Final Project

I worked with Johnathan to film our scenes for our final project. It was a bit challenging, mostly because half of our clips were fairly easy to think of things to do, and the others were repetitive stuff that other people had as well, and were a lot more open ended. There were a lot that had the words create a fairly clear mental image so that helped a lot. It was also hard at times to find the things we needed to create the situations we wanted to film. It thankfully got easier as we went along, and the MCA ended up having a lot of the things we would need to use. As far as a narrative, we tried our best to convey a sort of story, whether it was through linking the images to the words (like any time it had to do with music we had some sort of band or playing music involved, 'behind the painted box' we found a painted box, and, maybe a bit more of a stretch, we had print out cars drive by for the 'I should take it on the road'). The original questions for this assignment asks how well we thought we narratively told things. Considering this became a seperated group effort, not each our own music video, I say that I can't really know this until I see all the pieces together. From the few we had done by wednesday it looked like we were narratively telling what the song had to say very well, and I'm excited to see the final result.

Well then

Since we didn't have any showings or readings for this week, and I'm not sure if I was supposed to blog or not, but I'm going to do it anyways. I've noticed a lot of people blogging about The Three Uses of a Knife and saying how dangerous it is and how people shouldn't read it. At first it made me laugh. Now it just makes me sad. I can see where people's gut-reaction of 'no this is bad' comes from, especially if they are a Christian, but that reaction means that they read it without comprehending a tiny bit. Which I guess for those of you that aren't DMA, it might not be as easy for you to understand some of the sentiments in this piece. The piece itself, from my understanding, is not telling you that art cannot have a message. Art is a story, a form of communication. It will undoubtedly have a message of some sort, some sort of story to tell. BUT what it is saying is you shouldn't go out of your way to go 'ugggggh I need to make a film/animation about *insert message here*, I have to make sure people understand it, I have to water down everything else in order to get to that'. Obviously most people when they have a clear message for their works in mind do not consciously think that they need to water down everything else for the sake of the message, but it is something that they will do unconsciously. Believe me. I've seen a lot of the Christian movies that have come out in the past year. Human beings, when they create, always say something about their view of the world around them when they do it, even when they aren't consciously trying. So, a Christian creating something will do the same - whatever they create will tell a lot about their worldview. So instead of worrying so much about making sure the message is evident, and creating a lesson plan instead of a work of art, why don't you just focus on making a really good piece of art? Telling a really good story? Because believe me, people will more likely be touched by a good story than by a thinly veiled hit you over the head with the Bible movie. One of the reasons why Lord of the Rings is so popular. Tolkien's beliefs are very evident in what he writes, but he doesn't have to spell it out with big letters and have none of the magic and wonder or trick people into going to read it. My two cents. When I'm going to a movie I'd rather see a movie than a sermon.

Redeemed

I absolutely loved the I'm Alive music video we watched last week. It was funny and clever and I think it brought up an interesting version of redemption. I don't have a very high opinion of retirement homes. I've volunteered at many and they are just so lifeless and the people there seem so lonely and bored. I feel like they are often sent there to die (I know this isn't always thee case, sometimes you just can't physically keep taking care of a person, but more often than not). So watching this guy who was about to die just spring up and inject some life into the other residents and even infect his energy into the no nonsense nurses was very entertaining. There is a lot of ageism in this society that sorta makes us believe that old people are useless, stupid, and no fun. I've met so many older people, who might normally be in a retirement home, who still have that spark in them, that childlike fun, the urge to get up and dance, and this video really made me think about that.

