prisoner106 – 106 drop in

Slow Subterranean Blues

Think that I might need some credits this week as I need some digging tools from the store. So I had a look through the assignment bank and found this:
ds106 Assignments: Sound to Visual with 3 credits.

Using creations you have already completed in #ds106 – select an audio project you were happy with and build upon it to create a video. Do not change or add any audio. Challenge yourself to create the images your sound story conveys. Use the sound effects story assignment or an audio commercial from your radio work. Use found or created video and stills that tell your story. Push it a step further and show how sound may not always convey the images you think it represents (extra stars).

The challenge is to use some audio already created to make a video. I decided to up the anti/or make it easier by using images I’d already made from The Prisoner too.

I’ve been weirdly captivated by both the stretched sounds and strange images I’ve found in The Prisoner. To an fevered imagination they might hint at the dark side of the shiny sixties exterior. Unless I am miss-remembering the TV of my youth The Prisoner explored some deeper territory than, say, The Man from Uncle. Perhaps this video hints at that.

I’d already got the audio and had generated a lot of images layering and mixing stills from some episodes. I decided on using Hammer into Anvil – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia as the psychological battle seemed fitting.

Creating the ‘movie’ was simply a matter of previewing the images and choosing some (from thousands). Dragging them into iMovie along with the MP3 and doing some editing.

I am not wholly convinced about the improvements in recent versions of iMovie. I like the move at around version 7 or 8 away from the original style but think my favourite was 9.

Anyway to edit I really only did a little rearranging, sped up the slowed down sound at some points changed the images order and Ken Burns panning and inserted some transitions. I’d say the end effect is reasonably disturbing is a slow sort of way. The effect I was hoping to make.

Week Four Review: Design

I forgot to write up and post this one earlier in the week.

My ideas around escape or rather not attempting to escape seem to be reflected in the surveillance tapes we were directed to watch this week. Number six seems to be more involved in Village Life and made fewer attempts to escape.

My own week reflected this, I got out a bit more and continued to encourage my fellow villagers to join in the Web Club. Joining the webclub give some extra freedoms that may lead to escape. Andrew picked up on this (Terminal Waypoint).

I spent a fair bit of time in the The Village Web Club, providing some help for fellow inmates, to allow them to decorate their clubhouses (add an image).

I also invite any villager to contribute to A Prisoner 106 Gif Story. I’ll say no more now…

Apart from that I managed a few assignments but hit rock bottom with daily creativity. I also did very poorly with the Design Blitz.

I think this one hits a few of the design blitz targets. I like it anyway:-)

Generally I fell pretty negative about design, I think I can recognise some good design but often fail to implement it or understand it in my own creations. (Kathy cheered me up with a comment on one assignment. )

However I did read The Vignelli Canon and found it both enjoyable and useful. It also made me think about where I do exhibit taste in design. I’ve been trying to buy a shoulder bag for a while now. All the reasonably priced ones seem to have magnetic poppers disguised as buckles. This combination makes it almost impossible for me to buy a bag, perhaps I do have a sense of design after all.

pop-buckle — Ugg, the buckle points to security, the pop convenience.

Resigned: Scene Poster

Capture/Screenshot a scene from an episode of a TV show or a movie and try to make a poster for that episode or movie. Try to make it cool! Be creative! Making it suspense can be a good one!

from: ds106 Assignments: Scene Poster

Methods:

Export frames from episode with ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -i 'Hammer into Anvil.m4v' -r 1 -f image2 HammerintoAnvil/HammerintoAnvil-%4d.jpg

Nearly 3000 images

Combining images 10 at a time using subtract:

ls *.jpg | xargs -n 10 sh -c 'convert "$0" "$@" -evaluate-sequence subtract sub/"$0" '

Results in 291 images.

Opened one in FireWorks, takes frames of prisoners photo being typed over, from these frames:

Added a layer using the resigned card. Deleted the background from that layer leaving the text.

Text Later, interpolated, with a stroke filter.

Added the second last frame again to emphasise the face a little.

Added text picking the colour from elsewhere on the image.

Export to jpg.

I am quite interesting in the effect of combining and layering images automatically. Some hint at psychological layers that are darker than the colours used in the series.

Takes quite a lot of HD space up, but I think there are few more stories to be extracted. Especially later in this episode where number 2 and 6 are trying to get inside each other’s heads.

Gifs begin where words leave off

A quick gif with audio. A warm up watching Hammer into Anvil. An interesting episode, no escape attempts but a moral crusade by Number 6 and a battle of minds with Number 2.

More fist fights and physical action than most of the episodes so far, kosho looks like fun.

kosho

Another ds106 Assignments: Animating #Prisoner106 for an early 2 credits.

The Village Web Club

After all the commotion last night I was surprised to hear from the General this morning. She asked me to set up a new club. I was even more surprised to here the general taking over the morning announcements.

You should be able to hear the talk by clicking the image above, in case you can’t here is the transcript:

Good morning villagers, This is the General. Before we start today’s program of music there is some news and an announcement. The loud bang heard yesterday evening should not cause concern, and we strongly recommend you do not ask any questions about it. The Speed Learn program has been suspended and we are initiating a Group Learn project in it’s place. The Group learn project will start with the Village Web Club. Villagers are invited to join the club and learn together. This new style of learning requires no previous knowledge on the part of learners. There will be no teachers, no Guru and no method. Check out http://tinyurl.com/ds106club to find out more.

I’ve already got an account on the club, my home page is up.

The Village Web Club gives some basic information to get villagers started with the basics, as the general says we can all help each other get going. I hope the club will be popular as I suspect we can get some credits using it. Some people have also started a rumour that beneath the club there may be secret layers out of the Rover’s way. I am not going to discuss that here.