Playing with Compositions

Same 5 basic shapes, different compositions based on emotions:

Serenity:

Anger:

Busyness:

Growth:

Intimacy:

Loneliness:

Jenni

Speaking with Animation

For this blog, I chose a short animation (45 sec.) done by one of my favorite artists, Lois van Baarle. She is an illustrator and computer animator from Holland. Her work is amazing, and I would highly recommend checking out her website, loish.net. The animation I chose was done for her Paperbag Parachute Studio website. The project is entitled, "Paperbag Parachute." It features four main characters, three monkeys on a branch mocking a fourth lone monkey on another branch. The style of the work is 2D animation which happens to be the traditional animation style, used in classic cartoons. She created the animation using a tablet stylus and produced in Flash.

The animation begins with an overall view of the environment, a desert perhaps with some trees spread out across the plain (she gives off the illusion of 3D by placing some trees further on the z-axis creating 3D depth in a 2D environment), then three monkeys appear on a branch when suddenly a fourth monkey appears from above on a separate branch. The fourth monkey, who is styled somewhat differently (different color, bigger hair, lop-sided eyes) from the first three monkeys, gives a friendly wave at the three monkeys on the opposite branch. His endearing gesture is met with lively laughter from the three monkeys, then the taunting begins, and the fourth monkey does not understand what is so funny. Then one of the three monkeys takes out a pen and paperbag, draws a happy face on it and throws it over the fourth monkey's head. The clouds roll in from above and the skies become dark and lightening strikes the tree of monkeys. The tree collapses along with the three monkeys, but the lone fourth monkey remains afloat due to the paperbag parachute.

This whole piece was meant to show that in life, there will always be people who put you down for being different, but what goes around comes around and the one who was taunted will one day rise to the top. It was also the inspiration behind her animation website, paperbagparachute.com. My only criticism is that the animation contains no sound, which is somewhat disappointing. I felt that by adding sound, it would have greatly elevated the user's experience and engaged the viewer more.

With that said, I hope you enjoy this piece as much as I did, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF1tWCdesMw

Jenni

Best Movie Ever!!!

Special thanks to Tal!

Post Production Notes

Where to start? Planning my first 3 minute documentary about the music people listen to was exciting, drawing out the storyboard was the first step in making my mini-movie come to life. Shooting the actual footage used in our documentary was challenging, I learned a lot about framing the interview participant with concerns to lighting, I also learned that acquiring sound with the camera microphone isn't the best way to capture sound outdoors. I had trouble hearing some of my interviewees outside of Hunter, the ambient sound was too strong and during post-production, I had to edit these interviews out. I was surprised at how willing the students at Hunter were to be filmed, all interview participants were extremely friendly and I found the entire shooting experience to be fun and fulfilling. I was able to interview a number of people during the short time we had during class, which is something I was worried about during pre-production.

Editing the video was an entirely different story, I discovered that editing even a short documentary is tedious and requires a lot of time and effort. The first time Tal and I began editing our footage we worked for about three hours only to discover that we were unable to save our project. Due to this setback, we had to start editing all over again. However the second time we were able to edit, we really had an idea of which shots we were going to use and which ones were completely unusable. Our transitions between scenes really began working once we added our soundtrack to the piece. It made the documentary flow a lot easier and helped with our continuity. Overall, I thought the piece came out great! It was short and to the point and thanks to planning, it came out the way I hoped it would. If I had to change anything about the process, it would be obtaining a better microphone, a lavalier perhaps, this captures sound better than a camera mic. I have learned that capturing sound is just as important, if not more important than capturing images.

This whole experience really makes you appreciate all the hard work that goes into making a film or documentary. While watching an edited film or video, you never really even think about all the effort that took place in order to make the piece, now when I watch films and other media, I think about the steps someone made to capture that one shot and the amount of editing someone did to ensure continuity. Thanks to this project, I have a greater understanding of how films/videos are made :)

Jenni

Editing Analysis: The Office Wedding

The Office is a half-hour comedy show on NBC, it's collection of unique and hilarious characters always manage to put a smile on my face. If you have never seen the show, I highly recommend checking it out! They really outdid themselves in the last episode, the long awaited union of Jim and Pam, the show's main couple whose relationship took three seasons to come to fruition. Jim and Pam, otherwise known as “Jam” by fellow bloggers, finally got married! The show decided to use a montage or as we learned in lecture, a series of shots assembled in a way that the juxtaposition of the images create meaning. Montage is associated with Soviet filmmakers of the 1920’s, like Sergei Eisenstein. The special hour-long episode ended in a YouTube video spoof on an actual wedding, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0.

