Final Video: Where the Birds Wait and the Tall Grasses Wave

Here is my final video!

After I made my second sound sketch, I decided I didn't want to include Ghandi's entire quote anymore. I felt like my final clip would be too similar to that sketch, and I wasn't sure how the grasses that I had captured would fit. I thought about maybe including the words without the feet walking, but I thought it might be too contrasted to use the words from the city next to the calming images of birds and grasses.

(I hope this part doesn't sound cheesy), but then I was listening to the song "Tiger Mountain Peasant Song" by Fleet Foxes, and I noticed the lyrical line "...where the birds wait and the tall grasses wave..." and I decided to just include those two things in my video. Then I confronted another challenge: I wanted to have the birds on the wire in black and white, but the red leaves in color. So I decided to make my video ABOUT change... a change from black and white to color. Like The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy leaves black and white Kansas and steps into a colorful Oz. But sort of different.

So, in the middle of my video, the viewer confronts a black and white doorway. I thought this image was pretty sweet. I used quick cuts to make the doorway change from black and white to color intermittently, and then all of sudden it's like stepping out of the doorway into color... where the red leaves are against a bright blue sky. It's almost like it's hard to change, so even into this portion of the video (with the leaves), it changes back to black and white for a second.

Then the viewer sees all the footage he or she saw before, but in color. My whole idea is that perhaps this will seem like a nice change... I'm portraying the idea of change as a good thing. For this reason, I didn't want super harsh sounds throughout the video. Many of my sounds are calming. Then at the end, the viewer sees the beautifully colored fall leaves, and the words "Be change." I wasn't sure if I should include the words, but I wanted to include at least part of my original drift strategy... I couldn't just forget about it.

So there you have it... enjoy the video!!

Sound Sketch Two: Ghandi's Quote

This is my second rough sound sketch. I really like it. I am definitely carrying out my drift strategy-- trying to convey a message. I used my initial idea of making it like a journey, so I have a bike going across the screen and then intermittently in the clip I have video footage of myself walking. Ironically (maybe), my shoes actually say "You must be the change you wish to see in the world" on them a billion times. In this clip, I wanted to show that I was walking and seeing this words as I walked. I wanted it to show that as I walked, these words popped out at me, and I strung them together to form Ghandi's Quote.

At first, I only had the images of my feet walking and the words. This was really boring, to be honest. So I decided to add in some more images. I took this video of the birds just off Brady Street when I also recorded them chirping. I really like it because there are a lot of birds in the tree and some fly in and out of the frame at random times. I think this adds a nice relaxing touch to the clip. Another extra set of images I added in is the set of brightly colored fall leaf pictures! I am so excited because they represent "change" and I put them in right near the word "change." I think they are so beautiful and definitely add to the meaning of the word.

As for sounds, I am really happy with how they turned out in this clip. I recorded this garbage truck (the first sound in this clip) on Brady Street. I like how varied all the noises just in that one clip are. There are loud noises but also subtle noises, like the hissing of the brakes (which is my favorite part). I also got the sound of the birds chirping in there, which is a nice relaxing sound to juxtapose the harsh city sound of the truck.

Sound Sketch One: The Color Red

Here is my first sound sketch of drift two! I went out on another walk to try to find more images of grasses or tall things waving in the wind. This is a collaboration of more of the images I got! I really like the intense red color in the first series of images, and I think that the last series of images will go really well with the video I posted earlier of the grasses blowing in the wind.

Putting sound together was REALLY hard for me to start out with. Initially, I tried to do a different clip of sound for every image cut. That just looked and sounded nightmare-ish. Seriously, it was really bad. Plus I never saved it, so when I tried to find it to export it, all the sounds were gone. Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed. After that, though, I learned that longer clips sound a lot better. I practiced with overlapping them and I like how they sound when the sound is more dynamic like that.

I don't really think I like this clip at all much. I like the images, but I'm not sure if I like them together. It might be too much of a contrast to go from bright red leaves and blue sky to the dark neutral tones of the grasses. Also, this clip is a little too quick to get a sense of feeling, which is not good. Perhaps, if I use this footage for my final video (which I think I will, because more and more I am liking the look of grasses), I will just not put these two images together. Maybe I can put words in between them or something.

