Blossoming to One’s Self
2024
For my final video project for Dart 314, I created an experimental, abstract video where there is a floral scene in bold colors. The theme I chose to focus on throughout the production was about how colors and lighting influence objects, specifically flowers. It was an exciting project to work on where I get to explore many opportunities when it comes to prop setting of the scene, handling dry ice to create fog, light set up, and utilizing projector screenings. I haven't really got a fun chance to do this before, so it was very engaging to pursue this project for a month. It was also fun playing around with dry ice but challenging, as you have to be cautious with dry ice and constantly pouring warm water for fog between each footage.
As for the narration, I originally didn't have a plan to include dialogue for this content. I decided to include a narrative since if I didn't, the video would appear too long or unamusing with the pacing. I had my friend narrate about blossoming into your best self and embracing your own identity. I wanted the story to intersect with the subject of the video production where I had where say lines revolving around the flowers blossoming to symbolize with developing to your fullest self. Her narration needed a bit of touch-up with the scene where I added the background music that includes violins. I thought music related to violins would fit best for the overall project as I have experience playing the violin for seven years and believed would be enough to provoke emotion but not too much to be overly dramatic with the narration. Once I had my necessary materials, I complied the footage and audio in Adobe Premiere Pro and edited some shots with the distorted warp stabilizer to stabilize the movements. I later imported in After Effects to slightly color grade for the lighting. I also edited the background music to have a fade in intro and a fade out outro during the credit scene. This project took a lot of planning and patience to execute within three weeks, yet I had a splendid time creating this video and presenting this to my class.
