In-Class Project | Interview | Olivia |
In-class interview
Effects Project — Jeremy Sauter
Hello class, apologies for the low quality, I tried exporting several times at 1080p and it wouldn’t change the pixel quality. My suspicion might be because I used some stock footage to assist, as it helped me with my effects practice. I used a combination of green screen, crossfades, and zoom techniques to help create smooth transitions. Enjoy!
-Jeremy Sauter
Generated Terrors – Compositing and Effects
Week 7 Blog Post
Hey everyone,
The challenge for this week is to try and find moments of visual storytelling from the film Devil’s Playground. Keeping in mind the theme of Amish vs. English, I found that most of the visual storytelling came from the physical expressions of the people involved in the story. And this makes sense, as the story pertains to the people and their transition from the Amish style of living to modern English living. This proves to be an effective form of storytelling as the audience can follow the teenagers’ thoughts and feelings about this immensely important decision that affects the rest of their lives.
The first screenshot I found was the same one we used for the module thumbnail in this course and is also the poster for this movie on IMDB. I’d argue and assume this was the reasoning for it being the thumbnail, that this shot perfectly depicts the theme Amish vs. English. An Amish-dressed individual smoking a cigarette, two worlds colliding at one distinct moment. It also uses the person to tell the story and how they interact with their environment.
Velda Bontrager talks about and shows her Amish wedding dress. As we’ve discussed in class, the storytelling isn’t the dress itself or when Velda puts on the dress. The storytelling comes from Velda’s facial expressions, the way she looks at the dress as if in admiration of its beauty, but she later admits that she would never get married or go back to being Amish because of what the dress represents. The audience gathers the story from her expressions in this shot.
Next, we have a scene that isn’t facial expression but also one that I’m unsure if it’s real or not as I’ve seen documentary style films before that include incriminating evidence of narcotic use and distribution. This is a heavy contradiction to the earlier scenes of typical Amish living, with shots of farmsteads and families driving their horse carts. The storytelling here does show itself through the environment and the inclusion of Faron’s hands in the scene adds to the impact of what’s happening in the story. We’ve seen Faron tempted by the English way of living for a while and can see a trend of more and more dangerous substance abuse from drinking to smoking. Seeing his hands packaging “crank” tells the audience that his story has taken a dark dip on his journey in English living. Not quite as effective as seeing facial expressions, since we can’t see Faron’s face as he’s doing this, but we know as the audience he’s participating regardless.
Here we return to human expression as visual storytelling. After Faron gets off the phone leaving his dad a message in Dutch over the car accident he got in, the camera stays on Faron. We see his immediate reaction to the message. Looking down, fidgeting with his clothes, sitting still, all signs that Faron is experiencing emotion. The audience isn’t told exactly what Faron’s thinking, but can infer that he’s thinking about his life, his family, his accident, and ultimately leading the audience back to the theme of Amish vs. English.
Thanks for reading!
Compositing Experimentation Assignment
Abstract experimentation
AI / Effects Editing Project
Visual Evidence Blog: Devil’s Playground
In the film Devils Playground there are many examples of visual evidence and scenes where it is almost apparent that it is true/real. There are many scenes of parties taking place and drugs being done which just showcase the severity of the situation, and while it may or may not be exaggerated or staged I dont know but it does a good job of providing evidence to the audience that life outside of the Amish culture is vastly different. The scenes where the kids are being interviewed also portray very strong emotions in which also play a significant role in the visual evidence aspect. Those scenes are specifically important because it is in those moment where we can truly see the vulnerability and almost form a connection to the individuals in the film. These are just a few examples but there are so many others that support this as well.
Ai Cinema Project
I had a lot of fun using ai on some of my old art to make this video, all footage is ai generated via Vizcom, based off of my original art, animated with Runway ai.
Premier Pro Assignment
Project 4: BW x Chromatic Aberrations x Rough Edges
Compositing, Effects and/or AI
effects used, Time warp, Lens Flare, Color Correction
Amish or English? – Visual Evidence Blog
Job Interview and Car Crash Scenes.
In this clip of Devil’s Playground, Faron is trying to win back Emma and trying to see if he can make it on his own before going back and joining the church. Visual evidence is shown in the job interview and car crash scenes. First, the job interview scene is shown, where Faron is at the house of a family that is hiring for a landscaping business. In the interview they specifically ask if has his own means of transportation, and he answers “yeah, I’ve got a car”. Because he has his own car, they ask him to start as soon as possible. The next scenes then show Faron’s car busted in the middle of the road with the door wide open, and then Faron on the sidewalk with blood running down his forehead with an officer talking to him and sirens blaring in the background. While the transition of scenes seems jarring, it is important for the audience to see the visual evidence of Faron’s car crash. If they had only interviewed Faron about the car crash, it would not have had as great of an emotional impact on the audience. Because of the visual evidence, the audience can feel how Faron was feeling because of the crash, which is “How is he going to make it to his job? How is he going to make it on his own now?”. Visual evidence makes the story more real for the audience and allows them to have a sense of being in the “shoes” of the people being interviewed. Though as an English Faron has a car as transportation, he has to worry about car accidents and repairs. He must also worry about finding a means to make money, as no one is guaranteed a job in the English world. If Faron were part of the Amish, he would not have a car, but he would not need to worry about accidents and repairs, and he would be guaranteed a job.
Ai Generated Video Assignment
This video was generated through the use and reference of VEED Ai and Runway ML.
Note: Original video is 30 seconds long, an extra second added by Youtube during upload.