Blaaaaag Again

This MDIA 3110 class has been a good experience. I would enjoy more chances to get up in arms and discuss tv shows or an aspect of a medium. However I think that this class environment is difficult to create discussion anyway so I think that this was a good balance of assignments, collective commenting, and work.

Reflect and Blag

At the beginning of this MDIA 3110 course we listed grouping of television shows based on different criteria. Now that this course is drawing to an end I can better review my own list and see how that list may change or reflect my own preferences in television.

I guess my tastes of favorite and less favorite television shows that my personality wants more depth in a program. I also enjoy watching shows where I can see some sort of angle from outside of the reality of the television show itself, even if it is simple. Here are a few examples of this:

Hannibal: I believe that it is becoming popular to have a main character in a program to have an accent, specifically an accent that is difficult to hear at some points. Hannibal Lecter is played by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and his accent is quite thick but somewhat pleasing. Another angle I see in Hannibal is its writing. I found it to be very good compared to other recent television shows I've seen in the past, I come away from the season wanting more.

Adventure Time: I personally get more involved in this show because I've done my research on the studio and it's creator, Pendleton Ward. I feel I have a deeper connection to the show because I know a little more about its creation then the average viewer. I guess you could say that I feel included while everyone else is a 'them'.

Accents/Internationals: This isn't a tv show... This is one of the angles I've picked up that I also mentioned in Hannibal but I realize that I can back this angle up much more to even convince some of you that it's true. The following new shows that I've seen have difficult accents to understand: Hannibal (duh), Siberia, and Crossing Lines. Why this is a trend I have absolutely no academic guess because the television is a distracted medium. Viewers often multitask while watching television. They would not contribute this amount of attention to decoding the characters accents and thus become disengaged from the series... My best guess as to why this is becoming to producers is for those viewers that do focus enough to hear the words and thus get more involved. (That or I am just really bad at understanding accents and this whole argument is null).

So from the above examples I'd say that my viewing habits have been transformed from the uneducated viewer to the more keen television critic. I am very pleased with this transformation however it does leave me slightly regretful. Because of my new approach to television I lose some of my childlike wonderment of shows I previously adored. Prison Break was and still is a great series. However I watched some seasons again and I caught some very cliché dialogue and some uncomfortable plot points. It was definitely disappointing to go back and realize that it wasn't like how I had remembered it.

As for my sense of identity I find this to be a great step in my growth. I aspire to be involved in television when I have the chance. It is a wonderful surprise if not a relief to realize that I am adapting to the viewer point of a producer/critic instead of the average viewer. If I ever wish to succeed it is important that I have my eyes open to the right clues not only in my own projects, but others as well.

I haven't really stopped watching the tv shows I mentioned earlier (except The Office) but I'd say that if I stopped watching a show it would be due to an underdeveloped story or a shallow program in general. When I watched The Dog Whisperer to comment on a groups post I was so bored out of my mind that I actually asked myself why I was wasting my life...

I'm very glad to have taken this class. It developed my viewing style and I believe that it can only get better from this point on.

Group Work

Video: http://www.hulu.com/watch/486883#i0,p0,d0
Other members of group:
John T.: http://johntemmingmedia.blogspot.com
Nick Y.: http://nickyak311.blogspot.com

The show we were assigned followed the lives of 4 couples right at the start of their marriage together. It is an interesting concept when the viewer's attention is brought to the fact that these marriages might not actually still hold at the end of the television show. I think that it is an interesting perspective on marriage and how people base their decisions on each other and themselves. There were many different cultures represented in the show, most not stereotypically, but some were.

As a group I found that we agreed on most topics. We arranged contact through email. Unfortunately I was only able to submit my initial response before the deadline for the assignment. In reading John and Nick's thoughts I found that I agreed with much of the topics and we found a central agreement, for example there was a specific group that was quite stereotypical and we all spotted that. We didn't really find the need to argue on any subject, I think we saw each others perspectives quite clearly. As a whole I found this show to better than what I thought it would be when I first clicked the link. It has broadened my perspective on couples and their interactions.

