Linking abstract footage and abstract audio was tough. Making a choice on where to start had me stumped. Purely out of chronology’s sake though I decided to begin with the footage, which was shot first and attempted to put the audio to it. At first, I was probably trying too hard to match up the audio so it sounded as if it was coming from the video source – hence the footsteps at the beginning. This just wasn’t working. It was a much too difficult task for something that is meant to be ‘abstract’. I found myself playing around with some of the video effects in Premiere.
Changing the colour of the sky in the state library statue footage was enjoyable and something I have experimented with outside of assessment tasks. It takes the principles of green-screening and reverses them to create a psychedelic visual. This Mark Pritchard music video directed by Jonathan Zawada masters this technique. The song is nice too:
Mark Pritchard • ‘Sad Alron’ from Warp Records on Vimeo.
I have established that this works well when there are blocky elements to the picture. By that I mean there is a large amount of one colour to edit the hue so that it doesn’t look patchy. The sky in the previously mentioned footage takes up a large portion of the screen which makes it work.
With the footage and audio that I had available though, I did my best to create a sense of narrative, albeit loose and probably clutching at straws. As cliché as it is, I realise that no matter what material you have available, you can make something from it. And no matter what message you try and present (if at all there is one), the interpreter has an input into the story they follow.
The message that I was trying to get across though roughly has to do with escaping from the grasps of technology – quite literally displayed in the last image. Then again, you could draw many different readings from the final edit. Perhaps this edit is more of a self-portrait than an abstract video though. I can easily relate to each shot and audio snippet. I have begun to follow the NBA closely and with it comes keeping up with statistics and analysis meaning I spend a lot of time on my phone to get updates. Any relationship to the video? Maybe.
Technically, the footage is a step in the right direction. We made sure to white balance each shot and I think this shows. Getting the spiderweb in focus was a challenge because it is in such small detail, and with more time it could probably look a bit better (this will be an aim for next time I use the camera). But other than that I am happy with how the other shots look. The framing of the last shot (student captured between the hands) in particular really makes use of the surrounds.
Abstract v2 Hue from Gabriel Strachan on Vimeo.
– Gabe