More than meets the eye
The power of the mind’s eye journeys beyond the sense of sight.
I have gone with the imaginary world option with this project, which is going to be an animated surrealist fantasy. I'm going for a moving painting look to the whole video, and I've included a few snaps of what I've got so far in my storyboard.
I have rarely used AE in the past, as I grew up on Pinnacle Studio Pro, Hollywood FX and the Avid Liquid offspring. During those earlier days it was a mix and match affair, no suites like what Adobe has today so it's a tad bit different for me now. I am still surprised by how many features and integrated options there are within CS3 and CS4, especially what a godsend Mocha is.
I am happy to report that my practice runs have been successful so far. I will probably play with the ending a little.
For a smoother segue from dreamscape to waking hours, I was thinking of incorporating the distant sound of an alarm clock during the underwater scene which wakes the girl up. I will have to think it over this week and hopefully come up with some other ideas.
Synopsis
Contrasting everyday life for the visually impaired with their dreams, this tribute to Helen Keller is an animated story of a young blind woman’s dreams which reveal her ability to see, as she journeys through a world of magic and mystical beings as guided by narration.
The dreamscape is a representation of escapism from the trappings of a visual impairment, by producing a sense of freedom that comes from the essence of imagination that Keller’s work portrays.
Motivations & Future plans
This project idea came together on a hot summer day while floating in the pool. It was inspired by my dog, Daria, who developed Diabetes mellitus last year (genetic not dietary). Since Daria became diabetic, her eyesight has waned considerably, and now she is almost blind.
My father is also deaf, and I thought it would be good for me to create a 2 versions of the video, one with captions and one without.
Then I thought, well what about the blind? So I've decided that I will write a short story on this video as a hobby, and distribute it to the visually impaired internet community by the end of the year.
Hi Maria, great that you're thinking of a much broader audience.
ReplyDeleteI work in online courseware development and a large part of my role is ensuring accessibility to all users. I would be really interested to see your video come to life and later in the year how the short story experience is received by the visually impaired community.
Screen reader users have some really interesting ways of reviewing online content - one thing I'm really excited by is how Apple in the creation of their latest ipod shuffle have used the accessibility features built into macs and pcs to announce the song and or playlists. It could be a sign of how we could be accessing our content in a variety of ways.
Good luck
Thanks Craig :)
ReplyDeleteI will keep you posted on the developments, I hope it all comes together nicely.
I think web accessibility is very limited at the moment for the vision impaired but Apple sounds like they are taking steps to address some issues which is good.
Maria your storyboards and blog writings are so fantastic, it really tells the story completely and I get such a clear perspective on where you are going with this all.
ReplyDeleteYour academic skills combined with your journalistic background and now add to that your digital video learnings - you truly are the converged journalist!
Haha thanks Dan, I didn't notice this comment til today.
ReplyDeleteI'm like a triple threat now :) Knew doing a Masters degree was good for something!