FILM 116 Experimentation with Media
Fall 2007

TREK 02

"The everyday persistence of walking recognizes that breathing and walking
give access to something tangible and deflates the importance of abstraction.
The bodily experience of moving, by challenging the objectivist account
of the world, opens a space for a theory of imagination."

--Ben Jacks

Overview

This assignment serves as a continuation of the walk completed in Trek 01, this time with a visual approach inspired by materials and information collected on Trek 01.

One of the ways in which we can better extract quality raw materials is to impose limits on the types of material we gather, and the ways in which we gather them.

Rather than use a "shotgun" approach and collecting images randomly (and then having to spend countless hours trying to find the best ones), you can selectively and strategically limit your approach so that you are on the lookout for visual situations that fit your criteria, and then capture only the footage that you know will work best for what you want to do. That way, you won't be spending valuable time dealing with footage that is unrelated to your project, or is simply uninteresting.

Back in the studio, you will import and sift through your footage to select the most interesting and promising material with which to make your first movie clips. Using basic video editing techniques, you will arrange and edit your material into three silent films that explore some of the ideas that inspired you on your walks.

Developing the raw footage by selecting, trimming, and editing, you will post five "rough cut" clips, at least one of which must be made from stills. Consider these rough cut clips as "sketches" to be polished into three "final cut" films that improve upon the promise shown in the rough cuts. In both versions, only basic edits and minor effects are allowed (no wipes, dissolves, or other non-essential effects/transitions).

Your Trek 02 Blog will thus be organized as follows:

Post 1: Image Capturing Strategy #1 (at the bottom of the page)
Post 2: Image Capturing Strategy #2
Post 3: Rough Cut Sketch #1
Post 4: Rough Cut Sketch #2
Post 5: Rough Cut Sketch #3
Post 6: Rough Cut Sketch #4
Post 7: Rough Cut Sketch #5
Post 8: Silent Video #1
Post 9: Silent Video #2
Post 10: Silent Video #3 (at the top of the page)

In short, your Trek 02 blog will be an experiment in posting different versions of your work-in-progress.

Image Capturing Strategies

1. Decide on the two Image Capturing Strategies you want to use for Trek 02 from this list or design your own strategies and write them out with careful wording.

2. Create a new Blog, this one for Trek 02, following these steps:

• Go to your Blogger Dashboard window and click "Create a Blog."
  
• Use "First Last Trek 02" as the title of the new blog.
• Use this format for the URL: "FirstLast0711602." Make sure this is EXACTLY as it was for Trek 01, except use "02" instead of "01" after "07116." Check the Course Directory to verify your URL.
• Create a post named "Strategy #1."
• Enter you first Light Capturing Strategy in the corresponding text ares (make sure the wording is clear and precise).
• Publish.
• Create a second post for "Strategy #2," and repeat the above.

3. Go through the "Quick Steps" and "FAQs" for your camera:

FE-100 Manual [pdf], Video Quick-Steps [pdf], Still-Image Quick-Steps [pdf], FAQs [pdf]
D-545 Manual [pdf], Video Quick-Steps [pdf], Still-Image Quick-Steps [pdf], FAQs [pdf]

4. Look for settings that could give you more control, like turning off the flash, adjusting exposure, time exposure, focus, image resolution, and other options that might be more helpful for our light gathering strategies.

5. You will use these Strategies to focus your attention on a particular approach to investigating the landscape, limiting the range of available material. This will force you to look with particular care at what seems to be a negatively limited approach, only to discover much more nuance than you were expecting.

Taking Pictures in the World

Basic Digital Photography Composition Tips
Rule of Thirds
Mise en scène
Photographer's Rights
Why Photography?
Is Digital Making Us Sloppy?

Tutorial Preparation

1. If you are working from home, install AvidFreeDV (if you plan to use another option, you can apply many of the concepts and approaches in AvidFreeDV to other apps . . . please talk to Glenn).

2. If you work at school, go to a Mac platform in a campus lab like those in MIT 353 or one of the black PCs in MIT B-18 or MIT 353. Note that AvidFreeDV is NOT on any of the general PC computers in the other campus labs.

3. Go through the AvidFreeDV tutorial. Make up some quick practice still images and QuickTime movies with your digital camera.

4. Follow the tutorial steps through "Setting Up Your AvidFreeDV Session Folder," including steps on how to make a backup copy of your project media on a CD-R disc.

5. Save the AvidFreeDV editing session you have created. If you are working in a UWM lab, save the session on your external hard drive and/or CD-R.

Trek 02 "Walking Points"

1. Gather your digital camera, empty flash memory card, all of your charged AA batteries (at least 6), street map, cell phone, watch, and your two strategies written in your PDA, on a 3"x5" card, or in a readily available notebook.

2. Head to the same designated starting point you used in Trek 01 (or go to the place where you ended up--in either case, use the same general area you explored on Trek 01).

3. Pursue ways to apply your two light-capturing strategies on a four-hour (or longer) walk.

4. Fill your 1GB flash card full of still and moving imagery.

5. Both of your strategies must be conducted entirely on foot--no cars, bikes, skateboards, snowboards, scooters, etc. (If walking presents you with a physical challenge, let your section teacher and Glenn know so we can make accommodations.)

