Video Jokes

Nathan's Video

Alex's Video

The two joke videos that our group created have contrast and affinity.  The first video, my video, follows the story line of the joke exactly while Alex's video has some changes.  I like the fact that we had one video follow the joke and the other go its own way because it helped us figure out which way worked better.  We decided that my joke worked better because it was easier to follow.  In the first video there was a lot of movement.  Each scene started and ended with the character entering or exiting the shot.  This created movement by making the audience's eyes follow the character and it created a sense of plot movement through out the video.  The second video didn't have as much movement because most of the shots were of the character or characters in one place.  Both videos used space similarly; almost every scene was a tight shot of one character, or just a few, in a small space.  This enabled us to show the character's emotions very well because the audience can always see their faces.  Another element that  the first video had was rhythm.  In multiple shots there we used backgrounds to move the audience's eyes with rhythm across the screen to a certain point.  Another element that we used in both videos was tension and release.  At the end of both videos the character's farting built up tension in the audience, when we revealed the other characters across from him we gave the audience release because they realize what was actually happening and laughed at the joke.  All jokes create tension and release by making the audience think one thing and then tell them another.

This American Life

Video Game Design Presentation

There are two things within our presentation that I feel could have been changed so that our audience could better understand our game.  One would have been a comparison of the size of our main character to other objects, and the other would have been to play the actual music and sound effects that we would use in our game.
I would have like to compare the character's size to other objects because it would have captured the feeling of the character's struggle better.  Without and reference, the audience can't understand the odds that our character must face to change himself back to his original size.
Showing the audience the soundtrack and sound effects would also have enabled them to understand the weight of the character's difficulties and triumphs.  Without sound, video games would be extremely boring, especially when you are trying to tell a story.

I feel that goals are the hardest concepts to get across to an audience because depending on the story, there could be multiple goals and multiple motivations for reaching those goals.  Without actually showing an audience a game, I feel that it is very hard to express goals unless you lay out the entire story, gameplay, rules, mechanics, and objectives of that game.  Without doing so, the audience has no interest or reference as to how the character will achieve these goals and why he/she wants to achieve them.

Hero vs. Villain

Expo Extra Credit

This game is called Gull and you play as a seagull.  I played it for about five minutes and what you do is fly through different shaped hoops and can poop on people.  It definitely played better on the computer than the xbox though.  It was really cool playing a game that students made in the same school that I am in.

Video Game Imagery

Bioshock Infinite Gameplay

I commented on the portion between 4:30-8:30 in the video.
Please pause the video at 5:54 and 7:35 because I comment specifically on those parts of the video.  The reason I have done a separate audio commentary is because I don't know how to import youtube videos into imovie and change them.

How to be Creative

Reimagining Visual Framing

The reason I was drawn to this image by Ben Goossen is because I like the contrast and affinity of the wallpaper and the the window.  They contrast because the wallpaper makes it look like day inside while we can tell by the moon in the window that it is nighttime.  But there is also affinity because where the window is on the wallpaper is blue, the window pane is blue, and the sky is blue both inside and outside.  Another contrast is that the owl which is nocturnal, is inside a room painted to look like day while it is nighttime outside.  The reason I reframed this image is because it takes away the depth cues.  In the original image, you can tell how far away the chair is from the window because of the lines that make this image look 3d.  By taking away those depth cues, I made the image look very different.  I feel that Ben Goossen framed this image this way because he wanted to use the space to make the owl seem trapped.  By putting the owl in a chair, in a small square room that is painted to look like daytime, and with it being nighttime outside, he creates the sense that the owl is out of place and trapped.  By zooming in on the image, I took away that sense of space and now you don’t get the feeling the that the owl is trapped in a small square room.  In fact, you do not even know that the owl is in a room because you can’t see the walls or ceiling.  Goossen did a very good job of using the rule of thirds and visual movement and rhythm. He place the owl, the chair, and the window at the intersecting points of the thirds.  You fist look at the owl, then the chair, then the window.  By doing this, at first you don’t recognize that it is nighttime and because of the wallpaper, it looks like day.  Also, by making the chair be so tall and make it look like a ladder, it makes your eye go from the bottom of the chair to the back.  Because it looks like a ladder, there is visual rhythm.  It make your eye hop from step to step and makes the chair seem taller than it is. My zooming in on the image still holds the rule of thirds and doesn’t take away the visual rhythm of the chair.

