Academy Award Winning Movie Stereotypes

So when I was in high school I watched this video like once a week because I loved the YouTube channel and also I thought the video was genius. Funnily enough I completely forgot about it once I started college. Recently though the video popped into my mind and I re watched it. I still think that it is a pretty great video, and I have a much better appreciation of it since being in school for film/tv production. The video is a mock of common tropes that many academy award winning movies have.

The fake trailer shows a parody of things that a lot of really highly acclaimed films exploit like a privileged adult helping out under privileged kids in a school, and a happily single and wealthy man suddenly having a kid or a relative with a disability placed in his custody. I would definitely recommend this video if you are in the mood for a laugh. I also recommend watching the YouTube channel this video is from, the videos are all pretty good and definitely entertaining.

YouTube And The Independent Filmmaker

YouTube And The Independent Filmmaker

     Does YouTube have a role to play to the Independent Filmmaker? YouTube is itself perhaps the greatest global distribution platform we have on the internet ; or at least the most widely used. With over a billion viewers, 4 billion views per day, and 300 hours of video uploaded every minute youtube is teeming with creators but what kind of creator? In Independent Filmmaker?
     YouTube has a reputation of cat videos, memes, music, tutorials, poorly shot bits of TV and Movies, and things that keep you distracted from your homework but not cinema that will engage you. Those types of things (short films, web series, ect....) have pushed there way into Vimeo, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and other sites. But why? Why isn't the next House of Cards, or the next great short film being not only uploaded but promoted through YouTube with its vast diversity and range for audience? 

     I  think there are many problems towards when putting your work on YouTube as a main mode of distribution and exposure. One is the sheer mass of content that is being put on youtube. Another is the audience that I think youtube has created and the culture around it. YouTube stars have dominated the marketplace creating a medium of societal commentary through narration rather than a platform to share storytelling ideas. 

     Though it's not as if youTube hasn't tried to cater to the independent filmmakers in the past. In 2013 at SunDance youtube launched "Youtube Shorts @ NEXT WEEKEND," featuring the likes of College Humor, Machinima, and VICE, to show the industry of short films on YouTube. But even then these companies do not represent the individual user that uploads content on YouTube. 

     This all ties into YouTube's recent announcement "YouTube Red" which is adding for a $10 a month subscription fee to those users who want access to things like no ads, more extensive music features, and exclusive videos from YouTube creators (mainly youtube stars). There are many problems with this flawed model, including why people wouldn't just use ad block, and how YouTube creators are going to deliver the quality and quantity videos needed to sustain a "exclusive" club for people who pay the price. 

     This idea of people paying for YouTube content I think is a failure as a  model considering their audience and the nature of their content but maybe it proposes a counterpoint to Vimeo in some way and a better model for the Independent Filmmaker and the web series that are littered the internet. If youtube could tap into the market of short films, web television and convince people to pay for seeing these services I think filmmaking could make it's way to youtube. With it's great distribution and audience and short films great quality and appeal maybe it could hold a future in the world of indie films.  

360 Degree YouTube Video

Apparently I've been living under a rock at the bottom of a well for the past few months because I have only just discovered that YouTube now supports 360 videos. What does that mean you ask? It means this:

Watch it on your phone if you'd like your mind to be blown more than it currently is.

If you're like then this video probably melted your brain all over your keyboard. I had no idea that 360 degree camera's even existed let alone be a technology that would be supported by a company as colossal as google. After a bit of googling I found that there are quite a few models of 360 camera's available to the tech savvy consumer:

There's the Ricoh Theta, a device that looks as pretentious as it sounds, and costs around $350.00 which with tax included I think we can all agree is the price level equivalent of a terrible pun.

Next coming in at a bit depth of 4 pixels is the Kodak SP360. Priced at $300.00 it may look like an interesting tool to add to ones cinematic arsenal. It also looks like a muffin from the future which is all I've every wanted from a camera.

There are a few more interesting models I've found that I won't go into detail on , but I will say this: The death of the frame is neigh all hail the future muffin.

