Editing Process & Final Video Piece.

Analysing all of the images, we went through them together and decided which ones we thought would work well with the theme we have chosen. We noticed that there wasn't a great amount of photos to work with, they all seemed to be relatively similar to one another. None the less, we thought of an interesting way to make the images not look the same, by combining them with each other, creating effects, making the colours of the image reflect the mood and adding them in a story like sequence with a backing track of a moving piano piece taken from Youtube.We decided to create it without text so the audience can make up their own reflection to the piece.

Here is some of the images we changed using photoshop.

This picture, we changed the colours on half the image from colour to black and white. Symbolically, it could mean that she feels lost and drained in reality and her reflection shows how others see her, without knowing how she really feels.

In this picture, we cropped the image, and adjusted the colours to make it look a little bit grittier and sharp. We also changed the words on the sign to read 'Alone Street', using the text tool and adjusting the colours and opacity to blend it in so it looks natural.

With this image, we adjusted the colours inside the cafe to look drained but still keeping some colour whilst the outside of the window is in black and white. This relates to the first image where she is looking out the window, it could represent a world that is lost and not understanding, and feeling safe inside away from negativity.

In this image, we made the colours black and white, but used the colour correction tool to bring back some colour in the books. We also used the lasso tool to go around the book she is holding, and then used the distort tool to create a fuzzy effect. This could mean she finds small glimmers of hope in life, but she feels alone and confused.

In this image, we made it very heavily contrasted and black and white. This is to create a feel of sadness, fear and loneliness.

In this image, i have combined to images together, by bringing them both into photoshop and then using the rectangular marquee tool, draw around the image i want to put on top of the other one, and drag it over. We then resized the image to fit where we thought would look interesting, and decreased the opacity and fill, so it ghosted over the image. This creates a sort of in deep thought, losing feeling of the world around her.

This image relates to the one above, in a sequence of how she looks to the world, and then her daydreaming, lost in thought. in this image, we cropped it to look closed in, and drained the colours slightly to show a mood of sadness.

In this image, we took flowers from another photo and used the lasso tool to cut. We then cut and copied them several times, to create a fine art image. We made it black and white, with high contrasts and with the flowers, we brought the yellow tones darker, which created this effect.

In this image, we have combined three separate images together in one, we have taken one from where she is sitting in the library, setting in the cafe, and then shrunk down an image of where she is walking in a carpark. We then got a royalty free image of smashed glass, and over laid it on top of the window, dragging down the opacity to create a see through effect.

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We then put them into final cut, and put the images in a specific order to create a loose narrative. We took a piano piece from Youtube, to play over the top, creating a mood to the piece. We let the pictures change in sync with the beat from the song, so it flowed nicely. Apart from changing one of the images to 'Alone Street', we decided not to add any text or spoken narration, so that the audience is left to make up their own emotions and feelings towards the images. 

                                     

   

Practice edit & Swapping footage with another group.

We made a practice edit from our first half of the narrative to give an idea of what we imagined the piece to look like. We were pleased with the results so we have decided to include it, even though we are excited to see what the other group; (Kat, Siobhan and Lucy, group 8) come up with. We conducted a presentation to show the class, so they get an understanding of what we would have done and our narrative ideas and allowed the editing group to wonder about what they could potentially do. We showed our experimental piece to the class, and we got a great response, so hoping to get a similar reaction once we get to edit the other groups work.

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(Practice Edit Attached to Presentation)
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Working as a team, we are required to swap our video footage and edit group 8's still images. They didn't really give us much information on what they were thinking about when they took the images, or what the theme was, but from looking at their work i feel they have gone for a abandonment and loneliness approach. Here is some selected raw images to show what we have to play around with.

Some of the ideas we have for these images is to overlay, repeat and fade out the subject, cut from different images & manipulate, using tool effects and creating an illusion of losing ones self and confusion. Because there is a very limited selection of different images we've been given, we want to try to create a narrative based around loneliness and allow the audience to create their own emotions on the piece, by the way we change the colours and manipulate the images.

Second Shoot - Reverse Idea.

For our second shoot, we wanted to create a different narrative, which could be incorporated with the first story we created, giving the group who has to edit the piece more to play, and experiment with. We wanted to us more interesting props, which would look interesting when reversed. This included:

• Balloons
• Leaves
• Smoke/ Lighting a cigarette
• Walking backwards and in circles

For this part of the narrative, we wanted to do it from the girls perspective, played by myself. It will show my journey on going to meet the boy, and giving him the balloon, which will then be popped by the cigarette. We then included filler shots such as looking up at the sky and circling, and walking down the street and the boy and girl meeting one another and circling each other, then leaving from the girls point of view, following the boy, which could then be transformed into the previous narrative. Obviously, it is up to the other group to experiment and play with ideas, they may come up with something completely different! 

