This photographer I didn't pick for her entire gallery but for this one picture. It is beautifuly edited and the wall makes everything pop. You can tell that this photo was thought through before it was taken. The girl who took this has a really long usernameso I'm not going to write it but she is a teenager from Spain who is learning just as we are. I think she has a really great start and her gallery shows her progress which is nice to see for someone who is also in the learning stages of this industry.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Social Media: Future or Fall?
There are many things that have impacted this world but no influence has caught fire and spurred so much change in so little time as social media. Social media, while unheard of in just the early 2000s, has expanded exponentially- the very word is connected to phones, internet, television, magazines, computers, and virtually any way that the populous connects with each other (which nowadays is pretty much everything we own). Social media has connected people from opposite corners of the world and has given voice to those otherwise unheard. But is this change for the better? Or does the fast-paced journey we are now on lead to a crash course.
While there are undoubtedly many assets to the expanding cyber world, the unseen end at the end of its growth may prove to be more disastrous than good. If you ask the average person under, say, 30 years old, more likely than not they will have a Facebook account. Facebook, while originally (and successfully) meant to connect college students to their peers, has grown exponentially to include unnecessary applications and features that do more harm than good. The most common instance of this: pictures. It is well known that any possible employer can find you very easily on Facebook, hunt down your pictures, and then hire or fire you based on what he or she sees. This is just one example of how ‘private’ things in life are being distorted by social media.
There are many other instances today that show the darker, less desirable side of social media. Take Twitter as well. You Tweet about how annoying your boss is and your followers see it. Perhaps they re-tweet this. In a matter of seconds hundreds of people have already seen your spur-of-the-moment venting on your boss. The worst part? More likely than not, he has seen it too. On Monday you get a very nasty conference call and then you are among the many that are unemployed.
These are just a few examples but similar stories of how privacy is abolished can be retold by countless who have become victims of the out-of-control social media network. In the process of connecting millions of humans, glitches and corruptions have poisoned the good that has come from the revolutionary network. And this is just the early stages of social media’s development. Imagine the future (the very near future, actually). Social media will be following everyone. Maybe it is implemented at work. Perhaps instead of calling home to tell someone to pick up milk you access video calling which is viewable by anyone and everyone by the right means.
While social media has merits, I fear that at the rate it is going, all human privacy will be eliminated if we are not careful with our new responsibilities that are attached with the privilege of being alive in this day and age. It has also become apparent that many will ignore these responsibilities and rules that accompany this industry. I believe that the surge in social media needs to slow down, or else we will not be able to keep up with the demands that accompany the new network.
While there are undoubtedly many assets to the expanding cyber world, the unseen end at the end of its growth may prove to be more disastrous than good. If you ask the average person under, say, 30 years old, more likely than not they will have a Facebook account. Facebook, while originally (and successfully) meant to connect college students to their peers, has grown exponentially to include unnecessary applications and features that do more harm than good. The most common instance of this: pictures. It is well known that any possible employer can find you very easily on Facebook, hunt down your pictures, and then hire or fire you based on what he or she sees. This is just one example of how ‘private’ things in life are being distorted by social media.
There are many other instances today that show the darker, less desirable side of social media. Take Twitter as well. You Tweet about how annoying your boss is and your followers see it. Perhaps they re-tweet this. In a matter of seconds hundreds of people have already seen your spur-of-the-moment venting on your boss. The worst part? More likely than not, he has seen it too. On Monday you get a very nasty conference call and then you are among the many that are unemployed.
These are just a few examples but similar stories of how privacy is abolished can be retold by countless who have become victims of the out-of-control social media network. In the process of connecting millions of humans, glitches and corruptions have poisoned the good that has come from the revolutionary network. And this is just the early stages of social media’s development. Imagine the future (the very near future, actually). Social media will be following everyone. Maybe it is implemented at work. Perhaps instead of calling home to tell someone to pick up milk you access video calling which is viewable by anyone and everyone by the right means.
While social media has merits, I fear that at the rate it is going, all human privacy will be eliminated if we are not careful with our new responsibilities that are attached with the privilege of being alive in this day and age. It has also become apparent that many will ignore these responsibilities and rules that accompany this industry. I believe that the surge in social media needs to slow down, or else we will not be able to keep up with the demands that accompany the new network.