Bee and Puppycat: From Pilot to Premiere

It started as most trips did for my friend and I: half a tank of gas and a GPS that we suspected was secretly trying to kill us. It was the just the right mix of confused and justifiably concerned that we needed to get us anywhere. And on a particularly sunny morning in June we found ourselves crossing over into the land of maple leaves and no highway rest stops: Canada. We were sleep-deprived, listening to the only station that would come through clearly (a strange mix of jazz and 80s-esque rock and roll), and had long gotten over trying to read the kilometers conversion on our speedometer when it struck us.

We had actually just traveled to another country to meet someone who has been one of the biggest inspirations to us art-wise (and for me, film-wise). See, my friend and I have a strange sense of humor that consist of a series of half-assed miming and off-beat puns. It’s become a second language to us and it’s something that’s defined the things (of comedy) that we enjoy. That being said, we had had the amazing opportunity to stumble across the works of Natasha Allegri, creator of Bee and Puppycat, earlier in the summer and just so happened across this convention she was attending (the “Toronto Animation Arts Festival International”). Now, Natasha had been a well-known name in the cartoon-industry, for her work on award-winning shows such as Adventure Time and Cartoon Hangover-curated Bravest Warriors, but it was the unique style of her animation and writing that hooked us.

Bee and Puppycat premiered on Cartoon Hangover’s youtube channel in July of 2013. It was originally a quirky little short about a girl who loses her job, bumps into a dimension-skipping puppycat, and takes on a freelance job in Fishbowl space. Pretty ordinary, right? But the amazing thing about Bee and Puppycat is not only the visual style and natural flow of dialogue, but the process it has gone through (and the influence it has had on my own filmmaking) to become an actual full-length series.

With a kickstarter that launched back in October of 2013, Bee and Puppycat collected $872,133 by the end of its fund-raising period making it the most successful animation kickstarter in the history of the website. And after months of waiting, the newest and most re-vamped version premiered yesterday (November 6th).

And I remember sitting in the third row of a lecture hall, out in Toronto, watching the original storyboards for the first episode (of the newer version). It’s a weird and nostalgic feeling to realize that I was there witnessing the creation of something truly delightful. It was worth the moments of panic as we missed our exit more than once, and that one time that biker got mad at us and flipped us off.

Fast-forward a few months and everything that had been discussed was a completed thing. It’s gives me goosebumps, in a good way. Because what was Bee and Puppycat before was not what Bee and Puppycat was now.

For starters, the visual look of the series has changed significantly from its pilot-era. While it definitely threw me off for a few seconds, it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. If anything, it just shows how much can change in the production process and how much power you (as a content creator) has to to change the things that you want. For me, this new style only helped match the ideals and characteristics that screamed Bee and Puppycat.

You look at how Bee is drawn, you look at Deckard, you look at Puppycat, and any of the other characters and you see diversity. And it’s sadly hard to find that in mainstream media. You know, a female character who not only looks like someone you’d see in everyday life but someone who has embraced this sort of can-do attitude for the things (that would be trivial to some) in her life.

And the dialogue of the series only attests to the sense of realness that comes with such a personality as hers (and the others). It’s like you’re physically in the room having a conversation with the characters, or at least observing in close proximity. It’s natural. It’s insanely natural and it adds to the atmosphere.

Bee and Puppycat at its base, is a very whimsical story but it tackles very serious and actual problems in our lives: unemployment, heartache, betrayal, budgeting, ugly work uniforms. Haha, well not every problem is a very serious one but you get my point.

Sure, it’s not what it was a year ago but that doesn’t make it any less of the show that attracted thousands. And sitting in the back of that mildly-warm room, in an unfamiliar city in Canada, I didn’t feel like I couldn’t make it anymore: as an artist, as a filmmaker, etc. Hearing how Natasha cried when she had run, sweating in an uncomfortable business suit, through the streets of California to get to a pitch meeting that she utterly bombed, was strangely inspiring. Because it had failed. She had failed. But that didn’t stop her. She pushed on and it pulled off because someone was interested. And that’s the best thing to keep in mind these days. That no matter what, there will be on person who will be avidly captivated by your work. So let yourself fail. Let yourself make that wrong turn, and get over it. Because you learn from it and you learn to pick yourself up and to find a different route.

