Final Cut Sound Video

Before I went on my Drift 2 sound and video walk, I had in mind to capture Milwaukee with two different strategy perspectives. The first was to view Milwaukee with it's beauty in natural plant life, and the second, to view how humans have destroyed nature with buildings and construction. I found out it would be a little difficult to render such a film, so I let the footage I have captured, lead the way. So, this what I created. It has a Wizard of Oz theme, were in the beginning, it is dull and flavorless. Very few colors show through, but it is also calm and laid back. Then a warp comes into place, to change that simple world into a more vibrant and surreal one. The noises are different than anything we've heard in the natural world, and the colors are so bright with vibrancy. Once we have seen some parts of this world, the warp has a bit of a problem and it tries another warp to a another different world. While warping the second time I could not match the sounds correctly, but after i watched it a few times, I actually liked how it was off just a bit. Since it is warping into the uncertainty, why can the sound not be uncertain as well?

Sound Rough Cut Sketch #2

The beginning of this rough cut sketch is ordinary and very clam with the chirping of crickets and subtle nature, but then, from the distortion of the sun, it becomes surreal- like or even alien-like because of the throbbing sound it escalates up to. Instead of using any effects yet, I decided to use the distortion that the sun created. This is my favorite clip, because of that detachment from reality. At first it is just nature, but then something takes over by using the sun. The sound I made also adds greatly to the affect. The line that abruptly intervenes is perfectly combined with the abrasive sound created by the same crickets.

Sound Rough Cut Sketch #1

The wind this day was very fierce, so to add to the atmosphere, I took some drilling sound from a construction site, and applied it to this clip of the plants blowing around. The sound is a little harsh. It wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, but it gets to the point. The leaves as well as the camera were shaky, so I mixed that with the jumpy, shakiness of the drill in my sound. With each image change, I changed the sound by altering the drilling a little different for each image. I couldn’t get the sound on the right spot, but this was also my first time connecting the image with the sound. The images were of the plants I thought where great in color and contrast. I find the stark white of the first plant interesting and then the bright magenta colors of the flowers inside. Also, the red leaves of the wall of vines was very vibrant in color. To view this clip, just click on the picture.

Silent Rough Cut Sketch #2

In all of the frames here, each has to do with the sky and what the sky is juxtaposed with. The more simple the object next to the sky, the more the sky is exemplified. For example in the first shot it is of the sun burning through the bushes, so the sky doesn't have much effect. In the ending shot of just a plain building at an extreme angle, it brings out the sky and the clouds moving by in a different perspective. I also made edits to combine the clips by joining the sky of the last clip, to the next clip. To view this clip, click on the picture.

Silent Rough Cut Sketch #1

For my fist short clip, I basically was starting from scratch. I have never used QuickTime Pro, so this was my first experiment putting together my rough cut sketch. On my drift my goal was to get buildings and nature at different angles, but a strayed away when I saw this white pipe protruding out from a building. I fallowed it with a slow pan as well as a fast pan. I then came across a wooden cellar door which I didn't know how to capture it as I wanted with the rest of the buildings, so I did a pan on the edge of the door. Together I made this short clip trying to piece together the two structures. I wanted to compare and contrast nature vs. man-made objects, so with the white pipe I had the fast pan make the clip seem more hectic while the wooden door is a close-up of the slow pan, showing the groves and texture of the wood. To see this clip, just click on the picture.

Production Strategy

My drift strategy was to start at the same point I started at in Drift 1. The area seemed promising, because of the excellent sounds I picked up in the last drift. There are a lot of new buildings being constructed, and it's partly industrial in that area, so there are many varieties of sound and image. The difference from Drift 1 is that instead of doing a zigzag pattern, I flipped a coin, heads going right and tails going left. Since the area had some shady characters, I had to turn around at some points, or keep going straight and flipping a coin down a different street. As for the production strategy for shooting the film, I shot only plant life from odd angles, and all the graffiti I could find with pictures. Once I looked at my camera to see what I captured, it did not seem like it would work out the way I planned. I captured more odd angles of objects and plants than, expected, and the graffiti did not seem that interesting anymore. I decided to go with the direction of angles being viewed in a different perspectives, which lead into a Wizard of Oz theme for the final clip.

Drift Map 2

This is my map of Drift Two, which I conducted on October 27th, 2008. Feel free to click on the map to interact with my drift walk. The green line is the path I took. The cameras are where I took the footage, and the blue markers are where I recorded sounds.

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