Final Cut: Looking Downtown

This movie is my final cut of the imagery and sound I gathered to compose of a walk downtown. In building upon each rough cut, this final cut is what resulted from my overall review and hard work.

I hope you like it.

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Roughcut 3: Looking Around downtown

This final third rough cut is composed of similar imagery of the the previous two. My whole thought on it was to work off of one another in my rough cuts and finally compose the final work of what I want to represent.

This is a look at downtown near North Avenue. It consists of 360 degree turns of the look of the city and walking through the streets. The purpose of this clip is to focus on the different perspectives at different locations in a given area.

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Roughcut 2: From day to night and night to day

This second rough cut is the use of still and moving imagery. I wanted to incorporate a type of narrative in walking downtown by starting with my still imagery of the sun to the ending of the cars passing by at night back to day.

The point of this clip is to infuse the different perspectives a walker would discover himself/herself.

The sounds I used were of what would commonly be heard when going downtown passing shops with music playing, people talking, and cars passing.

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Roughcut 1: An eye for detail

This clip is a representation of a walk with sights seen at a rare perspective. It is an insight of what one could really see if given the chance. But, you can really make up your own mind about what you think the narrative is, the clip speaks for itself.

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Production Strategy

My production strategy consisted of being confined in one area to discover new and small things within that area range. In doing so, I was able to walk around numerous of times to rediscover things I have missed that were found unusual or just plain interesting.

This was applied to my still and moving imagery as well as for my capture of sound downtown.

My sound capturing strategy: Capturing the surrounding sound of people, cars and music; the life of downtown of what it really sounds like to be there.

My imagery capturing strategy:
*360 degree recordings of different locations within the downtown area.
*Unique and eye catching patterns
*Similar patterns that connect to another (Ex. the ray of sunlight that you will notice in my movie clips)
*Walking as if the audience was downtown

Drift Map

This is a view of where I went to capture my sounds and imagery.

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Ten Questions

1. Are there great connections between buildings downtown?
Yes. Most buildings that are located downtown are made of brick or are bars that have neon signs glowing every so often.
2. Is there a house that has a very unique and interesting architecture?
There is one house that is unique in that it stands out from all the brick and bars. It is a house in the middle of this busy bar and brick building pattern going on downtown. The house is a pink attached to a bar.
3. Are there any places where sound takes on a strange quality?
There is one place by a bar where there is a vent that is constantly making a loud noise, whereas the general sound of downtown is just music, people, and cars.
4. Where can I find music playing in the open?
Most of the music that can be found downtown are playing in speakers outside of bars and restaurants.
5. What differences are there downtown between night and day?
During the day, there is people walking, birds chirping, and yes, sunlight. During the night, all lights are lit and glowing, people are at bars, bars have their doors open, letting laughter, talk, and music into the night.
6. What are some strange things that are found downtown?
Strange things that are found downtown are just basically the structure of downtown. There is a laundry mat across Urban Behavior and right next to the laundry mat is a Korean Restaurant. Strange but interesting.
7. Are there any buildings that will give me access to a high and panoramic view?
Unfortunately not.
8. Are there any unique patterns on buildings?
The unique patterns are mostly found on the older buildings made of brick.
9. Is there an area that takes your mind away from busy city life?
Yes, there is a more resolute area by the library building. It is on that block that if you walk around, you can find less noise and relax your mind more than going deeper into downtown.
10. Are there any specific spot that is busy for the whole day?
By the bus stop on the corner of North Avenue and N. Oakland Avenue. The traffic there at the stoplights is nonstop. There are always people bustling out of the Pizza Man restaurant and people waiting at the bus stop.

Drift Assessment 4

My favorite experience from the drift walks is most likely my walk during Drift 2. I had the most fun capturing imagery at different angles and be able to manipulate it in any I wanted to represent the object. Versus with sound, I felt that I couldn't find any interesting sounds and was forced to record whatever raw material I found within my surrounding range. With imagery, it was the opportunity to be creative. As you can tell, my final results from drift 2 is probably more interesting to view than drift 1. I feel it is because I enjoyed working with imagery and was therefore able to express that through my work. Also, I feel so limited with sound, but with imagery, you can do so much with it.

Drift Assessment 3

An unexpected situation I encountered during my first drift was the conflict of consistent sound recordings of nature. I felt that I was to experience how to capture sound but had ignored how to do it in a way that would work for me. What I mean to say is that, I didn't have an idea of what things I want to capture and work with in audacity. In doing so, my sound recordings were all over the place. It could be looked as a good or bad thing, depending on what type of person you are and how you work with things, but I'm more of a person that likes to plan things before they start. That is why I feel my work in drift 2 was more successful and satisfying to work with because I was able to plan what theme of imagery I wanted to capture versus sound recordings, you record whatever you find is out there at the moment.

A second unexpected situation I encountered was during my second drift. I didn't expect the weather to be so cold that it would prevent me from capturing imagery during my walk. However, I had to go out multiple times through the same route to make sure I captured what I wanted. Even so, the most surprising thing was that with all the imagery I captured, there were a lot of good shots that I was able to take and choose from to compose my silent film. I was very pleased with my overall imagery and so my hard work paid off in the end.

Another astonishment was the final recordings I had gathered from my first walk. It was too loud or too quiet. I didn't like what I was hearing. The cold weather prevented me from going out again on such a long walk. It was a situation where I was forced to work with whatever I had and go from there. I was extremely unsatisfied with the results but I hope to divert myself away from this problem again or else improve upon so that I won't result in any more suprise bad recordings.

Drift Assessment 2

During drift 1, there was a point in my walk that I felt unusually at ease in the midst of busy city life in downtown Milwaukee. It was when I entered a street that was less used and was quiet except for the sound of dripping water and a soothing song from a Chinese restaurant from across the street. It was an escape from the loud busy life of Milwaukee within Milwaukee. It was strange to take one step in a different direction and find peace in the same area that is usually just traffic noise day to day.
During drift 2, throughout my walk on my final (third) day to capture imagery, I felt it most peaceful of a walk compared to the previous days I went to capture imagery and sound. It was a quiet walk of exploration, and thus, allowed me to discover unique features that I was able to capture on camera.

Drift Assessment 1

Two situations that aggravated me during my first two drifts was the worry that I didn't have enough shots of specific objects, and two, the duration of the cold weather. Other than that, everything was fine. I was happy with my shots, but wasn't fully satisfied until I had more than enough shots of objects, buildings, etc. to choose from to make my silent film. The cold weather kept on preventing me from staying out too long to capture my imagery, and because I always had to go back inside every so often, I was always paranoid that I didn't have enough shots that I would be happy to work with. So therefore, my two main stress factors were there weather and just simply concern of my overall captured imagery.