In order to convey the diversity of concepts, cultures, identities, voices, places, and objects that is featured in Bastard, I decided to gather a variety of voices from my friends and peers and combine them together as the final narration file. Then, in tandem with the narration, I combined multiple images and footages I captured of the book in order to generate a massive train of thought in the trailer. The book itself is exploding with concepts, and gives the reader the opportunity to think about its provided images and concepts. Rarely are descriptions given, the book is highly dependent on the reader's own subjective interpretations of the images and written material included within the book.
Bastard is basically a collection of photography, illustrations, designs, and typefaces put together by a collaborating team of four, so I wanted to focus on the concept of diversity, identity, and the feeling of collaboration. The book also constantly makes the reader try to connect different images and different written work from various different parts of the book together, and also encourages the reader to ponder over the overall concept of IDENTITY. This is also why I ended up creating such a trailer as my final.
I also tried to make the images appear in harmony with my typography. I tried to focus on the directions, the speed, the flow, and the rhythm altogether.
This week, I re-read a couple of the passages in my book to get an even more solidified concept. After dropping the whole idea of working with transparencies and plexiglass, I realized I was given more room to work on that.
I noticed that the designs, illustrations, and photography are split into specific sections:
1) Identity 2) Every Day 3) Ride 4) Play 5) Branding 6) Home 7) Religion 8) Talk
All of these are defining aspects of any given person or place.
At the end of the book, the authors gave an interview. The most memorable section that sent me into the direction that I've decidedly changed into taking was: Sigrid Frank-Eblinger: You wanted to feel and perceive globalization. And what was it like? What did you feel? What did you experience?
Christian: I can't say what the best or most important experiences were. Our work and the book are meant to show that process. We were in motion, and we're still in motion.
Lars Harmsen: Before we left on our trip, we contacted people we didn't konw. And all of our encounters with them ended up being extremely intense, friendly, and enjoyable. We never had the feeling that we were tourists. We felt that we belonged and were amongst colleagues. We met people whose brains tick like ours. And because of that, we always felt comfortable immediately, although we were in a foreign setting. That's something that made a big impression on me. I never felt like a tourist.
Christian: Yes, and it was also nice to feel that the people we met thought it was special to met us too. Globalization or no globalization. And the fact that it's possible to meet colleagues in Mexico City or Hong Kong without having some big contract deal in one's suitcase was also something that amazed me. I mean, they were taking time out of their busy lives for us.
Andre: What I won't forget is the way I perceived the individual cities. It's different when you set off from home to travel to one particular place than it is to fly from one foreign place to the next. It completely changes your way of perceiving things. When you visit four, five, or six cities in a row, you perceive them differently than you would if you were flying from your hometown directly to, say, Tokyo. It made me more sensitive to the cities and the people. I sudenly started making completely different comparisons. I asked myself how the people were in one place compared to another. And the effect of this:being able to make direct comparisons was somethign I had never thought of before. And by meeting so many different designers, we noticed with what full force globalization has hit this branch. Someone shows you a pocket book with Mexican ornamental art in Mexico, and then you discover the exact same book in Hong Kong and Tokyo at the design shops. That's when you notice that our brains think alike. That's globalization. That's bastarding. The same plastic figures, the same office interiors, the same hand bags. It was the same across-the-board, and this really surprised me.
In the end, the solidified concept was to place a variety of different lines together in order to create a series of contrasting contexts, personalities, identities, cultures, and situations. (The lines are each also present throughout the book, be it in poems, prose, or whatever else.) The narrating would be done by multiple different voices, and the aim would be to really focus on the sense of differences, contrasts, and similarities between identities. At the end, the video is meant to leave behind a small question for the viewer to wonder what exactly their own identity is, and what exactly constructs its meaning.
BASTARD. Choose My Identity.
I don't like crowds. I miss home. Ten years a go I met a woman... We spend our holidays in Turkey. I spend my afternoons alone at home. Dreaming about falling in love. My dad is a real survivor. I won't live past my 25th birthday. I want to be a savior. I feel torn and confused that my dreams don't come true. I serve in the military. My dreams are what is holding me together. I wouldn't mind being someone else. I wouldn't mind being more muscular. I wear only black. I can't wear a hat with my kind of hairdo. I eat the bread of names and voices. I am still hungry.
Identity
?
[insert pointing finger]
Video Sketches & Potential Roughcut
Having NEVER used AE before, it took longer than I originally assumed for me to pick it up. Resulting from that, I had to change my schedule, to do more tutorials, manage a bunch of other stuff, and familiarize more with the program. (See last post for new updated schedule.)
Currently, the only thing not quite indicated yet is the sense of blurring in and out. I'm still contemplating whether I need this effect or not, as it doesn't seem that necessary anymore. I'll also be finishing up on shooting more of the appropriate footage, like the profiles of different people, settings, places, and objects.
I would like to focus on the diversity that keeps coming up in the book.
April 9: (thursday) - Think of a concept - Creative briefing posted - Schedule posted
April 10-13: (weekend) - Idea will be developed - Storyboard will be completed - Equipment planned - Blog entry by the 15th/16th covering the progress
April 17: (class) - Scripting/planning done
April 18-19: (weekend) - Apply any critiques to existing work - Rough concepts for packaging & presentation
PRODUCTION PHASE
April 24: (class) - Video sketches to show in class - Critique: concepts for packaging & presentation *At this point, need to re-plan the script *Scrapping transparencies & plexiglass
April 25-29: (weekend) - Do aftereffects tutorials - Start creating images - Completely finalize scripts - Do some video sketches
May 1: (class) - Critique
May 2-3: (weekend) - Do more aftereffects tutorials - Completed, final scripts - Build the roughcuts w/ the soundtracks
May 8: (class) - Rough cut due for critique
May 9-11: (weekend-monday) - Start producing final cut
May 12-14: - Keep finalizing cut
POST-PRODUCTION PHASE
May 15: (class) - Final Cut for critique - Presentation concept mock-up sketches/model for critique
May 16-20: - Finalizing - Creating final package - Exporting & burning disc
