Synopsis for Assignment 2

After looking at Oscar Fischinger, I was inspired to do a completely abstract piece. I filmed ink spills on paper to create organic forms. At first, I was going to make a juxtaposition between organic and mechanical forms, but after making the ink spill videos, I felt that the mechanical part would take away from the organic. Instead, I wanted to play with color and layering making the beginning fairly calm and black and white and the end highly layered and highly saturated. I wanted to create an uneasy feeling, so I made the audio very odd by layering parts, of different songs I made, on top of each other. Overall, I wanted to create a piece that was somewhat mesmerizing and slightly disturbing at the same time.

Synopsis for Assignment 1

With this project, I was trying to make the viewer feel as if they were experiencing a short journey through these surreal, dreamlike landscapes. I used a slow pan across photographs for aesthetic qualities and to create the illusion that the viewer is looking around. The main inspiration for this project was the places I visit in my dreams. The places are never average places, they are usually completely made up or combinations of several places in one. This inspired me to combine parts of different photographs of different places and make them a landscape that seems like it is possible to move through.

To Do List for Final Project

* Lock down videos

* Take scenes into AE and use puppet tool, panning, zoom, and layering of pictures and videos.

* Take edited scenes back into Final Cut to make final edit combining scenes.

Final Ideas for Animation

I dont feel the need to make a storyboard since my animation will be purely abstract. I have a main idea of how to express the warping of reality and the dream world together. I plan on making reality full of hard edges, straight lines, mechanical movements, right angles, and desaturated color and making things appear somewhat how they should be, while making the dream world more organic shapes and movements, curved, saturated colors, and making things oppose gravity and perspective. I plan on cutting these together randomly to create the idea of confusing dream and reality. I also plan on making the "real world" grow more mechanical and making the "dream world" more organic as time progresses, eventually making the two extreme opposites. I want to make these two contrast so much by the end to the point where it easy to distinguish between them.

Assignment 8 write-up

I have completed my letter based animation. I used a line from a poem I wrote. It says, "I bleed frail dreams from the moon's skin, the kind that burn out like stars." I feel like my animation is too cluttered and too busy. I wish I had simplified things down more and I also wish I would have incorporated the photo of the moon more with the text.

Final Idea

A person becomes confused between what is reality and what is a dream. At first the two worlds will seem similar but as time progresses they grow more and more different until it is obvious which is which. After it becomes obvious the person realizes when they are dreaming and takes control of their dream, therefor experiencing a lucid dream. I plan on using mostly photographs to accomplish this.

Essay

Oskar Fischinger

Oskar Fischinger was born in 1900 and died in 1967. He started out pursuing a career in music and studying mathematical harmonic theory before age 14. He was unable to go to war, so he had to learn design and drafting. Not long after, he grew fond of abstract films and spent most of his life making them. He went on to win several awards for his work.
Fischinger was born in Gelnhausen, Germany on the summer solstice. Around 1920, Fischinger met a man named Dr. Bernhard Diebold, and showed him his abstract scroll sketches. When Diebold seen these he suggested that Fischinger should attempt to make abstract films. Not long after this, Fischinger quit his job and moved to Munich to pursue film making full time.
Fischinger's work started off very radical because he was trying to do something new and different than other abstract film makers. He used a lot of mandalas and circles to create hypnotic patterns which often went along with music. He used techniques and special effects that were fresh and before their time. He did conventional cartoons on the side which still had a radical quality, and did special effects for the movie Woman in the Moon in 1929. Soon after this he began to explore and experiment with the choreography of simple shapes. In 1935, his second color film Composition in Blue, won the King's prize at Brusslels World Fair, a foreign festival which he did not have permits for, so Paramount rushed him to Hollywood in 1936. There, he bought back rights to his film Allegretto, which is known as one of the most perfect pieces of visual music.
Fischinger's work is significant to our context because he was one of the pioneers of abstract film making and animation. He made interesting compositions and used smooth motion to create successful animations. He used layers of shapes and patterns to create hypnotic rhythms that often went along with music. All in all he showed a strong capability of handling his media.
I believe Oskar Fischinger was an interesting artist who was before his time. Many people used his techniques years after he began using them. He makes compelling work that puts me in a meditative state and has influenced me to make my animations and videos better.



LINKS

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5016650629572246228&q=Oscar+Fischinger&total=38&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0
Muntz-tv commercial