Class Evaluation

1. In general, what did you like most about this class?

The variety of projects and lessons on both sound and video.

2. In general, what did you like least about this class?

The lack of camera equipment relating to getting certain shots. But it is fun building that stuff myself.

3. What were your most favorite project and least favorite project and why?

Most favorite was the documentary because it accidentally gave me a new outlook on the subject I was doing when it was finished. Least was HANDMAN because every decision we made in that project was a gamble.

4. Do you feel that this class will help you achieve your future academic or career goals? How or why (or why not)?

Yes because as a career I want to mix music with many different artistic fields like animation and film, and having a background on them surely helps the process.

5. Additional comments:

This was the only class I've been in where I was paid for my work. Pretty cool class if you ask me. Also I can't believe my blog has looked this crappy for the past 2 years.

Reality TV Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- Families watch reality TV because they like it. Never would have thought.
- James Poniewozik is a hypocrite that won't let his kids watch all the awesome shows he watched as a kid.
- TV has become more specific I think.

2 opinions:
- "Tuned In Jrs"? This guy is one cool dad.
- Reality TV is not unlike scripted TV because they use scripts also.

1 question - Seriously, that S.W.A.T show looks ridiculous. How could you not let your kids watch that but consider letting them watch game of thrones?

Think Your Film Was a Challenge Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- Aleksandr Petrov rocked the socks off of traditional animators.
- Paint-on-glass is the caviar of animation.
- You can work with multiple levels of glass when using paint-on-glass animation.

2 opinions:
- Petrov deserves 100 Oscars for such hard work.
- Operating the multiple glass planes sounds confusing as hell.

1 question - The animation stand alone took 8 months to make. How did they not go insane making this?

Reaction to Disney Trademarking

Weekly Report 5/19 - Nope not the last blog

What I learned: I learned a lot about credit score.

What I want to learn: How to stream console games.

What made me happy: Made some vids over the weekend.

What made me sad: oh god karate video oh god independent project oh god documentary

Interesting:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melamine_foam

Melamine foam is what "The Magic Eraser" is made out of. It is also the same material that is used to make certain soundproofing foam. I've looked around the internet and saw that you can get giant 50 to 500 bulk pack of cheap melamine sponges for about $6 to $180. So, in theory, you could possibly piece together a bunch of that foam, slap it on a wall and boom. Inexpensive soundproofing.

In theory. I want to try it.

Attack of the Sexy Sparkles Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- Disney had pushed Brenda's last button.
- Disney changed the look of the main character of Brave to be more girly.
- Some artists won't take Disney's crap no more.

2 opinions:
- Good on Brenda for winning an oscar.
- How could they take away her bow and arrow I mean come on.

1 question - What would of happened if the film was made by Pixar instead?

6 Dumb Dumb Documentary Mishaps Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- That the script is the last thing you make in a documentary.
- A wrongful sound track can destroy any film.
- You need a question or theme that your documentary revolves around.

2 opinions:
- The "writing the script last" rule can be broken and still be successful. Just look at our documentaries. (Can't say the same for every other video in the class where scripts were often written last).
- I usually question the dramatizations that somehow capture moments in high quality 1080p HD.

1 question - Is documentary making really one of the hardest productions you can get into? Also, why is the grammar so bad in this article.

Weekly Report 5/12 - This the Last Blog? Can't Remember.

What I learned: How to edit a clip in both Adobe Premiere and After Effects simultaneously.

What I want to learn: Everything we already learned so I can pass that test at the end of the year.

What made me happy: Filming my final project.

What made me sad: Oh god I hope I can finish this project.

In my rushing of finding music for my final project, I finally started using this site for all my music needs:

http://incompetech.com/

Has music for any mood or genre, and it's all royalty-free. Not sure if this was posted in the class list of usable sites but screw it. It's awesome.

Crowdfunding Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- More studios have been crowdfunding lately.
- Cartoon Hangover is an example of successful independent programming.
- Joe Murray made a whole website dedicated to independent animations.

2 opinions:
- KaBoingTV should have been more popular.
- smgo.tv's voting system is a great idea.

1 question - Why not keep your show strictly online?

First Film On iPad 2 Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- Sometimes you have to write a story around what kind of camera you're using.
- There's tons of apps and lens perfect for iPad filmmaking, yet this is the first iPad film.
- The iPad on-board mic isn't worth it.

