HmEx: Week 11

Reflection:

Thinking about how much has happened this semester has left me feeling both exceptionally happy, and surprised. In looking back at my timelines that I developed for the semester and seeing how far my projects have come from my initial pitch, increasing in scope, to even joining in for the BPD production, I can honestly say ‘wow’. Prior to the semester, I headed in with a general idea of what I’d like to pursue, and by receiving so many opportunities, I feel incredibly grateful. In getting to collaborate with my peers, and tutors towards the second half of the semester, it has invigorated me to continue to pursue collaboration beyond the semester due to the positive experiences I’ve gotten to have. One aspect that I found exceptionally enjoyable, was being able to bounce creative ideas to evolve projects further, one such example is in the development of my music video with my music composer. In sharing weekly discussions where we bounced ideas for thematic and presentation, while coordinating the sounds to synchronise with the visuals, always left me feeling energised to dive right back into the project. Seeing how the audio and the visuals have developed to support one another has given me a significantly deeper appreciation of the collaborative creative process, since some of my previous experiences felt like separate parts creating a whole, rather than each piece feeling like a true companion to the other. I also really enjoyed getting to focus on the UX component of my project, iterating every week based on feedback in class, and from testing my projects on friends or peers to ensure I can refine the work. This process has been instrumental in helping me evoke specific emotions, part of why it’s been so helpful is due to becoming desensitised to the effect from prolonged exposure while working on it. I have been able to reflect more deeply on my creative process, and I have been able to reinforce my thoughts that I thrive best when working alongside others. Part of why I feel this way is due to having previous experiences of working on my own, both within teams, and on individual projects, where I got to focus on whatever I wanted to do, with little collaboration or influence from others. It felt quite isolating, and while I had creative freedom to push my thoughts, I found that the lack of regular communication left me feeling frustrated since I enter creative flow by constantly bouncing ideas back and forth. Though, through working on my own personal project this semester, I’ve developed more efficient ways of working on my own, such as taking in peer feedback, and effectively managing my time through a refined timeline. I feel part of what’s given me the opportunity to go far beyond my original scope (a single 1,500 frame animation), is due to being highly organised with my own timeline, giving appropriate time to accommodate for work outside of my personal project, and holding myself accountable for milestones.

Speaking of timelines.. This was the opening week for the BPD production! I was excited to see the work of everyone involved finally be presented in front of a public audience, not to mention having all the tickets booked out! I honestly found the whole experience enchanting, and it was a pretty magical moment realising I not just having my name attached to a production, but also hearing it called out! I was really happy with the result of the performance and visuals, seeing everyone’s work come together, and supporting one another to create something really resonated with me. Building upon my previous discussion, I now know, and feel confident that going forward in my career I want to focus on more projects where I can work with people around me. I feel that when I work in a team, there is so much potential to engage audiences and evoke all kinds of emotional responses to the work. Going forward beyond this semester, I would like to be able to channel that creative potential into even more experiences that can leave a profound impact on individuals to discover themselves, or the world around them. I’ve always felt that my work has always leant itself towards darker, or more confronting themes, and while I am happy with that, I would like to incorporate themes of positivity, love, and acceptance. Working with the team for the BPD production, has given me greater perspective to how I can tap into my different forms of creativity, and I look forward to discovering how much further it can go in the future.

Research:

Research this week has been dedicated to exploring the emotional responses people have throughout music videos. To assist me, I have found the “Exploring Music Video Experiences and Their Influence on Music Perception” article that discusses some of the reasons as to why an individual would engage with a music video, and what I found was fascinating. A study was done that involved over a dozen individuals, where they were able to define the audiences intentions with the experience. They found that in 67.7% of individuals were driven to watch the visuals with internal factors, with 47% having emotional goals such as aesthetic enjoyment, boredom relief, or to assist with maintain their emotional state. This was a great contrast to the 41% who watch to understand the music, learn the music, or the choreography.

In deepening my understanding of individuals emotional goals when watching a music video, such as aesthetics and boredom relief, it has given me the opportunity to think about how I can approach my final music video approach to maintain interest with the audience, as there is a lack of traditional choreography or brand recognition. Further reading of the article shares that in 58.8% of cases, individuals focus on “how the meaning is represented with narrative elements such as storylines” (Wilson, Thompson, Saarikallio, 2022) by immersing themselves in the audiovisual experience to deepen their own understanding.

This ties it back to that understanding of aesthetics, and immersion to prevent boredom, which has given me greater insight that the glitchy visuals I have developed could provide a deeper meaning to the audience as the vocals synchronise with the movement of the visuals. Having read this article, I feel more confident in reinforcing the material I’ve developed, and learned across the semester, to give this final project the opportunity to lean harder into an abstracted experience that can keep audiences immersed through it’s glitched out storytelling.

Dasovich-Wilson, J. N., Thompson, M., & Saarikallio, S. (2022). Exploring Music Video Experiences and Their Influence on Music Perception. Music & Science, 5. https://doi.org/10.1177/20592043221117651

Progress:

Early this week I managed to successfully get all my deliverables in for the BPD project. Upscaling has become a relatively painless process due to managing to utilise tools that feature AI assistance in converting the final video, alongside all the images used, into the resolution of my choice by a multiplier. Some of these tools included discovering various AI Due to my laptop being quite powerful, the duration it takes to upscale into a higher resolution rather than generating a high-resolution image with AI models and UI extensions that are freely available, such as Topaz AI, and built in programs to Stable Diffusion that allow for batch processing. Due to this process being exceptionally more effective, with only a minor loss in image detail, this technique is something I will be utilising in any further AI generative works, and for my final music video project.

My final project has reached its conclusion, with a heartbeat being added at the end to create a sense of tension within the audience as the momentum slowly fades away. This will be supplemented by a reverb and slight echo at the end to make the finale retain it’s tension, while providing clarity from the intensity of the reversal sequence. I will also be getting some assistance from one of my tutors to cut out the slight audio stuttering in the AI generative audio track, which will create a greater sense of audio clarity for the final project. Beyond these final touches, the project is now officially wrapped up.

Going into the final week of classes, I will be having discussion with my music composer to lock down the track so I can finish developing the music video. Part of the feedback received this week was to make the audio feel ‘jumpy’, which can allow for the glitchy transitions to carry maximum effect. Another point of the discussion also revolved around the clarity of the image, in that a 3D render, while taking more time, will create a more immersive experience, which, through timing the frames with the audio, I will render the 2D jump, glitched out sequences, resulting in a hybrid between 3D and 2D rendering for an entirely new effect compared to my original project. As of writing this post, I have received a large sample of the vocal work, which has given me the opportunity to map out the projects duration (being approximately 2 minutes and 40 seconds), and continue further experimentation on the projects developed last week.