Self Portrait – Project Brief 2

Unfortunately I didn’t get my hands on a copy of Adobe Premiere early enough to complete the task using it, and therefore used the inferior Windows Movie Maker program. I thought that in such a simple task this wouldn’t be an issue but I ran into some problems with separating audio from video and displacing it, or using it elsewhere. This meant that I couldn’t use certain audio sections – particularly in the in relation to the cars – and had to record new and very different audio to replace it. I also found that WMV is far too simplistic to create nice, subtle transitions between photographs.

In that specific section, where the audio of a conversation with my friends about cars plays over the pictures and video of my own and my friends’ cars, my idea was to reinforce that the passion we for cars is also a highly social activity. I think that I could’ve communicated this point better if I had a better audio track, but unfortunately due to a number of factors I had to take what i could get when recording only a day before submission. I guess this is also a time management issue as well as a creative one.

I think the most successful imagery in this piece is where I lay out the contents of my bag(s) and pockets depending on where I am going. These ten seconds say a lot about me, very clearly and efficiently, and with a consistency in aesthetic that I find pleasing. I do think however, that the lack of a distinct audio clip for this section to separate it from the others takes away from it a little bit.

The least successful part of my piece I believe would be the text “My only request: Take me back to Berlin’ appears to be thrown on the end without very much thought or coherency with the rest of the piece. Having it’s own audio track for a single photo is not consistent with the rest of the piece and resulted in a clunky feel, despite the fact that I do like the photograph itself.

I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration.