Collapsus 9b

     www.Collapsus.com

Character Critic

http://mdia203arielle.blogspot.com/http://paulachi1991.blogspot.com/
Red Bullet and Stevie
    Arielle’s characters are very simple yet fun characters. She does an outstanding job to create two vary unique and contrasting characters. Red Bullet is a big strong football player and Stevie is a small lonely nerd. The Red Bullet has strong powerful colors with deep saturation such as red and black. His red and black colors also contrast with the faded brightness of the surrounding lockers. Red Bullet is also in the center of the frame and large. He is so large that he appears to over power even the lockers that surround him. By placing him in the center of the frame they also are pointing out that he is the center of attention. Arielle does a nice job of also creating leading lines with the lockers directing the viewer to The Red Bullet.
    Stevie the complete opposite of Red Bullet. Stevie is small and out of place. In Stevie’s frame there are many squares that it up. Stevie’s circular body throws the rhythm of the entire frame because he seems misplaced. The only reason he is even noticeable in this picture is because he is surrounded by a black square. This square represents how he looms in the shadows almost never to be seen. This two characters could not be anymore different. The Red Bullet is strong, red, large and a square shape. Stevie is simple, quite, small and circular standing around square objects.


Paula’s characters
    I really like Paula’s characters because they are similar in shape, but they contrast in color. Paula’s Hero is a very happy hero. He has a “thumbs up” on his mask and has bright red cape dangling down his back. The hero itself has a nice contrast of what we usual perceive as heroic colors such as blue and red. She accents the hero very nicely by making only the thumb on the hero’s chest and mask yellow symbolizing that this is the one thing he stands for. Although I am not sure what the thumbs up is supposed to represent, it has to be good!
    Paula’s villain is similar to the hero but also different. The villain appears to be the same height as the hero. Where they villain begins to change is towards its’ stomach where he is a little on the pudgy side. The villains overall color saturation is incredibly sharper then the hero’s. His colors or deep, harsh and evil. Paula balances her three main colors grey, black and violet over the entire character. The villain’s eyes that really create subtext. Although simple, the eyes compared to the hero show that the character is deeply crazy.
    Overall I think Paula did a wonderful job. She created to similar characters that were totally opposite. I feel like they are almost like Batman and the joker. They are both human and have similar characteristics but to the complete opposite extremes. These two characters could almost be long lost brothers.

http://mcurrie0925.blogspot.com/
Megan
Megan’s characters are beautiful. She really has a nice style of drawing. These two images are two of the best I have seen.
    I really like the princess or hero. The first thing I noticed with this character is that its god like positioning. It appears that she is embracing a spirit as she glides through a soft wind. Megan and her parent use a nice palette of colors for both characters. For the hero she uses low saturated yellows and tinted whites. The brightest color on her is a green sash that drapes across her body. The sash symbolizes nature. The subtext of this character is that she is a natural spirit that is pure like the earth.
    The villain could not be any different then the hero. The villain is almost wrapped up in a ball. To me, the squashed positioning of the villain creates the feeling that he moves quickly unlike the hero who glides elegantly. The villains colors are powerful dark colors such as blacks and and saturated red. The viewer’s eyes go directly to two things in this image, the eyes and the large red bottom.
    Megan and her partner do a great job creating two contrasting characters. But the best part about these characters are their backstory. Great Job ladies!

To This American Life

www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/superpowers

Character!

203 Joke Videos

The first problem that arose was the fact that the joke we used is weak. So we tried to spice them up by giving the characters a lot of motivate making the audience actively search for reasoning in emotions. We came across a challenge using the elevator. There were so many people using the elevator there was no way we could use it. So we had to think of an alternative. We out a study/ rehearsal room where no one would bother us. The room also had five large exercise mats. We utilized the mats by boxing off a small area under a large circular ceiling light to create the illusion that the actors were actually in an elevator. I thought that we would have more control over the characters and the overall project if we did not have to actually worry about annoying people walking on and off the whole time. The elevator that we created also made it look like a run down elevator and which I was going for. I wanted to have all three subjects in a compact space that would create more awkwardness because they were so close to each other. Utilizing space also made the overall shot composition compact. Our videos El Elevator and Wrong Day are the same joke but two completely different movies. In El Elevator I utilized a lot of tension and release with the actors timing, music and editing. The  rhythm for El Elevator was very slow and drawn out at the beginning and then BOOM his shirt is ripped open and he is in his face standing his ground. The rhythm at that point is quick with many edits and shot variations. In our other video Wrong Day Jordan wanted to completely different characters. She also wanted to show the separation in the two characters unlike El Elevator. For Wrong Day we used a large elevator in the school of music. We did this because It looked a bit more futuristic with all the metal and that it was large. We utilized the space by separating the characters physically. And since these two characters were robots Jordan wanted all movements, actions and the overall rhythm to be slow and drawn out once again opposite of El Elavator.

