Blog 10

http://changethis.com/

        The article “Freak Factor” by David Rendall is all about how to deal with your strengths and weakness, and how they ultimately go together. In the article, Rendall describes nine different ways to deal with the strengths and weakness you have. Each idea is different, but they are all based around the same principle; we are all freaks, and that is totally ok.

I am going to take a look at three of the points that Rendall talks about in his article. The first point I am going to look at is point 5 “Foundation: Build on Your Strengths”. This point is about the fact that you have to continue to work on your strengths, even though they are the things that you are best at. I think that this is a good suggestion because havin stronger strengths will counteract and balance out your weaknesses, as well as give you a better idea of what you are really good at. By having great strengths, your weakness won’t be such a big deal, and they won’t have as much of an impact on your life as they would if your strengths weren’t really that good. I think that I could implement this into my own life by realizing what I am really good at, and focusing on that. I have realized that I’m not really good at animation, or graphic design, but I am really  good at management, and the business side of media. I can use this idea by focusing more on that aspect, then trying to be great at something I am terrible at.

The second point that I am going to look at is point 3 “Flawless: There’s Nothing Wrong With You”. This point looks at the idea that everyone is perfect just the way they are and that having weakness can actually be valuable to your life. Everyone is unique and different, and everyone has positive and negative things about themselves. Your strengths and weakness go together, and actually help you become a better person. I think that this is a really good suggestion. People often spend so much time consumed with whatever the think is wrong with them, and trying to change that. In that process, the lose part of who they are and what makes them so special and unique. It is important to understand that things that you think are wrong with you could ultimately end up being the things that help you the most. I think that I can use this in my creative life by looking at my weakness and strengths, and figuring out how I can make them work together.

The third point that I am going to look at is point 7 “Fit: Find The Right Spot”. This point is all about choosing a situation that fits your strengths, instead of trying to adapt to a situation that you don’t fit into. Rendall uses the example of Rudolph, who was made fun of because of his red nose, then made a hero when the time came. I think that this is a good suggestion because being a situation that doesn’t fit your strengths won’t work for anyone involved. If you are miserable and not good at your job, it won’t be a happy situation for anyone. Everyone’s strengths are different, and it is important that you find the place where your strengths work the best. I can use this in my creative life by making sure I find a job or internships that fit what my strengths, instead of trying to adapt to situations that I am not very good at. 

         Through this class I have found what some of my strengths and weakness are. My strengths are that I am pretty good at looking at the business and management side of things. I have also realized that I am pretty good at coming with creative ideas, as well focusing on the details like set design, production, and camera shots. I have found that my weakness deal with the more editing and digital side of things. I’m not very good at animating things, editing things, or drawing. Because of these strengths and weaknesses, I have decided to focus on media management over anything else.

Blog 9B

http://www.4shared.com/audio/rtyW6BH1/collapsus.html

www.Collapsus.com 

Blog 9A

For the game design project, my group decided to come up with an educational children’s game involving balloons. The premise of the game is that kids have to answer questions in order to receive balloons, and they go to next level after they receive a certain amount of balloons. When thinking about the presentation,  i came up with some points that didn’t exactly come across in class. The first point that I feel like didn’t come across was that each level would be different, kind of like different worlds. This fact would make each level fun for the kids because they could explore how the world were different , and they might end up having a favorite. Another thing that didn’t really come across was that there would be a wide array of questions, all at different levels so an array of kids could play the game and be challenged. One weak point of our game presentation was that we didn’t really have any pictures or visuals so people would have a better idea of what the game would actually look like. A strong point of presentations was that we had a lot of details for the rules of the game, and all of the different mechanics that would go into the game. I think that the hardest concept to talk about with other people is the mechanics of the game. Mechanics are the ways of play in a game. It is hard to talk about this without actually having a game to show people. Not having video and pictures of what they game will actually look like makes it harder to describe how you will have to go about when playing the game. While there are some things that we could have improved about our presentation, I really liked the idea that my group came up with, and I think that it would make a really cool game.

Blog 8A

The superhero I chose: Comet Queen

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

Blog 8B

 

My Hero

    

My Partner's Villain

Critques:

Nick Moore:

In the villain created by Nick Moore, as well as the hero created by his partner, the major difference between the two pictures is the Color. The hero is done with green and orange, including a couple of different hues of green. The brighter colors make the hero look nice, kind, and good. The villain is a stark difference in color from the hero. The villain is basically all black, with only a whitish-gray face. The fact that the villain is all black makes it look mysterious, creepy, and evil, which is exactly how a villain should look. The major differences between the colors in the characters helps to show the differences in the actual people. You can clearly tell who is good, and who is bad just by looking at them, and that is a big part of what color can do in an animation. When it comes to Contrast and Affinity, the hero and villain are very different in how the approach this concept. The hero uses affinity with the all green outfit, while the villain uses contrast with the dark outfit and white face. The affinity in the hero makes it look good, simple, and kind. The contrast in the villain makes the face stick out, and makes it just creepy, strange, and evil looking. For the topic of Active and Didactic, both the hero and villain use the didactic approach. Neither of the pictures tell you exactly who is the hero, and who is the villain. You have to come to your own conclusion by looking at the colors, backgrounds, stance, and body shapes of both characters.

