TUESDAY, APRIL 12TH, 2011
"Life Goes On", 2011, video, 03:19
My final film project, entitled "Life Goes On" is officially live on youtube! Woohoo
Its been an awesome term. I'll miss this class a lot.
The main concept behind the video is that we can chose what we do with ourselves, and what we do with our own time. But time is moving. And time will always move, with or without us. Life goes on, with or without us.
In one frame you have nature scenes, and in the other frame, you have scenes from my personal life. They are both there to create a contrast, and reinforce the concept of time as a moving, living thing. As I put on my makeup, work at school, or ride the bus, time is moving. What I do with my time is up to me, but what I choose to do does not affect time itself.
Life goes on with or without you, it stops for no one. And now, to end with an epic quote from an epic man:
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that we are given."
- Gandalf the Grey
MONDAY, MARCH 28TH, 2011
I have had nothing but trouble with this camera...
I can't even turn it on, and when I called AV they mentioned that there is in fact a battery pack that is rented separately...
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| WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE? |
So that was a waste of time!
I'll have to just go over these little details with AV next week so that I don't miss any more important information. In the meantime, I've done some filming on my digital camera in standard mode. The quality is really rough, but at least it's giving me an idea of what I want to put together.
I really liked Will's sound locative project. I especially liked how he incorporated music into the background, it really smoothed things over. I definitely want to incorporate music into mine as well, but since we have to record our own sounds, I'll have to learn something really simple, for I do not play instruments v.v
I also really liked one of the past student's examples. The one were there were two screens playing different scenes at once, I would also like to take that format if possible, it would give a great opportunity for contrast. I only hope that it wont be too distracting having to look back and forth between them.
I'm not sure what I will focus on for the assignment. There is so much going on in my life, and so much growth, its hard to pin a single concept down. Maybe this multi-screen format will give a little more freedom to film different concepts at once?
We'll seeeeee!
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23RD, 2011
This is a picture of Pier 32, the location for my locative sound project.
What really adds to the assignment for me, is that Pier 32 is also a residential boat house area. Can you imagine looking out your window and seeing a body floating outside? That would just disturb me for life.
It was challenging at first to get people to talk to me about the incident, but i found that after dedicating some time (and being more aggressive) people were more willing to share their opinions :)
Overall, people were very willing to accept that fact that death is a natural and reoccurring thing, even tragic accidents happen once in a while, especially in high traffic areas. The incident didn't seem to change most perceptions of the people I interviewed, although I mostly interviewed tourists, and the people that lived near Granville Island were definitely more intrigued and affected by the news.
I ended the recording off with a quote from one of my participants:
"Bad things happen when you get a lot of people together."
I think that was a very appropriate conclusion to the interviews, and to the assignment.
We are getting started on our next project. For this assignment we will be experimenting with locative sound. This means we will be sound mixing a mp3 that is about 3 minuets long, and will be constructed for a specific site. The sounds are supposed to enhance or alter the listener's experience in that environment somehow. We are all going to be working on Granville Island for this.
It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do ... but after reading some online articles about the history of Granville Island, I found some recent news of events that occurred in the last year. In 2010 a man's body was found floating in the water outside of Peir 32.
This kind of hit home for me, because recently 9in the last few months) a body was found in a park right inside Lynn Valley, literally a 20 minuet walk from my house! The next couple of weeks were really intense because I never even considered anything like that happening where I live. The environment that I felt completely safe in had completely changed.
So I really would like to work with this tragic incident that took place in Pier 32. I had no idea that it happened at all - let alone that it happened only one year ago. I wonder how many people don't know about it? Or how their perception of Granville Island would change if they found out?
TUESDAY, MARCH 8TH, 2011 (LATER ... )
Here are 2 that are done. You see what I mean? Vancouver is a naturally beauty! There are definitely area's that need work, though. I found that typically as you leave the central vancouver area, this start looking worse the farther outside you go. Thats pretty sad, considering most of these areas are residential.
Our city should be more attentive the the area's that need work. Think of how much greater we could become if we took on the challenge of improving ourselves as a city!
Posting these all at once is a pain ... so I guess you guys will have to see the rest in class tomorrow!
Katrina
TUESDAY, MARCH 8TH, 2011
I had to include some North Van images! Lynn Canyon is always a huge tourist attraction during the summer, after all.
So I finally figured out how to upload my photos onto google earth! LOL
Aaaand I will post my photos soon ^^
Katrina
MONDAY, MARCH 7TH, 2011
Here's an example of one of the photos I took today :D
Its of the Vancouver art gallery. It's a gorgeous building, but is is just me, or is there always construction going on right in front of it? A bit of an eye sore, if you ask me :(
Like the photo above, some of the pictures I took today demonstrate how much manipulation goes into advertising and making things look 'pretty' to attract tourism and customers. But some of the pictures (most of them actually...) turned out looking really nice all on their own! I even made a point to wait for a typical rainy vancouver day before taking most of these, and they still look nice! So Vancouver definitely has what it takes to maintain it's beauty.
