Project Description: Select a short passage from Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons from either Objects or Food. Develop a vignette that visually interprets the chosen passage. Use the words of the passage as a jumping off point towards a simple idea you wish to express.
Step 1: Pick a Passage
I started this project by reading through Objects and Food from Tender Buttons, by Gertrude Stein. While reading, I copied the passages I felt more drawn to and interested in into a google doc. I found that I was more interested in the pieces from Objects. My top two choices were Dress and A Drawing.
Step 2: Brainstorm/Storyboard
I liked Dress because of the association to fabric, the idea of machinery, and all the different verbs and adjectives that could influence the use of type and color in the video. One of my initial ideas was to record myself making a painting on me sewing machine, which would have connected nicely to this piece of writing.
I knew I wanted to have some sort of a connection to my paintings in this video, originally thinking I would show the process of making it. After some more thought I decided it would be better to incorporate a piece I had already made.
I wanted to use some of the paintings that were made of silkscreen mesh, which is transparent and moldable. My painting professor had suggested projecting onto work to see how it interacts with light, and I decided I could experiment with that through this video project (thanks for the idea Breehan :)).
I chose to use the passage A Drawing because I was planning to really draw with the light and emphasize the curves of the paintings. I also liked the repetition of the word “best.”
Even though I really didn’t know what was possible with the projector and the painting, I decided to create a storyboard showing the different compositions, scales, and movements of type I was going to use.
Thankfully my professor told me not to worry about the sequence and the storyboard and just to start experimenting with the projector.
Step 3: Test
Next, I started experimenting and filming with the projector, the paintings, and the text. My original idea was to use a painting as the backdrop to project onto, but once I started I realized it wasn’t really adding anything to the piece. You couldn’t actually see them and they just made setting up more of a pain. Instead, I chose to just use the silkscreen mesh as the painting. I focused on the composition and shape of the curves when setting it up.
While filming, I noticed the light was changing color on my phone and in the video. The white text changed to a shifting rainbow gradient. This would happen when I would lower the exposure while recording.
In these first round of test I had no idea why this color was happening or how to control it. It would shift from just the text changing colors to bands of color going across the whole screen. During the next crit, my professor said that it might have something to do with the frame rate of the projector and that I should start taking notes about the colors and when it happens. It was clear that whatever was happening with colors was adding a lot to the videos and that I needed to utilize it in my final video.
Step 4: Meeting with Anissa
After the second crit for this project, my professor connected me with one of his previous grad students who had done a lot of work with projectors. Her name is Anissa Martinez. She should me examples of her own work and other artists/designers she thought I would be interested in, gave suggestions for my video, and also gave me some tips about working with the projector itself.
Step 5: More Test
After meeting with Anissa, I continued to do tests. I started playing with having the text be typed out in the video by screen recording myself typing it. I also knew I would have to break down the passage into parts in order to establish some type of pacing and legibility. I figured out the pacing by finding an audio recording of A Drawing on Youtube so I could listen to how it was meant to be read and follow the rhythm of it. When typing the passage I also tried to follow this rhythm.
Going into the next crit, I was pretty worried because I still hadn't;t started my actual video. All I had were these tests and a pdf of the individual words and sentences I was going to call out.
Also during this time, I think I was drawn to the idea of “the mark” in this piece of writing. The idea that there are marks in a drawing, that I was creating marks through light, but also the idea of the punctuation being a very distinct mark in writing. I decided to really call out and highlight the punctuation in A Drawing through the video and projection.
Step 6: Film
Next, I FINALLY began to film the actual footage I would use in my video. I started by recording different angles of the passage being typed. Similar to my tests, the color changing did not happen in these, I think it has to do with the distance the camera is away from the projected image. But of course, this is when problem started happening…
I started to record the individual words and phrases from the passage, and unlike all of my tests, they weren't changing color. I still don’t really understand why. I was doin geverything the same as the test: same projector, lighting, distance, etc. The only thing I can think of is that it might be the size and amount of white space in these compositions. In my tests, the was a lot more text and if it was individual words the type was larger. So it must have something to do with the amount of white light being projected.
At this point I started to kind of freak out because the color effect was supposed to be a huge part of my final video, thankfully I presisted and found another solution.
I had compositions of all commas and periods, in order to highlight them as “marks,” I was using. These ended up having a really strong color changing effect like my earlier test. Once this happened I knew everything would work out because I could layer the white text over the colored punctuation to have the effect I was always planning for.
Step 7: Assemble Footage
After filming, I had a lot of different footage of each composition to work with. The next step was to bring it into Premiere and start to play with sequencing, layering, and video effects.
I wanted the video to build up as it progressed. I started out with just the tyoing footage in white and progressed to include words being overlayed on top of the typing. i then started to really call out certian phrases by allowing them to appear on their own. Once I started to do this, I also started to incorporate the color by having the commas in the background.
Step 8: Audio
The next step was audio. I knew I wanted t have some type of a voice over because the text became illegible at points and I wanted to make sure the audience was still able to understand the full passage. I started by using the audio I had used to help me with pacing before. Unfortunately, Iwasn’t able to cut this audio in a way that would have it line up with the video withou having awkward breaks (I also had never worked with audio in this way before so I wasn't;t sure how to fix this). Also, the woman in the recording was a cheery British lady who just didn’t fit the vibe I was going for.
So, I took a step back from the voiceover and decided to focus on another element I knew I wanted to include: the clicking of the keyboard. I took the original audio from my typing sceenrecording and created multiple tracks from it. The first one I added was the same speed as the original. I just broke it up so that it would match with the typing footage when I used it. After adding this the parts that didn't have the typing felt very empty, so I created a second track where I slowed the typing sound, and a third that sped it up. Having these three tracks of typing gave me a constant, but also varied, ambient sound.
Next, I knew I wanted to have instrumental music playing. My professor had recommended that I look at Brian Eno for my previous project, so I decided to go back to his work for this video. I listened to a few of his songs and decided that Ultramarine, by Roger and Brian Eno, was a good fit. It had the right pacing, rhythm, and eerie feeling I needed.
Lastly, I went back to the voiceover. All along I knew it would be best to just use my own voice (even thought I really didn’t want to listen to my voice over and over again while editing), so this is what I ended up doing. I recorded myself saying sections of the passage using the microphone button in Premiere. I wanted the voiceover to be set in the background so it wouldn’t overpower the music or call too much attention to itself- like an underlying voice. To do this I watched some Youtube tutorials on audio editing and learned how to use the lowpass and mastering effects.
Step 9: Final
In the final video, I’m really happy with how I was able to showcase this color effect that I discovered while using the projector. I’m also very proud of the overall sequencing and pacing, these were things I was thinking about through the whole process but didn’t have a full grasp on until I started assembling the final footage. Overall, I am extremely happy with the results of my projector experimentation and it is a tool I look forward to using in the future!
