Tag Archives: NFT

Final film

New Normal:

This is the link to our final video, New Normal.

This film was created to emphasize the fact that everyone can wear what they want, when they want. We have added voice acting and music in the background of the video. We did this so that the video’s message was fully understood and conveyed.

The background of the video highlights the fact that color is often gender stereotyped. However, the white color emphasizes the fact that the clothing should be neutral, which is why we’ve got a male model wearing a skirt.

Voiceover aims to further emphasize that people should be themselves and that no one’s opinions should affect how they feel about themselves or prevent them from expressing themselves. The voice acting is masculine because many people judge men dressed as more feminine and call them hateful terms. Fashion stereotypes can be harmful to a person’s mental health. Men are often seen as strong, emotionless and closed-minded. Usually, if men don’t act this way, they are seen as weak and fragile. The most common derogatory names given to men who do not have the idea of ​​masculinity in the media are called “bloc”, “gay” or “considerate”. Although these words are not generally used to be offensive; The media has made these common words rude and if someone is called that, they are not good enough.

Although we have focused on men’s perspectives in our project, this does not mean that this topic does not apply to women. Women have been called “sluts”, “tramps” or even “slaves”. The media judge women for their clothing length and appearance (e.g., makeup) and label them as seen by younger audiences, susceptible to media influence and their opinions more, and will come up with ideas about What they “should” wear when they can wear what they want without fear of someone telling them they don’t look normal.

The media is the worst thing to read if you want to feel good about yourself. The media is constantly focusing on the topic of fixing yourself or making yourself look like the most famous person (usually wearing hair and makeup, and possibly plastic surgery). The media point out the “flaws” of celebrities, then influence the minds of the readers into what they consider an acceptable way of dressing and dressing.

Process

We asked ourt model to wear different outfits for the film:

  1. Normal clothes
  2. Baggy sweatshirt with jeans ( masculine)
  3. Dress
  4. Crop top alongside jeans

Screenshots from film footage

At this point of the short film, our model is dressed like this at the start. This is because we want our model to be perceived as serious and having a strong physical presence. Furthermore, this had our model juxtapose to also being feminine later on in the short film, having the two contrast against each other physically and in the clothing worn in later in the short film.

When this is edited, the green screen will be blue at this stage. The reasoning behind this is to portray the colour blue being associated with the male gender. As even when a male baby is born the only colour to portray a male baby is blue.

Pose 2

The second pose was used to slightly contrast between the poses displayed with the 1st and 3rd poses. From what you can see, the model is a lot more relaxed and not as tense as the first pose. Therefore this goes to show how in recent years gender stereotypes have changed from the past. As in both genders can now can be whoever they want to be without being judged by society. Furthermore, both genders can even swap roles as this is expected in our society today as people may feel like they were born the wrong gender.

Pose 3/4

As you can see from poses 3(dress)/4(red and black top), we had our model in more feminine and fluent poses. In addition, we had our model wear feminine clothes.

Overall, the reasoning behind having our model in these poses is because we wanted it to contrast from the masculine poses earlier displayed in the short film. In the short film you see flickers of pose 4 from the masculine pose. This was to show the juxtaposition of the stereotypes behind the male gender on being able to be free and wear/ be whatever and whoever you choose to be. As for pose 3, this was displayed at the end of the short film with our model doing different poses in the outfit of pose 3. Furthermore, we had our model do feminine poses with a smile on his face. This was to show how both genders should be able to be comfortable in being whoever they want to be even if it means wearing feminine clothes as a male and vise versa. In recent years we see things such as pride month which is amazing as people get to express their feelings without embarrassment. Also, society gets the education of not judging these people.

Images of final film

Mario Testino is a famous fashion photographer who has been nicknamed “[the] godfather of fashion photography”. He has had a very close relationship with the fashion magazine VOGUE, and He has photographed celebrities such as Kate Moss, Oprah, Serena Williams and also the late Prince of Wales with the Duke of Edinburgh and the Duke of Cambridge.

https://time.com/3840119/mario-testino-i-believe-men-have-changed/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CI%20believe%20men%20have%20changed,wear%20and%20how%20they%20look.

