A possible evening in Milwaukee

This is my answer to pieces with too many "quick edits" and too much information at once. It is my simplistic visual and audio story of a semi-typical Milwaukee evening as I have become more acquainted with my new home.

Shake and some fries

For my last rough cut I worked on including what I like to call the "shakes". The "shakes" are the portion of the video that seemed to match with what I've dubbed the "spin cycle".

Comes in color and in black and white

My second rough cut was used to help me incorporate both the black and white and the color captures.

First step

My goal for this rough cut was to include audio. From this first try I started formulating an end product in my head.

Producing circles of light and sound

For capturing the visual aspects of my third presentation I will limit myself to shooting while moving or from a moving object. All will be shot at night time.
All shots will be of bending light. I will most likely use unatural light and situations that allow the shutter to stay open longer. I will use these limitations to express the light in different ways. Bending light is the name of the game for this third piece.
All sound will be extremely focused and of circular sounds. I will try a couple different methods but in the end it will need to create a visual circle in your minds eye.

10 questions

1. How can I use the lighting to change the presentation of an object?
2. Can I create an illusion with stationary objects?
3. What sounds would no one recognize?
4. Will lack of color effect the message of the piece?
5. Should I limit the time for captures?
6. Where would someone not think of going?
7. What kind of subjects will keep me from quick edits?
8. Do I need sunlight?
9. Can I make the camera capture a mistake?
10. How much different audio will I use?

I never have a G.I. Joe when I need one

I think that one of my more favorite experiences was on drift two, down by Lake Michigan. I was walking on the sand along the snow fence when I started to notice how the wind had shaped the snow drifts and how they created contrast against the sand. Upon capturing this I started remember G.I. Joe commercials and how all the kids in the commercial always had these cool miniature landscapes to play with their figurines on. I never had a sweet miniature woods or desert scene in my house. My G.I. Joes would do battle on the couch or in the treacherous shag carpet fields. Finally I had discovered a landscape that even the commercial kids would be jealous of, but alas I did not have a G.I. Joe on me. I guess this made me realize that just by zooming in on specific features, you can really make the viewer or audience believe that they are somewhere else. In this case the audience would be just outside of Cobra Commanders arctic fortress.

Surprise

I believe that without surprises, a lot of my capturing drifts would have ended a whole lot sooner. On my walk for drift one I ventured down around Cass St. and I had taken my dog with me. In fact my strategy for my drift was to let my dog choose the path. This mostly lead us to fire hydrants, other dogs, and a lot of neglected "piles". When Charlie (my dog) and I had passed Brady St., we started moving in a hurried pace. This is when I looked up and discovered a park filled with dogs. I let Charlie loose and introduced myself to the patrons of the park. They informed me that this was a underground dog park. During the summer they would gather with their dogs and adult beverages at this park. It was interesting trying gain acceptance into this new secret crowd but Charlie helped with is ever flowing charm.
The second surprise I encountered was when Charlie led us across a land bride into what I now know as Riverside Park. Nothing against the park people, but in the middle of winter, I would venture to say that that park is one of the most depressing places ever. I had just arrived and immediately I was thinking of the nicer places I have visited in my travels. I couldn't wait to finish capturing and then go home and view something with color. I wish I had taken a picture because any which way you turned was in "gray scale". I kid you not. Every angle, the sky, the trees, the snow, and the ground all were void of color. Or at least my mood made it seem that way. I guess that was the big surprise to me, that a park could be so depressing.

Peace at last

I would have to say that during the walk I took to gather material for the second drift, I found myself at peace during most of the walk. I would say that this was most likely due to the fact that I am a very visual thinker. Every idea in my head is represented in a visual display in my mind's eye. Basically it was a walk that was more focused on framing and visual presentation in general. I loved every second of it. My only mission in the world was to discover things about my current environment and then contemplate the possible ways of displaying this to a selective audience.
The first example of relaxation I encountered was definetely the energy about the city. There was a high level of energy that day due to the fact that this was the first sunny day in about a week. Regardless of the temperature, there were people all around exploring the outdoors. The sun also did me a favor and created some impressive shadows for me to capture. Shadows during the winter months of Wisconsin are amazing. If you are lucky enough, you can find a selection of snow that is perfectly smooth on the surface, which creates a free and natural canvas for the shadows that you observe. The rest is on you and the clouds to time the perfect capture. Just watch out for golden retrievers.
The second feeling of peace I discovered was when I realized how solid the colors of my surroundings apppeared in the bright sun. The snow showed up as pure white. Lake Michigan had two distinct shades of blue, and the sky had a nice gradual fade. An example of this would be the frame under the title of my second drift, which can be viewed by clicking here.

Obstacles

During the first two drifts I completed, I came across some interesting obstacles. These obstacles should actually be the things that these film courses celebrate. It is these exact obstacles (natural, not created or prompted) that challenge the artist to use their creativity in ways that they have yet to explore. I believe it is these obstacle that we really learn from.
The first major obstacle that I encountered was on drift one. I noticed that when I returned from my first audio collection period that I had returned with mostly traffic noise. At that point I had figured that I would only catch traffic noise due to the fact that my microphones were so sensitive. However, I sat down to watch a movie and was drawn into the audio aspects of the film and that's when I started to realize that even though this film was using state of the art sound equipment, the idea for that equipment had to start somewhere, meaning that there had to be some way for my self to capture specific sound. This began a few days of indoor practice. After a few failed attempts I had constructed a crude cone shaped device to go around my microphones. This didn't exactly cut out all the outside noise but it helped in directing the capture. After that I decided to use cupped hands for shorter captures. This seemed to do the trick. Honestly, the thing that helped the most was just getting used to the supposed traffic schedule around where I reside. That probably helped the most.
The second obstacle that I encountered was on drift two. The obstacle was an unruly and quite hyper golden retriever. I had designed a short visual display in my head that would involve myself creating a design on some fresh snow. I had made and taken shots of a path I had created that was a very simple but large display. All I had to do was hop over to the sidewalk and walk around the design to where I had begun to visually capture the design or symbol if you will. I had only made it half way around my design when I noticed the owners of the previously mentioned dog, frantically running after said animal. That is when I noticed that the dog had decide that my design was missing a few things. So, I went home, collected myself, and filled a clip for my pistol. You see, sometimes things can be excused, and sometimes a simple apology would fix the problem, but unfortunately in this case, some one's dog needed to be shot in the hip...I'm joking of course... I'm a dog owner. I guess in this case, if you ever decide to spend a lot of time creating intricate designs using fresh snow as your medium, I would suggest having armed guards and maybe someone else to operate your camera. Really, that situation was just unavoidable.