Final Gifs

gifs

http://static.wixstatic.com/media/66f370_3478c037761b42999fbdb03f1bf4bd4d.gif

http://static.wixstatic.com/media/66f370_56b162f248d8491090d762a5e550f483.gif

http://static.wixstatic.com/media/66f370_2dffb397afbc4e3abe173414a668ead0.gif

http://static.wixstatic.com/media/66f370_fed47ba263934c6eb185263a157648b2.gif

Two complete

Polaroid

For ages I wasn't happy with the output just being Gifs, I felt like they were lacking something, this is when I decided I would go back and photograph polaroids in the location the gifs were first recorded to then composite both together to form a moving image with the still photo.

Polaroids instantly develop in front of your eyes which fits the theme of capturing a moment, the difference is that part of the image inside the polaroids will still be moving to show the world goes on and the person is just frozen in that moment, representing the disconnection with surroundings due to the use of technology, fitting to the theme of living through social media and the research brought up of what happens to our online presence after we die?

The polaroid also acts like looking through a screen.

Shoot No.3

I compiled some footage from the day of shoot number 3- location Skegness

Current successful edits

I really like the composition of the top two as they are each facing out the frame, and facing opposite directions. I feel that the bench shit could be a bit too central so may have to re-edit and crop to re-alight the subject to make the composition more pleasing on the eye.

failed edits

Screen shots

This edit was unsuccessful as when shooting the model moved about too much for me to create a mask of his moving arm/ hand.

testing

As the gifs were so easy on the eye I could sit and stare at them for ages, this then gave prompted me to use the glitch on the subject to make the cinemagraph uncomfortable and the viewing difficult to watch, linking back to the previous research and also enforcing my concept of taking time away from digital devices and being present in your location and moment.


Also must remember to test in Indesign to see if it works on an iPad.

Huge painted gif

With gif usage being propular online, twitter and Facebook are now allowing this format, as well as Facebook auto plays content. This means using gifs is an ideal format to target the intended audience.

The quality could be an issue but as the majority of people would be viewing on small screens it should be ok.

The exhibition will include larger, clearer versions of the final outcomes, working hand in hand to cross platforms and become a multimedia project.


They remind me of holograms that move depending on how you tilt them. That was the physical alternative to this format. Repetative movement.


physical gifs, kickstarted campaign

http://www.cnet.com/news/project-aims-to-turn-animated-gifs-into-a-physical-keepsake/



Graffiti gifs

http://www.fubiz.net/en/2014/05/20/animated-street-art-graffiti-gif/

Society of the screen

My initial inspiration developed from wanting to merge still image with moving image, 

Just remembered digital picture frames are now a thing, not sure if many people actually use them, but it's fascinating really. Are people no longer printing photographs? Everything seems to be going from tangible, physical objects to things that only exist 'in the cloud' and as data. 

Possibly:

Exhibiting final animations as if they were still images.

-wall mounted iPads

-digital picture frames 

-screens

This reflects the way memories and experiences is now viewed, saved, remembered through screens.

Questioning life though a screen. Only remembering certain things, self mediation, the digital self.

The content of the gifs are people still, frozen, observed by the technology they are using, separated from their surrounding world that continues to move. The gifs loop to represent the unending nature, the scroll of the continuous Internet, no end no middle and no beginning. 

They're unaware of their surroundings, the technology lives as they are static. 

Photographs as a captured moment in time, the people are photographs amiungsy the constructed reality around them. Everything appears to be 'normal' and reality, but as the viewer looks closer and realises the still against moving looped world the illusion is broken, leaving them questioning what world the subject is in. Is it reality? Is it surreal? Is it digital?

issues 2

After a lot of google searches I came across this example of settings for saving the file.

It seems to have improved the quality, it still is lacking colour and quality in same areas but so far this is the best I have managed to get it.

Screen grab of the gif, this is the best quality so far. As you can see areas are patchy and they even jump around when the gif is played.

gif issues

Currently the gif format destroys the HD quality as it reduces the colours to 256, trying to work around this to maximise quality. It could be ok as twitter only allows gifs of up to 3MB file size and I'm yet to figure out the Facebook procedure for uploading gifs.

Photobucket is what I've been using to host the files, but that also seems to reduce the quality drastically. It may be compressing the file size so it animates online.

If worse comes to worse I will have to create smaller sized animations to be viewed online, and then a separate file for the on screen ones that won't require the internet.

Twitter gifs

Apparently twitter converts gifs to MP4 and embed the video?

And their max file size is 3MB.

First shoot

Kitted out with camera, batteries, tripod and most importantly umbrella, I trekked to Wollaton Park (aka Wayne Manor) for the first location.

