Project 4 -- "Commercial Break"

In the final project for this semester, we were told to do a number of things-- incorporate our own original footage, audio, and animation as well as the concept of elapsed time. I originally planned to do some sort of chalk animation but couldn't find a concept I was happy with, so instead I turned to using appropriation instead.

I didn't stray too far from my proposal afterwards. I decided to use commercials from the 50's and throughout the decades to represent time passing/elapsing, and then I really wanted to explore and see if I could "stop time" by mixing the audio and video with past and present commercials. Unfortunately this did not work in the slightest, and instead just looked like a very poorly edited video, so I decided not to do this immediately.

This left me with the problem of trying to figure out how to "stop time" without pausing or stopping the video. My solution to this was not necessarily that I would stop time, but it would no longer be linear. As the video progresses, the commercial clips are shortened and are no longer played chronologically. The space between each clip becomes shorter and shorter as well until it becomes a chaotic and unorganized flow of commercials, mimicking much to how we lose track of time watching commercials between television shows.

The problem with all of this is that I think while I achieved my goal of passing through time then stopping it, it's a concept that's really hard to pick up as a viewer, especially if that viewer is unaware of what I was trying to do or what the assignment was. To help guide the viewer's mind toward what I was trying to show, I placed three slides (one including a title) of text about how we, as a culture, tend to lose track of time in front of the TV. This isn't a solution I am particularly proud of (I'd always rather show than tell in any form of storytelling), but I do think that it makes the video more easily grasped and comprehensible.

I created a fast-forwarding sound through GarageBand and recorded the television set on which the video was animated on. While I'm not particularly happy with the end result of my storytelling, I am really happy how this film came out technically. The edited commercials fit fairly seamlessly on top of the old television set, and the audio I added really benefited the cuts between commercials.

I am nervous for the final critique, since I know I have a lot of issues with this (and not only that, but it is also so similar to my first project this semester) but I'm interested to hear opinions in how I could improve a project like this.