2 opinions:
- The trailer could have gone without milking the "filming with an iPad" concept so much.
- His P90x analogy is spot on.

1 question - What does a iPad tripod even look like?

Weekly Report 5/5 - oh no its gonna be monday again

What I learned: How to deal with the backlash of procrastination; just stop caring.

What I want to learn: How to deal with the backlash of sleep deprivation.

What made me happy: Recording a pretty cool jam session with my friend Sean. http://www.newgrounds.com/audio/listen/533386

What made me sad: Haven't been getting farther in any projects.

A bunch of 5-10 second videos in celebration of the Vine competition:

Vine Competition Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- There's a lot to think about to make a good 6sec film.
- There's a lot of rules to break when making a 6sec film.
- You can win some good money for simple things like this.

2 opinions:
- That is A LOT of  money for just a 6 second film.
- Having a better lens on your iPhone shouldn't give you a better chance in the competition.

1 question - How much would these films cost if they were featured in movie theaters?

Cute Characters 101 Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- That the spacing of eyes can matter when making a cute character.
- Being fat helps cuteness. Can't be too fat, though.
- Evil traits added onto a cute character makes it even cuter.

2 opinions:
- Hello Kitty is horrifying with it's dead stare. It knows who you are.
- Gangly armed teddy bears sound amazing.

1 question - What about the way a character sounds?

Human Documentary Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- People will be more than happy to tell their secrets to a robot.
- People will have relations with the mothers of these said robots.
- Intercourse with Americans is bad according to the Dutch.

2 opinions:
- The robots need to go beep boop and do it often.
- It's really easy to steal these things.

1 question - How many questions do these things ask?

Weekly Report 4/21 - I Am the Audio Removal King, Hail to Me

What I learned: How to destroy background audio with a vengeance.

What I want to learn: How to multicam edit. But how on earth will I accomplish that?

What made me happy: Organizing my computer's desktop. Best week ever.

What made me sad: My friend made me play starcraft. Had a 2 hour long game of me running around with one unit from my friend's gigantic army. Sad times all around.


Life saver:

Adobe Audition CS6 Tutorial | Reducing Background Noise | InfiniteSkills

Disney Dun Goofed Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- Deviant Art is a great place for free art for your merchandise.
- Disney just doesn't give a poop about anything anymore.
- Disney likes to not respond to problems upfront.

2 opinions:
- I'd totally buy that shirt + handbag.
- Dat girl needs to sue till she blue.

1 question - I wonder if this would make the cosmetic bags worth a lot of money for collectors?

JoCo's Code Mo Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- JoCo is still messin with his songs and whatnot.
- JoCo is successfully printing money.
- They got a famous artist doing the comic I think.

2 opinions:
- It's probably gonna get a ton of money, cause it's Kickstarter.
- They should just make a movie already.

1 question - Are there gonna be both physical and digital copies?

Weekly Report 4/14 - Introduce Your Child to the Beast

What I learned: How to spam warp stabilizer onto all your video clips.

What I want to learn: How to raise money for a steadicam.

What made me happy: Meh.

What made me sad: Not finishing stuff and looking forward at all the stuff I have to do.


What suddenly made me happy:

My friend that I did some work for on his concept album had finally released the official songs onto YouTube today. They feature several artists along with my friend Sean and myself, with Sean providing audio samples and lyrics and myself doing the video trailer and small guitar parts.

HELLO LEVIATHAN Trailer (Posted again for introduction)

The HELLO LEVIATHAN Trilogy Playlist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwfaDCG789o&list=PLUS4APK2uV9pGsjZ5QP5z1fAI0yLNShqS

Ten Storytelling Pointers Response

3 things I learned from this article:

- Removing backstory is a safe bet.

- Replacing your simple overused verbs with better ones makes your story much more interesting.

- Character thought monologues are a must need.

2 opinions:

- This definitely doesn't apply to all kinds of stories.

- A good hook is something I think about for every story I try to tell.

1 question - Will stories eventually become a few engaging sentences with no filling at all?

Smell-O-Vision Response

3 things I learned from this article:
- Oils are the best options for smelling.
- Using scents during theatrical events has been used over a hundred years ago.
- Fried chicken is the only thing people want to smell through a TV.

2 opinions:
- This is only good if I can prank my friends by putting in awful smelling oils into the machine.
- This is obviously a marketing technique by KFC.

1 question - Would there be 3rd party manufacturers making their own oils to put into the machine?