Final Piece

My Final Piece

Link for the video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWgNy745qGY

My final piece is based on reverse video/back-masking.  I thought that this linked in very well with the subject of story telling, in the way that there can be a story revealed by flipping it round and being reversed.  This video consists of clips I have recorded that are played backwards and then reversed to make a song, I thought about using something that I enjoy doing and have it as a hobby to use in my final piece.  I was then inspired by a video on YouTube by a guy of reverse guitar where he plays the song backwards and then reverses it and then the outcome is a famous song.  I took this idea of recording a song and playing it backwards then reversing it for it to be heard as if it was played normally, I wasn't quite sure what song to use but came up with the idea of using 'Final Countdown' by the band 'Europe' as it is a well known song/anthem.  I then looked at the notation/tab for the melody on guitar and turned it around to play it backwards, I had to then learn the song backwards and record myself playing it.  I also added a second guitar to add more fullness and make it more song like.  Making this video was quite a complicated procedure due to the fact that I had to get the tempo right for the guitars so when played together they didn't sound completely out and fitted together, to do this I used a metronome, which played through my headphones in the background.  To actually begin recording this I set up a tripod in my room and I had the guitar connected up to an amplifier, then after recording all the clips I put it all into sony vegas where I edited all up together.  Although the video isn't the most smooth, or the song doesn't sound exactly as the original, or hasn't got the greatest visual or audio quality, due to the lack of good technology, I think it works because it shows the whole meaning of stories and what I was looking into, in the sense that there can be a story in something which when played normally doesn't sound like much, but when reversed has a completely other angle and more meaning to it.

This is a still image of the video which inspired me, which is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvjokgT86ds

This image shows the tabs which is what I had to learn to play.  For this video then to work I would need to learn this the opposite way so when edited and reversed it plays forwards.   
  

 Here is a grid of stills from the olympics opening ceremony countdown.  This links up with my project of things being in reverse because a countdown is numbers which go down backwards down to 0.  Also the song I played in the video is called 'The Final Countdown' therefore countdowns links with that too.

This my sequence of numbers like a countdown, where I took photos of numbers from different items around my house.

This

This is a quick animation of a countdown which goes from 10 to 1.  I was trying to imitate the Olympics opening ceremony, choosing different objects where they have numbers on them I could use.

My Final Video Explanation 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XS_MDw9ofSk&feature=youtu.be

Research

Mark Wallinger

Mark Wallinger is a British artist.  His work 'Angel' caught my eye quite a bit as it linked very well with my theme of reverse play and backmasking.  As a video, I found it very intriguing how he has managed to recite some verses from the bible but saying them backwards and then editing them and inverting them to make them sound as if he is saying it forwards.

Angel

Mark Wallinger has a film he made which has been reversed, where the actor is speaking in reverse however saying words that when reversed are understandable for us the viewers.  Here is the summary:

Angel is a seven and a half minute video.  The video is played continuously on a loop and can be displayed on a monitor or projected so that the image fills the gallery wall.  Each video explores the theme of religion and features Wallinger playing Blind Faith, his sightless alter ego. He is seen in a different situation in each one, singing or reciting a text drawn from classical or popular literature.

In Angel Wallinger wears dark glasses and taps the ground with a blind person's white stick. He is seen walking on the spot at the foot of a moving escalator in the Angel underground station, London. In this awkward position he delivers a monologue, repeatedly reciting the first five verses of St. John's Gospel from the King James version of the Bible:

The words are oddly indistinct and Wallinger's voice has a garbled quality that could be said to evoke the speech of the deaf. This is because the artist recorded himself saying the words backwards while attempting to maintain the original speech patterns and emphases of the correctly spoken piece.  Angel finishes as Wallinger stops walking and talking and, in a mock ascension, he rises slowly up the escalator, carried away to the triumphal sounds of Zadok the Priest.

In Angel Wallinger presents the spectator with a series of paradoxes: time and speech appear to run forwards while in fact playing backwards, going up is going down and moving is staying still. As a result viewers are unable to believe their eyes and the supposed truth of the documentary medium appears to be undermined. 

I found this video very inspiring and it has made me think of ideas of what to do as a final piece.  The idea of talking and moving is really interesting, I will be experimenting many ideas inspired from this clip.

Experiments

This video is a set off experiments I made which are about reversing video.  They represent how a story can be told by different ways of reversing clips and what you do in these clips.

Backmasking

Backmasking (not to be confused with backward masking) is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward on to a track that is meant to be played forward. Backmasking is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional.
Backmasking was popularised by The Beatles who used backward instrumentation on their 1966 album Revolver. Artists have since used backmasking for artistic, comedic and satiric effect, on both analogue and digital recordings. The technique has also been used to censor words or phrases for "clean" releases of rap songs.
Backmasking has been a controversial topic in the United States since the 1980s, when allegations from Christian groups of its use for Satanic purposes were made against prominent rock musicians, leading to record-burning protests and proposed anti-backmasking legislation by state and federal governments.

Experiment

This is an experiment making a video by taking clips and editing them together, influenced by Paul Harrison and John Wood.

Video experiments

This video is another experiment based on a journey, however this time it's the journey about a hat.  I just filmed me throwing the hat then putting it in sony vegas and cutting and placing together the clips to make it look like one whole movement.  

This second is exactly the same just with a different ending.  I also added music to make it more interesting.

Video experiments

This video is an experiment I filmed during lessons where I got a football and recorded myself throwing it and rolling it around the school to produce a clip of the journey of the ball.  I then put these little clips together in Imovie to createone whole film.  This experiment was a idea to begin with, to be able to build on.

In this video I got the film I made previously and edited it in imovie.  I reversed a few clips and switched the positions too make the journey have more of a meaning, I also added music to add more entertainment and a bit of humour.