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.