dma24 :: fall 05 :: cybelle tondu

For Exercise F, I chose a second of footage from the film "Help!". The clip shows a woman, dressed in pink, entering a room and aiming her gun into it. I slowed down the clip so that its duration is now one minute, sixty times longer than the original. I chose this clip because the action occurs very quickly, yet the motion is contained in a small area. Originally, the act of the woman exposing her gun is shocking and even frightening to the viewer. When the clip is slowed down to a minute, however, the action becomes less arresting and may bore the viewer. The simple act of slowing the clip to an unnatural speed changes the entire connotation of the movement. The one second clip showed violence, while the one minute clip simplifies the action to omit that meaning.

The composite tracing of this clip shows only the figure, since she is the only part of the scene with motion. The most important frames were the first, where the woman begins to walk in the door, and the last, when the woman is fully posed, ready to shoot the gun. I highlighted these two instances by using a relatively heavy stroke and bright white and pink. The first frame is pink and each following frame fades more and more until the final frame, which is represented in white. These two frames were drawn with more detail than the in-between frames, which were simplified and more transparent.

click image to view one minute video

For Exercise G, I chose to record a scene in which the movement is completely organic, a group of flightless birds at a pet store. For a period of 24 minutes, I took a photo of the scene once every minute. These 24 images were then put together to create a one second long video. Going into the project, I was not sure whether the birds would move slowly or quickly, or how often. Generally, most of the birds traveled around their area constantly but fairly slowly. At one point, the birds began to move very quickly and even attempted to fly. The frames differ greatly from each other, besides the constant background and one bird at the top of my frame which barely moved during the period. Even though the birds changed position very frequently from minute to minute, I think the final video is successful because each bird is trackable, and if the video were slow enough, one could watch an individual bird and follow its movement. Because the second long video shows action at a high speed, details are hard to follow, but the birds are recognizable enough that one can watch the video without needing more visual information. I think this scene was suitable for this project because as a one second video that loops, narrative must be abandoned, and instead the viewer can concentrate on the imagery of these birds

The composite tracing of this video charts the movement of the birds. I omitted the background and props for this image because I felt that the most important elements were the birds. I grouped the birds into two categories, blue and green, and traced each bird of a group with that color. Although the birds do overlap quite a bit, this image gives the impression of more than the given number of birds. Just as the video makes it hard for one to keep track of individual birds or track specific ones, the tracing generalizes all the birds simplifying them to be purely shape and color. This image represents the birds interaction with each other, as well as implying their interaction with their confined surroundings.

click image to view one second video