Aneurysm

Today we had a lecture with Jason Arber from Wyld Stallyons. An insightful lecture into just how versatile we can be as designers.

It is now apparent to me that having the ability to create, is definitely something that is inherited. I know full well that my Dad is an excellent artist and I owe him a great debt for passing that certain gene onto myself. However, a skill is something different. A skill is learned. I now feel that I can apply my ability in any area/discipline that I choose to use. Be it, Illustration (my chosen pathway), or Motion Graphics/Structural Graphics/Identity/Hand made Craft/Typography. I know that if I really set my mind to it, I would be able to respond creatively and intelligently to produce a design within these disciplines and being able to learn the skills to be able to communicate my creative ideas.

Jason talked about his cycle of Design. Moving from a degree in motion graphics and moving onto pretty much all the disciplines covered in my course. I thought this was a true testament to his ability and his personal journey. His drive to create.

ONE THING did bother me though.

Aneurysm.

Technically is was brilliant, I loved the definition, created by a camera that he really wanted to experiment with. And the nature of how this came about was also really cool. A kind of mini social network was created to get like minded people involved.

However. I really didn't like it. I thought it was unnecessarily masochistic. The women used didn't need to be topless. It didn't need to have blood dribbling from the noses of the people. I respect that it was a narrative less and that it was merely an experiment with a camera that had a new feature but I feel it was unnecessary. As if it were trying to generate an audience not for showing the new features of a camera, but for the sake of getting people to watch it.

If I had been given the same opportunity, I would've thought to have done a number of different things.

1) Used nature as a subject - Nature is wonderful. Always growing, and never the same. Time Lapse videos of the sky have always excited me. I am not saying I would've simply recorded the sky and condensed the film, I am just using this as an example as to the pure beauty and randomness of the world we live in.
- Use forests (early morning). Misty mornings are very easy to come by. The condensation of the leaves could have been documented very easily. It is free. The forest is the studio. Some of the techniques, like a film rewind (the blood dripping from the actresses nose was actually reversed at one point, seeming to show time running backwards). This could have been easily recreated in this manner.

- As it was a high definition camera pattern can be very easily defined. Patterns are everywhere, especially in the natural world. Think of a spiders web. No two are the same. Methodically, yes, but not symmetrically. Together with the morning due would produce a beautiful spectrum of colour and light refraction.
- Water droplets. (I found out that a water droplet does not fall as a perfect sphere) I would love to have my own record of this.

2) Elemental work. By this I mean the conflicts between different elements. The most obvious to me would be that of fire over water.

- An ice cube is a good starting point, again free to produce and is on small scale, so no studio is required. This ice cube would be put by a flame (so that the flame was in shot) and we could see the flame dance aggressively behind/through the ice. The Ice melting would be a piece of condensed film.
- The flame is then extinguished. Water can be spatter on, either from a spray nozzle (like that of a shower head) The flame could not be extinguished immediately, it would flicker, fighting to stay alight, and then eventually just be the place where smoke begins to pour from.
- This could be staged in such a way that the camera needs to be focussed. For instance. The ice cube in the foreground, the flame just behind and then finally, where the camera rests at the end of shot, on the spray of water, filming the leaking water dripping from the nozzle, slowly and elegantly.

I am not saying I would be able to produce this video any better than the team at Wyld Stallyons, I am merely expressing my dislike for the subject matter of the piece. It is still to me a great motion graphics design agency, and I have the upmost respect for the work they do. If I didn't dislike things occasionally, I would have no inspiration to be different and try and set myself apart.

See what you think here...