5 Video Aspects to Focus on

-train coming towards me to bring me home to my family

-my dog greeting me at the door when I arrive home

-My baby’s smile/giggle

-Seth’s bond with our son

-The relaxing scenery of the ocean by my home

Video Source Statement

Believe it or not, translating my source from audio to videowas more challenging than from material to audio. I had a fairly easy time figuring out how my source sounds and how to capture it. Trying to capture the feeling of my source in video has been a lot more challenging than I previously thought.

            I think most of my difficulty has risen by the home-video feeling that some of my shots give off. Not to mention, my son has an issue acting natural when I’m pointing a video camera in his face. My goal is to try and capture five shots that don’t appear like they were done by an amateur. Although I am completely new to this device, I hope to disguise that fact completely. This media is a little too straightforward for my liking. I feel that I can express my source more artistically with a more obscure medium. This is an obstacle I wish to overcome. 

Source Statement Pertaining to Sound

         The time spent on my source working with sound has really got my brain working in a different direction. I’ve had to force myself to think about my source in a new light. How the sounds of my life have certain references for me and how they make me feel.         

         My cell phone is my only connection to home when I’m at school or somewhere else that separates me from my  loved ones. These sounds make me feel close to my loved ones even when I’m far. In traveling home, the train gives me the sense that it’s not too much longer before I see my family.

         Upon arriving at home, I’m elated to hear my boxer, Champ, greet me at the door. He makes the cutest noises as he wiggles towards me with excitement. My son is at the age where he is starting to goo and gaa and giggle. As you can imagine, there is no better feeling than hearing these wonderful sounds.

After a long day of traveling and classes, I get home around the same time my fiancée is arriving to work. After we are apart for the majority of the day, I hear his diesel truck chumming in the distance. As it draws closer, the noise builds into this bold sound which I’ve grown to love.

I’ve had an ongoing list of sounds that I have already recorded, as well as a few which I want to record that relate to my source. These include things like:

…the subway, the commuter rail, a diesel engine, Seth’s ticket punch, train door sliding, train pulling in/away, train horn, Champ excited to see me, Dodge’s goo’s and gaa’s, cell phone text/call/keytone sounds, Seth humming (speaking without speaking), beer can opening/pouring/fizz, Dodge laughing, swing music, elephant pull-toy music, the ocean/gulls, birds in the morning, etc.  

Source paragraph for Finished Artists Book

My source has evolved from being driven by emotion to something a little more complex. In my final artist book I concentrated less on all of the things that  effect me emotionally, and more on the two most important to me: my son, Dodge, and my fiancée, Seth.

            In unfolding the book, it opens in two directions. The left direction entails Seth and certain pictures that relate. When opening to the right, there are pictures involving Dodge. The book is made of fabric from the two of them (throughout, not on a specific side) which is soft to represent the comfort they bring me. 

            There is a photograph at the end of the ‘Seth side’ of the sun shining through a tree from home.  This represent my home but also the feeling that Seth brings to me of feeling at home with him. The book is fastened with a strand of a sheet tied in a bow. This also represents home and comfort to me. 

Finished Artist Book

Artists Book Progress as of 2/28/09