Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Blog 4... Canemaker

John Canemaker's presentation
Was definatley something I didn't expect. Before the screening, I was not looking forward to it because I personally have never been interested in animation. After the first screening of "Confesssions of a star dreamer", it actually intrigued me especially his approach of reality within the animation. That is one unique aspect I think could get anyone watching. One part that pops in my head is from the beginning when we see a montage while there is screaming going on. This is when I wondered how real his images were. It wasn't until the second screening of "The moon and the sun" we're I really got into it. The way he used such childish animation to portray a very powerful story worked very well. I also appreciated how much he let is in on his personal life and his feelings within. I think the combination of his personal story, the animation, and the graphics made it an amazing piece. After the screening when he explained the process and the background of the story it made it even more powerful. He is very creative and opened my eyes because I was always very anti animation.

Blog 3... The film making process...

The whole process of this project was long and I noticed all my mistakes helped me evolve especially when it came to the editing. One thing I would have definately done differently from the beginning woul be to explore the person a little more and not just have stuck with my first idea of the portrait right away. I feel this way because later on as I worked on it, I also learned more about my subject and found out a lot more interesting things about her. Althought I thought the first audio part of the project turned out pretty good, the class critique really helped me realize how much work it really needed. Watching the other projects helped me as well. One thing I found very challenging was background music, simply because it took me a really long time to find something that fit my story. It does make me rethink when I watch and analyze movies. As well as everything else, especially the editing. Trying to put it all together so that it makes sense, while making it seamless, it's something I appreciate a lot more when watching a film. Overall I am happy with my piece, but it definately took a really long time to put together, and just hope others that have no background in media could appreciate the 4 minute video the same way I have learned to appreciate all aspects of media and production.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Sound and Image

I watched a 5 minute clip called "24 hours in New York City", I found the clip on YouTube and it did a great job portraying what New York is all about in only 5 minutes. The way it was organized was clear. The person chose specific well known NYC locations such as Central Park or Chinatown and had videos and still of what the lifestyle is in these areas. It was really cool because he kept changing the music too as a way for us to get the feel of the type of area whether fast paced or a more relaxed environment. For example for central park, he had the ambient sound of people playing in the park and a relaxed music as the background. For  the MoMa as well, very artsy shots of the place and piano music which goes well with a museum like that one. I also liked how between every different location the creator made sure to let us know the time of the day it was and the name of the area he is introducing next,  it kept the whole video organized. It didn't seem so seamless, because the person is trying to fit NYC in 5 minutes, but he stuck to the quick shots that reflect how fast paced this city really is. It was well composed even when the music would change it wasn't abrupt and the angles were so many that a tourist would absolutely know a lot about New York by watching this video.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

The Sounds Around Me

For this assignment I wanted to make sure I heard as much as possible, since it's not something I do everyday or ever actually. So to not limit myself, I did this exercise in two ways, first I walked around for a half hour and tried to take mental note of what I was hearing. Then I sat down in a remote location and took some more notes. It was actually a lot more interesting than I anticipated.
                  I decided to walk aimlessly around Hunter, in all different directions. Some of the stuff I picked up on right away was the cars. Not only all the honking that we are so used to in the city, but the tires hitting the street, and a lot of doors slamming. Other stuff I heard was music, but not from cars, from people’s really loud headphones. As I walked past random stores, I could hear the creaking of some of the doors or the little ringing bell as costumers walked in and out and their voices diminished/got louder as well. One last thing I picked up on was when I walked by a food store, and the employee was outside ripping cardboard, never realized how loud it could make of a sound.
                  I decided to take a seat on one of the benches in central park, the cars were still the loudest thing I could hear, but as many people walked by their conversations became clearer. One person was telling their friend about a castle in Germany, which I found interesting. Dogs were loud as well, if it wasn’t the collars , it was the multiple noises that come out of them. So many dogs walked by, they were al l similar when it comes to sound. A stroller ‘s wheels also made a noise which caught me off guard.