Digital Media Review #2

I will be analyzing "I Feel Better" by Hot Chip. The video starts off by introducing us to some sensational boy band, cutting to a close up of each guy and showing us their name, not unlike the introduction to a concert or a poppish music video. They start to dance, and their performance and the lighting tells us that we are indeed at a concert. It is a simple stage with a name, Hot Chip, behind them. We see and hear the audience of screaming girls lovingly cheering on their idols. The video keeps switching between dance shots, close ups of the guys singing somewhat sensually, and the girls screaming and jumping up and down for about half a minute. Then suddenly a light distracts a few of the girls from the behind, and they turn around. A mysterious floating figure comes out of a foggy door. He is very androgynous and almost sickly, like a cancer patient - very skinny and bald. While the music and singing up to this point has been very autotuned, snythy, and boy band pop, when this guy comes into the picture the music becomes slower and more natural sounding. The lip sync is also slower and a little exaggerated, but it kinda looks pretty. As you get a wider shot you see that he is wearing a glowing white robe and has his hands held out at his side sorta like Jesus. The girls all respond to his presence with horrified looks. He sorta looks back to them almost pitingly, as we jump to the boy band sorta sizing him up as he floats toward them, wondering what kind of punk interrupted their performance. He continues to approach as the girls disgustedly get out of his way, singing and having a peaceful look on his face, almost as if he is enlightened. The boy band realizes he has come to take them on, and it cuts to their faces one by one as they realize this. The first guy decides to take the Jesus guy on with a dance battle, and we can hear the girl's screaming in their support. He seems pretty assured of his victory as he breakdances, Jesus-guy watching completely unimpressed. It goes to a close up of Jesus-guy, and then suddenly a blue laser bursts out of his mouth, making electric noises and hitting the boy band member square in the face, knocking him to the ground. The girls' response is instantaneous, as we hear them screaming in horror. Jesus-guy just looks around amused at their horror. The next boy band member slides in, and the girls are screaming, but this time in support, one clearly yelling out 'I love you!!' He tries to dance off Jesus-guy as well, with Jesus-guy mockingly copying his movements along the way, only to laser blast him in the face when their heads get too close, resulting in more shrieking girls. The next boy comes in, full of support from the audience, tries to dance off and intimidate Jesus-guy until he turns around and gets distracted by his fans, reaching out a hand to them to let them touch him. Jesus-guy is not amused and taps him on his shoulder to get his attention, only to laser him in the face. Enter sad shot of fan horrified here. Finally the last boy band guy comes on stage, slowly taking off his clothes and throwing them off to the audience. Jesus-guy tries to show off his muscles too, but in the end only blasts him in the face like all the rest of his bandmates. Once he has fallen it cuts back to the audience, who are closing their eyes in a weird mock peace look, almost in a trance. Jesus-guy has his eyes closed too, but when he opens them suddenly the bandmates are back with an explosion, except shirtless and all in classy white jackets. Jesus-guy is dressed like them, dancing and singing in the middle while they back him up. The girls go completely crazy, accepting Jesus-guy now and rocking to the music. The audience also has some new members - some men, some of which almost look middle aged, hooting and hollering with all the girls. It continues to show the band dancing, Jesus-guy holding his own with them, and the audience rocking out, mostly focusing on the men in the audience. The band reaches out and lets the audience touch them, even touching Jesus-guy. Everything is going great until its starts to zoom out from the stage, and Jesus-guy notices something in the distance. Its a floating African-American head coming from the same foggy door, bopping up and down to the music! Everyone turns around, though the band sans Jesus-guy keeps dancing like nothing happened. The girls all seem confused, not quite as instant disliking as before. Jesus-guy, however, freaks out and runs off stage, leaving the band to keep on dancing. The head smiles and keeps bopping, only to furrow his brow and emit a red laser beam from his eyes. It hits the band and they disintegrate with a scream of pain. Half of their bodies remain on fire on the stage, and the audience screams in horror and starts running. The head keeps up, hitting a screaming girl and the group of guys in the audience while lip syncing to what Jesus-guy was singing earlier. He keeps bopping and singing as everyone runs out of sight, turning to laser beam the Hot Chip sign on the stage. It blows up, and it cuts back to the head, closing his eyes in peace like Jesus-guy did earlier, only to smile and laugh somewhat maniacally. This video is obviously a critique on the pop industry, specifically those aimed toward young girls, and a critique of the fans that so mindlessly flock to see these works. The words and the video don't correspond much, other than the lyrics when Jesus-guy comes in are more...transcendant and pretty compared to the sorta whatever stuff the band was singing. What I really like about it is that it has the music from the sound, but it also has effect sounds, like screams and laser beam noises, on top of it, almost like it is a real concert with all this crap happening, and that the show keeps going no matter what.

