Description of My 10 Items:

1. My Puppy Koncho

Just look at him, how could you possibly tell me that he’s not the most fantastic dog on the face of this planet? He’s mine and perfect. I could go on for days of all the ways he’s a brilliant puppy, but like I said, that would take days. 

2. My Guitars

I play a Fender Cyclone, and an Ovation. Both are red. It wasn’t until recently that I realized that both my guitars are red! Which makes them even more fantastic. Music is a HUGE part of my life. I would have put a photo of my piano as well, as I played piano for years. Although I didn’t, because I eventually became so tired of playing classical piano that I went out and bought a guitar and rocked out instead! Now guitar trumps the piano in my life and has become an integral part of my obsession with music. 

3. My Cottage

This photo has a duo purpose. It is taken inside my cottage kitchen. My cottage is easily my favourite place to be, especially when I’m there cooking there with friends. It’s my sanctuary from suburbia and the city and I spend as much time there as I can.

4. Sketchbook and Sharpies

My obsession with drawing, sketching and doodling started when I was young, and I’ve never stopped; nor do I intend to. I can lose hours behind my sketchbook and love to do nothing but doodle all day and night.

5. My Cellphone

Sadly I love my cellphone. I hope it doesn’t give me a brain tumor.

6. Guides

10 Years worth of Brownie, Girl Guide, Pathfinder and Ranger badges, books, pins, awards and uniforms. Yeah, I know, I’m a loser.

7/8. Cooking and Baking

If I didn’t make design my career, I’d probably be a chef. Making food and feeding people make me ridiculously happy and I love to cook and bake. 

9. My Car!

I love my car. There’s nothing better than being able to get in your car and drive somewhere. I love driving.

10. My Jewelry

The collection is of my most sentimental pieces that were either given to me or purchased by me. This collection is particularly important, as it features pieces I’ve collected from around the world. Some people collect shot glasses, I collect Jewelry.

1. Title: Peel Me Countdown


2. Overview:

The concept of this countdown originated around ideas of food and numbers. I originally had lofty aspirations of using eggs. I had hoped that I was capable of slitting eggs, inserting numbers into them and then reattaching the shells. When the eggs were cracked, it would give the impression of the numbers “hatching” from the eggs themselves. This, however, was not the case. I then attempted to “fake” the hatching using photography and stop motion animation. This trial was marginally more successful than the first. Eventually, I moved on to another item, onions. The onion proved to be a perfect candidate for counting down to.  Through teary eyes, I used the layers of the onion as my canvas for each number in the countdown.

4. Audience:

The intended audience would be people who have a sense of humour regarding food and film. I enjoy working with food and typography, and design these videos to be geared towards people that share a similar fascination. It is not geared towards a specific age group; if you like it, you like it, and if you don’t, well, there are other videos for you then.

5. Key Message:

Ideally, I would like my audience to learn about the potentials of typography and food. I think this unexplored combination is worth talking about, and particularly worth exploring through film.


6. Content Planning:

The bulk of the content would be the onion. I cut half the onion to use for the countdown. I used another full onion to be used as my “number two.” For the end of the countdown, I use a knife to chop up the numbered layers as my last seconds run out and for my end credit sequence.


8. Bibliography: Peel Me Countdown uses all original photography and typography.

Project one was by far one of the most enjoyable projects to make. My group and I enjoyed the playfullness of this short video clip, and was more than excited to express our own personalities in the project. The amount of photos necessary to create it was more than I expected it to be. We had to reshoot the scenes multiple times in order for the composition and lighting to be ideal. The split photo scenes proved to be the most time consuming and difficult, as the photos had to be shot with similar proportions, so that breaking them up into thirds later on would be possible. I believe that about 367 photos were used for the entire clip. 

We completely re-edited our sound clip in order for our sounds to match the facial expressions and body movements as best as possible. Once this was done, the film seemed to be more cohesive and was better understood by viewers that previewed our film.

I am more than pleased with the final outcome and happy that we continually tried to keep to our original concept, yet altered it when necessary, and adding to it when inspired. 

