The End?

This was my first summer class and at the beginning I wasn't sure what to expect. Now I can't believe that it's over. The class went by so fast, however I have so much more experience now then I thought I would have. Compared to my previous classes where I had the same group for the entire semester, I was able to work with different types of people with different mind sets. Being with different groups throughout the semester has helped me to see what this major is really about. I was also able to actually learn by hand on experience. This was evident in our last project, Bropocalpyse. I was able to have my own job while helping out the rest of the group, whether it be helping set up the lighting and camera or even assisting Natalie with sound. It was a much better experience and I will be looking forward to working with them on future projects. This class has allowed me to realize the things I need to work on to improve my work and that is some of the most valuable information a person can use.  It allows you to grow and to become a better version of you. After taking this class I feel more confident then I did at the start and I hope that this knowledge continues to grow with the classes I take. I 'm looking forward to what comes next.

 "After all we've been through this year, whatever comes next I kinda feel ready for it."

Microcinema

Yesterday Maura and I stopped by Walmart and the dollar store for some decorations. We decided that our theme colors were red and black so we collected some poster boards and red flowers to decorate. We also found some small prizes for corn-hole. Today I will be meeting with her to discuss the layout of the Silva's yard along with assembling the programs.

Film beatz longline: A student faces the every day choices of college life.

"We're all in this together"

Over the course of four days we were able to plan, shoot and edit together a pretty good film.

Friday our group spent most of the day rehearsing how the camera and the sound equipment would move along with the actors. We also spent a good amount of time figuring out how close the actors would have to be to recreate the scene from the Graduate. Once we felt confident moving around we took a couple of practice shots.

Saturday we started early and reset the lighting and the chairs. We spent the rest of the day shooting. Fits of laughter were not uncommon on set. I wouldn't be surprised if more than half of our footage/sound consisted of everyone laughing at some point. Our group got along really well and had a great time working together. I would love to work with this group again in the near future.

When we talked about expanding our film and dressing the set to fit athletes, ideas starting popping in my head and made me start thinking about the things I could work on in an art department. I'm excited to see what Maura and I can come up with for the microcinema. So far we have a couple ideas that work together we're just waiting on the location to figure out some other details.

After discussing both of the films today it really stuck that this is the beginning of our careers and that it's ok that our work isn't 100 percent. We have time before our big break to fix our mistakes and gain more experience in the field. I agreed with what was said in discussion that the sci-fi zombie musical had potential. I think it had a great start it just needed more to it. We talked about if the zombies were "singing" along to a song and bringing inspiration from something else and that reminded me of a YouTube channel I found a couple of years ago: The Hillywood Show. It is run by two sisters who make parodies of popular shows and movies. They use popular songs and if need be they change the lyrics to fit the context while they "sing" along to them. They also make for a good laugh.

Blog 16

Today our group met up at school and rewatched our scene from the Graduate. Tristan and James were able to come up with the overheads and the storyboard while Natalie, Cori, and I worked on costuming and set design. We were able to figure out everything we needed and set a budget for props as well as catering. Since we have yet to hear back about filming at the recreation center we have secured our backup location. We have looked at the layout and have the basic idea of how we want the camera to move in this location. However, since it is a different location we will be changing our script slightly for adjustments needed. Tomorrow we will be setting up lighting and the camera before going over the script and rehearsing the choreography. By doing this we are hoping that shooting will go smoothly.

Blocking Challenge

After a long night spent in the edit lab I think we all agreed that our brains were fried. Especially from looking at images of each other for hours on hours. As follows we have decided to take the night and think over ideas for our project: BroRomance Apocalyptic Sports Film. Since our example is the graduate we have decided to shoot indoors, possibly in the locker room at the recreation center. We are planning to meet tomorrow to discuss further ideas and do some location scouting. Due to scheduling we are hoping to be able to choreograph the movements so that we will be able to shoot in a rather quick time frame. We are thinking about using sound for the apocalyptic part of our genre. Tomorrow we will get together and further discuss what we would like to see in the film and how we will go about it.

