{"id":3031,"date":"2024-02-03T11:57:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-03T16:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.forestrat.com\/mwp\/?p=3031"},"modified":"2024-02-03T14:28:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T19:28:53","slug":"found-object-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.forestrat.com\/mwp\/2024\/02\/03\/found-object-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Found Object Video"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The assignment: Create a non-narrative 30 to 45 second video by combining a series of photographs starting with a found object.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started with the photograph above. One day I passed a maintenance gate. It had a black rubber flap covering the lock. On the flap was the number 287. I liked the feeling of randomness I got from that number and the play of the bright clean numbers against the dark weathered texture of the rubber behind it. I’m sure it means something to the maintenance crew, but for anyone else it loses context and all meaning except that it is the number 287.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn’t the kind of found object that I could pick up and take to a studio to photograph in different ways, so I had to create something similar to stand in for it. I cut a series of white paper cards the same size as the white rectangle on the flap. I used pencil, pen, charcoal, and ink to represent 287 in different ways. I used 11F which is 287 in hexadecimal and 100011111 which is binary. I wrote out the numbers and then cut or tore the card in pieces. I wrote it out with ink using the wrong end of a paint brush. Anything I could come up with, I tried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next I needed a background. I wanted to go in a grunge direction so I used an abstract painting I had done a while back. I used gouache on mixed media paper. I spread the paint around using a putty knife that I got out of my garage. I photographed the cards in different places on the background. I used Adobe Premiere to stich the photographs together into a video using some scratchy effects to transition between them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried a lot of different things for the audio – recording static and channel hopping from my car radio, distorting my voice while reading poetry, making my own music with online music creation sites (I am not musically inclined so that wasn’t too successful). I needed something more intense than any of those for the main theme. Ideally I wanted a grungy punk rock sound. In the end I combined what I had recorded with a Creative Commons licensed music clip that I got from Freesound<\/a>. I used Adobe Audition to slice and dice the sounds to create the complete track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The video I ended up with isn’t too shabby for my absolute first attempt at doing video. I’m not so sure that video is going to be a big direction in my art work in the future, but it never hurts to expand our horizons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n