Assignment 3: Ken Burns

Title: Motion Photos for CNM and NUS (2 versions)
Medium: “Motion Photograph” /Video

Design of a simple movie using photographs (i.e. still image)

Theme: Promote NUS and CNM with Creative 'Movies' (Create a .mov for a Final Product)

Description:

• Develop a plot on the theme (e.g. something about our university/our CNM programme, why you choose NUS, why you choose CNM, your typical day in the Uni, your typical day in the class, what you enjoy in the uni/campus, your friends, our foodcourt, what do you like to eat in NUS, try to promote and let others see the benefits/advantages of studying in NUS and CNM).
• Follow the procedure described below
• Render the video to .mov
• Submit the final product (i.e. mov) to the server (The finish product should be loaded to the server)

Procedure:

• Take as many pictures as possible (i.e., related to the theme above.....something about our university/our CNM programme, why you choose NUS, why you choose CNM, your typical day in the Uni, your typical day in the class, what you enjoy in the uni/campus, your friends, our foodcourt, what do you like to eat in NUS, try to promote and let others see the benefits/advantages of studying in NUS and CNM).
• Take around 40-70 pictures
• Build a story around the pictures taken.
• Use Microsoft Photo Story, Windows Movie Maker, Premiere or After Effects to do the panning, tilting, scaling, and transition etc.
• Where possible add some animations, rotations and montages.
• Add the title/credit in your movie
• Add voice/a narration/song/background.
• Requirement: minimum 1-minute to maximum 3-minute clip

Stage 1: (Next week)

• Develop two plots for the theme (one is for NUS, the other is for CNM)
• Concept development: Thumbnail sketches of your concepts (i.e., can be a storyboard, pictures, photos or hand-drawn)
• Create 10 images (e.g. thumbnail, drawing or photograph) each for NUS and CNM i.e. total 20 images
• For NUS: The 10 images (above) should consist of 2 images (begin or intro), 4 images (middle or main story), climax 2 images, and 2 images (conclusion)
• For CNM: The 10 images (above) should consist of 2 images (begin or intro), 4 images (middle or main story), climax 2 images and 2 images (conclusion)
• Organize/Put these 10 images/drawing/photograph in A3 paper.
• Present through A3 paper next week
• Feedback: Present concepts to your friends for discussion in the tutorial class.
• Deliverable: Print
• Deadline: Next week

Stage 2: (the week after)

• Insert more images in between these 10 images (no restriction on how many images/pictures could be used)
• Production: Develop the concept into final product using adobe Premiere and/or adobe After Effect (not restricted to these two software. )
• Submit to Youtube and submit the URL through IVLE workbin (Deadline is strictly imposed on IVLE system).
• Deadline: 1 March 2009 - 23:59
• Presentation: Present it to the classroom.

Okay for the CNM video, the idea i had was actually based on a real life story. One very fine day, i was happily playing some game in the library as a reading for NM3216 Game Design (we have to do a weekly critique based on some readings and the game[s]). Out of nowhere, a hand smacked resoundingly onto my head. For a moment, an earthquake of magnitude 9 is happening inside my head. I steadied myself and turned around. Standing there was my friend, looking half bemused, half slightly unhappy. I was given a talking to on how people have no time to even sleep and there i was playing games in library. After i explained that it was for the game design module, the suspicious friend didnt believed until i navigated to the game design ivle.

In a nutshell, what i wanna show through the video? : CNM is different, fun and who knows, perhaps other departments are jsut a little envious of us.



The comments from the class were generally quite favorable, much to my surprise. As this is a promotional video, i thought my video is a tad too childish and playful for it. But it turned out well and the areas to improve were sizing up the pictures to fill up the whole screen. AND to photoshop away the TOSHIBA name on my computer. I hadnt have time to upload the completed video to youtube, but i will update if i got to it.


Next up, the NUS video. I have a very very hard time thinking of what to do with it since my attention is all wrapped up doing the CNM video(which i had fun doing). In the end, i chance upon this facebook group called NUS STANDS FOR NO USE STUDYING, which is created by my friend. Then, an idea on how to approach this struck me. At first there is this common joke in NUS that it actually stands for National University of Stairs. Then it gets to the crowd favorite of No Use Studying. Then i show that NUS is not just about studying, there is also very vibrant campus life. NUS is simply more than just studies.

In a nutshell : What does NUS really stands for? A vibrant and colorful enviroment.





This assignment gave me a HUGE headache. After the tortures of learning CSS from scratch(which i can say i became adequately proficient in), i have to learn After Effects from scratch. Thank goodness for www.videocopilot.net ! The experience gained in using AE for the CNM video is immense. All these are applied when i am doing the NUS video. Where i learn that nearly categorizing your project panel is REALLY REALLY important (It saves a heck lot of time). However all in all, i feel that after effects is really fun, indefinitely better than CSS.I am glad to have the chance to learn AE (the price to pay being a few night's sleep, but that is the norm right?)