Rhythmic Edits Reflection

While editing together our footage from today I realized how little you really have when counting out the frames. During filming we thought that we would have plenty to edit but once on the computer about half way through you realize that things repeat and you are using the same shots multiple times. I can say that getting the footage was an interesting process and I got to learn a lot about Natalie. Looking back I do wish that we would have filmed some more to get a better variety in the piece but due to the time crunch I think they turned out alright. If there was more time available I wouldn't mind going back and really digging into the editing process. After staring at a screen for so long you just want to get it over with instead of getting it done well. I think that you need to take a break from everything and come back to it with a different mind set so you can actually see the things you want to fix.

Rythmic Edits

When I first saw that our next project was going to be rhythmic edits I had a different idea in mind. I thought that the project would be one where we edit the image to change with the beat of a sound. Something that flowed smoothly together as a piece. I also wasn't expecting to be filming for this project. I thought that we would be using found footage. The idea I had in my head was similar to the video below.

After watching the clips today it reminded me of the news segment where people take footage and edit them together in a new way to evoke a new feeling. These are personally some of my favorite types of videos on YouTube and are the reason I want to do more editing. The artists are able to put together pieces from multiple episodes from a television show and tell the story of how a character how transformed and changed throughout time. So many of these are so breathtaking and emotion provoking that I end up losing time going through recommendations of videos to watch.

However, seeing as this is not how we are necessarily doing our project I am still excited to see how they turn out. Natalie and I have some ideas but hopefully the storm doesn't ruin our changes of getting the shooting done the way that we want. As a photographer I did enjoy watching the video with the dog due to the use of natural lighting and the use of angles the filmmaker used.  I also enjoyed the use of black and white used in the skateboarding video. I always feel that black and white is able to tell a story a different way than color can. I just wish that there might have been more contrast in the brightness of it.

Blog 12

Again today it took us some time before we actually got to work. We realized that we had not gotten to far the day before and still had a way to go before we had all of the animations complete. Because of this our group tried figuring out different ways of getting everything done in a way that kept the work consistent.

We were able to use the sand for our final part and incorporated something new into it that was not in our original idea. It left an effect similar to the first part of our piece where the butterfly leaves its mark on the world.

Blog 11

Today it took us a while to get started and figure out what we wanted to do. Once we knew we started to work as a team incorporating each others ideas into the piece. I learned that ideas can change, quite often in fact and that those changes can often turn out better than you expect.  We started with one idea and what we were doing kept changing from the original storyboard.  After the set was done we uploaded the images to the computer and looked at our result. I think we all liked the result even though there was some major changes. Another thing I learned was that the animating process goes slower than you think it is. You start to forget where you left off when there are smudges all over the paper, your focus isn't there anymore and you want to rip the paper apart. You think that you have enough images to make the motion go smoothly but in reality it can be jerky and really quick.

Blog 10

Last semester I took a Color Theory class for my studio art minor. The entire class we used gouache. It was a nice class but expensive. Unlike today we were instructed how to use the gouache and told not to let it show through the paper. experimenting today we saw that the thinner the paint is the better it looked. This contradicted everything I was told last semester and left me unexpected. I thoroughly enjoyed the difference from paper to glass. I also wasn't expecting to enjoy the salt as much as I did. The outcome turned out really nice and it makes me excited to start this project.

Blog 9

For our project my group has decided to show the cycle of life and as we get closer to death we thought the sand and the charcoal would help show the deterioration of the body. We were hoping to incorporate magazine cutouts for the human face to be able to manipulate the piece more. The process will compare the life of a butterfly to the aging of a human.  

Reflection: Kentridge & Leaf

Kentridge:

Art has been apart of me my entire life and listening to Kentridge I was reminded of the things I've been told throughout my life time. That art isn't a job. How will you support yourself? Get a job. A lot of people don't realize the money and time put in to creating a piece. You put in what you get out, that's with anything even art. Kentridge's speech spoke to me when he stated, "I am an artist." There is no way around it because you always find your back to painting, drawing, whatever it is that you do. It always comes back to you somehow.