So here’s me pointing a big arrow-shaped stick at this series. Hopefully you’ll give it a chance, if not a quick glance, because it did something great. Maybe not to you, but to someone.

And maybe you’ll find yourself traveling across the border with half a tank of gas and a GPS out to get you. Who knows? I guess the point of this entire thing is that you just have to create.

Stand-offs: How to Know A Character is Winning

It begins with a video catching my eye, the maker catching my interest, and ends with me five hours into the future having watched every other video they’ve made. Luckily, Tony Zhou’s “Every Frame a Painting” series doesn’t go much longer than eleven videos. Each tackles on aspect of filmmaking in a unique and addicting way, but the one I want to focus on specifically is his “The Silence of the Lambs - Who Wins the Scene?”

It’s safe to say that a lot of the content produced by Park students tends to toe the line of action, with a flair for the dramatics. And that isn’t bad. But when it comes down to it, it’s two opposing forces facing off in a figurative showdown, guns drawn and clock tower booming.

Unfortunately, the way this comes across is too overdone by someone who isn’t experienced or knowledgeable in the art of power-dynamics. And in this segment of Zhou’s series we look at the power-play by iconic film figure, Hannibal Lecter. To those who may not feel like sitting through the entire two minutes and fifty-eight seconds, here’s what you need to know:

• Power comes in the angle - lower is dominant, higher is weak
• Eyelines matter - two figures looking into the lens are on common ground and when the eyeline shifts then they no longer see eye-to-eye
• Blocking - a character inserting themselves into a scene (be it over-the-shoulder or otherwise) is setting up a stand-off, confronting both physically and mentally
• Positioning - When the characters remain in their same power positions on screen they are winning, if the camera forces them to the side they’ve lost

Film Riot

As we launch ourselves head-first into the next project, a few of us might be scrambling to think of a pitch: something that will captivate an audience, something that will hook viewers, and something that could stand on-par with other festival-grade features. But where to start? Where do we even look? Honestly, it really depends on what type of person you are but if you're finding yourself in a creative slump maybe it's time to look for some inspiration.

Film Riot could be exactly the resource you're looking for. Hosted by Ryan Connolly, this is a youtube channel that is dedicated to offering tips, tricks, and tutorials about all states of production. It offers the perspective of someone who has had his own film entered into the Tribeca Film Festival, and people who specialize in a specific area (such as Dustin Lee from Full Sail). In this episode, they basically go over the fundamentals of scriptwriting. And while it may be something you've heard before, it's worth reminding yourself what exactly a good script is made up of.
And while tutorials are not everyone's cup of tea, Film Riot strives to put a friendly and like-able face to its product. They feel less like a lecture and more like we're casually learning with him (Ryan) as he explains how he managed to accomplish this special effect or that specific shot.
If you continue on through his channel, you’ll discover a plethora of filmmaking tutorials that really help when it comes down to conceptualizing exactly what you want to do in a feature length film and how exactly you need to do it.

The First YouTube Music Awards Show

YouTube held its first Music Awards Show this past Sunday night and was streamed live on youtube.com. The disheveled show was full of a variety of live performances, presentations, and some comedy sketches. The show drew from popular videos and music with no specific purpose. The nominees for each category were voted on by fans. You can see the winners here.

Spike Jonze was the creative director as well as the director for some segments. Jason Schwartzman and Reggie Watts hosted the hour and half show, which had performances from Lady Gaga, Eminem, M.I.A., Arcade Fire, and more. There was even a weird segment that Lena Dunham wrote to go along with Avicii's performance. It was a "choose-your-own adventure short" directed by Spike Jonze, with Vanessa Hudgens and Michael Shannon. I enjoyed the writing as I normally do with Lena Dunham's work, however, it was a very strange segment that ended with the audience choosing the outcome of the story.

