Purple – Joyful

Purple, is a colour that I don’t really look at very often, the only thing I have with colour purple was the movie ‘InsideOut’ where purple was a character of fear. In order to get inspired, I went on Instagram and typed in purple to see what photos were tagged in photos, what are these photos’ common point. After browsing hundreds of purple tagged photographs I have written down a list of words that I will use to describe purple:

• strong
• darkness
• powerful
• dark power
• the dark side
• stillness
• hush
• mysteriousness

This place is designed as a study area, a place for chatting and gathering I guess, anyway it is not designed for shooting. To film in this location is already challenging the designer’s intention, and I think this is another constancy since every location I chose to film was not for designed for photographers to film or shoot initially.

After research and survey, I used purple to represent joy and a sense of delight.  I remember near our classroom where it was colored in purple, lavender purple, and red, I will use both of the purples for the background. I am not sure if it’s only me or everyone has the same feeling that purple gives people a sense of stillness, it looks so powerful and mysterious. What is the opposite to stillness? of course, the answer is movements, I am not meaning crazy dance moves but slightly moving hands; nodding heads or swinging arms to highlight the sense of joy and delight.

I filmed this colour for twice because, at the first time, I can see joyful from the colour but the sense of stillness was still very strong. While editing the first version, I was also considering what are the ways that can help me remove the sense of stillness but also represent the sense of joyful. The changes I am going to make for the second shooting is first, use a brighter light on the character or the parts that I want the audience to focus at. Secondly, add more movements in.

Media:

-Task four Reflection-

When I have finished filming the four different colours footage, I wasn’t sure whether I should go for the fifth or I am satisfied with these four clips as a series. Might be influenced by my cultural background or personal experiences, for somehow, I thought any series or a set should contain five different pieces, so at the planning stage, I was preparing to shoot for five different clips to form a series. However, a plan can never catch up with changes, I was satisfied when I finished the fourth colour footages, so I asked help from Hannah. Hannah said she thinks four should also be fine for a series because no one said a series have to contain five pieces though, and she emphasized that I would rather have four polished videos than filming the fifth video. Which there I go, ended up with the fourth colour.  

This final project has well demonstrated either creatively or technically to noticing because the four locations that I chose to film are the places that we might have passed by every day, we might or might not have seen them, but they are never highlighted to be a location for a media production.  By choosing these unnoticeable four places I have highlighted the objective of the course_to notice, and by using selecting these areas to film, I have responded to my final project’s objective_to challenge a subject’s initial purpose.

My project has well demonstrated either creatively or technically to noticing as a media idea inform. Because just like what we have spoken about in the class, we are the ones who construct the world to be but we still missed out a lot of small things in our everyday life, so my project is using the ones we might have missed out daily. Moreover, even though humans are the ones who create the world, but there isn’t a rule saying that everything must contain a meaning because everything can be interpreted in a different way depending on the audience’s experience. People are so obsessed to a definition, like a movie or artwork that you don’t understand, many people will see this as a bad movie or artwork.

-Studio Final Reflection-

Looking back to the start of the semester now, participate in ‘seeing the unseen’ is such a captivating elective for me. I believe I am not the only one who has tuned myself to notice everything in our surrounding, since the beginning of the course the question I have been asking myself is: what can you notice hear or what haven’t you noticed here? And of course, I am not saying this is something wrong because I think as media makers, we need to have this skills to produce good stuff.

I am in media 4, this is my first studio which we really try to extend the same concept from the first task towards the final project. In the progression of each task, I have met difficulties at the end of each task because I don’t know how can I extend any further on a topic. For example, when I complete task three, I have considered for a week time on what should I talk about in the pitch because I have no idea where can I extend further on colours. I remembered a reading at the start of the semester saying sometimes our mind is being blocked by the large things we care about in our life so we haven’t left any room for the small things. I forced myself to not pay too much attention to the large things, in the case of assignment three, I divert my attention from colours to the meanings behind, and I have also get myself to listen carefully during class discussion even it’s not about my project.

Learning to notice is helping media makers to not miss out every tiny thing in our surroundings, other than completing works for my project, I have also collected many amazing ‘noticing’ pieces that I am still doing even I have completed the final project (see media below).

These are just a small part of my daily collection, and they are all captured with my phone, whenever I took my phone out and captured all these details I noticed that I had tuned myself after participated in this studio. Because my project is always about colours, so these photos are commonly about colours as well, with all this photographs and videos I made through the course, I love to watch them over and over again, and I guess most directors will have the same feeling with me.

Class Discussion:

Last Class!! I am glad that I have come to this class because this was the last time I can get feedbacks from everyone in this class, and the feedbacks I have received from this class were quite helpful for my further progression. Overall of the edited and non-edited video footages, I felt most satisfied with the Pink video clip, I was not quite sure whether the green does create an opposite meaning with a particular subject, so I have shown the video to the class.