Low Budget, Not Low Quality

So the reading for today is the same as the body image earlier in the semester, so nothing new to add to that. I loved all these music videos, a lot of them I was seeing for the second time. The amount of thought and effort that went into all of them was so evident and made it all the more enjoyable. 'A Thing For Me' was so clever, I loved the use of the karaoke ball and a ton of practical effects. My favorite was Hibi no Neiro, but its been a favorite of mine for some time, and I really like the song as well so that doesn't help much. But I feel like it raised the bar from all the others because it was made by the help of fans, and fans from all over the world. Can you even imagine the kind of planning and communication required to get that done, and to get it done as well as it ended up? Its a real feat and just a really enjoyable video. I notice something new every time.

Hello Goodbye

I really like the Beatles video. I may be biased because its animated, and animated really well, but it was definitely my favorite. I think my favorite part about it is how it goes through the years and follows the different phases the band went through throughout the years. I'm not a huuuuuge Beatles fan but you can't deny the powerful cultural impact they had, how they were one of the first foreign bands to get big in America, and how they changed styles many times. The transition from boy band to more rockish to weird psychadelic stuff is pretty seamless in the video, and you get to see the difference in both the sound of the music and in what they look like and how they act. The fact that such a video was made just for a video game, one that many wouldn't consider very artistic or visually inspiring, is pretty impressive.

Web Communication

"Please be advised that college students do not act normal. College netiquette is quite different than other forms."
I about died because I thought it was a joke
The rest of the instructions were just as condescending though. 
Ok I get it. We're at a point in our life where we don't think clearly, there is the stereotype of the crazy partying college students. But that is surely not all of us. We can think. We can make good decisions.
Most of this was common sense, stuff I was taught in middle school and then was reinforced in my communique with teachers in high school. But really, it should just be common sense - online presence shouldn't be different than offline. People get  caught up in the supposed anonymity (which can happen depending on the site and how you work it, but that is just a lair for trolls mostly) that they think they can do whatever they want. Well, you can, but it might affect your 'irl' relationships, or potential employers decisions. So you know, just think about it I guess. 

IG Project

I basically just recorded one of my days at Hilton Head for my Instagram Project. Everytime an hour came up I'd find something interesting nearby me and take a picture of it. There was a lot of cool beach things there, and I tend to be attracted more to tropical things, especially if they are plants or animals. I wouldn't say I'm a great photographer but I tried my best to make the shots interesting or framed well. Some of these were hard because the subjects I was photographing were alive and moving (like one is of a dolphin in the distance and you can barely tell). I also wanted to take the last picture of like the beach in the dark but my phone couldn't distinguish anything even with the flash on. That was sort of disappointing.

Art is not a Gun

I've read this article before but it still is very relevant and important to me. In fact, this is one of my favorite quotes about media in general:
"Stanislavsky says there are two kinds of plays. There are plays that you leave, and you say to yourself, "By God, I just, I never, gosh, I want to, now I understand! What a masterpiece! Let's get a cup of coffee;' and by the time you get home, you can't remember the name of the play, you can't remember what the play was about. And there are plays-and books and songs and poems and dances that are perhaps upsetting or intricate or unusual, that you leave unsure, but which you think about perhaps the next day, and perhaps for a week, and perhaps for the rest of your life. Because they aren't clean, they aren't neat, but there's something in them that comes from the heart, and, so, goes to the heart."

I have had experiences with media on both ends of the spectrum, but its always when I'm up at night thinking about a film or book that I saw two months ago and still working it out, still trying to memorize the methods and storytelling processes, just enjoying it for what it is - its those moments that make me realize that this is what I want to be a part of. I want to give others these same feelings, the same joys, sorrows, pains, angers and surprises. I want to create an experience, not a time-filler.  And often time the experiences aren't clean or neat or fit into a box of what society, even what the modern church (who for the most part has divorced itself from art), says is proper for the medium. Especially the church, now that I think about it, since for them art needs to have a clear cut 'Jesus is the only way' message in order to be valuable or even 'good', or at least put their name on it (thank goodness this isn't the beliefs of my home church but I know most of the 'christian' publishers and studios seems to operate like this). 
When you try to force someone to believe something you will turn them off from it and the 'art' becomes nothing more than a package for something, a disposable and sometimes deceiving wrapping. 
Just let the art be art. 

