The assignment was to communicate the words "object" and "system" using just sound first and then using sound and motion. I've done these types of assignments before and sometimes they can result in less than impressive work but this time was different. I began by using what I had, a mini DV camera and a car. I was just experimenting with recording the sounds of the car as a system of objects.
By happenstance I shot at night and had just a flashlight for lighting. This resulted in a dark, gritty tone for the video that I took to liking. I digitized the footage and began messing with the sound. Eventually the sounds became a beat, and then became a song. The song was dark and tough sounding, a perfect match for the visual style of the video footage. I decided to go back and shoot again under the same conditions, in the dark with just a flashlight. This time I composed shots to go with the completed song. I used a shot list and some thumbnails to guide me. The result was quiet nice.
The video is, of course, not meant to have glossy, large scale, film-like production value. It needed to be amature so that the idea of the piece would be understandable. I've had many people comment that this would make a great car commercial. Maybe. I think what is interesting is not the video itself but the idea behind the creation of the video and the fact that the viewer clearly understands that all the sites and sounds come from the same object/system. If this was a flashy car commercial I think it would read differently.
