The Escape

The Escape Link:

http://youtu.be/TOQPUFe3JSg

Abstract Proposal

         For my project I will be creating a short action film. The film is entitled “The Escape”. In “The Escape” it opens with the female secret agent captured by an enemy agent. She is tied up in a chair. She slowly comes to consciousness. After looking around she then flashes back to how she gets to the room. She remembers being half conscious as he dragged her through the abandoned building and into a room. She then reaches up her sleeve and pulls out a blade.

         Following this, the enemy agent heads to the room to check on her. As she is cutting the rope, she hears him coming and pretends to be still unconscious. Once he sees she is still secure, he pulls out his phone to talk and closes the door, where she is hiding behind. She then sneaks up behind him, takes the rope and swings it around his head. She smacks him against both walls and then hits him with her able. She then walks a way into the distance as he lies there on the ground.

Production Log

         To start, during week one I created a concept. I originally wanted to do an action trailer, but I decided it would be best to do just one scene for what could be an action film. I then wrote the story proposal and created a storyboard for this proposal. During week two I created a shot list, a cast list, a prop list, and wardrobe list. When creating the shot list, I looked at all the shots I wanted and figured out how I wanted to shoot them.

         For instance, I decided whether or not I wanted to shoot certain shots in a wide shot, close up, or medium shot. As for the prop list, the two props I figured we would need were a rope and a blade. When comes to casting my crew and I had a lot of people at mind but ultimately we ended up casting Genesis as our female secret agent and Steve as our enemy secret agent because they played the role the best. One major way they convincingly played the role was with their wardrobe. I told them each to wear dark clothes because spies normally dress in black or dark clothing to camouflage themselves.

         Next, I went location scouting. My crew and I went to three buildings on campus. We looked at there basements because we knew we wanted some place dark, scary, and creepy. We decided on the basement of the Abe dorm. It had dark and long hallways and also creepy abandoned rooms with tore up furniture. Finally, once all this was done, during week four I with the assistance of my crew filmed the project. During the production process, I was the director and I also filmed. We filmed with two cameras. Joshua was also one of the camera guys on set. Before filming the first thing we did was makeup. Kara and myself designed the make up.

         Following this, Brad and I set up the lighting so that there would be dramatic shadows and everything would be very dark, yet still lit. Finally we began rolling and filmed the piece. We had many takes and did all the shoots from multiple angles. This film is a silent film. We didn’t use any sound other than ambient noise. Lastly, during week five I began editing. We shot this piece on a digital camera so all the files were .MTS files. Final Cut Pro, which is the program I used to edit does not read. MTS. Ultimately, I had to convert each of these files to .MOV files using Adobe encoder. Once I did this I went through all of my shots, and I chose the best takes and used my storyboard to edit this piece. In order to show flashbacks I put a unsharp mask filter on those shots. I then added royalty free music, which I downloaded from online. Once this was done, I watched the film and edited some more to clean up things. Finally, once I was satisfied I added titles and scrolling credits and exported the film.

Storyboard:

Self Evaluation

            During this project, I initially wanted to create an action trailer. This idea became condensed. I ended up taking footage from the action trailer I was creating a created a short action trailer. Initially, I started this project by creating a concept, and then creating the storyboard for it. Next I created the shot list, went looking for a location, collected props and began filming with a crew of six people. In this project I was the director of this scene. I also did some filming, to get the shot I wanted when my cameraman didn’t fully see the vision I had. My main camera guy however was Josh.

            In addition did the make up for the actors. In addition with the help of Brad I did the lighting for the scene. In order to get long shadows we had to adjust the barn doors and maneuver with the lights. In order to make the female agent look beaten up, I gave her a black eye with purple eye shadow and put black make up on her face to make her look like she had been dragged through the dirt. After the filming was done, I edited all of the footage and added music. I am very satisfied with the project as a whole. 

                   **TCNJ IMM SENIOR SHOWCASE**

The IMM senior showcase was amazing. There were so many cool projects. The first project I noticed was one of the pixel being used as an instrument and speaker. The designer of this project explained to me when you touched the ball at different spots it played a sound. I tried it myself and it did in fact play many different sounds at different pitches. I asked him how it worked and he explained that the program he designed can take any hollow object like the balls on our campus and turn them into and instrument that projects its own sound.

As I continued to explore this showcase I saw many video different games that were designed by students.  I played one game that read your brain sensors so that every time you blinked the zombie you were fighting got attacked. There was even a plane powered up and down by thinking the words "up" and "down". The interface for the project was designed completely by a TCNJ student.I also seen many students films and animations. One of my favorites was the japanese music video done by Andrew and the short animation of the robot baby done by Reynaldo. All in all, I had a great time checking out the projects and I look forward to possibly showcasing something in the future.

