Weekly Report 10/28 - A Lot of Work to Do

What I learned: You never know who you can get to work with until you ask.

What I want to learn: How to do a dolly zoom shot.

What made me happy: Finishing all the questions for the documentary.

What made me sad: I still have 200+ GB of recorded game footage on my computer that I need to edit.

Super bonus exclusive top secret stuff:

Gonna list all the projects that I have under my belt at the moment and throw some links here and there.

- Video Game Documentary
- Concept Album trailer entitled "Hello Leviathan" for a friend (AirplaneRadio).
- Small guitar part for one of the songs from that album, entitled "Huldigung".
   Link: http://soundcloud.com/airplane-radio/huldigung-12
- A Left 4 Dead 2 commentary/typography video
- A Left 4 Dead 2 montage/typography video
- Songs I've been working on.

Another bit of AirplaneRadio's work:

Sofia Controversy Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- That the line of Disney's main female characters have been very ethnically diverse.
- That some people are actually mad about Sofia's lack of Latina characteristics.
- That Sofia the First is much more sophisticated than I thought.

2 opinions:
- The CEO of National Hispanic Media Coalition needs to chill.
- It'd be nice to see Disney expand away from princesses for a while.

1 question - What do her parents look like?

Directing Tips Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- What "result directing" is.
- That actors should be treated completely different from the other crew members.
- That actors have the most difficult and dangerous job on set.

2 opinions:
- You COULD do other things as director if your project isn't too large.
- This article makes directing sound way more easier than it actually is.

1 question - Are there other types of directing that work just as well?

Weekly Report 10/21 - Homemade Guitar

What I learned: Premiere is much more sophisticated than any editing software I've used.

What I want to learn: How to make a star wipe in Premiere.

What made me joyous: Watching the Toxic Avenger for the first time.

What made horrified me: Watching the Toxic Avenger for the first time.

Stuff:

I recently finished my homemade guitar that I've been putting off for over a year now.

Its not as well put together as it seems (the fretboard is marked completely wrong) but it works.

Here's a link to a sample of what it sounds like: http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/502213

California Social Media Bill Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- That a large amount of employers forced employees to give access to their personal information on social network sites.
- That this isn't already a law.
- Not every state is currently passing this law.

2 opinions:
- This should have been dealt with sooner.
- An employee shouldn't be fired for refusing to give out personal information.

1 question - How wouldn't a federal law against employers asking for log-in info stop them from doing so?

Making Water Wigs Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- That its incredibly difficult to capture the moment a water balloon explodes.
- That there weren't any safety precautions to popping the longer balloons in the dark with needles.
- That the colored flashes were what made the different backgrounds.

2 opinions:
- Some of the colored flashes worked better than the others.
- They could have had safer ways of popping the long balloons.

1 question - Were there any altercations to the photos in post?

Weekly Report 10/14 - Guitar Tutorials

What I learned: That I'm terrible at thinking of documentary ideas.

What I want to learn: How to make all the sound effects for the scavenger hunt.

What made me hapy: Finally started working on a trailer for my friend's music album.

What made me sed: I couldn't do a documentary on Bidoof, bands, or the documentary itself. Such wasted genius.

MORE SELF PLUGS:

My second guitar tutorial.

I want to make more of these but Vegas Movie Studio isn't fun to make these with.

No more self plugs. Unless I make a new video.

6 Filmmaking Tips From Joss Whedon

3 things I learned from this article:
- That Joss Whedon made both The Avengers and Cabin in the Woods.
- He used "Buffy" to teach himself how to direct.
- That structure is the hardest part of creating a story.

2 opinions:
- Whedon Taking what he learned from directing Buffy and eventually making The Avengers is insane.
-  Cabin in the Woods was better than Avengers.

1 question - How can he have so many creations that are all so far apart from each other?

Dawn of the Dead Pets Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- That Frankenweenie is based off of Tim Burton's childhood relationship with his dog.
- 3D can be shot in black and white.
- Tim Burton purposely wanted Frankenweenie to look more flawed to give it a handmade look.

2 opinions:
- Its interesting that the builders only had Burton's drawings to work from.
- Its awesome that Tim Burton still prefers to do hands-on stop motion over other styles.

1 question - Why did Burton based the teacher off of Vincent Price?

Weekly Report 10/7 - SLENDERDOG

What I learned: How to resize an image in photoshop.

What I want to know: How to use Premiere plz.

What made me happy: Bidoof.

What made me sad: There's gonna be a Wrong Turn 5.

Somethin cool, dawg

Never leave me alone with an editing software.

ParaNorman Response

3 things I learned from this article:
-That ParaNorman was first conceived 10 years ago.
-That the team behind ParaNorman used 3-D printing to create faces.
-That close ups in stop motion movies are very rare.

2 opinions:
-3-D printing hundreds of faces must be tedious.
-They should just make a clay model of John Goodman.

1 question:
-How do the characters stay together in between the days they're not shooting?

How Star Trek: The Next Generation Changed Pop Culture Forever Response

3 things I learned from this article:
-That Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was the 5th most successful movie of 1986.
-Star Trek: TNG was the highest-rated drama when the show finished.
-Star Trek officially made nerd culture cool.

2 opinions:
-Steve Jobs stole the idea of the iPad
-People need to be more faithful to series add-ons or reboots these days

1 question: 
-Why didn't Jobs copy the Holodeck instead?