MeatTubLemonSpinGirlParty 4A

Brainwashed

So I was just reading this article written by Seth Godin for my MDIA203 class.  It has a pretty good message behind it but to be honest about it overall, it’s like a relapse of the readings I had in MDIA101: a giant, cheesy, motivational mess.  However for this assignment I have to talk about two of the seven layers that Godin talks about.  One being a technique that I’ve never heard of by this title: Acknowledging the Lizard.  I call it not being a pussy or being confident.  How does this technique relate to my blog?  Well, maybe if I showed everyone my blog it would apply, but I really don’t think it does when only one, maybe two people are reading it.  Acknowledging the Lizard is basically acknowledging the part of your brain that doesn’t want to take risks or do anything out of the ordinary, and then ignoring it.  I think this video will sum up how I feel about the “Lizard” in my brain:

This is a video of me and two of my friends dressed up as a gorilla and two bananas running through Times Square.  We actually end up in the Today Show if you watch it to the end.  In my opinion if you care about what other people think or what might happen to you if you stand out, then you’ll probably never enjoy life half as much as someone who doesn’t care.  And when I say someone who doesn’t care, I don’t mean that in a negative connotation, I mean it in an extremely positive one.  Sometimes not caring is the best thing you can do.  Of course you should care about your future, your work, you friends, your family, your life, and so on, but why should you care what someone you don’t know will think about you if it could be extremely fun anyway. In fact those who don’t care about some of the things I listed could potentially and surprisingly be much happier than those who do care.  Acknowledging the Lizard allows me to say I love penis on my blog.  Disclaimer: I have no infatuation towards any penis.  See things like that I really don’t care that I put on here.  I don’t really care what my lab teacher thinks of me, I just care that she sees that I typed or spoke of exactly what the blog assignment asked for so that he or she can say: “Yup, that’s in here: 5 points.”  That’s the only way that I can think this Lizard thing affects my blog.  In terms of my career and life?  I really care what important connections think of me.  If this was my professional blog, then I would not say I love penis in it twice now.  How this affects my life… Well being in this major in the first place is taking a big risk, if I didn’t ignore the Lizard when I made this decision I’d be studying business or law right now instead of taking this potential risk.  I wouldn’t breakdance with my weak-boned shoulder, I wouldn’t have gone backstage/onstage to take pictures of Ben Folds, I wouldn’t have ran through New York in a gorilla suit, I wouldn’t have continued to snowboard after I pulled my shoulder out of it’s socket, I wouldn’t have ever touched a snowboard, I wouldn’t have ever gone to an out-of-state school, I wouldn’t have ever played a show at FrontRoom last night, I wouldn’t have ever tried cocaine, and I wouldn’t have ever said I love penis.  That list could have gone on for pages and pages but I stopped there.  You can see from reading the past two or three sentences how this Lizard has and could have potentially affected me in great ways.  If I Acknowledged the Lizard and then continued to, then I would be a completely different person right now.  And personally, I think I turned out to be better off without the Lizard. (I’ve never done cocaine, I think)

Another layer I guess I’ll talk about that I have been becoming more and more inclined towards throughout the year is Connect.  I have met so many people that know so many people that I have yet to meet.  And all of these people know other people that know other people that know important people that know more important people.  And when you know important people, you get more opportunities.  Right now I have about twenty or thirty friends from high school that went on to really good media schools such as Northwestern, Ohio University, Tisch of New York University, Syracuse University, Temple University, University of Miami, and so on.  I personally know a few people who have either graduated from college or high school and are now working in New York or Los Angeles in the media business, and I have personally talked to several local news celebrities throughout the Pittsburgh area and I actually got a pretty good internship out of one of these connections already at a sports news station.  My mother knows big media professionals in China, because she is from there and grew up with these people, so there’s already an international connection that I could use if work in America sucks.  Also all of these friends I know, if one of them becomes extremely successful, or has a friend that becomes extremely successful, that gives me a chance to become extremely successful as well.  Not that that will ever happen, but that is definitely the ultimate goal.  And if it ever did happen, I would help many, many others that I knew in high school or college get a job that they couldn’t get without me.  I love connections, and even if I hate someone I think inside: hey maybe one day I’ll end up having to call this annoying asshole… so I buy them GoodFellas pizza and that connection has been made.  How does this affect my blog?  Well, if I wanted to, I could send this to people to send this to people to send this to people and eventually it would spread to the point where I could get my pointless opinion out to many people, and if my pointless opinion began to look interesting, that group of people would continue to send out my blog until it reached the millions.  But it’s not going to so this really doesn’t apply to my blog that well because no one in the class is really reading anyone’s blog unless they have to.  But.  I am going to build a website, and when I do, I’m probably going to apply this technique to it by putting up a lot of videos I’ve created which I hope are interesting..

