Abstract at RMIT
The shoot:
I didn’t feel I was able to capture the kind of footage I would have ideally liked as we a limited time. Next time I would shift the focus, and shoot just sections of objects to take them out of context.
Fortunately, we didn’t have to use our own footage in the edit! Was really interesting to see what other students had shot. We all had the same location – so was good to see the choices and framing other students made. Seeing the familiarity of RMIT at night, through someone else’s eyes was a good exercise in gaining an alternative perspective.
Images that were more appealing to me were those with bold use of colour or sequences with interesting unidentifiable movement. As the exercise was defined as an ‘abstract’, I found more appealing the images that were less recognisable and more graphic.
With regard to sound, again the more abstract, less obvious sounds turned out to be more interesting and versatile to use. I think the exercise became more about capturing a mood, rather than something literal. The sounds in my piece were mine but the footage from other students. When my colleague and I recorded these sounds, we thought they were awesome! Turns out they sounded quite average, as they were recognisable rather than abstract or inquiring. We even recorded a toilet flushing and thought it sounded good!
I think faster edits and pace of sound next time would be interesting to try. Need footage with more movement and some sound that drives the music more… something with a pattern or beat perhaps.
The edit
For me, the edit was a really an experiment in navigating my way around Premiere. I use layers in Photoshop a lot, so I enjoyed trying the layering effects in Premiere and seeing how they react when images are moving and with sound.
I created the sound edit first, as I wanted the images on the timeline to punctuate the sound. At one point, I had added drum beats I assembled in Garage band, but removed this, as it felt too structured for the chaos of the images. It seemed like drawing ruled lines on a messy watercolour paining. I found ‘illustrating’ with slabs of rolling text had a good effect.
In summary, I think the line up of images and sounds evoked a particular mood and was an good exercise in breaking rules.
kyoungish 