Assignment #3: Collage – 15 points
Length: 2 – 3 minutes, tagged with your name and blog URL at the end
Due dates:
Proposal: 3/10 - One page, outlining your concept, sources, and primary message/meaning
Rough cuts: 3/19 and 3/24
Thursday, March 26th by 4pm:
1. Video compressed and embedded on your blog
2. Project statement printed and handed in as a hard copy
Using found (and original) audio/video, create a collage in AfterEffects that explores the relationship between several composited/superimposed visual layers at one time. The goal of this project is to further explore the notion of new media as a development that questions the traditional notion of the “shot,” and places primacy on relationships of audiovisual elements in space rather than time.
Project Constraints:
- Your project can use found and original footage, but it must use at least SOME found footage
- Still images are allowed, but there must be at least three instances of moving images
- Project must use at least five separate sources and all five sources must appear at once at least one time in your project
In developing your project idea, consider the following approaches and questions:
- Bricolage: A form of collage that foregrounds differences and contrasts in the source material. Lo-fi. Seams are apparent.
- Photorealism: Collage that aspires to create a photo-realistic presentation from disparate, unrelated sources. Strives for seamlessness.
- What illusion are you attempting to create? Do you want the illusion to be obvious, as a play between disconnected sources? Do you want the illusion to be realistic, so your audience doesn’t know what belongs together and what doesn’t?
- How will you break down the notion of the “shot”? What kinds of transitions will you use between elements in your composition? In the structure of the piece over time?
- As in the last assignment, how will you use sound to guide the viewer’s attention? To create cohesion – or contrast – within your visual composition?
Your video should have two primary aims: 1) Interactivity between layers/sources that creates a sense of a unified, cohesive piece and 2) A sense of development over time. So, as in the previous assignment, the most successful projects will avoid a “one-note” presentation; rather, they will exhibit a narrative, visual, or aesthetic progression over the course of the video, with attention to achieving complexity and depth.
Criteria for evaluation:
- Use of multiple sources to create a new, unified whole – the different elements create a relationship with one another narratively and/or aesthetically
- Multiple layers of overlap, superimposition, and juxtaposition to create a single composition
- Strong sense of unity – all elements serve a purpose in conveying the overall message
- Demonstration of basic concepts and skills in AfterEffects
- Clear sense of progression and development
- Attention to high quality compression/playback
- Video meets requirements of Fair Use
Project Statement
In addition to your video, prepare a 1 - 2 page, double spaced paper in which you describe your approach and process in creating this project. How did you generate your idea? Where did you find your sources? How did you use collage and layering to convey your message? What is your message? Why was collage as a format appropriate for your concept, in particular?