Anyway.  Read that article, come to think of it, it’s a short read, and it really isn’t that bad.  For some people it could cause a paradigm shift, but for most it just makes you think.

Britches and Hose (Soundscape Puhloozah) [MDIA203 Blog Assignment 3B]

I really like organization, so here's what I did:

Mine/Sam Binnig's Soundscape:

Our emotion was awkward embarrassment.

My audio critiques of others soundscapes:

Unfortunately, PodSnack only allows for 5 minutes of audio to be embedded for each track free.  And I like to talk.  So here's the link to the full audio files:

http://www.podsnack.com/playlists/b5db5414f38fda5ca5b69bb58a258793

Enjoy.

Also, here's a screenshot to prove I posted my soundscape before the deadline.

And now here's a picture I took of Ben Folds.  Did I get on stage to take some of these?  Yes.

130 Bears Per Minute Blog Assignment 3A

Justin Timberlake's "My Love"

It's a pretty cool music video as well.  Well choreographed at least.

We Came As Romans cover of Justin Timberlake's "My Love"

I’m really not a big Justin Timberlake fan, mostly because I don’t want to seem homosexual, but every once in a while he has a pretty catchy song that becomes way over played on the radio and then gets ruined.  One of these songs is called My Love that has a really hypnotic yet catchy melody.  Most of this song is generated electronically other than his voice.  The main sources of this song are his voice, his harmonized voice, another harmonized part, and a big ol’ computer.  The song in it’s entirety is very organized and structured with lots of layers and layers of electronic sounds built up behind Justin Timberlake’s extremely high and somewhat soothing falsetto.  Although the song has a seemingly very slow base beat (speed), the producer of this song which I am too lazy to look up created contrast in speed and tempo by leaving out main drums (kicks, snares, and hi-hats) between measures.  So to the receiver of this song may seem as if it has a very slow BPM rate (90 or so), while in reality, the creator did that to disguise what really is a somewhat speedy, average tempo-ed pop song with a rate of 130 bears per minute.  I accidentally typed bears per minute, and I was about to fix that, but then the thought of 130 bears per minute charging into Ohio University popped into my head and I liked it so I kept it there.  Also this is a lot of words that I won’t have to actually think about typing later to fit the word requirement.  Anyway, another good example of contrast and affinity shown simultaneously in this piece is through the melodies and harmonies played throughout the song.  You can identify huge affinities between Justin Timberlake’s falsetto and the high-pitched tremolo synth backing him up melodically while you can also simultaneously hear the nice pumping bass and low kick drum pulsating throughout the song driving the rhythm together with the really fast paced synth.

I’m also really not a big scream-o music fan, however the band that covered Timberlake's song did a phenomenal job in recreating the same familiar sound while adding a completely different twist to it’s original sound.  We Came As Romans, a heavy metal band, covered this summer hit, hip hop/pop song their way, and I thought it sounded amazing yet hilarious the first time I heard it.  The majority of the electronic sounds and beats heard in the background are replaced by low (pitch) and loud (intensity), palm-muted, minor guitar chords and an actual drum kit.  However the synth remains the same throughout but that was probably reproduced in a studio or on a filtered keyboard.  But this song really stands apart from the original and there is no doubt about that from the very first second you push play on either song.  This is already obvious when I stated the different genres of artists: metal/screamo and hip-hop/pop.  But within the first song, when the song begins it’s a really smooth, somewhat quiet transition into the beginning of the pop song that slowly builds with layers and layers without the lead singer for about fifteen seconds.  Within the second song, the metal one, as soon as the play button is hit, a man screams at what seems to be the top of his lungs the lyrics to the chorus of the song and heavy, low guitar noises just start charging into your ears at an extremely fast and irregular rate, while maintaining the steady beat throughout the song.

