Introduction
This project has taught us the fundamentals of professional programs, namely Adobe Premier Pro, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Audition. In addition to learning how to effectively use DSLR cameras, from these experiences I learned that I could do even more than I thought I could ever.
Throughout this unit, I have really fleshed out my understanding of the more abstract details of art and literature. I did this through numerous amounts of things, including my analysis of John Logan’s Logan’s play Red, which is about Mark Rothko, and its deep complexity. I was also introduced to the composition rule of thirds and other photography practices. Overall, this unit was very enjoyable, challenging, and a good sign of great things to come.
Art Reflection
At the beginning of this school year, we took a trip to the SFMOMA. During the trip, we were asked to find something that we were in awe of and write about it, then we took that writing and used Adobe Premiere to make a video out of it.
“Palmen”
My process for making the video was quite a tedious one, mainly due to the complexity of keyframing all the text and getting it to fit in Other than that, keyframing most of the video was quite quick. Overall, I think this is quite a good introduction to Adobe Premiere and its complexities.
Parody
Our next assignment was to write and perform an original song parody in Adobe Audition. The song I chose was “Peaches by the Presidents of the United States of America.” I changed the lyrics to turn it into a song about rescuing cats. After I did that, I recorded the finished lyrics I made, and then, along with the instrumental of the song, I put them together and added effects like reverb and echo. I was also asked to write an artist statement.
I wrote my parody of the song Peaches by the The Presidents of the United States of America because the song is one of my favorites and it had a really good backing track.
I was originally going to write this song about oranges but I realized that that wouldn’t be enough of a parody so I decided to go with a song about cats because I love them because they’re so cute. One area I grew in was definitely my technical understanding of Adobe Audition for example with features like using effects in waveform mode. My inspiration for the piece was as I said earlier my love for cats and their young. I briefly struggled with whether I needed to add more effect to my voice and the timing of the syllables Overall this is a very fun and interesting project and I have learned a lot about music production I am most proud of my work mixing the vocals and the backing
[Chorus]
I’m workin’ at the pet store, I’m gonna pet a lot of Kittens
I’m workin’ at the pet store, I’m gonna pet me a lot of kittiens
I’m workin’ at the pet store, I’m gonna pet a lot of Kittens
workin’ at the pet store, I’m gonna pet me a lot of Kittens
[Verse 1]
Kittiens taken from the street, they were rescued and released
To a shelter downtown
If I had my little way, I’d save kittiens every day
Sun-basking kitties in the window
Design
In the elective I chose, Design, we are proficient in professional software like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. So far, we only have done the basics, but those basics have been very enjoyable because of the tight knit and welcoming atmosphere of Freestyle and the very avant-garde teaching style.
Black And White Name Photo
Our first big project in design was taking photos of objects to look like the letters of my name. For me, the challenge of this project was finding the objects to photograph and choosing the best photos.
Conceptual Photo
For this next assignment, we were given a prompt and told to represent a feeling through an action; mine was “the feeling of denial through companionship.” After we were given our prompts, we did a brainstorming session altogether, and I thought that the angle I could portray this with was the idiom “sticking your head in the sand.” A ladder could represent a helping hand. This is what I ultimately went with.
I am exploring the feeling of denial through companionship.
I did this with a photo of a pit of sand and a ladder with a bundle of foliage.
Behind it is the background. The pit of sand represents the idiom “sticking your head in the sand,” which is to deny or ignore something bad. The ladder is like a helping hand lifting your head out of the sand. I chose to light my photograph in a very dramatic way, off the overhead light in the room, and I made it completely dark in the room so I could use my light box to provide dramatic lighting. I chose to put foliage in the background not to add to the meaning but because I thought that my background was boring and needed more color. I used a skewed diagonal angle, with the focal point in the sand pit being the ladder.
The process I took in Photoshop was not a long one. After I had reduced my 72 photos to just one, I duplicated the photo layer in order to non-destructively edit my photo. Then I applied a curves adjustment layer to lighten the photo because my lighting was slightly too dark. It did take me some time to find a brightness curve I liked. Overall, I am quite satisfied with the resulting piece.
