Brainstorm for the Semester

So we were told to post by next class basically what's going to be stewing and fumbling in our brains for the semester as we make projects using After Effects. Since I hadn't a clue where to begin I thought of doing some "word storming" by writing down 50 words that came to mind when I thought of themes in movies that I like or think about. Here they are:

belonging, searching, struggle, escapism, adoration, intelligent, thriller, murder, coup d'etat, loss, Romanticism, quirk, dialogue, conversation, growth, decay, mystery, educate, wisdom, tragic, tormented, era, legend, past, future, hope, desperation, phantasmagoric, tangible, soul , reality, chaos, sympathetic, expressive, graphic, unstable, eloquent, sublime, transcendent, desolate, isolation, sincere, sophisticated, experience, humane, self-sacrifice, usual, lighthearted, menacing, somber.

Next I decided to take this list and right 50 words that come to mind as opposites to me. Here they are respectively:

insecure, complacent, surrender, trapped, dislike, ignorant, RomCom, doctor, peace, whole, Existentialism, boring, stare, distant, stupidity, reborn, solved, brainwash, material, hilarious, included, present, fact, amnesia, stagnant, logical, confident, blind, spiritual, brain, innocence, orderly, merciless, dull, subtle, strong, accent, society, city, richness, togetherness, sarcastic, stumble, novice, cruel, selfish, grace, heavy, child, bright.

I felt good about it since I put so much thought into it but then while taking a step back that it really do nothing in terms of the class. Yeah I made a long list but it got me no closer to thinking about After Effects and what I would do with it. So I decided just to get on vimeo.com for awhile and look at videos made with After Effects for myself. What better way to think about your projects than to look at what you're capable of making with the program itself? It made me realize I was just not giving myself something concrete like examples to work with. I also started writing down other words that I think about when watching these videos:

textures, found objects, minimalism, smoke, dreamscape, particles, grainy, focus, glow, music video, picture stills, mixed media, chalk, ink, cutout pictures, ripped magazines.

This hasn't lead me to necessarily a theme or concept for the year but rather techniques to utilize in movies. I really enjoy videos when the objects or materials depicted are visual metaphors for the message the piece is trying to relay. This video http://vimeo.com/6736261

is simply about an apartment complex in Berlin being built in a parody of a Tetris game where the units fall in four block formations with the game music in the background. Its sort of a parody of Socialist building that was cheap and uniformly in design with no variation.