Music Video Imitation

A Very Loose Interpretation

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. That's what they say. So what better way to pay homage to our favorite musicians, than to imitate their music videos. That was the mission, should we choose to accept it, and indeed we did.

First off, when I say "we," I'm usually referring to Miranda and myself due to the fact that she's my best buddy and we make a good team. Our skills and capabilities complement each other's and together we have everything we need, at least most everything. The challenge that came with this project lies not in lack of a certain skill, however, but in the shear abundance of music that we each listen to. We spent a solid day just trying to figure out a video to imitate and we ended up with "Na Na Na" by My Chemical Romance (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egG7fiE89IU) and "Stay The Night" by Zedd feat. Hayley Williams (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-gyZ35074k). We also picked a different song to set our imitation to, "Old Scars/ Future Hearts" by All Time Low (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnoJ_0lk_5w). With our resources decided, we could now begin planning.

Step 1: Watch the reference videos. Memorize the song. Choose elements you definitely wish to incorporate into the final product.

Step 2: Plan out the video. Making the shot list fell into Miranda's hands, while editing down the song fell into mine, which I was excited about (music editing is one of my favorite things!).

Step 3: Film the video. This is where we hit a few road blocks. First came the wonderful bipolar weather of Kansas that kept us from checking out equipment on the only day Miranda and I could've both filmed, only to completely stop as soon as we got home. That was fun. So then we ran into the issue of I now had to film everything by myself, and I have little confidence in my camera abilities, at least when there's no one else there to help me figure things out. But I did it anyways and two days of filming later, we had all we needed. 

"Na Na Na" by My Chemical Romance

Step 4: Edit the video. Miranda took on that task, as she usually does, for I am not a video editing person, rather a music editing person, as I've mentioned before (which I did have to employ during editing due to a tight deadline, and a little less footage than we planned for). But editing is where we greatly imitated the video: split screens and quick edits, etc. 

Our Video

Step 5: Share your video. Sharing in terms of this class consist of putting it on a server and then projecting it in the front of the room for everybody to watch, as well as posting it on Youtube (here's the link for that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIEaQGjTiB8). 

Well, there's our process from start to finish. Now onto the part where I say all the things I wish we would've done instead of what we actually did. Initiate new list!

1. Our video increasingly became a looser and looser interpretation of our reference videos, and by the end, if we hadn't stated our inspiration, no one probably would've know we had any. Also, we started off with two reference videos, and in the final product, the second wasn't present at all.

2. Thing two I would change is the fact that we have an actress, emphasis on the tress, singing a song sung by a man. I didn't notice it until the end, but now it's all I notice.

3. If I could film it again, I'd try to get wider angles of the car driving, but that was just a lack of resources on our part. It would've been possible if we had had another car to follow Sarah's with someone else driving so I could move around in the car and film, but since it was just me, I figured it wouldn't be wise for me to try to drive and film at the same time. Safety first!

Well that's about it. It's not a terrible video. I actually quite like how it turned out, especially compared to some of our other projects. So you should check it out and let me know what you think!

Here's the link for our final product again, in case you missed it in Step 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIEaQGjTiB8

In The Turn

Directed by Erica Tremblay

On 18 April 2015, I had the great opportunity to go to KC Film Fest (kcfilmfest.org) with my roller derby league (kcrollerwarriors.com) to hand out flyers and answer questions about the sport in support of a documentary that was playing called In The Turn (intheturn.com). And let me just say: IT WAS ABSOLUTELY BLOODY AMAZING! In The Turn is a film about a ten year old transgender girl named Crystal and the international queer collective of roller derby players known as the Vagine Regime that strives to let every LGBTQ person know that there is a sport for them where they will not be questioned or judged for who they are. The film criss-crosses the US, following the stories of several queer derby girls and guys as well as hiking it up to Canada for Crystal's story. I don't want to give away too much, a) because I don't want to ruin it for anyone who's yet to see it, and b) because I can in no way do this film justice with just words, it is an experience that you need to witness to fully appreciate. So I will leave you with that. Look up In The Turn, and it should (hopefully) be available for purchase in Fall 2015. 