Art

I'm not always a fan of documentary stuff, but I really liked what was shown in class. I've seen a couple of those before, but the JCB one really struck me,  not just because it was animated but it took you to a specific time that was pretty relatable to anyone who had a father in their life at a young age. It was nostalgic and somewhat elegiac, because while I resonated a lot with what was being said it also just made me sad that I wasn't like that anymore. I don't live in that world where my dad can solve all my problems anymore, and while having a dose of reality isn't a bad thing, I think I'd rather be in the past.

I know so many Christians who dismiss art because of its 'sinful' qualities, or how it can be sinful. I also know a lot of people who dismiss specific pieces of art I'd consider valuable because of 'sin' things in them, how they are so depraved, etc. And yet, I think this quote from the reading sums it up well "Furthermore, humans who are made in the image of the Creator inevitably reflect him. I know that I will have major dissent here, but every work of art reflects both the artist and the artist's Creator. Ultimately, silence is the only effective denial of God. Even art that denies God cannot deny God."
If someone feels their Christianity threatened by a piece of good art with a sex scene (violence, language, 'add sin here') in it, I think they need to rethink some things. 

Don't Hug Me I'm Violent

So many of my favorite videos shown this week! I love I Threw It On the Ground, Shia LaBeouf Live, and of course Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. I know almost that whole song by heart~ But really its actually a much deeper work than you'd realize. It speaks loads about how society, corporations treat creativity, what our works can really mean, etc. Also its just dang clever and well written. I love that little snarky notepad, I really do. The second and third one just aren't nearly as good as the first, though they speak truth through their dark humor too - one about time and inevitability of death, the other about...love, I guess, and maybe redefining what true love is? I don't know I've only just recently seen the third one so I'm still processing that.

Oh my gosh not video game violence THE HORROR . Seriously though. When I need to blow off steam I might go do something relatively benign like beat the cartoon snot out of a pink blob in Super Smash Bros, but more likely than not I play Halo online and shoot people. That doesn't mean I think any less of murders happening in this day and age or anything though.
I mean would you rather people shoot real people or fake people?
This video comes to mind, where an old lady was angry at the heightened price of gas in Britain and so she played GTA V and just went CRAZY
(for those who can't handle it there is *gasp* language in the video)

You could also watch Elders React to GTA V its super interesting~

Freaks

I'm really happy we watched Freak of the Week. Its one of my favorite animated music videos ever. I mean, look at that gorgeous animation!

Makes me super jealous every time. But anyways, its a really well made video and it has a lot of interesting layers to it in terms of its subject material and imagery. Lately all the stars and wannabes seem to be trying to be as outlandish as possible and adding up the shock factor in order to keep our attention. Even all the stupid little lists linked on Facebook and such that are like '10 disgusting things about the inside of your body. 9 made me wanna get sick!' and stuff like that, they are all preying on us wanting to be surprised. But we don't want to /be/ those people who are weird, we just want to look at them, maybe laugh or sneer in their direction. We love to watch them but would we want to be near them in real life?

I don't use Facebook a whole lot, I get on it mostly because messaging on it is easier than texting for me when contacting my family back home, which I do often. It is crazy to think that it is still relatively new in comparison to a lot of things in this world and yet it is used by so many people. Honestly if it didn't connect me to people who are far away I wouldn't probably be on it at all, because there are many other sites that do social media better in my opinion, but Facebook is sort of the common 'everyone has one' where, say, my family doesn't have tumblr to follow me (and...maybe I'm ok with that haha).

Size Me Up

Music video can be such a short form of media that it sometimes seems hard to create believable and fleshed out characters to inhabit that world, but it definitely happens, and the videos we saw on Wednesday definitely highlighted some of the best of them.
The report about children and body image was really interesting. Its definitely noticeable that many characters in children's media are fairly skinny, and the ones that may have a larger weight are generally the butt of the jokes. I know as a kid I never had much insecurity about my own body but that was mostly because I had trouble putting on weight, not vice versa. Still, thinking back on it, I feel there was a lot of social pressure to not be overweight. Media is a very influential tool in our society, especially to young children who see what is considered 'normal' in the world on television. Normal is definitely not the Disney princess waistline. I do think there are the occasional steps in the right direction though. One example that comes to mind is the character of Zlabya from the French animated film The Rabbi's Cat. She is one of the healthiest looking characters I've seen in an animated film in a long while. Her waist is just as big, if not bigger in some shots, than her head, and she is praised in the film as being desireable and beautiful by most of the characters. And she really does look beautiful (at least to me). I feel like if more films went in this direction we would have a better influence for children.