I like the second version more.

That is all.  600 words.  Bam.

My Favorite Color Is Ham 2A

That's it.

Had to do an audio blog this time.  It's 7 am and I decided I'm pulling an all-nighter.  Anyway, did some magic and produced a pretty good quality recording for this blog, however I didn't edit it at all because I was too lazy to.  Not going to lie, the first half goes by really slow, especially if you already read the article I'm posting.  I pretty much just summarize the article by Flaum, and then I examine it's meaning and how it pertains to me and other media students, and then I talk about my own personal favorite quotes by Walter Murch and Benjamin Franklin.  It's 30 minutes long, and I apologize.

Music used:

Butter Nut by The Sprout House Band 

(Feat. Jack Johnson, Tommy Guerrero, Money Mark, and Adam Topol)

Copyright Brushfire Records 2008

All Rights Reserved

Here's all the links I spoke of:
Finding Your Howl: An Article by Jonathon Flaum

Eastside Westside Genocide (MDIA203 BlogAssignment1B)

For those aspiring to be media professionals, inventors, artists, or creators of some sort: read the following article.

14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas

If you’ve been in any creative field for a while, you should be very familiar with that feeling of searching for a breakthrough but not being able to find one for weeks, months, even years sometimes.  And you should also be very familiar with that very breakthrough you’ve been searching for waltz into your mind when you’re doing something completely mundane.   Whether it be brushing your teeth or taking out the trash, we can all relate to that random, spontaneous eureka, why-the-hell-did-it-pop-into-my-head-now moment.  I’ve actually been waiting for this feeling for a while now.  The last GOOD thing that I’ve written, well, good in my head, was a few weeks before I actually started school in September, and I have yet to film it because the script is set outside during the Spring.  It hurts to be in a creative void for any amount of time let alone months or even years.  I’m going through one myself right now and it is terrible.  I haven’t actually produced anything good since last Summer.  I’m hoping something good comes along soon.  But this article at least gave me some hope, reassuring previous techniques that I’ve used and inspiring new ones that I haven’t yet considered.

Basically, the article written by Mitch Ditkoff talks a bit about where breakthroughs come from, why they are important, and how much they are valued and why.  The rest of the article gives the reader fourteen different techniques or considerations to be aware of while searching for a breakthrough.  Most of which I have encountered, some of which I have never thought about.  In this entry I’ll talk about the three most interesting that stuck out to me.

#12 Look for Happy Accidents:

            Most of these were pretty self-explanatory just like this one.  This is probably one of my favorite things in life.  The happy accident.  Many video and perhaps audio editors are familiar with this notion.  There have been times when I have dragged a clip out on top of another clip but complete accident.  Sometimes the two scenes won’t even be related, but when I play it back, it looks amazing and I would have never thought to do that otherwise.  Several times when I edit to music, I will put a clip in a certain place or cut the clip at a certain place and it will fit the music perfectly.  Like a person will sit down directly to the beat, or the scene would cut to black perfectly as the song ends, without even trying.  It sounds boring but when it happens it feels pretty good.  I like and dislike this suggestion.  One shouldn’t necessarily look for happy accidents, waiting for them to fall into their hands.  If someone does this then that happy accident will take a long time to come.  And even when it does, all the waiting someone went through to finally find it will make it worthless and boring, taking the happy out of the happy accident, making it just an everyday coincidence.  However, the fact that he mentions happy accidents and says to accept them is pretty good advice in my eyes.  Not all accidents are necessarily bad.