OU Adventure: Video Game 9

I feel as if our game presentation was very entertaining and actually be a fun game to play. If you would like you can look through our slideshow above. I think all aspects of our game was pretty well planned out expect for one detail. We had a bit of a problem with the controller design. The button layout on the computer was good, but the controller we created was nothing that I personally would ever buy or use. I think it would throw off the mechanics of the game with the controller. It was a funny concept and it looked good but it was very impractical.  The controller went on your head and there were buttons on the front and the joystick blah blah it just out right was unrealistic. So we failed in that aspect, but we succeeded in creating a game that I would actually play. I think we did a great job creating a game with an overall fun adventure and a goal of making it home while defeating fun killers throughout a night at Ohio University. And I think that the rules of the game such as once you draw attention by the cops you cannot bring that level down, creating an escalating challenge throughout the game of how your going to get money/food/beer without causing trouble and attracting the police. For that aspect alone I think millions of college students would find this game enjoyable. I also feel like if I could actually make the game how I see it in my head and how Adrian drew it on the screen shot, it would also be a cool looking game. The does and don’ts of the game were simple and straight forward and I think we presented this game in a fun way.

     www.Collapsus.com

Blendinator Animation

Call of Duty Elements

26 Ways to Be Creative

Cutting up the Opening of Saving Private Ryan

Salvador Dali Framing

I decided to use this Salvador Dali painting because it looks awesome and the tigers in this painting are absolutely ferocious. When people analyze painting they do not often use film lingo, but for this assignment I am supposed to, so let’s get to it. Salvador Dali does a wonderful job of having a nice contrast of colors between the the sky and the tigers. The tigers really stand out because they are gold with black stripes and the background is a faded purple and yellow. Dali also manipulates the soft three layers of lines that appear to be horizontal with the tigers print which are vertical. This also creates depth between the tigers and the elephant that is farther in the distance. Also Salvador Dali creates depth through size, the tigers are larger thus appearing closer than smaller objects. Salvador also brings uses lines to point at the subject. The gun and the three cords hanging from the elephant point right down to the women laying on the rock. I chose to reframe the image like I did because it entirely changes the meaning of the painting simply by zooming in on one element of the painting. The painting itself is an overall wide shot while my zoomed in picture is a medium shot. Also, the original painting use the rule of thirds to its advantage while the zoomed in version barely does. I feel that Salvador Dali framed this painting like he did to show the entire action instead of focusing on just one tiger. The original painting has a lot going on, there is a elephant being lifted away, a fish eating one tiger, a gun pointing at a naked lady laying on a rock and of course a hungry looking lion hurling towards the naked women. In the zoomed in version the viewer loses all subtext for the tiger. The zoomed in picture only tells the viewer that the tiger is mad, diving towards something. That is exactly why I zoomed in on one tiger instead of both. Without seeing the rest of the painting Isolating the tiger destroys the tigers motives and overall context thus simplifying the tiger down to an angry wild animal.

Classmates Soundscapes Reflection

Adrian Andrade's soundscape http://www.adrianraves.blogspot.com/

Lena Al-Hashemi's soundscape http://lena229508.blogspot.com/

Alex Welsh's soundscape http://alexscreativityblog.blogspot.com/

My Song!

Jack Johnson or Sublime's Badfish?.... Sublime

It seems like songs are covered by everybody now-a-days. A lot of people say, “ Oh he’s covering their song, please.” A lot of people think it is very unoriginal to cover a song.  Most of the time yes is very unoriginal. Before you judge a cover you have to know it’s context. Is it a young musician trying to cover a great song that one of their idols have sung? Is the song a tribute to a musical influence? Or Is it just simply the same song sung by a different band? In this case Jack Johnson is paying tribute to an huge influence on him, a enormously great band, and a deceased lead vocalist Bradley Nowell. This is one of my favorite covers, Jack Johnson's cover of Sublime's Badfish.

Sublime's lyrics were very diacative. They were known for talking about partying, girls, drugs and getting drunk. Their lyrics were never what some people may call "poetic". Sublime was a reggae/ska/punk/ alternative rock band. Sublime's song Badfish is a very reggae almost soulful song. This song is perfectly described by the music video,  friends, music, the beach, a nice sunny day and a few pints of booze. What really keeps this song moving is the bass guitar and the cymbals. Bbass guitar and the cymbals push the melody forward to make this song something you can just let loose and dance too.  The rhythm is very simple and constant which lulls the listener creating tension to the song. The tempo slows and an acoustic guitar breaks the song down creating release. The song kicks back with ha very echoing electric guitar solo that once again creates the tension again for another break later on in the song.