Video and the Radio Star

I really enjoyed the abridged history of music video. I had seen a lot of the more recent ones before, but it was also a lot of fun to see things I had never seen before. I mean, who can forget the dancing pig?

The evolution of the form of music video was really interesting too, how it progressively became more of a story than just the people singing the music. And the change in production value as things went on. However it seems there will generally be about two kinds of videos now - the ones that actually try to tell a good story, and the ones that just show random stuff, almost like the literal music video we watched. I prefer the ones that tell a story, or if they are random they at least need to be artistically random or have some decent effects to them.

The reading was very revealing as to how much MTV has changed. Even now its known more for its cheap reality tv shows than for actual music videos. Youtube has definitely become the premiere place for music video. Its interesting that they say in the article that music videos aren't a huge event anymore, like Thriller was in the 80s. That basically no one cares anymore. I would argue that while many do go by mainly unseen by the majority of the public, there are definitely still music videos out there that have an influence like Thriller did in our modern culture. Gangnam Style definitely comes to mind, as well as works by the like of Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and Imagine Dragons. It might not be exactly like it was before, but I don't think music videos and their influence are going anywhere anytime soon.

Digital Media Review #1

2/6/15

10:10 – Pacific Rim poster, Tangled poster, Doctor Who Poster, Crunch Bar logo on a tin, Pokemon keychain, Hunger Games Keychain, Transformers figure + Tin, LEGO minifigure, Three WALL-E figures, Portal Figure, Three Phineas and Ferb figures, Two Wreck-it Ralph figures, Gravity Falls bag, Angelic Layer figure, Hatsune Miku phone charm, Frozen wall stickers, Indiana Jones poster.

10:13 – Facebook and tumblr until 10:24

10:29 – watched ‘Forever’ until 11:12

10:31 – played Candy Crush till 10:40

11:12 – researched films for Signs and Wonders till 11:21

11:14 – Youtube trailer for Spongebob Movie

11:52 – Tumblr for a few minutes

12:15 – Totoro, Hello Kitty, Marvel heroes, and Kermit on socks in my laundry

12:36 – Nestle water bottle, Poptarts, Doctor Who Door cover

12:37 – Watched Suits until 1:20

12:50 – Candy Crush until 1:13

1:30 – Tumblr till 1:40

1:49 – Youtube videos and Chevy Commercial

1:50 -2:24 Tumblr, Facebook

2:45 – Spiderman, McDonalds, Burger Kind, Remax

2:55 – Tumblr for a few minutes

3:03 – Tumblr again

3:04 – ATT commercial and Good Mythical Morning show until 4:05

3:05 – Apple logo, Adobe Logo

3:43- Tumblr for a few minutes

4:06 – Agent Carter until 6:50

4:33 – Farmer’s insurance commercial, Botox, CapitalOne

4:41 – Infinity cm, Walt Disney World cm

4:49 – Farmer’s cm, Swanson cm

5:05 – Youtube video for 3 minutes, cute little Japanese girl dancing

5:16 – Powerful Answers cm, Walt Disney World cm

5:27 – CapitalOne cm, Wells Fargo cm, Hunts cm

5:42 – Tumblr for a few minutes

5:48 – Cricket cm, Centrum cm

6:22 – Centrum cm

6:28 – Tumblr for a few minutes

6:41 – Powerful Answers cm, Farmers cm

6:50 – Livestream with Australian friend Sarah until 7:40

7:40 – Tumblr for a few minutes

7:44 – Agent Carter until 9:35, Oreo cm, Apple cm

7:52 – Wells Fargo cm, Swanson cm, Burger King cm

8:00 – Showtime cm, Dole cm, Infinity cm

8:06 – State Farm cm

8:14 – Pillsbury cm

8:19 – Powerful Answers cm

8:54 – Lays bag, Rold gold bag, Powerful Answers cm

9:02 – Geico cm, Swanson cm, Mercedes-benz cm, Tumblr and Facebook for a few minutes