Group portrayal in media

Firstly, I think that media is highly dependent on the ideology for which it is created, Shutter Island was not created in the same way Garfield The Movie was created.. I will do my best to think of media representation as in ‘All Media’ and try to consider all ideologies but obviously I myself am biased due to my own personal preferences and choices.

Children:

I believe that children are underrepresented in media. In most television shows they may have one child in one episode and feature that child as the hook for that episode. I think that this is so because it is difficult to relate to children as adults or teenagers. I think the purpose for most media makers is to create a relatable set of characters and most media makers strive for an older demographic that are not children. This concept comes up with women as well, unfortunately. I think children’s stereotypes are that of innocence, purity, and deception. The first two are obvious and positive reflections of children. I believe that deception is a stereotype of children now as well. I’ll explain with a few examples:

Criminal Minds: Young twin psychopath kills his brother

Game of Thrones: First episode, small child is revealed to be evil

&

All horror movies that have a kid in them…

The point of the deception is to shock people but I think that it is becoming so frequent that I can classify it as a stereotype.

Women:

Women, REAL women, are underrepresented in media. The default gender of the camera is male so immediately it is difficult to change that ideology. The stereotypes of women are eye-candy, not-as-capable-as-men, and ignorant. I don’t think that any of these attributes are positive (the first one can be positive but I think that eye-candy objectifies women). This is where my bias may affect what all media says but from my experiences there are very few strong, protagonist, hero, women characters. I think a great example of objectification could be Machete Kills. Sofia Vergara’s outfit says it all.

Rich:

I think that the rich are represented more in media then they would be in real life. I think this is because the vast majority of viewers want to be like the rich characters and enjoy watching them. I think the stereotypes of rich people are ignorance (again), carelessness, and rudeness. Granted, depending on what film or tv show you watch this might be drastically different but I believe that these are three characteristics that fit well. These characteristics aren’t positive. I think that most shows that have the one or two rich people in them are good examples of how rich people fit these stereotypes. An example of an outlier would be Suits because these characters are more well of than the average person and yet are not careless or ignorant at all (sure are rude though).

Again I think that anybody’s singular answer to these questions would be undereducated. If you asked a child what characters were underrepresented the answer would be very different from an adult white male. Keeping that in mind it is still interesting how these patterns emerge for treating groups of people, even varying from each demographic to the next!

The Construction of Celebrity: Arnold

Now that the Terminator is no longer governor of California he has time to continue on acting as he had. But before leaving office he played a small cameo acting, almost parodying himself, in The Expendables. It revisits his role as the big action hero protagonist purely because he is in a movie with other action hero geezers. Hero Complex argues that The Expendables was Arnold's first step back into the old way of things.

Anyway, Arnold's first lead role since a long time was The Last Stand. Didn't see it myself but I can still say that it looks like the action movies he became known for. From what Ben Kendrick says in his critique of the movie he believes that Arnold embraces his character and fully satiates those jokes we saw too much in The Expendables series. The actor also continues his old look with what you would say is the larger-than-life hero.

I guess, from what I've seen, what others have said about The Last Stand, and from the list of futures titles for Arnold on imdb, there isn't anything new to expect other than more of the old same... And also what we've seen Bruce Willis do since... I don't even know... maybe Surrogates?

I feel that since Arnold is playing his age card intertextuality comes naturally. They depict him to be the guy whose done everything in The Expendables, even though he's in it for maybe a solid 3 minutes. In The Last Stand he's old, and he's old in real life. He's really just going with the flow in my opinion.

If I were Arnold I don't know if I'd want to reshape my image. I'm having trouble finding something that he can go to now that he hasn't already sort of covered. He's been in action and comedy. For giggles lets say that Arnold wanted to change his image from what he is now, build up by all of his past experiences, to an actor that nobody really respects anymore like Charlie Sheen. All Arnold would have to do is get into some trouble first, more trouble than he has now, and the entertainment media would do a lot of the ground work for him. Once that plaster of 'bad actor' is molded he can go into some acting roles playing less heroic characters than he has played in the past. More importantly less decisive and powerful. With these less solid characters people would change their image of the strong body builder to that of a plain old actor.