Silent Sketch Two: Black and White Birds

This is my second silent rough sketch. I practiced more with this one to make quicker cuts in order to engage the viewer more effectively. However, I didn't want all quick cuts. I don't like the look of films that use only quick cuts because it gets tiring to watch after awhile. I really like my starting footage of the tall grasses waving. This was a sort of random thing I saw; grasses weren't included in my drift strategy. However, because I like this footage so much, I might go out on another walk to find more footage of grasses or other plants waving in the wind. Another thing I really like in this clip and that I definitely want to include in my final video is the quick cuts of the different aspects of the birds sitting on the wire. I really like this in black and white; I think the contrast adds a lot to it.

One experiment I tried with this clip was using the same still images as my first silent sketch (of the colorful fall leaves), but making them black and white and increasing the contrast. After watching this sketch a few times, I decided I don't like these images in black and white as much. They are so beautiful in color, I think that putting them in black white makes them lose their intenseness.

Another thing I experimented with was taking the image from my Drift 1 walk (when I looked up at leaves and took a long exposure shot while spinning in a circle), putting it in black and white, and varying the contrasts. Then I put these varied contrast images all together using quick cuts. It kind of looks like a puddle that has different intensities of light reflecting on it randomly. I don't think that this adds to my clip, it is kind of confusing and doesn't seem to flow with the grasses, leaves, and birds as well.

Overall, though, I am really happy with how this sketch turned out. I think the images I put together and the way I put them together is much better than my first sketch. I am happy to see myself improving using this software. I think I will use a lot of the footage from this clip for my final video.

Silent Sketch One: Changing Tides

This was my first time using Quicktime Pro to bring together moving and still images to try to create an interesting and engaging video. While I learned the basics of putting the images together, I clearly failed miserably at making a video that could catch a viewer's interest. Initially, I guess I thought that it would look cool to have the ducks swim all the way off the page and then have something "dramatic" happen. My idea of dramatic was the still image of the beautifully colored leaves that totally contrasts the moving image of the ducks. I really like the fall colors and the different angles. I like how they are shown in a circle, I feel that this kind of goes with the title "Changing Tides," as does the fact that the ducks are on water, obviously. Perhaps I will use more quick and concise clips from the moving footage of the ducks for my final video, but I think I will definitely try to incorporate the still images of the autumn leaves. I will probably make it a little more fast cuts as the image rotates around in a circle, though.

Even though this sketch isn't very good, at least I learned! I now know how to put together still and moving images, and I'm sure I'll just keep getting better at it as I move on with this project. I hope to improve my knowledge of how long clips/images should be displayed, because that is something I was not very good at with this clip.

Production Strategy

After reflecting on my experiences from Drift One, I think I will try to explore places where I can get more city sights and sounds. I would really like to try to make my second drift convey a message. The message I am thinking I want it to convey is a quote by Ghandi. I was originally thinking "There is enough in the world for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed," but I think that quote will be a little too long. So I think I will try to convey his quote "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." This quote means a lot to me because I've seen it work firsthand in the places I have traveled. To find the sights and sounds I'll need, I think I will start on Brady Street for images and venture into the neighborhoods for sounds. Hopefully this will give me enough visual and audio footage to convey my idea!

My drift strategy for Drift 2 is going to be much different from my strategy for Drift 1. For Drift 1, I didn't really have an idea of what sounds I wanted to get, so I was able to wander wherever. For Drift 2, however, I have to find specific footage. For this reason, I have to make my strategy less random and more choice. I am going to explore down Brady Street and into the neighborhoods there. I'm hoping that the shops on Brady Street will have the words in the quote by Ghandi that I was to put in my Drift 2 video. Another strategy for Drift 2 that I want to try is simply to always bring my camera and my recording supplies with me in my backpack wherever I go. This way, if I find anything that looks or sounds hopeful for my Drift, I can capture it!

So that I am sure to get enough quality images to work with, but also to make sure not to get crappy images of things I won't need, I will limit my image capturing to only images that I could imagine being in my video. For instance, I need to capture every word in the quote. I also need to be sure to get some other images/videos that can be mixed in with the words (the video can't be all words)!! For other footage, I would really like to capture birds, because in Drift 1 I had a really cool sound of birds' wings flapping, and I'd like to try to capture that sound again somehow. I'd also like to have the sound of birds chirping, because I don't want ALL harsh city sounds- I also want some calming and relaxing sounds. Somehow, I'd also like to portray my journey through the city, perhaps by showing people walking or driving. So now I have a sort of checklist in my head of the types of images I need, and I will stick to it in order to limit my image capturing activities!!

Drift Two Map

This is a map of my first drift walk, where I gathered a lot of my footage! If you click the blue link that says "View Larger Map" on the bottom, you can see more of this map!


View Larger Map