Leaf:

Leaf talks about how it takes nerve to destroy an image to create the next. As an artist that is a difficult thing for me to do. Once I have a portion of a piece the way I want it, I try and be careful around it so I don't mess it up. I can't imagine turning one of my works into an animation and having nothing but a film to show it. I would want that physical piece of work along with it. As some artists film overhead to show how they create their work. Leaf expresses that techniques change and I couldn't agree more. Recently I've looked back over my artwork and my family and I have seen how I have grown as an artist. How my knowledge has grown with the variety of materials I can use and how I use them. The more you work on something such as technique, the better you become.

Self Evaluation

Before 201 and this class I have never had experience working with sound. Shocking considering I love editing. However, I also do love the photography aspect of everything.

1. I think our film (Salty) conveys the assignment by the use of tough and aggressive sounds. We used Maura's singing as a bed and added sounds to that.

2. I think the piece could be strengthened by adding more tracks throughout the project. I also think that if we had more knowledge on audio we could have further mixed the sounds than we did to give it a more salty taste.

3. The most challenging aspect I thought was that neither Ian or I seemed to have much experience mixing audio. This was my weakest point in 201 and I wish I could have learned more on the subject seeing as how I've recently liked working with it in Premiere.

4. I discovered that doing a film without an actual image can be interesting and can turn out different than you would think.

Hopefully once I am able to learn how to edit sound I will get the chance to do something like this again.

Sounds #3 and #4

The wind is making the grass whistle allowing the leaves to blow away. The rustle of the leaves is followed by the high-pitched barks of the dog. Bark after bark after bark. Once it calms down I’m able to hear the birds chirping and the squirrels rummaging through the birdseed. Thieves. They think they’re slick when they hop from tree to tree but I see you. I hear you. The kids next door are laughing as they chase each other around in their yard. Screaming in joy as they play in their tree house. It makes me reminisce my childhood. I miss those carefree days.

The cars rush by. Sometimes I think they don’t see this place. The water drains through the pipes leading to someplace else. The geese honk as they waddle by in their groups. Have I mentioned that they can be evil? Well they can and so can swans. The crickets start to chirp the longer I’m out here. I don’t hear the cars as much any more seeing as the sun has disappeared. A plane roars overhead as it approaches the airport. Security lights hum as they start to flicker on. Cars and doors are locking as people head inside for the night. Maybe it’s time I should head back. 

Sound #2

As a kid I would go visit my great grandmother with my mom and grandma. I remember I would sleep on the couch in the living room and since the house was right next to the highway I would hear vehicle after vehicle speeding down the road with the occasional 16-wheeler horn. To this day the neighbors don’t take care of their animals. Chickens and roosters come over into the yard and squawk. My favorite noise however was at night during the summer when the crickets came out. A constant chirping sound that drowned out the cars and the inconvenient sounds of the neighbors. It is still one of my favorite noises today.

Sound #1

I found it difficult to find a moment when it was quiet in my house. From having a dog that’s always barking and someone needing help with this or that I noticed the only time it’s ever really quiet is once they’ve all gone to bed. I guess you could say that in that sense being a night owl has it’s perks. With that I am able to hear how the vents are creaking, the constant clicking of the pest repellent, how the chain beats against the fan as the blades are rotating and the low humming of vehicles as they drive by.

Listen Up

When we watched the Ted talks on "Making sound visible through cymatics" I instantly thought of this video I saw recently on Facebook about someone with Synesthesia. It is about this girl, Melissa McCracken who is able to turn sound into beautiful paintings. Personally I am not music inclined but from an artist's perspective I found it astonishing how she can transform any kind of genre into something so beautiful. 

I also think we can all agree that the last video; "Listen" was extremely powerful. The end in particular reminded me of something that has been a part of my life for about fourteen years. Swimming. When I'm under the water you think you can't hear anything, but if you pay attention and listen you can hear so much more. The noises you hear are difficult to explain unless you experience it yourself. In all honesty it is one of my favorite feelings there is. 

I'm looking forward to this project and to see what other noises you miss in the everyday life. There is so much that goes unnoticed and I think if you take the time out of the day there is something you can always learn.