Cited:
http://screenrant.com/last-stand-movie-reviews-2013/
http://herocomplex.latimes.com/uncategorized/arnold-schwarzenegger-expendables/
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000216/?ref_=sr_1

Some Media Critics

The three critics/orgs I chose:

NYTimes A.O. Scott- http://movies.nytimes.com/movies/critics/A-O-Scott
www.Spill.com
http://www.catholicnews.com/movies.htm

A.O. Scott: When it comes to critics they can talk about nearly anything they want. I like Scott because he talks about the rhythm and pacing of stories and their overall feel rather then just focusing on the plot or a specific aspect of a movie. When I was younger I may have enjoyed something along the lines of what I just described however now that I am more knowledgable in movie making I find the overall picture more interesting.

Spill.com: I came across this through hyperlink clicking and I found it very interesting. The website, from what I can tell, is a collective of four different hosts who do collective critiques on movies. What sets Spill apart is that they do their critiques set to an animated short, it's rather interesting in itself. I chose this critic/webpage because I like how you can get four rather different opinions on a movie. After watching a few of the videos myself I found that I agreed and disagreed with each of the four hosts at one point or another and took their critiques more seriously or frivolously according to our similarities.

http://www.catholicnews.com/movies.htm: This site doesn't click with me, however I do find it very intriguing and insightful (even if insightful means into something I may not believe 100%). For those who do not know the Catholic religion (forgive me for possible incorrect capitalization) has its own rating system for movies in the Media Reviews Office. The system reflects the moral views of The Church (again, capitalization). If you go to http://old.usccb.org/movies/movieall.shtml the ratings are at the bottom. I chose this critic/website because I find it very interesting. If you were to click through some of the movie ratings yourself I think you may agree. Firstly the MPAA ratings do not relate to the Catholic CNS ratings. Secondly some of the plot summaries and highlighted points might seem strange to point out or phrased in a jargon that... actually, yeah makes sense for the Catholic Church. Finally, and what I find the most interesting, is the base for which each system comes from. MPAA is fluid, it has the ability to change and mold with society. CNS is a religion, it is not fluid and is unaffected by the constraints of society. I think it is interesting reading the CNS "moral test"-esqu critiques because I never thought of it from that perspective. (It also brings into perspective on how much society has drifted from "morals" at least in the Catholic Church standard. For ex. The Great Gatsby was harshly rated because of it's general acceptance to adultery... The audience in the theater doesn't really care about that though.)

When it comes to finding specific critics however, I struggled. I searched for a solid day before writing this post. I'm not exactly sure how to come across critics with a similar [personality, driving factor, moral standard, thought process]. I guess the best way is to just keep looking!

Slate Articles on Criticism

I don't read many television reviews or keep up with the top TV critics, my favorite information is the ratings. However I did find Josh Levin's articles interesting and thought provoking. It was nice to get a simple explanation of how television criticism worked. I always assumed that there were different types of critics for television but having Levin use the restaurant analogy helped explain the situation further. I thought it was interesting how critics play a role in a television show. When it comes to Sepinwall I had no idea that Community cameoed him or that he was such an advocate for keeping Chuck alive (thank god he did). It is interesting to find out how shows are affected or effect critics.

I clicked on two links sort of crucial to my understanding of the article. For example one link was when Levin was summing up Sepinwall's career. I had no idea what NYPD Blue was. After clicking on the link I found that it brought me to Sepinwall's website on the show NYPD Blue. It looked very complete and full of information, if I had seen NYPD Blue before I may have been more interested in looking into the website. The second link I want to talk about is the Community link. Sepinwall had a cameo on the NBC show Community and I clicked on that to find out more. Having seen the episode and having a fairly good memory about it I can say that Sepinwall didn't have a large role, but I'm sure it was an exciting experience nonetheless (tying in Levin's concern about objectivity or duty towards a show).

