Last Post!

Wow! I can not believe how fast college has gone by!Come this Friday I will be done!!!!!!!! There were times that I thought school was literaly going to kill me but it didnt, I was able to over come.
I have learned so much from this class even through there were times when I was sreaming and wish I didnt have to do any of it. But I now know that all I learned in this class will just put me a step above the rest that do not have multi-media skills. My resume looks very diverse now. Growing up I never throught that I would ever be able to call myself a film maker! But I can now. I'm a multi-media scholar.

I have found a song that spells out everything that I have gone through with school and life and what I will still have to overcome with graduation into the real world. It is a song by Miley Cyrus - "The Climb". It is now my theme song.
So here is too the next years of my life! Through I cant say that I'm going to miss school because I have bigger and better things to do now - I dont know what that might be, but I know it will be unforgetable.

Opening Credits - Barbarella

I dont know about you but I like opening credits that are live and in motion, not just a bunch of words on the screen. I like the story to start to unfold before me because lets face it if I want to know who is in the movie I will stick around and read it at the end. So for my groups tat doc, we have been trying to come up with an interesting way to introduce our film. Well this has nothing to do with our doc but I thought that the film Bararella had an interesting way of showing thier opening credits.
Now I have never seen this film so when I was watching the opening it had me wondering what was going on and I liked that. Here you have this space setting and this thing is taking off it's gear and it's cool because you see that there is a women that you are watching. I was really paying attention to the music to see if the music did something different when the woman did. Sure enough when Jane Fonda's head thing starts to come down, words start in the song of "wondering"and "woman." Then what was really cool is when she shakes her head and the credits land everywhere. Then when she is completly naked the words cover her body. Then just the faming that is used throughout really ads to the shots. Over all this was a very creative opening.

Tattoo Video

Okay I have decided that I want to be a music video director! I'm sure that it will naver happen but I got this great idea for a tattooing music video. The Jordin Sparks music video for her song "Tattoo" is good but I want to change it! The song talks about how thia guy is on her heart like a tattoo, well a video should be maid of her thinking about went she got a matching tattoo with her lover and now in the present of her looking at her tattoo.
It could be made really cool of gettig footage of the tattoo process and then putting in footage of her in the present. Just going back and forth. I got this idea from a Norman Rockwell painting that I saw. The picture was of a WWII navy guy that was in a tattoo chair and the tattooist was crossing out a girls name and putting another one below it. The funny thing was that there were five other name up his arm that had been crossed off. So I dont know I guess I'm just in tattoo info mode and have tattoo ideas coming out my ears.

Author Russell Doc

I wish that I would have watched lots and lots of doc before I even started this project because there are so many great ideas out there. I guesss that I'm feeling very nervous about this doc because I feel like we have to do this masterpiece in such a short amount of time and I and I know everyone has 5,000 things to do for other classes. I really just want to wake up from this bad dream. I want all the stress to go away.

But anyway, I'm done freaking out for now. The clip above is about a doc done on Author Russell. I dont really know who he was but from the video he must have been in the music world. This is not the entire doc it is just a preview. But anyway the reason I'm posting this is because I think that we may have to use a lot of still pictures in our doc so I was looking to see how other people use stills in thier videos. This video does it very nicely. When ever someone is talking about the past a picture will show up and help illistrate the message being talked about. So all in all this video was done very nicely. I strive to have great work also like this when we are done.

How to show work

THe title of this video is Lost Tattoo. I picked this video to talk about because I was trying to find away to show off a tattoo artist's work on our documentary. I know that we will be using a lot of pictures of Roger's former work in picture form so I just wanted to get an idea of how other film makers were showing off still pictures in film form. I have no idea how many pictures we will be recieving to use or anything like that but I still wanted reference.

I liked how this film was done because oneone is talking, the tattoos are just speaking for themselves. So maybe towards the end of the film we could just show all is collection at once or maybe we will show his past work while he is talking. Maybe when he makes reference to a certain tattoo we can show it - fade it in and fade it out. The music that is with the tattoos is great, so if we show the tattoos on thier own we will have to have music in the background. This is just a starting place, who knows what we will end up doing.

Potato Video

I just love to see old movie stars still trying to make an extra buck after all thses years - it really makes me laugh! I really hate to see these stars resort to some of the things that they do though. I ran across this video on youtube about how to peel a potato without using a peeler. Now I love potaos more than life itself and I love to cook so I really wanted to see this video. But poor Dawn Wells, who was Mary Ann off of Gilligan's Island,soemtimes you just need to know when to hang it up.

What the video was demonstrating was great - I will try it. But the video was not done well. The script was really, really cheezy!I wish that they would not have played off her former role so much. I like how she told us who she was but it should have stoped there. The video was not good quality but that could have just been youtube. Some of the shoots seemed to be over exposed. The fading was really bad, I liked it better when it zoomed in and out to get a close up. The zooming did give me some ideas for my documantary. Oh my goodness, the stuff animal potato really needs to go.

