Making a one minute video given no additional prompts or ideas was difficult for me. I had a lot of ideas, but for some reason one kept coming back to me. I love painting and experimenting with colors (as anyone who has met me may have noticed...) and I am also a psychology major, so I decided to make my final project reflect these interests. I asked several friends to help me with this project; I gave them a palette full of acrylic paints and had them paint their own faces. I asked them to paint how their emotions on their face, without a mirror, for one minute. Everyone who participated ended up enjoying themselves and relieving some stress. I had people paint their faces to make a comment on beauty ideals and makeup. I tried to keep it pretty open-ended and subtle, and not bombard my viewers with messages. For music, I was at a loss. I ended up making some loops on GarageBand and overlaying it with my own voice reading a poem by John Keats called "A Thing of Beauty." I did it just to add a bit more interest to the background sound, so I intentionally made it hard to hear. I wanted the viewers to focus on the subjects of my video, not the poem.
I think I decided why your video was so weird/ awesome. It's kind of like a makeup ad because people in makeup ads look at the camera while doing their makeup, which is weird, because, how can they see what they are doing? It especially feels like one because your actors don't smile or giggle or break character at all. I don't think your video was intended to make fun of makeup ads, it's much too clever for that, but that is how I interpret it, which is fine, because I know you said you wanted to leave it open-ended. I like the mysteriousness. Great job.
ReplyDeleteI think your video had a really cool concept. It was so open ended that it really left a lot up to the viewer, and I find that really appealing. I also think that your Garage Band music with the Keats over it was quite effective and was generally pretty cool. I agree that it was difficult to come up with ideas for this project since we didn't really have any prompt.
ReplyDeleteI love the rhythm your video created and how everything fit together perfectly. The paint idea, the location, the music, the cuts/overlaying of images-it all combined to make it effective and unique. I'm still particularly impressed with the simple but creative idea of painting faces. There's really something quite beautiful in that which added to your video because of it.
ReplyDeleteI'm really impressed by how you seem to have mastered every aspect of video - the conceptual, the visual, and the audio. The three really came together to create a cohesive mood.
ReplyDeleteI found it really interesting to look at HOW each person painted their faces - what colors they used, how haphazard or deliberate they were, where they put it... Is it obvious I'm a psych major too? :)
Face painting could be really bad in that kids fest activity sort of way, but the raw human reaction to the process gave your video heft. Doing something that is ritualistic, tribal, childlike, psychotic in a space that looked much like grandma's rec room added another layer. Your GarageBand composition with Keats reading made the viewer pay attention.
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