Featured Photographer #11
My 11th featured photographer has many talents. In photography there are really two main parts. Taking a great picture, and then going the extra mile to post process that photo. I searched the groups in Flickr and found a 'post processing junkies' group to see what could be found. When perusing the page, I happened to notice on name sticking out a few times: genghis.postlethwaite. I went to his stream and found page after page of incredible images that have been post processed. A lot of the photos look as if they should belong /somewhere/ be it in a story book or on a postcard. This man is 'on the wrong side of 40' and has been practicing photography since he was 13! I guess that just goes to show how much practice accounts for. On a side note, I noticed that his tool of trade is a Cannon, the 'arch enemy' of my Nikon but what appears to be a very good piece of equipment from what I have seen.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Featured Photographer #10
Link
My featured photographer this week is 'manganite' or Thomas Lottermoser from Flickr. I was looking up silhouettes for ideas when I came across the picture above. Though his human portraiture isn't my favorite, His photography of nature is much more impressive. I like that whole 'color scene' thing that I have trouble explaining. It's like the whole picture looks faded yellow or something similar to that (haha I fail at explaining things). There isn't much written in his profile so I can't say anything about him. I do notice that he writes in English so I'm guessing he is either from the UK or America.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Feat. Photographer #9
My featured photographer for this week is Martine Roch, a woman from France. She is an unusual choice for featured photographer because she's not the typical photographer. What she does is takes multiple, seemingly random photos and mashes them together using some sort of photo manipulator. The result is neat and usually abnormal, but I find it impressive. Since I plan on going to art school for either the studio arts or graphic design, her works of art are an inspiration for the seamless photo manipulations that I hope to make sometime in my life. What Miss Roch does is take antique photos and manipulate them so they look brand new. She then takes her own professional animal photos and puts them together. The result is magical, a bit creepy, and yet still memorable. Her photos are copyrighted and I am not able to post them on this site but here is also a link to her Flickr Photostream so that you may check out her work.
Screencast Tutorial
I made this screencast so that those of us doing the Machinima for Mr. Anderson's class will know how to rip DVD footage. Our class needs to convert our DVD footage into computer files so we can use them in Windows Movie Maker. Ripping the file versus screencasting the DVD gives you a much better quality video. The site that you need to download the DVDx program is HERE. I hope this tutorial and program help you make a better quality video. :)
(This video is kind of small and hard to see so HERE is the link to the film in my Blip Channel
(This video is kind of small and hard to see so HERE is the link to the film in my Blip Channel
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Featured Photographer #8
This picture is simply amazing! I chose john white as my featured photographer soley because of this picture. At a quick glance I thought that this was a picture of people bending water 'noodles' (if you know what I'm talking about) to say 'Australia'. . . but if you look closer you will see that the letters are created by make-shift torches! This picture is simplified yet soooo hard to capture- it's just the thing I want to learn to do! I would also like to know how to change the lens timer (or whatever it is called) so that I can take picures like this too.
Monday, November 16, 2009
A good resource. . . .
This week's blog will be another short one pertaining to our machinima projects. I want my video to be as exciting to watch as possible for a 17 year old using windows movie maker. That being said: what makes a video exciting? Epicness of course! And what makes a movie epic? More often than not, it's not the actual footage used but the way it corresponds with background music of epic proportions :D. To find said epic music, I simply went to the faithful YouTube and searched 'epic music'. There was a lot to sift through but after a few days of searching, I found one 'artist' that had some great sound clips. They are called Immediate Music and they mix some orchestra, some rock, some techno, and some choral aspects into their songs. All in all: epic. So I'm putting a link to some of their videos on YouTube so some of you guys can use the music too. Just use the Fire Fox Download helper to download the video and then take this downloaded video to Zamzar.com or a similar conversion site to change it into an MP3 file so that you can use it as audio in Windows Movie Maker. If you look on the left under the 'related videos' sidebar you will see a whole bunch of their songs so go check 'em out. I'm sure you will find something great :) The best part is that they want you to use their music so it doesn't infringe any copyrights (even if you weren't putting your own mash-up along with it)
(( By the way. . . I have dibs on 'With Great Power' by Immediate Music so you can't use it for this project ;) ))
Immediate Music of Epic Proportions
(( By the way. . . I have dibs on 'With Great Power' by Immediate Music so you can't use it for this project ;) ))
Immediate Music of Epic Proportions
Friday, November 13, 2009
Machinima
Since we are starting our machinima project this week, I thought I should look up some examples online for me to base my work off of. I found a lot of good examples. . . and a lot of bad ones. The bad ones had too many voice overs in crappy quality. The creators would have to stop all other audio for the voice overs to be on there too, the result is something obviously fake. The good ones consisted of mostly music and maybe a little bit of dialog that fit in well with the video. These 'good ones' were sort of like movie trailers or video game trailers. After watching all of the videos that I have, I have decided to skip the voice overs from me and get my 'characters' voices from a digital source like another movie or video game. I will also try to make my machinima in movie-trailer fashion. I hope this way my video won't look too hookey but instead look well done and legitimate. I have also been looking up some good epic music to use to make my video more dramatic. :)
Monday, November 9, 2009
Featured Photographer #7
If you think you know the beauty in nature, you're wrong. Just take a look at thrumyeye's gallery. His camera has more than a lens, it has imagination, clarity, and love for all things nature. My words cannot even describe the beauty he manages to capture, you must simply go look for yourself. What originally attracted me to his photography was a picture of a kitten (above). It makes you want to melt in the cuteness. <3
Featured Photographer #6
This is kittysyellowjacket from deviantart.com and she is my featured photographer of the week (okay, last week haha). Her biography wasn't extensive but her name is Kitty and she is mainly self-taught. Her photos are all similar in the coloring that they share. I don't know how else to explain it but it is almost soft and reminiscent-y. I wish I knew how to either take a photo like that or edit a photo to be like that. . . :( Above is a prime example of that 'soft lighting and coloring' look that I like so much.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
A Shrimp on a Treadmill
This is by far the most ridiculously random viral video I have ever seen on Youtube. . . Upon thinking, I cannot even remember exactly how it was that I found this but here is the gist of it: Some kid (obviously a stoner, at least at heart)in college decided to do some sort of experiment (lord knows what he was measuring)about a shrimp. So somehow he manages to build an under-water treadmill. He also manages to find a pet shrimp by some means (I suspect black market involvement here). And then- voila! He puts them together and tapes it. A shrimp on a treadmill. Now this video has caught fire in the digital world and this specific user, duffman452001, paired the video with the Benny Hill theme, effectively adding humor to the bizarreness of this video. Watch it, I guarantee it will be the weirdest thing you have every seen.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Featured Photographer #5
My fifth featured photographer is going to be numbpurplehaze (Karolyn Lowe) from the site Deviantart. I just happened to stumble upon her works but quite a few caught my eye such as the following two artworks. She does a lot of black and white pictures but I find her simple use of color to be truly stunning! Miss. Lowe actually lives in North Ireland as is 21 years old. She says that she has only been interested in photography for two years. . . as you can see from her photos she must have a natural gift.
