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.