Back from Christmas

Well back down to reality after a lovely 5 days off..wow.. now back to the grind stone. and I have am very excited to be getting back to work as over the next few weeks I will be creating Daniel and Lewis's music video that I have been talking about. I was kind of worried that it wouldn't get done before submissions but luckily we very kindly got an extra week so its all stations GO GO GO

CHRISTMAS

Well I am away off home tomorrow until Thursday the 27th so I wont be blogging or doing any work for the next 6 days, I am looking forward to a wee break, knowing me though I will be stressing and thinking about lots of new ideas. Anyways happy holidays!

Some tests for the introduction

Ok so I went a walk today with an idea for the introduction to Daniel and Lewis's music video. This is just a test but I think it works pretty well.

I went down to the tay bridge and stood in the middle of the walk way. I filmed the cars passing and played around with the settings from really abstract blur to high quaility.
When I got home I watched all the footage back and really liked the maximum blurred versions, I added some timing delays and some width delays so that the cars left slight trails like in night time, long exposure pictures. eg. ----->








The reason I wanted this idea as the introduction is that I thought the starting was atmospheric and thought this style would really work. Here is one of the tests that I have done along with the introduction music.

Gaelic Music video Finished!

Well that it all finished and ready to be sent away. I am so so happy with the results. I think it compliments and enhances the music while staying sympathetic the melody.

What I wanted to create

-I wanted to create a part abstract film about a lazy Sunday walk playing on the fact that the song is a modern take on a "walking" style song
-I wanted to have shots that provoked a nostalgic feeling to symbolize the past/happy memories
-I wanted to include movement to symbolize travel and loved ones that aren't close by
-I wanted to create a airy, silky piece of visuals that harmonized with the melody.
-As Gaelic is a small language, I had to make sure the visuals conveyed the essence of the song so that non-Gaelic viewers could understand the song.

I feel I have accomplished everything that I set out to achieve. I have learned so much in after effect and premier pro through trial and error and good tutorials.

So here it is...hope you enjoy it.. and lets hope that I win :D

Nostalgic test-take two

After an unsuccessful first try at making some film look nostalgic, I feel I have achieved the aim a lot better with this video. I simplified it down from the last test. Adding black and white, increasing the contrast and adding an ever so slight blur to it so it wasn't full hd quality. 

Creating an old nostalgic feeling

I want to have parts of the music video with a kind of nostalgic feeling, like a visual of what someone imagines when thinking of the past in their minds. I have been playing around with colour tones, noise and grain effects, scratches and dust effects and roughing the edges. Here is a test

I am not too happy with the result. It looks far too grainy and I am not very sure on the rough looking outline. Ahh well, back to the drawing board with this one..

Smoke test

I had already had smoke tests that had been shot during a drawing class in uni but I didn't really have anything to do with them, and they were a little bit boring on their own. So I thought it would be great to incorporate a windy, airy feel with some smoke. I played around with the effects in after effects and applied a cartoon effect which gave a really nice soft graphical edge to the video. I also added a tint of blue so the smoke could stand out better.

Cars distorted

This is another media test for the Gaelic music video. I wanted some parts of the video to be quite abstract and just simply to follow the similar characteristics of the song. This was some footage that I had take of cars just when I was walking home one night. I played around with the distort, warp, delay, and blur to create this piece and adjusted the speed so that it was flowing with the music. It works really well with the music and creates a feeling of slowing down time. 

Train media test

So I have been playing around with the train media test and I wanted to add a nice flow and soft textured look to one of them so here is the test. I have tried it with another track just to see how the atmosphere is affected. It was just a test but it will be going in the Gaelic music video (minus the soundtrack)

Train Footage

I was on the train the other day and thought it would be a good idea to take some moving footage of the landscape  I think it will work really well with the Rhythm of the Gaelic Song. Here the videos I took. Hopefully they will edit in nicely to the video to symbolize traveling to visit her family.

They have a nice soft feeling of time passing by, with calm colour tones.

Let there be light

These are some concept film take in a drawing class. I really love the blurred candle, I was blowing at it but not too much to blow it out and it created a lovely effect.

