MEDP 299 - Post #1

Jacqueline a Mantille Sur Fond Rouge

Serenity

Loneliness


Intimacy


Growth


Business



Anger 1



Anger 2

Anger 3

MEDP 160 Blog Post #5

This semester I've learned quite a number of things, from "hard skills" to soft ones.

In the first half of the class, I learned first-hand how hectic film-making can be, and how much planning is required for even a small production. It became apparent that one should spend the majority of time in preproduction - storyboarding, scheduling, scripting, etc. - if a smooth shoot is desired. It also became apparent that regardless of the amount of work you put into planning, the shoot will always be hectic. I found my mind boggles by all the variables it had to process in balancing loads of zombie extras, main actors, the sequence of shots, overall morale and energy, and more.

My first foray into Adobe Flash proved a challenge as well. Discovering Flash was almost like exploring an entirely new dialect, complete with obscure terminology (symbols, movie clips, tweens, .swf, .fla, .flv) and a unique coding language behind it all. I also had to embrace a new way of thinking, while trying to picture how to create a smooth animation over multiple frames. Having had a good deal of graphic design experience, it felt wonderful to bring my previously motionless design elements to life.

The biggest things I've taken away from the course is the epiphany that I have no desire to restrict myself to one creative medium. MEDP 150 and 160 have helped me realize that my interest is in becoming a truly cross-media designer, harnessing audio, video, interactive, and print production skills in order to create cohesive messages.

Media 160 Blog Post #4

"Bendito Machine" is a short film series developed in Flash by talented animator, Jossie Malis. The shorts explore philosophical issues such as human frailty, religion, and corruption. "Bendito Machine 3" acts as an attack on technology, which it frames as the new religion.

From the outset, we see a Moses-like figure climbing a great mountain. Yet, rather than receiving commandments, a godlike beam delivers a strange, beeping apparatus. In the next scene, a group of villagers trashes their previous religious relic - a statue that doubles as a radio - for this new technological wonder, which reveals itself to be a television. Jossie Malis here seems to comment on our constant, frivolous drive for better and newer technology. Throughout the rest of the video, the television machine proceeds come alive and destroy the village while the villagers worship it regardless. Malis appears to be saying that we're allowing the pursuit of technology to destroy our society.

Bendito Machine's minimalist, silhouette-style aesthetic ensures that the viewer isn't too distracted from the feature's core messages. In addition, the spareness of the scenes - with their ample employment of negative space - combined with the spindly and silly-seeming human characters reinforce that idea that humans are small and petty.

MEDP 160 Blog Post #3

For Mark Simakovsky and I, the zombie movie we created for our video project was quite an adventure, both creatively and logistically. With a shared interest in all things undead, the creative process flowed furiously, with Mark and I jumping, gesticulating, storyboarding, and faux-acting all over the place. The logistical side, however, was more of a challenge.

First came location scouting, which lead us to the Hunter Library. The location was great, but it had an innate problem...in that it was a library. How would we film a movie full of moaning and groaning zombies in a place where silence was the rule? By making a silent film, of course! Here, it was interesting to see how a logistical problem actually fed into the creative process. Since the movie would now be silent, it would also - of course - have to have film grain, contain a cheesy 1920s-esque horror movie score, and be in black and white.

Next, we focused on people, i.e. a make-up artist, zombie extras, and our sole main actor. In addition to in-person badgering, I created a Facebook event, made lots of calls, and sent lots of texts. All-in-all, this organizing stage took more time than the actual creative brainstorming.

Finally, the day of the shoot came. We arrived in the library before our lab period with 10+ zombie extras, Jessica Olsen (our make-up go-t0-girl), and Eli Cohent (our lead actor and Hunter's lone zombie plague survivor). Though Mark and I - particularly Mark - had spent considerable time planning out our shots, I had no idea how hectic things would become. Looking back, it would have been nice if I'd made a shot order and schedule; we sort of just haphazardly came up with such on the spot.