Finding your Best Material

1. Before importing your Trek 02 materials into AvidFreeDV, use MPEG Streamclip and your default photo viewer to study your visual materials. Look for striking and unusual kinetic (motion), graphic (light/composition), and perceptual qualities.

2. Since you have made copies of the original files on a CD-R or DVD-R disc, you can identify clips and still photos of interest by adding words to their title, coloring their icons or sorting them into specified sub-folders. It's a good practice to retain the number string in the original title because you can trace this back to your originals on disc easier. Always retain the ".jpg" or ".mov" extension at the end of all media files.

3. When you find a segment of particular interest in a .mov file, use these steps in MPEG Streamclip to export the segment as a standalone .mov clip. (Note that the motion .jpg format generated by the digital cameras is a web-compatible format and is sufficient in quality for these clips.)

Movies from Stills

At least one of your rough clips must be made entirely from still images. Using either the AvidFreeDV method, the QuickTime Pro method, or the Picasa2 method, create a QuickTime movie from at least one group of your still photos (use from 24 to 200 frames).

1. AVIDFreeDV Method: The stills should be imported initially as 1 second clips, but you can adjust the duration of individual stills as you wish. You can arrange them into the order that makes the most sense to you. To export this sequence from AVIDFreeDV as a web-compatible QuickTime movie, follow these steps.

2. QuickTime Pro Method: As per the tutorial, import your digital camera still images using "File > Open Image Sequence." QT Pro will create a sequence of individual still frames in the order your digital camera numbered them. The rate at which they play will be determined with the Frames Per Second setting when you export the web-compatible movie. If you want to change the order of the stills, about the only way to do this in QT Pro is to manually rename the files in the Finder by adding "001.jpg" to the end of the file name you want to be first, "002.jpg" to the end of the file name you want to be 2nd, etc. After you have created your sequence of still frames in the QT viewer window, use these steps to export a web-compatible movie. Set the Frames Per Second at "1 FPS" unless you prefer them to be viewed at a faster rate, like 2-15 fps.

3. Picasa2 Method: As per the tutorial, download the PC-only freeware. Import your stills into an album or several albums. Arrange the thumbnails in an album in the order you want them in your movie. Export the whole album or selected files from the album as a large 640x480 QuickTime movie. See the AvidFreeDV tutorial for instructions on how this movie can be imported into AvidFreeDV and then exported as a H.263 QuickTime movie.

Top Five Rough Cut Clips

1. Review all of your video and still-generated QuickTime movie clips.

2. Choose five clips (no longer than 20 seconds in duration) that best articulate your visual interests as expressed through your light-capturing strategies (these rough cut clips should showcase your ability to confidently choose "in" and "out" points and to make decisive edits, and should not use any non-essential special effects).

3. Remember that at least one of your rough cut clips must be made entirely from still images.

4. Open FireFox. Drag and drop one of your rough cut clips into the browser window. The browser window should change into a gray background with your movie in the center and a control bar underneath. Check to make sure it plays correctly. Drag in all of your movies one at a time and play them to make sure they are browser compatible.

5. Pick a representative still image from your clips to serve as the thumbnail "link" image. Make a screenshot as described in this video tutorial.

Your thumbnail must then link directly to the .mov file. You can add text that says "Click on thumbnail to play clip," but do not add another, separate link to play the clip.

6. Upload your five rough clips to the "media" folder of your PantherFile "public" folder (as well as the five screenshots of the Quicktime player to your "images" folder).

7. Publish your rough clips as you complete them . . . remember that your Trek 02 blog is a documentation of your work in progress, a portrait of your creative process.

8. All five rough clips must be posted by Monday, October 29, 3 PM, when we will be going over them in class.

Final Clips

1. After repeatedly examining your five rough clips, find the most promising moments to use in three finished, polished clips.

2. These three final clips must follow through on the potential shown in the rough clips to showcase interesting and unusual visual patterns, textures, movements, juxtapositions, collisions, expectations, and narrative potential. The final clips should be no longer than 30 seconds in duration.

3. In this case, the use of still images is encouraged, but not required.

4. In addition to judicious editing, you may also use effects and image alterations, including adjustments to contrast, brightness, hue, saturation, time, speed, direction (forward/reverse), sizing, etc.

5. We are looking for unique artistic statements and meditations on the visual phenomena collected on your Trek 02 walk(s). We are also looking for continuity and connection between Trek 01 and Trek 02, and evidence of further linkage to the sound video you will be producing for Trek 03.

6. Repeat steps 4-6 from Rough Clips above.

7. Post your finished clips by Wednesday, October 31, 3 PM, when we will be reviewing/critiquing them in class.

Trek 02 Deadlines

1. All five rough clips must be posted by Monday, October 29, 3 PM.

2. All three final clips must be posted by Wednesday, October 31, 3 PM.

3. The Trek 02 blog must be finished with all clips present and links working by Sunday, November 4, 5 PM.

4. Please review this list of grading criteria for Trek 02 (PDF).