Since we have different cultural background, Hannah has pointed out green can also mean uncomfortable or unwell to them. So she suggested me to add another shot at the beginning to let viewers expect at the beginning of the clip. Although I have to use the hand gesture at the beginning because I want to keep the constancy happening at the very beginning of each video, I might add a shot of real trees and leaves after the shot of hands but before the audience get to see the character’s face.  The next time if I feel the location needs to be brighter, I will use an LED light covering with cellophane papers. This way can help me to soften the sharp white colour from the light but match with the location at the same time. Most important of all is that this way of lighting worked very well in the Pink version.

(Orange)Yellow – fear

The inspiration for colour yellow has come from an advertisement that played before a YouTube video, I can’t even remember what was it advertising for, but I still remember the narrator used a delighted voice saying: ‘yellow is such a happy colour.’ Yellow is such a bright, vivid and eye-catching colour. Usually, we can see it used for a logo or a sign, use it to emphasize something like a highlighter for example. However, we don’t often see yellow to be used to represent something negative. According to the survey on colours, almost half of them associate yellow with lemon or fresh, these two were the most frequent answers I received. As a result, I have decided to use yellow to represent fear.

The reason my final video end up to have an orange background because I haven’t found the kind of yellow colour that I want, the yellow I saw these days were very soft, I did test shooting with the pale yellow colour but I wasn’t satisfied, I want the colour to be very eye-catching. One day,  when I went to the toilet at level 1 building 10, the wall in the toilet was in bright orange which stood out from rest of my day. I guess it’s because of the wall outside the toilet was black and white which have to make the orange to look even brighter, but anyway, I have decided to use orange, the colour that combines the freshness from yellow and the warmness from red as well.

Filming: 

I have used an orange soft light filter to cover the sharp white light, but it was too orange that almost became the same colour as the orange background, so I have layered one more yellow cellophane paper to bring out the yellow colour. And that’s what I want:)

Media:

Wednesday Class:

In today’s class, we were introduced to Korsakow, it was a software that allows us to put multiple clips into one, this will in order us to find similarities in between and discover the connections between yours and the others. I have never considered using it for my project so I didn’t expect too much before we learn how to operate it, but once I combined them and played them in the same frame, the similarities in between each other become very obvious. Combining with Hannah’s feedback from Thursday consultation, since I am using different colours and locations in each clip so I need to show constancy amongst each of them. So in my case, I think this is a tool that good for comparing, find similarities; differences and refining.

Came with questions:

1. I was planned to film and edit two version for each colours(first is the designer’s initial intention when designing the location; second is something opposite to the colour and the place). Is this necessary?
2. I will do 4 to 5 colours which means if I am editing two version, I will end up to submit at least eight video clips in total. Will this be too much that distract viewers from focusing on each one of them?

Consultation Summary:

• Hannah, Emma, and Vikki all suggested that each one of them is significant themselves so don’t put them in as one clip if I combine them together, the features maybe soften.
• Two version is not necessary. First, it is too much to have ten videos to submit at the end, and second, the pink version I showed during the consultation, they think has already delivered what I am aiming for this project.
• There is a constancy needed in each video, such as the same character used in each video clip, because they are filmed in different places, constancy; similarities will link them together as a series.
• make sure each clip is no longer than 20 seconds, first is not to let the viewers get bored and second is to keep the constancy.
• Question solved 🙂

– Constancy – 

Instagram tag

Hand gestures, movements

body movements

same character

same length for every clip

– colours – 

Pink = bored

Green = Disgust

Yellow = scared

Purple = joyful; satisfied

Fifth colour? To be decided

To remind myself, I need to write my aim for this assignment on the top of every blog:

1. No one has ruled that everything must have a particular meaning. To challenge this ordinary rule, I will do something opposite to a particular subject’s original aiming or meaning.
2. Colours do have a particular meaning/ interpretation as well, I will also look at the reason why it’s being designed in this color as well.

Pink – bored.

Pink is such a fantasy colour which usually used to represent girls in a gender role, and most people do think pink to be a typical representation of girls and cute. According to my experiences from the last task, I have proved that the emotions created by colours will also vary by the tone of colours. This location has a dark, gloomy pink light which I guess the initial objective is to let people who are busy with their daily life to have somewhere to chill and relax. However, since the light is too dark that is hard to read there, the seats are also not so comfortable to sit for too long, so I guess the designer’s initial target wasn’t reached. And the moment I decided to film here, I am already challenging the designer’s intention. The first time I see this place I didn’t think the pink light has created any sorts of relaxation, it has actually brought tension to me.