Because we knew the safety requirements needed from the previous shoot, we arranged ourselves in the type of roles we would be playing this time:

• Liv - Actor 1/Director
• Hayley - Director/Safety Advisor/Runner
• Billy - Camera Op/Director
• Dre- Actor 2/Director/Safety Advisor

This part of the narrative was shot late afternoon, just as it was beginning to get dark, which we thought would be interesting for the other group to combine with day and night shots and mixing them together to create something different from what we imagine it to look like. I will draw up some more story boards from this shoot, and a brief risk assessment, to show what we did professionally.  

First Shoot - Reverse Idea.

Today we filmed our first bit of footage. We first decided what kind of props we would want to use, and how we would all make them fit within the narrative. We have gone with the idea of a romance, connecting the flower to give to the girl, which was done in our first location in the SU.

We asked permission from the manager in the Cafe upstairs on the second floor, and as we didnt have a release form, we got his signature to confirm we were allowed to film in there. Firstly, we decided what roles we would be doing in the team.

• Dre - Main Actor/Director
• Hayley - Camera Op 2/Director/Runner/Safety Advisor 
• Billy - Camera Op 1/Director
• Liv - Actor 2/Director/Runner/Safety Advisor

We then did a practice run, just for safety reasons to make sure that Dre was aware of his surroundings when he was walking down the stairs backwards. Billy used the Fig-Rig to steady the camera, and we also guided him down and around as well, giving direction and making sure everything was steady. Then we decided to give it a go and see how it would look. We wanted to keep a long shot piece as much as possible, whilst also making it one shot. We made stop points where we would pause and start again after we discussed as a group which direction we wanted to go down and what props we would use in between. 

So we started in the SU, the girl passes the rose over to the boy, the boy gets up backwards and walks towards the stairs, leading round and down outside. From outside he walks down the road, where he is pealing off petals from the rose, and places it in his back pocket, to which he takes off his jacket. He is then handed a water bottle, which he pours over himself, drinks and then throws to the ground. Continuing on he spins around, walking between cars, and people and looks across the canal to which he then walks down to and looks across the water. 

This will all be played in reverse, which is the key element for the other group editing to make, other wise it really wont make much sense! 

On monday, it will be our second shoot day, and were going to shoot in the afternoon, to when it starts to get dark, just add more exciting and interesting elements to the sequence. Props wise, i think were going to include things such as sparklers, and get some other people to be involved in the shoot who can pass dre some more things to play with. 

This will then make the sequence go from dark to light, which i think will look really interesting. The most important thing for us is to make sure that it all kind of sticks to the original narrative we created, so it makes sense when it comes to the other group editing the piece.

Final Idea - Reverse Moving Image.

So today in class, we had to present our three ideas to everyone, and receive feedback on which idea would work best and how we would go about doing it. After much discussion, on how we could potentially do each idea, we decided that we were most interested in producing the reverse video idea, and we were given moving image, which is what i hoped for to achieve this theme. We discussed in our group that, like our research and inspiration videos, we will use one main person and have everything around them going normally, whilst the main character will have weird things happening to them on their journey. Some of the ideas i have for this is the person stays still the whole time, as the busy environment around them continues as normal, but things are happening to them. Or, the person is walking, in real time backwards, and they will be doing things on their walk.

For this, we want to be using props, which will look really interesting when it is played backwards.

• Water
• Smoke
• Taking off a jacket
• Flowers

We want to have a bit of a narrative, so that the story has something to go along by. For example, the main character is going to meet someone, and we watch their progression of their journey and the things they encounter and do up until the point of meeting them. Taking some examples from the videos i have researched into, i would like the narrative to include some sort of romance, so the flower for example can be a symbol of the love that the character is bringing to meet their partner. Props along the way is just for a fun quirky effect, and like the video 'Forward', we can have other people along the way give the main character things to interact with. 

Locations is also important, somewhere to walk through on the journey, a final destination and a starting point. Our ideas include:

• The canal
• The SU
• Streets and Roads, connecting between the SU and the canal

This will create a structure for the narrative, between the main character, his experiences and leading up to meet his girl. I will draw up a storyboard, to kind of give a structure to what is happening. We will also need permission from people in the SU, to use their space.

