MY WORK- first shot

the first shot of my video, i want to keep similar to the start of the video i did for last term. using a diary style entry to introduce the video. however the last video the diary part took to long. and it really didnt turn out how i wanted it to. so i am going to try and change it slightly. Rather then having the text wrote on before, or actually writing it out like i did with the previous video, i wanted to try and almost 'stopstart' animate the text appearing on the diary, but i want it abit jittery, rather then just sorta popping up, so if the diary moves slightly it is giving abit of movement. i was thinkin of using the idea from the 'what sarah said video' where it has a piece where there is no music before hand just silence. but i think i will wait until i edit the final whole video to see if it will work or not.
i know i wanted to keep it in black and white, however i dont want it to be as dark as it was for my last video so i will think about abit more natural light and reflectors if needed. 
  as for the text, i was going to use lyrics from the song, however the song is wrote as if its someone looking in, watching someone self harm rather then first person, so the text im going to use is just going to be a short piece just saying how hard it is to pretend but no one would understand.  


so heres what i got for the start, and i really like the mix of shots, and where i was moving behind the camera infront of the light source (which purely i didnt realise until i played back the footage slower) i got this great strobing effect over the stop start of the diary entry. which gives it that jittery effect that i said before that i wanted to achieve. i really like the extablishing shot of the diary as well.


I did try the footage both with and without sound (see below) as i originally wanted to create an opening without the music, however looking at it it didnt really work as without sound it just didnt seem right. However putting the music over the top it would appear that it almost perfectly fits with the guitar playing before the lyrics start, although i would need to extend it slightly but i could either do that at the start (the panning shot) or at the end where we can see the whole diary entry for a few more seconds, to settle i will prob experiment with both, but overall i really like this start.  I was thinking of fading in from black also,rather then just straight into the video!

Self harm music videos continued

Darkane- innocence gone

This video is rather disturbing to me, the story is about a young girl, a child,  who is raped by a guy. seemingly the images are cut quick and very cleverly done however its the subject that really is abit disturbing. within the last 20seconds it shows the girl cutting herself and again it does go for the less subtle 'gore' rather then other ways they could do it. however is gore really needed to get the point across of how disturbing it actually is?

Linkin park- Numb

While this video has no real obvious linkage to self harming, apart from scars that can be briefly seen in one of the scenes, i wanted to include this video because it really sorts of shows alot of the emoitions felt when someone is depressed or dealing with self destruction issues. i really like some of the scenes and the actress portrays the anger and frustration as well as the lonelyness very well. i love the scene where everyones rushing past and shes just sat there still. 

Between the trees- the way she feels 

This video is very cleverly done. we never see any blood or gore, and it tells the story of two girls who cut at the same time. one girl whos father has died and thats why shes cutting, the other a girl whos father discovers her blades for cutting. its got a great ending, that when she witnesses the other girls father's pain as he finds his daughter cutting at school, that she gives up cutting for her father and leaves the blade on his grave. theres one bit of imagery that i loved in this video and thats the blade in the jewerly box. its just very hitting, almost suggesting that that girl sees the blade as a precious object. 

death cab for a cutie- what sarah said

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This video is prob the best shot video i have analysed for this. i just love how its shot, every angle, every movement was very well designed. the translations of what 'sarah' wrote:  On the mirrior: "He loves me." On her hand: "A little?" On the wall: "Much!" On her arm: "Passionately." The cuts on her leg: "Madly." The addition to the mirror changes it to say "He does not love me at all." The song repeats, she writes "He loves me" again and tries again. which really helps you to translate the video as it were. the shots i really liked where the mirror shot, the shots of the guy having his breakdown (angles were good) and reminded me of my video from xmas handin.) and i just really love the look of this video!

Self harm music videos

after searching around abit more i managed to find a few videos that contains self harm which is more along the subject i was originally looking at, even though the sucide videos were useful to look at. 


Deadstar Assembly- Breathe for me 





















This music video is very graphic in its portrayal of self harm, the extreame close ups of the cutting of the arms could be seen as abit to literal in a sense, its not really what i am going for. However i do like how it is made out to be some form of home video and looks like it was shot on a hand held. some of the shots are slightly abstract in comparison. which is rather nice. 

