Final Project Progress

Here is the progress I've made on my Short Story Book. I've cut up the handwritten stories from the original book and pasted them onto the cover of the "final" book. I also started writing some of the stories inside and also plan to use one illustration for each one.

Stop-motion Time World

WATCH ME!

Final Project Proposal

For my final project I want to push my 30-days of collecting into a more formal presentation. I want to type up the stories and make an illustration for each one. I then want to bind these into a book and include an introduction or some type of afterword that explains the process of collecting and common themes in the book. The Index will have clippings from the original sketchbook where the stories are located and will show samples of each author's handwriting.

Stop-Motion Progress

So far, my stop-motion has made some progress: I have created moving characters that I will use and I have done the first scene digitally, which is a brief intro (3 sec.)

The link to the intro:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~levys/introstop.mov

Photo of the characters: made with paper and colored pencil, then sewn together at the joints.

Einstein Monologue

In this world, it is instantly obvious that something is odd. Little skeletal creatures scuttle around the warm streets of L.A. The whole population was forced to migrate to warmer climates because their characteristically frail bodies could not withstand even the slightest frost. It all began years ago when humans went on strike against obesity. Doctors said that obesity would shorten a person’s life span and cause a laundry list of medical problems. Thin bodies became glamorized and a focus of the influential media. Instead of exercising and eating healthy like all the nutritionists recommended, a vast majority of the population took on a diet of saltine crackers and water. Tobacco companies also had to bump up production of cigarettes because 99% of the population was now smokers (due to the claim that they decrease appetite). At first the radical effort seemed to pay off: everyone was thin and beautiful. Any size above a small became obsolete; companies began manufacturing XXXXXS’s. Over time, people began to grow more tired and weak. Their hair began to thin and break off, their teeth grayed and yellowed. It was not uncommon to see the full length of a cheekbone or the deeply sunken eye sockets of even the “largest” human. Without realizing, the world’s population was reversing its efforts. Staying young and beautiful and increasing life span drifted out of view as everyone grew thinner and thinner. Humans began dropping like flies while the bony few that were left shifted to warmer regions and scurried like rats on the streets. The few nutritionists of the world managed to avoid the wave of self-destruction and continued to prosper somewhere cool. They began rebuilding the world in their own northern metropolis where they could avoid those pesky rats.

******

Some of the actions, verbs and descriptions that stick out to me in my monologue are: scuttle, skeletal, strike, laundry list of medical problems, glamorized, tired and weak, grayed and yellowwed, sunken, dropping like flies, scurried like rats on the streets, prosper, rebuild, metropolis

I see this animated either digitally-stop motioned or with construction paper (still not sure). I want to exaggerate all of the things I described and go through each scene dramatically. I really want to work on making the "rats" the skinny, haggard creatures I imagined them as: hunched, bony and gaunt.

Stop-Motion practice

Using frame by frame

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~levys/TOYS.mov

Story Panel FINAL

This is the reworked story panel, much more satisfying

Story Panels

Here is the first draft of my story panel. It is a mixture of my visions of a post-apocalyptic world and where my imagination took me when I first watched an episode of Spongebob. I planned to take this further with coloration and more bold outlining. This is a progress/current final made with ink and Prismacolor markers. I plan to push this assignment further using digital, so expect updates!

Things I like so far: I like the content of the frames and the line quality.

Things I do not like: the coloration! WILL change (think semi-monochromatic)

Audio Postcard Final

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~levys/THEaudiopostcard.mp3

Audio Postcard Draft

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~levys/AUDIODRAFT.mp3

SOUNDS

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~levys/THEINSTRUMENT2.mp3

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~levys/busnoise.mp3

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~levys/peoples.mp3

Audio Postcard

Here is a written audio postcard addressed to a newspaper...

At the game last night, Friday April 25th, 2008. Its 7 P.M.,

Its right before my soccer game is about to begin. My team is set up on the field. Everyone is breathing heavily, filling our lungs. As the tension increases, people around me begin to paw at the ground with their cleats, a scratching noise against the black rubber and turf. I tighten my fists and I feel like can hear the dry skin on my knuckles being pulled tight. Finally the ref blows the whistle to start the game; its still ringing in my ears when the ball goes into play. The forwards spring into action; the muted, hollow sound of a kick to the soccer ball draws attention to the center of the field. As the ball moves there is a collision, the sound of knees crushing together, bone on bone. One girl exerts her breath in reaction while the other falls to the ground, the sound of her skin scraping against the rough turf. The ball ricochets off someone's shin and goes whooshing past my head almost silently. My coach yells to us individually as we constantly change our shape to accommodate the game. The muffled noise of a ball being trapped to the ground near the goal excites the crowd. The parents and fans being shouting as my team mate strikes the ball. It sails through the air, the goalie missing it by a finger's length; she thuds to the ground and the ball creates a long swish as it falls against the net and travels downwards. The crowd continues to yell and clap while the team gathers for a loud congratulations. The ref blows the ringing whistle again to end the half. The coach calls for us to gather in the corner. The score is 1-0.

Instrument!

For my instrument, I wanted to initially create a shaker that could have different attachments which created different sounds. While experimenting with different objects, I came to discover that I really enjoyed the sound of things on glass. I created a glass shaker out of found objects (jars and shot glasses) and used jewelry and office supplies for shaking (wooden beads, glass beads, metal beads, nails and paper clips). In designing the shaker, I was looking to create more than one sound. In order to do this, I left one of the jars unsealed with a removable top. The glass beads can be dropped into this to create a nice ringing, resonating sound. The instrument can also be shaken with or without the glass beads inside (and the cap on). 

Keeping Time

When examining how I keep time in ways other than the conventional clock, planner or calendar I thought a lot about growth within people. I can measure time by the wrinkles in a face or the slow process of my own skin aging. I can look at the plants in my room and recall how much they've grown. When writing my poem I thought about hair and how since last winter I've been trying to grow it long. Going through all of different ways I've cut and dyed my hair over time (some interesting styles in the middle school days) is also fascinating and a way that I measure my lifetime.

I look at my hair

It grows and fades over time

Long like a mermaid's