Overall, the most important thing I took away was the clearing up of a misconception about the filmmaking process. I learned that creating a film is as much of a process of organization as it is ideation.

MEDP 160 Blog Post #2

In this post I'll be looking at the trailer for "A Serious Man," the next upcoming feature from two of my favorite directors, the Coen brothers.

Like most trailers, this one uses a montage style, where meaning is derived from the interplay between different shots. The opening clip shows the main character, Larry, being slammed against a black board repeatedly by another man.


This clip sets the stage for Larry's desperate condition. It also allows the editor to introduce a cacophonic soundtrack made up of noises within the film, giving a sense of Larry's distress. The following shots are composed of Larry explaining his problems to an unsympathetic rabbi's secretary, broken up with shots that show his plight. This method of cutting back and forth adds a build-up of tension that brings the viewer into Larry's world as it slides downhill.

When the scene changes and piling of sounds cease, it almost seems as if relief is about to come for the besieged main character. Both Larry and the viewer hold their breath in anticipation. Even though the editor finally allows us to stay in one scene, the quick cuts back to Larry's anxious face followed by eye-line matches of the secretary approaching to the rabbi add suspense.



The suspense is resolved by yet another let-down: the rabbi is too busy "thinking" to see Larry. After a text sequence, we again see the opening shot of the main character being smashed against the blackboard, seeming to signify that Larry's dire situation is without end.

Judging from the trailer, the film looks to be just as genius as any of Joel and Ethan Coen's other movies!

MEDP 331 - Project 1 Sitemap

PROBLEM: Many Hunter students come to school and leave without forming any bonds or feeling a sense of community. There are over 100 clubs at Hunter that could solve this problem if only it were easier to get involved in them. Also, many students find it difficult to become an active participant in the Hunter community and their voices go unrecognized.

SOLUTION: Develop at site that makes it easier for Hunter students to get involved in clubs and have their opinions heard.

MEDP 160 Blog Post #1

Upon reflection, it's frightening how seamlessly my life has become integrated with media and technology. For this blog post, I'll focus specifically screen that dominates this student's daily existence. Here it is:


Ah, Gmail; it is, for me, both a bane and an enabler. Without this interface, the way I flail about now would be entirely unsustainable. Through Firefox plugins and Google Labs add-ons, I have turned the thing into my main source of life management. First, it serves as a hub for accounts across the web, receiving my messages from Facebook, Flickr, the student government site I admin, six other email accounts, and other web services.

On the left, you'll see that I've installed GTDInbox (a.k.a. Getting Things Done Inbox). This incredible Firefox plug-in employs Gmail's "labeling" system to turn each email into a task. Here is an example screenshot of GTDInbox working at the individual email level:


With GTDInbox, I first "tag" emails by one of three statuses: "Action" for emails that contain things that I need to act on or reply to; "Waiting On" so I can later check who needs to get back to me; or "Someday" for messages that I'll get to eventually (I try to stay away from this category).

Next, I tag emails by which of my projects they fall under. For example, when I was organizing a retreat for the student government, I would use the "Projects" drop down menu to group emails under "P/USG-Retreat," as in "Project: Undergraduate Student Government Retreat."

After that, my messages are tagged by what context they fall under. Are they from my parents? Do they have to deal with the University Student Senate? Are they graphic design work-related? A label is assigned for each of these categories.

Finally, categorize emails by what "Reference" type they are (for example, if the email contains a contact list, I group it under R/Contact-List) and whether there are any miscellaneous labels I need to apply.

Back to the home screen:

In the middle, you'll see my feed of emails, which I auto- and manually filter by which email account they're coming from and all of the categories listed above. All those colorful boxes are my labels.

Lastly, to the left you'll see another important component: the "Remember the Milk" (RTM) interface. RTM allows me to keep track of my to-do list, grouping tasks by when they're due, their context, and other hierarchical labels. Handily enough, RTM syncs with my iPhone.

Thus, I present to you my Googlized life. And I didn't even get to Google Docs or my Google Calendar yet.