Simple Plan- Crazy 
click here to watch (embedding enabled) 
This video for simple plan is actually pretty well done, its subtle compaired to the first image and seems to focus on self destruction abit anyway. it uses small sections of well directed clips thrown together with the footage of the band. i also like the clip of the girls diary, its reminisant of my first video and the diary in that. which is something i wanted to try and encorperate in my video again. the actual self harm clip just shows the scars of a self harmer which was rather nicer, and seemed slightly better shot then the video above. i also like the fact that its shot in black and white.

Girls Xpress- we're what we're made of
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 This is another one for me to look at because its actually wrote, sung and directed as part of a youth project by the three singers who are all selfharmers. it shows a narrative rather more so then some of the other videos ive looked at, and while the only thing that i did find slightly strange was the girl running down the road with her arm bleeding... but its nicely done in the fact that it shows that moment when someone close, in this case the mother, finds out.

suicide Music videos part 2

Pearl Jam- Jeremy

This video takes a much more abstract look at the subject and while it still includes the artist, like many of the videos ive looked at have, however the view point is alot more interesting. I love the opening to this video, the mash up of all the different titles and headlines. i also like the use of text through out the video which is something i was thinkin of trying with my video. I also really like the close ups of jeremys face drifting in and out of focus, scrumpled up and so on. the edits of some of the small cuts are good because it almost pulses in and out of images,which could infact link me back in my video back to my heart idea from before christmas.  i also find the part where the children are all pointing at him, while he is active the rest are frozen and the camera moves around, it sorta looks abit creepy. i even thought the underlight face was very surrealist, which is what i was looking at originally. and the ending is rather unusal as he seems to kill himself infront of his classmates whom bullied him. 

Collective Soul- the world i know
Embedding enabled
This video, again takes a slightly different take on the idea of suicide as it looks at a guy who is just fed up of living in a world with no compassion, a world where no one chooses to help each other, there love for one another gone. it uses a blue tint to sort of show the bad, leading up to his attempt to suicide. it is rather a beautifully shot video with some great close ups of objects and showing everyday unkindness. and yet when the dove 'stops' him and brings him back with the idea of hope, the tint is removed from the screen and he 'awakens' to a brighter world. 

Music videos featuring suicide

So i thought i would look at some music videos that feature or are based around the idea of suicide and self harm. ive found it alot easier to look at videos based around suicide rather then self harm itself so here are a few examples of what ive found music video wise.

Seether- rise above this


This video which is based around the idea of someone jumping of a building. While it begins like alot of music videos to include the band playing the song, it also shows a boy heading towards the side of a building, and holding a photo of his family, it then cuts to shots of the family and what happens to the son, soon apparently happens to his family.  Its quiet an interesting concept the fact that as he 'jumps' so does his family, reflecting that it affects the one we love if we was to do something like that. and this is made more apparent when it reverses and leaves the young boy looking at the photo of his family, like they are the reason he would stay.

Disturbed- inside the fire

This video is a little like the seether video in the fact that its a mixed of the band singing. I admire the fact that its a close subject to the lead singer as a member of his family committed suicide. The idea that someone comes home to see that, and even though the family member is in a 'state' and not exactly a pretty sight, they dont care and have to 'help' pulling her down and laying her down, bathing her. however these rather touching images are cut with more disterbing images with blood soaked band members and the dead girl teasing and haunting, hanging with her arms tied and the unusal movements. i like how they seem to overlay a transparent image of her with very jumping movements over footage of him which i really like. it reminded me of my experimental video where it was cutting of me on the bed and a blurred out and juttery movements. 


Funeral for a friend- roses for the dead



What i really like about this video is its subtly. unlike the last two it doesnt feature the band which is more what i was aiming for. it also is clever because it is basically two stories running side by side at the same time, however one of the stories is being told as if its occuring after the other, and while we never see or here anything about suicide, it is insinuated all the way through that the boy is the womans son, and obviously has died, at the end we see him alone in a building and it is insinuated that hes jumped. 

Masahisa Fukase 深瀬 昌久

Masahisa Fukase's work is a renouned japanise photographer. His later work, prominantly after his devorse, is very emotional and gloomy. unusally, Masahisa was unable to witness most of his success, after he fell down stairs and till this day remains in a coma. 
I found his work while looking through my book on polaroids, to which i found this image, which reminded me heavily of my 'sewn up lips' ideas and footageso far.  as you can see its pretty gory, with the needles through the mouth, and yet without any fake blood, the reminants of lipstick act as a suggestion for fake blood rather then actually showing it. It made quite an impact when viewed larger scale to this, and it does have that 'cringe' factor, that you seemed to get with my own work. 
alot of his other work, is shot in black and white, and is as i said very emotional, very contrasted and dark in some ways. He did a collection called Solitude of Ravens which includes photos of people, and the animals which always seem to have a very dark presence. 

