Final Movie Featuring Audio/Video Relationship

"The Life of Shoes"

(Click Image to Play Movie)

Length: 0:02:01
by Edward Pritchard (05/10/2007)

Ok, so my final movie turned out a little different than I had planned. I broke away from the idea of just filming people wearing shoes, and instead opted to have two pairs of shoes tell their story by themselves. I used music that I had created from a synthesizer on my computer, and tried to match the video to the music as well as I could to create a sense of rhythm. Also, when creating the music, I tried to reflect the actions and emotions of the shoes as best as I could with the beat. I welcome any comments or questions you may have, and I hope you all enjoy!

Rough Cut #5

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Rough Cut #4

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Rough Cut #3

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Rough Cut #2

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Rough Cut #1

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Draft Production Strategy

I would like to gather material that concern the story of people's lives by using their shoes as a point of interest. I will be sitting outside of a restaurant and bar called The Comet Cafe that's located on the corner of N Farwell Ave and E Irving Pl. There is a bench located on the North side of the building that sits and faces E Irving Place. This bench is where I will be obtaining most of my material.

See map of The Comet Cafe in Milwaukee, WI

Light Capturing Strategy:
I will be trying to obtain visual material by only taking pictures and video clips of people's shoes and the action of them walking.

Sound Capturing Strategy:
I will be trying to obtain sounds of only people walking and the other ambient sounds that surround The Comet Cafe. Possibly also utilizing interviews gathered from patrons of The Comet Cafe.

Curiosity #1

What is it about people's shoes that tell the story of who they are?

Plausible Causes:
(1) I accidentally captured video of me walking, and you could see my shoes in the picture. Bouncing in and out, they had a strange poetry to them. I became interested to see what other people's reactions to shoes would be, and if they felt the same way.
(2) After brainstorming with a group of people, many people agreed with me that shoes do describe people with a deeper accuracy than almost any other article of clothing. Everyone's opinion was validated by one of the people's particular case of shoes because they had a hole in them. We all felt that her shoes must hold an interesting story.

Curiosity #2

How far do the buses run that come to Brady Street?

Plausible Causes:
(1) There are always buses running through the area, bringing people of all different types, making a very eclectic atmosphere. I wondered how far they were traveling from to visit Brady Street.
(2) When I did my audio recording of Brady Street, often times buses would invade the microphone's range and obliterate the other noises that I was trying to capture on my mini-disc recorder. I became more interested in trying to make the noises and appearance of buses the subject of my recording, rather than be annoyed by it for obliterating other subject matter.

Curiosity #3

Is there an mp3 player craze sweeping Brady Street?

Plausible Causes:
(1) I became interested in seeing how bad the iPod craze was getting in my neighborhood. I first became intrigued after a discussion about the iPod Fashion industry took place in a lecture I attended.
(2) In order to record some audio for my first trek, I was required to wear large full sized headphones. During the trek I began to feel a little self-conscious about the headphones, and wondered if anyone was as conscious about them as I was.

Recalled Situation...

One of the settings on my first trek that sparked my curiosity was outside of The Dogg Haus on Brady Street in Milwaukee. At this point in my trek, I stood outside of the restaurant next to a few dumpsters, and overlooked Brady Street. I placed my microphone rig on the dumpsters next to me and recorded the happenings that took place. My recording was filled with the sounds of cars and trucks driving down the street, car doors opening and closing, and people walking by in mid-conversation. One of the aspects that I don’t recall too much about was appearance of the individuals that walked by. I don’t think that it occurred to me that their appearances would spark my interest, specifically their shoes. I recall an old saying that brought up the idea of shoes telling the story of an individual: where they have been, where they are going, and in general, who they are. What is it about shoes that tell people’s story so well?