Creative week (part 2)

We arranged the night before through social networking that me and Dev (LBM) would work on the Tuesday to get the structure and mechanism to work and then Jack and Victoria would create the inside as we both operate on different timetables. So first of all me and Dev started by discussing the idea and sketches. We then played around with actually designing the structure from our original ideas. It took a little while in order to understand the technical side of making a perfect pyramid like shape. The net of the shape had to be exact - this is one of the problems that we faced because if we cut the shape a tiny bit incorrect the finished 'box' would not fit together. In the end we decided as long as we could pull the arms together it should work efficiently enough. Throughout the rest of the day we struggled to create a mechanism that could keep the shape closed together (as the cardboard shape would open unless held closed) and also be opened when someone pulled open a section. We experimented with smaller prototypes - we tried using many techniques but every thing seemed to fail. It was really a day filled with trial and error. However this was a really good experience - it let me explore trying to work around a problem. When it comes to my final major project I may find many problems that I will have to fix in a small amount of time. Therefore this experience was helpful and allowed me to think up as many solutions as possible. It also let me work with Dev to bounce of each others ideas and possible solutions to the problem.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bidaCKR0j0 

On the Wednesday, Jack and Victoria worked together in the same way to produce the inside of our puzzle. They painted it white and then worked on piece that would read 'change' - and reveal the purpose of this puzzle. On the Thursday, Victoria and me worked on making the chosen mechanism and put on all of the paperclips. I brought 900 paper clips and we must have used around 600. It took a while but after gluing them all on we realised that they added extra weight to our puzzle which prevented the puzzle mechanism from actually working. I think that the phrase goes: 'its like trying to find a needle in a haystack' well in our case it was like trying to find a paperclip in a paperclip-stack. Yes it was near enough impossible. So in the end we instead decided to create an animation and film to show the same message. The puzzle aspect was not as important as the entire piece and so we planned to move on and work with what we had. The actual piece looked really good just as we had imagined - the outside was dangerous looking and intimidating whereas inside was light and completely different. On the Friday everyone was in so therefore we could work on making the film before our crit at 2.

Jack made an opening title for our film in AfterEffects - he in-cooperated our theme of 'change,' with the colour palette of black and white (like our piece.) The motion graphic was also 'sharp' similar to how our piece looks. While Jack made this, me, Dev and Victoria filmed and animated. We played around with stop motion animation, moving it side to side, turning the piece around to display its spikey and menacing nature. We then decided to start filming the piece opening up. However we were unable to open it without pulling each section apart - and we wanted to create the illusion that it was opening on its own. Therefore we had to think of a way that it would do this and without notice. I came up with the idea of using a strand of hair for each section and when all 6 strands were pulled individually it would open the puzzle up. It worked incredibly well and because we used blonde hair it wasn't as visible on camera. We had made our own puppet. And although this piece doesn't look alive - when we were filming and giving it alot of movement and personality it brought the object to life. And showed another purpose to our piece. During the filming the only real problem that we found was solving the puzzle inside for the camera, so it would spell out the word 'change' however we spent a long time trying to solve. When in the end someone came up with the bright idea to start with change and then un-solve it. We would just put the images in a different order and no one would know the difference. After the filming we then thought about what sounds we could use for our 'creature' we had made. We collected sounds like metal grinding, bike gears, and really awful sounds. We wanted the sound to project further the message of change. When the puzzle opens we played the sound of a chime (it still suited the sounds before but more soother) it expressed that change can be a good thing. Unfortunately we didn't have enough to edit our film and sound together so the finish piece is slightly rushed however it has still been a very helpful experience.

Notes from the Crit

Metallic change

playful? opposition (lives in opposition)

more real - because it wasn't edited 

transformed - sound

edited (bad) 

emotional change can be inflicted by the sound

speaking - and moving

death and rebirth 

physical can help benefit the digital piece 

Overall this experience has let me both work in a group and to develop ideas and carry that out into a finished  piece. This week has helped incredibly because i have been given the chance to sit down and create ideas - my finish idea ultimately derived from a paperclip. I loved working in a group environment where we bounced of ideas and could sit and talk about how this could be done or not - it let me contribute the ideas that i had and understand how others felt about it and see whether they could then develop further. Working in this way felt like we were creating a tree of ideas that kept growing with every possible idea and the comments that we received. I also like creating our paperclip piece - I do not really create models or an interactive piece, although i am making an animation for m FMP this week has let me discover what this could be like. I may even explore this further for my Final major project as a result. Lastly i really liked the trail and error approach we had when trying to make the piece. Even though somethings did not go to plan we all pulled together well to fix what had gone wrong. It meant I had to find solutions to problems under a short time frame - i feel that this experience will  be a great benefit for my FMP chosen idea. Overall i have loved this experience. I've had a good time trying something new and exploring a concept that could connect well to my FMP. And during the crit, Tom expressed an concept i found really interesting about living in opposition which may pose as another interesting idea for Anxiety and the Subconscious.

ALL photos on this post, are Author's own