Let’s Make This Clear

Many people think that badminton is a backyard sport, frolicking around while attempting to hit a light shuttlecock. I disagree. Badminton is much more than that. There is actually quite a lot of skill and strategy involved with every match and every point. Hence, I decided that the topic of my project 3 fixation was badminton.

I started my project with the audio. I decided to begin my project with a simple narration. I started to write, and the piece took its shape into a rant. I went to ask around my fellow teammates as well as researched online on interesting facts on badminton. After many edits and drafts, the narration became more personal at the start, more technical in the middle and back to being more personal at the end. I brought the audio file into Audacity and edited certain words and pauses out to create a smoother flow. I think the transition from the first sentence to the second was most effective due to the pause. In retrospect, I still think there could be longer pauses in between paragraphs.

The entire project was created through After Effects. I intended the use a simple, minimalistic style for the visuals because I wanted the audience to concentrate mainly on the audio. I tried adding in the ‘smash’ sounds as well as other sounds such as grunting and laughing, but I think it ended up taking too much away from the narration. Consequently, I made the decision to only include the ‘smash’ sounds at the beginning and at the end and kept the rest of the audio simple. In retrospect, if I had longer pauses between the paragraphs, I think I could also include some in within the piece.

Timing and editing played significant roles in the creation of this piece. Working with the audio in the background, the visuals had to by synced perfectly to the words being said. Markers were used in After Effects to help with the timing. During the editing process, I took in consideration the lines being formed from scene to scene. All the visuals with a shuttlecock flying by fold and unfold in the same direction. If the graphic had strong horizontal lines, a horizontal wipe or a shuttlecock flying in a horizontal direction used. The words were often stacked in a diagonal way from left to right, hence the shuttlecock was consistently flying from the upper left corner to the lower right. Shuttlecock flying the opposite way was simply to give alternative and change. If multiple graphics were in the same scene, they often fold in opposite directions to give contrast and movement to the scene (as shown with Aluminum and Titainium). Many decisions were made within the editing process in hopes to keep the audience interested and their eye moving. The graphics were mostly centered to ensure the quickest way of communicating with the audience.

The idea of a loop was mainly conveyed through the visuals. Repeating elements such as the badminton bird and repeated transitions were used to convey the idea. I believe the beginning and ending style of narration created nice bookends to the video that gave it a more sincere and personal feel to the piece. Lastly, the opening credits and the end also helps tie in the video as a whole as well as playing with the concept of a loop, due to its use of the similar sounds and its style in graphics.

The main concept of the video was to express my frustration with others and their view on badminton. I hope that the video had proven my point and have somewhat convinced the audience that badminton is a sport.

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