The Nomination

"The Nomination" is a short video I filmed during one of the Student Film Union meetings. In this video you can see the process it took for the members to vote a new executive board in and also some of the people's reactions. Through the power of editing a long voting process became short. I used close ups of peoples reactions, a wide shot to show everyone, and a over the shoulder shot. This short video is not scripted but reality. This film was shot handheld, for this reason there is a little shakiness. Ultimately, I wanted through this piece I wanted to document our first election process through "nominations".

IMM Midterm

"Dancing Rain"
"Flood Maze"
"Sunny Night"

"Eternal Bricks"

"Leaves of Life"
"Confinement"

Abstracts:

"Dancing Rain" is a perplexing abstract photo. It shows what looks like are falling water drops. The photo is actually of a water drain that is on the ground outside. To capture this image I stood over the water drain, looked downwards, and zoomed all the way in on the water drain. I then pull focus on the actual drain, allowing the bars in front of the drain to be out of focus. The rim of the drain was covered with water drops, as seen in the photo. The photo only shows 1/4 of the circular drain, which is why you see what appears to be the big black abyss to the right of the photo. To get this photo I took in various shots and in various angles, but was finally satisfied with this one. I call it dancing rain because from the angle I took the picture, it looks like the water molecules are dancing and trickling down.

“Flooded Maze” is an image of a sewer lid. Originally when I took this image, I was amazed by it because the sun was laminating it gold. However, the closer I looked at it, the more beautiful it became. In order to create this image, I altered the color and cropped the image so that you can see just a small portion of the sewer lid, which are the protruding bars. These sewer glistening with dew looks like a maze of bars. I decided to capture and edit this image because it was very conjectural and intriguing. This sewer is merely something we normally walk over, however if you take a closer look at it you can see how beautiful and complex it is.

“Sunny Night” is am image of a sunny day. I selected “Sunny Night” as the title of this piece to make it as oxymoronic as the image is. The sky was so sunny when I took this photo, the sun created the shape of a star. However, from first glance, one cannot tell this image was taken during the daytime. I altered the color of the image and many other features, for I thought it would be more interesting and abstract for the sun to not look like a sun at all. I also decided to change the color, for the image stood out more with a blue hue, which is not naturalistic. The silhouette of the tree branches creates the seclusion of the sun in this image. Although they are also in the picture, the fact that they are blacked out, the sun, which is the focus of this piece, is given all of the attention.

“Eternal Bricks” is an image I created. In order to create this image I took a photo of the corner of a brick wall I was standing under on an upward angle. This image was altered multiple times in shape and in color to create an abstract look. One major factor that helped create this image is symmetry. If you rotate this image upside down, it looks exactly the same. For this reason, it is very mesmerizing and hypnotizing. I entitled the image “Eternal Bricks” because the end result appears to be a brick wall that’s going on for forever. The middle of the square of bricks creates a vanishing point.

"The Leaves of Life" is a photo I took of a small section of a bush. In this photo there is a small section of the bush's leaves that are in the foreground that is in focus, while the leaves that are in the background are out of focus. While taking this picture I made the artistic decision to focus only on the three leaves section of leaves and put the other leaves out of focus to show depth of field. I also did this because I thought it would look very abstract if you can't see what the leaves are apart of. This way, from first glance, a person may or may not know they are looking at a bush.

“Confinement” is a photo of the outer bars of a water drain. This image shows solitude and mystery. The audience is left to wonder what is alone, confided behind the bars. In order to capture this image I zoomed in very tight on a portion of the drain and focused very sharply on the bars, so that what’s left beyond it is blurred out. The blurriness adds to the mystery, and the image of the bars itself creates the feeling of solitude and emptiness. In addition, this image has a blue hue to it, which was created manually through white balancing the camera prior to shooting. The blue hue gives it a mellow feeling that is very somber.

Production Log:

“Leaves of Life”

In order to create this image, I manually zoomed all the way in on three small sections of leaves on the bush. I also manually focused the camera on the part of the leaves I wanted in the foreground, which put the other leaves out of focus in the background. This created a sense of depth of field. To maker sure the image was focus right and centered in the middle of the photo, I had to retake the shot multiple times. Also, since I wanted to create a mellow tone with this picture I changed the color by using linear burn. Linear burn gave the image a blue tone which is more subdue then the original dull green color the photo originally was.

“Sunny Night”

The image “Sunny Night” took several steps to create. First, I used the tool linear burn to alter the color of this image. This effect gave the image a blue hue. I next cropped the photo so that the item of focus, the sun would be highlighted and centered. Following this I used I adjusted the blacks and whites in this photo. I increased the blacks in this image. I did this so the photo didn’t look to washed out by the brightness of the sun. As a result of this the trees became very dark, almost like a silhouette framing the sun. Finally, I used a cooling filter to give the image more color. This created a purple hue around the sun.