I wouldn't take the time to watch the entire show, however it's worth looking up a few performances. My favorite was Arcade Fire's performance, or "live music video," as they called it, of "Afterlife." The director, Spike Jonze, camera operator and focus puller all did a wonderful job filming this live. Greta Gerwig also does a fantastic job dancing awkwardly but beautifully. Take a look:

Or to watch the whole thing:

Insane Base Jumping and Great Camera Work

      Recently on Youtube, I saw a video titled "Insane Base Jumping, Falling with Style". The colors in the shots immediately caught my eye. My original thought was that it seemed as if it could be a car commercial because of how illuminating and bright the colors of the car and background were. Turns out Ford made this video happen by sponsoring the team. Anyways, I was mainly interested in how they got such cool shots of the individuals falling or jumping off the bridge or hot air balloon. Turns out Devin Graham, one of the main cinematographers for the video, said he simply used a Go-Scope with a GroPro connected to it. A Go-Scope is basically a pole you can get at any length, that you can use for a shot that you may not be capable of getting otherwise. 

        

      Certain shots that he got with this Go-Scope made it seem as if the viewer is falling with the base jumper. It is truly amazing. The aesthetic values on this piece is phenomenal. With all the light being natural and from the sun, the colors that the landscape gives off in each shot is breathe taking. It truly does look so beautiful it could be fake. The electronic music that goes along with the video is by Overwork, and fits perfectly with the continuous falling and landing. I think this video is extremely well done and definitely goes to show that even the toughest of shots can be achieved.   

Youtube now contains an audio library of free music

We have encountered the same problem at some point; you search for a video and by the time you finally find the exact video you were looking for, it has been removed due to some copyright infringement of the audio. Youtube realizes that this is a problem and is now trying to do something about it.

Youtube now contains an audio library of royalty free tracks to choose from. Currently there are only 150, but I'm sure it is growing daily. These songs are available for any use, not just Youtube videos. They can be downloaded forever to your computer as an Mp3 file.

Although this is an awesome tool for anyone in the media industry, it still has major flaws. 150 is a relatively small number, even for a free audio library. The songs can only be played with a start and stop button, with no option for skipping to another part of the song.

Obviously a paid service would better streamline the process of selecting an audio file, but lets be honest, who pays for music anymore? This is an awesome resource that I am very excited about using in the future, and I'm sure Youtube will be providing frequent updates to the library and video process.

http://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary?feature=blog

Greatest Guerrilla Ever

A film all about Disney World, shot inside Disney World, without Disney's permission. 

This is "Escape From Tomorrow"

People shoot videos at Disney World all the time, often times documenting their vacations and the fun things they did in the park. There is no way Disney could ban recording devices from the park without a major backlash. But that being said, there are certain things that they don't want filmed, such as behind the scenes places or closed buildings. This doesn't stop people from trying to get footage, but Disney keeps a watchful eye to make sure they don't get very far.

A notable example of this is "Adam the Woo" (One of his videos is posted above), who has snooped around Disney with his camera so much, that they banned him from Disney World entirely.

So what would happen if somebody decided to shoot an entire movie there, without Disney finding out?
Well, one of this year's Sundance films did just that.

"Escape From Tomorrow" follows a father on vacation with his family at Disney World, and delves into the mental breakdown he has while in the park. The filmmakers got themselves under Disney's radar while shooting, using iPhones and handheld cameras as to not rouse suspicion. Whether or not Disney will try and keep this movie from bring distributed to wider audiences is unknown. Untill we find out, we have the trailer:

Man at Arms

So recently I have stumbled upon yet another very interesting Youtube series. The series is Man at Arms. Man at Arms is a new web series which consist of mini documentary type episodes on the subject of blacksmithing. Each episode a different weapon is forged from scratch. All the weapons that are made are from either popular movies or video games. For example wolverine's claws from X-men were made, as well as weapons from Gamer of Thrones and Lord of the Rings. Now I know this sounds very nerdy, and it is, but I strongly encourage you to at least watch one of these videos for these two reasons. The first being that the art of blacksmithing is quite an amazing thing and watching the whole process happen in front of your eyes is pretty cool. The end product is a piece of art. Its hard to believe how far those ugly pieces of metal shown in the beginning of each episode the episode have a beautiful sheen to them at the end. The second reason is that the cinematography for this series is impeccable. Between the lighting and the amazing editing the videos are very aesthetically pleasing. I assume this is shot with a DSLR due to the fact that the quality is very high but filming in a small and crowded place like a workshop  would be difficult to do with anything other then a small versatile DSLR. I could be wrong about this. One really cool techniques used is attaching a camera to the end of each piece of metal being forge. At the end of each episode there is a time-lapse consisting of shots from a camera attached to the product and it gives a really cool perspective to look at the blacksmithing process from. 

 

The video I chose to share with you a weapon from the movie Kick Ass is made. Its really cool to see how much work is put into each weapon and thats just one aspect of making a movie. Tony Swatton is the blacksmith who makes the weapons in each video. He has been able to make a living off of his trade by make prop weapons and armor for over 200 feature films. To think about how many props a movie like Lord of the Rings needs is mind boggling, to think about making all of those props is crazy. This series really allows you to see a different side of the film industry. It is similar to the conversations we have been having in class about extras being in the right place at the right time, when all of the extras have weapons and armor things get a little more chaotic.

Please take a look at least one of these videos, I'm almost positive you will enjoy.  

DevinSuperTramp

I'm back again with even more YouTube videos. I've always loved all the cool stuff that there is on YouTube, and now that I have some experience with film making and editing, I love seeing what other people make and try to figure out just how they went about doing so. Recently I have been stumbling upon these awesome videos by the username Devinsupertramp. I know all of you have most likely have seen some of his work on YouTube due to the fact that almost every two weeks he makes YouTube's front page.

Devin makes these beautiful videos of all the adventures he goes on. There some are videos of cliff jumping in Hawaii and walking on a tightrope across canyons, while others are just a lot of footage of nature with a very nice music score. The equipment he uses consists of go pros, DSLRs, glidecams, and even remote control helicopters with video cameras. One piece of equipment I really am a fan of is the glidecam that he uses. Glidecams are a type of steadycam which makes a shot where the camera person is moving look as smooth as can be. The effect from the glidecam has a really cool end result. All of the variety and versatility of his equipment really pays of in the end.

World's Most Insane Rope Swing

Behind The Scenes

This video is just flawless and very enjoyable to watch. One of the things I enjoy the most about Devin's videos is that he edits very nicely to the music. When the bass drops in the song he usually makes a cut and it really gives the video some emotion. Also he makes use of the go pro action cam very well whether it is mounted on a pole to see the person's face while they are jumping off the cliff or facing outward to get the point of view shot. Another cool perspective in the videos are the use of aerial shots. The aerial shots that he gets using the remote control helicopter is used very tastefully and shows how intense the activity really is. In the behind the scenes video he really shows you every bit of the magic which is really cool to take pointers from. One point he made was that by shooting during "Golden Hour" his shots really come out looking beautiful. It is very cool to hear back on a creative level from a you-tuber. I hope you enjoyed these videos and I recommend subscribing to his videos because awesomeness is definitely ensured.

Miley Cyrus' New Outrageously Risky Music Video

If you thought her last video was a bit raunchy, then you will be blown away with this next one. This song is her newest hit single called "Wrecking Ball". The video was released on Youtube on Monday, September 9th. When I viewed it Monday evening, Miley already had over 19 million views in 24 hours, which is not very surprising. Her provocativeness was cranked up to a whole different level. The performer appeared completely naked in most shots of the video, and when she was clothed it was see through and barely covered any skin. Now some do see nudity as an art form, other may see it as the young girl just trying to flee far away from her innocent and young Disney Channel, image. When Miley heard about how the public tore apart her video the second it came out, she decided to make a bold statement on her Instagram. Below her statement is visible. She goes into depth about why she was nude and why she was kissing a sledge hammer passionately. Miley explains the thought and meaning behind every choice that was made when producing the video.