I encourage you to take a gander at her Deviant art page found here.
The Vampire's Assistant-weekly blog
This weekend I went to the theatre to see the movie Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant- something I was quite excited about. When I first saw the trailer for this movie when I was last in the theatre I predicted that this movie would be full of stupid humor that was (get this) actually funny unlike many of the 'funny' movies that have come out as of late. Even though humor and vampires aren't usually mixed together and stupid humor isn't generally my thing, I thought that going to this movie would be worth my while as it was derived from a book series. So here I was- all excited this weekend for this movie. . . and when I left the theatre I wasn't massively disappointed (something that is a rare feeling after the more recent films that have been released in the shabby Red Wing Theatre.)
This film consisted of a fairly predictable plot, graphics that were shaky at best, typical character stereotypes, and it's 'meaning' was barely grazed over. What pulled this movie off was (shockingly) John C. Reilly. Yes- that actor from Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, and Walk Hard. He helped pull the subtle humor along but he also impressed me with acting skills I didn't realize he had. Of course there were moments where I thought to myself 'Yep, this guy is acting' but there were also great moments where you could clearly see the character he was portraying. He was serious and had a cleverly done dead-pan humor, but he also didn't completely hold the center of the screen to himself, he also 'pointed' my eyes to the direction of the main protagonist, Darren the 'seventeen-year-old-going-on-immortal'. The way they played off of each other was nice and helped make watching that movie worth the 8 bucks. Another winning point for this movie: Josh Hutcherson, another young actor who is well on his way to developing into a Hollywood treasure. I must warn this however; if you are not as obsessed with vampire culture and fantasy genres as I am, then this is not a movie you are going to want to watch as the graphics and some characters require a very imaginative person to appreciate the story and what they are trying to portray.
This film consisted of a fairly predictable plot, graphics that were shaky at best, typical character stereotypes, and it's 'meaning' was barely grazed over. What pulled this movie off was (shockingly) John C. Reilly. Yes- that actor from Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, and Walk Hard. He helped pull the subtle humor along but he also impressed me with acting skills I didn't realize he had. Of course there were moments where I thought to myself 'Yep, this guy is acting' but there were also great moments where you could clearly see the character he was portraying. He was serious and had a cleverly done dead-pan humor, but he also didn't completely hold the center of the screen to himself, he also 'pointed' my eyes to the direction of the main protagonist, Darren the 'seventeen-year-old-going-on-immortal'. The way they played off of each other was nice and helped make watching that movie worth the 8 bucks. Another winning point for this movie: Josh Hutcherson, another young actor who is well on his way to developing into a Hollywood treasure. I must warn this however; if you are not as obsessed with vampire culture and fantasy genres as I am, then this is not a movie you are going to want to watch as the graphics and some characters require a very imaginative person to appreciate the story and what they are trying to portray.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Citizen Kane
I thought that this movie, especially for being so old, showed amazing cinematography. One major way that the camera is used to put more depth or meaning to the story is the two scenes that are shot both above and below Mr. Kane. The first is when he was a boy; he felt small and insignificant in comparison to the banker (I forget his name) and his parents. The camera shows this by filming below eye level so that you feel how small Kane feels. The other scene I noticed this is when the camera man shot from underneath Kane, making him look huge and imposing when he had gained a high stature in life.
Another good example of cinematography was the usage of layering, or putting characters in the front scene, middle scene, and the back of the scene. There were many examples of this, one where Kane is listening to a man talk from the back of the room, another where the investigator is talking to his ex-wife, and many more (I just can't think of good examples haha)This was something fairly new to movies and it creates the 'movie' feel versus the recorded 'play' feel.
The final piece of cinematography/graphic touches was how one scene would meld into another. The director did this a few times, first with Kane's ex-wife, they zoomed in on her face while the background shifted to the scene of her memories. They did it another time with the fellow in the nursing home who kept asking for cigars, as he faded out of his story, the nursing home was still the room that the memory was of.
When it comes down to it, the time this movie was created and the amount of cinematography skills used are very impressive and set the foundation for other movies to come.
