journey to college video #2 - slow version

Click here to view on Vimeo: Journey to college #2 - slow version

Following on from the 'fast version',  I attempted a 'slow' version, to represent a narrative where I left home with enough time to not be rushing and could therefore be a little more relaxed or contemplative. Still wanting to utilise a piece of my own music, I found that the soundtrack for this piece was more 'sad' than anything (an problem I have always encountered when trying to make slow or subtle pieces of music) and two of the responses I had to this version were that it was either building up to something unfortunate at the end of the journey or that it was similar to a sequence from a film or TV show that featured some kind of murder or crime.
Either way, the pace was slowed down and the narrative and tone were altered, though the images remained the same. The fact that the camera lingers on them for longer gives the viewer the chance to contemplate what has happened (or whichever tense they assign to the story), while the music sets the tone in the absence of any narrator. The slight movement in each image (created by the Ken Burns effect) is also well suited to the pace of this version.
While the four versions of this video are all accompanied by music, I would like to return to the idea at some point and add a voiceover of some kind (in the style of Patrick Keiller's London and Robinson In Space), and some field recordings of the background noise at  each point where a photo is taken.

Two clips from London:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zgHBACzfkI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxxIeRsUirg

Journey college video #1 - fast version

Click here to view the video on Vimeo: Journey To College - fast version

This is the first in a series of videos made at the start of the research period. The idea began with me photographing my journey from college to home - a fairly short journey and therefore one that would create a fairly simple narrative. To limit the number of images I took, I decided to stop and photograph the scene in front of me at every sharp turn along the way, which left me with 12 still images.
Having put these into a sequential narrative on paper, I wanted to experiment with sound as well as a 'moving' image. Music is an important part of my walk to and from college and can improve my mood and shape the journey. Sometimes I leave with just enough time to get there, but would feel rushed and so I chose a fast paced piece of music (of my own creation) to accompany this first test, which I will refer to as the 'fast' version.
Matching the pace of the images to the music resulted in a very short video. It was not meant to match the reality of the journey in any way, but at the same time, the images pass by too fast, as would any surroundings when a hurried journey is being made.

Welcome to Dungeness

Click here to view on Vimeo: Welcome To Dungeness

(The first 10 seconds are intentionally soundless...)

The ‘Welcome To Dungeness’ video was created in response to a two day project brief based around a trip to Dungeness. Given a day of preparation a week before the trip itself, our group (myself, Ellie Curtis, Jamie Spink, Rebecca Morris and Toby Hudson) decided that we would take a humourous approach and try to create something that was either a spoof family holiday or a guide to Dungeness as if it we were rebranding it as a cool new seaside holiday destination.

While we did not plan every last detail, there was a discussion of the tone of the piece – or how we would like it to be at least – and how we might go about achieving this. Once we had settled on the concept, we listed the locations that we might use on the day (power station, pub, shacks, boats and so on) and tried to think of other ways of portraying the area, such as wildlife, attractions and locals.

It was also decided that we would try and incorporate sound into the finished product, as one of the team had access to a portable recording device that could be used to capture field recordings. Sadly, the sound of the wind drowned out most of these and it was quickly decided that 5 minutes of distorted wind as a soundtrack might be a bit much (though one small recording survives at the start of the video). During planning, we had talked about using a piece of existing music associated with the seaside or holidays, but somehow degrading it to match the general run down feeling of Dungeness.

In the end, we found that Cliff Richard’s ‘Summer Holiday’ worked perfectly with the visuals and on the second day of the project (back at college) Jamie was able to work on the sound while the rest of the team worked on other aspects. It was a shame that the field recordings didn’t come out, but I don’t think the final outcome would have been half as impressive without the gradually degrading music played over the top (and timed to change slightly with each image / slide).

Knowing how the music would sound, we tested a couple of slides with some quickly written, ironic captions and then proceeded to select 20-30 images that would work as a sarcastic or ironic tourist guide to Dungeness. We had been able to consciously do some of these on the day (the sunbathing, the beachfront properties) but the majority were improvised on the day in the hope that they would work when we put it all together the following day. The blank sign and ‘Dungeness catchphrase’ were late additions at the end of the trip, when we thought we were done but by that point I had begun to look at everything as an opportunity to mock or undermine the area in some way, at least for comedy value. We had thought to use a boat as a location but it wasn’t until we got there that Ellie wisely suggested it should be an advert for a boat party. Other lucky finds were a football, an intact beer bottle, some bones and something with wheels that we could pretend was a Segway. Full credit to everyone for willing to be stupid on camera as well. I think once we got into it, we knew we had something good and this just spurred us on further. I hadn’t been sure how we would get a good photo of some ‘locals’ but as soon as I saw three of our classmates in the distance and got them to wave, I knew we had the ‘friendly locals’ page, with the added bonus being that they would be watching the slideshow later on.

Back at college the following day, the slideshow began to structure itself as we thought about which images would work as an introduction and then what the hierarchy of information would be: housing, facilities, attractions and so on. A few ideas for thrown out along the way simply because they did not fit and we worked as a group to choose the right words for each image and achieve the maximum impact.

Choosing a typeface for the captions was initially a problem until we found a version of ‘Cooper’ that looked suitably naff and added to the overall cheapness of the guide. We looked at the Pontins logo for colour inspiration and found the yellow with pink outlines to be suitably cheesy. Just to hammer home that Dungeness had a power station, we added our own radioactive glow to the type.

Despite having spent all day with the images and Cliff Richard, we still found it funny and hoped from that that everyone else would.

Creating a purely cynical narrative might have been too easy and probably less entertaining. Five minutes of Cliff Richard was probably also pushing it a bit but we got away with it as the images were well paced and consistently amusing. The music itself is so well known that Jamie’s broken version of it subverted any associations that people might have had, in the same way that the images and captions in the slideshow subverted each other and the idea of a seaside holiday.

While this was ultimately a silly, light hearted spoof, it was great to play around with images and their meanings and how these can be altered by the addition of words and tone. Most of the video is far from subtle but we were able to create a narrative from the images we took – and the places we found ourselves – that was a combination of planning and good fortune.

I had not planned to create anything like this for my main project but enjoyed the process and the results so much that some of my initial visual narrative experiments took a similar form. Hopefully these will be ongoing throughout the course of this year and will appear here to form their own narrative.