#2 Immerse

            I don’t necessarily like this technique.  I practice it, however I am not a fan and usually would not suggest this to someone without suggesting the following technique.  My father likes to say: “All things in moderation,” and I think that philosophy goes for everything.  You shouldn’t eat too much, you shouldn’t diet too much either.  You shouldn’t worry too much, but you shouldn’t be too indifferent.  You shouldn’t work too much but you shouldn’t just put off work completely.  Everything has a reasonable limit to it and those limits should be noted, when it comes to ANYTHING.  Including brainstorming.  If you spend all day trying to come up with a breakthrough, chances are, you’re just going to frustrate yourself.  Which is why I believe Mr. Ditkoff wrote this last technique I’m going to talk about:

#8 Take a Break

            You have to take a break from everything, whether it be exercise, writing a blog til 5 am, or creative thinking.  All things in moderation applies to this as well.  This is where the moderation sets in.  Sure, immerse yourself in something for an hour or so then walk away from it, take at least another hour off of it.   And then come back to it.  Sometimes you’ll get the idea while you’re taking that break.  But if you don’t take that break chances are you’ll just frustrate yourself.  I think that number 8 and number 2 should actually be combined to make one legitimate, very helpful brainstorming technique.

Finally, I must answer one of the prompts that comes with each of these 14 techniques.  I choose to answer number 9’s.  The 9^th technique being Notice and Challenge Existing Patterns and Trends.

What trends in the marketplace most intrigues you? In what ways might these trends shift in the coming years—and how might your most inspired idea be in sync with this imagined shift?

Many trends in the marketplace grab my interest, however one of the most annoying trends I find is this 3d technology.  I personally think that all of the technology is really cool and quite amazing, however I dislike how it is being used in that people are now just producing movies left and right just to make them three dimensional.  I feel like this technology of 3d TV’s within peoples homes as well as 3d cameras isn’t going to last very long.  3d video and film in my opinion is just a short trend that companies are using to generate some money.  For films such as Pixar Movies, Starwars, and Avatar, I think the 3d approach is just fine and actually enhances the film, but I hope that this trend of just playing with the effect and ignoring the story goes away soon.  In fact I know it will, because eventually everyone gets bored of everything.  In fact I feel as if that’s one of the reasons this technology was released throughout the market in the first place.

I just bought a 1300 dollar camera so I don’t think that I’ll be filming any 3d movies any time soon or even experimenting with the technology, but I may or may not try to figure out how to add depth to regular 2 dimensional high definition raw footage within editing software programs such as the renowned after effects.  Or I might just try to figure out how to create 3d models in 3d monitors.  That would be a pretty cool experiment, pretty much what pixar is messing around with right now.

My potatoes bring all the Irish to the yard, and they're like, "That famine was hard" (MDIA203Assignment1a)

Damn right, that famine was hard.

I could feed you, but you'll have to starve.

My apologies for these strange titles.  I like them.
Also my apologies if you're Irish or Potato and this offends you.
Yes, I just referred to potatoes as a nationality.  Anyway,

What kind of creative person am I and who influences/inspires me?? 

I guess we’ll start off with what kind of creative person I am.  I don’t really know what different categories a creative person falls into so I guess I’ll just ramble on about what I do in the… creative field.  I love to play and write music.  I’ve been playing various instruments since I was a little kid, and I’ve been practicing and learning new techniques and learning to play new instruments my entire life since then.  My favorite aspect of playing any instrument is improvisation, or creating melodies and sounds on the spot.  I play violin, piano, guitar, drums, bass guitar, upright bass, viola, and I want to learn the banjo and the saxophone next.  I’ve been a part of orchestras, symphonies, various types of bands, and I’ve tried to record my own stuff but I’ve never had the audacity or time (software pun) to actually follow through with that.  Strangely, although it sounds like I’d be most interested in classical or rock music, my absolute favorite type of music and culture for that matter is hip hop.  Half of that reason is because I am a breakdancer.  B-boying is one of the four main elements of hip-hop, others include DJ-ing, MC-ing or rapping, and graffiti art.  All of which are part of a very creative culture.  Of course rapping is rhythmic poetry, and dj-ing is mixing sounds and different elements to make music.  B-boying is breakdancing, something most people perceive as just headspins and six-steps, but it is much more.  Every single break dancer has his own style and his own approach to the dance floor.  There is no set technique to breakdancing.  After one gets through the basics it is pretty much up to the dancer to create what he can do with his body.  It is a very physical, yet fun form of self-expression.

