True Affection

Music Video and Holiday Mishap

Welcome to the post where I will focus on the importance and necessity of multiple plans: Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, and so on.

The Mission: Make a holiday/seasonal music video to be included in a holiday video medley to post on e-comm's youtube channel.

The Process: We had two weeks to plan, film, and edit this video and we had to use people in the school as actors to show diversity. Our Plan A was a New Year's Eve party with a depressed main character who eventually says "screw it" and joins in the festivities (set to the son The New Year by Parachute). But complications arose and we were unable to go through with our original plan. Problem was, we had a limited amount of time and we really needed to figure out what we're were going to do instead.  In cases like these, I'm glad to have planned for failure. Plan A was out the window and Plan B was only halfway there, thus Plan B and a Half was born! Plan B and a Half (PBH) included the song from Plan B (True Affection by The Blow) as well as a new and improved concept to go along with it. Planning, planning, planning, and we were finally able to film the Monday and Tuesday before the due date. We encountered a slight problem though; seems we had forgotten that the whole point of the video was to make it "holiday-ish," a key element which we completely passed over until we were at the very end of filming. A quick adjustment to the ending by adding a wrapped present and it still didn't really turn out "holiday-ish," but we could at least kind of claim it was.

The Story: Basically our story goes like this: two people (Lucas and Meg) are in love, but because they're in different cliques, their worlds are keeping them apart. But they still figure out a way to be together.

My Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ofo07iozP-o&list=UUh-lU5OKHGmlvWCqjJ6mteQ

The Final Medley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_0NygarNqg

Hope you enjoy and Happy (insert winter holiday of choice here)!

Music Video Review

Little Game by Benny

Recently I have been obsessed with this video, Little Game. Not only is the song amazing, and the video incredibly well thought out and created, the message put out by both and the way this message is portrayed make this video truly remarkable. Not to mention the entire thing was the brain child of a fifteen year old from Dallas.

"Don't you think it's funny how they tell us how to live?
Don't you think it's funny how we're all delinquent kids?"

"Gender roles impose control and deceive progressive times.
Welcome to the land of the broken mind."

Benny uses this video to point out the strict stereotypes society places on its people about gender roles and what it deems "appropriate." The stark contrast between the white, representing the lack of other influence, and the blue and pink, representing the forced roles of boys and girls in today's society, displays just how society thinks its youth should present themselves and how there should be no other influence around to possibly "corrupt" a perfectly "obedient"child: boys obsessed with sports and cars and everything manly, and girls

only concerned about their looks on the outside

rather than their thoughts on the inside. The two who are shown going against the others are "glitches" in society, those who don't fit in perfectly with everyone else, even though, in all actuality, they are the ones who have a strong enough grip on their own reality to know how to do things for themselves and not because someone "tells them how to live."

"Hush boy, oh hush boy, don't say a word, throw on a jersey and
no one gets hurt. Hush girl, oh hush girl just bat your eyes."

The video also touches on the bullying that can be experienced by those who dare to break the stereotypes and social norms placed on them by society and enforced by the "broken minds" who see no wrong in the actions they've been programmed to believed are normal. The ones who defy what's considered normal are torn apart and ridiculed by society just for being the slightest bit different.

"Play our little game, play our little game tonight."

The action of mixing the paint on his face, which started with pink and blue both totally separated, shows what happens when the two opposites-- femininity and masculinity-- mash, and the fact that contrary to society's belief that it would end in chaos, it instead ended in the beautiful purple, a symbol that they two sides can, and should, work together in harmony.

The video showcases the power of a mind when it refuses to work how the rest of the world thinks it should, and how strict gender stereotypes amongst the population should cease to exist. The effects presented by the video and the music, and especially how they work together, give a sense of hope that there is a way to break out of the social norm and be who you truly want to be, who you truly are.