North By Northwest

A Review of a Movie I Admittedly Didn't Understand Very Well

Recently, we watched the film North By Northwest in film class, and let me just say, the punch sound effects in 1959 were quite unrealistic, and frankly, they were so bad it was comical. Now on to something a little more important than complaining about bad foley; the plot, which I will admit I had to look up on IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053125/?ref_=nv_sr_1) to fully understand. Turns out it's about a guy who becomes a victim of mistaken identity, causing foreign spies to plot his murder, and accusing him when he tries to crack the case. Insert complicated love interest who is more than she appears to be and end it with a chase scene across the faces of Mount Rushmore and you have the 1959 masterpiece that is North By Northwest. 

Now there is a set of questions that I need to answer, but I'll be honest, I don't even understand what the questions are asking. So I'm going to just write and hopefully you learn a little something about this film.

One of my new favorite things to do when I watch movies is to try to find where green screens are/start/stop. It's not the most fun hobby, but I find great satisfaction in being able to find the line where green screen meets floor. It's definitely less fun however in older movies, such as North By Northwest, because the green screen capabilities back then were not as precise as they are now (though I was surprised how easy it was to find the line in Mockingjay Part I) it was obvious what was real and what wasn't. Not to mention that the footage/graphics used for them were highly unrealistic, such as the entire Mount Rushmore final chase sequence. Alright, I need to stop the green screen talk and get back on track. 

Something I've been really trying to learn about/ focus on when watching films is the sound, due to the fact that I was totally clueless in my time spent in the Sound Department for As Though Lost, our class short film (post about that experience to come later). The few times there was music playing in the background, it really fit the scene, and the foley sounds they used (at least most of them, minus the punches) were fairly realistic, for the time period at least. However, there was fault in some elements of the sound for this film such as the sudden, noticeable volume drops of music when dialogue came up instead of gradual decreases and the occasional scene completely lacking any foley, making it seem flat and out of place. However, I must always take into account the technology that was available in the 1950s, and in regards to that, this movie is fairly impressive.

The film did very well in it's portrayal of the time period, in the midst of the Cold War with threat of Communists and spies around every corner. The infiltration of foreign threats into the US government as it actually happened, or at least as it was expected to be true made the film all the more realistic and probably helped fill the theatres when it was first released.

All in all, the movie was fairly decent and I'm glad we watched it.

Fire and Ice Final Video

A Tale of Revenge

This is a post that is long overdue, and by long overdue I mean we finished this video three months ago. But it turned out pretty well I thought, so here we go.

For our semester final in Entertainment, our teacher gave us a Three Day Film Challenge: three days to plan, shoot, and edit a 90 second short film with certain elements we had to include (ice and the phrase "cold as ice"). As usual, Miranda and I immediately paired up and began brainstorming ideas. Now here's a fact about me that became extremely important and critical to our short film: I like fire. Problem is, fire is the exact opposite of ice, the required focus element of the project. But what makes a crappy story five times better? Conflict. Here we had two opposing elements, two opposing forces, and our idea for Fire and Ice was born.

So you know I like fire and conflict, but I also like writing. I took some inspiration from poems I found on the internet and wrote a voiceover to go with our idea. Miranda took it in her hands to find us some actors to play the parts and the next day, we were filming. Some conflicts arose, and no, not the good kind, like inexperienced actors and unexpected rain, but we managed to work with the conditions we were given and the next morning we were hardcore into editing. We both edited versions of the video, struggled a little with finding music, and we were done by the end of the day, very pleased with what we had accomplished. And our teacher, who hardly ever gives out compliments, said she really liked it! I deem this project a definite success!

Here's the link for Fire and Ice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeJJvEUsafw

My Leadership Strengths

"Be a True Heart Not a Follower."

I've never thought of myself as a leader. Definitely a follower, or worried mother-type trying to prevent her children from doing something stupid, or simply a quiet suggester, offering up ideas hoping someone else will put them into action, but never a leader. That is until I took the Gallup Strengthsfinder quiz, which turned my skills into leadership qualities that I could use to be a better leader. My Top 5 Skills were Deliberative, Input, Restorative, Intellection, and Futuristic.