Another good example of cinematography was the usage of layering, or putting characters in the front scene, middle scene, and the back of the scene. There were many examples of this, one where Kane is listening to a man talk from the back of the room, another where the investigator is talking to his ex-wife, and many more (I just can't think of good examples haha)This was something fairly new to movies and it creates the 'movie' feel versus the recorded 'play' feel.
The final piece of cinematography/graphic touches was how one scene would meld into another. The director did this a few times, first with Kane's ex-wife, they zoomed in on her face while the background shifted to the scene of her memories. They did it another time with the fellow in the nursing home who kept asking for cigars, as he faded out of his story, the nursing home was still the room that the memory was of.
When it comes down to it, the time this movie was created and the amount of cinematography skills used are very impressive and set the foundation for other movies to come.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Before and After- my editing example
I have been editing my photos since about. . . about 9th grade using Photoshop Elements of various versions (my favorite is 5.0 even though I have up to 6.0). Because of this, I have already played around with editing tools for quite a while and have figured out (basically) what I like. So when I read this chapter, there wasn't too much that I could learn, or so I thought. The one thing that made the difference was the 'level adjusting' thing that I had never before heard of or used, so for this assignment, I wanted to try it out. And boy did it make a difference. For this picture, when I first photoshopped it, it was too. . . blah. Not enough contrast or dynamics to it. Soooo I went back to it after reading this chapter. I adjusted the black level, grey level, and white lever ever-so-slightly and BOOM! My picture looks like something worth posting! haha It's amazing what such a simple technique can do to up the ante on your photos. This photo didn't need any cropping (surprisingly) but I know how to use the tool.
Feature Photographer #4- Sooper-Deviant
'Curiosity' and 'Baby Steps'
This weeks featured photographer was, again, so painstakingly obvious that I am ashamed that I didn't think of him sooner. Everyday when I go online, one of my homepages is the site Deviantart.com. It is an amazing place filled with talented artists that share their work online to inspire others and motivate hard work. This site hosts anyone and everyone who finds it, showcasing the best online sketchers, manipulators, cgi workers, and photographers along with many many more. It is hardly a week that goes by that this guy, username Sooper-Deviant, isn't on the front page of 'Most Popular in the Last Three Days', and I have to agree with the general population of the site that he is simply amazing.
On this site, there isn't really much of a bio page, limiting the information I have on him as a person, but I do know what he does. He is a photographer (duh) that goes around the United States taking pictures- most notably of zoo animals. You're probably thinking 'Big deal, big deal' but the fact is that it IS a big deal. And not because waiting for an animal to move for hours only to approach the obstacle of a chain-linked fence or solid glass that is in between you and your subject. No, this man is much more impressive than even that- it's HOW he captures the animals. In his photos, you not only see and appreciate the pure beauty of whatever exotic animal he got lucky enough to capture, but also in how he portrays the animals. He gives them human emotions, feelings, and actions. His titles also add to the humanistic feature that he gives every one of his subjects.
I can only imagine all for the hard work, patience, and motivation that he had to have to continue to learn by trial and error, about how to capture such life in animals that so rarely are seen the way he portrays them. I highly encourage anyone to look at his magnificent (and obscenely large) gallery on Deviant art, his link is here:Sooper-Deviant
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Critique- Where the Wild Things Are
Being 17, I had this book read to me many times as a child and I read it myself when I was able to. Needless to say, I was very excited for this film to come to theatres, but i still can't tell if i am disappointed in the film or not. As far as graphics go, the monsters were pretty realistic (well, as realistic as a giant chicken can look). The fur moved in a realistic way and their eyes were engaged and shining as real eyes would. The only thing that gave way to the fact that they weren't real was their mouths- a straight line that didn't curve much, just opened and shut in a uniform way. That being said, the CGI was still pretty impressive.
Now, talking about the movie, it wasn't as. . . kid friendly as I would have thought. Immediately I was in terror for the protagonist, Max, who was nearly killed several times throughout the movie. It wasn't an obvious 'let's kill Max!' but subtle things that made me scared for Max's safety. There is also the fact that the subject matter was very dark, Max is an obnoxious boy who runs away from his mother screaming 'I hate you!' within the first twenty minute. I won't deny that there were parts of the movie that had me near (okay, AT) tears for Max and the depression that he feels. There are also a few swear words and a scene where his mother is having a date with some man (his father died though the movie doesn't alluded to the event very well, if at all). Finally, there were hidden messages everywhere in the movie, mainly symbolism in the form of the monsters who portrayed different people in Max's life or even conflicting personalities in Max himself. I seriously doubt that a kid would pick up on these subtle touches, let alone understand them. Not to mention that there wasn't a definite ending or obviously clear message in the movie, you had to pick up the pieces and put them together yourself. This was hard for me to understand and, as I have said, I doubt a child would be able to understand it either.
This is not to say that a kid would not enjoy parts of the movie, there was definite humor and an intense journey that would entertain anyone. But I would have to conclude that this movie, while a recreation of the beloved childrens book, is not meant for children at all, but for the adults and older teenagers who were read the book as a child or read the book to their own kids. If you loved the book and enjoy movies that are meant to be read into, to be understood, then I would gladly point you to the direction of the nearest theatre, for this movie is a treasure to all those who know indeed Where the Wild Things Are.