Above is a link to a photography project Mario Testino done on how “Men have changed”.

Edited Images shoot 1

These first set of images displayed above is mean to portray the over exaggeration of what the stereotypical man is mean to look like. As you can see the images show a physical presence to them as the model is pointing directly to the camera. Also, the model appears to be tense in most of the images which portrays the masculine aspect to the images.

Furthermore, we added pink to some of this masculine set images in order to show juxtaposition form the colour pink being feminine alongside the poses being masculine. The outcome of this was to display that the male gender can be associated with the colour pink. Furthermore, how old stereotypes don’t have to be associated with today’s society. Meaning we can move on from old stereotypes and people can be comfortable within the genders.

Final/ favourite image

These are my favorite images because they remind me of Uncle Sammy’s propaganda that was used to call people to join the United States Army during World War I.

This is a powerful pose as it gives the viewer the impression that the model is observing and pointing at them. It shows that this problem needs to be fixed and that we need to stop expecting people to be like this or act a certain way.

Images are in black and white to represent outdated ideas that many have received from the media. The media has been the main thing for generations. The media generates opinions and many readers are influenced by what is said.

Black and white can also represent a metaphorical prison. This shows that the model is stuck in a society in which he feels out of place.

Edited images shoot 2

Editing

she used a quick Shutter speed in attempt to capture as much of the model’s movement as possible. The quick shutter speed allowed her to get a lot of images that looked similar so that she could get a range of images for the same pose and then choose the sharpest image.

To edit the images, she went onto Lightroom and changed the exposure, as the images were initially very bright, she then went and changed the levels of white and black in the image, once she had done that, she was able to change them to black and white. She kept the shadows quite prominent to highlight the fact that her model could be influencing others to express themselves and to not feel embarrassed.

Analysis

Men can wear whatever they want without fear of being judged. She asked the model to do this shoot because she knew he would be confident throughout the shoot. This is important to her because she don’t want to create a specially chosen photo session to depict people feeling good about themselves, when my model feels awkward, etc.

She separated black and white photos from the colour photos to emphasize that people are always two-faced.

Favourite Image

Editing

To capture these images, she used two solid white lights to cast shadows on the background. She liked that the lamp creates two shadows. She believed it represents the fact that everyone has personalities that we hide. It concerns Novella, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson writes about how a very respectable Dr. Jekyll doesn’t always want to be what everyone sees. This is where Mr. Hyde comes in, Hyde is the evil faction of Jekyll, he does all the things that if Jekyll were seen doing them, he wouldn’t be seen again.

She edited this image in Lightroom. She increased the black level in the photo as the light created a slight sheen on the dress. It also makes the safety pins holding the shirt together more visible.

She used a fast shutter speed to try to capture most of the movement of the model made. The image she chose has a bit of a blur around the arms; However, she felt it works well with the rest of the image. The fuzzy arm helps highlight the change in people’s perspective and the fact that more and more people are starting to accept other people for who they are.

Analysis

This is my favorite image because the model accidentally copied the iconic pose adopted by Freddie Mercury. Freddie Mercury doesn’t care what people think of him, that’s why I think this image is a success because our shoot was done to show that people shouldn’t care what others think about him. their appearance.

The fact that black-and-white images may show some people have very old-fashioned beliefs, such as the belief that people should limit themselves to one style of dress. The black-and-white image also depicts the model’s fear of speaking out about being trapped in a male stereotype, which is often portrayed as strong, emotionless and the backbone of her family.

The two tones of the shirt show that there is never just one explanation for something. You can always find another way if you really need it. The fact that the black and white images are rather ironic because we are a group shows that nothing in this world is truly black and white.

NFT’s research and analysis

What is an NFT?

NFT stands for “Non Fungible Token” which represents either a digital file/ item. The token in NFT is an object that is built onto a blockchain, non fungible means that it is unique being different and 1 of 1 to the person who makes a purchase of it.

