"Happenings" - Pixilation

This is the first project of my multimedia course. The technique is called pixilation, whereby you take numerous still shots in a sequence so that when played fast, makes a movie. This is the same principle of animation, which contains a certain number of frames per second. By having 25 frames (pictures) per second, the playback of these pictures will look like real movement.

The first step in this project was first to become familiar with the camera and also to come up with an idea. On the first day, my group and I simply played with the camera and tried to get our bearings on what we needed to pay attention to. The biggest problem seemed to be getting a smoothe-looking playback of the shots. This is because if the frame position is not the exact same for each shot, then you receive a very jumpy movie.

Our first idea was a simple bar scene. In this scene, the main character would simply meet a few friends, count his money, buy a drink, and finish the drink. This does not sound like much, however, after doing just this we had take something around 600 pictures. We were pretty happy with our idea in the end, but not so much with the pictures, so we decided to do it over.

Throughout the process, the hardest task seemed to be getting everyone together to actually do the work together. There would always be someone late, not turning up, or not able to commit enough time because of prior engagements. It finally came to the point where I simply decided to take my own pictures for the project. I needed to change the idea considering i would be the only photographer available and this project cannot be done by taking pictures of yourself. Instead I decided to take this project as an opportunity to experiment with the technique.

My inspiration came from the work of The Brothers Quay. They use pixilation to create their own sort of gothic world of characters and events. Each scene holds a deeper, symbollic meaning. Here is an example of some of The Brothers Quay work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_KHf3RqmvE&feature=related

The only thing I wanted to do different was to create a brighter, more psychedelic world for my pixilation project. I like the gothic feel of their work, but I like to think of myself as an outgoing, vibrant person, and wanted to reflect that through my work. This is why I chose to use the bright pink and purple colors in my video. The music is also happy, energetic, and uplifting. These together make the mood of my video pleasant and upbeat.

I am really happy with my final piece and enjoyed doing it very much. I feel that the colors and the ideas work really well together. The ciggarette and the knife are both symbols of death. I tried to contrast that with the choice of color and also the music.

I do also feel I could have done some things differently. I would have liked to take more pictures and make the movements more elaborate. Also, there are moments, or pictures, where the frame or the object is out of place and makes the motion look to jumpy. To fix this next time, I will think more about the time constraints so I will be sure to obtain as much material as I intended and also I need more practice in controling the frame and the object in the frame. Simply being a bit more time conscious and careful with my procedure, will definitely reduce these drawbacks.