Gaelic Music Video

Ok So I'm going to start on the Gaelic Music Video Competition. Firstly, here is a link to the song to listen to. Its down at the bottom and entitled " Clann a’ Ghreusaiche". The whole song is in Gaelic but non-Gaelic speakers can enter too. I have a copy of the words in English and its about the island that she loves, Raasay and her family even though they are far away.

Here are the lyrics:


1. Take my greeting over the Sound
Over to the green island that I love

Near the misty mountainous island (Skye)
Dun Caan is under the clouds

2. The little island is so famous
Raasay is my love

Clachan, Oscaig, Manitoba
Fladda, Torran, up to Rona

3. Clan MacLeod will be there forever
The Shoemaker’s clan are my family

After the war you took the land
There was no one in the area left wanting

4. Sorley, spread you poetry
The Cullins and Hallaig

Calum, come up the road
From the castle up to Arnish

5. A big family, of high standing and renown
Three sisters, six brothers

We are spread throughout the country
But our blessings and our greetings go to the island

Its a beautiful, soft song with a sweet melody and silky voices. I want to have a similar effect in the video. For this video I plan to focus on Timing, Rhythm, Harmony that has been applied in constructing the song and apply these characteristics to my video.



Link to song: http://www.feisean.org/en/projects/project.php?ID=11

Mindmap!

This is a mind map that I created for jotting my ideas for the Gaelic Music video.

Storyboard for installation idea

Here is a storyboard to describe my installation idea better.

visual cue/ textural media test

Ok so here is the video I have been working on for the past few days.. I started just editing the videos back to back but then some of the sounds were being played at the same time so I added a more graphical style by using cropped videos and graphical black edges. In comparison to the first edit this works so much better aesthetically, and even though the video moves quite fast you can get a real sense of dynamic movement and rhythm that is copying the dynamic movement and rhythm in the music.

Music for visual cue/textured video

Here is the music that I will be using for my video, I have uploaded it just onto youtube so you can listen to it directly on the blog and dont have to go onto another page

Idea for textured/visual cue video

OK! So I have talked before about wanting to make a visual cue/ textured video taking inspiration from beardymans "monkey jazz" video. I was struggling to find a song and I was lying in bed last night and I was scanning my mind for possible music tracks that would be interesting to use for this media test. Then it popped into my mind. In first year we did an audio module and one of the tasks was to make a ringtone for yourself that best describes you. So for that task I decided to make a ringtone out of the objects I had one my desk. They were things that I used everyday and pretty much summed up my life so I thought it would be an interesting idea. So I did it, it worked out really well and got a B+ for it.

Now, when I remembered about it last night I thought, why not use this as the music for the media test. It describes you and it currently has no visual representation for it. So that's what I am going to do!

Visual cue/ textural storyboards

Love and left- an interesting transitional video

I've known about this video for a quite a while but I forgot A. about the video B. that it relates to my project and c. when I remembered about it to blog about it earlier. But anyway. Love and theft is an amazing video, that you have to spend 6:50 out of your life to watch. The way in which the visuals and music work so well together is great. The video visualize the mood and feel of the music at the time, some times its ditsy and sweet and goes into full aggression and through the use of colour, style, timing and content the visuals follow along this roller coaster of a song.

I think it would be really interesting to try a transitional video to follow along with a diverse musical composition and to try and reflect the mood and feeling through visual means.

Oil and dye tests- more

I've been playing around with my oil and dye tests again, I just cant help it, there is so much potential to these videos. This is a media test of the oil, edited around an atmospheric piece of music. I think it works really well together at creating a hint of bubble feeling.

Sound source can be found in the description of video

Possible locations

I took a walk tonight for some possible night shoot places.

essay writing time!

Well this is the time that I have to put down my camera and pick up lots and lots of books. I've actually been really good this year, I've been taking books out every since first week of classes so I'm feeling quite prepared. I have been mostly concentrating on the literature review and I have decided to split it into 3 sections that I feel are the most important factors in creating my final outcome.

