kate dreher

My still project was a critique of our culture and how it seems to just walk by huge problems without notice.  To achieve this I used images of homeless individuals moving slowly throughout the movie contrasting with fast blurry images of people walking around looking very busy.  This is supposed to move the attention from the busy streets and the busy live of people to the more importance issue of poverty.

Through this project I learned a lot about how to use still images to portray a message.  I had thought that it was going to be very difficult to portray a message through still images without the movie looking like a silly slide show.  But after working hard to find a message and achieve that through manipulating the media I was very pleased with the results.  It was really interesting to see how the images I found could work together to create the work.  The images by themselves (though powerful) would not be able to effectively portray the message I was working for.  This is my first experience using i movie and I think that (though sometimes frusterating) it is a great way to put together images to portray a message.

i don’t really have any technical questions (yet) about photoshop and imovie but i’m sure that some will arise.

I am so very ready to go home for midsemester break.  it’s not that i’m terribly sick of being at school it can just feel so isolating here!  i feel like i never look at the news or know whats going on outside of my little word.  i try to stay connected through BBC and other news websites but it’s like we’re totally detached from the world here.  it’s like we’re on an island or something and when you’re home you can actually experience life around you.  it’s amazing how college is supposed to prepare you for the real world yet it keeps you so detached.  i wonder why that is?

coming into class yesterday i still didn’t have a fully developed idea. so i wasn’t going to just throw some post up about something i wasn’t going to do.  that doesn’t make sense, after being in class (in which i thought i was going to be able to meet with my professor to make more sense of my broad concept) i figured something out on my own and started to find images.

my idea springs off of my previous post by touching on the idea of people ignoring big problems even when they are right in front of them.  I will make this concept less broad by speaking to the problem of poverty vs. extreme wealth and spending.  i have ALREADY compiled a bunch of images of homeless and poverty stricken families in class.  These images will move in i movie at a pace in which the viewer can make out what went by but there mind will not process the image until after the fact.  i will also incorporate images of dollar bills, expensive purchases, and expensive people. these will move in an out incorporating with the other images of homelessness and poverty.

the music will be the most important part of this project.  I have worked with garage band before and I would like to change the music from a melancholy  almost sad music when showing images of poverty and to a louder more in your face type of music when the short clips flash in with expensive things.

this video will bring the real issues to the forefront.  i’m sick of people just walking by problems (in this case literally) and just keep making money and spending money without lending a hand.  every little step to end poverty helps but the rich getting richer and the economy getting crushed doesn’t help any of that.

as i develop my project more and begin to see how the images interact with imovie i will be able to expand on this idea.  all the class time yesterday helped me move my project forward and develop my direction more.

the first idea that i have in mind when it comes to my still motion project if the concept of people wanting change and complaining about all the problems in the world but not being willing to do anything about it.