Challenge
Your challenge is to create a one minute video, using found still images with permission, that represents a single number in a creative and artful way. Show the number as it is represented in the world and nature. It need not always be literal. Be creative. Think metaphorically. Also, add relevant music but not narration. Let the visuals and the music tell the story of the number you have selected.
Objectives
- Create a video, including visuals and audio
- Find and select still images, that you have permission to use, that represent the selected number
- Arrange images and audio in a way that represents the number creatively
- Edit audio to meet the assignment limitations
- Experiment and explore video and audio storytelling tools
Rationale
There are a handful of ways to use copyrighted material in your own creative work. Identifying images, filtered by permissions and editing copyright songs, provide an introductory step toward deeper understanding of the concepts of transformativeness and copyright. Similarly, representing a number, already an abstraction, supports abstract and figurative thinking.
Instructions
There is limit to the number of images you can choose. However, the one minute limitation impacts how many found images that can be used well in your video. Similarly, the one minute limitation has greater implications for the audio selection(s), considering most songs exceed a minute in length. Yet, there is also no limitation to the number of songs you can remix. You may even consider composing your own audio.
Finding Images
Conduct advanced searches using the copyright owner's permissions as a filter. There are a number of tools that allow you to search for license or royalty free and Creative Commons licensed images, including:
- Creative Commons Search - a meta search tool for scanning multiple source sites
- Photo Pin - search engine for Creative Commons and non-Creative Commons images
- Compfight - search engine for commercial and Creative Commons images in Flickr, with clear distinction between commercial and free
- Let's CC - Creative Commons search tool
- Multicolr Search Lab - search engine by color for Creative Commons and Flickr
- imagebase - searchable database of royalty free photographs
- morgueFile - searchable database of royalty free photographs
- everystockphoto - search engine for license-specific and free photos
- Advanced Search and Filtering options for Google, Bing, and most other search engines
You will need to download the images to use with your video editing tool. Additionally, you will want to maintain some method of tracking and including proper attribution for the images and songs.
The video editing tool you use is your choice, but you will need to make a rough cut of your images in preparation for a separate audio track.
Finding Audio or Songs
Since there are already significant limitations on length of the audio you can use, the possibility exists for you to include samples from known, popular music. However, you will need to edit the audio to create a remixed version of the selections to suit your piece. You may also create or compose your own music for this project, if you choose. It may be beneficial to edit your audio separately, using an audio editing tool, and then add it to your rough cut video in your primary editing tool.
Select a Main Tool
There are a number of video editing tool options for combining video and audio, and everyone with a MacBook Air has access to more than one (iMovie and WeVideo - via Google accounts). Feel free to choose the one that best suits your needs. It might be worth exploring some of the options before making a decision.
Legal
- Only use images that you have permission to use (royalty free and Creative Commons).
- Only use relevant samples of songs that you choose to use and remix them.
Exemplars
Here are a few additional examples of videos about numbers that illustrate some possibilities for you.