Here's the link. Watch it. I think you might like it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNr3x1kVVEc

Roller Derby Montage

A Glimpse at My Life as a Derby Girl

I play roller derby for the Kansas City Roller Warriors Junior Team (here's their site if you're interested: http://www.kcrollerwarriors.com ) and a few weeks ago one of my coaches asked if I could make a promo for our team. So I got my best buddy and together we tried to make something pretty cool.

Many issues arose in the pre-production stage such as me planning to one song and then a few days later finding out there was a vote for a different song (we ended up not using either in editing) as well as a limited time for filming. During the actual shoot, I found out the skaters had not been properly informed of my plan, and with only a two hour time frame, which was also practice time, I threw out most of my plans and we just went with whatever we could get. In editing, we had to somehow figure out how to turn our footage into an awesome promo, as well as a montage piece for our film class. We edited for awhile, chose a completely different song, and this is what we came up with. It was really fun to make. Hope you enjoy!

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrqK0yQwIMg&spfreload=10

Music Video Review

Animal by Maroon 5

While many disapprove of the message given off in the video for Maroon 5's Animal, in which Adam Levine plays a stalker to a gorgeous woman (played by his real life wife, Behati Prinsloo) who enters his butcher shop and continues to follow her around, eventually making love to her in his mind, I find it very artistic and the story was well portrayed in the allotted time.

I'm particularly intrigued by the symbolism and parallelism between Adam hanging the pictures of her and hanging with the meat in the basement. The purpose of the two is to show how his obsession went from wanting to see her, to wanting to be with her. He was able to control the images, but he wasn't able to control her. He hung on a spot in the basement surrounded by meat, but not containing meat itself. Perhaps he realized his action would make him just as "low" as the dead animals around him. Or perhaps because he had been able to control a copy of her on the clotheslines in his room, he now wanted to control her body and just created a connection to the hanging of the meat. He saw her as a prize.

During the bridge of the song, Adam imagines making love to the girl and between shots of them together, he is seen in the basement somewhat mimicking his actions between him and the girl with the meat: he kisses her, he kisses the meat. This is yet another example of him seeing her as nothing more than a prize, a piece of meat that he can do what he wants with, can control. Before, he had hung with the meat, then he was distant  from it (on the opposite wall) when she was rejecting him, and then finally, when in his mind he was with her, he was all over the hanging meat, arms wrapped tightly around it and caressing it.

That's just some of the symbolism I saw in the video, but overall, I quite enjoyed it. Though I understand the message that some people are getting from it (stalking, raping, and the fact that his character seemed to think she was enjoying the whole thing), and though I absolutely don't support that message (seriously. I want to make that completely clear), I love the art of the video and it definitely expresses his thoughts in a way that makes you feel his same desire for this girl.

Here's the link for the full video if, for whatever reason, you haven't seen it yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpgTC9MDx1o

Watching the Making of a Commercial

Don't Underestimate Film Crews or Mothers Who Work at Dairy Queen

My mum works at Dairy Queen and around 8:30am on a Tuesday, she texted me during my video class saying something along the lines of "They're shooting a commercial at DQ. I asked if my daughter could come watch and they said sure. Do you want me to come get you?" and I replied with something like "HOLY CRAP YESSS!!!" Half an hour later I was perched between two tables watching the making of a Dairy Queen chicken strip commercial.

The first thing I noticed was just how many people there were on set. There were a lot! I played a game with myself (we had just learned about all the different positions on a film set in video class) and tried to match all the people with what jobs I thought they had. Once I had "placed" everyone in my mind, I started watching how each of them contributed to the production. But by far, the most interesting thing to watch was the interaction and communication between the director and the actress.

I was particularly amazed at just how many phrases the director had written out in advance and how many different ways he told the actress to say them: flat, normal, cheery, super cheery, etc. I loved how the director was making jokes to lighten up the mood and keep people from getting frustrated (though it seemed like most of them were having a pretty good time, despite being in a pretty serious time crunch).  Everyone was doing their jobs, but they were doing them in a way that made me think they all really love what they're doing and it comforted me knowing not every director is like those stereotypical directors in movies portrayed as major jerks.

