Fluxinstrument

My concept for the Fluxinstrument project was to focus on the use of a machine to create a cup of coffee. In my mind, having a cup of coffee each morning can become ritualistic for some, and coffee can be created in various ways. I chose to highlight the use of a man-made machine that can be very loud in order to contrast the organic nature of coffee. I chose to use a coffee cup that was handmade in order to emphasize the organic nature of the drink and juxtapose the coffee machine. Going into the project, I wanted the atmosphere of the video to be darker in order to almost villainize the coffee machine, so I chose to film in low lighting and edit the clips using high contrast, high exposure, and low saturation to achieve this effect. 

This project allowed me to be very experimental with my video clips. I sliced my clips and pieced them together in strange orders. I also experimented with the opacity of my clips and creating fading transitions throughout. I felt that the segments where the footage and audio were layered were my favorite parts to watch. I also ended up purposefully glitching my text to add to the dark mood. 

During my in-progress critiques, my classmates discussed how they liked my use of text at the beginning of the video. Because of this feedback, I chose to continue using text to add my flux instructions and ending. We also discussed continuing to layer and piece my clips together randomly to create a more interesting composition. I found myself getting caught up in meticulously editing every clip, so this advice was helpful in order to get me out of an editing rut. 

Lastly, if I could redo this project, I would begin by filming my original footage in better lighting. My lighting ended up making the footage very grainy, so I had to play around with an adjustment layer in order to make this look purposeful for the video (which ended up working out well for me). I also felt like I did not have very many clips to use. I would have liked to get more interesting clips or maybe done something more interesting overall. An idea for this would be filming the videos outside in order to displace the coffee machine from its natural habitat (indoors) and put it where it seemingly doesn't belong.