Miniature Assignment Write Up

The shooting of this project went well, I am really beginning to enjoy the meditative qualities of stop motion, and also the beautiful images it creates compared to video. The blur effect helps illustrate the idea of examination we read about for the miniature, and it also goes along with my mask concept well. I believe the addition of the second video, representing the rich and powerful, helps to my idea across that the other video represents the working class. I believe projecting both of these videos simultaneously will create multiple juxtapositions and interesting contrasts. This project also serves well as an experiment for my senior project, which will involve a lot of stop motion and pixilation. Overall, I am very satisfied with the aesthetic qualities of this project and I believe it is a strong piece that gets my idea across pretty successfully.

My final idea consists of a character in the distance with a mask on. The character will be blurred in the distance concealing detail. The character will be pixilating toward the camera. The legs will remain still while the upper body and head will be shaking to illustrate being trapped in the mask. The closer the subject gets to the camera the more in focus the shot is and the more detail is shown. Once the face covered by the mask fills the screen, it will slowly begin to move to the right in the frame. While slowly moving right, the character will remove the mask and reveal the face. There be blood draining like tears out of the eyes. The blood will slowly fade away exposing the natural face and the camera will zoom all the way into the eye of the character as the end.

The pixilation toward the camera and the shot coming into focus, emphasize the idea of exploration or examination of the true self. The shaking of the upper body and the stillness of the legs is a metaphor for the duality of human nature. This will also illustrate the idea of being forced into or trapped in this mask. The blood draining out of the eyes, when the mask is removed, is meant to symbolize the affect the mask had on the character's true essence. The blood fading away illustrates healing. Eyes are often seen as the gateway to the soul, so the zoom deep into the eye is meant to be the exposure of the essence, or true self. To me the mask is a symbol of the roles we are forced to play. The process of stop motion lends itself well to the idea of roles, since each frame is directed and forced. I am trying to expose this mask so people can remove it and be individuals.

Thoughts and Goals

Masks define our roles in the big movie playing over and over again called society. The directors of this movie are those with money and power and they wreak all the benefits when the movie sells. To them we are not individuals but characters created in their minds to play the roles in their big movie. These roles are forced upon us so much to the point that we beleive them, accept them, and are content with them ourselves. The directors do not know us and do not care to know about us. We are like their machines that must be upkept just enough to get the job done. Upkept as cheaply as possible so we can keep doing their shit work. We are masked and objectified. No identity or essence, we are just replaceable tools. Repeating

I want to remove the mask
I want people to stop being content with hiding their true selves
I want people to be individuals not machines or masked actors/actresses

New idea improved

I plan on combining my new idea with elements of 1 and 2 of my older ideas. I will have a person confined or dissatisfied with their situation, and they will escape reality through their mask. The character puts the mask on and the world changes. The character grows bigger or moves closer to the camera revealing the objects the mask is comprised of. The character soon grows tired of the mask and wants to return to normal. When the character tries to remove the mask, more masks are behind the first mask and each one removed creates a harsher environment until eventually the character decomposes to nothing leaving only a mask on the floor.

New Idea

My new idea, after being critiqued, will involve a character putting on a mask and getting bigger to emphasize the idea that people objectify themselves when they wear social masks. The background will be a time lapse of the sun going down in an open landscape. The character will be normal sized and there will be enough detail at this size to get an idea of the characters traits. When the character puts the mask on it will still get bigger but the only detail added is in the mask. The mask will be comprised of small things people do as a social mask. The background will blur and desaturate when the mask is on, emphasizing the details in the mask. I still must think about the clothing the character wears, and what details the mask will be comprised of, or if i even want to use a literal mask.

Artist Lecture Review 1

Janet Koplos started her lecture with a long series of videos. Each video started with a still shot of a wooden sculpture then someone comes into the frame and kicks it down. Each sculpture was handmade by the artist then destroyed by the artist making the pieces temporary and non imperial. The artist said if everyone's art lasted forever their would be no room to live. She spoke about how a lot of art is not impressive because of the skill it took to produce it, but instead impressive because of the long process and time it took to make it. One artist's process was collecting large amounts of pollen and displaying it many different ways. One can only imagine how long it takes to collect that much pollen, so it is the artist's time involved that gives the art value. These long processes invoke a meditative or dreamlike mindstate to the artist making the art more instinctual. Overall, it was a strong but long lecture.

3 ideas

1. Make many small objects come out of the same, but bigger object.

2. Make a confined person create their dream or goals in a drawing or miniature, then they shrink down and escape through their imaginary way out.

3. A person is creating their own miniature empire, creating small countries and imagining conquering them. After he gets ingulfed in his imagination, reality fades and he is in his miniature, covered in blood, surrounded by dead bodies, eventually he is killed by his own invention.

Social Mask

Social Mask from Wesley Catlett on Vimeo.

Assignment Write Up

The final shooting of this project went quite well. I think the much more gradual process of applying the make up and shooting turned out a lot more aesthetically pleasing and also makes it more like a video than an image sequence. I did not use traditional 3 point lighting because I liked the shadows casted on the face, it seemed to make the cake icing more intense. Overall, the final version of this stop motion is much stronger and hopefully gets across my concept of the social mask.

Video 01 (better quality)

Growing Backwards from Wesley Catlett on Vimeo.

Frame By Frame Ideas

1. Pixillation mixed with aspects of the Stereoscope. I will use either the same person or two different people, one being the inner conscience and the other the outer. The two images will have the same background but the two people or personas will be layered on top of one another, creating one figure to represent the duality of human nature. The figure will slide toward and away from the camera in a circular motion using pixillation. The figure will be sliding instead of moving itself, as a symbol that humans have little control of their conscience. The circular motion will represent the idea that this power battle of consciences is a constant cycle.

2. Stop motion of face with pieces of a mask slowly covering the features of the face. Also could be a female with makeup slowly caking onto her face. Once the face is completely covered the mask changes back and forth to several other masks which eventually hide the ears, eyes, mouth and finally the shape of face completely. By the end it will be completely indistinguishable that there is even a face in the mask. This would be a metaphor for the way peoples' roles in society change them to the point that they lose their own essence as a person becoming merely a construct of society.

3. Phenakistoscope of two figures fighting to control the other. These figures will be revolving on the outside edge rotating around a serpent eating itself surrounded by masks and money signs. The design of the Phenakistoscope lends itself easily to concepts of cycles and repetition

Video 01