NMD 304 Lecture 2: Poetry in Time
Time, and how we perceive it is one of the most crucial aspects of the kinds of work we are investigating in this class. It is important that we practice working directly with time in order to understand it, not simply as an effect to use without consideration, but as a wholly expressive element to communicate content and concept. The advancement of the digital tool for creating time-based imagery as opposed film allows the creative individual a more immediate means of working and greater range of possibilities. There are many types of fluctuations in time that are available for use these include; forward and reverse, fast and slow frame rate, time-lapse, freeze frame and stutter step.
14 comments:
304 Lecture Notes
1.29.08
Music & Poetry
structure, rhythmic order
beat, harmony
Time based video piece
no definite structure
What are some of the elements of time that we can work with?
how can you manipulate time?
framerate
fast motion
slow motion
reverse
freeze frame -- very important part of video
becomes significant moment in moving image
stutter step
15 frames forward, 5 back, etc.
Shoot with native video feed
determine what the frame rate of the project will be
recommended to work at 24 or 30fps
over cranking - slowing down the image
raphael is a paradise.
be very experimental in this project
how do you set up a metaphoric system or rhythm pattern through time-based media?
each project in this course will be able to build upon one another
understanding image, time-based media and structure (timing)
Look at poetry to better understand rhythmic sequence (in written word)
Looking at the description of this next project I was a bit confused as to what was actually desired in terms of a finished product. After hearing Raphael compare rhythmic structures within prose to those within a video piece it made the project take on a much different light for me. The choice of structure, sequencing, pacing, and rhythm all become an essential part in your piece (narrative or not). The piece is no longer a simple experimental video display but rather a thoughtful insight into rhythm through frames and image.
After looking a few poems by poets here and there I found that most, not all, but most have some sort of rhythmic sequencing that adds to their poetry as an entire piece. Through this project I hope to be able to explore rhythm in video as well as put an interesting twist on telling narrative through the manipulation of time.
Transferring words into images is usually the reverse of what is generally done. I was thinking of animations that would change and blend as the poem changes. Or just do videos that blend different clips to try and get the point across. Is the rhythm the point of the video or is it more important it makes sense. Raph. aid that it shouldn’t be to literal but I don’t see how the poem ties in. I guess the point is to be abstract as possible.
I guess I don’t see how matching video stops and starts are going to express the significance of a poem.
One of the topics discussed today was how to portray the characteristics of a poem using the many possibilities that come with digital video editing within the basis of time. Forward, reverse, fast and slow frame rate, time-lapse, freeze frame and shutter step are the primary edits that can help to 'morph' time.
The main idea I took away from the lecture was that instead of concretely expressing your idea, try to metaphorically express it using edits discussed above while preserving a pattern of edits. i.e. show something for exactly 12 frames, then something else for 7 frames, then go back to showing that one thing for 12 frames, then instead of going back to 7 frames, go to 6 frames, then back to 12, then to 5, and so on. This editing pattern will evoke the viewer with a metaphorical meaning rather than what is being concretely shown.
I really didn't have an understanding of this project after reading over the assignment so good thing for the lectures. I've recently developed an appreciation of poetry both reading and writing it, though I used to greatly dislike it, it being sometimes difficult to decipher. I remember in high school we were spoon fed the meaning of every line in Romeo and Juliet. So I enjoy the fact that poetry is an aspect of this class.
I like this idea of working with elements of time to be the driving force in the piece rather than the visual elements. Playing with time seems to create a coherent narrative through pattern and rhythm and repetition without necessarily having a coherent narrative within the images. It should be an interesting project.
Elements of time:
- fast and slow motion
- forward and reverse motion
- freeze frame
- stutter step
- jump cut
- frame rate
Creating a metaphoric rhyming pattern, focus on timing and structural framework
Im very interested to see where i go with this project, since i left my nice camera at home while studying abroad i'm going to be forced to use a Sony Cybershot to record video. This makes a fairly large obstacle to overcome (quality wise). I hope to try and shoot some footage about camera's themselves. For instance there are camera's on almost every corner and on a lot of houses that record what is going on in the street. Someone told me that it is because there is a lack of police officers in England so the cameras help them catch criminals more easily. Im not sure if this is true but i would like to play around with the idea of camera's as being a type of police officer. Not sure if i will follow through on this idea but its the first thing i thought of when the project was being explained. Im also very interested in playing with time and developing some sort of rhyme pattern. Id like to experiment with a good deal of different patterns and maybe try and come up with one that doesn't seem like a pattern at all.
304 Lecture Notes 1.28.08
What are some elements of time we can work with?
-frame rate
-ability to alter time
-fast, slow, freeze frame
-stutter step
-absolute control of time
Show at native camera speed and then determine the frame rate in the editing program.
30fps is faster theoretically then 130 fps
Winter Edan
- 5 stanzas
- 4 lines in a stanza
rhymes at end
rhythmic pattern
How do you transform poetry into time based video?