“Eternal Bricks”

In order to create this image, I began by copying and making three layers of this image. I next rotated one of the layers 180 degrees. By doing this, I produce an image which had an overlapping look. I then tested out all the different effects you can use on the layers. I ended up using the multiplying effect, which to my surprise caused the photo to look very abstract and complex. The multiplying effect caused my image’s layers to look transparent, which created an even grander symmetrical pattern then what I already had.

“Confinement”

The image “Confinement” was not edited. In order to create this image, I white balanced the camera to sunlight. I did this purposely because I know that sunlight appears blue. I next took a picture on a downward angle of the water drain on the ground. I took this picture several times in order to insure that I got the image that I wanted. I purposely took a picture of only a portion of the water drain, to add to abstractness. This way it is uncertain what the image is at first glance. Also, before shooting I adjusted the focus so that image of the bars was very sharp in the foreground while what’s “confined” beyond the bars are blurred and on known.

“Dancing Rain”

The image “Dancing Rain” was also not edited. In order to create this image, before shooting I white balanced the camera to sunlight. I did this purposely because I know that sunlight appears blue. Once again, I next took a picture on a downward angle of the water drain on the ground. However, this time before shooting I adjusted the focus so that image of the water trickling on the drain in the background was in focus while the bars, which are in the foreground, are blurred.

“Flooding Maze”

In order to create this image I edited the image of the sewer lid I took. I began by making a copy of the layer so that I wouldn’t work on the original image. Next, I started cropping the image. At first I wasn’t satisfied with the part of the image I cropped, because the water wasn’t clear on that portion, so I cropped over and over again until I found a portion of the lid that I was satisfied with. Finally I tested out at all the different effects on the layer, and decided that Linear Burn was the best effect for it created a blue hue and abstract look to the water on the lid.

Self Evaluation:

When creating this portfolio, I decided I would take photos of non-connecting images and tie them together through one come theme, abstraction. One way abstraction is shown is throw seclusion. I noticed the best way to create abstract images is by creating images that cause the audience to focus on one thing. For this reason, in many of my images, you only see a small portion of what the object actually is. I decided to do this in order for the audience to see beauty, in what isn’t stereotypical beautiful like a water drain or a sewer lid.

In addition, when creating this portfolio, I wanted my audience to see the difference between altered images through editing with programs like Photoshop and manually editing while shooting. This is clearly seen through the overall tone of my portfolio. The tone I was trying to portray is mellow. In order to create this sense of mellowness, I naturally took photos with a deep blue hue and also altered some of the other images so that they could have this deep blue hue. In order to capture photos with a deep blue hue I white balanced the camera on the sky during a very sunny day, knowing that sunlight appears blue.

Also, I used the features in the camera such as manually changing the aperture to control the light and manually focusing the camera on the part of the object I wanted to singularly capture. This took almost two hours for just a few images. On the contrast, to create a blue hue in Photoshop, I simply created a new layer and edited the hue and brightness. Also, instead of trying to zoom in on an image perfectly while shooting, with Photoshop I was able to take a large image and crop what I wanted to keep in seconds. The time it took to manually edit the photos took longer than it took to edit them through Photoshop, but it was worth it because I was proud at the beautiful images I was able to capture during my first time using a high tech photo camera.

One important thing, which helped me a lot during this process, was brain storming beforehand. Before shooting, I knew the style I was trying to create and the tone I wanted it to portray. Another thing that was helpful was learning the importance of selection. I learned when deciding which images to place in your portfolio, each image should work together but be strong enough to stand alone, for one’s project is only as strong as your weakest image. Ultimately, by creating this portfolio I was able to try new things through taking abstract photos and learn editing images is quicker if you do it afterwards during post production, but is more satisfying if you do it manually.

Piles of Love

"Piles of Love" is an image of hand made Valentine's day cards piled on top of each other and the utensils used to make it. I decided to capture this picture because I thought it would be interesting to show a composition of all the parts that it took to send someone a card with love. Originally when I took this picture it was very dark, which made the photo look dull and lifeless. However, once I color corrected, as seen in the second photo above, it was restored to its original colors which are very lively.

Ironman

"Ironman" is a photo I took of a man wearing a metal breastplate-like instrument and playing it. I captured this image because I thought it was interesting. The instrument he is wearing isn't commonly used or played universally. Of the two pictures, the original photo is the photo on top which is very dark. To fix this photo, I color corrected the photo, as seen in the second photo.

Scrapping Heaven

"Scrapping Heaven" is a photo I took of branches that seemed to be so high and rough, they appeared to be scrapping heaven. I took this picture on a very sunny day, so the original photo(the highest photo above) is very washed out. I color corrected this photo and used a filter to make the picture more serene. The second photo, is the color corrected version.