Equipment wise, we will be using our own DSLR's, but i think we will use some assisted equipment which will help us make sure everything is steady.

• Fig-Rig
• Tripod
• Dolly Track
• Nikon Camera

This is important, as we are following the character, the camera needs to be as steady as possible. As a group we will supervise and assist the person walking backwards, making them aware of their surroundings so they dont fall, and the camera man, assisting to make sure they are safe and dont trip. I will carry out a risk assessment on working in a public, busy environment.  

Research - Obstacles

Our third idea that we had was based on creating obstacles which would be in someone's way and like a social experiment almost, test to see whether people would walk under it, or around it or pick it up or leave it. Examples of this which we came up with was setting up a ladder, and seeing if people would walk under it or around it, basing it down to how many people are superstitious. For this we could then make a series of superstitious things and test it; smashed mirrors, ladders, putting up an umbrella inside and seeing who tells you off, etc.
An example of these kind of experiments would be Derren Brown. He did a social experiment based on good luck, where he placed a statue of a dog in a park, and convinced people that if they went and tapped the dog on the head it would bring them good luck. He then set up things where by doing so he would forge them to receive lucky things, by patting the statues head. Its all about trickery of the mind, and playing on old superstitious stories we have been told whilst growing up.
With the ladder story, my nan told me a story of when she was younger, she walked under a ladder, and the same day she was crossing the road and got hit by a car. She survived with minor injuries, but telling her story today she always says that she shouldn't have walked under the ladder, because she believed it was the reason for her accident, causing her bad luck. This then made all of my family really superstitious about the ladder myth, and none of us will do it, even though we know it was a coincident, we don't want to risk it.
Something we would do with this idea, is to set a ladder up, for example in the busy square outside of the SU, and set up a camera, hidden away, and see how much this superstitious impact has on lots of students. Another idea we had was to set yellow tape in the form of an 'X' on the ground, and look to see who avoids walking over it, as X is a symbol of 'do not cross', and see how signs and symbols affect the way people do things.
Another idea we had was based on putting money on the floor, and seeing who would go to pick it up. We would either place down a coin and glue it to the floor, or a fake note, and seeing how many people would attempt to pick it up, and how long they would stay there trying, even though it is glued to the floor. We would do this in a busy area, maybe outside the SU, and see how many students attempt to pick it up. Another Derren Brown example, where he did an experiment of leaving a wallet full of money on the floor in a busy street and drew a yellow circle around it, and watched to see if anyone would pick it up. The experiment showed that by drawing a circle around it, made people aware of not to touch it, again, showing how symbols react with the brain.

Research - Reverse and Backwards Moving Image.

For this particular idea, i personally think this would work better as a moving image piece, because its all about movement and action, which i cant actually envision as a still image. Going off that basis, I have researched into music videos, and short video pieces made by amateur videographers on youtube, who focus on reverse and backward shots.

• Messe Kopp - Forward
• Alt-J - Breezeblocks  
• Ludovic Zuili - Tokyo Reverse
• Viva Brother - Still Here 

This is the video for Messe Kopp - Forward. Its a beautifully constructed piece, with lots of different things going on to keep you captivated all the way through. I really like how everything is backwards,  even the things the main character is doing but he is moving forwards, creating a real illusion and trickery to the viewer, making you imagine what it looks like normally. This is the main inspiration for our idea, making something where we have a main character, walking backwards where everyone else is moving forward, but the character will be doing stuff in the shot that will create an impact once the video is reversed in the edit. This is something the other group will definitely have to do in the edit, but the other effects that they add in, is what im most excited to see. 

In this video, the entire music video is done backwards, but what i find so inspirational about it is that the actions from the characters relate to the lyrics, in a very twisted way. The video is about how a woman has broken into an apartment, and tied up the wife in a cupboard, and when the husband comes home he finds his wife tied up, and this woman goes to attack him with a knife. He wrestles with her to stop her from hurting his wife or himself, until he eventually picks up a breezeblock, fils up the bath, puts this woman in it and drowns her, ensuring she is kept down by putting the breezeblock on top of her. This is all done in reverse order. so you see it done back to front where he drowns the woman, and how he got to that point of killing her. At first its very clever, because as hes drowning her. there is a lot of zooming in on his wedding ring and showing that she wasnt wearing one. which led me to believe that he was having an affair, and wanted to get rid of her so she wouldnt tell his wife. but as it rewinds more, you realise that she broke into their home and she is not the other woman. What i love about this video is that its really smooth and done very well, something i feel the other group editing our piece need to think about, maybe slowing some bits down. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2611940/Tokyo-Reverse-Mind-bending-video-shows-footage-man-walking-backwards-Japan.html#v-3497963913001

Above is the link for the Tokyo Reverse video, made by Ludovic Zuili. With a team, he recorded himself walking backwards through japan, creating a 9 hour long programme, completely backwards. Its interesting to watch, to see how everyone and everything around him is going backwards, and how he looks completely normal, like everyone is wrong and he is right. He perfected the walk so it looks normal and not weird and jolted. giving it that little extra touch of perfection to the piece.

