Project #4: Video Reenactment

 
VIDEO ART

1) Visit the website ubuweb and explore the many experimental films and videos available on this site: http://www.ubu.com/film/

Choose a video/film of your liking. Shoot and edit your own version of the chosen video/film preserving the soundtrack from the original source to be added to your video creation. This is an interpretive experiment. Be creative in how you approach this project! You can attempt to recreate or copy the point of view, camera angles, timing, subject matter and such in your original or creatively re-interpret. Your video creation should somehow reflect your chosen work. There are many hundreds of choices on this site - take some time to explore these many varied historical and contemporary works! (You cannot pick Fatboy Slim)

The minimum length of your video should be two minutes with a minimum of three cuts.

In our critique we will be viewing your original source video and your reenactment, please be sure BOTH works are embedded or linked to your blog post as well as your Artist Statement!

Equipment and techniques: You may use anything from a cell phone video camera, laptop webcam to a high end HD camcorder. This is up to you! I recommend you use Adobe Premiere of Final Cut Pro to edit your work after capturing the audio with Snapz Pro X (This program is only available in the lab)

Your video is due, posted to your blog (embed through Youtube or Vimeo) by the start of class on October 8th.

2) Read "Chapter 2 Video Art"  for October 3rd and post two questions on your blog prior to class time.  Research artists mentioned in the reading - find videos of their work where possible online as this will greatly enhance your understanding and appreciation of their works!

Nam June Paik

Matthew Barney

Snapz Pro X and Adobe Premiere

Once you have chosen you video, open up the video player in your web browser.








Open Snapz Pro X (usually CMD-SHIFT-5) and select the Movie button.

 Move the selection box over you video. (It doesn't have to be perfect as we will be deleting the video track later.)

 Make sure the "Capture Mac Audio" button is selected.

 Open Premiere and Click "New Project

The New Project interface will open. Name your file and choose the location in which you want to save your file. (Mine will look a bit different because I am using older software, but the process is the same.)

Next, you are given the "New Sequence" options. You want to choose "DV-NTSC" (Digital-Video National Television System Committee) as either Standard48kHz (4:3) or Widescreen48kHz (16:9), whichever one you prefer. The 48kHz is the audio sampling rate.

Go to File > Import, and select your file.

This will import your file to the project window. Drag you file to the timeline and you will separate video and audio tracks. This is how you import your own video to the project window as well.

To delete the original video track, RIGHT click on the video track in the timeline and select "UNLINK."

Now all you have to do is hit delete and the video is gone. Drag your new video to the timeline and use the same process to remove the audio.

 After you video is put together, go to File > Export > Media.

This will bring up your CODEC interface. Make sure your settings match this image completely, then hit OK.

Use H.264 (MPEG4), Quicktime, or MPEG2 as your CODED/Compressor so it doesn't take 9 years to load to YouTube or Vimeo.

This will bring up Adobe Media Encoder. This program allows you to make any final changes to your video settings before rendering you file. If you followed the directions you won't have to make any changes except where you want the file to render to (as indicated in the image.) Click "Save Queue" and CONGRATULATIONS, you are a Video Artist!!!

Project #3 Animation Audio

As you know, we will be making a stand alone "single channel" video installation thus you do not need a title or credit sequence for your individual animation. We will be creating a composite of everyone's animation together -  to give the impression of a never ending, smoothly transitioning looping video that will go on forever!

Animation Soundtracks:
Working with Audacity, Soundtrack Pro, Adobe Audition or another audio editing/mixing program of your choice create a unique soundtrack to compliment your individual animation segment. Compile your audio and animation using Premiere, Final Cut, or any video editing software of your choice.

Remember to use the H.264 CODEC and post it to your blog.

GOOGLE RULE! GOOGLE RULE! GOOGLE RULE!

The audio piece you will create for this will start with four tracks:

* I have selected a "drone" sound that you will all use in your animations. Please do not alter this object as it will be a unifying factor in our final animation. 

Download file here

* One sound recorded using a microphone.

* The other two sounds are to be found/downloaded or otherwise appropriated from the internet.

http://www.soundcloud.com/
http://www.freesound.org/browse/

Creatively mix your segment to effectively work with your animated piece - use filtering, repetition, Left/Right stereo mixing to assemble the best possible audio mix that works flawlessly to complete your animated sequence!

Two links to find inspiration from:

Cory Arcangel

Marina Zurkow

Animations with sound are due Tuesday, September 17!!! Save your file with your last name. We will work as a group to decide how to create our final animation for exhibition in the Project NV Gallery. (Since this is a group collaboration, please be patient and flexible so we can successfully complete this project)


9/12 - Animation In-Process Critique, Project #3 Audio for Animation and Collaboration, Reading #2 posted
 
9/17 - Animation/Audio Critique, Discuss Project NV install

9/19 - Install Project NV Gallery (Print and Install Diptychs, Composite Animations, Install Projector, Write Statement)

9/24 - Discuss Reading #2, Read #3 Posted

Reading #2

Here's the link to our second reading. Please have questions posted and be ready to discuss on 9/24.