            Above all of these things, I have an extreme passion for film, photography, and special visual effects.  For about the past five years I have been working with video cameras, still cameras, various editing software, 3d modeling software, lights, boom poles, extension cords, XLR cables, and so on.  I have worked with probably several months worth of footage, making six grand in money in terms of creating commercials, sports DVD’s, and other various high school events.  I hope I don’t come across as arrogant because that’s the last thing I like to see in anyone, let alone myself.  Out of the six grand at least three grand went to buying my MacBook Pro and my Canon 7D.  At least I showed that these things pay off.  Then again now I’m going to college for 40,000 dollars a year, but I promised my parents that that too one day would pay off… I hope.   Apart from making money and such from small companies I’ve really been in this to make movies.  In the side bar of my blog you might notice a few Youtube videos.  Those are all mine.  Some of them are terrible.  Out of the hundreds and hundreds of minutes of things that I’ve produced, one of my most favorite videos I’ve ever made is only 30 seconds long.  It’s called talking to myself, and it’s literally me talking to myself.  And it’s really not that impressive.  I just like it a lot for some reason.  I’ll post a few of my favorite videos on here that me and my friends have made after this post, but for now I will continue to blabber on about nothing you care about.  I should stop soon considering I have class in six hours and I have yet to sleep.  That’s what I get for finding out about this last minute.  Anyway, moving on.  The point of this paragraph is that I like film.  Writing it, actually filming it, editing it, and presenting it.  All aspects of the film industry, even the business aspect, I would love to be apart of.  I love being creative but I also love being a leader/manager.  I hope to one day work at SNL or Hollywood, just to produce one thing in my life that makes millions of people go: how did they do that?  Or, wow, I’m going to watch that again.  Something that I’m really proud of I guess…

            Fun fact: the reason I’m actually up so late doing this is because I was actually editing a short film I put together over the weekend.

            Another fun fact: Abe Lincon once owned a turkey.

            This brings up the main point of the question, which is who influences me?  Many, many people influence me.  I will stick with film people, but even so, probably hundreds of cinematographers influence me.  I will bring up the two most recent that I’ve stumbled upon, not on stumble upon.  These two videos that I am about to show you are absolutely amazing.  If I ever make anything of the quality that these two videos contain, I will be done with my life.  The first one is called: The Last Three Minutes.

"The Last 3 Minutes" Directed by Po Chan from Shane Hurlbut, ASC on Vimeo.

It was directed by Po Chan and DP-ed by Shane Hurlbut.  If you are interested in behind the scenes, it’s all linked to that video.  This piece, is absolutely breathtaking: the story, the photography, and the mood that it gives every single viewer.  It doesn’t matter what language you speak or what culture you come from, this video can speak to every person in the world.  This film influences me mostly because of the photography and the story.  Both Po Chan and Mr. Hurlbut are two people that influence me because of what they put together to be known as The Last Three Minutes.

            We’re all going to die someday.  And most of us absolutely dread that day.  This short gives us fear yet it gives us hope, it gives us apprehension yet it gives us comfort.  It uses a technique people naturally are attracted to: Contrast and Affinity.  This entire film is actually quite depressing.  It is in fact the last three what seems to be the last three depressing minutes of this man named William Turner’s life.  He is a janitor, he is mopping the floor, and he is having a heart attack.  He is now dead.  In real time, that is exactly what happens in this film.  That is really depressing.  But here’s where the contrast comes in: the happy memories and thoughts of his entire life.  What seems to be a simple, lowly janitor once had an extremely joyful and adventurous life.  As he dies, a rock he holds to his eye shows all of these beautiful memories he once had as a man, as a teenager, as a boy, and even as a baby.  For most of this film, you are happy and intrigued, and almost completely ignoring the fact that this man is dying.  Just as this man is completely ignoring the fact that he is dying, he is acknowledging the fact that he had a good long life, and that he lived it to the fullest.  This brings us comfort in death, knowing that although there is an inevitable ugly end, the path to it can be beautiful.