Taking everything Miley Cyrus says into consideration, makes me understand more of what she was trying to do. The director of this video was Terry Richardson. In my opinion, I think Terry and Miley didn't succeed as portraying the story that they had in mind. It was hard to think about the true meaning of  the video while Miley is kissing and liking a sledgehammer. The viewer is too distracted by nudity and sexual actions to even think about what the song actually means. Watch the video and tell me if you think her 19 million views was because of artistic talent or because of pure nudity.

NPR Tiny Desk Concerts

For as long as I can remember I have been listening to National Public Radio, whether it is news stories Prairie Home Companion, or the occasional Car Talk. Now four or five years ago NPR started up a Youtube series called Tiny Desk Concerts. The title of the series really sums it up but I will go into a little more detail. NPR invites in various bands, ranging from folk singers all the way to rappers, to perform an acoustic session of sorts behind a "Tiny Desk". Sometimes there is only one person performing other times there are twenty people, and these performers play their music in front of the office members. These performances are then recorded and put on to Youtube for everyone to watch and enjoy.

I have just recently started watching these videos and they are so well done and enjoyable to watch, especially from a film students perspective. Now from what I can tell, is there are either two or three videographers recording the show, one getting a wide shot on a tripod of the artists playing, and the two others focus on getting close ups of the performers faces, guitar fret boards etc. The videos are always edited together in a very clean yet creative way. The really impressive part is the audio piece. Keep in mind they are recording in a standard office. The last time I went into an office I don't remember there being acoustics like the ones in Ford Hall. Recording one person performances is one thing but to get crisp beautiful sound when there are horns, a string quartet, vocals and guitars going is a completely different task. The specific band I am referring to is Mother Falcon. 

Mother Falcon is a 20 person chamber pop band, yes this sounds weird but in fact they are one of my favorite bands. The members play many different instruments and tend to be a loud band. Yet when they were invited into NPR the only recording device I could see was a single shot gun mic placed a few feet in front of them. The sound for this performance was impeccable. Granted they are a very professional radio station but still an impressive feat nonetheless. The link below is to Mother Falcons performance and though it may not seem very interesting I strongly suggest you watch it purely for the example of pristine audio recording. I will also post a link to the Macklemore Tiny Desk Concert if that seems more appealing. 

I hope you enjoyed my little rant along with the awesome web series that NPR produces.

Tiny Desk Concert: Mother Falcon

Tiny Desk Concert: Macklemore

Sony FS-100/ Creative Video

Looking back at the old blog posts I saw a lot of movies being reviewed, I'm going to change things up a bit. In the era we are in online videos and media are becoming more and more popular. In most peoples life they watch some sort of media throughout their day, whether it is a viral video on youtube or a professional short film on Vimeo. I will be posting a few videos for you all to look at some pertaining to class others that are just really cool to analyze from a cinematographers standpoint.

The first video is a review of the Sony NEX FS100 which we will be using in class. I figured I would learn a little bit more about this camera and it's set up so I searched youtube and found this review by ProMotion. The video is done in a professional manner and is a nice beginner overview of some of the features this camera has.

Sony NEX FS100 Overview by Pro Motion


The next video is B-Roll filmed on the Sony NEX FS100. This video really got me excited. The quality of the camera is beautiful, and compared to the camera I used last year ,which is the JVC HM100, it is a huge step up. I plan to take out a camera this weekend and make a similar video and hopefully edit it with Adobe Premiere.

Pacific City Dory Fleet | Sony FS100

The last video is something I found this past summer when I was extremely bored and was on StumbleUpon. I personally think this video is amazing. I ski and I love extreme sports, I really enjoy watching skiing videos and things of that genre. This film shows four mountain bikers riding some hardcore trails, but more importantly the shots the camera man got really make you wonder how they did that. I really enjoyed the editing and content and I hope you take something away from it.