Section one
I think I am going to start off with the theory of the association between a note to a specific colour.
Starting from the very beginning, I have been reading a lot about Pythagoras and Aristotle who "speculated that there must be a correlation between the musical scale and the rainbow spectrum of hues" (http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.1/articles/moritz2.1.html). Also when I was reading Goethe's "theory of colours" book, I read in the notes that Aristotle also said that "it is possible that colours may stand in relation to each other in the same manner as concords in music, for the colours which are (to each other) in proportions corresponding with the musical concords, are those which appear to be the most agreeable" (page 418)
I have also been reading a lot about Sir Isaac Newton and his theories of the association between a musical note and colour. Newton was "the first to observe a correspondence between the proportionate width of the seven prismatic rays and the string lenghts required to produce the msucial scale D,E,F,G,A,B,C."(http://rhythmiclight.com/articles/InstrumentsToPerformColor.pdf)

I will probably take about goethe's theories and then lead on to Louis Bertrand Castel.

Castel in 1730 created an Ocular Harpsichord which was founded on the Newtonian Doctrine. The colour organ was wired up to 60 different coloured panes of glass that corresponded to a individual note. When the sound was played, a curtain would lift the pane of glass and reveal the colour to match the sound.

Before Castel built the colour organ he posed the question " Can anyone imagine anything in the arts that would surpass the visable rendering of sound, which would enable the eyes to partake of all the pleasures which music gives to the ears?" (D.Conrad, 1999. the Dichromaccord: Reinventing the Elusive Color Organ.)

Section two

In the next section, I want to focus on the similarities in characteristics of music and visuals. 

I will probably start off with a quote from William Moritz that I have previously mentioned. 

"Just as many different techniques create moving images, so do many different instruments create musical sounds. Images (ie colors, form, materials, juxtapositions and contrasts etc.) and sounds (ie. tones, melodies, rhythms, orchestral colors, harmonies and counterpoints) function the same in different media"

Then I will talk about Leopold Survage as I feel his "Colored Rhythm" is appropiate to this section. As a painter, he had a problem with space so he wanted to create an animation so that it was as free and fluid as music. So he took a characteristic from music and applied it to visuals

Then I will carry on to Wassily Kandinsky. Why he is in this section it that he had an interesting relationship between Arnold Schoenberg. They were both similar in the way that Kandinsky wanted to create new abstract art and schoenberg wanted to create a new harmony in music. Schoenberg's work "seemed without rules, random, based on "aimless wanderings"". The way Schoenberg composed his music helped Kandinsky convey his ideas on compositional structure for abstract painting.

Section Three

In the final section I plan to talk about how you create an aesthetic for both the eye and the ear. In this section I will talk about the study I found in that the conductor found that:

“Although information from the world enters our heads via different sensory organs – the eyes and ears in this instance – once they are in the brain they are intimately connected with each other. Impressively, they are connected in non-random ways, so hat some combinations of sound and vision go together better than others.”

then I will most likely talk about a modern visual music artsit, I am currently torn between Netia Jones and Maura Macdonnell. 

Music video workshop day in Glasgow!

I'm just back from a rather strange workshop, strange not as in it was boring but I was basically the only person that turned up so I had an entire day of skilled people talking to me!!

First of all the day started with a history lesson on music videos. The funny thing is that for my module last year 'digital media project' I chose the music video industry as my chosen area to talk about. So I had already did an extensive research into the history but it was good anyway to go over it and I found a few videos that I had missed it so it was still worth listening and taking notes. The talk was taken by Blair Young who has a music video/ promo company in Glasgow so it was really interesting hearing how he started out to where he is now. After the talk I asked him about graduated programs and talked to him about my fourth year project ( I gave him a link to my blog), unfortuantly due to the small size of the company they do not have a graduate program but he said if I wanted to come for some work experience I should get in contact with him... CONNECTIONS!

Then we closed for lunch and the second half of the day was held by Film G representatives (who organized the day). They have a competition on currently for passionate film makers and one of the section is a music video. Even though the songs are in Gaelic, that doesn't mean that I cant enter. I listened to a few of the songs and met a few of the songwriters who talked about their inspiration for their songs. It was really interesting having that one to one talk with the people who I could potentially be creating a visual representation for their music.

I would really like to enter as I think it would tie nicely into my project as well as a chance of winning £500 AND a day on a set of a music video, which lets be honest for a student is INVALUABLE! I'm not going to say I am defiantly going to do it because as I progress I might get some really good ideas that would be better to develop further, but I'm hopeful I have time for both!