My Animation

Commenting on Mackenzie's song

Mackenzie's song

This was the only song that was posted so far in our class so i did a critique of hers and below are two other people's blogs that I looked at for their songs.
Cummins
Bullington

"Brainwashed"

"Brainwashed" by Seth Godin

Acknowledging the Lizard- Godin says in this section that the "lizard brain" is in all of us and is what makes us worry about our safety and what allows us to get angry.  This part of our brain is what blocks our ability to create art by encouraging us to follow instructions and resist our artistic ideas.  He then says that we must recognize the resistance and the "lizard brain" and then ignore it to do artistic work.

Ship- In this section, Godin says that people who get things done and make a difference are indispensable, and that is who we must become.  To do this, we must ignore the "lizard brain" and risk failure and embarrassment to progress. 

The blogs that we are creating this quarter has forced us to ignore the "lizard brain" and become someone who ships.  We are forced to ignore our lizard brain because the projects that we do are creative and we have to post them to our blogs, forcing us to ignore the chance of being laughed at.  Also, since we are graded on our blog posts, we have to become someone who ships.  This is due to the fact that in order to succeed in this class, we must do the work ourselves and not worry about being criticized.

I feel that the assignments we are doing are not completely useless but I also feel that we could do different projects and exercises that we could benefit more from.  The blogs and projects do a good job of introducing us to media that we will and should be exposed to for our major, but they don't allow or create the incentive to put forth great effort in our work.  I think that doing fewer projects, ones that have more weight and that we are given more time to complete, would increase my interest in actually putting forward my best effort towards this class.

New playlist2

Blog #1

http://mdia203yellon.blogspot.com/

Monday, April 4, 2011

Who Influences me as a Creative Person

Although I do not know exactly what kind of creative person I am, I have the ability to come up with ideas that strike most people as unusual.  But just because they are unusual ideas does not mean that they are worthless.  I feel that it is almost impossible to be creative without having unusual thoughts and ideas.

Gears of War 2 Rendezvous trailer
The original Gears of War is what inspired me to become a Digital Media Major.  Cliff Bleszinski is the lead designer of Epic Games (which created the Gears of War franchise) and is an extremely influential artist to me.  This was one of the very first trailers for Gears of War 2, a video game created for the Xbox 360.  Cliff Bleszinski has not only influenced me but has also influenced the entire gaming industry.  Gears of War was the first game of its kind and many other franchises have used the ideas and innovations created by Cliff in their own games.  By creating such a unique and strong set of ideas, Cliff has shown me  the power of innovation.
In this particular trailer the main character, Marcus Fenix, is shown walking alone through a corridor with only the voice of a narrator filling the speakers.  He is then shown charging into a massive battle between his comrades and their enemy, the locust horde.  Through out the trailer, the sound of drums slowly grows louder and faster while a narrator with a very calm and solemn voice is speaking.  This is great use of tension and release.  The beginning of the trailer shows a quiet and gloomy scene with a quiet and gloomy narrator's voice speaking.  As the drums become louder, it creates tension as Marcus is charging into battle.  Finally, the narrator stops speaking and there is a climax in the drums.  The screen fades to black and the drums go silent returning releasing the audience of the tension and returning them to a familiar setting.
Bioshock Infinite Gameplay Trailer
Ken Levine lead designer of the Bioshock franchise and is an influential figure in my creativity.  Ken Levine, like Cliff Bleszinski, created a game the first of its kind.  Many of the ideas in the game, as well as the game play itself, are outside of the box.  He helps me realize that not all ideas have to be accepted at first or seem rational.   By thinking out of the box, ken shows that unorthodox ideas can many times be the best ones.
This is the first footage of the upcoming installment to the Bioshock franchise.  In the previous installments, you play as a character who has the ability to make choices through out the game.  In fact, the choices you make in the game directly affect the ending of the story.  With many video games now, Bioshock gives you the ability to be active instead of didactic.  In this short demo of the game, you can see varying choices made by the player and how they affect his next interactions.  While one player might view the theme of the game as seeking revenge against an enemy, the other might see the theme as being the hardships of survival and making the right choices.  With varying views, the players can have very different interactions with the game.  By using an active theme instead of a didactic one, the game is able to immerse the player much deeper than if there was one specific theme.
Lost in the World by Kanye West
One of my favorite artists is Kanye West.  Recently, he came out with a new album which is the reason I began to like him so much.  He is so influential to me because he produced the beats and rapped for this album.  Seeing someone produce something almost entirely on their own inspires me to tap my creative power for all that I can.
This song is a prime example of the use of text and subtext.  If the lyrics of this song were to be read literally, it would have no meaning what so ever.  But through the use of subtext, Kanye is able to use creative language to make meaning out of technically nonsense.  One the lines in the songs speaking about a woman he loves is "You're my stress, you're my masseuse."  He does not mean that she is actually his stress and his masseuse.  The subtext of the lyric is that she can frustrate him sometimes and cause stress, but other times she is what calms him down and relieves his stress such a masseuse would.

