During my last year at art school I wanted to make a short film. Unfortunately, the project fell through (I wasn’t able to obtain a film permit for the Pasadena Civic Center parking lot). Although, I did sneaked in there once or twice.
With the footage I acquired by means of stealth (taken with the world’s worst camcorder circa 1992), I made experiments using Adobe AfterEffects. Bellow are the results (sans audio).
My friend Alex was gracious enough to let me film him.
And here I am kicking back on a filthy couch.
This is some more active footage of the Civic Center parking lot. That place really creeps me out.
Postscript
It seems silly not to describe the process for making these videos more thoroughly. At the time I made these experiments, I was enamored with ink drawing. In particular I was drawn to engravers such as Frank Brangwyn and Yoshitaka Amano who used beautiful line work in there images as well as thoughtful value scales. What intrigued me about engravings were their black and white nature. Similar to halftone dots, engravers could use lines in patterns to relate a broad scale of value. It simplified and complicated the image making process and that appealed to me.
At some point I wondered if this would translate to film. I had a hunch that the artifacts in video could work a lot like halftone dots. Using AfterEffects I duplicated the video into two layers, separating them into a color and gray–scale. The gray–scale layer I further degraded into a black and white value scale. Then I adjusted the layers so that the white from the b & w layer became transparent and the black opaque. The first two videos have one solid color that overrides what would normally be white. The last video has the color layer in tact after having adjusted its saturation.
I find film more intriguing when it represents an author’s perspective, inviting the audience to spend time in this unique world. I don’t like the use of film as an objective perspective. Mind you it can be, but I enjoy it more when it’s not. For me this kind of video manipulation forces the viewer to readjust their visual vocabulary, making them ready to see things from a new angle.