MDDN 211: Proposal

The intended concept theme for Assignment One Iterate is Lava and its effect on landscapes. I will edit together found footage of volcanos, lava and smoke to create three different iterations with different atmospheric moods. There will be a visible contrast between the created atmospheric moods to make a difference. I intend to rely heavily on the editing techniques used for each iteration to create the atmosphere rather than relying on music or sound.

The first chosen iteration's atmosphere is Aggression. Lava has the natural appearance of aggression because of its danger, especially when a volcano is erupting. To create the impression of anger without using these particular scenes will require the editing techniques of jump shots, cross-cutting and speeding up footage to make each scene appear as if there is an intense motive behind the movement of lava. This will make it appear as if it has a purpose and look like it has somewhere to go. The speed will definitely affect the atmosphere of lava. Using jump cuts will remove a lot of unnecessary footage of slow moving lava, which will assist in making it look as if the lava has motive. Also, cross cutting to over events that are occurring such as plumes of smoke or flowing lava will make it appear as if all of the footage is occurring from one volcano.

The second chosen atmosphere is Melancholy, a complete opposite to the previous iteration. This will create a large contrast between the two while using similar themed footage. Again, due to eruptions of a volcano, creating a Melancholic feel to the footage will require a large focus on the particular editing techniques, without relying solely on sound. Slow cutting will make the shot appear more emotional to the viewer, as a clip over 15 seconds long approximately appears to be slow in Western culture. Dissolve will be particularly important to create a melancholic feel. Slowing down footage and using rewound footage would create a slow, melancholic feel. By using match shots between shapes found in the smoke or lava to the shape of more emotional, sad images or footage, the melancholic atmosphere is more easily created.

The final iteration atmosphere is Tension created by the sense of stalking and following. This is the more comedic iteration over the other two. To create the sense of tension, the order of footage will be most important. It can be created by footage of lava appearing on shot is following an anxious character using cross cutting. This will give the impression that both shots are occurring at the same time and making it look as if the lava is following the character. Establishing shots could be used to create this scene with the anxious character. It is possible that a montage of jump shots could be used to show the character running from the emerging lava, cutting a long scene of running down into a few short shots.