In Our Shoes: A Video Collage
Made by Anna Tan, Christina Reimond, Naomi Sternstein and Dan Cheng
Made by Anna Tan, Christina Reimond, Naomi Sternstein and Dan Cheng
The shoes we choose in the morning are the shoes that choose to get us where we know we need to go. It is a choice of personality and practicality (sometimes...). These shoes are imprinted with each one of us, and the journeys through which they have taken us. In our approach to this project, we were searching for a way to show our different perspectives, while still incorporating aspects of ourselves that we have in common. We discovered that in our own shoes, we visit the same places each day without even knowing, and walk very similar paths. Each of us recorded three short video clips of different views in our lives: at home, walking to class, and at her favorite place in Pittsburgh. The videos start looking down at a favorite pair of shoes, then look up to the surroundings, just as we ourselves would look up. Our goal is to create a visually interesting collage of these video clips, while immersing the viewer in relatable views of our lives. Each column corresponds to a group member; the top row shows our homes, the second corresponds to walking to class, and the bottom shows our favorite places. The song choice is a favorite of one of the group members, and when she shared it with the others they decided that it fits the story we are trying to tell. Information is always spread through sharing with others. One member shared with three others, who now share with all of you. It is a fun song by the Talking Heads, and we are a fun and colorful bunch. We are happy to share our group with you!
Created: August 31st, 2014
The shoes we choose in the morning are the shoes that choose to get us where we know we need to go. It is a choice of personality and practicality (sometimes...). These shoes are imprinted with each one of us, and the journeys through which they have taken us.
In our approach to this project, we were searching for a way to show our different perspectives, while still incorporating aspects of ourselves that we have in common. We discovered that in our own shoes, we visit the same places each day without even knowing, and walk very similar paths. Each of us recorded three short video clips of different views in our lives: at home, walking to class, and at her favorite place in Pittsburgh. The videos start looking down at a favorite pair of shoes, then look up to the surroundings, just as we ourselves would look up. Our goal is to create a visually interesting collage of these video clips, while immersing the viewer in relatable views of our lives. Each column corresponds to a group member; the top row shows our homes, the second corresponds to walking to class, and the bottom shows our favorite places.
The song choice is a favorite of one of the group members, and when she shared it with the others they decided that it fits the story we are trying to tell. Information is always spread through sharing with others. One member shared with three others, who now share with all of you. It is a fun song by the Talking Heads, and we are a fun and colorful bunch. We are happy to share our group with you!
This is a pretty cool theme. As a fan of basketball shoes myself, i agree that the shoes you choose really become a part of you. For sports shoes, when you look at them after wearing them for a couple of months, each and every mark on them shows just how much effort you put into training over those few months.
The idea is great, but the video becomes a little hard to follow when some people are beginning to look up while new shoes are still appearing. Bringing more focus to a single frame at a time, or synchronizing the frames so they all raise the camera at the same time could make the video a lot easier to follow. Love the project, though!
I really enjoyed the way you approached this project. Your description shows that you have a clear vision of what you are trying to convey. However, it feels a little like your description conveys more than the video itself. It almost feels as if the video relies on the description a little too much.
I really like how you choose to show all of your different videos at the same time instead of back-to-back. I think this helped enhance your idea that in one day everyone has different paths that are unique but also might intersect with others. I think focusing on your shoes was nice (instead of just focusing on your path) because it connected each persons videos to their other videos. Just like your shoes, each one of you is unique and has their own character.
I, too, had trouble deciding which panel to look at at any given moment. I think if you timed things out differently, or made one of the panels larger than the others (like, when it's new, and then it could change sizes when there was a new one you wanted us to look at, etc), then that could potentially have helped this. It's just a little technical issue, though; the idea behind the project is pretty neat.
I like your approach and the way you edited all these different videos together. Your choice to edit all of the videos into one frame generates a lot of visual interest, keeps your eye moving around the frame, and makes you want to watch it again. I think you could have done without the text at the end, since you can hear the lyrics in the song. It's okay to make the viewer work a little bit to figure out what you're saying, and often makes for a more interesting and rewarding experience for your viewer.
I certainly like what you did at the 18 second mark in making the clips disappear to reveal the text underneath. It was an interesting way to emphasize the lyrics of the song in that moment. The text could have been made larger and more centered because it was the only thing on the screen after the video clips went away. On the other hand, you could have also made all of the clips disappear at once right before the lyrics that you want to emphasize are sung. Those technicalities being said, the project was still very creative and the medium of film was refreshing to see.
I really didn't expect the ending to be what it was! It was a very cute ending. I really liked the grid structure you chose, and liked how each member was adjacent to each other. It was also nice to see that you chose to represent each member in 3 specific places - in their homes, on campus, and somewhere else in Pittsburgh. My favorite part about the video was the transitions - the placement and removal of the clips at the beginning and (towards the) end of the video. I also understand that this might be a difference in cameras used, but the resolution of the leftmost member was different from the rest of the group. If they were the same, the piece would've been more structured.
This is a wholly enjoyable project! The idea of representing yourselves in similar but clearly distinct ways was brilliant, and I also like the song choice. One of the issues I have with it is the way the text is presented. I'm okay with the text being there, but the way it lines up with the song suggests that it has to be more spread out - maybe insert some transitions so that the relevant text is on screen at the same time as the song? The ending was wonderful - a sense of unity that demonstrates what brought you all together. This is a solid project, and I'm interested to see how you guys look to improve it!
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