What is really interesting about this music video is that its all in reverse, all the actions and activities they are doing , all retracting back into itself, but the lead singer is singing in normal time. I think thats amazing because that takes a lot of effort to sing backwards and then get it in sync in post. I think within the time scale and the fact we have to give another group our edit, this would be extremely difficult to attempt, however i think its a really interesting thing to experiment with and i may try to attempt it in the future.

From all these videos, i have got some interesting ideas to combine with, if we chose this as our idea. i would really like to do one character walking in the middle of everyone, backwards in reality, then use things as props which will make a very big impact on what is happening such as water, glitter, party poppers, basically everything messy which will captivate the audiences attention. 

Research - Optical Illusions.

So for this project, i was thinking about the way in which you can trick the audience with optical illusions, which i have seen done before by amateur photographers in the past. So for some research, i looked on a website called Pintrest, and looked into some optical illusion imagery. 

what i really like about these images is that its fairly simple in idea, but there are so many creative ways you can do it to trick the audience into believing weather its real or not. For example, the man sitting on the floor with camera, the reason why you would have to double look at the photo to see if its right way or not, is because he has stuck down the water bottle, cigarettes and lighter to the wall, giving it that little extra confusion to the viewer. Also with the woman and the man, they are perfectly aligned with one another, so it looks like she is somehow apart of him, which is why its important that they are both wearing the same coloured clothes. I think its very clever.

I really like the idea of lying on the ground and convincing the viewer they are just sitting down normally, but giving off clues to trick the mind of whats wrong with this picture?

So from this idea, i think we could do a number of different things to trick the viewer, I like the idea of making it look much more believable by also sticking something down to the wall where we are pretending to sit, it makes you do a double glance and tilt your head at the image. I also would like to do the pretending to fall off technique, this could be done either with photography or video. With photography, as shown above, you could see from a distant all the different people doing different things, but with video you could do close ups of them holding onto the curb and panning down on a  tilt angle to give the illusion they are falling.

Because were handing the images over, we would experiment with lots of different ways of falling, or standing around pretending to talk, but could also show things the right way up, again making you question the image. The group who is editing the photo would have to flip the image, adding their own individual style to the piece, which would be exciting to see what they come up with. 

The Fake - Possible ideas and three final ideas.

For this topic, i want to come up with ideas in which i think will engage the audience whilst also trying to trick their minds into believing what they are seeing is real. Within the group, i am working with Hayley, Dre, Billy and Kae and between us all we have to come up with some interesting ideas on how to get the audience thinking about how the piece is done, whilst also handing over out raw footage to another group to edit. I am curious as to see how they will take our idea and manipulate it into something which we may not have thought about ourselves.

Ideas and Inspiration - The Fake

• Optical Illusions
• Shadows
• Reverse actions/movement
• Weather trickery e.g.. making the environment look warm, when outside is cold/raining
• Making things look right way up when they are upside down
• Obstacles e.g. A ladder in the way, will people walk under it or around it? Superstitions. 
• Duane Michals - Things are Queer

From the inspirations and ideas we have gathered together, our three final ideas from this will be: 

Optical Illusions, Reversed Movement and Obstacles, from the above list. I will do some research to bring back to discussion with my group taken from music videos and short video pieces i find on-line. Also looking at photography relevant to the topics chosen. 

The aim i really want to achieve in this piece, is to make the audience really question what is happening, whilst also captivating their attention. I feel that with another group editing the piece, that they kind of understand what point we are trying to make whilst also adding their own unique touch to the piece. Our ideas for these particular themes work best in either photography or video. So for the reverse piece, it would have to be a video mainly, as i feel it will really grab the attention in a video format, where as for the obstacles and illusion ideas, i think could work in either stills or moving image, but it depends on how interested everyone is in a certain idea, to really make it work better, the more engaged we are making it, i think will determine a better out come.