2 Lives exhibition

The “2 Lives exhibition” is Jerseys first Art exhibition the brings together Art and Finance, due to the introductions of NFT’s. It is a project that has been put together in order to build a future of the art world, as it seems to fade away with no technological advances being put into the art world. Therefore, this will leverage NFT’s as a tool leading to the creation of new communities, opportunities and even art overall.

NFTs in art

NFTs in terms of art is revolutionary for artists in this day and age. The reasoning behind this is because artists now have a second option of being able to sell there art online to anyone who wants to buy it from around the world. Whereas, if you where to sell your art in person you would have to put it up in a exhibition or auction in order for you art to sell. Moreover, if you sell a physical piece of art, you only get the money that the customer has offered for it and thats the money you earn. As for NFT’s, when you sell your own NFT you get money from that sale and when the person who bought your art sells it, you get a fixed percentage for every-time your art continuously gets sold off. Alongside this, the NFT you make becomes a certificate of authenticity in order to cancel out people trying to make counterfeits.

NFT’s in gaming

NFT’s in terms of gaming has also revolutionised as any items you buy in your game; for example skins on Fortnite, you would be able to keep these ‘skins’ if you where to stop playing the game and you could use them again if you like. Moreover, with these skins you could sell it on the game marketplace to other players who are going to jump onto the game. Alongside being able to sell them, you could use your skins for the appearance of your digital avatar for others to look at.

NFT’s for collectionist’s

People who collect items in the real world in order to flip there items to make money, now have a whole new platform of being able to purchase NFTs to make more money in terms of collectables. This change kicked into place during the covid pandemic due to the fact that the whole world became more digital as people could online socialise via internet. Moreover, this lead to a larger increase in people around the world trusting the internet more. Therefore, in society we now appear to have more people collecting digital assets as much as physical assets which can de sold through exhibitions or other places on the secondary market giving sellers a wide range of choice in selling of collectable items.

NFT’s in virtual worlds and virtual exhibitions

Virtual worlds have been starting up in the NFT’s space such as Decentraland and somnium space. Decentraland as an example is an online world where users have to create an avatar in order to express their presence online. Moreover, you are also able to communicate wit other peoples avatars online as well from participating in concerts, art shows and even being able to build your own digital house with other people as well. This is great as friends or people in general from around the world are able to share there own sense of community, or even mix culture together which can have people from around the world gain a better understanding of different communities and how they work. This is accessible on 2d screens which is via computer. Decentraland also have another layer of connection with cryptocurrencies in order for people to be able to make purchases on the virtual land that exists, art on the walls in galleries and making these purchases can give you ownership on the virtual world, leading to people being able to give users a say on how the world should operate.

NFT’s blockchain, cryptocurrencies, coins and defi

The next revolution alongside NFT’s is by changing the way we see and use money. People in todays society don’t trust authorities, which helped in the gradual increase of people using cryptocurrencies for a substitute to physical and money kept away in a bank with the creator being a random person that no one knows of. Therefore, this means that the person who invented cryptocurrencies has no ties to the government or any authority, its a universal currency having the same value everywhere across the globe and the market is open 24 hours in a day. A cryptocurrency is a digital asset that is designed to be a medium of exchange for real money, the individual coin ownership is then stored away in a ledger existing in a form of computerised database and cryptography is used to secure transactions and records, which controls the creation of additional coins and verify the transfer of coin ownership.

How to create, buy and sell NFTs

In order to create an NFT, you will need whats called a NFT wallet and an account inside FT platforms.

A digital wallet can be used as if it was your physical wallet but just virtually. Metamask appears to be used most commonly do far keeping your NFT’s, these wallets allow you to move your digital assets within the metaverse.

NFT PLATFORMS: Opensea, Nifty Gateway, KnownOrigin, Foundation, Mintable, Rarible, Hic Et Nunc, Zora, Makersplace, VeeFriends, NBA TopShot, Crypto.com NFT, Eenjin, Superrare, Sweet, Doingud.