- take a series of video clips we make
- study poetic structure and try to rebuild that structure in the film
- be experimental
- have a rhyme point - repetition, fast, slow, freeze
- timing makes the Rhythm
- hows the poem feel when you read it? Visual images.
This project has taking me alot of thinking to catch the gist of really what we need to do. Iv come to the conclusion that instead of thinking of the poetry in literary terms we have to look at the poetrys strong points that make the poem work. Rather then rhyming with words we are going to be rhyming with time and our ability to alter it. We are basically taking the poem and instead of having a narrative or story like most poems we are more concerned on how the poem works visually and the images and feelings the poem creates. Its going to be an interesting project, im curious as to what I will come up with.
I wish we had a little longer to work on it (maybe another weekend) so I dont have to rush....but that isnt up to me.
NMD 304-NOTES
Lecture 2
1/29/08
Poetry Time
assignment-
`-Poetry-`
-Robert Frost
-famous new England poet
Basic structure in music and poetry
-rhythmic order and structure
-beat, harmony
-in time based piece- no set structure,
-idea of rhythm and metaphor form rhyming in project
couple ways to answer with time
-elements of time-
-frame rate
-ability to manipulate time completely
-slow fast, forward, reveres, freeze frame (significant movement)
shutter step- any number of frames forward then 5 frames forward, etc
30 frames per second
24 frames a second-film
-shoot in native speed of video camera
(even 15 is fine)
when you bring it into a program, you can set frame rate that your going to work with.
FC- have to set sequence at the beginning
AE-can change sequence at any given time
set some pre conditions, what is your frame rate?
what do you want your frame rate to be? 24- or 30?
how do you want to build your rhythmic structure?
ROBERT FROST
Winter Eden
rhyming patter
5 stanzas with 4 lines each
end of each pair rhymes
sets structure and rhythm to poem
how do you transfer this into video?
- showing objects that sound alike (knock and clock)
relying on literal element
-metaphoric rhyming pattern-looping sequences
come up with simple narrative-- or a series of visual clips(original)
-with a certain movement to them- and thats contained in them is similar to a sound oaf a word or series of words in a line of poetry
direct or indirect images
start stop start stop pause
then next images is
start stop start stop pause
(visual rhyme)
or forward reverse, foreword reverse
Get a series of video clips with narrative structure- bring it together into a tight system at the end
How do you make a metaphoric system, of interpreting rhythmic patterns in poetry into a visual structure of a time based piece
be experimental!!
explore rhyming point (images are not metaphoric for the words) but the timing that becomes the metaphoric structure (forward then back, is a word)
INTO MY OWN
-4 lines to each stanzas
-2nd lines rhyme
-rhythmic quality
(READ POETRY)
Image sounds line this, PACING
PROJECTS SHOUDL BUILD FORM PROJECT TO PROJECT
think about timing and structural frame work
then concept and content-but more concerned with timing/structure
line to line stanza and over structure of the poem see the scenes of timing-bring into own piece
After listening to this lecture, I have a better understanding of what's being asked of us for the next project. I'm excited to explore the possibilities of showing poetic structure through video. I've been very interested in the idea of time and structure from the beginning so I believe this project will help me a lot in my major project here at Dundee.
I enjoy poetry because there are no guidelines, but you will always find a rhythm and a flow to the words, I believe the impact on these words and statements are changed within the structure of poetry because of the rhythm and structure it takes.
Poetry Time
assignment-
`-Poetry-`
-Robert Frost
-famous new England poet
Basic structure in music and poetry
-rhythmic order and structure
-beat, harmony
-in time based piece- no set structure,
-idea of rhythm and metaphor form rhyming in project
couple ways to answer with time
-elements of time-
-frame rate
-ability to manipulate time completely
-slow fast, forward, reveres, freeze frame (significant movement)
shutter step- any number of frames forward then 5 frames forward, etc
30 frames per second
24 frames a second-film
-shoot in native speed of video camera
(even 15 is fine)
when you bring it into a program, you can set frame rate that your going to work with.
FC- have to set sequence at the beginning
AE-can change sequence at any given time
set some pre conditions, what is your frame rate?
what do you want your frame rate to be? 24- or 30?
how do you want to build your rhythmic structure?
ROBERT FROST
Winter Eden
rhyming patter
5 stanzas with 4 lines each
end of each pair rhymes
sets structure and rhythm to poem
how do you transfer this into video?
- showing objects that sound alike (knock and clock)
relying on literal element
-metaphoric rhyming pattern-looping sequences
come up with simple narrative-- or a series of visual clips(original)
-with a certain movement to them- and thats contained in them is similar to a sound oaf a word or series of words in a line of poetry
direct or indirect images
start stop start stop pause
then next images is
start stop start stop pause
(visual rhyme)
or forward reverse, foreword reverse
Get a series of video clips with narrative structure- bring it together into a tight system at the end
How do you make a metaphoric system, of interpreting rhythmic patterns in poetry into a visual structure of a time based piece
be experimental!!
explore rhyming point (images are not metaphoric for the words) but the timing that becomes the metaphoric structure (forward then back, is a word)
INTO MY OWN
-4 lines to each stanzas
-2nd lines rhyme
-rhythmic quality
(READ POETRY)
Image sounds line this, PACING
PROJECTS SHOUDL BUILD FORM PROJECT TO PROJECT
think about timing and structural frame work
then concept and content-but more concerned with timing/structure
line to line stanza and over structure of the poem see the scenes of timing-bring into own piece
After listening to this lecture, I have a better understanding of what's being asked of us for the next project. I'm excited to explore the possibilities of showing poetic structure through video. I've been very interested in the idea of time and structure from the beginning so I believe this project will help me a lot in my major project here at Dundee.
