Motion

I feel happy with the result for my self icon. Definitely the creative process of combining some words that have completely different meaning is challenging and "difficult" in order to avoid making it look awkward. Hybrid always has a danger of looking weird. So while I was designing I was careful with what the final image was looking like. What I am really sure about it, is the fact that this symbol is me. Hair like crazy, the imagination part -imagination without borders I would say- and the human part.
I had some thoughts about the motion and sound part. I imagine the head with only some of the hair or some hair really well done and then they get all messed up. I imagine having a whole human body and then the fairy wing coming from somewhere and become a part of the body / or even separate it. Another solution would be to have a circle (the head) moving and shaking like it is about to explode and then the rest of the icon appears, as a result of thought. As for the sound, I would try to make it look funny by using mouth sounds and some background tempo. I guess when I will more sure about the final motion part I will be more sure about the sound too.

some first sketches

So after discussing my ideas in the class it came out that my top 3 adjectives will be (1) imaginative
(2) human believer
(3) crazy-chaotic

It seemed that these three could be the most successful in representation.
So I choose the part of the human body for the human believer . The wings for the
imaginative part and the crazy and disordered hair for the chaos and craziness.

SeLf Portrait (!) that will be funny :)

So thinking about my self is the most difficult thing to do ... and interesting at the same time ... so .. I made a list of 9 adjectives (I really tried to keep the positive ones because that graphic symbol shall be used as identity :) :

1. myself (ms----> coincidentally my initials maria sotiropoulou)

2. contradict (could not find an adjective but I mean that there is lot of antithesis in me and I think of symbolizing that with my initials "m" and "s" using serif and sans serif typefaces)

3. observational ( hehe I keep an eye in every small detail ---> eye)

4. humorous ( anything that would look funny :P )

5. chaotic (my favorite one )

6. stubborn (taurus sign )

7. optimistic ( not always but in general ---> half plenty glass)

8. I beleive in the human race ( I don't wanna say humanitarian )

9. imaginative (when I start thinking I just can't stop )

And after creating that list I will start combining them like (1), (4) , (5) together etc :)

A(e)nd ...

I always payed attention to the sound of the clips or movies. I have to confess that during horror movies (which are not my favorite) , the first thing I do is volume down or (if I am in the cinema) cover my ears. (!) I realize that a masterpiece or the worst horror movie would be nothing without sound. Of course after that exercise I am more aware of how much sound affects on the viewer/listener... I see the ads on the tv and I hear that they have payed a lot of attention in order to attract the consumer. A good combination of sound and image can really get into your head... If I try to remember favorite scenes from movies and films they are always connected to sound or music. (from shutting a door to listen to the worst explosion -inspired by a movie I saw recently -->the sacrifice of Andrei Tarkovski: where the direction is so simple and he is working a lot with the sound psychology).
Overall the whole procedure was really enjoyable.. from choosing the images and recording the sounds to make them work perfectly together. As you work more and more you become more creative and you discover things that you could not even imagine you can do.
:)

Sound experience II

Handout "Relationships between Sound and Image"
If i comprehend well the terms I can say that in my video the sound sources are mainly diegetic. There is the sound of the pencil which follows almost the whole part of the movie, and the mouth sound too.. which is related to the sound of the pencil writing on a paper. There are also some syncs -the lighter "tsik" accompanying the connotative images and then the drop of the pencil with an connotative image of the pencil fallen down on the paper. Moreover in order to create this sense of addiction and tension I have added some non-diegetic sound sources : the mouth sound (plop-plop), the paper sound in the beginning- which represent a background tempo. The dialogue/voice over -"hey you","can't stop it","poufff", "oups" exist to give the "human" presence in the video. There is somebody, doing something "drawing", who as it seems can't stop it and is somehow annoyed by that situation "poufff" and at the end he drops the pencil "oups"(accidentally or intentionally).

Blog-Thoughts about the final piece

My experience with sound.
First of all it was kind of tricky to see what happens when my video with the other sound comes together. The unexpected coincidence of some audio-visual matches like the time the pencil is starting to go crazy with that weird audio that almost sounds like a gun.Inspired by that tension that emerged accidentally I created one more sound to make it a little bit more playful.. (plop-plop). I realized how much sound effects the whole piece. It may sound exaggerating but I think audio gave life to my piece, especially because of this addiction concept. I feel it was challenging to bring together sound and image considering that you have to find the right moment to insert the right audio clip so you you can create the feelings you want to. After my feedback I felt that the whole piece was successful especially because of the sound layering and the little surprises (+the ones I added in the final one).

OK. a little bit more of surprise and audio tension :)

Conclusion about sound

Watching the final piece I was satisfied to have been successful in communicating the idea of fast and addictive. From the feedback I received I note that the sound layering was very helpful and promoted the main idea of my video. I will probably replace my last "quote" ("all pencils down") with the sound of the pencil falling on a desk (it adds more of a surprise and of an end). If I judge that it needs something more in terms of an effect I will add one more "surprise" point.