I learned a lot about the perfection of lighting, the communication and cooperation that is necessary between all the people involved in a shoot, and the importance of being extremely prepared so as to remain on schedule among other things.

I also learned that it's never good to assume things about people because the girl you thought was just an assistant may turn out to be a producer who just really likes to be actively involved in anything she is a part of. But it's okay, because when you thank everyone for letting you come watch, and you start with the "assistant" because she's not too busy at the moment, you might just earn a new contact in your ever-growing search for experience in the film/video industry.

Here's the link to the finished video, if you're curious:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152422159796669&set=vb.15508591668&type=3&theater

Camera Techniques Reflection

How I Kind Of Learned How To Use a Camera

When I started Entertainment this year, I had no idea how to use a DSLR at all, and while I am still not the most experienced in how to use one effectively and efficiently, I do at least know how to control main settings and functions of the camera. It was helpful having a list of different shots that had to be used because it allowed us to focus less on just the story and more on the relationship between the story and it's visual representation. It didn't so much matter if the story was good or not, but more on how it was displayed to the audience.

I did not shoot an individual 10-Shot Camera Technique Video, but Tara, Miranda, and I worked together on one and took turns filming shots as well as individually practicing the different techniques on our own time. I also did not edit my own version of the video, rather just contributed to the group edit.

Spoken Word Reflection

What To Do When Your Actors Cry

I was not particularly pleased with the way the Spoken Word Video turned out. While it seemed so promising in the beginning, pretty much almost everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. That may be a slight exaggeration, but I'll explain my reasoning.

It didn't take us (Miranda and I) long to find a poem we liked. That poem, She Hulk by poet Katie Pukash, perfectly represented what we believe in life and we were able to relate to the emotions behind it. It took us a few more days to plan than we wanted, but we still got it figured out and we were excited.

So Day 1 of shooting comes around and it didn't look too bright. We had a limited amount of time to film, we couldn't find as many actors as we originally planned for, and it had been raining all day. We got to our chosen location and the first half hour or so was very productive: it wasn't too wet and our lead actress was performing exceptionally. But then, tragedy struck. Not really "tragedy," our actress just had an emotional breakdown and refused to be in any more shots. And as bad as it made us feel, we filmed her crying because we needed shots of her crying and what's more believable than actual crying? While we didn't get as much done as we hoped, we still made progress (and those crying shots were really good).

Day 2 of shooting started off not as great. We couldn't get a DSLR because, well, there weren't any, so we had to shoot with a Panasonic, which I haven't had the best of experiences with in the past. The actual shoot went better than planned, but when we went to import the files onto my Macbook, they weren't there. But they showed up on Miranda's computer so we didn't think anything was wrong. 

Were we in for a surprise. 

When we got back to school, the files absolutely would not appear on the Macs, no matter what we tried. Miranda went up to Morris to ask if there was a way to fix it. 30 minutes later, she has our shots ready to be imported. The problem is, when they were finally imported, they had gone through so many processes to be usable, the quality was terrible. And, better yet, only the first half of our shots had been processed. We only had the first half of every single shot. So there went half of the motion we filmed. Still better, because we only had half the amount of footage we had planned for our pre-recorded poem, we no longer had enough footage to cover the entire poem. Insert awesome audio editing and we were able to get the audio down from 4.5 minutes to 2.5 minutes. Some "creative" video editing and we had a sub-par final video that we were not really proud of.

However, I am glad we experienced so many difficulties with this video, and early on in the year, because now we are aware of the many things that could go wrong and will be better prepared to deal with other issues in the future.

