T H O M A S B E N S O N VZN
My starting point with experimenting in media involved being inspired by music videos, and generally music's relationship with visuals. I tried to mimic the glitchy aesthetic I had found in videos for songs such as 'Yamborghini High' by ASAP Mob and 'Welcome to Heartbreak' by Kanye West in the first video above. This was also my first time using Premier Pro so while I was limited in that aspect I still managed to create a visual which mirrored the sonics playing over it. The videos with the figure gliding his hand across a wall show my process of using both stop animation and after effects masks to portray a type of opening into a different world. It is left up to interpretation but originally the idea was that this effect represents the world that lives in our mind, a world which follows you around, this includes all good thoughts as well as our inner demons. The vibrancy of the colours best signify this different plane of existence by how out of place they seem in our reality. Through the motion of the figure's hand we see this representation of our mind encapsulate the screen.
This video inspired the experimentations above as this was when I first started to pair music and a moving visual to represent something further than the music could alone. With the aid of the man running across the pupil as well as the dilating eye, there is a new meaning brought to the music and another dimension to the song that can be explored conceptually. The original idea for this video was the notion of perspective and how light can effect it. This then evolved into the videos above as they also stem from this theme.
Before I made the video above I experimented using digital drawing for the first time as seen in the photo across. I would then apply these skills when drawing the red effect onto each frame in the stop motion of the figure walking and extending his arm to visually represent the metaphysical world of the forms. I decided to draw an eye as it would be a starting point for the video above, however, I decided to use pieces of paper instead as I felt it gave a more authentic and homemade type feel to the video. After becoming used to digital drawing here I feel it is something I will use in the future.
End of Project Review
When starting my media project it was clear that I would be trying to involve a moving image into my final outcome after I had been deliberating with this idea in the previous two projects. I wanted to move away from trying to pair my visuals with a chord progression or any musical notes, instead I would have it by itself to be left raw and up to interpretation from there. I tried best to represent a type of alternate universe/dimension in the portal opening behind the figure's hand whether this be physical or metaphysical, I did this through my choice of colour and in the bottom right video my choice of projection to embed behind the layer mask. This embedded video was taken from visual simulations of what an intense psychedelic experience can look like from the drug DMT, commonly associated with a mind state whereby people interact with the inner voices in their mind. I felt as though I could have documented this better in my sketchbook as I left the planning for the video rather last minute as it became a spontaneous decision after I disliked many other possibilities to what my final outcome could be. For this reason I decided to make alternate versions of the video, one using layer masks in after effects, one using stop motion and digital drawing and making use of different colours also. I became inspired by music videos initially for this project but made a conscious effort to move away from this as I was worried my projects would seem to overlap too much in their similarity regarding the use of sonics to portray an idea/theme. Overall, I feel as though I did follow a unique and refreshing creative process as I was allowed the freedom to leave old ideas in the past, however I could have done a better job in documenting this failed ideas as they remain a cluster of still images on my phone and are not developed to the point of being presented. I definitely enjoyed this project as I stepped outside my comfort zone in the sense of the mediums I was using, this was something that I revelled in and wish to do more.