(As well as shooting bits for my project, I also photographed Tom for his website and portfolio). 

Currently editing and sorting through footage but seeing as I keep getting:









...here are some screen shots of the edits taking place

I used a 50mm lens as it is sharp, lightweight, versatile, and great for throwing the background out of focus.
As I had done pre-shoot tests I realised that I 100% needed to manually control the settings, I do this for still photography but had never manually set exposure on a DSLR for moving image. As I need as much continuity in the shots as possible, it is vital that the exposure stays the same. With moving image I cannot alter shutter speed as I would to let in more or less light when taking stills, so I controlled the exposure when shooting by keeping the iso as low as possible (because we were outdoors) and then altering the aperture. Ideally I needed ND filters to act as Fstops to let less light in the camera as a 50mm lens doesn't have much alteration with aperture.




Currently having issues with photoshop giving 'unknown errors' wheel of death-ing and then quality problems when uploading the gifs to hosting website.
I need to look into how to maximise quality but still keeping to the gif format.


I didn't get as much variety in the shoot as I planned/wanted, but it is definitely a starting point. I now know what works and what doesn't so I'm raring to carry on and shoot some more stuff this coming week. I MUST REMEMBER TO SHOOT BACKGROUND.

App available

There're are apps available

Cinemagram


Flixel Cinemagraph Pro


These are both free, allowing people to create this effect on their mobile devices.

Cinemagraphs

Cinemagraph- Appears to be a still image, but a slight aspect will be moving. Regularly created to be gifs.

Term coined by U.S. photographers Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck.
Their work utilises this effect in a lot of fashion photography.
Website: http://cinemagraphs.com

It can be used for adverts
Facebook now lets videos play automatically so gifs are viewable on the website.

Relationship with technology

Animations-

Mr Selfie is a short animation that follows the day of an 'average' character who is glued to their phone. The entire animation their mobile does not leave the characters hand as he looks don't and goes on an unnoticed adventure. It represents the disconnection from surroundings and how normal this behaviour is coming. The only moment throughout the animation he acknowledges his beautiful surroundings, you believe and hope him to change but he just takes a selfie and carries on. Only to tweet at the end that it had been a boring day.

Made with handmade puppets, Dis\connected explores our unhealthy relationship with social media and technology. The voiceover verbalises human worries and the thought process of the character.
I really like the simplicity of the scenes created, the character doesn't have features and everything is a grey tone but you know exactly what is happening and can relate to what you see. It really made me think, and that's what I like about different projects like this. They make you question yourself and the current world, which is always a good thing. Don't just accept everything.

first test fail

This doesn't work correctly as the camera wasn't on a tripod, even when you think it's still there is slight movement and juddering that gets picked up and becomes obvious.

test

Possible models

Shoot lined up for 14.03.15

Before then:

Test camera

Technique

Composition

Lighting

Motion

Editing

Gif

Storyboard, compose shots and ideas

Shoot need:

Camera

Tripod

SD card

Light?

Mac?

Eureka (hopefully)

Been having a huge long dilemma, as it's the last project I want to do something I'm visually pleased with, I kept swaying back to still image but then I feel as if I'm not challenging myself, so I started chaotically trying to think of new ideas. After searching for inspiration anywhere I could, going to different course guest lectures, sitting and looking at books in waterstones, I even attempted drawing to try and inspire me.

Turns out all I needed to do was sit on train and an idea came to me, 

Ive been worrying about wanting my project to reflect the relationship between human and tech, physical and digital, this is why I kept getting stuck, I didn't want to just produce photographs and I didn't just want to create a video. 

Eureka! 

I'm going to create a series of cinemagraphs, they have the aesthetic of still image but incorporate moving image to form gifs.

The audience: young adult 

Need:

Why: question relationship with tech, is it healthy, is it aiding life

The cinemagraphs:

People

Tech

Stuck in that moment, separate from reality 

They can become banners, adverts, digital art.

To be continued, as I must get off the train.

Phillip Stearns

https://phillipstearns.wordpress.com/fragmented-memory/

A glitch is the product of an error that results from a programs loss of control over its intended function. 

Gatecrashing a guest lecture

I gatecrashed a CLM/Photography lecture from Thomas Enderby, who is a part of the Post Production team for Rankin. I didn't necessarily expect to find anything relevant to this project I was just in need of anything visually interesting.
Half way through the talk, these photographs came up on the screen and 2 people simultaneously turned around to me mouthing 'GLITCH'.