When it comes to responses to this topic everybody has an opinion and a lot of people have voiced it. Looking at the comments from the assigned readings people have a fairly open mind about their opinions and are having discussions in the comments section. (Then there are those people that comment only about Lost...) What I think is important out of the responses is the idea of where the critics are posting from. There are two totally different expectations when you pull an article from NYTimes and The Onion. I'm sure that the reasoning behind this applies to subjective sites that criticize media.

I want to add my own response to Josh Levin's thoughts about television criticism and the idea of critics feeling obligated to say one thing or another based on extraneous experience. I think that Josh Levin and others are too focused on keeping a traditional sense of criticism. When all the cards are down it comes down to what people want to read. Criticism is just a persons opinion in the first place, what adds or subtracts from their opinion is not foul play as long as the reader knows about the factors. In the case of Sepinwall he has openly explained what happened and that he was in an episode of Community. Viewers should understand that his experiences with the show will effect his thoughts ergo writing. People should not scold Sepinwall for having an experience or a change in opinion, it is inhuman to remain the same all the time.

MDIA 3110 Television Lists

Here are my lists:

1) Shows I've been watching since school is out

The Soup, The Office, Community, Archer, Bates Motel, Tosh.0, Hannibal, Survivor (season just ended though), The Following, SNL

2) Shows I watch sometimes because of others

Grimm, Touch

3) Shows I should watch

Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Dr. Who, The Americans

4) Guilty Pleasures

Adventure Time, Burn Notice, Suits

5) All-Time Favorites

Prison Break, Bravest Warriors, 24, Whose Line is it Anyway, Breaking In (cancelled, then restarted, then cancelled again...), Superjail!, The Amazing Race, Breaking Bad, Dexter, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Pretender, Get Smart

6) Shows that have fallen out of my favor

The League, Naruto, Family Guy, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Boardwalk Empire, Psych, Monk

7) Shows I resisted but now watch

The Office, America's Got Talent

8) Rather eat charcoal

Grimm, Glee, American Idol

9) TV shows I have actually stopped in the middle of to re-watch a section that I loved

Community- the moment when Chang first used his name as a pun.

Breaking Bad- Season 4 finale when Walter says on the phone "I won".

The Office- Michael Scott singing Happy Birthday all alone in the woods of Scranton.

Expand/Explain:

#1 Survivor: My family made a habit of watching the shows for the past few years. The show is like a family event that we share every week.

#4 Adventure Time: I feel a little guilty for this show because it's on Cartoon Network and younger kids watch the show. I think that I watch it because of its nostalgic principals and its different dialogue.

#5 Superjail!: I really think this is a good show because of its very intricate fight scenes and its very detailed scenes. I could go without some of the Adult Swim-esque humor but I still think this is a great show.

#6 Psych: I've come to find some of the humor and quick jabs irritating.

1. Your Voice

Jonathon Flaum describes a principle of life through a story he recalls from his younger years. Flaum's rhetoric is blurring and complicated but ironically the concept he tries to outline is very simple; to grow we must explore. Flaum uses the analogy of the futile escape attempts of a caged tiger. He says the tiger cannot escape because the cage is a part of the tiger and he brings it with him wherever he goes.

In my own interpretation of Flaum's anecdote I found that the tiger is trapped simply because captivity is all it knows. Flaum says we must transcend our cage to have ‘new life’ or grow. Take any challenge like opening a door, talking to your love for the first time, walking on two feet; any of these tasks challenge us to get out of our comfort zones (cages) and learn something new without any assurance of safety like the feeling of failure if you can’t open a door, the possibly getting crushed by your infatuation, or tripping over your feet.  

You will learn over the rest of this post that I possess a very healthy self-esteem. I actually created my own favorite quote, “Don’t Stop”. I could almost say that the song “Don’t Stop” by Foster the People inspired my quote because that is the source of the words, but the true essence of them is missing.