The clip begins with brief dialogue between Pam and her maid of honor. Pam says that she specifically requested the song, Chris Brown’s “Dance Forever,” not be played on her big day, the cast however, had other ideas. Soon the entire cast of The Office is seen dancing and waving their arms down the aisle, a great scene of jubilance and love. The shots are meant to document the church wedding as well as the pre-wedding of Jim and Pam on a boat at Niagara Falls, the weddings were then mashed together to form one long, continuous wedding.

The song and rhythm play an important part in setting up the scenes to follow, group by group, characters dance down the aisle then reemerge for a collective big finish. In one of the last scenes, the music ends and Jim is seen explaining his plans for the wedding day, then they cut to a shot of the couple from over the shoulder, the camera then swings to Pam's profile and Jim is seen smiling. This final shot, for me, was an amazing example of editing that made a significant contribution to the storytelling and feel of the piece. The scenes begin with great excitement and music, by the end of the piece, it is calm, quiet and peaceful happiness, one smile from Jim, the piece ends and hearts melt. The clip, a little over three minutes long, ended up getting great reviews from bloggers and fans, those who had already saw the YouTube video and those who had just seen it for the first time, were both able to appreciate The Office wedding montage.

Check it out! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX7iwwB9zQ4

Jenni

Short Documentary Piece

Pitch

Short (3-5 min.) documentary that goes outside the classroom and into the halls and streets of Hunter College to ask people, “what’s on your iPod?” We want to seek out possible interviewees, with their permission, and discover what kind of music they listen to and why?

Production Notes

Interviews: shoot in and outside of Hunter College, pause briefly and record ambient sound. We want to express a sense of feeling for the environment but it’s important that audio not interfere with dialogue. We should avoid asking questions that can be answered with a simple yes/no and try to engage the interviewee in a conversation about their relationship with music.

Possible interview questions:

• · What are you listening to right now?
• · What’s on your iPod?
• · What kind of music do you listen to?
• · Who is your favorite artist or band and why?
• · What’s your favorite song and why?
• · What was the last song you listened to?
• · How much of a role does music play in your life?
• · Who is the best artist/band of all time and why?
• · Etc…

While shooting, we will try to provide just enough headroom so that the subject remains in focus and the background slightly out of focus. As far as making the video visually interesting, we want to shoot some shots of the overall environment, up-close on hands and iPod screens, that we can mix with multiple angles shot during the interview. See what makes the person unique and how the music they listen to reflects that. The interviewee should have eye contact with the camera, as if they are speaking directly to the lens of the camera.

While editing, we will add a brief music clip of the song the interviewee is discussing in the background. We will also have to add text:

Black screen: “What does Hunter listen to?”

Interviewee’s name and where they are from is visible in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

Jenni

Relationship with Media Today

We live in a society driven by media, our consumption is insatiable for the constant feed of up-to-date news and entertainment. I've become so dependent on the immediacy and accessibility of media, that it's difficult to imagine what life would be like without the many forms that I view on a daily basis.

For news and current events, I watch CNN, HLN or browse huffingtonpost.com, I like to visit these mediums daily as a means of staying informed and connected to the outside world. From time to time, the Huffington Post will include interesting articles written by actors, musicians and other celebrities. It's important to have a variety of informative sources, especially on controversial topics. The web site is user-friendly and contains tons of categorized articles at your fingertips.

Browsing YouTube and various digital design blogs is a great way of exploring work that inspires and connects me with other artists from around the globe. I tend to shy away from popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace, but Internet discussion forums provide a place to share my ideas and build a sense of community that without this technology could not have been possible.

I also view alternative media like The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and late night talk shows like The Tonight Show and Chelsea Lately, they offer a more light-hearted take on reality, of course they're meant to entertain and not necessarily to inform. Ultimately, these shows present information comically and mock major cable networks like FOX, CNN and MSNBC.

My vices are reality TV and gossip sites- forms of being entertained in the most mindless way. It's sort of a love/hate relationship, gossip sites can be funny, but I hate the way they sometimes portray women and uphold certain beauty standards. Reality shows also glorify dangerous behaviors and some would say "dumbs down*" our culture, but for the most part it's just plain ridiculously entertaining.

*Elite versus Mass, Jurgen Kronig

Jenni