Project 2: Countdown Process
Final Video: https://vimeo.com/376858420
My 20-word brainstorm came about rather quickly in one idea-filled sitting:
November 11, 2019.
On the subway before class I sketched out the following concepts & approaches for a visual countdown:
Idea: Tangram (History)
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| Tangram numerals |
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| Tangram tables the Garden for Lingering (Liuyuan), Suzhou |
My first idea was partially inspired by the myriad student countdown examples shown in class. In considering what could be assembled/disassembled in to legible numerals, I thought of the tangram as both a culturally-rich historical artifact and ubiquitous leisure puzzle.
Idea: Zoetrope Animation (History)
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| Zoetrope-inspired modern ceramic design |
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| DIY Zoetrope progress |
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| Finished Zoetrope view with test strip |
Idea: Red String Mystery
This idea was inspired by a scene in the short film Rumination, made by some high school classmates in Etobicoke School of the Arts. The connotation then crossed over to the classic trope/scene of a genius detective's evidence-covered cork board, all apparently connected by pins and red string.
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| Barry Allen (the Flash)'s investigation board, Arrow |
My macro eye photography experimentations:
After around a hundred blind test shots using my own eye and a pocket mirror, I came across these four (later edited in to BW) shots which seemed to capture various intriguing depths of field and reflection. It was pretty amazing seeing a part of myself in such microscopic detail for the first time, as well as my bedroom surroundings reflected in this one-of-a-kind mirror orb.
November 18, 2019.
The following excerpt is a piece of prose written in my final year of high school:Why is eye contact so revolutionary? Why does two little spheres on everyone's face make all the difference in the matter of milliseconds? Eyes hold a magnetic power that draws other eyes, other souls to look in to it. It pulls you in, beckoning and admiring and analyzing and daring. But most importantly, it's how we can connect with just about any human or animal we come across in the world. Even if there's no chance to talk or touch, a gaze can hold a whole story—or myriad stories, watching and waiting for the right moment. (musings from January 2015, revised)
My original idea for this one was to utilize the eye's reflective properties to display analog numerals in the pupil or iris. After testing and confirming the wondrous capabilities of a Canon macro lens in the photos above, my next challenge was to find a seamless and meaningful way of integrating numerals in to the composition. These were the candidates:
- 'Pre-production' methods
- Locating and reflecting found/vernacular numerals in the everyday world
- Creating 'light stencils' of cutout numerals to hold between the photographed eye and the light source
- Forgoing numerals and making number signs with hands/fingers in the eye's reflection
- Asking models to hand-write numerals on plain paper to be shown in the eye's reflection
- 'Post-production' methods
- Combining my Zoetrope idea in to the eyes via masking & feathering in Premiere
- Creating my own analog numerals using the Constellation idea or long-exposure lights to splice in to eye shots
- Splicing models' handwritten numerals in to respective eyes in Premiere
- Incorporating an analogue clock 'reflection' in the circle of the pupil
The final numeral solution was a vectorized collection of friends' handwriting of their chosen number:
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Connotative Meanings
The other major issue bothering me all along is the array of strange and slightly disturbing connotations around the act of imposing numbers on human beings, much less the eye. In reviewing the test photos I realized just how complete and captivating a human eye could be as-is, and how adding anything would only detract from the immersive, profound moment. Thus, to best bring out the essence of my subject matter, I committed myself to making a documentary as opposed to an imposed, fictitious narrative. I want to make my project a collaborative piece highlighting the unscripted, candid truth of a human presence as seen through their eyes.
Motion Tests: Google album
Research
- Walter Benjamin once observed, in comparison with theatre, the 'peculiar facade nature' of 'film reality'. The cinematographer's technological apparatus is so 'deeply penetrated' in its subjects that special devices are required to keep it out of the audience's view, in order to create a resemblance of 'pure reality'.
- Test performance: film makes test performances exhibitable, by turning exhibitability itself in to performance. Successful actors ‘preserve their humanity in the face of the apparatus’, and provide a vicarious revenge for audiences who ‘relinquish their humanity' day-to-day in their mundane industrial lives.
- Film’s most important social function is to widen mass perspective of ‘inevitabilities’ governing/surrounding us, ‘explodes prison-world’ with split seconds, closeups (expands space) and slow-motion (expands time/movement) → helps us discover an ‘optical unconscious’ (opens the world of the dreamer, psychotic mind etc.)
Feedback (Sound & Transition)
(after crit with guest Taravat Khalili, Animator and designer)
With the visual abundance of the eye, I wanted to keep the trigger sound soft and subtle if possible -- leaning towards the wings flutter ('blink') and camera shutter sound. Taravat Khalili suggested the even more subtle sound of a DSLR's autofocus mechanism, which I thought was a brilliant idea -- in line with the eye's very own 'autofocus' capabilities.
After crafting rough storyframes with placeholder 'writing' per Taravat's prompt, we found out that the order of eye before writing was more effective, that a blink would be an ideal transition to black and that a comfortable reading time for a single word on black is a mere 12 frames.
Rough Cut Feedback
A good point brought up during critiques was the visual fragmentation due to cuts to black. Thus the following strategies were devised to alleviate that within the 1-second time frame:
- Have written text overlaid on eyes with a 'glitch' transition to eliminate need for black screen
- Create a glitchy/flickering dynamic between eyes and text to heighten fragmented effect
- Re-introduce eye blinks as transitions
Countdown: A Time Signature (Rationale)
In my mind, the classic academy leader is more or less a utilitarian appendage of machine precision. For this project I wanted to challenge that perception by turning to what is arguably the total opposite and yet the analogous counterpart (and originator) of the cold lens: the human eye. The eye has impressive machine-like precision in its own right, yet holds so much of a warm person in its depths.
