Project 2

I have been having a lot of trouble deciding on a topic for my project 2. I had first decided to do a really conceptual project that didn't contain the actual numbers but rather a group of x's representing days that would disappear gradually throughout the countdown. I have revised this concept to include the actual numbers.

CREATIVE BRIEF
TIME BASED MEDIA
SARA CWYNAR

WORKING TITLE
One Second Year, Macro/Micro Countdown


OVERVIEW
The idea is that a whole year of time is represented in each second of my countdown. Someone is crossing off the days of a ‘calendar’. Originally it was going to be a giant sheet of squares (like days in a calendar) will have chunks of x’s crossed out that correspond to the numbers 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2. There will be fewer X’s for each number in the countdown. These shots will be filmed normally and then played backwards so that the x’s continue to disappear. In each shot of the countdown another chunk is missing. A mouth was going to say the corresponding number in slow motion while a voice that clearly does not correspond to the voice says the number much more quickly, making the mouth seem outside of the timeframe of the rest of the video. .

I have revised this concept so that a year's worth of month-long calendars (in a big grid corresponding to an actual year) will be filled up with only the x's that correspond to the number (that make the shape of the number). After the number appears the rest of the X's will fill up very quickly and the calendar will peel off the wall revealing another year. I will count down through ten years.

AUDIENCE
This will lean more towards being an art project than a design project (I hope!) so it will be directed towards and audience who is well-versed in contemporary art, probably educated, but not necessarily so. People who aren’t necessarily looking for a really literal project, who are prepared for some level of ambiguity. But really it is for everyone!

KEY MESSAGE
Originally the video was about simultaneously counting down to the end of a life and counting up as the days pass. Time accumulates and disappears simultaneously. I will still retain this concept but in a more literal way (although still not too literal!)
Now the key message is a of macro/micro countdown. A year will disappear in a second. It is about our obsession with time and youth and the feeling that time passes way too quickly. It will also be about the difficulty of conceiving of time and representing the passage of time and about the impossibility of thinking about a tiny chunk of time like a ten second countdown relative to the rest of your life or a year of your life. What does ten seconds mean in the giant time frame between birth and death?

CONTENT
Originally the frames of the x’s being crossed out were going to be cut quickly to the shots of the mouth and back again. There was going to be a fluid sountrack throughout, featuring the numbers being said at each second.
Now the camera will stay on the calendar the whole time. During the second, the x's will fill up to form the letter, then all of the x's will fill up, then the calendar will peel away to reveal the next year. The x's will appear in different ways. Some will appear gradually and sporadically to form the letter, some will appear top-down, others will appear as dashes and then will cross themselves to form an x. This will hopefully be filmed in stop-motion on a super 8 if it works out.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
None as of yet.

VISUAL REFERENCES
I have been looking at a lot of Roger Ballen black and white photos of really stark sort of dingy looking rooms with strange-looking people and objects in them. This is the sort of aesthetic I want for my video. I’ve also been watching some Cassavetes films like the Killing of a Chinese Bookie and A Woman Under The Influence and I really like the sort of washed out colours of them. I am hoping to achieve this with super 8 film.


STORYBOARDS







Here are the storyboards for my initial concept.



Here are some other concepts I was thinking about:

Girl Countdown, numbers made of different items associated with ideas of femininity. Number made of iconic hairdos, number made of flowers, madonna imagery, bathing suits, Rosie the riveter types assembling a number, etc. All on a flowery background.

Flowers



Hairdos


Updated old-fashioned countdown. A countdown like the old fashioned ones with the circles but made of paper and photographs. More of the photo is revealed as the clock-arm countdown thingy goes around.



Other concept where I was going to make 3 rigs and move papers gradually across them while crumpling and uncrmpling and then speeding it up a lot so they look like they're blowing across the screen. One paper in front would uncrumple to reveal the number.



Pigment concept - for this idea I wanted to have the letters appear out of coloured pigment and then wipe them away with my hand. But this is a bad idea because pigment is unhealthy!