These two words speak to me because they are my trigger and because this trigger is in the optimal position to be pulled daily. I engineered the quote to have both words capitalized and for it to be short because it implies both importance and urgency. The quote is my trigger because I respond to self-motivation. I believe that to succeed one must have the drive to excel and not only do I have it, I am proud of it. The optimal position I mentioned earlier is my computer. The quote is programmed to appear on my screen if I switch between programs for a long period of time, which is something I do when I am bored. Once that quote pops up on my screen the fire inside me begins to burn red hot and I remember that to succeed one must have the drive to excel. This quote has been my panacea for the last year and has been the catalyst for some of my most acclaimed achievements.

We know that Flaum believes that to break free of our cage we must venture into the unknown. My favorite quote is the domino that tips the venturing into motion. Because of my self-motivation and the use of my quote to catalyze my actions I am consistently digging out of more and more cages. I think that Flaum would be proud of my ability to dive into the unknown and impressed with the experience I have with it. 

2. Storytelling

The medium I chose to tell my story is a computer program. Unfortunately I cannot upload the actual program. I chose to use a program as my medium because that gave me the ability to customize the story. I realized that the best way to make a story for third grade children was to let them control the tale.

In my program the user is asked three questions and their name. These three questions change the story and make it seem like the user may have actually created some of the work themselves. I would want to make this a picture book but if I did that it would require too many pictures because of how many options the story gives. What I have posted is just one of the possibilities for my story. The input from the user determined the dog breed, the vacation trip location, the dog name, the author, and the name of Emily's friend. 

I used Apple Terminal to create a program using the Java coding language. 

This is the top of the Java program I coded

This is the bottom of the Java program I coded

This is some of the user input to create the story

A Girl and Her Dog

By: Thomas

One sunny day a little girl named Emily went with her mom to the animal shelter to get a birthday present.

Emily saw many animals at the shelter but Emily’s Mom decided that they were going to get a cute golden retriever

On the ride home the golden retriever rested its head in Emily’s lap. Emily was happy.

When Emily got home her Mom walked her inside and asked Emily what she wanted to name the dog.

Emily said: I want his name to be Pumpkin!

And so they named him Pumpkin.

Pumpkin and Emily got along really well. Emily would tell Pumpkin to do tricks and he would do them for a little treat.

Emily took Pumpkin on walks to the park with her Mom all the time.

When they got to the park she would always play Frisbee with Pumpkin. Sometimes her friend Thomas would be in the park too and they would all play together.

One day Emily got to take Pumpkin to the family camp site. Emily was happy and had lots of fun with Pumpkin there.

One morning Emily woke up and wanted to see Pumpkin but instead she found her Mom crying.

She asked her what was wrong, her Mom said that Pumpkin had to go back to the family camp site because he had so much fun there.

Emily asked if she could go with Pumpkin but her Mom said she had to stay.

Emily was upset and ran up to her room and cried, she wanted to be with Pumpkin.

A few days later Emily went with her Mom to the park. She was sad that Pumpkin wasn’t there with her.

Thomas was at the park already and asked Emily why she was sad.

Emily told Thomas what happened to Pumpkin.

Then Thomas said: I miss Pumpkin too, but don’t forget all the fun times we had together.

Emily frowned and nodded; she still missed Pumpkin.

Emily’s Mom was standing near by and heard Thomas; she came up and told Emily that it’s important to cherish the memories you have.

Emily agreed. It was more fun to feel happy than to feel sad.

Emily’s Mom passed the Frisbee to Thomas and Emily played with Thomas until her Mom told her it was time for dinner.

The End.

3. Media Critique

Bravest Warriors Episode 1, Time Slime: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpDOscUDQ_0

Bravest Warriors is an animated-short comedy series created by Pendleton Ward (Adventure Time). The plot is loosely based on four teens who save people and fight evil monsters.