Now listen to the Jack Johnson version. Jack brings an easier melody that is more relaxing than Sublime does. The biggest difference in Jack Johnson's cover over Sublime's is that Jack's voice is a higher lighter pitch than lead singer Bradley Nowell's. Nowell's voice is very blues filled timbre and is a deeper pitch while Jack Johnson's voice has a softer more acoustic timbre. Jack Johnson also changes the lyrics at the end of his version. He adds in another Sublime song called Boss DJ but keeps the same melody and pitch but the rhythm changes. The speed of Sublime's song is faster than Jack Johnson's. Jack's version seems to let the song slowly flow together while, like I said before for the Sublime version the Melody and rhythm seemed to be led by the cymbals and bass guitar.

I personally love both versions of this song. I think Sublime's original version is better than Jack Johnson's because I like the more up beat reggae dance party song that they created. Bradley Nowell's voice is one in a million. He seemed to create the most perfect ska voice. Although, I really do like Jack Johnson's version which is is more mellow. I don't think there is anyway anyone can cover a Sublime song and make it better to listen too.

Lumiere Shoot

click the link and watch my 419 group. I'm in the front left!

http://www.vimeo.com/19168102

Guess My Soundscape!

Telling the story of the wolf and the Howl.

This was supposed to be an audio project and it is. It has audio and video and I think if I am deducted points that is absurd! Here is my take on the Jonathan Flaum's Finding Your Howl.

Part to of this assignment was to read your favorite quote, lyrics etc..... So I chose the qoute by Martine Scorsese
"Basically, you make another movie, and another, and hopefully you feel good about every picture you make. And you say: `My name is on that. I did that. It`s OK.` But don`t get me wrong, I still get excited by it all. That, I hope, will never disappear."
Here is my explanation on camera and I better not get any points deducted once again even though it's a video it still has audio!

My Take on Mitch Ditkoff's 14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas

http://changethis.com/
Link to 14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas

    Mitch Ditkoff wrote a book Awake At the Wheel. This book is about how everyone has ideas but people just need to learn how to channel their creativity to think of great ideas. Every idea can bring something to the table. If the idea is good at the start then it is easy to go with. If the idea is bad then you can build off of it or learn from it. One of the biggest points Mitch Ditkoff says is that just because your idea does not work doesn’t mean it is bad, It just means switch it up and try something similar but change it. I recently read an excerpt from the book entitled "14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas" that you can read at the link above. This section of his book generally outlines how to explore every idea you receive. No idea is dumb or simple. Every idea that you come across can be manipulated into something BIG. In Mitch’s first few ways to get breakthrough ideas he really focuses on thinking about things that you enjoy and branch off from those ideas. For example, in his first two main ideas “1. Follow Your Fascination” and “2. Immerse”. These ideas are simple. Don’t try and write a story about a baker in New York City if you don’t know the first thing about baking or New York! I am obsessed with filmmaking and all my ideas I generate are used directly for filmmaking. I believe that Ditkoff is right about a lot of his statements he makes. I don’t believe that Ditkoff is a creative genius constructing these 14 ideas, but all of his points are pretty on point.
    The next point that really stuck out to me was “3. Tolerating Ambiguity”. This idea was that most great ideas start from a small idea and are modeled into something wonderful. If you try to think of a great idea you will not, but if you try to think of something that could actually work then slowly tweak the idea to blossom into something more elaborate.
    The only point that Mitch states that I did not like was, “12. Look for Happy Accidents”. I did not like this point because if I was generating ideas and I had an accident good is not always going to come of it. Also, “happy accidents” do not happen often and if you look for them while attempting to be creative then they will happen even less often. I do understand what he means by when something bad happens try to reshape the misfortune to a positive outcome.
      I really feel that Mitch Ditkoff’s "14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas" underlining theme is that think positively with every idea you have. Write down every idea you ever think of and If your thinking positively and productively you can spin every idea small or simple and turn it into something very useful.
   
3.What new idea of yours is bubbling on the brink of breakthrough? In what ways can you stay 
with it, even if something in you is impatient for a breakthrough?

