crankypants

2007-06-13T19:30:00.000-04:00

Hey there fiends! I now have a real website (not that blogger isn't cool; it's great). So come check it out. There's lots of pictures and videos, a couple of podcasts, writing samples and cool links, including a link to here. You gotta check out the link to Aubert Bros as well. See ya there!

2007-06-13T13:53:00.001-04:00

Check out this music video I made. This is footage put to an original song by my friends' band Aubert Bros. The song is called Aubert Bros as well. These guys rock. If you are in the St. Petersburg area, check 'em out ASAP! You can watch this video on YouTube or just click the image. Check out their myspace page too.

2007-02-01T16:25:00.000-05:00

So it's been a while since I've posted. I've just been busy with school and endless projects. Here's some pics I've taken; new and old. Check 'em out. Just click here and then click "photos" at the top of the next screen to see them all.

2006-09-06T19:48:00.000-04:00

For any visitors to this blog, I have another blog, fancypants, that is somewhat on the lighter side. It is for my media convergence class. Check it out.

2006-08-09T12:26:00.000-04:00

Hello all. As I informed Dorian on Monday, I will not be in class tonight because I will be at the Dave Matthews Band show. Please do not take this personally. I still want to see everyone's movies (and I will). I will check them out on your blogs and post my comments. I hope everyone enjoys mine. I have really had a great time in this class. I learned a lot and also sat with impatience looking at my computer screen way too long. That's all part of the schtick though. I guess I better get used to it because next summer I am planning on making an hour long documentary. I can only imagine the time I will spend staring at my computer then (something like 6 months!) So, enjoy tonight. I am very excited to see everyone else's flicks. It's been a blast. Good luck to all of you. I guess I'll see some of you this fall. If you watch the movies at the Tavern, have a beer or two for me. If not go have one anyway. I'll be sure to have a couple for all of you at the show. Cheers!

2006-08-07T19:49:00.000-04:00

This is my final project. It took many hours of editing and staring at a spinning ball of color. What a relief that it is done. I might go back later and change the music to a soundtrack that I will compose myself. I had to compress it quite a bit to get the file size down and I sacrificed a little quality; but it's not too bad. Hope you like. Let me know with your comments. Good luck to everyone with their movies! Cheers!

2006-08-06T16:33:00.000-04:00

I really enjoyed watching clips from everyone's movie projects on Wednesday. I can't wait to see the finished products. It appears that everyone has put a lot of time into these things. It has been a very fast paced class and everyone seems to be in a frenzy to get things done. I think this is good. The time budget we have gives us a little push to git 'r dun! I work best when under pressure (most of the time). I haven't been able to put my all into some of this stuff due to other classes and work, but I feel I'm doing a pretty good job given the circumstances. I think this goes for everyone else as well. I finished my movie Wed night at like 11:30pm. I just need to compress it and upload it to my blog. I hope everyone is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. See you in class.

2006-08-02T17:37:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to say a few words about the critiques from the narrative projects. I did get a lot out of reading what everyone thought of my final cut. There were some things I agreed with and some that I did not. Overall, it was good feed back. My overall impression of everyone else's narratives was really good. I thought there were original ideas and personality. The narratives about families were touching. It's nice to see that people have great histories and they are willing to share it with everyone. The other narratives about personal interests and good old fashioned humor were also super. It was all very entertaining and informative. I liked working on the project. It was fun to see how other people put things together. They each have a unique style. It shows the diversity of the class. I'm excited about the final movie. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with. Until next time...