Here's the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeDjXTzs4Vo&feature=youtu.be

Martin Scorsese

Plot vs. Story

Martin Scorsese, renowned director of films such as Goodfellas, The Aviator, and The Wolf of Wall Street, defines plot as what happens and story as why and how it happens. His definitions make sense because plot is more like the bones of a film, no emotions attached, the rough edges of a film. Story brings in all the elements that appeal emotionally to viewers: mood, emotion, how characters react and relate to each other, etc. Plot is the framework of a film and the basic ideas that create a film. Story is the "fluff" in between the major plot events that make the audience feel a certain way and makes the viewers feel connected to the film. Scorsese's experience in the film industry and the films he's directed make him extremely qualified to provide his ideas on film techniques, elements, and principles.

Video Copilot: Car Hit

Back When I Thought I'd Be an Animator

I created a mask around the main part of the guy, Sam, and used several color keys to remove the different shades of green on the green screen.






I feathered and trimmed the edges around Sam's body so he could seamlessly be placed over the truck driving clip. The background had to be slowly and carefully erased so it wouldn't look fake.

The most time consuming part of the tutorial was key framing Sam's legs. Because they weren't in front of the green screen, they each had to have a mask that was key framed at each frame to follow their movement. It was extremely tedious.

To make the truck look like Sam had actually hit it, I took a still of a smashed front end of a truck and used masks, anchor point adjustment, and motion key framing to make it crush from the impact of hitting Sam.

To create the shattering glass effect, I used the CC Particle World simulation. I adjusted the size, amount, and physics of the glass to make it look more realistic.

The best part was creating the shattering glass because most of the other steps didn't come into play, like actually fitting with the effect, until the end, whereas the glass was almost immediate. The tutorial was done really well. He did a good job of going step by step and also explaining why he was doing what he was doing and how it would contribute to the final product. And he didn't speak in monotone, so I wasn't too bored. I quite like the final result, even though it's only like two seconds long and it took me like six hours to make it. Sigh. But, all in all, I'm glad I chose this tutorial and stuck with it even when it was frustrating, which was like all the time.

Here's the link for this awesome tutorial: http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/advanced_car_hit/

Final Product

The Plausible Impossible of Through the Mirror

And Other Questions on Cartoon Logic

The playing cards are chasing Mickey and throwing their face symbols at him. Firstly, cards are inanimate objects and therefore cannot move, however this cartoon is based on a fantasy novel so these actions seem legitimate. Another impossible element of this cartoon, is that the cards peel their symbols from their faces and throw them. It is impossible to peel ink from the paper it is on, but these cards were given human characteristics so this act would be much like girls throwing bras at their favorite band members.

Mickey discovers the alternate universe and walks through the mirror to reach it. It's not possible to just walk through a mirror. Trust me, I've tried. It looks like Mickey is pushing on cling wrap, or walking through a spiderweb; not solid-glass-like at all. The plausibility is in the belief and the knowledge that this is magical and a dream. Impossibility is over powered and out ruled when magic and dreams are involved because dreams are the only place where anything can happen and no one wants to get rid of that.

Mickey just ate the magical nut and his stomach starts punching him in the face and moving all around. As much as it may seem like stomachs abuse their owners at time, they don't actually jump around. The nut is magical and has power over Mickey's body, so it has the ability to control how it moves. The plausibility lies in the magic and its believability, however it is simply impossible for a single nut, or any food for that matter, to make a stomach go all cartoon jiggly jiggly.

The magical nut transformed Mickey's body into that of a giant and as he reaches his maximum height in this confined space, his head hits the ceiling and lifts it off the walls, detaching it from the house. Now, I'm unaware of the strength of giant Mickey or the sturdiness of the roof, but ceilings don't usually just lift right off like that; if they are going to break, they'll crack into pieces. Also, people don't usually grow ten feet taller after eating a single nut, but this nut is magical so I guess that explains that.

While Mickey is dancing with the queen, he flips her over so he can also dance with the second of her two heads. However, when he flips her, her single pair of legs don't move from the ground and the second head continues on with the same pair as the first. I'm not going to say it's impossible to have two heads and only one pair of legs, but the heads aren't usually on top of each other and the legs are usually CONNECTED to the body. But hey, this is a cartoon, filled with magic and nonsensical logic and details.