Here is the link to Film G to find more:

http://www.filmg.co.uk/en/competition

Neon- Closing party

Well! what a week! been to a ton of NEON things and I'm up early for a music video workshop tomorrow! A very productive week. Tonight was pretty amazing, it was the final night for neon which has been hosting a whole variety of digital art this week and the finale was not a let down. But it was the final performance that caught my eye tonight. It was a strange looking photo booth in the corner. I got talking to the creator behind the installation and wow it was so cool. Basically Steve is a student at perth college study music (I cant fully remember the course he is on) and this was a project that he had done for college. So how did it work? Well you entered the photo booth and had your picture taken, then he translated the information into sound and then from sound to an image again! So essentially visualizing music! Here is my photo:

Pretty cool huh?

But back to the main attraction. Well creative would be an understatement. Two guys playing music and singing in a transparent prism that had visuals projected onto? Yes that is exactly what it was. An audio visual feast! Throw in some neon lights for music stands and wow, what an ending to a wonderful festival. I took some footage of the show that I will upload later for everyone to feast there eyes on, but I don't really know what else to say about it? I was a wonderful blend of audio/visual stimulation. 

Here's a short video that I took of the night

NEON- Heartbeater

Just back from another amazing neon spectacular! First of all I would like to thank Nilupul for such a warm and lovely evening. It was cozy and intimate with only a small amount of people who were all so kind and friendly. Firstly to describe this installation art, basically you are connected by your hands and feet and your movement controls and interacts with the audio/visuals. The piece is inspired by water, tranquility and peace giving off quite a meditative feel.Designed by composer Mattew Collings and artist Erik Parr, this installation is a sensation for the eye and ear. But what I espeically loved about this piece of art is that its not just used for neon, but Nilupul (where it was showcased) will be keeping "heartbeater" and using it classes and meditation purposes which I think is just so fantastic that a quite abstract piece is used in a really great way and not just for one week purposes.

At the beginning of the night, we were shown a short video of how the public interacted with "heatbeater". It was great seeing all the school children bouncing up and down and having such fun and interaction with quite an abstract piece. There were professionals for the evening that I was at and even though I do not want to doubt or offend their abilities but I much preferred the children and general public playing with it. Watching them, you could see the exploration in their minds and the adventure that they were on as it may seem just like fun to them, it was also expanding their minds to more than just maths and english. 

What I would have probably preferred with this installation would be if it was in a small encasing and you were on your own so it would become fully submersive to the user. Other than that it was a great night and I fully enjoyed the ways in which "heartbeater" connects with people on a different level to match their needs for it.

Here is an article that Nilupul posted on their facebook page :

http://www.facebook.com/nilupulfoundation

Crit week 8 My presentation

Firstly here is the link to my progress report for crit week so you can have a look at what I showed;

http://prezi.com/uuwmlionw2ev/amy-warnock-progress/

Ok so Im not going to go into to much details as everything that I talked about in my presentation is basically in my blog but for grading purposes I will talk a little bit

I firstly started talking about what I have been seeing/reading the past four month. I talked about Les illuminations with the scottish ensemble and video artist Netia Jones doing live visuals during the concert. I have also been reading Digital Harmony- on the complimentary of music and visuals. Even though this book is over 30 years old and times have changed significantly its still good to look back on some basic concepts that are still used today. I have also been reading a lot of books on colour theory, reading about timing in animation, musical texture and aesthetic theories.

I then went on to explain what I was listening to as music is a big part of my project. After reading a lot on musical textures I have been listening to a lot of jazz, dubstep and after les illuminations, orchestral music and classical music. I have been particularly inspired by Totally enormous extinct dinosaurs- Garden while its amazing into.

Then I went on to what are currently my inspirations/points of interest just now. I talked about Wassily Kandinsky as he loved to paint tones and cords that he heard and he also loved the communication between the eye and ear. Leopold Survage was a new find and he is a french painter who did a series of painting called "symphonies in colour" these beautiful works of art encapsulise the music and are absolutely stunning. John cage and his "prepared piano" is also very interesting. He put lots of different things into the piano to alter the sound when played. After les illuminations I have also been looking into the artist Netia Jones as i was bitterly disappointed with her video art that night so I wanted to find more about her and why she is so popular; maybe its just down to a taste thing and I happen to not like her. William Moritz is also still in my interest as he is a film historian who specialized in visual music and experimental animation. So if I need to know something I am pretty sure he is the guy who knows it, shame he is no longer here! I have also been watching/ reading/ studying the beginning of Fantasia and Finally taking a strong interest in Maura McDonnell who is a key element to the visual music world currently.