Not all Rankin's work involves fashion, editorial, commercial etc, they also do a lot for charities. These are part of a campaign to raise awareness of Ataxia. Rankin photographed people who suffer from Ataxia and then the glitch effect was created by moving the photographs as they were being scanned.
I really like how it wasn't created in post, it was the physical process of making a print digital and the effect moving the prints that resulted in the effect of the final outcome.

I'm fond of the black and white portraits to contrast against the harsh, bright colours in the glitches.

Similarities to my past work:

This is how I integrated glitches in my last project, this time I am looking to do it more subtle and less intrusive to suggest slight malfunction rather than entire body glitches.

Portrait by Maria Blackstone

Bots

Death threat twitter bot

A twitter bot got a man in trouble because it's automated, random tweets resembled death threats. As the mad had made the bot, he was held responsible. 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/12/8025475/twitter-bot-police-death-threats

Bot buys drugs

An automated bot was made to spent $100 to purchase random goods. 

http://www.theverge.com/2015/1/15/7551031/automated-bot-buys-ecstasy-darknet-art-exhibit

from http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/nick-knight-showstudio-pin-ups

What did I just watch?

'We Used to be Friends' - All series 1 episodes of Friends. It's weird, it hurts my head, but I kind of like it.




Takes your recent Instagram uploads and puts them together
http://www.wired.com/2014/12/metagramme/#slide-id-1679451

Nature vs Tech

Tulip fields just outside Alkmaar, North-Holland, Netherlands

Lisa Jevbratt 1:1

"No-one ever takes a photograph of something they want to forget."

One Hour Photo reminded me of my initial inspiration for the project. How I was able to see a strangers baby scan pop up on my newsfeed. (Also ironic how it's called a NEWSfeed because hardly any of it is news worthy) in the film Robin Williams plays a guy who developes photographs for people in a store, he sees families grow over the years and starts to feel like he is apart of this. For example he recognises family members from photos and introduces himself to people in the store if he recognises them. The plot escalates rather quickly to show he has become obsessed with a certain family he's developed the photographs of for many years, he even had their pictures in frames around his house. But crazy stalker storyline to the side, it draws parallel to my initial worries and questions surrounding how accessible peoples 'personal' photos are. This film is just an analog version of this privacy concern, and now in a digital age, this worry is heightened through easy access and ability to save, duplicate and share online. 

Snazzy snazaroo

Paint purchased to test ideas. 

In an ideal world I would've done a test shoot this weekend, but I went to Nottingham without my camera so sadly that plan is not going to happen. When I return to lincoln I will be testing asap to get an idea of what's possible and what will look best, and to verify if my ideas are even achievable.

PS snazaroo isn't cheap

PPS I'm rather allergic to paint 

Nottingham Contemporary

cinematography inspiration for 'trailer'/ teaser content

Nothing But Thieves- Emergency
Director- Lewis Cater
DOP- Phil Berridge







Colour grading, lenses, composition, framing, location, depth of field.

Proposal meeting

Discussed ideas for live installation
-possible glitch content?
-scale of piece
-document process
-possibility of iweek workshop or something

to think about- what will the glitch content be, do people create their own? scale, when, who, where.

Short videos
-could act as trailers for installation
-green paint will work
-light evenly

to think about- when, who, lenses, lights, paint, mess


Looking into 'automator' and how that works, is it a possibility?

Social Media research

Museum of Me

http://www.projector.jp/awards/museumofme/en.html

Museum space that holds all your social media content, visualising all your likes, experiences and memories. 

Quite nostalgic, almost like a scrapbook.
But would you want someone looking through your social media when you've died?

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/what-my-parents-want-done-with-their-facebook-profiles-after-they-die/384886/?utm_source=SFTwitter

An article I found about what people want doing with their Facebook pages after they die, is it now becoming something we have to discuss? 

logo making

Logo progress

Brief



Research (audience and style)
http://www.logoed.co.uk/2012/01/26/more4-2/
http://www.logoed.co.uk/2014/04/22/kickstart/
http://www.logoed.co.uk/2012/09/10/wallspace/
http://www.logoed.co.uk/2011/05/10/bang-your-own-drum/
http://www.logoed.co.uk/2011/03/07/platea/
http://www.logoed.co.uk/2011/01/28/1946/ - intrusive style and uses

Sketching
Illustrator to be able to rescale without losing quality
Insert into photoshop as a smart object to keep quality
Typeface
Different sizes
Different colours
Style guide


Revisions



Presentation


Mock ups
http://www.wickiemedia.net/blog/design/photoshop/Social-media-artwork-template.html

Iphone versions

Stickers

Badges

Marketing

Create a website?