Media:

Green – Disgust

Green is a colour that usually used to represent health; growth; nature; energy; youth etc. I have done a quick survey on what each colour means to different people, overall, colour green usually owns a positive meaning to most of the people. Tree is another element in this location, people always link green with trees or something growing, so I guess the meaning of these wallpaper is used to symbolize two things, firstly,  this metro construction is growing fast and strong. So they have used greens to represent the renewal and growth of the place. Secondly, trees is can give a meaning of calm and relax, which in this case the builder/ designer are using greens to let pedestrian feel calm and peaceful, at least not being affect by the noise level in this construction. 

However, the interpretation will differ on the viewer’s background. Like the few Chinese friends I asked, they said the colour green prompt them to think of ‘wearing a green hat’ which is used to refer to a woman who cheats on her lover. To pick a totally opposite meaning, I have made green to be completely negative – ‘Disgust’.

After Filming: 

I decided not to use a green light for colour green, because it contains more elements than the other locations, except for colours it also have leaves, branches which is much more complicated than the other full coloured background. Moreover, trees or colour green are a symbol for natural, but led light is not so much suitable for a natural concept, even I am try to challenge this concept but I want just the emotion to challenge the concept not something else.

Media:

Through the discussion with Hannah and the rest of the class, I have finally listed out the two key aimings that I am looking for throughout the project.

The Big Things:

There is no law saying that everything must have a meaning with it. But people are so obsessed for those purposes behind things that we see in our daily. There is nothing in this world that has to have a meaning to it, because we may have ten different interpretation between ten people. Background, experience, religion, etc. are all possible factors that differ a person’s understanding to a subject.

My project is going to challenge this idea that nothing must contain a meaning, why does pink must represent a girl and why does blue must represent a boy? Colours do have an innate meaning like what we see in movie ‘InsideOut’, I am going to manipulate a subject and a colour in an opposite way to how it was designed to be.

As I did for the past assignments, I am not going to put music for this project neither, but I have tried to edit one of the colour with music. Although since music is another essential element for any media piece to highlight its emotion, meanings, and because this project is aiming to challenge an ‘opposite’ idea in between colours, emotions, and our environment. I don’t want anything more than that to affect viewer’s interpretation, and I hope only the colours, the character, and the emotion can be sufficient to let the viewer understand my intention.

Small Things: 

– Original Edition –

– 2nd Edition –

Aim:

From last task – How do colors differ a subject’s original emotion/ meanings?

Extend to this task – There are so many things that are not used in the way it was designed to be, there are places or subjects that have so many characteristics which different people have a different interpretation of them. What I will do is to highlight the other characteristics of a subject or a location.This will challenge the idea that ‘everything must have a meaning to it’.

Plan:

1. List all the locations that I will be shooting
2. Do test shooting to decide whether use cellophane paper or not
3. walk into the location, write down what I feel when I first walk into the location or first see the subject
4. write down what is the opposite meaning/emotion to the subject/location
5. start filming!

Ingredients: 

• Tripod
• Camera to film
• cellophane paper?
• a model

Class discussion: 

• Rober Crona’s ‘interstitial moment’ has prompted me to think about what my project what to focus on, where I want to draw my audience’s attention to? I didn’t use any sound or music in any experiments for the last task because I think music might take the focal point and create other feelings to the video.
• At the end of Cuellar Brown’s work, where the part of the video is being played there was a quote appeared on the sky background which I have found so impressive. It’s not about anything that relates to what I will be doing for my final project, but I find it’s true that even there are all those layers of sounds and images but depends on each audience’s perspective or experience they will hear and see a different version of the video.

Inspiration: 

Through research for this task and the photographers I used to know, I have listed out all my inspirations or the photographers that I considered to be similar to what I want to do. Firstly, is Tuca Tombolini who shoot a series of the desert which is completely different to what we used to think of a desert. A desert is somewhere that no one is able to live there with no water and growing, under his camera all these barren desserts seemed like a candyfloss, sweet and soft.

Tuca Tombolini

Richard Mosse

I have been to his exhibition in NGV around two years ago, that was the first time I have encountered with his work, before I knew how did he create this series I was shocked already by the power of colours. Instead of having bits of pink in this series, I really like how he has turned everything into pink not red. This series was filmed and photographed in Africa where there was a war going on when he went for filming. When people talk about a war or fighting, bloody red we emerge in our head for sure. I believe his work has the closest idea to my final project concept because pink is such a girly, playful and a fantasy colour. No one would think of using bubblegum pink to describe the war, but he did, in an ironic way.

 “If you’re trying to make people feel something if you’re able to make it beautiful, then they’ll sit up and listen. And often if you make something that’s derived from human suffering or war, if you represent that with beauty (and sometimes it is beautiful) that creates an ethical problem in the viewer’s mind. Then they can be confused and angry and disoriented, and this is great because you’ve got them to actually think about the act of perception, and how this imagery is produced and consumed.”

______Mosse Richard

James Turrell

This is an artist who works with colour, lines, and lightings, Mia suggested me to look at because I was considering whether I should use colourful lighting matching the background colour.