Mountain Biking Madness

I hope you all enjoyed my first post and I look forward to reading all of yours.

SFX make up! and other news...

Recently, I was asked to help out with a senior thesis horror film that required some special effects make up! I have done make up before but nothing all that complex. So far this is the most complex make up job I've ever done and it turned out really nicely.

I was specifically asked to create a slit throat on one of the actors. I was intrigued and really excited to figure out the best ways of going about this! First I looked up a few video tutorials on YouTube...

Both of the one's I viewed required liquid latex. I was extremely crunched for time and luckily found out that someone was letting us use their make up. They had liquid latex. HALLELUJAH!

I didn't even get to play with it until I was on set but it was really fun and really useful, you can easily make a scar with this stuff. It's awesome! I plan on getting my own stuff someday. I really enjoyed the opportunity to play with it and the shoot turned out really well! Everyone was really thrilled with my handy work!  The actor himself really got into the character (if you can call being dead/dying a character). 

As you can see above, I also played around with my hand. No, I'm not kissing him!

I'd like to have more opportunities to do this kind of stuff, actually. I think I could do better eventually after figuring out the nature of the materials and such. It's very exciting to be able to figure out this kind of stuff out. 

Also just another fun plug I just recently watched The Game by David Fincher. The film was made in 1997 and in my opinion is very much comparable to the possibilities we have now in epics like this. It was a very mind blowing experience! It was mind blowing in a sense that you are caught off gard a lot  and you don't know what to expect the entire time. It's crazy! But it's not one of those confusing movies that you would have to watch 2,384,903,802 times in order to understand it at all. When you get it, you get it but you'll be surprised how you got there. Go watch it!!! It's on Netflix!

6 word story and other such wonderful topics

I thought for a while about this assignment and I wanted to bring in something very complex and yet simple. One of my inspirations was a recent funeral I attended. The preacher quoted a scripture that caught my attention and made me cry like a baby. The scripture was John 11:35; Jesus Wept. To understand that a symbol of such great influence among people for hundreds of years and to see him humbled for the grieving sisters of Lazarus, to understand that he knew and felt the pain that they were feeling is very deep and I decided to take it and make it something more modernly understood.

My six word story is:
"The King wept with his people."

This reminded me of the scene in The King's Speech. In the scene I speak of, the queen comforts the king as he weeps. It's a scene where the audience begins to feel a mutual feeling of the weight of the world and a man in complete frustration and nerves. Almost a feeling of release. I wish I could find the particular scene on YouTube, however even if I did it probably wouldn't do it justice. It's a great film and it's a must see, for sure. I have personally made a list of my favorite films from the past three years (that I've seen). The King's Speech came in at number twelve out of my (currently) 119 films.

I found a little clip of the film in this montage of the story line on YouTube.

For now Ta Ta!

-Lucy Lynne' Hall

Extra, Extra, Read All About It

Over the past couple of years, I have been a pretty avid follower of the yahoo top news stories. I know its not the greatest link for news, but it gets the job done and helps me stay knowledgable about what's current. Recently, I just saw an article that talked about movie extra's in feature films and how people will do anything to even have a chance to be on the big screen. The producers and directors will normally send out a mass invite to anyone in the local area interested in part taking in his/her feature film. This past summer, I drove out to Heinz Field In Pittsburgh, PA to be apart of the The Dark Knight Rises. The final batman movie had a scene in the stadium where the main villain interrupts the game being played with explosives and fireworks. It was sweet to see all the cast members and have the chance to be in the background of a very popular soon to be film.

At the end of the article i was reading, the author provided a link to a youtube video of the world's most used extra. The video identified the person in over 50 films and

shows, a pretty impressive number if you ask me. The man's name is Jesse Heiman,

a 33 year old actor who still to this day plays teenagers and young adults in the backgrounds of many films. In some cases, the actor is paid for the countless second he is on the screen for. I thought it was cool to have a chance to be in one movie, but this guy has been in over 50, a number that will probably never be topped.

