Video

I wanted to explore newham as people see it, and that required a sense of life, a need to get into and understand the places that people actually touch every day. So I went to one of the biggest market in newham, queen’s market, to get some footage. At first I was worried that the vendors would not mind me pointing my camera at them and their wares, but to my surprise they were very friendly and often smiled genuinely at my camera.

Besides that, I thought the video showed too many highly saturated shots and lacked some contrast, so I added some mime elements compared to my last work. For example, at the end of the video, there is a plastic chair placed in an abandoned courtyard full of decaying tree branches, which is actually in the back of this busy marketplace. Where there is light, there is shadow, and the city carries not only a colourful but also an old side.

From the shooting to the editing of the video, it was very exciting and enjoyable for me. I went to a new location, used a new method of filming and became more proficient at editing transferring than before. I could still improve a bit more for the shifting adjustments in the video. Overall, it was a perfect experience.

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Audio

I used a lot of vocal and narrative elements in the audio section of my E1 assignment, so for this one I decided to go for a musical expression of newham’s colourfulness.

The overall tone of the music is beat music. It corresponds well to the feeling I get when strolling through the streets of newham, where everything is so psychedelic in colour, as if there are many people whispering in your ear.

I really enjoyed creating this tune, trying to add different styles of drums and chords, and also trying to play the melody myself. I was fascinated by the feeling of arranging and embellishing beautiful music, this amazing experience has also taught me how to compose independently.

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Creative writing

This is a story about “blue”, a story set in an empty world.

“The colour represents emotions and encounters, blue is deep, sad and silent. In the first half of the story, I depict a bright and light style, like a fairy tale, in contrast to the sombre style of the second half of the story. At the end of the story, I have tried to use an O’Henry style ending. It does not give a clear ending, leaving the reader’s imagination wide open, which is the climax of the piece.

I really like stories with strong contrasts in plot, so I tried to write it. I think where I could improve is to set up the story further with more plot ups and downs and make the plot richer. I also think I could change the narrative and the structure of the piece to make it more comfortable and flowing for the reader.

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Web design

Initially, I wanted to design the web page in such a way that everyone could freely vote on their perception of Newham’s colours. But after many attempts I found that there was no way to do it with Myblog, so I put a few representative colours that I had photographed on the side widget.

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