2006-08-01T11:33:00.000-04:00

I want to say a few things about the readings and links we have looked at thus far for the class. I do not have the iMovie book, so I guess I can't really say anything about that. I can say (as I have mentioned before) that iMovie seems to be a pretty easy program to learn. The shortcuts we learned about in class helped out. It saved me time from having to figure it out on my own. Garage Band is a really awesome tool to use for soundtracks or anything else you want to do with music. The Digital Video book has also helped. It is a lot of technical stuff, but still interesting. I've found that I was already preety familiar with most of the content; but it was still a good refresher. It is also a great reference for general digital video concepts and terminology. I have checked out all the links that have been assigned to us, I just haven't had the chance to talk about them. I thought the NY Times article was interesting. The power we have, literally at our fingertips, with computers and the internet is amazing. I found it very honorable that these people are willing to share their experiences of the war with the world. The sections on script writing were also very helpful. I've never written a script, so it was nice to see a few ways that it can be done. I liked the two column method best however, when I write another script, I will probably use a combination of a couple styles or modify the two column style to make it my own. I also liked the variety of clips (mash-ups, narratives, behind-the-scenes) that we were given to look at. They helped out with my thinking process, both on what to do and what not to do. I must say that my favorite one was the narrative done with Flash (I think it was called Epic) about Google and the revolutionization of the information superhighway. It was original and it seemed so very real. It did kind of remind me of The Matrix, however. Over all, the readings and clips have been educational and entertaining. Some of this stuff has opened new doors for me on the web. I am enjoying the class. I'm very glad I decided to take it. I only wish that it was a class offered in a normal semester or the longer summer session so that more time could be spent on developing stories and perfecting final cuts. Cheers!

2006-07-19T22:32:00.000-04:00

This is my still shot narrative movie. I wanted to do something a little different, so I chose to talk about the night. Most of the photos are my own. Some are grainy and/or blurry because they were shot in nearly complete darkness. I had to do long exposures with no tripod. Most of them were shot in Minnesota a few years ago, but there are some more recent ones. The footage at the end of the movie was shot at 4 am in Minnesota in March! That's why I don't live there anymore. I added sound effects to give it a mysterious feel. The music was composed by me. It's actually just a loop of a 10 second or so cut I did. I also did the voice over. I decided to use an accent (not sure what it is) and speak in a calm voice to add to the effect. It was a tedious process. I did enjoy doing it. Hope you enjoy watching it.

2006-07-17T16:57:00.000-04:00

During the last class I put together the majority of my narrative. I have the timeline finished with all my still images. I timed the pictures so that they transisted to the next according to my voice-over. I have also included some sound effects, which I may or may not use, depending on what soundtrack I am including. I am thinking about using some of my own music (acoustic guitar recorded with the camera) depending on how it sounds and fits with the story. Otherwise I may create something with Garage Band or stick with sound effects and movie music from iTunes (on iMovie). I think it is coming along pretty well. I've never used iMovie before, but I picked it up fairly easily. I have used other editing software, but iMovie is very easy to learn and use. I have a few ideas for the final project, but I'll have to see where it takes me with a group. I may elect to do it on my own. We'll see. I enjoyed the clips on current.tv. Some were more inspirational than others, but it was all good information nevertheless. Up to this point, I am really enjoying this class. I'm sure that it will be great from here on out. I'm looking forward to seeing other people's projects as well. It's fun to see what other people can come up with. There is always a wide variety of ideas and concepts. Until next time...

2006-07-05T21:19:00.000-04:00

This is a little piece I did; really fast. This is a romantic comedy/melodrama. I wanted to try and make the trailer lean toward a horror or suspense film. I call it The Chair from Hell. The movie is called The Puffy Chair. Check out the real trailer and compare it to mine. Tell me what you think. There is more I could do with this 45 second trailer mashup, but time
wouldn't permit. I might play with it later and add some
transitions or effects. Who knows? Enjoy!

2006-07-05T14:40:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to say a few words regarding the assigned readings from the links posted on Blackboard. It seems that video blogging is gaining much attention as mentioned in class. It is even getting popular with big artists that are encouraging people to mashup their music and video content. There is money to be made with this form of expression. It also gives artists free advertising. Fans respect the fact that some artists are promoting experimentation of their content. The links to various mashups were very entertaining. They give you an idea of what is going on, and what can be done. They offered network of ideas for mashup projects, and show that just about anything has potential if you put some thought into it.

2006-07-05T13:47:00.000-04:00

Hello fellow students! I am looking forward to this class. I think it will be a great learning experience, as well as, a good time. Although I am a journalism major, I ultimately want to pursue a career in film making. I think this class will be a great tool for the future, given its fast pace and agenda. It will also give me a better understanding of how to publish things on the web, and enhance my editing and creative thinking skills. So, let's get started... Cheers!