Katrina
SUNDAY, MARCH 6TH, 2011
For my Google Earth Project my original plan was to take photos of vancouver in the area's that were less 'scenic', and then clean them up using photoshop! A kind of way to 'sweep the streets clean" conceptually, anyways.
That didn't work out so well, some areas were just too dirty. I went through the outskirts of Chinatown and the downtown east-side for the majority of my photos - and let me tell you - all the photoshop in the world wouldn't make a dent!
So, the new concept is to make post cards for Vancouver. Normally in postcards, the goal is to make the setting as appealing as possible thus attracting tourism. In order for this to happen, images are photoshopped beyond recognition, almost to the point where it's a dishonest representation of the setting.
Don't get me wrong - I love Vancouver, and I think we have a beautiful city. I only wish the standards of cleanliness you see in postcards and during the 2010 olympics, were maintained all year around. So for this new concept I decided to explore the idea of honesty being shown in postcards. I will take pictures of parts of vancouver, and by simply adding headings as you would see on regular postcards, give them that post-card look, minus the photoshop and artificial lighting.
Katrina
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH, 2011
"Part of the City", 2011, Vinyl Print
Here is my final installation of Project 3. As you can see, I chose to go with the concept of homelessness in vancouver. The message I am trying to say with this print is that homelessness has been a huge issue for vancouver for decades, and in a way, homelessness has become 'part' of our city. And literally, in this piece, the image of the homeless person has merged with the dumpster. In this case, the city and homelessness have become 'one'.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10TH, 2011
I also like how the scale of the homeless figure works here.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9TH 2011
Perhaps increasing the number of soldiers would be more effective than worrying about the size itself.
Strength in numbers after all!
Katrina
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8TH 2011
Here are my mockups for Project 3.
I am incorporating a vector image of a soldier near the playground at Granville island.
The message that I am trying to convey here is that we are privileged to live in a free country, and that for many people, including children, that is not the case. War is happening all over the world, and we should never take our fortune for granted.
I'm not sure if I am 100% gung-ho for this concept. I like the message, but do you think a smaller-than-lifesized soldier would be an effective communicator of this?
Hmmmm... I have some serious work to do :p
Katrina
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2ND, 2011
"Moving with Rivers"
"Moving with Rivers" communicates the way that I identify myself within the environment of the Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver. A series of photographs were taken and stitched together using a tool in photoshop to create the illusion of a wide lens. The message of 'always moving forward' is represented by the movement of the water in the image, as well as the figure's position. Showing the figure running in the same direction as the river connects the human and the river in the context of being in motion. Another element that can be considered is the 'fork in the road' that the panorama naturally creates. The bend in the river can represent a choice that has been taken - for the figure is clearly moving in one of the directions.
Katrina
SUNDAY, JANUARY 23RD, 2011
"Moving with Rivers"
"Moving with Rivers" communicates the way that I identify myself within the environment of the Lynn Canyon in North Vancouver. A series of photographs were taken and stitched together using a tool in photoshop to create the illusion of a wide lens. The message of 'always moving forward' is represented by the movement of the water in the image, as well as the figure's position. Showing the figure running in the same direction as the river connects the human and the river in the context of being in motion. Another element that can be considered is the 'fork in the road' that the panorama naturally creates. The bend in the river can represent a choice that has been taken - for the figure is clearly moving in one of the directions.
Katrina
SUNDAY, JANUARY 23RD, 2011
So here's the panorama photo that I did for my DIVA class. Overall, I'm really happy about the way it turned out! especially after my first attempt was a complete mess. The photos were taken in the beautiful Lynn Canyon by the river.
Sorry that the image is so small! But as you all know, the length of the panorama would stretch right off the page if I posted it any larger. I think you can click on it if you want to see it bigger :)
I printing proof is this tuesday, so hopefully it will go well! It is my first time ever using the doc (digital output center) at school! Wish me luck!
Katrina
THURSDAY, JANUARY 20TH, 2011
Although this blog has a very clear purpose, i also need to keep uploading some process from class. Our first project is to create a panorama photo. What that means is that we would be taking multiple pictures of different angles of the same place. Then, on a tool in Photoshop, we would stitch them together to make one long image. It's really strange, it kind of looks like an illusion, or a photo that was taken using a really wide lens.
I decided to take my photos in the canyon by my house. Its a beautiful forest with creeks and rivers, and tons of wildlife. The canyon looks especially beautiful after it's rained; everything gets really misty. I loooove it! And its practically in my backyard! :D
Here's a sneak peak of some of the photos:
I ended up using my point and shoot. I can't use SLR's to save my life, and we have very little time to pull this off! The pictures are taken from three different locations, hopefully at least one of the sets turn out alright! My file proof at the DOC is tomorrow!
I'll keep you posted!
