Silence

Motif – Brian Liu

Video Link

Preparation:

IDEA: Coffee

Criteria:
* Cast
o (opt. People to drink Coffee)

*Equipment
o None

*Props
o Coffee

*Location
o Coffee Shops

Description: The initial idea was to describe the overall atmosphere of coffee shops and the coffee-drinking crowd, spanning from the on-the-go, consumerist Starbucks to the unique, sit-down cafes that dot our campus.

particular shots:
- mouth shot drinking coffee
- time lapse of emptying cup
- side shot
- group of people chatting around coffee, at couches
- juxtapozed with single person in a hurry (mention of “the usual”)
- two people walking and drinking, one motioning while other is sipping
- process of entering, buying coffee, drinking, and leaving

Intended meeting of Requirements:
- Location – Espresso Royale, Starbucks, Guilianis, Aroma, Cafe Kopi

Actuality:

I set out to shoot on a Saturday morning which was a mistake. People did not wake up until around noon, and patrons consisted of more studying and less coffee-drinking. I ended up shooting 2 hours worth of tape, dispersed throughout the day. Furthermore, most places would not let me shoot indoors due to establishment-set rules, so I ended up revisiting some of the original locations. Overall, the people working played along, but ambient noises such as coffee-grinders, milk frothing, and people yelling caused most of the sound to be incomprehensible and rather overwhelming. With the lack of a strong “busy” identity such as Starbucks (who refused to let me shoot), there was no comparison that could be set. Instead, I decided to focus on the coffee-drinking itself. I tried to get as many different angles as possible, but overall it seemed rather mundane.

Due to the extraneous noise and to liven it up a bit, I used a song from Tally Hall and recorded sound bites of drinking and “ah”-ing in satisfication. The song was bright and had a defined beat – which I deliberately matched in transitioning through the clips. The ambient lighting, meant to create atmosphere, was also an issue, so I ended up using brightness/contrast filters on some of the clips. If I were to modify anything, it would be the fact that I had overwritten some of the footage that I had originally taken and visited more coffee shops in Downtown Champaign and Urbana. More group shots would be preferable, but even in the places that allowed me to shoot, they condoned taking video of the patrons I didn’t know personally.

Motif

The motif in my video is nature and the beauty of it.

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/kandel2/Nature%20Motif.mov?uniq=-f4j1co

motif

motif:

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/stuparit/shared/motif.mov?uniq=-2q3yzg

Andrew Hackley’s motif

Hack as mario:

Visual Rhythm