Input describes people who have a natural curiosity and crave knowledge. They constantly file things in their minds to hopefully one day use this compiled knowledge to their advantage. This is completely accurate for describing me because, while I might not seem like I'm paying attention or participating, I'm actually just observing, and especially listening, to everything that's going on, picking out the pieces of information that are most important and will be most valuable in the future.

Deliberative describes people who take serious care in making decisions, weighing out all the pros and cons of every choice. They also anticipate obstacles. This is true for me because I always, in my head, plan out my routes and plans of action for everything. I plan everything out so I can avoid awkward or uncomfortable situations. That is one reason why I don't talk very much, because if I'm not prepared enough for the exact approach I have to take, then I'd rather say nothing at all than risk embarrassing myself in front of people.

Futuristic describes people who are inspired by the future and what it may bring. I very much live my life thinking about and planning for the future. I guess I just set goals for myself for my future because it's easier (and more fun) to think about the possibilities, the dream, than staying stuck in reality where I may not be the best circumstances or have the best chance to do what I want with my life. It's better to think about the future, to hope that everything will get better, that everything will all work out in the end.

Restorative describes problem solvers, people extremely adept at figuring out what the problem is being able to resolve it. I'm not necessarily the most verbal in addressing problems, but I guess I'm just more of a brain behind the situation. I like to figure things out and feeling the satisfaction of being able to solve them.

Intellection describes people who are introspective and like to think. I am always thinking about anything and everything, sometimes on a specific topic or task, and other times, just letting my mind run wild and seeing where it takes me. I love listening to people and the intellectual discussions (or stupid conversations) they have, even though I'm not as likely to take part. People fascinate me, everything fascinates me, and I like thinking about what other people think about and how they think. My mind is a never ending brainstorm.

This whole experience, with finding out that my natural qualities actually have leadership value, was very, for lack of a better word, enlightening. I've never thought I had many skills or that the few skills I had actually had any value. These little things that I do- collecting information, anticipating obstacles, planning the future, solving problems, and nonstop thinking- never seemed very important to me. But this experience, the interaction between everyone, and seeing who thinks like I do or whose mind works in similar ways was incredible to me. My involuntary processes and mindsets are strengths, and those strengths have value. Amazing.

Monsters University

An Adventure into the World of Sound Design

For my role as Sound Designer for our 2015 class short film, I read the article "Watch a Complete Sound Design Breakdown for a Scene from Pixar's Monsters University" by Joe Marine on nofilmschool.com. Now it wasn't so much an "article" as it was an explanatory video, but it was still beneficial to me in explaining somewhat what a sound designer might do and how the different elements of the designs work cohesively in the final product. 

It was particularly interesting hearing the sound design process for Monsters University from Tom Myers, the actual sound designer for the film, because it, being an animated film, provided a sort of extreme instance in which sound must be handled. The entire Monsters University world had to be created from the ground up in terms of sound. There is no reference in the real world as to what that world sounds like, other than Monsters Inc., which Monsters University is a prequel to and which had to be taken into account when considering technology.

Tom Myers talks about trips that were taken to college campuses early in the process to record sounds and get a clearer idea of what the film needed to sound like to be an accurate representation of a college, as well as the energy in the atmosphere that needed to relate between the animation and the sound to make it realistic.

He also broke down a scene from the film into the different types of audio that were added one by one to create the complex, "bulky" scene. He started with the voice audio, playing just that to the animation, then switched to just the crowds, then the music, and sound effects, and finally foley. He than put all these elements together, after describing which speakers each would be set to to create certain effects (such as playing the crowd noises on the overheads because of the crowds' position above and around the main characters, and to make the voices on screen clearer), and played the final mix of the scene. It was interesting being able to pick out individual noises in the scene after knowing they were there instead of just hearing it all as just one big noise.

So the process of creating/editing the sounds was tedious and bulky (referring to the shear amount of different sounds and effects that had to be worked into each scene), but the attention to detail that went into the film made it that much better. 

The article, while not containing much content text-wise, was very interesting and provided me with a better idea of what I need to do to make our class film sound amazing.

Here's the link to the article: http://nofilmschool.com/2013/07/monsters-university-soundworks-collection

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)!