    The third prompt “Tolerating Ambiguity” really made me think about an idea I have had brewing in my head lately. I had a dream a few weeks ago that I can not even remember now, but it sparked this movie idea of an awkward male college student that wears velcro shoes. I do not know if I can use this idea for a short 1-2 minutes film in my Film Techniques class where we use 8mm film, or I can develop this idea into something bigger that I can try and make in the future. At the moment my idea sounds very boring and simple, I can not remember the rest of it. I found out telling yourself to remember your dreams before you fall asleep helps you remember them, and of course writing dreams down right when you wake up helps as well. I really like the Velcro shoes idea for a movie character because it immediately separates the character from the rest of the world. Nearly everyone knows how to tie there shoes and I thought a twenty year old  intelligent college student who does not tie his shoes would some how build a great story around it. I’m impatient about this because I could be very wrong. Velcro shoes? Really? It’s a very simple idea but I guess I just have to work harder on the concept.

Who Influences Me?: Martin Scorsese+ Quantin Tarantino+Judd Appatow = Me

I picture everything as a movie. If one of my friends tells me a story I mentally project a shot by shot film in my head of the events. I can not control it. It’s like I have a tiny projectionist running around in my head, loading film real after film real and projecting the images in the inside of my skull, like a private theatre. I constantly get ideas that pop up in the old head of mine. I write every idea down no matter how small or stupid they seem. My life experiences, films and music are my biggest influences in my creativity. I watch movies all the time, especially from some of my favorite directors Martin Scorsese, Quantin Tarantino and Judd Appatow. Every time I watch a film by one of these directors I learn something new. I love each one of their directing styles as well. Martin Scorsese is by far the most influential director to me. I have seen nearly every Scorsese film multiple times. One of my favorite films is The Departed. The scene above is one favorite scene from the Departed. Scorsese has an amazing way of creating the best bar brawls. The text of the scene is that Leonardo DiCaprio is not drinking alcohol at the bar... but cranberry juice. Diactively implying that he is weak, DiCaprio says nothing to the man that insults him but smashes a class over his head in furry. The viewer actively has to search for subtext of this fight. Leo's character is not to be messed with or underestimated.  Scorsese also has a wonderful way of making this scene very dynamic using tension and release. The scene is Leo ordering a cranberry juice and the guy next to him making an off hand comment. SMASH! The tension explodes and DiCaprio hits him with a glass and the fight is simply broken up by a tougher character Mr. French. He is stern with Leo but does not hit him, Leo calms down and Mr. French offers him a drink. Once again DiCaprio orders a cranberry juice, and Mr. French says the same comment to him as the other man did creating the tension to rise once again. This time Leo looks unhappy but understands not to mess with Mr. French thus releasing the tension.

 Scorsese and Quantin Tarantino have very different styles in directing. The reason I love Quantin Tarantino so much is because he is extremely passionate. He is obsessive about filmmaking. I see myself in him because he was a small town nobody working at a movie store and he used scenes from movies that he admired to create his films. I am from Ohio and I am trying to make it in Hollywood as well. I want to borrow from films that I love, to create masterpieces of my own. I watched the behind the scenes of making Inglorious Basterds and Tarantino’s passion stands out in the first10 seconds of this clip.

I recently saw Gus Van Sant's 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy and I literally fell in love with this film. It is an independent film that was created for about $2.5 million. The opening of the film is a great way to set up the rest of the movie. I love Van Sant's directing approach. It is not like Tarantino's which is loud, and it is even more dry then Scorsese's. He is very monotone but understands exactly what he wants. In this scene the team of junkies set up an elaborate plan to steal pharmaceutical drugs. After they make the steal they drive away and Matt Dillion's wife in the movie says, "God Damnit Bob, why do you gotta get your fix in the car? Can't you wait till we get home like the rest of us?" The first thing that is said about Matt Dillion's character is diactively stating that he is so far into drug addiction he could not wait until he got home to inject their new drugs. Dillion's response is simple but actively shows he does not care about much in life besides being high.
I look up to all of these directors. I want to make movies that give people charges of emotion like they have. Whether it is a bromance like Judd Apatow, gangster film like Martin Scorsese or a witty gory western like Tarantino, I want to direct motion pictures and tell stories that are powerful just like these directors.

To be a Director...

When I was younger my brother, sister and neighbors would make silly movies with G.I. Joe's and ourselves. I always loved movies but I never really thought creating them is a real job. When I was a in high school I did not enjoy the day to day repetitive boring work of school. Sophomore year I decided to take a class called Media Technology at The Cuyahoga Valley Career Center. We used a DVX 100-A the first day of class and I instantly fell in love with creating stories through the camera. I have now wrote, produced, directed, acted and created around 15 short films. I have known what I wanted to do since I attended CVCC. I want to be a director and video production is the perfect fit for me.