No Planet B
motion project
Extinction rebellion
No Planet B is a collaborative motion project about global warming that I created alongside Curtis Kenwright, Grace Cole, and Jaccob Henderson.
The video aims to portray the message that the earth is your home and the actions in which you do that contribute to global warming are causing harm and destruction to your home.
You wouldn’t burn down the building in which you reside, so why are you burning the location?
Idea Generation
Starting the project, I generated a range of ideas in
which the team and I could consider pursuing.
After discussing ideas, we decided on a concept and each created a storyboard of how we envisioned our video to portray the concept.
Each creating individual storyboards meant that when we came together as a group and created our final storyboards, we had a wide range of angles in which we could portray our concept, as we all had portrayed the idea in different ways.
Final Storyboard
Animatic
Quick time storyboarding workshop
This workshop was focused on creating storyboards at a quick pace, although hard this workshop taught me that sketching ideas and creating storyboards aren’t supposed to be works of art but instead an easy way to communicate the ideas in which you have in your head onto paper.
Stop motion workshop
Within this workshop we learnt about stop motion and how motion can be created using physical means rather than just the digital.
This opened my eyes to the possibility of mixing medias within our project and encouraged me to begin to consider ways in which this could be done.
Scratching on film workshop
The scratching on film workshop was another workshop that made me consider ways in which motion could be created.
This workshop also made me think about how using things such as film creates a certain style, and how that is something to be considered moving forward.
Inclusion of photography
After the workshops I began thinking of different ways in which we could produce our ideas and create the motion project.
This lead me to look at how photography, which is obviously still, can have motion added into the images.
I began looking at ways we could use photos as the backgrounds of each frame, and ways the photos could be edited in an interesting way in order to create a form of consistency between the backgrounds, and an overall style across the video as a whole.
David Hockney’s ‘joiner’ work was the inspiration for the collage style backgrounds seen throughout the project.
Creating the backgrounds
Above: Contact sheets of the photographs I took in order to create the backgrounds.
Above: The first joiner collages I created in order to portray the proposed idea.
After deciding with the group that the use of these backgrounds was the direction in which we wanted to pursue within the project, I began creating the images that would inevitably be seen in the final outcome.
Whilst creating this project, we received feedback from Tim Varlow, in which he advised us to show a selection of objects found within homes that hold sentimental value, being destroyed.
Displayed above is the range of images I edited, post feedback.
Production
We began experimenting with the use of physical fire and stop motion through creating this tester video.
This test caused us come to the realisation that if we wanted continue with this idea, we would need to use a green screen so we could remove the backgrounds in the videos.
Post-Production
Post-production allowed me to build on my little experience using the software After Effects, gaining new skills in creating sequences, aligning sound and videos, and adding different
effects to our project.
Critical Reflection
This project was an interesting and captivating journey that sparked new creative interests. Prior to this unit, I enjoyed making video compilations and combining visuals with sound. I also really enjoy coming up with clever concepts and portraying messages through metaphors and symbolism.
The idea generation for the concept of our video was a team effort, in which we built on an initial idea and combined our visions and aspirations for the project to create a final plan.
Throughout the planning stages of the project, our concept grew and adapted through building off critiques and feedback from lecturers, peers, and various other outside points of view. Having outside perspectives review our work allowed us to know how well our aimed message was being portrayed and consider adjustments that could improve our work.
Producing the project was a process of experimentation which at times was challenging and frustrating. Due to the use of fire, we obviously had to take extra procurations when filming the greenscreen clips, one procuration being, filming the clips in an outside space. Being outside meant we had to take into consideration external factors such as the weather and lighting, that could not be controlled like we would have been able to do withing a studio setting. This was a challenge that forced us to travel to different locations and use a large amount of matches, due to the strength of the wind with it being late January, in a coastal town. Through perseverance, we acquired the needed clips. This experience taught me about the need to work through difficulties and not all creative endeavours are a straight path to success.
Another challenge we faced during this project was the lift in university being broken, meaning not everyone in the team was able to access the studios and mac suite. This meant as a team we had to have strong communication between us and plan where we could work together as a group that was accessible to everyone, which at times proved difficult. This proved especially difficult during postproduction, when not being able to work collaboratively in the mac suite.
Since ending this project, I have gone on to continue building on my skills using After effects and have come up with a range of concepts for motion videos which I’m planning on creating in the near future.
Although challenging at times, this project has opened my eyes to a whole new avenue of design that I’ve began to build on during my spare time and would like to try and implement into future projects.