So, the important part...What have I been actually doing? Well if you look at my presentation, it shows lots of snap shots of just SOME of the work I have been up to, I have been particuarly interested in the movement/textures in music as well as visuals so Ive been playing with texture/movement in visuals. For example, Oil and dye, Water and dye, Salt and the washing machine, Salt and the hoover, Nature, leaves, trees, lighting, vibrations, rice and dye, colour etc. I have also been in talk with a local musician who I will be making a music video for as part of my pre-production. I have also been looking into instillation art with the TV screens that my last year video was on in the "imagination will take you everywhere" exhibition. I am thinking about visualizing the textures of the music on the tvs so when the sound is small it will be on the small tv and when it gets louder it will go on the big tv so it looks like all the movements are moving around and is just one big video joined together when it will be 7. I have also been playing with transitional videos like the example I showed (love and theft).


If you wish to read anymore about what I have talked about on this post, please dont hesitate to have a look on my blog where there is a dedicated post to each area so you can learn more about what I am studying.


Once I had finished, the floor was open to questions/discussion;

David: " Does it matter about music being totally in sync with the visuals?

Me:  " Its not necessary but what I want to create is a totally submersive experience for the eye and ear so that the two (visuals and audio) harmonize so well that you forget that they actually to separate things. But this is what my post-production stage is about, playing with different types of submersion (less for example a music video).

Belinda: "I really like your practical work, its amazing it kind of reminds me of Johnny's work, have you     looked at what he has been doing recently?

Me: " No I haven't, I will defiantly take a look at his work, I actually had a little meeting with Johnny yesterday and he gave me some great advice on my project so I will go check it out!

Another lecture: " Did you know how they did the skies in Jurassic Park" They used a fish tank, half with salt water and half with normal water and the effects to made clouds in there where really cool, you should have a look into it...

Me: Wow, that sounds so cool, Sounds like a really cool media test to try out!

Lynn: There's a NEON night on tonight, and they are working with lights and visuals, you should go look at that...

Me: I did not know that, I will certainly be going along tonight to have a look.

Please have a look at my post in the next few days, I have so so much things planned this week so watch this space...

NEON- 100,000 Lux

WOW! Tonight was amazing! I am so glad Lynn mentioned this to me, it was great! Ok, so what was is it? Well it was a wacky combination of science, visual art, and sound design! Sound cool? They used the side of Abertay University which has a light system already built in to the exterior. The audio was in control of the visuals generating a colourful, bright and an equally engaging piece for the eye and the ear. What is really interesting is that this artwork was created by data collection from the solar dynamics observatory which programmers erin michno and ian reynolds used to create the spectacular visuals. Also involved was lecturers David Mactaggart and Antonia Wilmot-smith (Dundee University). The audio was created by Raz Ullah who is currently at Abertay studying his masters in sound design. The audio is very unique to say the least, I hope not to offend when I say that it reminded me of the old dial up tone you used to get when connecting to the internet. But as a whole it was very engaging for the eye and ear; the visuals where interesting and in sync with the audio. It had a very alien/spacey vibe to it which is what I really like about it as its inspirations/data technically originates from space so I think its quite cool that it gave off that effect. Over all I thought it was a brilliant exhibit of people from lots of different fields working together and taking something mathematical and numerical into something very beautiful

Here is a picture from Neons facebook page of the event ( I took videos and will upload them later)

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.517611701584027.121679.250366684975198&type=3&l=7e4b453583

Here is the video that I took (time lapse)

Crit week- 1st-3rd

Overall I was very impressed with the progression that my group has made. There has been significant progression and development in each of their work and I wish them the best of luck for the deadlines. Here is a break down of my group:

Whayne- He has made great improvement, especially with his 3d modelling class. He basically has it all modeled and ready to go. I said that he might need to work on the texturing a bit better as the face that he has put onto the space man's face was quite squint and distorted but thats just nit picking really. I was a little bit concerned with his Screenwriting for digital media as I felt the story lack in any sort of catalyst, good use of characters and a proper structure. But he has a good basis of an idea he just needs to work on it a little bit more. Typography is very easy as because of David Lyons teaching techniques they will most likely have all the typography coursework finished before teaching weeks are over.