            Another technique that is used within this film is: tension and release.  At the very beginning of this film there is absolutely no tension.  And within the first thirty seconds comes an extreme amount of tension.  Suddenly this somewhat boring, yet visually pleasing scene turns into the scene of a death.  There is suddenly pain in this character’s eyes as his hand clutches his chest.  His breathing becomes heavier and he drops his mop.  Loud noises occur, moans and groans, the lighting becomes darker and more ominous, the scene is suddenly tense.  He pulls out this handkerchief and drops what looks like some sort of rock.  He struggles to reach it as he groans in pain.  There is lots and lots of tension.  And suddenly that tension all melts away when the music cuts in and the rock begins to show his memory…  The audience becomes relieved yet intrigued…

            My lord it’s getting late.  Another concept involved within this film is known as “Text and Subtext.”  There are literally almost no words said in this story yet look at how many I have typed within this blog describing it.  There is so much more to be interpreted but I would not want to bore the reader any more than I already have.  The viewer understands that this man is dying and the viewer understands that this man once had a wife, and the viewer understand that he never had a lot of money because of the type of engagement ring he gave his wife, yet the viewer understands that it didn’t matter because they loved each other so much and that he used a can-top to symbolize their engagement.  So much is unsaid in this film but so much is to be interpreted and understood.  The viewer understands that this man has now died, but he really liked his life that he left behind.  The viewer can argue that he had a good last three minutes of his life, reminiscing on the decades of memories he had once lived through.

            There are two more pieces of work that I would love to show you but I’m not going to go as in depth with these pieces for the sheer fact that I’ve written nearly three pages now and it’s nearly three AM.

This was created by a young man who goes by the name of Daniel Cloud Campos.  He really inspires me even more than the people I named previously because he does work like I used to do.  And what he produced with just this one video is amazing.  It takes a simple concept and makes it really fun.  And he did all of the camera work, choreography, acting, and editing on his own.  Which is what I used to do.  I stopped doing this because I’ve been introduced to the world of crews and actors.  When I made short films for my high school, they were good, and they were made by me and a few other friends.  We acted in them, we wrote them, we edited them, and we loved them.  I want to go back to that sometimes but recently I really haven’t had the time.  But when I saw this video it reminded me that this was still possible, and although it is frowned upon in the film community, sometimes it can be the best approach.  This man used nothing but his mind, his camera, and final cut.  Also the song War by Galaxy with no rights to it, but that’s another thing I do or did.  And the more I watch this movie, the more I want to go back to the way things were sometimes.  Also, the photography in this video is beautiful as well as the timing and the editing.  It really got the upbeat, happy emotion across to the audience that is never regarded in a negative light.  It was well done, and also, it had a lot of breakdancing in it which relates to me and makes me kind of happy.

Finally I had to post another thing so here is….

It’s a video called Two Men and it was directed by Dominic Allen.  Out of all the videos I showed you in this blog, this one is probably the most prestigious.  It has won multiple awards for photography as well as writing and story throughout the world.  It really shows the concept of over analyzing something.  It really goes into and visualizes the many different scenarios one little incident cant have behind it or after it.  What can happen if you do one thing, or what won’t happen if you do another.  Although it is just simply one man running by another man, it really can make you think.  The human mind really can wander sometimes.  It really made me think.  And with all three of these videos I really admired the photography with all of my attention.  To be honest most of these videos I really like because of their content, but even more because of their editing techniques and mostly because of their cinematography.

Two Men from Dominic Allen on Vimeo.

There.  Four pages of media stuff.  It’s three am.  Bed time.  Late nights, a true sign of a media student.  Good night.

Also if anyone in MDIA203 is having trouble imbedding video from VIMEO let me know, Blogger is stupid but there is a simple and easy way to fix it.

Alex Bolinger

Signing off. 

That was gay.

Alex Bolinger.

Gay as in stupid not homosexual.  I do not mind the homosexuals.  I find them quite friendly.

Alex Bolinger.

None of that was necessary and I admit it may have been even a little inappropriate.

Good night.

Alex Bolinger.

First Post, Dawg.

Well.  I have a blog.

Pretty bored now.

Finished.