NFT’s environmental impact

For NFT’s to not damage the environment the use of renewable energy would be useful such as solar and wind. However, NFT’s are only a small contribution to this as the energy consumption it takes to mine a singular etherium is 0.0006, which in comparison is the same as watching a youtube video.

mining crypto takes a lot of electricity, needing big computational work by hardware. The process of mining and rewarding the miners for closing a block of the blockchain is called Proof of Work, that was the way Bitcoin was applied in 2009, until now.

In the crypto ecosystem there has been a transition from the ‘Proof of Work’ to ‘Proof os Stake’, which is a lot more environmentally friendly. This is because POS doesn’t require miners anymore, but validators. These are the people that deposit their owned crypto to validate block transactions, then the reward is given on a random basis.

In some ways, NFT’s can also be good for the environment, this is because Fashion at the moment is the 2nd most pollutive industry in the world. Therefore digital clothing could revolutionise this issue that is currently taking place across the globe.

Here is a link to a website called the 2 lives exhibition, which gives out additional information on NFT’s, Metaverse and Cryptocurrencies. https://2lives.world/

NFT Community – Evaluation

Our project based on highlighting ideas about the metaverse and the idea of ‘2 Lives’ was an overall success. We were able to complete the project within the time frame to a sufficient standard. My artistic intention was to deliver a project which used a-lot of digital techniques to relay a futuristic aesthetic. I believe through the use of animation and various other effects, along with the sound-design we achieved this artistic direction.

I feel we effectively spread the workload amongst the whole group. Everyone had something to do at all times when working on the project.

  • Matthew
    • Camera man
    • Animator
  • Reuben
    • Actor
    • Secondary editor
  • Ollie
    • Director
    • Manager
  • Myself
    • Main Character
    • Chief Editor

This was valuable as the editing process was intricate.

Although class time was used effectively in this way, I do feel more out of class work could’ve been done to help iron out any creases in the film as I do think it has room for improvement. For example some sections of the film do not flow seamlessly but rather cut quite chaotically and therefore more out of lesson time could’ve been spent on transitions.

Our project represented the idea of having social circles online and in the physical world which reacted to the theme of community well.

Our work was inspired by artists like Beeble and I feel we effectively displayed this aesthetic using the digital style of work

NFT Community – Final Presentation

Film

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/7f2e5973-fc97-435e-8d97-632fd5209787

Digital Image

Final Statement

Title: Online / Offline
The concept behind our NFT video is that two friends each have two separate lives; one offline and online. Our video shows how anything can happen on an online medium, but real connection and friendship occurs in real life. As technology develops relationships of all kinds are growing apart. An example of this occurred in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. People only experienced contact with family members in the same household and the only way to speak to people outside was via an online medium. This effected the mental health of everyone and looking back on the first lockdown we can see how much we relied on technology to keep connected with family and friends.

Creators: Oliver Shiplee, Matthew Brown, Michael Kenealy and Reuben Jeanne

NFT Community – Recording

Principal Shoot Plan

Before we planned teh shoot we established initial ‘job roles’ for the project:

  • Matthew
    • Camera man
    • Animator
  • Reuben
    • Actor
    • Secondary editor
  • Ollie
    • Director
    • Manager
  • Myself
    • Main Character
    • Chief Editor

We will shoot our video using a DSLR paired with a drone. Referring back to the story board, the DSLR will shoot close up shots and eyelevel perspective shots, while the drone will take the birds-eye-view shots.

Image preview

We will shoot during the day time, during overcast weather to remove any harsh lighting and add drama to our footage. We found an open field area with a cliff which is were we will film as we plan for the main character to appear as he is isolated when shooting birds-eye-view shots. The cliff also adds to the drama and the cliff will add more sublime romanticism to our footage. We want our narrative to be obvious and we are using characters who will act out this narrative effectively. In terms of props we will be using a VR headset which we have crafted ourselves using accessible materials.

Behind the scenes:

Matthew controlling the drone while I ran towards it
Me showing off the central handmade prop

Am I satisfied that I have enough images/ material? – Yes I am satisfied we have shot an abundance of imagery.
What are you going to do differently on next shoot? – Do not rush the takes as much and refer to the storyboard more directly.
How are you going to develop your ideas? – Add animation and editing to piece the narrative together and further add visual effect to the piece to relay a more emotive campaign.

