"Untitled", my completion of project 2 and the extension of "Memory" (the audio that was project 1) was surprisingly a success, but still something I have very mixed feelings about.
I say it was a success because it did it's intended purpose-- the goal of the project was to create the illusion of a mass amount of memories for early morning routines all compacted into 3 minutes. From the beginning, using iconic imagery and repetition, it sucks you into an almost dreamlike (I might even go so far as to say sleepy!) state where the viewer simply zones out into the movie. I'm really pleased with how well the editing of the photos came out along with transitions and blending in the movie, creating powerful imagery.
The biggest critique I received about the audio previously was that it felt to long, and even boring. Unfortunately, while it was not my intention, that was technically the point of my original project as it was supposed to be just a mass of sounds and it was intended to just wash over the viewer. It was something I wrestled with for awhile, wondering if I should change my thesis/idea/goal of the project in order to make a more interesting piece. My stubbornness (and admittedly time constraints) made it so I did not edit the audio after all, and kept the original for the movie.
Interestingly enough, though, after critique I was told that it was more interesting with all the visual cues now, and viewers did not feel the same way about it feeling too long or boring, even though I feel the opposite. This may be from my spending so much time editing and creating the film, and thus listening to the audio over and over and over again, but now I just find the piece bland, and I had given up any thoughts of making the movie an attention-grabber, deciding to stick to my original thought process.
These past two projects were a big risk for me, as conceptual work is never, never my strong suit and tends to fail to interest me, but then again that might be why viewers of my project enjoy it more than I do myself. I am pleased to say that they both (the latter even moreso) seem successful though.
At least I know that, after this project, I won't be able to stand the sound of my alarm clock again.