Commenting on Soundscapes

Soundscape 1: Xiao and Martinelli
Soundscape 2: Garret
Soundscape 3: Gilday

Cover Songs

Nina Simone - Feeling Good

Michael Buble - Feeling Good

The song Feeling Good was made by Nina Simone in 1965 and later covered by Michael Buble in 2006.  Both of the songs have the same lyrics except for their endings.  In the original, Simone finishes the song with about thirty five seconds of scat.  In the Buble's cover, he finishes the song by repeating the chorus multiple times.  Unlike the original, Buble's version has a period of about twenty five seconds of pure instrumentation in the middle and then continues with the lyrics.  I love the lyrics of this song and I feel that Buble made a good choice keeping the same lyrics.  While the lyrics of both the original and the cover are almost identical, the musical quality differs a bit more.  The rhythm and speed are the same while the intensity, pitch, timbre, and organization are contrasting a little between the two songs.  Through out the original, the voice and the instruments are more subdued than they are in the cover.  Also, the use of the instrumentation break in the cover increases the tension between the lyrics and makes for a more intense finish.  Another way that the songs differ is through their pitch.  Simone's voice is higher and Buble's is lower.  To counteract Buble's lower voice, the pitch of some of the horns are raised.  This also creates a more intense, sharper sounding song.  Buble’s version increases the timbre of the song by adding more instruments and increasing their volume.  

The version that I like the most is Michael Buble’s.  Although they are extremely similar, I find that Buble’s version carries more weight because of the choice of orchestra and his amazing voice.  The way he can create such passion and heartiness with his voice is really what makes me like his version the best.  

Soundscape

Find Your Howl

This is a link to read Find Your Howl.

The first story that Johathon Flaum references in Find Your Howl is about Mumon, one of the fourteen red wolves remaining in the wild in the 1970's and his journey to find his howl.  Because the wolves were raised in captivity, none of them knew how to howl and some wished to be back in captivity.  Mumon did not.  He vowed to search for his howl so he could lead the pack and keep them alive.  After traveling many miles, Mumon became hungry and chased down a deer.  During the chase, the deer speaks to Mumon and tells him that his howl will come to him when he needs it.  After eating the deer, ravens begin to pick at the bones while Mumon sleeps on a rock.  When he awakens, a raven tells him he must rid himself of the shame of being wild to find his howl.  Mumon rises and with the energy from the deer and decides to run.  With each passing mile he shed the self he knew and was becoming a new wolf.  Without realizing it, he approaches a farmer with a gun and is shot.  He imagines himself at the center of the earth, burning with fire and surrounded by a drumming tribe.  At this moment, he begins to howl.  Once regaining his awareness, Mumon realizes that the tribe was actually his pack, and they all began to howl.

The main point of the author referencing this story is to show that we must sacrifice everything and do things that are unbearable to find our self, our howl.  In the story Mumon must explore and rid himself of his past to find who he truly was.  We must do the same.