Film Inspirations:

Editing:

Video

I began by laying delegating the task of finding a backing track for the video. We found a royalty-free electronic song with a fast paced beat which would complement the narrative and visuals well. I then laid the soundtrack in a new sequence in Adobe Premiere pro. Thereafter, I began introducing clips into the sequence and cutting them to the beat. Once satisfied with how the clips where positioned and the overall sequence, I moved onto the next element of post-production, colour grading and Effects. I added a grade on all of the clips using adjustment layers. I went for a high saturation and high contrast grade to dramatize the action in the video. I then added video-game style overlays such as the one below.

For the split screen concept I first had to motion track my face to stabilise the clip more so that my facial features lined up with the animation characters features. The animation was designed by Matthew. You can see his editing process for this HERE

This involved an intricate frame-by-frame masking process.

I added speed ramps to add a sense of hyperreality and the idea that time is controllable in the metaverse more. Finally I added sound FX to add a more immersive feeling.

Image

Matthew made the the digital image in photoshop. He used a screen grab from one of the videos of me wearing the VR, and the 5 animated scenes all at the same timeframe so the character lines up.

He then added some glitched text effect by using 2 layers behind each text. To make it better he added some blending mode features, such as, emboss and bevel, etc.

He used shapes and clipping layers to add all the images into to ensure all the shapes are even.

This is the final image which represents the whole NFT film. It shows the most important scene, which is the split scene that includes the animation as the NFT exhibition is called 2lives (online and offline), it shows the real world and the virtual meta verse.

filming editing

Setting/ Editing

The location was at the house of a relative of mine, We liked this house because it’s regal and touch of femininity. This film was fun to make because it’s concept and also each scene was a perfect image with several hidden symbols. We choose ‘Womankind’ as our title reference to mankind but also because of the stereotype that woman need to be kind and gentle. We took several shoot and we picked out three of them. The videos were about ten seconds each and created a smooth transitions, the goal was to create a continuous shoot and also to create our model’s story about the fight that women did during decades. The first clip is in black and white in reference to the time period (50’s) and to Cindy Sherman. Our model is in the kitchen cooking. She looks around if her husband left, puts down the bowl and picks up her suffragette before she leaves. For the second scene, We can find colour but they are not very bright reference to Clare Rae. In these scene, the model walks into the scene, get’s ready and picks up her woman’s rights poster determined to protest for her rights. The last video clip with our model is the representation of a better future, our model is entering she seems happy and confident, she looks at the mirror and then smile at the camera when she leaves we can hear the speech saying how gentle and kind you are with yourself and then we see the images of strong women stories fighting, protesting, working, trying to have a better a life. After we pick out music for our NFT video. Unfortunately we could only use royalty free for the track due to rights issues. Our first idea was to put a different song for each decade but we thought it wasn’t enough meaningful. We wanted the song to make us emotional and that’s when we found  Luminance by Scott Buckley. The song is sweet and dramatic it was perfect. We added for an extra touch three feminist speeches recordings that was well associated to every shoot. The first audio recording we used is taken from Christabel Pankhurst 1908 speech protesting the proper for votes for women. After we used a speech from 70’s  on the Women’s rights motion and the third one is a speech recorded in 2019 the most recent of Britta Badour’s “Dear Young Woman”

NFT Digital image

I made the the digital image in photoshop. I used a screen grab from one of the videos of Michael wearing the VR, and the 5 animated scenes all at the same timeframe so the character lines up.

I then added some glitched text effect by using 2 layers behind each text. To make it better I added some blending mode features, such as, emboss and bevel, etc.

I used shapes and clipping layers to add all the images into to insure all the shapes are even.

This is the final image which represents the whole NFT film. It shows the most important scene, which is the split scene that includes the animation as the NFT exhibition is called 2lives (online and offline), it shows the real world and the virtual meta verse.