Now, talking about the movie, it wasn't as. . . kid friendly as I would have thought. Immediately I was in terror for the protagonist, Max, who was nearly killed several times throughout the movie. It wasn't an obvious 'let's kill Max!' but subtle things that made me scared for Max's safety. There is also the fact that the subject matter was very dark, Max is an obnoxious boy who runs away from his mother screaming 'I hate you!' within the first twenty minute. I won't deny that there were parts of the movie that had me near (okay, AT) tears for Max and the depression that he feels. There are also a few swear words and a scene where his mother is having a date with some man (his father died though the movie doesn't alluded to the event very well, if at all). Finally, there were hidden messages everywhere in the movie, mainly symbolism in the form of the monsters who portrayed different people in Max's life or even conflicting personalities in Max himself. I seriously doubt that a kid would pick up on these subtle touches, let alone understand them. Not to mention that there wasn't a definite ending or obviously clear message in the movie, you had to pick up the pieces and put them together yourself. This was hard for me to understand and, as I have said, I doubt a child would be able to understand it either.
This is not to say that a kid would not enjoy parts of the movie, there was definite humor and an intense journey that would entertain anyone. But I would have to conclude that this movie, while a recreation of the beloved childrens book, is not meant for children at all, but for the adults and older teenagers who were read the book as a child or read the book to their own kids. If you loved the book and enjoy movies that are meant to be read into, to be understood, then I would gladly point you to the direction of the nearest theatre, for this movie is a treasure to all those who know indeed Where the Wild Things Are.
The Hero Archetype
I believe that Buck Rogers was the perfect hero archetype. He became a hero through unusual circumstances (being frozen for many years until his body was discovered and 'thawed'), he has talents that no one else has (ingenuity and space ship driving skills), he was unwillingly put into the situation (because he didn't choose to be frozen in time), and he also has a sidekick, Buddy. I know Mr. Anderson didn't include that in the slide show, but I think the sidekick thing is important for a hero. Since we only watched the show for about twenty minutes, these are the only hero traits that I could find, but it was pretty obvious that he was the main protagonist of the story.
Are you brave enough to desend?
This is my favorite shot, it emphasis my view on beauty in discord. I wanted to force the viewers to appreciate the spooky emptiness that the city holds. When I see this picture, a million images and stories come to mind of who may have walked those stairs and why they were there. It kind of reminded me of a movie as well, like I had seen the stairway before. I don't know exactly what I am trying to say but the point is that this photo made me THINK and FEEL the subject matter, and I think this is a great leap in learning photography for me.
Modern Day Princess Tower
On this photowalk, nothing I took a picture of really struck me as stunning. I stared and stared at each picture trying to find something good in them when I noticed that the more I looked at some, the more I liked them! They had stories in them that I was thinking of when I captured the shots, I just had to think about what I was seeing instead of composition and lighting etc. I think this photowalk taught me how to not over think the specifics and focus more on what I wanted to portray. By then end of my photoshopping session, I couldn't pick which ones I wanted to feature!
This particular shot was one that grew on me- when I first looked at it I could only notice the crooked slant that the building has. . . but then I really looked at it and remembered how I thought the building looked like a princess tower. After thinking about that story, the real reason the building caught my eye in the first place, I started to like it more and more.
This particular shot was one that grew on me- when I first looked at it I could only notice the crooked slant that the building has. . . but then I really looked at it and remembered how I thought the building looked like a princess tower. After thinking about that story, the real reason the building caught my eye in the first place, I started to like it more and more.
The Alley
This is from the photowalk I took this weekend. By sheer luck, I was in Menomonie when I was assigned this so I had plenty of new scenery to take a look at. This was in an alleyway. I like the rustic feel that the brick wall and logo gives you. I was also found it comical that the entire alleyway appeared to be color-coordinated right down to the recycling boxes. I tried to emphasis this by placing everything else in black and white.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Features Photographer #3 10.8
Alright, after much searching I finally realized that the photographer I wanted to feature was so blatently obvious- my senior picture photographer. Miss Kimberly Halverson is very young, a fresh talent that deserves a second glance. She goes to school at the U of M but is a photographer down at the Zumbro River for Graham Photography. I don't know much else about her but her pictures are amazing! They aren't your standard senior pictures, every single shot has something unique that tells a bit about the person's personality. I like how she can capture emotion and personality in her shots.
I will try to get some examples of her photography up soon but currently the school has facebook blocked so I can't find her pictures.
I will try to get some examples of her photography up soon but currently the school has facebook blocked so I can't find her pictures.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
'The Virus'
Our very first group project for the Media Arts class was to create a silent film based on the originals from the early days of filmography. The only requirement was that we set the storyline around modern ideas, such as the computer, to create a sense of irony in the film. Sounds tough and boring, right? Wrong! It was a lot of fun, and after a few trial and error effects, the result was great! In My group was Dustin, Brent, Laura, and myself with the video featuring Brandon. The first thing we set out as a group to do was create a script- this was probably the hardest part because we had to create an entertaining yet easily conveyed storyline without much words or subtitles. After we fine tuned the script enough so that it was ready to be used, shooting the scenes was fairly easy- none of them had to look perfect because we were aiming for poor quality. After everything was shot, it was up to Windows Media Player to help us make the film look legit. We had to mute the volume on the videos because a. it was supposed to be silent and b. there was a lot of laughing in the background. When it was silent, we had to make the film look old. We used the 'film grain- older' and 'greyscale'. We could have just used 'film grain- oldest' for the black and white look, but we found that the 'oldest' effect was too bouncy and too hard to see what was happening. Once that was done we added subtitles where they needed to be for the story to make sense. The final step: finding appropriate music. This was probably the hardest part of the editing half of its creation but after much fiddling, we got a fairly decent and believable soundtrack to fit the story. The end result was better than we could of thought! The whole process was fun and it was a great project. Here is the video, judge the authenticity for yourself!