Lewis-  Lewis has improved so much. I was so so impressed how well he has worked on his after effects skills. He had only a few media tests done in after effects but they were really great. I have high hopes for him and I'm sure he will get really good grades for his video based coursework. He has followed a lot of online tutorials which has enabled him to do some really cool stuff. But i was a bit concerned that although he is doing well, they are just going to look exactly like an example of the tutorials so hopefully he can put his own style into them. His team project is going well, they all seem to be getting along which is the most important thing of that module really. I was a little bit concerned that he doesn't seem to have that much to do as he is the "graphic designer" or something like that and there is already a character artist and an environment artist so he is a little bit stuck at what to do apart from the name/logo etc just now. But thats for them to sort it out really and for him to stand his ground to get more work or his grade might suffer for it.

Sophie- She has made good progress since week four, in particular her 3d illustration. In week four she had no idea what to do and now she knows what she wants to do and is well on her way to a good coursework submission. Typography, like Whayne is going very good thanks to David Lyons teaching techniques so I have no doubt that she will struggle as if she needed help, David asks everyone how they are doing each week and can ask him. 

All in all I was very impressed with the amount of progress and I wish them luck for the every luring deadlines!

The leaves at night...media tests

So after going out a week or so ago, I noticed when walking home one day the the street light where actually inside the trees that I was filming and the effect that it gave off was beautiful. A dark blue sky, dark yellow leaves and a ray of light beaming onto the immediate leaves giving such a high contrast to the other leaves.

I really loved the contrast and in the second picture the kind of sun like glow even though it was dark, it just shows how lighting can really change how you see things.

Oil and dye- media tests

After my tests with water/oil, it got me thinking about using different liquids with dye, so I whipped out the cooking oil from the cupboard and WOW! honestly, the results I got from this studio session (in my kitchen) was amazing! Basically at first I was just playing around with dropping it in, and because the oil was heavier, it was holding the dye in place here is some videos of the tests starting off...

First of all, pouring in the oil, wow, it was like particle effects that people actually try and make in after effects it was so cool, I think i might try and use this footage in daniels music video as it would be really cool as an effect on top of another video (see a post in the next few days about daniels video)

What was really cool was that when a drop of oil was poured in, little parts came off and floated up and down and it gave like something you would see in a desktop screen saver, it was so aesthetically pleasing, little bubbles of colours floating around.

(video of knife and oil)

Then as the dye kind of settled, I though " hey this is no fun" so I got a knife and started swirling and irritating the dye so it had more movement in it. The results where amazing and I could hear a kind of "swoosh" noise is my head, so I went and sourced a "swoosh" noise and here is the result 

I think it works pretty well, the timing was quite hard to get as I was working in after effects but its still a good attempt.

I then decided to add water and see where that could get me, It was so funky looking, the water sat on top of the dye almost and it gave the video more of a 3d dimensional feeling, there was a foreground of smaller bubbles and a background of large bubbles.

Then I decided to play around with the lightening as it was getting harder to see what I was doing because of the dye

Then things got a little bit messy, not sure if Im happy with the next part, but still- trial and error..

Anyway, I feel this studio session was the best yet, it has really inspired me, keep a look out for more cool stuff to come :D

Out in the park

Well the leaves are just GORGEOUS just now, so I thought I would take advantage of the lovely colours just now and try some movement tests. I have to admit this is actually my second time out filming the trees/leaves as I accidently lost some of my video due to a dodgy card reader so I was pretty annoyed as when I went back to re-film, the leaves/trees weren't as good. But anyway, you do the best of what you have right?

Here are some screen shots of the films(they are so big and take ages to upload)

In these little tests, I wanted to try and capture movement with in nature and kind of how you have this sterotypical image/sound of how leaves/trees sound and look so I mixed it up with some funky trumpet! (also it is only like 6 seconds long but somehow says 30, so dont sit through it all )

Glass and water media tests

Some more media tests here for you. Ive always liked the dye in water idea so I thought I would just give it a go myself! I played around with different colours, Size of glasses, movement (washing machine).