Recording And Editing

We used our storyboard to organise our shoots, to know where/what/when we were going to shoot.

We decided that Michael was going to be Model 1, which would mostly be in the start of the video, and Reuben was Model 2, who was only in the last half of the video. Matt (me) was recording everything, and Ollie was the director and manager.

We had to make a VR headset using a printed off image of a VR headset and then we taped it to some sunglasses.

Shooting

First, we went to a open green area, which we filmed most of our scenes at.

We started off with the main walking headshot video, then we recorded the drone shots of Michael wearing the VR. After I recorded the scene where Michael and Reuben meet in real life and the last scene where they are talking on a bench.

After, we went to record the scene where Reuben takes off the VR headset at a gaming setup.

We couldn’t record a drone shot of a house, as you can’t fly within 50m of houses/property.

Editing

Once we had all the recordings Michael and Reuben started to edit the video on Adobe Premier Pro. They used special effects, such as the loading… visual effect, and static sound effect, etc. They also time-mapped some clips to match the beat of the music.

This shows the half and half effect, with the timeline on the bottom half of the screen.

This is one of the special visual effects, which is used at the start of the video. Also, the timeline is zoomed out, so you can see all of the film on the timeline, and all its layers.

This is how the time-remapping was done, as seen on the left. He used key frame to change the speed of the clip at different time intervals.

Animation In Blender

For my groups NFT Film, we decided to use animation as a part of our video. I made all the aminated clips in Blender. I started off by finding low-poly art models of Sketchfab. then imported them into blender. Once in Blender I used simple animations to move the location of the scene, to give off the impression of the character walking.

This screenshot shows the timeline for the character walking. Every dot/diamond is a different movement of the character to make him walk. The character doesn’t actually move, it just walks on the spot. So I would have to animate the background. He walks on the spot as it makes it easier to only move the direction of the arms, legs etc, instead of the movement and lactation of everything. So the character and camera are stationary.

This is the scene, everything highlighted in orange is what is animated and included in the scene. I added 2 keyframes to the timeline. The first keyframe is where the buildings start, and the second is where they will end after the move and slide backwards. It slides backwards to give off the effect that the character is walking forwards. Each 2-3 second scene takes an estimated 8 hours to render.

This is the node setup for the lighting. I used a HDRI which is a spherical photo taken in real life, and the program works out where is sun is and creates the same lighting situation for inside the workspace. The orange box is the HDRI which is connected to the right two default boxes, then I added a remapping node to make the horizon of the world line up with the horizon I made in the workspace, so there aren’t photos of trees floating in the sky.

The Street Scene

Overall, the street scene is quite small. The scene is colourful which adds lots of contrast. All the scenes use depth of field to blur the background more as the character walks forward.

The left side is the object view, without the colour. Where as, the right side is the rendered, with colour.

The Farm Scene

This scene is more complex, as there is more shapes and objects. There is also larger range of colours, ranging from red to green, etc.

The Mansion Scene

This is one of my favourite scenes, as it features our main character walking outside his mansion. It is visually pleasing as uses a lot of dynamic shapes and contour.

The Beach Scene

This is one of the most colourful scenes as it uses mostly topical/beach colours. It contributes to having a diverse location for the 5 scenes.

The Space Scene

This was one of the harder scenes to make as I had to add a space helmet to him, however it is the most extreme scene as the character is in outer space.

The Zoom Out/In Animated House Scene

This animation was made to replace the original shot idea, to use a drone to zoom into a house, but we couldn’t do it due to privacy rules. So we used amination as a replacement as it fits in with the online/offline format and style.

This is what the scene looks in blender. The greyed out screenshots are the view in shader view, where as the coloured view is the rendered view, which is what it looks like when it is finished.

The camera is animated with 3 keyframes, both for location and rotation. It ends still to let the clouds move in, which allows for a clean transition from this clip to another, using a white fade transition. Overall, this clip took 12 hours to fully render 120 frames in blender.

Overall, this scene is good as it ends with a clean transition, of the clouds covering the screen. The camera is mostly smooth which follows the exponential curve, which allows for fluid movement.