Extracurricular Projects

A lot of people may stop after they finish schoolwork or required materials but I often find myself wanting to create and do more. Sometimes class work can get tiresome and boring so finding something you actually enjoy creating and doing is very important. Recently I have created a few different side projects not associated with school that I have been really proud of and would like to share.

My first project I created last week after watching a few parody videos online. After the announced hiatus of a great sitcom called Community there has been an outpouring of fan made videos showcasing how special this show really is. My friend and I stumbled on a video where a user created the opening credits for Community yet in the style of another great show called Parks and Recreation. We then realized that it would be interesting to see Community’s credits in the style of Arrested Development, a show that like Community had cult fans and network scheduling problems in its third and final season.

A few minutes after this discussion I went right to work seeing if this was doable. After playing around in Photoshop about if I could do it, all of the sudden it was all I could think about. For the next two days every free minute I had I would work on this credit sequence. I first created all the images in Photoshop by using pictures of the cast from online. Then I put them all into Final Cut and animated the slides to move and change at the exact same time the original credits changed. Next came adding the videos included on the slides. Finally I had to figure out how to make moving arrows, circles, and the hanging pictures. I then just sat down and tried different things and used trial and error to problem solve these things for myself. Two days later I was done and posted it online. In 48 hours I nearly had 2000 views and now as I write it has over 4000. I am very proud of the outcome and how I may finding people I don’t even know post it themselves on sites like Twitter and Tumblr! To view my video click here and to see the original I based it on click here.

Another side project I have been involved in is called Dual Redundancy. Dual Redundancy is an entertainment and television podcast my friend Mike and I created and host every week. On the show we have different segments where we discuss the week in entertainment. These include “In and Out Points” where we jump in and out of the week’s big headlines and “The Flashback” where we highlight a great new episode of a show from the last week. We also give movie reviews and have done a variety of theme episodes. These have included an Emmy prediction episode and another where we revealed the list of the top ten TV characters from the last ten years. For the latter podcast we created a survey and asked our listeners for their votes. We received over 100 votes before we closed voting! We are still going strong and have created ten episodes so far.

If interested in learning more about Dual Redundancy you can find us all over the Internet. We have a Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube page where you can find out about the latest episodes, contribute content for the show, and even participate in contests. Most importantly you can subscribe and listen to our show on iTunes or download it to your MP3 player.

ALSO LOOK AT HOW 90'S THIS JON STEWART IS

I have to repost this video for you all, because I need a second post and this is actually extremely hilarious.

If you're like me, you're a fan of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Granted, you might not have as much in common with the host of the universally acclaimed satire show, such as a dark and receding hairline, biting wit, or the short and wiry stature of Moishe the Frail Bagel Store Owner. But you do enjoy his Monday-to-Thursday beatdowns of everything wrong in the media, hypocritical in politics, or just bizarre in the world. Last night on the show he lampooned every part of Herman Cain's farewell speech, from his admission of using Pokemon lyrics to his shenanigans driving up to the podium. It was classic. Watch it with your eyes.

But the Jon Stewart we know now is vastly different from a Jon Stewart in Jon Stewart's past. Take a look at this, for example:

Look at that set! And look at Jon's black leather jacket! And what is baby-faced Conan O'Brien wearing? Is that a plaid flannel over a black shirt? Yes! This must be... oh man! Oh God! This must be the 1990s! This is actually 1994, back when Jon had a show on MTV called (uninterestingly) The Jon Stewart Show. It was actually a competitor to Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and as you can tell one beat out the other. But can you blame Conan for beating out Jon back then? Seriously, look at that set design! What were they thinking?

Of course, we all know that Jon and Conan are on amicable terms. That is, unless you discount the mock feud between them and Colbert in 2007. That was funny.

Anyway, I wanted to share this with you guys. Also, the fact that Jon's head of hair has receded and turned gray since this video is making me queasy about the future of my own head. Don't leave me, beautiful hairline.