These are just some screenshots of the videos. When I was playing around with the glasses on the washing machine, something AMAZING happened, the glasses started dancing around and moving all over the place, THEN two of them clashed into each other, and it was like a little jingling sound, it was so amazing. I thought " wow this is a really cool way to visualize the sound that a washing machine makes" So I think in the near future, there will be some more tests on washing machines!

Rice and dye media tests

Seeing as last year I put a ton of things on a bass speaker, I wanted to experiment with the things that I used and put them to use in different ways to make up different ways of movement. Seeing as rice was quite a significant item I thought about using it as a way of movement but not in the rice moving, but enabling something else to move through it, this is the results I go, they are pretty cool! But anyway, take a look at this video showing what I'm talking about...

Science says Kandinsky was right – paintings can be heard

I have just found an amazing article about the connection between visuals and sounds. It talks about how when we receive information through the eye and ear that even though they come from different senses the information that is sent to our brain that they are intimately connected so much so that we can define between a  piece of music that goes well to music and one that doesn't go well. Its not just people who are synthesis! This is a really good read and I will probably include it in my essay to built up my case for creating an aesthetic for the eye and ear.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/media/library/sightandsound

Hallowennnnnn-media test

Drawing class this week was based around halloween seeing as it was the next day! So I had fun filming lots of spooky pumpkins, but what I really loved was the flicker of the candle and how it added movement through out the hole pumpkin. I wanted to exploit that movement so I basically turned the contrast to max and got rid of any colour so I created a weird black and white ghost that looked like he was moving and transforming when it was actually the light inside. I added a texture to the back of the video and I felt the video lacked any depth and this (cushion being moved) added a nice deep purple texture and extra movement going in the opposite direction of the candle. 

I sourced the sound from freesound.org

(I cant remember the audio clip, I will put up the source once I find the exact audio clip link)

Music video- Daniel and Lewis

As part of my pre-production I wanted to make a music video as I feel that a music video is just one of many ways that you can visual music. Music videos are more representational of the works and artist but the visuals have to reflect the mood, tone, tempo and composition of the song. Two local artists Daniel and Lewis are keen to have a music video make for their new song "Im done" which is about breaking up with someone. I have been in talks with them for quite a while but getting a date that was suitable for all of us posed a problem. Hopefully a date will be set soon but for now, I am just running wild with ideas and storyboards. I will upload my sketches at some point but here a few videos that I have and want to take inspiration from

What I liked about this video was the simple black screen (done in green screen) even though it was simple, I found it gave a very isolated and lonely feeling which is the vibe that I would like to convey in my music video. I also really like the speed and lights that are projected on the walls of the bedroom. I will probably go out and film some footage at night for some media tests to try out some different ideas.

When I heard about that song and the meanings behind it my mind went straight to the old abandoned hospital outside Dundee. I have never been there myself but I have seen a lot of people go and take pictures there and I believe it would be quite symbolic of the feeling of torn apart and the heartbroken feeling would be represented in the derelict building.

William Moritz

I've been reading up a lot about William Moritz recently. The film historian whom specialized in visual music sadly passed away in 2004.  I was reading up about similarities in the way moving visuals and music are composed. I found an interesting quote from one of his articles:

"Just as many different techniques create moving images, so do many different instruments create musical sounds. Images (ie colors, form, materials, juxtapositions and contrasts etc.) and sounds (ie. tones, melodies, rhythms, orchestral colors, harmonies and counterpoints) function the same in different media"

(This also backs up what I was talking about a few days ago when I was talking about the beardyman video)

He also developed his theories on visual music in the 70's which encased "the desire to create a moving abstract image as fluid and harmonic as auditory music". His theories is what I believe captures the entire essence of visual music.

He wrote over 100 articles as well as chapters and program notes. I have found many of his articles very useful. Here are just a few that I have read and have helped me to learn more about visual music and to source more information and artists in this area.

http://www.awn.com/articles/profiles/lifetime-animation-glamorous-dr-william-moritz

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.1/articles/moritz2.1.html

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.2/articles1.2/moritz1.2.html

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.5/2.5pages/2.5moritzwhitney.html

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6moritzfilms.html

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.7/articles/moritz1.7.html

Just before Mortiz died, he donated all of his work to the center of visual music, which is based in Los Angeles and if I had enough money, I would be right over there. The website http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/ has been another great site to go on, find articles for my research proposal which is due in the middle of December. It is a great website to find information to then go away and research things further.