I think Time Slime opens a whole new level of cartoon realism relying heavily on verbal spontaneity and creative humor. The characters of Bravest Warriors use a new style of language that might begin to catch on with the next generation. Specifically, the characters use slang like “moop” to mean emotion and they change phrases like, “we have to go,” into “we got’s to book”. Not only is their dialogue different but their delivery is deviant (alliterations galore) of other cartoons. In Time Slime there are a few lulls in conversation that are reflective of natural conversation but not of cartoon conversation. Time Slime is also unique because of its humor. The comedy is a mix of both adult and child humor that draws upon multiple concepts of humor. One example is the reoccurrence of Danny’s middle finger. In improvisation techniques it’s taught that having situations reoccur are funnier than trying to tell jokes. Another example is the use of unexpected situations. During the scene with Prof. Fartsparkles a character yells, “Pour the slime” and there are sirens buzzing and machinery moving to prepare to pour the slime. The audience will then draw humor from the fact that the machinery didn’t actually hold the slime, it held a small person inside with a small bucket of slime with which a small amount was poured.

As a story, Time Slime follows a very sound plot structure. There is an apparent three-act structure in the story just from the setting locations. The end climax is reached because of a previous incident in the story (the glove) that brings the story full circle. Time Slime also does a good job of foreshadowing; later in the Bravest Warriors series it is revealed that Chris has a crush on Beth, they are two of the stories main characters. When the monster starts killing the characters Chris sacrifices himself for Beth, foreshadowing a secondary storyline that deals with Chris’s and Beth’s relationship.

To determine the aesthetics of Time Slime I rigged up some tools to help me visualize eye trace and the rule of thirds. In the pictures I show an example of a cut that utilizes good eye trace technique (titled Eye Trace pt 1 and pt 2) and some scenes that follow the rule of thirds perfectly.

I have more to say but adding another aspect to this blog will put it over 500 words. I have also posted my unabridged critique for anyone who wants to read it. 

4. Personal Essay

I feel that my life in college has accelerated my natural mental development. I find myself realizing the importance of mantras. I am beginning to be more affected by words and their deeper meaning. Most importantly I am forming my own ethical code. What I intend to do with my education in media arts and studies is the same thing I would do with any other major; I would innovate. As of late I’ve been wondering more about my purpose as a person and I’ve realized that to feel satisfied with myself I must stand out. I am not somebody who enjoys being in the pack. The reason I like jazz music is because the performers don’t just play their instrument; they use the instrument as a medium to convey what they feel.

Me and jazz music

I believe that to achieve the level of creativity I want I must innovate a current medium of media we use now. When I first heard The Mercury Theater on the Air perform War of the Worlds I was enthralled. I had never heard of anything like that done over the radio. More recently, I purchased Bioshock Infinite and blazed through the game because I had never played any video game with such a complex storyline.

I think that to best achieve the ability and influence to create such an innovation I want to become a television producer. Using the skills I will develop from such a job, the money I will accrue, and the connections I will have I would begin my own research into developing an innovative media based off of what is already (meaning will be in the future) available to the public.

If I were to compare what I want to historical figures in the past the one I would start with is Frank Conrad and the first regular broadcasting radio station KDKA. Frank Conrad did not invent the radio nor was he the first to being broadcasting. What is special about KDKA is that it was the first with regular, commercial broadcasting. Take Orsen Welles and The Mercury Theater on the Air they neither invented storytelling nor the radio, but they combined the two to create an innovation.

When I am able to begin my own development on an innovation the first place I will look is the video game market. I find that there is a lot of improvement waiting to be had in video games. If more games like the Bioshock series are released the gaps will begin to fill but there are also new mediums of video games being developed and I think that when my future comes the largest technological strides in media will be in the Internet and video games.

Because I want to do both producing and game development, I think that Integrated Media would be the best major fit for my pursuits. However, I am also up for what you may think is a better destination for my future. 

5. Weakness

I chose to critique number 3 and number 7 of David Rendall’s "FREAK FACTOR".

