AMEN: SPLIT SCREEN TEST

Applying my research to my own work I tried a variety of combinations of the assets I had already created to experiment with these. I have as mentioned in an earlier post adapted the music used since version one and drastically cut the music down (nearly halved) and focussing more on the sections of the tracks that had sampled the Amen break. The piece was still not a full version but a partial version as I aim to have 24 tracks in total which is 1% of the 2400 tracks that have used it. I also had in my head a hierarchy of importance placed on the elements and applying the theory of this concept I drew the following conclusions of my preferred reading of the piece which is below.



I considered the musical notes to be the most important. They were the graphical representation of the Amen Break and the thread that tied all of the other elements together. Following the hierarchy of design elements for this reason I wanted them to dominate the split screen. As this was just an initial trial and to save time I decided to work with them as they were. From their construction and a little re-sizing I was able to make them half a screen sized and positioned them on the top half of the screen where they had prominence. I did do tests with a completely white background and white top half and black bottom half and found the latter was stronger. There is movement in the animated musical notes they do attract the attention also. This element may need work as it is not the most visually interesting but I still feel that it works as a reference to the roots of all of the songs used and ties them together. The musical notes were only on screen when the Amen break was happening in the track as I felt that they were a little flat visually to be on screen the whole time. These were broken up by the animated covers/sleeves either the Winston's covers animated spelling out AMEN and flashing or the word AMEN built from the covers of all of the bands who had used or sampled the track. This did add interest and I felt in a strange way drew the attention more to the scales and notes when they were on screen. The contrast here of the white of the scales (as mentioned earlier) to the black of the AMEN covers catching the eye.

Next were the music video clips these not only provided the all important sound but contextualised the music notes and the drum patterns. They helped to show the variety of artists and musical genres that had used the Amen Break as well as being ironic as they are being appropriated just as the Amen Break had been appropriated to aid their creation. As an added bonus they are also visually rich and add strong visual interest to the piece. These were from the big crit feedback the most diverting and attracting element to the audience on the early version of the piece. I still felt that these were important and wanted to use them but by making them smaller, (about 50%) I felt they took less of the audience attention with more focus on the scales. I wanted to get some interaction with the audience though so decided to alternate these between the bottom (therefore less prominent) left and bottom right with the song titles to maintain interest. This works much better in my opinion and balances the strong visuals of the music videos to the size and positional dominance of the scales.

Third were the song titles and the record covers/sleeves. I felt that these were more of a visual clue than anything else but did cement the artists and the variety of musical artists and genres who had used the Amen Break. By being smaller and a constant in the middle of the bottom half of the screen as well as static graphics they are present an there for interest but do not divert from the strongest elements compositionally.

Lastly were the song titles. I feel these were not 100% necessary due to the inclusion of the record covers/sleeves. However for balance to the piece in the lower half of the screen I felt they worked well and added another clue for the audience to the enigma of what the tracks were and the contextualisation of these. I used a plain white font Helvetica on the black background so as not to draw too much attention to them. I also liked the fun element of the track names and the way they muddied water this may add to those unfamiliar with the tracks and the weird narrative they sort of built.

Overall thoughts moving forward and from feedback from a few friends and students are as follows.

• Greater use of the drummer in future places as it emphasises the drum element of the piece. Possibly incorporate as a stronger element more visually. Green screen and double exposure?
• Music generally better shorter and the drums and similarities and were not the dominant element BUT music videos still a real diversion at times.
• The AMEN animated built typeface from cover/sleeve tiles a little brash and blocky for some. I do agree to a point and these may need re-working.
• Musical notes were leaving clues to the drums much better and were the dominant aspect for most of the time. Perhaps look again at different ays to interpret this though.
• Visually OK but a little flat and graphical. Would be good to experiment more on layout, layers, overlapping and get the project and assets into Adobe After effects.
• Still a little unsold on the single screen multiple elements approach and prefer the 3 screen piece and tests with this. Trying the above After Effects experiment may help ease off off this as perhaps too reliant on 3 screens from last year and having more than one screen to play with.
• One screen installation test did go down pretty well against the 3 screens BUT I feel 3 screens shown large in the installation environment would be a different experience to it small on a computer screen.
• Overall though the message was still not clear enough and a little confused to the audience I screened it to. Possibly too many elements or the lack of clarity through the narrative of hierarchy of elements. I do not really want to use explanatory text but it is possibly worth a go.
• However upon explaining the piece the revelation did get a good response I just need to investigate how to create  a clearer message within the piece.