Silent Film How-to
I made a quick little screen cast on screen-o-matic on how to mute the sound of a video when working in Windows Movie Maker. It's pretty simple and will help us during our silent film project that I will be blogging about shortly. here is the video:
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Featured Photographer 10-1
For this weeks featured photographer, I had a lot of trouble picking who to feature. I literally searched on Flickr for about an hour before giving up and moving over to Deviantart.com, an online art gallery of sorts. After just a few moments of looking, I already knew who i was going to pick: an artist that I had actually seen around the site without knowing that one person was behind so many beautiful shots! Her Deviantart username is 'zemotion and her personalsite is HERE. Her real name is Jingna and she is originally from Bejing, moving around a bit when she was very young. I found this fact interesting: she used to be a rifle champion at the early age of 14, breaking a national record! Eventually she left her prestigious gun school (hard to explain haha) and took up fashion and photography.
I love her pictures because they capture emotion, regality, and fashion at the same time. My more favorite photos of hers are her fantasy shots rather than her fashion photography, but all of her work is full of innovation, unique subjects, and excellent lighting and composition. She has received awards for her captured beauty and on the site I am a part of that I found her through (deviantart) she had received many 'Daily Deviations', a pretty high honor. I suggest you all visit her site and see what the young artist has to show the world.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Featured Photographer, pt II
Paige Nicole's gallery struck me as impressive- one medium, 365 different gorgeous pictures. The way she captures people is stunning, the fact that they are all self-portraits makes it all the more treasurable. I suggest you visit her Flickr stream (click on her name under the photo) and view her work. . . it's ever-changing and wonderful.
Featured Artist, pt. 1
My featured artist for this week is Miss Paige Nicole. I was browsing Flickr when I stumbled upon this picture, it immediately caught my attention. After today's lesson in photography, I was on the look out for the 'sparkle' in the eye and how you get it. In this picture you can see that the source of light appears to be the shades on a window. Feeling all proud that I noticed this and that I found a beautiful example of it, I clicked on her gallery to see what was up. I couldn't find much information on her as a person, but after a while I began to notice that she posted a picture everyday. . . of herself. Miss Paige calls it her '365', a picture every day to show progress- a form of art in itself. What's more is that every picture was a beautiful capture and had something uniquely different about it.. . . (to be continued on part II)
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Stand still!
I like this photo because of is simplicity. When I was walking, I noticed how beautiful the brick on the floor was- but the question was how to capture the texture in a unique way. As I said below, I was lucky to have my sister with me to help me out by modeling her feet haha. I played with the lighting a bit both on site and at home on Photoshop, I believe the result was satisfying. The picture leaves a lot to the interpreter's eye- Who is the girl? What is she doing? What is she feeling? I added the title to give more emotion to the picture, making you think that the feet belong to someone who is anxious or excited to get somewhere. The open ended-ness of the capture makes this photo one of may favorites of the day.
City of Red Wing
This is one of my favorite shots from my photowalk that I took on Sunday. I like this photo for a number of reasons; the most prominant being my philosophy of beauty. On a photowalk, it seems as if the most obvious thing to take a picture of is nature, it is beautiful in its natural way- something that cannot be copied. I adore nature in that respect, but I think that it takes something more to find beauty in the unnatural world. In the city, there is so much junk and metal clouding up the world's natural beauty. But if I can find a way to make that artificial material look unique if not beautiful, then that is truely an accomplishement. The composition of this photo presents something as ugly as a orange road work sign that was blocking a hole in the cement where a tree used to grow in a creative way, simple in its own beauty. There is a story behind where it has been, but the angle with which I shot it eliminates the hole of sand. As a result it looks brighter, more positive, than it is. I beleive that is something to be proud of, and a shot to respect.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
A Lesson in Photography
Today I completed my first ever photography class homework- something called a 'photowalk'. The idea is fairly simple, you just take your camera and walk with it for about 45 minutes to an hour. The idea is to get used to using your own camera as well as explore the rules of composition that our class read about earlier this week. For my experience, I was lucky enough to have my sister, Amy Jo, who is planning on majoring in graphic design and minoring in photography, come along with me. The camera that I am going to be using for this course used to be hers, so having her along was a very helpful experience, she gave me the very basics of the camera and was there for support (a.k.a. made me feel like less of a creeper for walking around and taking pictures haha).
