Exercise 3 - Comments on my Video "Legacy"

I had a lot of fun and challenges with this exercise. I had an idea of what I wanted the end to be, but not exactly how to get there. I started taking three videos, taking some photos, and pouring through hundreds of existing digital and paper photos. Most photos are presented in a fuzzy or dreamy way intentionally. I was trying to portray the imperfection of memory, how memory can start fading or changing as years go by, just like old film photographs. I also intentionally used a voice recording to represent who is reminiscing. I might comment more on that at some later time, after everyone has seen the video. The sense of place was important to me. Out of three video clips, two were taken at the Robert's Hill Conservation area in Leeds. 

One of the most challenging elements for me was the sound. I wanted some cracking and a loud thump, but did not have anything like that available. What I found on the Internet was not to my liking. I ended up breaking several branches from a dead bush in my backyard and stitching the recordings together. My spouse thought it was funny when I broke the first branch and the sound was not what I was expecting, I said "Well, that was disappointing." The end thump was from a big textbook dropped to a wood floor. I had my spouse drop 2 books together, 2 books one after another and one book and settled  on the recording of a single book. I had to manipulate the sound to make it as loud as possible.

I used color keying several times, sometimes two or three different color keys applied to a single photo. I played with  opacity in almost all the photos and with other techniques.

My intention was to tell a story using visual and sound elements. I hope I accomplished that purpose.