9:11 – Botox cm, Capital One cm-

9:36 – Youtube Markiplier videos until 10:56

10:54 – Healthcare.gov cm

10:56 – Livestream with Australian friend Sarah until 12:30

11:25 – read webcomic update on smackjeeves

11: 28 – Portal 2 soundtrack music for 15 minutes

12:28 – tumblr for a few minutes

12:41 – tumblr for a few minutes

I selected Friday because it is a day when I have no classes and would be able to focus more on recording everything I was exposing myself to than a day that had classes. If this counts as a weekend, I apologize, I figured at the time only Saturday and Sunday would count. I think I have a weird balance of visual and social media. Generally because a lot of the social media I expose myself to is visual in its basis – like Tumblr, which though it’s a social blog it is also very visual based, and almost everyone I follow is an artist. In the end I probably watch videos more than anything. I watched several shows today and videos on youtube, but while I’m ‘watching’ them I’m generally doing homework as well. I was working on stuff basically all afternoon, but I would have shows like Agent Carter up in the background so I had something to listen to. I can’t honestly say I’ve ‘watched’ it because I only turn to look if it isn’t clear what’s going on, which usually I can pick up on it from the dialogue and sounds. A lot of the logos and images I came in contact with were in my own room, because my roommate and I have a lot of posters and little knick knacks that are clearly representative of a certain media franchise. That, and advertisements on hulu, where I watched my shows in the afternoon, and youtube. And apparently Hulu only has a small pool of advertisements to pick from because they got repeated a lot. I definitely exposed myself more to the shows and such I was watching in the background as well as social art places like tumblr. I can definitely see an influence with tumblr because that is where a lot of my inspirational artists are and I’ve been pulling a lot from them in my own style as of late. I can’t honestly say that I’ve learned a whole lot more than what I’ve already known because I’m fairly self-aware of my media intake, but I think that comes with being a responsible digital media arts student. Honestly what I’ve learned is that I see a lot of similar commercials on hulu, and yet I’ve never bought or supported anything they advertised. 

Fear and Deer in the Headlights

Even though I had seen a lot of these music videos before, it really was a joy to revisit them, especially since a couple of them are some of my favorites - mainly Rifle's Spiral, Simple Math, and Easy Way Out (I think the latter might be my favorite of the three, though they are all so good). Each one of them surprises me in their technique, artistry, and depth. The shot in Rifle's Spiral where the magician is free falling still blows me away every time, just knowing how hard it is firsthand to stop motion animate. Even knowing they had someone from Laika, arguably the greatest modern stop motion company, come in to do that shot, its still fairly incredible. They keep the motion fluid and tracking and still there is the chaotic out of control aspect that just naturally comes with free falling and yeah - its just great.

I think I've read the Joe Trussel article before (considering I took the class before when it was under Leeper and had different course credits, I wouldn't be surprised if I did). If not at least I'm familiar with his War Photographer video and with the sentiments that he writes about. Even though I've read it before, likely in my freshman year, it was totally different reading it again this time, mainly because my experience has changed. Since freshman year I've taken many freelance art jobs. I actually just yesterday signed my first official freelance contract with a company down in Florida, while the rest have been sort of a 'word of mouth/e-mail' sorta business. Its the only time I've been able to sell my art so I know it at least can sell, but it seems like one of my strongest paths to take once I leave the college scene may be to freelance for an indetermined time. And, as Trussel says, freelance work leaves a lot up in the air, and a lot to worry about. You never know when or if you're going to have work - I know from experience that I get contacted at odd times and almost out of nowhere, if I stress anything its make friends with other artists especially on the internet because it leads to a lot of opportunities and ocassionally money; all my jobs have been referred through friends or for friends. And even though that's nice and all one day your friends and their network of people might not need you, or you may become irrelevant, and that's downright terrifying. Its great that people want me to do things for them now, but what will happen when they realize that I really can't draw as well as they think?
Its definitely not the most secure path, and I know I've had my run ins with finnicky clients and some rip offs, but at the same time, which Trussel emphasizes, there is a lot of freedom and time to work on your own stuff, and I think that's why currently the freelance path looks really good to me.