Aesthetically, I thought the lush green of the plots of grass, and the brown of the book would contrast well, both being earth tones. At first, there was some thought of a different background for the piece, but inevitably, I liked the idea of the black background with some light reflecting from it (about every frame I changed the position of a piece of wood laying on the garbage bag to simulate movement of light. Also, almost every frame, the grass was ruffled to attempt to give it continuous movement.
In Postproduction, a lot was done in photoshop. All sequences of the book opening itself up required the removal of my hand from ten to 15 frames. After the removal of the hands, I drop all the photos into istopmotion to arrange the frames in the appropriate way. The scene of the flower grown from the book was done in reverse, actually being shot as if the flower were receding into the book, then later was reversed to show growth.
The music chosen is actually from a band named Comus (same as the book) which has an entire album based on the beast Comus, of which the book describes. The song is titled "Winter is a Colored Bird". Comus was originally chosen for their sound which typically comes of as medieval english witches, which this song being the most tame under those terms. I thought the lightness of the song added a nice airy flow to the whole piece.
the grass constantly moving adds a nice touch to the piece, and it has the same kind of feel as the music, very light and breezy. I'm also glad that you had the books fall down after the Comus book comes out from the stack, it really made the Comus book stand out and look important. The moment when the flower comes out of the book is really nice, because the flower is moving very quickly and changing very quickly while the book stays mostly stationary. I'd like to see the frame where the petals fall stay still a few moments longer, and maybe the petals could then move away from the book, instead of being contained inside of it. That seems like it would go the overall concept of the piece.
ReplyDeleteFirst off I have to say that I love the general absurdity of the a stack of books in a grassy field.
ReplyDeleteI also thought that the first shot with the shifty grass and the changing light is very nice. However the rhythm throughout the piece seems a bit choppy, as though the movie stays on some frames longer than others.
Two things. Firstly, do you want the titles of the books to say something (not literally, just as commentary)? Secondly, the transition from the grown flower to the little pieces happens way too suddenly. Just food for thought.
You made the worn book work really well and the growing of the flower is very pleasing especially when it turns to fragments. There is good contrast and intense color. I think the shakiness is a bit much which is a little distracting, I think it could work but it would work better if it wasnt shaky the whole time. The music works well with it. Overall, strong interesting piece.
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