Procedure:
- Take as many pictures as possible (with love theme) (e.g. about my love, something good about your boyfriend/girlfriend..i.e. why you idolize her/him, what you wish to have in Valentine day, Valentine spirit or A valentine day in NUS)
- Choose 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.
- Add the title/credit in your movie
- Add voice/a narration/song/background
- Requirement: min 2.5-min to max 4-min clip
The idea (Stage I):
(I didn't scan in my stage I, but anyway, here's a description of my idea.)
The theme/main idea i wanna capture is how humans express love to one another.
ONE: It is a human-human interaction. Not with pets or between animals, but purely human-human. I feel that it'll strike a deeper chord within us, humans.
TWO: The way humans express love in this video will be divided into four segments, "kids," "teenage," "adult," and "elderly," just like the different life stages of a human being. So there'll be a "storyline" for the audience to follow, and they'll know what to expect next.
THREE: Inspired by this video, I'm thinking of taking photos of people (from different age groups) forming a heart with their hands. These photos will serve as an introduction to the next segment in the video. So before showing photos of kids expressing love, i'd show some kids doing the heart thing. But it's proven to be a difficult task and I've only managed to get two such photos thus far.
Feedback: It's going to be very tough. To take so many photos of strangers and to capture "that moment."
Yea, i know it's going to be very tough. Especially in such a society where people don't readily express love to one another, and they tend to shy away from cameras.
Once this whole concept came to me, it stuck on in my head and just wouldn't go away. I foresee it's going to be a tough and time-consuming task, but i'm so captivated with the concept that i really want to give it a try.
Stage II:
So in the past one week, I went out and took photos.
And here and some of those I prefer. Four/five of each segment.
Enough talk. Let's look at the photos.
Kids.
the "heart" thing.
spending time together.
playing together.
The older sister is reading to the younger brother.
Teenage.
from my archives. Stranger giving out free hugs along Orchard Road.
Valentine's Special. That's a lot of balloons.
from my archives. Doing stupid things together.
(I'm on the right.)
from my archives. The guys always have their own way of loving one another.
Adults.
Playing catch.
Spending time together.
Awwwww.
Reading to the kids.
Elderly.
Grandparents tend to dote on their grandkids a lot. And they're strangely more expressive with their love to them. And they are so proud of them it's easier to ask them for a photo.
Ditto.
Basking together. A couple i suppose.
Teaching his grandson how to ride a bike.
Old friends sitting under a coconut tree. =X
After taking some photos for stage II, i realize that it's not as difficult as i thought it would be. But i did get some unfriendly stares and sometimes i don't dare to approach the people for a photo. It's all a matter of courage--ask and you'll receive. So, more photo-taking this coming week!
I also learned that it's not that Singaporeans don't express love a lot. It's just that they express love in a different way. By spending time together, playing together, or even just smiling at one another, all these are their expressions of love too.
Having heard and seen all these, do you have any feedback for me?
Come throw me your ideas. I love to hear feedbacks.
:)
14 comments:
I love the photos that you've taken. I can see the 'love' shown in the pictures.
However, the first picture of the girl making a heart with her hands cant really be seen. The heart was too dark. Maybe you can make the picture a bit brighter? Because when i first looked at the picture, the first thing that came to my mind was ' aww... this girl is so cute'. But the heart wasn't clearly shown.
i agree that the first girl's heart hand sign cannot really be seen.
but i love your photos. the way it was taken, the quality and feeling of them. nicely done!
I think it would be better if your first, second and free hugs photo be in white light since the majority of your photos are in white light. However, I believe that the free hugs photo is taken quite some time back..so a bit hard to retake that moment. Unless you’re gonna take a photo of someone with that poster in the day. Haha Other than that, nice photoshots!
Great job! Really love the pics that you have taken. They look nice and the colour is well balanced. The colour combination of your photos gave a warm feeling.In addition, i think your message is clear and straight forward.
Just wondering, what kind of music do you intend to use? Will it be those more towards light heartered kind or more romantic kind?
Hey girl, I like how the pictures turned out. The picture where the older sister reading to the younger brother, I like the way the colours turned out. Not in your face and yet so colourful and pretty. The idea about the different age group doing the love sign is good cos it kind of links the whole video together. All the best
heyy, ill like to see more photos with the heart formed with fingers!! i think that'll be something that makes your video stand out, because almost everyone else will be taking photos of different representations of love. :) but do try to think out of the box, and make them pose with the heart, in wacky and interesting situations! :)
Yup nice photoshoots, I liked the free hugs thing haha...loved that video that was floating around...
Anyway I think its nice that you try to explore the way people express and show love, its a nice way to arrange it too. Although I think maybe for each set you might want to try transiting the backgrounds/lightning or keeping it the same.. admittedly, its tough to retake but er, shoot more?
I love the idea of taking pictures of random people forming the heartshaped using their hands. haha! u can look for me if you need hands!
Same comment about the first pic.. Play around with the angle if you can retake the shot perhaps...
Putting it together i can see it working... just the process and what you're using as background will make the difference on the type of effect it has... so experiment abit.. you'll get the mood you want hopefully...
One good way to capture kids doing heart shape is to ... GATECRASH a child care centre!! HAHA. Ok I am kidding but you can write in and ask for permission. I mentioned childcare because the kids are extremely adorable and innocement. Most of the time they are actually not even camera shy especially with their friends and they will have so much fun. In return, you can even offer to email the picture or develope the image for the child care center as to thank them for helping you.
Yup. Same here am a fan of your photos : ) There isn't a storyline here right? So if there isn't a storyline what is carrying your movie through is actually the quality of your photos. My only problem with this is that the movie is by and large a compilation of nice "love" photos. Is there a message to drive home. Your last remark about how, it is not that Singaporeans are not loving but really just show it in simple ways could be a nice message you want to bring across. Could try using choice words to drive home that idea? Just a suggestion : )
Good work !
Cheers !
Hi all, thanks for all your kind comments. :)
To Sam Nee, ya, there isn't much of a storyline per se, but it flows from kids-->teenage-->adults-->elderly so audience will know what to expect next instead of just looking at a series of unending photos.
But i like your suggestion of incorporating what i learn in the process to form a 'storyline'. i'll work on it. Thanks! :)
ya if light is bad prob can retake a kid making heart shape, but prob in front o the eye on the face then its jus the kids face and the hand making heart shape. So like sloe up ? or can take a couple a friends' fist put together and they all draw hearts on their fist using markers. =p jus adding on to ur pf.. hee
thanks jamie for you suggestions. i'll go explore more possibilities for the heart thingy. :)
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