http://dtc-wsuv.org/ahiggins22/HTML-project/grid.html

For my final project, I’m going to do a series of 3 youtube videos about car maintenance, car audio, etc. These videos will used continuity, montage, and be video essays. I will use video transitions to go from one topic to another, and I plan to do some video editing/compositing to make the videos more interesting.

First of all, I enjoyed the story of Bandersnatch and the way that it breaks the 4th wall, allowing the user become part of the story. It was fun and engaging for the most part, but I don’t fully believe that this was the “data space” that Bill Viola was thinking of.

“When I had my first experience with computer videotape editing in 1976, one demand this new way of working impressed upon me has remained significant. It is the idea of holism. I saw then that my piece was actually finished and in existence before it was executed on the VTRs. Digital computers and software technologies are holistic; they think in terms of whole structures. Word-processors allow one to write out, correct, and rearrange the whole letter before typing it. Data space is fluid and temporal, hardcopy is for real—an object is born and becomes fixed in time. Chiseling in stone may be the ultimate hard copy.”

This movie is fixed in time, with a set number of pathways for the viewer to navigate and each pathway coming back to a fixed amount of endings. What I take from this quote is that the data space Viola is talking about is fluid, it has a structure that changes or has the ability to be changed. Yes, the film’s endings could technically be changed, but there are only a few different alternatives, and each alternative is still a fixed ending. I think a truly holistic data space would be something that can actually be changed, for example, code in a program or website. The writer of the code is exploring the data space in a way that the viewer is not when watching Bandersnatch by actually changing the end product and nothing is “written in stone.”

I don’t think that this format is something that will become standard practice for cinema because of how much work it takes to create these alternate endings and because the amount of paths possible is not infinite, but gives the user the illusion of being infinite unless the user goes through each path until they have seen them all. Just like Stefan, the viewer thinks they are making choices but in the end come back to a fixed ending. I, personally, would rather sit down and watch a well written, entertaining movie or video that is linear in appearance and I think that most people would agree with me.

For this assignment, I used Chat GPT to get a synopsis of a possible AI video short. I got this, but my project took a different direction once I got some inspiration from what Runway ML was giving me. I knew that I wanted to do this in some sort of cartoon/hand drawn style.

Title: “The Evergreen’s Gift”

Synopsis: In a quiet park, a majestic evergreen tree holds a special ability to brighten the day of anyone who sits beneath its branches. The story captures the simple magic of finding joy in nature.

Plot: The video begins with a tranquil shot of a local park, focusing on a magnificent evergreen tree. As people walk by, one person, feeling a bit down, decides to take a seat under the tree’s welcoming branches. Instantly, the surroundings transform into a warm and vibrant atmosphere.

The tree showers the person with golden leaves that gently fall, creating a serene and uplifting moment. Birds perched on the branches start singing a cheerful tune. The camera captures the person’s delighted expression as they experience the unexpected joy brought by the evergreen tree.

Using an AI video service, enhance the visuals with soft lighting and subtle animations to emphasize the magical elements of the scene. The video concludes with the person leaving the park with a brightened spirit, highlighting the tree’s unique gift of spreading happiness to those who take a moment to appreciate its simple beauty

Will upload my 3rd later.

With this gif, time is looped to show the bear cleaning up the mess of the last bear, only to realize that it too will be crushed by the next rock. I like this gif a lot because it’s stupid, but also because the loop is seamless and feels like it is something that is actually happening and not just being played over and over again.

I like this gif because there is no sense of time. There are no signs of the start or end of the loop (unless you follow the water very closely) and could be an endless amount of time.

Same with this one, the time feels endless as if there were no end to the amount of stormtroopers in this line. I can’t find the seam where the start and end of the loop are.

Personally, I did not fully understand what the film was trying to say with the editing and montage, but I did get the sense that it was supposed to invoke feelings of longing, sadness, passion, etc. When she reads the letter, we see that she is affected in some way, but I was not sure of the contents of the letter until Will told us in class that is was her lover breaking up with her.

The scenes of the lake and fog definitely feel like sadness, but I didn’t get the feeling of nature ‘losing its density and unity’ like the director had stated.

https://youtu.be/qIpIHRvoZn4

Run Lola Run was a very fun movie to watch and I thought the director did a very good job keeping up the narrative momentum while also have many discontinuous shots and playing with the timeline of the movie. The opening scene includes an animated part where she is running down the stairs, and it does a good job of moving in between live action and the animation. We know that this scene is continuing from the live action because of the way it was set up. We see her running for the stairs and assume that this animation part is continuing the from the live action and fades back into live action when she opens the door.

The movie also has a recurring time loop that is shown by running the opening sequence every time a new loop starts. This helps us get our bearings and understand that this sequence of events is going to be different this time. Overall, most of the time loops are very similar, with only a few main differences, and a few smaller differences in how she interacts with people she passes.

When we see these people she interacts with, there is sometimes a pause in time where we can see how their interaction has changed the outcome of their future. Their future is shown by a quick sequence of pictures of what they are going to do or what happens in their life.

While this doesn’t add much to story itself, it does show that she is re-living the moment in time when she interacts with these people, multiple times throughout the movie. Their futures change depending on how their interaction is.

My name is Andrew Higgins and I’m a senior in the DTC program. My interest in video comes from my love of movies and tv shows but also from my love for storytelling in general. I am into special effects and 3D work as well and I’d say that is what I’d like to pursue as a career.

Here is a cool short done by an animator on youtube: