Artist Statement

Time can be uncontrolling. Time always lurches from us so rapidly, and despite our best efforts, we are never able to firmly grasp it. This lack of control over time can cause some people to feel extremely helpless. In this project, we wanted to explore this experience of feeling helpless regarding time. People experience a continuous sense of racing against the clock as they attempt to pack as much as they can into each day. We believe that time is always sliding away from us, as it’s almost running away from us, and that we never have enough time to complete everything we need to do.

Our film combines the analog of a live film with 2D animation. We felt that using a drone was a sufficient medium to represent that notion of moving too quickly in space. The film depicts the viewpoint of an individual flying through their life seamlessly at first, however, it crumbles as time passes. Everything is going smoothly until they enter the bridge at which they’re faced with little flickers of roman numbers and symbols that represent time.We implemented the audio of a timer and a distorted instrumental that starts as soon as the film enters under the bridge. The audio creates an atmosphere that embodies a feeling of tension and curiosity about what’s going to happen as the audio continues to tick. Just as the flickering ends, another animation appears. However, this one is more straight and simple in visuals. The white abstract circles are animated in a way that it swings like the ball from a grandfather clock and later in the scene we see the same ball as it undermines a morse code significance. As the film goes on, the viewer gets crashed into a tree and the audio disappears, indicating the symbolism of the feeling of being helpless in controlling your life. Where life is seamlessly moving too fast, a path is seen, however you're given mixed signals to stop and slow down, but you just keep going like you can’t help it like you can’t control it.

In terms of contribution, the work was split fairly evenly. Our project started withDaniel capturing film footage, using his drone, while RV constructed the instrumental audio.After that was finished, we merged the analog film with the audio and started to imagine abstract ideas for our digital material. We both worked on digital animation and had our stylistic views. Daniel focused on the editing portion utilizing Premiere Pro and Procreate to combine the animation, film, and audio while RV worked on the artist statement.

The work is meant to be presented through a VR headset. The audience is set to sit down in a chair and be given a VR headset, soundproof headphones, and a controller. The controller is set to start the film, however, it’s meant to represent the loss of control as itbecomes useless to hold as the film goes on. We wanted to create an installation for the audience to be completely immersed in the film. Having them experience stunning visuals and lifelike sound effects, the tale will draw you in and make you feel as though you are thedrone flying.