OBJECT NARRATIVE part 1

Object: earbuds/headphones

15 words:

1. music
2. tangled
3. mp3
4. loud
5. silence
6. alone
7. transportation
8. playlist
9. lyrics
10. focus
11. daydream
12. concentrate
13. connected
14. plug
15. background

5 renderings:

Design Brief:

• Overview – The object I have chosen are my pair of earbuds that I use everyday on my commute back and forth to university. They are meaningful to me and without them my whole day would drag on longer and be worse in general. Many people feel the same way and they use headphones as a way of tuning out the world. Listening to music through earbuds is a very individual activity, but my concept is to show how this small everyday object connects us all.
• Key Message – The idea behind this project is that we all are alone in our heads listening to music we like which can be very intimate and personal. I want to showcase how different people use their earbuds in different situations and how it can be an escape/oasis in a dull/mundane moment in life. Using headphones is a shared experience that we do not share but we all know what it feels like.
• Research – “Headphones originated from the telephone receiver earpiece, and were the only way to listen to electrical audio signals before amplifiers were developed. The first truly successful set was developed in 1910 by Nathaniel Baldwin, who made them by hand in his kitchen and sold them to the United States Navy” (source: History of Headphones, Wikipedia). Apple popularized the earbuds in its viral ad campaigns for the iPod.

• Inspiration – I am very drawn to the videos shown in class and how The Mercadantes edit their videos in a montage style. The video Breath really inspires me and I like how they focus on human connection in small moments.
• Content Planning – I think that it should be structured to the flow of a song or the commute from one place to another. As the song ends the person gets to their destination.
• Aesthetic Treatment – I want closeups of the hands, ears, fingers, and earbuds/headphones without focusing on the person listening to them. Fast cuts to the pace of music or a steady beat with the focus being on the earbuds in centre frame for the most part.
• Schedule – Oct 23 filming, October 25 editing.

2 Different Storyboards: