Unit 7 was an interesting unit unlike the others. I felt that although the topic was the same, I did 2 separate things. I explored the cultures of the 2 countries and also provided the pros and cons to both my booklet as well as the short video.
For Photography, I took many pictures all around the UK and Malaysia which I included in my booklet. The unused pictures in my booklet were pasted on my sketchbook. I liked that I made 2 editions; UK and Malaysia. There were some ups and downs to it. The booklet I had was printed wrongly however the process of editing and putting the images in went smoothly. At that point, I was so done and had no time to reprint everything because hand in was an hour away so I didn’t care and stapled the booklet together and shoved it in the sketchbook. I realised it was wrong of me simply to just put the booklet out. I felt really guilty about because the cutting on the booklet was sloppy as well. I then decided to take a look into my print settings and I found an error. I did not print it back and forwards. There was also no guide lines for me to follow and cut. Finally I printed it again.
This time, the printing was good. Everything was in place, exactly as I wanted it to be and also, the cut on the booklet was pretty neat. I handed in both bad and good booklets. This was a reminder for me to simply not put things out cause of the deadlines but to put it out when I’m proud of it. The weeks that went by for this unit was certainly tough. Blogs had to be written, multiple artist research had to be done and on top of that, I had more work to produce for the other units. I did procrastinate I’m not going to lie but I believe in working smart than working hard. I always enjoy taking pictures so the process of it was great. Editing the pictures made it therapeutic for me too. I wanted to give Malaysia a colourful, old vibe and the UK a slightly colder place witch cold tones and grey skies which I think I did a pretty good job in. The cover page for the booklet is a picture I took myself. I edited them to look graphic and not at all real which was what I wanted. It turned out pretty nice however, I didn’t like the shadows that casted on the picture.I couldn’t do much about this because of I increased the alpha correction in exposure, the flags will change colours. It still turned out pretty decent.
For Moving Images, there was something bothering me when I first started this project. Malaysia is a homophobic country and the culture there isn’t really accepting towards LGBTQ+ people. What made me choose child marriage for the title of my moving images project is that Malaysians are okay with child marriages instead of LGBTQ+ people for being themselves. I kind of wanted to bring out the common sense in people. Children are being mistreated and stripped of their education and youth. Instead girls are being exploited into making babies and marrying into rich families to put their families debts away. I had a clear image of my project. I wanted to expose the good and bad about the cultures. Kind of like Yin and Yang.
The process of this was hard and exhausting. I always felt mentally drained and tired but I knew I needed to do this justice. The process is as important as the outcome. I felt like I wasn’t procuring enough; wasn’t creative enough but after 1 week of thinking hard about what I should do, I finally felt content with it. Drawing at first was really hard because I’m not the best at drawing however, Procreate allowed me to copy and paste my character and also change their facial expressions and what not. It was an easy way for me to do things. With all the backgrounds I drew and characters, I feel my drawing getting slightly better. Of course, with time, I could have drawn better however, I sadly procrastinated while doing this and as a result of my lack of productivity, I rushed through my work. However, I was really content with my final outcome. I didn’t expect it to be pretty good. The story that played in my mind was relayed pretty well. The transitions were also really smooth. The only regret I have for this is that I wished I hadn’t procrastinated so much.
It really bothers me that I could have done better but I was just lazy to do it. I guess it was me being tired from the projects. I blame this on my negative mind. I learnt that with a positive mind and attitude, I can accomplish more things. This project TRULY taught me how to manage my time and I need to take from this and learn how to better my time management.
Overall, I had a push and pull situation with this whole unit. But I’m glad with how everything turned out. Of course there are things where I wish I could have done things better and that’s on me. I should have put out my final outcomes when I was the proudest instead of just rushing things. The artist research helped me a lot with coming up with inspiration. It taught me the importance of both aesthetics, meaning and practicality to a picture and to my short film.
YiLinKohCSVPA 