1 Word = 1000 Pictures

Kari Everson | Fall ’20 | Motion Graphics

Prompt:

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Why can’t a word be worth a thousand pictures? The physical world is where we often begin when determining the meaning of words.

This project has two components. First, you have been assigned a simple word that has many different meanings. How would you convey those meanings visually without audio or typography? Second, think of something you would like to share about yourself. Perhaps it’s a favorite object, a personal hobby or happy moment. Take your word, and your personal idea as a framing device.

Overview: Broken

Word: Broken

/ˈbrōkən/

Verb - Past participle of break

1) Adjective - Having been fractured or damaged and no longer in one piece or in working order

2) (of a person) having given up all hope; despairing.

For this first motion project I was assigned the word Broken. From here I had to create a 33 1/3 second video capturing a wide variety of shots or perspectives illustrating my word. My final outcome is a video of fast close-up, action snapshots of food + material texture breakage and fast free falling objects. This quick video alludes to the idea of the word Broken in my personal perspective.

Reflecting:

When looking back on my process and steps that I took in this project, I would say that I kind of struggled. Part of it might be just because it’s the first project of the semester and I’m just starting to get back into the swing of things. I struggled a bit with this project because I felt like I could go in so many different directions in portraying this word and I think that I had too many ideas at the beginning which confused me. After dialing down my ideas I soon converged on an idea and concept for my video.

Step #1 — Sketches:

First sketches for video clip ideas/concepts

The sketching phase is where I struggled the most. This is where I had too many ideas and they got the best of me. I know that it’s good to have many ideas when working on a project but I felt as if this almost debilitated me. The three initial concepts that had were:

1. Animated line drawings portraying things that were broken as well as having the line drawing itself be physically broken.
2. Taking the same idea as #1 of line drawings and overlaying them on footage of real life broken things.
3. Using the current state that our country is in and showing figuratively what is broken in our society. (Government systems, politics, healthcare, economy, law enforcement, ect…)

After receiving feedback I soon realized that I needed to start over and take a different approach. I also realized that I wanted to present the word Broken in a way where I wasn’t straight forwardly showing “broken things”.

Step #2 — Draft 1:

First draft of video

I finally decided on the concept of portraying Broken through showing a series of fast clips of me breaking food + materials up close as well as showing fast free falling objects. I really wanted to show different forms and textures breaking up close as well as showing things falling to allude to the idea of what is to come once they hit bottom. I chose to keep the clips fast moving for the viewers eye as well as keeping harsh transitions to represent the idea of “broken thought”, “broken view”, and “broken focus”.

Step #3 — Final:

Here is my final outcome for this class project. A 33 1/3 second video of fast close-up, action snapshots of food + material texture breakage and fast free falling objects alluding to the idea of the word Broken in my personal perspective.