For my walk, I decided to go into Red Wing, the very beautiful city that borders mine, and simply enjoy the scenery and take pictures of the things I thought were beautiful. Immediately, I started thinking too hard, I was too focused on forcing my pictures to follow the rules of composition. This frustrated me, my pictures looked like they were taken not made. However, after walking for a while, I began to settle into the groove of things, being more carefree and less critical. I took pictures whenever the fancy struck me from different angles and such. Slowly but surely, my pictures took on a more creative feel. Though I know I have a lot to learn, and that my pictures are no where near masterpieces, I think that it was a good start. I am looking forward to learning even more about making photography from my teacher and I hope I can watch myself visibly improve during each of these 'photowalks' that we will be doing. Above this blog are two of my favorite shots from the photowalk.
Feel free to stop by myFlickr account.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelleymann/
For my walk, I decided to go into Red Wing, the very beautiful city that borders mine, and simply enjoy the scenery and take pictures of the things I thought were beautiful. Immediately, I started thinking too hard, I was too focused on forcing my pictures to follow the rules of composition. This frustrated me, my pictures looked like they were taken not made. However, after walking for a while, I began to settle into the groove of things, being more carefree and less critical. I took pictures whenever the fancy struck me from different angles and such. Slowly but surely, my pictures took on a more creative feel. Though I know I have a lot to learn, and that my pictures are no where near masterpieces, I think that it was a good start. I am looking forward to learning even more about making photography from my teacher and I hope I can watch myself visibly improve during each of these 'photowalks' that we will be doing. Above this blog are two of my favorite shots from the photowalk.
Feel free to stop by myFlickr account.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelleymann/
The Great Train Robbery
As part of Digital Media, it is the students' job to analyze different types of media. Since we are starting the class with making videos, it only made sense that we start analyzing other picture shows at the same time. And when learning how to make a video, what better way to start than at the beginning when other people were creating movies for the very first time. For our first blog assignment, we were given a select few silent films to watch and then critique, focusing on similarities and differences between the film we chose and movies today, differences in acting style, plot line, special effects, camera positioning, editing, etc.
Out of the four films to chose from, I picked 'The Great Train Robbery' mainly because I had heard of it before. The first thing I noticed about the film was the year it was made: 1903. Immediately this video won props in my eyes. But once the film started my eyes went all buggy- not only was the quality terrible, but the four-shade black and white coloring was awful! I had troubles depicting what was going on and differentiating what was the background and what was a human.
Another strange part of the movie was the music- it was completely inappropriate for the media. I predicted that the film was going to be a comedy based on the happy-go-lucky music, but instead there was a lot of killing and the robbers got robbed by other robbers. . . altogether no comedy was visible except for the atrocious acting. Of course this is due to the fact that the camera's didn't zoom in on the characters faces, but their body actions were either over-dramatized (such as when they were 'shot') or under-dramatized (I couldn't figure out what they guy in the train was doing even when he was killed.
The plot was very different from what we see in movies now because it didn't have much to it. There was one story with no twists or problems for the characters. I was shocked in the end when another gang stole the money from the robbers- it was not exactly a happy ending, but it was still too random to be ironic. I believe that the characters were very flat too- no one stood out because they didn't have personalities, just actions that their actors carried out. The camera was almost always in one position, far away so that no screen changing was needed to see all of the characters. I also noticed that the transitions were messy, just a blink and the characters were moved without actually moving.
But, with all this negative being said, it was still very impressive. This was one of the first films ever made, the beginning of a long train of trial and error. For being so old, the ingenuity that was required to make this film is unbelievable. Even nowadays, CGI and other high tech sources would have to be used to make the train move with people on it and the gun scenes would take a lot of coordination to pull off. All in all, this movie is a credible pioneer for movies in the twenty-first century. It paved the road for many movies to come and proved that, with great determination and creativity, anything is possible- you just have to take the first leap to start a revolution.
Out of the four films to chose from, I picked 'The Great Train Robbery' mainly because I had heard of it before. The first thing I noticed about the film was the year it was made: 1903. Immediately this video won props in my eyes. But once the film started my eyes went all buggy- not only was the quality terrible, but the four-shade black and white coloring was awful! I had troubles depicting what was going on and differentiating what was the background and what was a human.
Another strange part of the movie was the music- it was completely inappropriate for the media. I predicted that the film was going to be a comedy based on the happy-go-lucky music, but instead there was a lot of killing and the robbers got robbed by other robbers. . . altogether no comedy was visible except for the atrocious acting. Of course this is due to the fact that the camera's didn't zoom in on the characters faces, but their body actions were either over-dramatized (such as when they were 'shot') or under-dramatized (I couldn't figure out what they guy in the train was doing even when he was killed.
The plot was very different from what we see in movies now because it didn't have much to it. There was one story with no twists or problems for the characters. I was shocked in the end when another gang stole the money from the robbers- it was not exactly a happy ending, but it was still too random to be ironic. I believe that the characters were very flat too- no one stood out because they didn't have personalities, just actions that their actors carried out. The camera was almost always in one position, far away so that no screen changing was needed to see all of the characters. I also noticed that the transitions were messy, just a blink and the characters were moved without actually moving.
