Sometimes dreary is nice

I have been thinking about a project for my video productions kids are a while now; it is known as the 250 picture project. It is where they take a series of 10 pictures 25 times totaling 250 pictures. The idea I had was that they would start in one spot and move towards or away from a place, person, or thing and then once imported to FCP they would be able to speed them up perhaps making for a cool effect. I thought that it could be thematic, so I began thinking about what I would do my project on. As it turns out, the Friday after Thanksgiving was totally open for me and since the theme I had chosen was ‘urban’ I went downtown camera in hand to start my project.

First off - it was cold and dreary. Temperature was right around freezing and it was one of those days that Indiana is famous for - total cloud-cover and gray, gray, gray. It was, for whatever reason, the exact right vibe for what I was trying to accomplish. I thought that the tree at the circle would be a cool place to attempt this project., so I parked my car at Circle Center Mall and ambled out on to the street.

I am not a person overly given to allowing circumstances to affect how I feel, but it just felt so melancholy as I was walking around. Started playing some Elliot Smith - Miss Misery gave me some Good Will Hunting feelings and the combination of the music and the weather, etc was just deliciously dreary.

First thing I noticed that without even thinking about it, I was taking pictures of whatever caught my eye. No thoughts. No moving around so that I could get the best angle - nothing like that. Notice - point and shoot. It was actually liberating to do it that way as most of the time I am considering rule of thirds and lighting and blah, blah, blah. So when I I got home and went through the pics, I started frowning when I saw some of them, but convinced myself to stop and try to get back into that mood I was in when I took them. Just let it wash over you,. feel it - do not think about it. It became fun again quickly because then I was enjoying them just as when I took them.

I noticed right off that I kept taking pictures of old buildings. Dunno why, but when I took pics of some of the newer ones, it did not make me feel the same way. Too much glass and steel. There is obvious history in the architecture and colors - just feel like it has character that modern construction just does not have. I would love to see what some of those apartments might have been like in those older buildings.

There were two other things I noticed right away: the picture project was harder than I thought, and I wished I had brought a video camera. (Yes, the DLSR could have filmed, but its not my preferred vid cam. Call me bougie.)

When I was taking the picture, I would take 5-10 steps in between shots Boy do you need to pay attention to how you are walking. Go side to side to any size degree and it throws off the orientation of the pic. I learned that if I shot through the same spot over and over in my viewer it worked better. It can still be done, but attention must be paid.

With regard to the video camera issue - Pictures are worth a thousand words; videos are worth a million.

At some point while I was down there, the sun came out which was ironically a huge bummer. Right around that time, I seemed to lose my steam when it came to searching for new vistas, so I packed up and went home.

I am not going to start chanting or write a haiku here, but that feeling when you are chasing cool shots it a real high. I was going full tilt and looked down and 2 hours had gone by and it seemed like 10 minutes. I know I liked that feeling enough that I am now in search of a new way to get it.

I went through the photos and created a video from them. I used some of the new tools that the latest FCPX update gave us. The magnetic mask is really cool and I used it to remove the color around some of the paintings on different buildings. Increased saturation on the sign with a bleak black and white background was a cool juxtaposition of colors. Plus it gave me some time working with MM. There are a couple of sequences where I used that 10 pics procedure to mediocre effect,

To be honest, I am not really all that pleased with the video - it just didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to, which is weird because I did not really have any expectation for it. But I am going to publish my stuff - if I do not I am the biggest hypocrite who has ever lived. (CM and MP - that is for you!) Here’s that video.