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction - Walter Benjamin

Project #2 Animation

Please Say Something from David OReilly on Vimeo.






Create a 10-20 second long animation from your diptych image.



9/5 - Discuss Reading #1, Project #2 Animation, Principles of Animation, Demo

9/10 - Studio

9/12 - Animation In-Process Critique, Project #3 Audio for Animation and Collaboration, Reading #2 posted
      
9/17 - Animation/Audio Critique, Discuss Project NV install


•FINISHED ANIMATIONS ARE TO BE EXPORTED FROM PHOTOSHOP AND UPLOADED TO YOUTUBE OR VIMEO FOR EMBEDDING INTO YOUR BLOGS! DO THIS BEFORE CLASS!

IMPORTANT SIZE INFORMATION!!!
Everybody, work at the following resolution: 1920 Height x1080 Width at 72 ppi!!!
This is the standard HD 16:9 format although it is rotated for vertical formatting! This is imperative for the next portion of our project. As a class we will decide how to composite your animations for the exhibition. Everything needs to be in the same format, frame rate, and file format so everything is put together smoothly.

After Effects Process

In PhotoShop, resize and save a copy of your .psd file to match the dimensions below. Remember not to overwrite your large montage file. Save a copy as a .psd indicating that this is your animation source document. Ex: 01_project_ani.psd 

Open After Effects and import your montage animation source file.

Make sure to change "Import As:" to "Composition - Retain Layer Sizes"

Double click your newly imported composition file in the project window to bring your layers to the time line.

You can double check that your format is correct by going to composition > composition settings. Make sure your dimensions are right and your frame rate is set to 24 fps.

Use the timeline and keyframes to create your 10-20 second animation. 

Experiment! Experiment! Experiment!

After completing your animation, save your file and export it to Adobe Media Encoder Queue.

Adobe Media Encoder will open. This the program you will use to compress your file and export it as an .mp4 (motion pictures editors guild part 14). Make sure you are using H.264 as your CODEC and you are matching the source material for a high bit rate. Tell Media Encoder where you want to save your file and hit the play button.

Upload your video to YouTube or Vimeo and embed it in your blog using the HTML (hypertext markup language) option on your blog. Please do not wait to the last minute to upload your video. 

Remember to write a brief artist statement describe your thought process and ideas.

Good Luck and have fun!!!

Final Writing Assignment and Presentation

Final Writing Assignment and Presentation

Final Writing Assignment and Presentation

1) This is a two part final assignment.  You will be creating a 5 to 10 minute presentation for class and a 1500 word Illustrated Blog Post/Paper on the same subject matter.

2) Choose two artists (or artists groups/collaboratives) from the following websites featuring literally hundreds of artists for you to explore.  You are to choose artists we have not covered in class:
http://www.eyebeam.org/people/current (search through "fellows" and "residents" for hundreds of amazing artists, links to their websites will generally be on their profile pages)
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~infoarts/links/wilson.artlinks2.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_art
http://rhizome.org/art/
http://www.gamescenes.org/

2) Research your chosen artists. Make sure to record citations of where to find the works, links, etc.

3) Choose ONE representative work from each of your artists for a total of two works to be considered in your paper and presentation - you may choose to include more works by these artists in your visual presentation to the class, but your main thesis will revolve around your ONE representative work from each  artist. 

4) Describe, analyze, interpret, compare and contrast the artist’s works, considering broadly their chosen formal and conceptual strategies, being careful to address genre (film, video, performance, interactive art, simulation, game art, etc) in your general analysis of the works. As part of your research, make an attempt to contact both of your artists to ask questions regarding the work. (If you don't hear back from them please note such in your paper and presentation). You must, as well, reference the readings from the class in considering the works in question.  For the paper/blog post, make appropriate citations following standard academic paper guidelines (MLA or Chicago Manual Style)

Please limit your chosen artists/works to those created after 1980 - the only requirement is that the artists are somehow intrinsically involved in the creative use of digital technologies in their works.

The intent here is to give you the opportunity to critically engage in basic research and analysis of artists and artworks, while at the same time encouraging a greater depth of experience of various artist’s creative production and contexts.

The paper is to be in the form of an extended blog post - include illustrations, videos where appropriate, etc.

Grading: 
Your presentation and writing will be graded according to the quality of your research, the originality of your analysis, the clarity of your writing, design and clarity of your presentation.

Due Dates: 

In Class Presentations 

11/5 
Anders

William

Jessica

Allison

Elena

Darius

11/7 
Zach

Johnny

Erin

Alexx

Franklin

Jenny

Paper as Illustrated Blog Post:
Posted by: Tuesday, December 10th Midnight