Project One

TIME-BASED COMMUNICATION 2
YSDN 3013 (S) Winter Term I Academic Year 2008/2009

CREATIVE PROJECT ONE.
Assigned: January 23, 2009

Length of Project: Classes 4-7.
Project grade breakdown: 20% of final grade.

This is a collaborative project. Students will work in teams of 2-3 students. Team members are jointly responsible for creating and submitting one final project, with each student receiving the same grade for the project. Any discrepancies between individual students’ time and effort contributed to the project will be factored into their overall course participation mark.

Deadlines:
Text selected and initial ideas proposed by: February 6 (class 5)
Footage shot and assembled for peer review by: February 13 (class 6).
Final submission: due Friday February 20 at 1:30 pm.
This project will be screened and critiqued in class.

Objectives.
The Creative Projects, generally speaking, are designed to help students learn to apply principles discovered in other aspects of the course to their own original ideas. They are also opportunities to further develop and fine tune any technical skills they need in order to realize their ideas.

Project 1 Objectives:

• to strengthen students’ understanding of cinematic duration, composition, and sound/image dynamics
• to advance students’ competency with live action video production tools and techniques.
• to develop visual writing skills, collaboration skills, and an awareness of their own creative process.
• to introduce students to the basics of DVD authoring.

Assignment Overview.
Review the journal writing you have done to date. Select a fragment of text from each group member’s writings. Working within the limitations listed below, use each fragment of text as a source of inspiration for a single-shot video that explores a tension between what we see on screen and we imagine in mind. Compile the 2-3 (one per group member) individual videos into a single DVD work.

For each individual video, work within the following limitations:

1. Video: a single unedited ‘live-action’ shot., exactly 1 minute in duration.
2. Audio: no music, no on-screen dialogue, no more than 3 (original) sounds/ audio elements.
3. Words (whether text or audio): no more than one sentence, no more than 15 words, plus title and credits.
4. Duration: exactly 1 min. long.

Your goal is to create an interesting, inventive, creative, conceptually coherent, and technically acceptable work within (and ideally because of) the above limitations.

Deliverables:
Each goup should submit:

1. A project proposal (200-500 words)
2. A CD or DVD containing a Quciktime (DV NTSC 48 kHz) .mov data file of each individual video.
3. One authored DVD compilation of all the group’s individual pieces. These can be compiled into a single sequence, or as separate works each with their own ‘buttons’. The DVD should work in a standard DVD player.
4. A page on each of your individual blogs that includes:
5. video linked to page from You Tube or Vimeo for each piece
6. a summary of critical feedback and learning.
7. credit information

Guidelines

The Project Proposal Should include

• course code and name
• instructor’s name
• date of proposal submission
• the names of each group member
• the title of each piece
• a one paragraph description of each envisioned work
• the text fragments that are the source of inspiration.

You can use the intial fragment of text within the work, or not, as you choose. The images and/or sounds can be inspired by the text, but not included in it. Or parts of the text could be heard on the sound track, or seen on the screen, or both. Or a recording of words from the text could used for the soundtrack, but not intelligeable as words.

Of the elements listed under ‘limitations’, the only one you have to use is the video element. It is up to you whether or not to work with sound and/or text.

Make sure your audio and video levels meet basic technical standards. What you mean to be audible should be audible, and the video should look like you intend it to look. Avoid: distorted audio and video signals, extraneous unwanted sounds and visual artifacts (aka noise) including drop-out, underover modulation, digital artifacting, hiss, hums, pops, etc.

Evaluation

Concept development, ideas: originality of ideas and their relevance to the challenges of the assignment; analysis of the project requirements; demonstrated understanding of the project goals, and of formal and conceptual concerns related to the assignment. 30/100

Refinement of the Concept: ability to develop a creative and unique approach to the challenges of the assignment; ability to take the original ideas and develop/ improve and apply them. 30/100

Technical Quality: Technical quality and control of the final video project, in terms of composition, exposure, audio levels. 20/100

Presentation: Materials ready for stated deadlines. Demonstrated work ethic and professional conduct. Ability to explain (verbally and in writing) your conceptual, creative, aesthetic and technical decisions. Synthesis of your problem solving process, peer feedback, and your learning. 20/100