FINAL: Flags in the Sky

Video Taken Oct. 21, 2006
E Capitol Drive, between Oakland Ave. and Maryland Ave., Milwaukee

For my final product in this piece, I used both of my shots of the sky's reflection off of a storefront, with flags waving above. What I wanted to achieve with this was a simple accent of the sky. I found the sky, in each video, to be by far the most interesting part. The clouds moving go along with one of my objectives of seeing things move with the wind, and the foreground of the flags blowing obviously does so as well. In accenting the sky, I turned up the contrast and brought down the brightness, making the buildings and anything else more like a silhouette while the sky shines very clearly and powerfully.

FINAL: Leaves

Videos taken fromOct. 18-23, 2006
E Capitol Drive and Oakland Avenue, Milwaukee

I use two videos from my original postings for this video montage as well as other video that I had taken, but I found fit this video well. In this series of videos I wanted to accent only one thing, the leaves, or flowers in some cases. All that I wanted to stick out was just the leaves or plants that I was filming rather than anything else in the background (street, sky, cars, etc.) To do this, I used a lot of extreme close-ups so the leaves would take up much of the foreground of the frame, but I tried to mix those with some medium shots and some long shots. In editing, I turned contrast levels up and brightness levels down, attempting to make the leaves stand out more starkly in each short video.

FINAL: Zoom into the Fence

Video and Stills taken Oct. 21, 2006
Capitol Dr, Near Oakland Avenue

In my final product for this group of stills and video, I wanted to create an unpredictable and unsteady zoom into and out of the fence. I played around with different pacing, as well as the placement of certain clips to see what created the best feeling of a bit of a hectic atmosphere. I actually modeled this zoom after a scene from the movie Snatch by Guy Ritchie where he creates a very panicky situation with a simple quick and jumpy zoom into the face of a character.

Objective of This Blog

In this blog, I want to use two light capturing strategies utilizing both video and still imagery. I am using fences and things blowing in the wind as my criteria of what to shoot. With these clips and stills, I will be looking for patterns that can make a good, interesting and thought-provoking montages of both videos and stills.

Leaf Wall

11:30 a.m. October 21, 2006
Behind 2121 E Capitol Dr., Milwaukee

This is a steady video merely of a wall of ivy leaves blowing in the harsh breezes as they come by. It really is not much to stand on its own, but I want to couple it with other clips of leaves, like the leaf I have blowing through a parking lot in a previous post. In this way I want to create a pattern through the blowing of leaves in different settings.

Leaf Leaves Lot

10:20 a.m. October 19, 2006
Behind 2121 E Capitol Dr., Milwaukee

This is a very simplistic video of a leaf sitting in a parking lot and eventually blowing out of view. In itself, it really is not much. But what I want to do is combine it with other shots that I have of leaves blowing over various surfaces, such as a wall of vines or a sidewalk, etc.

Zooming at a Rusty Fence

1:30 p.m. October 21, 2006
Capitol Drive, Milwaukee

In this montage of mostly still frames, I already had an idea in mind for what I wanted my final to be. In it, there are multiple shots varying in distance from the fence. In my finished product, I want to make the shots getting closer to the fence more frenzied and hectic by making them have less screen time, then when the shot returns across the street to have longer shots.

Partly Cloudy Flags

1:00 p.m. October 21, 2006
Capitol Drive, Facing Maryland Avenue, Milwaukee

I saw these flags reflected in a storefront window and thought the mirrorlike reflections were very intriguing. What I want to do with this post is mix it with my clip of these same flags blowing during the sunset.

Flags in Sunset

6:42 p.m. October 21, 2006
Capitol Drive, Milwaukee

This is a pretty basic posting of a storefront window as the sun is setting. I am using it because of the silhouette of the flags blowing in the wind. What I plan on doing with this video is mixing it with another that I shot earlier in the day with the same window and flags, but facing another direction during the day.

I am going to use these light capturing strategies:

of only fences and
of only objects blown by the wind