The Deadest End: Final Video 3

While going over my fifth rough sketch of the construction zone, I realized I had some really great images to work with and I really loved the way that this area was so pitiful and abandoned that even the construction cones, which really stand out against the bland, muddy background, were all destroyed. With the video my intent is to lead the viewer visually through the environment moving from different points of interest that are visually stimulating and draw attention.

Garbage Trails: Final Video 2

I knew I wanted to do something with the idea of a "garbage trail" for one of my final videos but it was clear from my rough sketch that I needed a larger variety of images to choose from and I thought it would be most effective to have a video following a line of garbage cans, so I went back out to do some re-shoots and luckily came across a great alley jammed with garbage cans and I also found this great graffiti art on the side of a dumpster that gave me further inspiration for my final video.

Fenced In: Final Video 1

After encountering so many fences on my drift I liked the idea of creating a video that would present a montage of some of the most interesting fences I discovered as well as playing with what could or couldn't be seen through or behind the fences. I hoped to slowly allow the viewer to see more and more through the fences and in the end finally reveal a beautiful skyline. However, from my rough sketch I had a large selection of still images but not much video footage, so I went back out to get some new footage and I'm very happy with the results. Check them out.

Construction Zone: Rough-Cut Sketch 5

Wisconsin lived up to it's nickname of the "Orange Barrel State" because everywhere I went there was always the noise, if not in your view, of some sort of construction going on. After the winter we just had especially, there are road repairs going on everywhere which can be rather annoying, but in this case worked out well for me because it produced some really great images.

Neon Lights: Rough-Cut Sketch 4

While on my walk later in the evening I came across many neon light signs for different businesses and restaraunts. By slowing down the shutter speed and opening up the aperture I was able to blur the images on purpose to create some interesting results.

Garbage Trail: Rough-Cut Sketch 3

This video follows the trail of garbage cans that I followed on my journey. Every sidewalk I took I would come across garbage cans everywhere and not to mention the dumpsters I ran into as well.
Also all around the sidewalks there was garbage on the ground as well. I think I could do something interesting by showing in a one of my final videos how garbage is overtaking the city. At the least it will be fun to play around with.

Fenced In: Rough-Cut Sketch 2

This video shows a selection of images I captured while on my drift of different types of fences that I encountered on my journey and often stood in my way of getting some cool images but I decided to instead use the fences to compose my images.

Branch Off: Rough-Cut Sketch 1

This first video shows a selection of cool shots I took of some different trees along my way, from different angles and views. I've always had a fondness for old, sprawling trees, especially the way they look in front of a beautiful skyline and there are some really great trees within the area I traversed, some confronting the invasion of the city and all that that entails. These next five posts are just rough cut sketches that I will then rework to create three final videos.

Image Capturing Strategies

While on my drift, I also had used two strategies to help me look at the surrounding area in a new way and find interesting images. It was important for me to come up with two image capturing strategies that I would try to stick to throughout my drift to ensure a variety of images that will have some kind on commonality. My first strategy was to count to ten over and over again as I was walking and to take a picture on every number 10 and whenever I felt like it to take ten or more rapid photos or video with the camera addressing one item. My second strategy was to stand in one spot and shoot everything in my view for five minutes. I would switch off between these two strategies to ensure a variety of images, but tried not to let these strategies restrain my artistic vision too much, exploring certain subjects more in depth when they interested me.

Drift Strategy

In hopes of discovering new and exciting elements of the the city around me, I set off on a drift around Milwaukee with a focus on finding interesting images and short videos with my digital camera. My strategy while I traversed the city was to draw a circle on the map and try to cover as many of the streets within that circle as I could. This strategy will hopefully allow me to explore areas of the city I normally don't visit or pass by every day but just ignore. After "drifting" long enough to collect a wide variety of material I will go back to the lab play around with some interesting relationships I can find within my images and videos in five rough-cut video sketches, and then rework those into three final videos. This blog will be an example of my work in progress. I hope you enjoy the results as much as I enjoy the process.

To see a GoogleMap of the general area I covered click here.