One of my Favorite quotes about DREAMS

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.
-T. E. Lawrence

Without dreams, our world would be very different.  The dreamers in our society are the ones who come up with new and unbelievable ideas.  But we must remember that they all started out as dreams.  Without the work and creativity of the dreamer, many of the ideas would be forgotten just like a dream one has at night.  To actualize an idea spawned from a dream, one must put all their effort towards progressing it.  In this sense, one would have to sacrifice everything and find their howl within their dream or idea.  This quote is a great way of explaining how dreams, in the mind of the right dreamers, can be very dangerous.

“14 Ways to get Breakthrough Ideas”

This is a link to Mitch Ditkoff's "14 Ways to get Breakthrough Ideas" http://changethis.com/.

The article begins with the author explaining what innovation is and the two schools of thought on the subject.  One has a strong bias towards thinking while the other towards feeling.  Ditkoff says that both are effective and are used by us at different times.  He then gives a list of fourteen ways to come up with ideas. They are:  follow your fascination, immerse, tolerate ambiguity, make new connections, fantasize, define the right challenge, listen to your subconscious, take a break,notice and challenge existing patterns and trends, hang out with diverse groups of people, brainstorm, look for happy accidents, use creative thinking techniques, and suspend logic.  Each technique is explained and he suggests ways to implement them into your creative process.

I feel that a lot of the techniques provided by Ditkoff in the article are valid and useful.  In fact, some of the examples given have happened to me.  The first suggestion that I find to be particularly useful is to Take a Break.  Many times I have been working on something and was unable to get past a certain point.  I became more and more frustrated until I eventually gave up and walked away.  I focused on something totally different and when I came back to it, everything seemed to flow out of me.  Taking a Break is extremely helpful when I am stumped.  From now on when I am struggling with something, I will not get frustrated and try to force myself to work; I will listen to Ditkoff and take a break.

The next suggestion that I feel will enhance my creative process is to Immerse.   Although I have yet to find something to completely immerse myself in, when I do, this is very good advice.  A lot of my time is spent in my room doing work, hanging out, and multitasking with many distractions surrounding me.  In that environment, it can be very difficult to focus all my energy on one specific thing and develop it.  To set a time apart in a place with no distractions and solely focus on an idea could jump start my creative process and allow me to progress with an idea much more efficiently.  Also, isolating time to immerse myself in an idea can alleviate stress and increase my chances of having a breakthrough development.

The third creative suggestion that I could incorporate into my creative process is to Hang Out with Diverse Groups of People.  There are billions of people in this world and each one is different from the other.  If you only socialize with one group of people, everything is basically familiar and your creativity can be hindered.  If you socialize with others that you do not usually socialize with, you can find new meanings, different view points, and different personalities which can challenge your beliefs and change the way you act and think.  Every person thinks in their own way and can potentially ignite an idea in another person's head.  With a broader base of people to socialize with, one can find ways to make connections between different cultures and lines of thought to create new ideas.  Hopefully I can use this technique not only to spark my creativity but also to meet new people and learn more about myself.

3. What new idea of yours is bubbling on the brink of breakthrough? In what ways can you stay with it, even if something in you is impatient for a breakthrough?


Recently, I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep and an idea for a new video game popped into my head.  I immediately took my phone and quickly outlined the idea.  When I woke up, I took another look at my idea and it found it to be pretty good.  I tried to come up with more but I wasn't able to develop anything that I liked.  Later that day when I was in my room another idea sprung into my brain and again I took out my phone and wrote it down.  For the past couple weeks, ideas for this video game have been popping into my head and I have been writing them down.  I have tried to sit down and come up with more but have only been able to find new ideas when I'm not expecting it.  If I continue to write down the ideas that pop into my head, I feel that eventually I will have enough to be able to create something that is well developed and structured.  I will stay with my idea by continually working on it in short increments and by combining the bits and pieces that I come up with in creative ways.  This idea is very important to me because I am a digital media major and hope to one day create video games like the one I am slowly beginning to create now.

Link to my TA's blog.

TA's Blog

Koalaphant

Link to another blog.

Link to another blog.

Nathan Yellon's MDIA 203 Blog