Eric T Franklin
Clint Sleeper
Artist Statement
5/12/15
Mario’s Endless Life “Repetition”
From the beginning
I wanted to do a machinama project because this was a familiar with and I knew how
to work with it. My original proposal was this:
“For my project I wanted to create a
machinama that deals with the generational difference and generational gaps
that our society has. “A machinima is
the use of real-time computer graphics engines to create a cinematic
production. Most often video games are used to generate the computer animation.”
The reason why I wanted to use a
machiniama is because I have used them in the past and it is a field I am
familiar with. My objective/goal for
this project is to show what the generational difference can be like for people
(Old generation vs. new generation).”
A month into the
project I didn’t feel like I was able to work with this. I had the idea was a
8-bit Mario was going to meet a 3D model of Master Chief and show the generational
difference of the between them and how they express their views from the differently
generation. This was supposed to be a reflection of how generational people
have different views and how different and hard it can be in society. However, I
felt I was not going anywhere with this project and felt it needed a rework. After
a week, I finally came to this idea. I wanted to create a project that was
something I felt was something I not only struggle with but a lot of people
deal with every day: The endless cycle of repetition. Essentially I wanted to
create a project that was a reflection on how people in society are going
through a cycle of doing the same thing over and over every day. This is
something I sometimes I struggle with in my life. I wanted to keep the idea of
using Mario in the video. I recorded the gameplay and I glitch the game to make
the game going into a minus world that will when you reach the end, will send
you back to the beginning of the level. The level was also underwater and I
wanted to represent the “drowning and struggle” people go through repetition. I
also grab audio from a psychology professor talk about repetition and how it
affects peoples’ minds. I slowed down his audio and took his quote “repetition”
and made it repeat over and over at certain parts and added affects to those
audios as well. Next I took the video and made them overlay each other and
messed with added certain video effects like ultra-keys, but I kept one effect
to all and that was the twirl effect because I wanted to represent the “repetition”
swirl people feel like they go through and a sort of trance as well. I also added
at certain points Mario swimming across the screen or popping up at certain
points to again represent repetition.
My final results:
As
for my set up I have three projectors projecting the video with 6 speakers
playing the audio at different times in a small gallery. Here is what it looks
like:
This
was the hardest project I have ever done and not only that the most difficult
because rewriting the project and having certain parts wrong about my project. However
I feel great about this project because I feel it will make people have
different interpretations about what the project is and how it affects people
in todays’ society. The techniques I learned from this project will help me in
my future career.