Much like the way eyes are said to be windows to the soul, a person's handwriting can sometimes hint at the character and personality of its owner. I want to explore the truths of these sentiments in capturing and compiling a micro-documentary of 9 individuals in my life — featuring only an eye and a handwritten word (number), evocative of their signature or stamp on this project. Through this minimalist, split-second approach to representing something inexpressibly grand, I want to simultaneously test the limits of human perception and offer proof of the impressionable power of the most fleeting image.
To shoot, I used a Canon macro lens steadied on a tripod in order to capture the finest visible details of the human eye. A variety of natural and artificial lighting was used at various times of day to help further visually distinguish between eyes of diverse people coming from different worlds. An average of two takes, between 20 seconds to 1 minute long were done for each model and 1-2 seconds of footage was carefully selected for its depth of focus, framing and interesting variance of micro-movement.
Before or after each shoot, models were asked to write a countdown number of their choice ('first-come-first-served' style) in a designated mini sketchbook with a black pen, in however way they like provided it is easily legible. The results proved to be an eye-catching array of 'vernacular' typography, as diverse as the individuals who penned them.
Split-second timing of eye and writing were fine-tuned to allow maximum visibility of both in the duration of a second. Lighting, colour balance and individual frames were adjusted (some slightly sharpened) -- but the eyes are otherwise left to speak to the viewer as they are.
By utilizing the macro lens's ability to capture minute reflections on the eye's surface, I am in one sense turning each of my subjects in to mirrors and cameras, recording the filmmaker as they themselves are recorded. This dynamic seems to achieves a balance of agency and exposure, between the 'artist' and the 'subject', creating a interestingly multi-layered and collaborative piece.
Reflections
In filming my first couple eye models and hearing their thoughts and reactions to their eye shots and the project overall, it became clear to me that the 'portraits' of friends I am shooting are just as much a cumulative portrait of the filmmaker, myself. Thanks to my friends, I gained a new appreciation for the eye as a photography subject that uniquely reveals two portraits in one.
Much like the way eyes are said to be windows to the soul, a person's handwriting can sometimes hint at the character and personality of its owner. I want to explore the truths of these sentiments in capturing and compiling a micro-documentary of 9 individuals in my life — featuring only an eye and a handwritten word (number), evocative of their signature or stamp on this project. Through this minimalist, split-second approach to representing something inexpressibly grand, I want to simultaneously test the limits of human perception and offer proof of the impressionable power of the most fleeting image.
To shoot, I used a Canon macro lens steadied on a tripod in order to capture the finest visible details of the human eye. A variety of natural and artificial lighting was used at various times of day to help further visually distinguish between eyes of diverse people coming from different worlds. An average of two takes, between 20 seconds to 1 minute long were done for each model and 1-2 seconds of footage was carefully selected for its depth of focus, framing and interesting variance of micro-movement.
Before or after each shoot, models were asked to write a countdown number of their choice ('first-come-first-served' style) in a designated mini sketchbook with a black pen, in however way they like provided it is easily legible. The results proved to be an eye-catching array of 'vernacular' typography, as diverse as the individuals who penned them.
Split-second timing of eye and writing were fine-tuned to allow maximum visibility of both in the duration of a second. Lighting, colour balance and individual frames were adjusted (some slightly sharpened) -- but the eyes are otherwise left to speak to the viewer as they are.
By utilizing the macro lens's ability to capture minute reflections on the eye's surface, I am in one sense turning each of my subjects in to mirrors and cameras, recording the filmmaker as they themselves are recorded. This dynamic seems to achieves a balance of agency and exposure, between the 'artist' and the 'subject', creating a interestingly multi-layered and collaborative piece.
Reflections
In filming my first couple eye models and hearing their thoughts and reactions to their eye shots and the project overall, it became clear to me that the 'portraits' of friends I am shooting are just as much a cumulative portrait of the filmmaker, myself. Thanks to my friends, I gained a new appreciation for the eye as a photography subject that uniquely reveals two portraits in one.
Workflow Sheet
- Title of Project: Countdown: A Time Signature
- Length/Duration: 19 seconds
- Presentation specs: Vimeo 1080HD
- Frame Size: 1920 x 1080
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Frame Rate: 30fps
- Approach: Macro lens on tripod fixated on one eye, 'micro-directing' model to come in and out of focus to capture various eye details in depths of field
- Summary/Description: A micro (macro)-portrait of 9 unique individuals through an eye closeup and handwritten word.
- Production Design: Collected handwritten number-words of eye models, image-traced and inserted in to respective eye shots as appearing 'time signatures'
- Audio: Isolated digital camera 'autofocus' sound (when slightly sped up & repeated, sounds like ticking of a clock)
- Software/Hardware Required: Canon EOS 7D with 65mm macro lens, tripod, Fujifilm X-T100 (for autofocus sound), Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Affects
- Research/Anticipated challenges: connotative complications in nature of visual concept, producing and capturing desired reflections in eye, finding optimal lighting, difficulties of positioning model in to the very meticulous macro focus zone, micro-directing / fine-tuning eye position and focus in frame
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