Michael Garret:

For Michael Garret’s hero and villain, the main difference between the two of them is color. The hero really only has two colors, red and white, with a little bit of yellow. This absence of color, and brightness of the character help to make it appear good. The red gloves, masks, boots, and emblem gives the hero the appearance of strength. The red is the first thing that your eyes look at, and so you focus on his fist and feet, which are probably what he uses to fight off crime, which is why the little blocks of red work for the hero. For the villain, it is basically cloaked in black, from the hood to his feet. The black cloak makes it appear evil, mysterious, and scary, which is exactly how a villain should come off. The hero uses contrast and affinity, by having affinity in the main part of his costume by having it be all white. The affinity comes from the little blocks of red that show up on the mask, boots, and hands. This use of contrast and affinity help bring the idea of the hero to life. The villain uses the concept of tension and release to help show his villain personality. The tension comes the villain’s stance which is very wide. strong, powerful, and serious. The release comes from the weapon he is holding, which has little lines coming off of it to show movement, and the fact that it is lighting up, and releasing some kind of light or magic.

Brandon Reid:

The topic that I am going to look at for Brandon’s hero and villain is the topic of lighting. In the picture of the villain, there is a large amount of shadows, and not a lot of lighting on him. These shadows help to give the villain a dark edge that makes it appear spooky, and evil. The hero is the exact opposite of the villain. The hero basically has a glow around him. The yellowish and bright glow that is around the entire hero shows the goodness, and strength about him. The lighting of the hero helps to give the sense that he is all about good, helping, and fighting crime. On the topic of contrast and affinity, the villain uses affinity of color to appear mysterious, scary, and erie. The use of the same gray-blackish on the majority of the villain gives him a sense of strength, as well as an appearance of evilness. The hero uses contrast of colors to show strength, power, and ability. The contrast of the red cape, blue pants, and yellow belt give him a bright look, which helps translate into goodness, clearly making him a hero. Another topic that I am going to look at is the idea of active and didactic. The hero uses and active process by having the A on his belt, gun, and lightning bolt show that he is setting out to fight crime. However, the villain doesn’t really have anything to show that he is a villain so it is up to you to come to that conclusion by looking at other aspects of him.

Blog 7

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHzzKhY2604

The link to my Joke video. Joke #9

             The two videos that I have decided to compare our mine, Group 3, and Michael Garrett’s groups video (Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzmpOX5_scQ&feature=player_embedded#at=164 ). One topic that I am going to look at is the idea of lines. In both videos, we had very similar lines, and that is mainly do to the framing, and the how we shot our movies. Both of us use hallways, windows, sidewalks, and other basic structures to help frame our main characters, and draw the viewer straight to them. Sometimes, we used actual lines, like in the case of the halls, doorways, and windows. Sometimes it was visual lines, like the mom looking at her son, or the boy looking down at the clock. There was a larger amount of more linear lines in each video, and many of them helped to draw the viewers eye to the main character, and whatever else important that was going on.

      Another topic I am going to look at is the movement. The movement in the two videos was very different. In my group’s video, there really wasn’t a large amount of major movement. The boy and his mom only walked from one place to another a couple of times. This gave the video a calmer feeling, and it didn’t feel like anything was overly urgent. However, in the other groups video, there was a lot of movement, mainly from the boy running across campus to get to his class on time. The movement of him running gave the video a very rushed and excited feeling to it. It made the viewer sit on the edge of their seats to see if he would make it to class on time, without falling down.

     When it came to Text/Subtext, the two videos were very different. In my groups video, the son and mother came right out with what they were thinking, and it was very clearly stated. When it came to the second video, the boy never really came out and said that he was late for class, but that idea was implied by him looking at the clock, and running as fast as he could. My group’s video was more text filled, while the other group’s was more filled with subtext.

     The second binary term I am going to look at is conscious/subconscious. In my video, it was shown clearly where the boy learned that horrible language from, and why he was angry with his mom. The language his mother used was clearly the thing that impact the boy. For the other groups video, you were never told why he was late. You didn’t know if maybe he was up late studying, or hungover, or just lazy. It never came out and said why he overslept, why meant that what he did was more on a subconscious level.

Blog 6B

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_EhT01gu0k

That is the link to my blog 6B that I posted on Youtube.

Blog 6A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4INqx8-CB10

The link for my blog 6a that I posted on Youtube.

Blog 5B

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV_Lh5xytKM

This is the link to my video blog for 5b that I posted on Youtube. For some reason, the only way I could get it to work was by pasting the link. Anyways, this is my blog 5B.

Blog 5A

I chose that photo by Sally Mann for the blog, I then cropped it to the second photo. I was drawn to this image because I found it hauntingly beautiful. The background is kind of distorted, so you can't exactly  tell where she is. You can't see the girl's face, which is unique and different, I reframed it the way I did because I was intrigued by how the girl's hair was done, and also the way she is looking down. I think that the artist choose to frame the photo the way she did because it gives it a more haunting feeling. It also shows the light shining down on the girl, which illuminates the girl, and puts focus on her. By showing the entire background, it allows the viewer to feel the darkness that surrounds the girl, and better explains why her head is tilted down the way that it is. The photo has a large amount of visual intensity. The only thing in the foreground of the photo is the girl, the background is very distorted. This puts all of the emphasis on the girl, and gives the photo a haunting feeling. The space in the photo is very much divided by the background, and the girl. Because of the lighting in the photo, the trees in the background appear very far away from the girl creating a lot of distance and space. However, the fact that the girl’s legs aren’t shown, it cuts the distance and space in the photo. All of the lines in the photo focus the viewer’s eye directly on the girl. This is done by the fact that the beam of light coming down directly frames the girl’s body. Also, the background of the photo has very little lines to it, while the girl’s lines are very strong. That makes the girl stand out. This photo has contrast and affinity in it in a few different ways. For contrast, the background is very blurry, while the girl stands out. For affinity, both the background and the girl are a grayish color. When it comes to objective and subjective, it is objective that the girl is tiny, and near a forest, it is subjective to what she is looking at, and why her head is turned down.