Pixelation; influences to my design, how I went about the ideas, and possible improvements.

During the creation of my pixleation, I began to think what I actually wanted to do, and started to research an area which had struck me as interesting, reversing video or animation to make an effective end result. This started to get me thinking, that it would be easy to do this also with pixelation. Of course it was a hard task changing all of the file names to suit the order I wished them to play in, but it works effectively, particularly with the flower petals. Below is one of the videos which inspired the way in which movement can be presented backwards.


"ESREVER" Backwards Video - The top video clips of the week are here

I did several other draft pixelations before my completed pixelation, and have found that some of my ideas worked better than others. For example, I took shots of a dandelion, well one of those things were all the seeds can be blown off, and reversed this. It worked fairly well but I needed something more professional and more smooth for my final piece, hence the groups work with the petal picking.

A major problem with my pixelation is the lack of narrative, which I am fully aware of. I clearly need to add some form of story to the ideas, whether an account of events or even a more individual idea of creating some written work to play along with the pixelation, perhaps a short poem for example. But I am currently undergoing work into this, as I can see that it will need improving to suite the brief.

Another technique I attempted to use during my pixelation work was timing between audio and visual aspects of the design. The movement linked to audio was something that Andy mentioned in an early seminar, and attracted my attention to the possibilities when exploring this further. A good example of this can be found in the music video for The White Stripes "The Hardest Button To Button" shown below.



In my video I attempted to do this at the stage where I jump backwards over the fence, as well as where my group move around the circular flower bed in the arboretum. This works well in my pixelation, however I could have used clearer, more defined movements within the pixelation to emphasise that I had attempted to do this.

Where do I go from here?

Right, so I finished the pixelation, but below are the improvements I will undergo before presenting the final piece to my peers and course leaders.

1) Firstly, I will consider and apply some form of narrative, most likely a short story or poem that adds to my pixelation to meet the brief.
2) Secondly, I will attempt to emphasise the link between audio and movement in my work by precisely applying the two together on the timeline in Premiere
3) Finally, I will put together all drafts, as well as the final piece to show that I have experimented with different ideas, and chose those I, and others felt where the strongest.

Thanks,

Scotty x x x x :)