Music Land

"Music land" is a composition composed of two images. The background is an image I found. It is a grassy plains in Brazil. While the man in the foreground is from an image I took of him playing in a band in New Jersey.. I entitled this composition "Music Land" because as a whole it looks very peaceful and serene, which music can help you feel at times. In order to create this composition, I selected the man with his guitar, edited it in to this picture, used the ruler and geometric lines to center him. I then used the auto color correct to make the picture appear to be one.

Pride

"Pride" is a composition that represents patriotism. In this competition I took a photo of the flags on the wall and edited it. In this picture, originally the American flag was located in the far left corner. In order to make this image look a composition, I selected the American flag, moved it to the center, filled the empty space it created with bricks, and also aligned two of the many flags below it, so it the composition would look more geometrical.

Flower Bomb

“Flower Bomb” is a composite image of a small section of a water drain layered with several copies of an image of leaves. This image is an abstract image, for from first glance you cannot recognize what the image is. Although there aren’t any flowers in this image, I titled this image “Flower Bomb” because the shape of the leaves in the selection of the bush I used, when composited creates a silhouette of what appears to be flowers. In order to create the different hues and colors of the leaves, I changed the type of layer it was. I noticed while layering layers, like one that has a difference effect on a layer that has saturation effect on it, this style appear to created a new effect on its own.

Pocket full of leaves

“Pocket Full of leaves” is a composite image of leaves in a water drain. This composite image made up of two images. It contains a picture of the drain as the background and the leaves as the top layer. To create this image, I selected a circular portion of the leaves from and image of leaves I shot, and then placed it in the drain. I transformed the size and also softened the edge so that the image of leaves inside the drain would look realistic.

Passing on Wisdom

"Passing on Wisdom" is a composite of image of my present day self with my younger self. The baby in this picture is a picture of of me when I was one years old. In order to make the picture more realistic I transformed the scale of the image and also distorted the shape to make my "younger self". I named this image passing on wisdom because although the subjects of this photo is the same person, if this was an actual candid picture of a woman with a child, she would be teaching the child, and thus passing on wisdom.

Dancing Rain

"Dancing Rain" is an abstract photo. It shows what looks like are falling water drops. The photo is actually of a water drain that is on the ground outside. To capture this image I stood over the water drain,looked downwards, and zoomed all the way in on the water drain. I then pull focus on the actual drain, allowing the bars in front of the drain to be out of focus. The rim of the drain was covered with water drops, as seen in the photo. The photo only shows 1/4 of the circular drain,which is why you see what appears to be the big black abyss to the right of the photo. To get this photo I took in various shots and in various angles, but was finally satisfied with this one. I call it dancing rain because from the angle I took the picture, it looks like the water molecules are dancing and trickling down.

Light of the World

"Light of the World" is a photo of the inside of a broken light of the side of a building to light up the path while you walk. This photo is an extreme close up of the inside of the broken light. The photo includes a light bulb, its wires and many leaves and dirt which have taken home inside this light covey. The photo is not edited and has a blue tent to it to make it appear more mellow. The abstractness aspect of this photo is the fact that I made the aesthetic choice to only show a small portion of the light bulb and its surroundings so that you cannot tell exactly what it is at first.

The Leaves of Life

"The Leaves of Life" is a photo I took of a small section of a bush. In this photo there is a small section of the bush's leaves that are in the foreground that is in focus, while the leaves that are in the background are out of focus. While taking this picture I made the artistic decision to focus only on the leaves three section of leaves and put the other leaves out of focus to show depth of field. I also did this because I thought it would look very abstract if you can't see what the leaves are apart of. This way, from first glance, a person may or may not know they are looking at a bush.

Single Rose

"Single Rose" is a nature image. It took me an hour to draw this image. When we were given the assignment to draw a nature image, I decided to draw a single rose because I believe it is the most romantic representation of nature. In this image I worked with two shades of red and also two shades of green to give it a realistic feel. I also chose a green pattern background to make the rose pop out.

Virtual Me

"Virtual Me" is a self portrait. This image took me 30 minutes to complete. In this composition you see a brown skin woman with dread locks. My hair and my skin color is to very distinct defining features for me. If you were to place to change the hair and the skin color of this portrait, it would no longer be a clear virtual representation of myself. For this reason, I chose to keep them as it and draw myself with these exact features.

"Jazz Attack"

This image is a free style image, which took me 15 minutes to complete. It is composition of music notes and musical instruments including a saxophone, trumpet, and tambourine. It is entitled "Jazz Attack". I chose to draw this because I enjoy playing music and my favorite genre is Jazz. I play the alto saxophone, which is depicted in this image.