I enjoy poetry because there are no guidelines, but you will always find a rhythm and a flow to the words, I believe the impact on these words and statements are changed within the structure of poetry because of the rhythm and structure it takes.
304 1-30-08
Manipulating time in a video image:
You can freeze the frame, creating a significant moment.
Stutter stepping is a method where you advance several frames, say 15, then jump back 5 frames and continue.
In this method you can create a rhythm, by alternating stutter steps you can influence the flow of the image.
This works into the assignment, in that we can create the flow of poetry, creating breaks in the flow of imagery to emphasize syllables or words in a line of text.
The video we use should have movement that looks like the sound of the words of the poem. The images are not metaphors for the words, just the timing.
We should shoot with the natives speed of our cameras, and use the editing program to manipulate frame rates.
Robert Frost is a poet who wrote the poem about the road less traveled.
We should read poetry to familiarize ourselves with the word structure.
-Shoot no lower then 24fps
-Over cranking - speeding up
Speeding things up drops frames out
Create rhythmic stanza's
develop patterns such as
fast slow fast slow fast slow
Focus on timing and structural content of these pieces
(3600 and Poetry in time)
Don't be direct (filming a cat, then filming a cat)
be metaphoric with your filming
Shoot video with lots of motion
Can have comprehensible story
and open narrative
Have sense of internal logic and internal sense of time
Reflection:
This project seemed very complex at first, but now I have a pretty solid understanding after viewing the lecture and reading through the assignment description in full and reading through jakes comments I have a better understanding of what's going on. It seems as though rhythm is everything in this piece and it should be fun to attempt to create some sort of narrative through this process.
304 Lecture Notes
-In time based video you don’t have the type of structure as poetry and music
-Elements of time to work with when manipulating video fast mostion, slow motion, forward motion back motion etc, shutter step ( any number of frames forward, 5 frames back) Digital video allows you absolute control over time within the piece.
-Don’t worry about 24 p/per sec, don’t worry about frame rate during shooting. Set sequence in After Effects to frame rate. Highly recommened to work at 24 or 30/frames per sec. If you go to 30 frames/sec to 120 theoretically it slows it down (overcranking), when you slow cranking down you actually get a faster frame rate. In video interpolation will occur.
-Look at
Robert Frost poems
-Rhyming pattern (5 stanzas, each stanza has 4 lines) The end of each pair rhymes sets up a rhythmic pattern for the poem. How do you set up a rhyming patter in video? Literal interpretation (show cat and show bat example) This relies on a very literal element. What could create a metaphoric rhyming pattern?
-Come up with a simple narrative or come up with a series of visual clips (not from the internet) Things have a certain movement to them that is similar to the sound of a word or the sound of a series of words.
Comments: Using poems as metaphoric elements in film got me thinking about different poets and what sort of rythms could be created from their poems. This projects seems difficult but I am excited to see the results.
In the preparation and discussion of assignment 3, I had already determined a narrative and base feeling that would determine the direction of my piece. I shot and edited my piece into a narrative using cuts and cinematic techniques that the average viewer would be well aquatinted with. Nothing jarring but the subject matter. This alone helped create the awkward, uneasy feeling i wanted the audience to get.
To complete this piece, I introduced the editing techniques we discussed in class. By using "poetically" placed edits, I could create emphasis on certain moments of the video. The editing tools allow me to extend or repeat a moment that the viewer wishes would end, or I could skip around in the video, deliberately excluding information that would help the viewer make sense of what they were seeing. This allowed me to suspend the viewer's removal from their comfort zone.
I feel like a jack ass posting to this four months after the fact. But I must say it is interesting to read what everyone was thinking back then. I believe this was the edit 12 frames assignment and as I remember I bombed it. Jesse talked about breaking poetry out of traditional bounds. Which is the part I could not quite grasp. The poem I had no problem with it was the sequencing of the 12 frames I was lost on. Jake mentioned rhythm which I did but it was repetitive . Poetry is a hard thing to translate in to image I feel the interpretation is personal and to try and relate that is blasphemous.
In response to Jacob:
I am also a jackass
And I similarly had difficulty relating the particulars of poetry to video. I focused less on capturing poetry's ability to create meaning through language/written imagery, and focused more on the cadence that can be created by selectively placing thoughts. I sort of created an analogy in my head based on music, where standard edit video was a song in 4/4, but poetic video was in some strange obtuse time signature. Rhythm was everything for me.
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