But, with all this negative being said, it was still very impressive. This was one of the first films ever made, the beginning of a long train of trial and error. For being so old, the ingenuity that was required to make this film is unbelievable. Even nowadays, CGI and other high tech sources would have to be used to make the train move with people on it and the gun scenes would take a lot of coordination to pull off. All in all, this movie is a credible pioneer for movies in the twenty-first century. It paved the road for many movies to come and proved that, with great determination and creativity, anything is possible- you just have to take the first leap to start a revolution.
Introductory Video
This is my self-introductory video for my Media Arts class. It was done on "Xtranormal.com", this site is very easy to use, you just type in the dialog and direct the video. I can't figure out how to download the stupid thing so here is the url. I am warning you- it probably won't make any sense haha.
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090920132749310
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090920132749310
Thursday, September 10, 2009
A First
This is my first blog, not only here on Blogger, but on any website. I have had access to this feature but have never before used it to my advantage, nor had anything to write about that was worth signing up for yet another website user name. And yet, here I am writing to essentially no one about things most people don't care about or have time to waste thinking of. The subtle push that made my decision to conform to the ever-popular blog world was Digital Media. No, not fancy web advertisements or other pretty things that people create to ensnare unsuspecting victims, I am talking about a new class that is offered at my school. Now this class is special, not only because of the novelty that is the subject in my school, but because of the type of class it is.
Hybrid. A most beloved term to green-peace lovers and a thorn (or at least annoying buzz word) in other peoples' sides. Sure, this class is green in a sense and you can brag to your friends about just how thrifty you are for enrolling in it. It is a unique form of learning that encompasses both the face-to-face relationship that is practical for most class room situations as well as the internet which makes more sense for a wide variety of other times in furthering a students knowledge. There truly is no limit now that the World Wide Web has been created, and now it serves yet another purpose: teaching. Through this 'hybrid' course, students can keep the peer workmanship and teacher-student relationship, but also learn on their own time, at their own pace. Classes will take place every other day, with a study class in between.
This will give students a block period for time and creative freedom and eliminates pointless class discussion. A prime example would be our class topic; digital media. In this class, us students will be making a wide variety of movies, mash-ups, video games and other forms of 4-D artwork. Creating said projects cannot be done in front of a lecturing teacher or in front of the whiteboard. Thus; the term hybrid has found yet another way to revolutionize life in the 21st century.
Though the class is new and specifics are being worked out, I believe that this new way of learning will ultimately be beneficial for all students taking the trial-run class as well as students who will participate in learning this way in the future. I am very excited and I am looking forward to experiencing this new and revolutionary way of learning new subjects.
Anyway, now that you know a little more about the class, I suppose it is high-time that I explain just why this class forced me to subscribe to Blogger and, as a result, encourage my long-winded and meaningless blathering. In this class, each student will be posting about one blog a week, possibly more for the outgoing student (which may or may not be me). Each week we will either be writing a review of any digital media- be it a movie, YouTube video, or the newest video game- or creating a tutorial for creating media, the former being more prevalent. As you can already see, I intend to make good use of this task.
And so it begins! Potential readers beware- even though I'm sure my words are definitely as entertaining as I wish them to be, I write a lot and often get carried away with my own ramblings. Any future posts will be potentially longer, more convoluted, more pointless, and yet less humorous than the last.
You have been warned. ;)
~kelley
Hybrid. A most beloved term to green-peace lovers and a thorn (or at least annoying buzz word) in other peoples' sides. Sure, this class is green in a sense and you can brag to your friends about just how thrifty you are for enrolling in it. It is a unique form of learning that encompasses both the face-to-face relationship that is practical for most class room situations as well as the internet which makes more sense for a wide variety of other times in furthering a students knowledge. There truly is no limit now that the World Wide Web has been created, and now it serves yet another purpose: teaching. Through this 'hybrid' course, students can keep the peer workmanship and teacher-student relationship, but also learn on their own time, at their own pace. Classes will take place every other day, with a study class in between.
This will give students a block period for time and creative freedom and eliminates pointless class discussion. A prime example would be our class topic; digital media. In this class, us students will be making a wide variety of movies, mash-ups, video games and other forms of 4-D artwork. Creating said projects cannot be done in front of a lecturing teacher or in front of the whiteboard. Thus; the term hybrid has found yet another way to revolutionize life in the 21st century.
Though the class is new and specifics are being worked out, I believe that this new way of learning will ultimately be beneficial for all students taking the trial-run class as well as students who will participate in learning this way in the future. I am very excited and I am looking forward to experiencing this new and revolutionary way of learning new subjects.
Anyway, now that you know a little more about the class, I suppose it is high-time that I explain just why this class forced me to subscribe to Blogger and, as a result, encourage my long-winded and meaningless blathering. In this class, each student will be posting about one blog a week, possibly more for the outgoing student (which may or may not be me). Each week we will either be writing a review of any digital media- be it a movie, YouTube video, or the newest video game- or creating a tutorial for creating media, the former being more prevalent. As you can already see, I intend to make good use of this task.
And so it begins! Potential readers beware- even though I'm sure my words are definitely as entertaining as I wish them to be, I write a lot and often get carried away with my own ramblings. Any future posts will be potentially longer, more convoluted, more pointless, and yet less humorous than the last.
You have been warned. ;)
~kelley
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