Initial Idea:

Since our sound clip was composed of spontaneous sounds created by the three of us, we wanted to follow it up with appropriate images. We decided that we would select individuals at random and have them do spontaneous movements while we took consecutive photographs. We then planned to compile our scenes in a way that would be interesting and build-up the sequence/timing to follow the sound clip.

When we tried to execute this idea we found it hard to follow through because:
1) lack of enthusiastic candidates 
2) lack of consistency between the backgrounds 
3) lack of time to properly edit, organize and compile the image sequence

Current Idea: 

We decided to slightly re-work the first idea, we collectively agreed to use the three of us, to act out in the visual scenes. This seemed like an even better idea seeing as the sound clip is our own vocal improve. 

After taking some of the initial photographs, we noticed that it was easier to restrict ourselves to the white background of the labs to keep the main focus on our movements. This we found helped us when we did our transitions. 

We took separate pictures of moving feet/legs, moving hands/mid section, and moving head. We then re-took photos of all the separate parts, and compiled them into one frame. The end result was a full person consisting of Anastasia’s feet/legs, Cristina’s arms/mid section, and Sanja’s head. When played in sequence all three sections are visible at once, but consist of individual movements making up the “person”. Reminiscent of the old cheese string commercials, and the new Activia 14 day trial yogurt commercials (with the moving mid section). 

While experimenting with our photos, we decided to use the white board behind Cristina. The end result turned out to be an interesting combination of spontaneous movements that drove the animation and ended with the animation driving the spontaneous movements.

This is a list of inanimate objects used in our recordings:

- bangles

- keys

- seeds

- paper

- can of spray paint

- wooden type blocks

- bristles on a plastic brush

- cardboard cylinder

- metal clasp

- plastic wrapper

- loose change

- zipper

- blinds

- cupboard door

- running water

* Vocals noises were made by the three of us. sadly.

We used Garage Band 08 to record these sounds. They were then each edited and organized.

Our Original Idea: Our common environments

Our original idea was based on our common environments. We wanted to focus on an area that we were all familiar with, and one we spend a great dea of our time in. For example, the TEL cafeteria, one of the design labs, the Student Center. Therefore ENVIRONMENT became our noun, and we began discussing possibilities for BURST and UNITE as our verbs. 

Within these environments, there were common trends being heard: quiet conversation, laughter, loud conversations, cell phone noises and ringing, general cafeteria clamor, cash registers.

We attempted recording these sounds within this environment, but isolating each sound to be audible was nearly impossible. All of these sounds could potentially create a soundtrack on their own if left combined and untouched, but the lack of professional equipment to fully capture the sounds made this soundtrack fuzzy and overall dissapointing.

Second Approach:

Noun: Environment    Verb: Escape and Mix

We relocated to the print lab in TEL and decided to try to create all of the sounds ourselves. Only using materials in our environment, we then created our sounds one by one.  We took this one step further and used ourselves to produce sounds, as we were also objects in the lab and thus should count towards the sound essay. Then in the most honust approach to creating sounds, we went one by one in a sequence and made a sound without pre-determining what it would sound like. We went as quickly as possible from one to the next as to not allow ourselves time to think of a sound, but just to act from our subconscience. This was our interpretation of “escaping” from our normal selves and to act on impulse and without inhibitions. You can only imagine how ridiculous, hilarious and embarassing these sounds are. 

In the end of the recording session, we had two sets of data to work with: Sounds created from inanimate objects, and ones created by people. We then “Mixed” these sounds together creating one soundtrack from our environment.

Inside:

- lawn mower through window

- my dog sneezed

-washroom door closing

-tea kettle whistle

-cupboard door closing

-cell phone ringing

-my sister laughing

Outside:

- large shovel machine was digging up the dirt

-girl sitting next to me on the phone

- car door shutting

-scraping shoes x2

-heeeeeelllllllllllllllloooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

- random chatter

- “oh ya man, so much better, so much better”

- ” oh shit, I was waiting for you”

- wheels rolling across the stone walkway

- “what? did you read that? NO!”

- weeds are making scratchy noises

- a sneeze x3

- “i win you lose ahahah!”

- phone beeping