Number 3. Flawless: There’s nothing wrong with you. I find this to be true mostly because of Rendall’s comparison chart between strengths and weaknesses. As I read through the list one by one all of them struck me to be true. I would implement this idea into my own life by taking that flowchart. When I eventually get into positions where I am working with other people more closely I would begin compiling my own personal list of personality traits of my bosses, co-workers, and subordinates. Using the chart, I would also include the corresponding weakness or strength to that person even if I have not seen that trait personified. I believe that this will help me choose what types of people I should work with in my future to best promote myself.

Number 7. Fit: Find the right spot. I wanted to talk about this point in particular because I realized how I was already following this rule without knowing that it was already a rule. I am currently a producer, assistant director, technical director, gaffer, studio lighter, studio engineer, script supervisor, editor, and assistant camera on four different student groups, one of which I founded this year. Next year I will be producing and directing two different AVW shows (one of which I created and pitched this year). The point of that wasn’t just to tell you what I’ve done this year at OU (some of it definitely was) the main point was to explain how I’ve already implemented this rule on myself. I rotate around, doing different jobs, so I can find my niche. In my future I don’t plan on stopping this rotation of work. I want to always be branching out into other opportunities and jobs to see if I will fit them even better.

I’ve found that my “weakness” is social ability. I am organized, dedicated, calm, reflective, self-confident, passionate, and responsible. Looking at Rendall’s chart in suggestion three that means I am also inflexible, stubborn, emotionless, shy, arrogant, impatient, and boring.  I believe that all of these traits are true. Unfortunately, none of Rendall’s additions are sociable traits. What I usually do with my time is work on personal projects and pursue my interests. You can find me in the library during the late hours of the weekend. The way I see my social network is that of a few close friends and just a lot of acquaintances, regrettably, neither of which I spend a decent amount of time with. This greatly hampers my ability to network with peers.

However, I’ve turned my weakness into strength. Knowing that I don’t like to party or spend long amounts of time just talking I have taken up expanding on my knowledge of computer coding, specifically in Apple products. The only reason I’m going to have such lucky opportunities next year are because of the weekends I’ve spend honing my ideas and broadening my knowledge. I have also been able to bridge the networking gap by utilizing my strengths of organization. I founded a video group and brought in everyone I knew so that they would bring in their friends for me to meet them. Hopefully I will continue to be able to overcome my weaknesses with creativity and ingenuity. 

6. Creative Work

This is a project for MDIA 1400 Video Production Basics.

This is a short video parodying a woman on a cooking show making her food. Our editing class got the same footage to use for a project. We all shortly found out that there was not enough footage to create a believable storyline in traditional-cooking-show fashion. My intent for this film was to show my editing skills and use of a wide range of effects and visual movements. It was also just to have fun. 

I created this video with FCPX and recorded my voice with the microphone on a Macbook Pro.

Link:  Action Cooking

Unabridged Media Critique (see number 3)

Bravest Warriors Episode 1, Time Slime: Episode

Try this one if the first one doesn't work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpDOscUDQ_0

Bravest Warriors is an animated-short comedy series created by Pendleton Ward in 2012 (he also birthed Adventure Time, 2010). The plot is loosely based on four teens who save people and fight evil monsters.

Pendleton Ward has a unique style of storytelling and it is apparent in all his stories. I think Time Slime opens a whole new level of cartoon realism relying heavily on verbal spontaneity, narrative spontaneity, and creative humor. The characters of Bravest Warriors use a new style of language that might begin to catch on with the next generation. Specifically the characters use slang like “moop” to mean emotion and they change phrases like “we have to go,” into “we got’s to book”. Not only is their dialogue different but their delivery is deviant (alliterations galore) of other cartoons. In Time Slime there are a few lulls in conversation that are reflective of natural conversation but not of cartoon conversation. Another aspect of this storytelling technique is its unexpectedness. With a plot set up like in Time Slime the audience would expect the heros to defeat the monster but in this story not only do the characters die, they also walk away! Pen Ward is also a sucker for inciting a dark backstory to his bright and childlike cartoons (In Adventure Time there was the Mushroom War that wiped all of humanity except Finn). Characters in the story very quickly incite ‘The Great Time Catastrophe’ and ‘the see through zone’. This adds the illusion that the audience is jumping into the action rather than seeing it from the beginning. Finally, Time Slime is unique because of its humor. The comedy is a mix of both adult and child humor that draws upon multiple concepts of humor. One example is the reoccurrence of Danny’s middle finger. In improvisation techniques it’s taught that having situations reoccur are funnier than trying to tell jokes. Another example is the use of unexpected situations. During the scene with Prof. Fartsparkles a character yells, “Pour the slime” and there are sirens buzzing and machinery moving to prepare to pour the slime. Naturally audience draws humor from the fact that the machinery didn’t actually hold the slime, it held a small person inside with a small bucket of slime with which a small amount was poured.