 

here is one of the images from his section on ravens, they just manage to have such an eerie feel to them, and when incoperated with the other images that Masahisa took of people really helps to portray the sence of loneliness. the images are dark, shadowy and sometimes even distorted by blur. this image is also part of the same collection, and its just really reflects the isolation and lonelyness which i want to try and create in my work. standing back and watching other people, while in darkness. it just really touches deep on some of the feelings i wish to get across.

The polaroid Book

So i resently brought a Tachen book which shows a celection of polaroids from a vast selection of polaroid photography collections.  while personally, i am not wanting to use polaroids in this project, some of the imagery that i found from the book is relativly connectied with the ideas i am looking into. its been very interesting looking at this.  and some of the followingphotographer that links to my work is scene in the next post.

so where i am up to.

so ive been thinking alot about more the direction i am going to take to my final piece, following my last tutorial. Now ive desided to enclude music into my piece, i need to look at the relationship between videos and music. as well as maybe changing my idea slightly to fit more intune with the music i am going to use, the music is alot slower, so i think adding a few slower cuts rather then the fast editing ive been used to using so far. so im going to look at some music videos, as well as trying to find photographers and video makers that i think will be useful at looking at.

saatchi gallery part 2

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this piece from Tomoo Gotika entitled 'divorce' its very emotional and the use of obstracted faces makes it appeal to this project. its a very large painting, and the use of contrast and shading is very inspiring.

 this painting by Jia Aili is two canvases. its avery deep and dramatic paiting using subtle lighting. again its on the very large scale, and if you can see it the glossy effect reflected the lighting from the gallery which wasnt so good.  however i still found it a very powerful image of a child in a lake wearing a gas mask.
i like the use of colours in this work, very subtle and yet very emotive.

there were two video pieces in the gallery, this one was an animation on loop, and while it had no relation to my ideas i thought i would take this image to show the layout of the video peices. they were shown on a flatscreen plasma tv, the wires forming a thin black collum from the tv to the floor where the other electrionics (plugs ect) is hidden by a white boxed encasing. 

 the second video piece was a piece by matthew day jackson entitled metamophosis which was a collection of images of a what appears to be a wax skull, in different colours and in different states of abstraction, constantly playing on a loop. it was rather interesting to watch.

saatchi gallery part 1

ok so yesterday i went to the saatchi gallery in london and i found it really good, there were some photographic pieces, and two video instillations, however i also found it interesting to look at the wider range of art there, and even the presentation of some of the works.i managed to photograph some of the peices i found interesting to look at. 


examples like the image to the left, a painting as part of there 'empire strikes back' indian based art exhibition. i like the way the painting is liked with a box full of items to go along with the painting, but also that the painting is 'defaced' in some way. the image has, on perpose, have been covered by paint.

This piece, was one of the photographic pieces that stood out for me. it is a large print, and from afar it looks like a painting, an abstract peice in which a mess of colours and such but when u look closer you realise that its actually a photograph of a tip or waste desposal dump. i found it very hard hitting, and the title of 'the world is not enough' just shows the length of consumerism in the world at the moment.

a very bad quality of a close up. Sadly the print was covered by what looked like perspex. obviously this is good for protecting the print but it did create very bad reflections onto the image from the bright lighting in the gallery space.


















This piece of artwork i also found very interesting for my work looking towards feeling of hiding something, hiding identity. These are all vinal record covers that are painted over with white paint apart from specific features depending on the cover, letters, hair, eyes, clothing, are all selected. as a whole it looks like a very impressing peice and the repetition adds to the vastness.

This piece was prob the one that stood out to me the most. The artist had been working on this project since 2004 and has documented thedeaths of soliders in afaginistan. each had a sketch and writen information about the person, and was pinned to the wall. the different colour paper used, reflected the colour of the persons skin and if the persons photo couldnt be found or was unidentified, they were left blank. it had an exampleof her working mephods. the shear scale of this work is what took me by supprise, as well as the effect it had on the audience. it also gave me an idea for a project on documenting people in a similar way.