Trash as Wonderland
My first idea for the final project in Digital Imaging class was to interview people about what made them happy in life. I planned to use sound bites from the interviews over video of a child playing with her doll, then introduce trash to the scene, and have video of big box stores with the packed shelves of junk….. etc. ad naseum.
Before I had wasted too much time on this lame idea I was not really excited about, there came a day in my studio when a discussion with my professor shed light on a new idea. She suggested that I wanted to use my trash pieces from the capstone course in some way that worked together with the overall theme I have been exploring this semester.
“This is what you really want to do, stop denying yourself!”
ok.
Beginning with the idea of having a ‘town’ put together out of my hand made trash work, I grouped them until I felt they were right for the scene I wanted to film.
After playing around with the arrangement of my pieces and grouping them into a little ‘city’ I began to film from several angles. Keeping in mind the elements of design discussed in class when we watched “Turbulent” by Shirin Neshat, I began by playing with the perspective and adding visual texture in Final Cut, using special effect filters, to the segments to create a sort of weird, other-wordly imagery.
I wanted to put the main character into the landscape and have her walking among the trash creations as though they were life size. I filmed her from above walking, then standing and sitting from the same level. After several false starts I was able to eliminate most of the background without using a green-screen and overlay the image where she would appear to actually be in the trash city.
In GarageBand I put together a sound track for my film that used special effect sounds of slamming air locks with a looping, eerie string piece and birds singing. Adding the laughter of a child at the end.
belindahartishere 