The audio piece I've chosen for my Kinetic Type Assignment is: I Hate Everybody [Intro] by DeeJay Punk-Roc.

 

The audio piece is 50 seconds long at the beginning of the track. I had not heard the song before and the dialogue voice-overs used in the Intro were not familiar to me.

 

I proceeded to search online for the lyrics to the audio track but was unable to locate them. So I began playing the piece over and over again in an attempt to write down precisely what the man and woman are saying to each other within the Intro. This was a pretty difficult task as certain words spoken were unclear to the ear due to the background audio distortions. So I then began checking out Youtube posts (see below) about the track and found that the dialogue voice overs between the man and the woman were taken from an episode of the American TV show Quincy M.E.  The episode was entitled: Next Stop Nowhere, or The Quincy Punk Episode as it’s now better known to its fans. The voice-overs were that of the late Jack Klugman playing Quincy and Anita Gillette playing Dr. Emily Hanover.  I had difficulty in one area of speech in where Gillette says: "You got to see it with your own eyes to believe it... [ It is difficult to make out if she says Quincy, Quince or Quintin]. I have decided through constant playback that I am going with - Quintin.

INTRO TRANSCRIPT

You tell a kid, a vulnerable kid,
Over and over again that life isn't worth living;
That violence is its own reward and you add to it,
The kind of intensity that this music has;
And you just might convince her.

I mean sometimes I see these kids on the street,
I never give them a second thought;
I thought they were an other silly fad,
Something that would be blown away by the next wind;
I never thought it went deeper.

Silly fad huh?
Let me take you down to one of these clubs;
You got to see it with your own eyes to believe it Quintin.
I've seen children come off that dance-floor,
With crushed ribs and bloody faces;
Like soldiers fighting some kind of insane war.

What would persuade a kid to act like that?

Maybe the greatest persuader there is,
Music!
 

From my research on where the audio piece came from, I found that it was taken from an episode from the TV show: QUINCY and the plot line piece revolved youth culture within the punk movement. So I felt it that an urban aesthetic for the opening sequence with connect subliminally with the origins of the audio without being too literal. I decided to open with a brick wall and the transition of the American Stars & Stripes flag appearing inspired by the works of Jasper Johns and with the Uncle Sam - I Want You poster appearing to zoom out from the stars. This connects to the idea of how governments and state can be distant and not in tune with youth issues and culture.

So far I am at the initial stages of the project. Some of the frustrations I've dealt with was the speed of the dialogue on the audio track and keeping the movement of the type in unison on screen.

Due to unfortunate circumstances with my external hard drive, I lost my original After effects project files. which set me back a few weeks on my Kinetic Typography Project. A valuable lesson learned the hard way:  "Back up your back ups!" I found it very upsetting and frustrating but there's no time for crying over spilled milk, you just have to rub it off and get on with it. I was sure whether I keep going with what I had or start afresh, but the one lucky factor was I had rendered version of the early footage of that i worked on, but I wasn't happy with it initially and it needed editing & polishing. I got to work on it and tweaked it a bit more and I believe it's much better than the earlier renders. Because of the loss of data and the now shortened time to finish the project,  I began to press on swiftly into the process and my creative juices started growing. These images are of John Cusack taken from the iconic scene finale from the movie - SAY ANYTHING. I replaced the boombox with the title AGAIN. There was no significance to using this image except that I'm trying to instill a little pop culture into the video. If there is any hidden sub text it relates closely to the subject matter discussed within the audio concerning youth culture and the destruction music may have upon them. For young people music is an escape but it is also for them a means to deter  against the rules imposed upon them by the conservative elder generation. With music you can turn it up and block out the repetitive, mundane and annoying dressing downs of one's failures to comply with society. In a way music is the weapon of the youth against the tyranny of the righteous oppressors, namely their parents and in general the authority.  It's a turn it down, turn it up kinda world we live in and for those who wear headphones, secretly they are sticking it to the man!

This the revisited and re-edited version of the first section of Kinetic Typography project.

Listening to the audio piece over and over again and from my research on where the audio was sampled from, I found there was an underlying URBAN tone to the piece, so I began with that. I wanted to open with something symbolic of that urban theme and I felt a brick wall would be a great canvas to begin with.

This is the opening line and from the first word - "YOU" I wanted to begin with the Uncle Sam I Want You army poster appearing. This is an iconic image with pop culture references and since the audio references a troubled youth culture and the army throughout history has been used to bring a solution to this issue I thought this was a good point of origin to lead with. Also the Uncle Sam image sparked the idea of the American Flag appearing on the wall at the beginning. This all laid the foundation for the theme of the piece and where I would go with the animation.

 

 

With the line "Tell a Kid "  I wanted the words to be uttered out of a guy holding a megaphone signifying someone being yelled at or giving a talking down to. It also echoed a cry for help in an underlying way.

With these words I wanted them to sweep across the screen in large text emphasizing to the audience the importance of the vulnerability.  This was juxtaposed against an image of a child in a crouching fetal pose animated in the opposite direction and was more transparent than the text because I wanted it to enter the brain of the viewer more subtle than the text almost subliminal.

 

The only way to approach this project is to view the material as sections and sub-sections. Like a pyramid you begin with the overall and then break it down.

 

Then you apply backdrop, imagery and movement while adhering to the beat and pace of the audio. Sometimes and idea might seem good in your head and even on paper but when you apply it it just doesn't work. This came apparent to me a few times during the course of my work and I discarded those concepts in the end but for this realisation I had to create the animation clip in the first place. This can be very time consuming. The name of the game is to keep as close to your original theme and concept and expect that some ideas may not be used but it's not all bad cause that I idea maybe used in a future project. Later in this blog I will discuss my editorial decisions and oversight into deleted clips.