bready

For this piece, I wanted to explore the idea of destroying film; techniques that involve damaging the film in some way. I love the way Bill Morrison modifies film in pieces like Light Is Calling and Decasia, and I wanted to do something along similar lines. In the end, I decided to scratch away at the film using sandpaper, gradually scratching away more and more until there was nothing left, allowing me some room to write something. I thought "what's the edgiest thing I can write here" and what I came up with were the three Japanese characters: 生, 死, and 覚, meaning life, death and memory respectively. The piece tries to mimic the rhythm of life; people live, die, and then live on in memory. The rhythm of the piece gradually gets faster and faster, to convey the idea that as we get older, time seems to progress faster. The character for death starts showing up more and more later on in the piece too, as we get more and more obsessed with our own mortality until we eventually come to terms with it. The footage I used was a happy coincidence as when I was scratching away at it, I had no idea that it was war footage of some kind, which ended up tying nicely into the themes I was trying to convey. I found it quite challenging trying to build up a sense of rhythm without sound, so I made use of repetition in the end, repeating the same 5 seconds of footage at different speeds and modifying them slightly to avoid the footage getting boring. The choice to write the characters in Japanese rather than writing the English equivalents was because they have the same meaning but take up significantly less room, making them a lot easier to write on such small film (and they look cool).

void setup() { size(850,650); background(255); noLoop(); } void draw() { //set stroke weight to something a little lighter than default to allow for more noticeable overlap between squares strokeWeight(0.5); //these two for loops define the grid, 20 pixel intervals. //the loops start at 30 pixels and end slightly earlier than expected to add padding around the piece. for(float i = 30; i < 800 ; i = i + 20){ for(float j = 30; j < 600 ; j = j + 20){ //this sets the stroke colour to a value between black and red based on a perlin noise map stroke(noise(i / 100, j / 100) * 275, 0, 0); /* creates 3 squares at the given point on the grid, 20x20 pixels each the noise() function here sets the variation based on the same perlin noise map meaning the more red an area is, the more distorted the squares there are also. however, it also multiplies it by the X coordinate of the current square divided by 30 meaning that squares toward the right of the piece distort more than the left side */ squares(i, j, 3, 20, noise(i / 100, j / 100) * i / 30); } } } /* squares() draws a set number of squares at a fixed point usage: squares(x, y, count, size, variation); x/y = coordinates of the top left point of the squares count = the number of squares size = the width of each square variation defines the upper limit for the random amount of variation at each point of the square in pixels. higher numbers result in more distorted looking squares, a variation of 0 is a perfect square. */ void squares(float x, float y, float count, float size, float variation) { //set to no fill so that the overlapping of each square is more defined noFill(); //repeats for as long as defined by "count" for (int i = 0; i < count; i++) { //draws the actual square, the variation value gets added to the position of each point beginShape(); vertex(x + random(variation),y + random(variation)); //first point vertex(x + size + random(variation), y + random(variation)); //second point vertex(x + size + random(variation), y + size + random(variation)); //third point vertex(x + random(variation), y + size + random(variation)); //fourth point endShape(CLOSE); } }

By Haakon Thompson

PROJECT STATEMENT: For this project I went with the same basic concept as my remoscope project, the idea that procrastination has always been a big issue in my life. I didn't take much inspiration beyond my previous project and the original "Where I'm From" poem in formulating my idea, however I took inspiration in the filming and editing from a variety of different directors. In filming, I used a couple of wide angle shots, similar to that of David Lynch's work. When editing, I decided to make use of rhythmic and metric editing in time with the clock's ticking to portray the idea that procrastination is almost routine for me at this point. The main inspiration here was Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin. Some of the cuts were also inspired by Edgar Wright's work. I decided to use the sound as a way to help the video flow, using soundscape elements to create a more immersive and smooth experience for the viewer.

As a kid, we used to move around a lot, so I never really had one definitive place I could say "This is where I'm from". I chose to tell the story of my family moving to a new town, and my dad trying to help me make friends with the locals. This project was difficult for me for a number of reasons, mostly due to the fact that I had never worked particularly in depth with audio, let alone audio only. The 1 minute limit proved difficult too, as I had originally planned for the piece to be a lot slower in terms of pacing.

Canon EOS 1300D + 50mm f/1.8 + 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6

Rather than a literal interpretation of "Where I'm From"; I wrote about an aspect of myself I dislike; the terrible work ethic I've had for years. In the video, I wanted to portray what the usual process looks like for me when doing assignments and such. I'm happy with most of the shots I got; however, the 30 second time limit and especially the lack of sound made it more difficult to convey my ideas. I wanted to convey a sense of urgency and stress by gradually making the pacing of the video faster; implying the due date is drawing nearer. Though to keep all the shots I wanted in I had to keep most of them short.

Canon 1300D + 55-250mm f/4.0-5.6 + 50mm f/1.8

Some taken on my G9X, some taken with my EOS 1300D + 50mm f/1.8

Powershot G9X

Taken on my G9X.

Just a photo I took a little while ago in Canberra in the rain.