As a story, Time Slime follows a very sound plot structure. There is an apparent three-act structure in the story just from the setting locations, first the main base, then the moon base, then the time room. The end climax is reached because of a previous incident in the story (Pixel’s jealousy) that brings the story full circle. Time Slime also does a good job of foreshadowing; later in the Bravest Warriors series it is revealed that Chris has a crush on Beth, they are two of the stories main characters. When the monster starts killing the characters Chris sacrifices himself for Beth, foreshadowing a secondary storyline that deals with Chris’s and Beth’s relationship.

Now doing some digging I found a quote from Pen Ward about Bravest Warriors it goes like this, “I wanted teens fighting monsters in space with their emotions”. Without that knowledge it is hard to discern that these characters are fighting monsters with their emotions. If you were to review the episode Time Slime again you would realize that there are many different hints to the powers of emotion besides the obvious climax inclusion. In the beginning of the episode Danny explains that he’s taking “moop management classes”. We’ve already determined that moop is a synonym for emotion (Yes it is hard to tell that it means ‘emotion’ from that specific quote. At first it seems like ‘anger’ would be the more appropriate term but later in the episode anger wouldn’t work as a substitute for moop). The director decides to reintroduce this idea later in the episode not only for its humor but also for its importance to the story line. There is also evident emotional tension between Wallow and Gael from past experiences. There is the very sudden sacrifice of Chris’ life for Beth’s, grated a very hard one to catch not having seen anything else (my first reaction was ‘what just happened?’) but it shows the emotional bond between them. Finally there is the climax where the power of love, then hate, determines the characters’ fate. So over all as a pilot episode it does a very good job of inciting one of its main purposes that most people do not realize.

To determine the aesthetics of Time Slime I rigged up some tools to help me visualize eye trace and the rule of thirds. To measure the aesthetics for the Rule of Thirds I used a ruler, measuring tape, thread, tape, and my tv to determine where the four crosshairs are. To measure the eye trace I used a tripod, stabilizers, and my glass dry erase board. For eye trace I sat perfectly still and quickly plotted the eye trace using the glass board as a lens. The rule of thirds was generally followed very well, especially in images I’ve attached to the blog post. I also found that the cartoons action was never held on the outlying areas of the screen, all contained within or near the center of the television. When I paid specific attention to eye trace I noticed a pattern that emerged. Not only were the points of interest rather clustered but also when the point moved, it generally moved to the right. See the pictures way below for more detail!

Thanks for taking the time to read my long unabridged critique of Time Slime!

PS: I want to get into the topic of why Pen Ward’s material is so popular among kids and adults but that’d take a really long time… Basically… it’s because of nostalgia.

This is the end of one cut which leads directly to....

.... this one! The red oval constant over the two shots

Eye trace plots

This displays the right directional motion of the eye trace. At one point the far left dot moves the trace to the orange dot which then cuts to the next orange dot, the eye trace was a combination of movement and editing shots.

Danny and Chris are framed in the top two cross hairs

Great example of rule of thirds. Gael is framed in the top right while the other characters are grouped together in the bottom left corner. In context of the story Gale also has power because she can choose not to accept their help, this framing shot gives Gael power over the characters.

Danny and Chris are lined up along the left and right lines of the screen. Their heads fit in the crosshairs. Danny's circle button fits very nicely over the bottom left crosshair as well.