Courting Condi

Well last night was my first experience at a film festival. I didn't even know that Durango had a film festival. It was a very different experence, the theater was more interactive than viewing a regular film. The film was also very different from what I was expecting, there was deffintly a character's "oh" moment in the film just like we had to have in our short fiction film. It was funny but then at the end I didn't want reality to set in because before I was having such a great time.
I did get a lot of great shot ideas for the our documantary - the rule of thirds was diffently used and I really saw how it helped the film be more interesting, instead of using the same shots. This was diffently a new twist on a documaentary that I had never been introduced to - the film was very different.

Tattoo - Tall Guy

Again I'm just getting ideas for my final tattoo documentary. So I thought way not get ideas from the pros. This next video is off of an episode of Miami Ink. This is quality at it's best. I know that in all of my videos I have had problems getting my lighting to turn out so that my shots look like quality work, so I'm going to try my hardest to get my lighting perfect.
With Miami Ink you can tell that it is pro because it has great shots, lighting is great and it also had music going thorugh the entire piece that it tasteful and ads to the film, its not just a fav song that the director liked.

I reallt like how this piece shows the entire process of getting a tattoo, the idea, the drawing, the sitting and then the finish product in a limited amount of time. I love the story told behind the tattoo. I really like how the the film shows how the tattooist is working with the cilnt to get his tattoo just right, again goes back to process. The camera shots that where taken was great. There was alot of them, but it was great because you never got tired of watching because how it was all done. BEing able to see the finishing product was great, all in its glory by using still shots. I do wish that we could of known how long the process was and how much the tattoo cost but amybe that is just extra info that really doesent need to go in there. But All in all I really liked this film.

Tattoo Video

For my final documentary project I want to explore the tattoo world of fan culture. Do people get tattoos because they are a fan of tattoos or because they are a fan of what they put on their bodies. My theroy is that getting a tattoo is the ultimate fandom! So what I really want to do is find someone that has never gotten a tattoo before and follow the process of them getting their tattoo. I think it should be an interesting process seeing how a person reacts when they recieve their first tattoo.

The film that I choose for this blogg is not the greatest and I'm sure it was done just for an advertisment for the artist. None the less I just wanted to see how other people are shooting in tattoo parlors. It was interseting how the artist was showing them around the parlor and how it was not just a tattoo parlor it was also a salon. I like how there was a announcer I guess you could call it that the shots when back and forth from to explane things. But the over all organization of the film was not good. I thought we were going to get to see a tatoo from start to finish but there were several being done. I dont like how there was no story for why the person was getting the tattoo or anyhting about the artist.I also want to get some examples for what not to shoot like and I do believe I got one of my examples.

President's Day

Around Fort Lewis you really have to keep up on top of holidays becuase we hardly get any off! In fact I'm suprised they give us Thanksgiving Day and Christmas off. In fact the only reason that I knew it was President's Day on Monday is because my Fiance did not have to go to work but I had to go to school! I was pissed bacause he got to have a great time while I had to be at hell on earth all day. (Can you tell that I'm ready to gret out of here?)

Anyway in view of President's Day I found a music video that I really liked because it has a catchy tone to it. Eventhough it is all done on the computer, there are no live shots I really liked it in a multi-media, educational way. I remenber when I had to learn all of the American Presidents and I about never got it done but I think that if I would have had this type of incorperation with music and rhyme it would have helped me out a lot. There are lots of videos out there that name all the 44 presidents but this one sticks with you and gets stuck in your head. The president's name get stuck in your head because of the way music and beats are used. So if you know someone that has to learn all the 44 presidents let them know about this video.

Fred's V-Day

The world can be very depressing so there is nothing better than watching something that can make you laugh. So to get in the spirit of V-Day I wanted to find a video that celebrated V-Day. What I found when I was searching for V-Day video's were videos that mocked V-Day. I can totally relate to this bacause even though I have a significant other I dont see the purpose of setting one day a side to tell or show someone how much you care about them. I think that you should show someone how much you care about them everyday. But oh well it's just one more day to get you to spend money. So that is why I will be spending V-Day at home with my honey, eating a nice non-expensive romantic dinner.

Anyway enough about me lets talk about the video! First of all I liked it because it was funny! I laughed a lot. The reason that I laught was because of the voice over that was used. It reminded me of helium from a ballon after a person sucks it into their mouth and talks. But whoever did the editing did not do a very good job of maching the voice over with the mouth movment. I really like how the shots never really had the kids entire head in the frame. This type of framing made for a good visual and was the same ole, same ole. I really like the story and how present day it is by using texting as the form of communication. I know from self experience that I say more in word form than I do talking, say like over a phone. So it makes sence why the girl was made very mean in text form. What I really like about the video is how it makes fun of V-Day and brings to light how V-Day, if you are not in love can be so sad for some.

Script I read

For the script reading assingmant I read Dances With Wolves. I knew this movie really well so I thought that it would be a good script to go off of. I really like how the script was done because it was easy to follow, it had a pattern that it followed. Title of shot, then what is going on in the shot then the characters and dialog follows and then this is done again. I really like how easy the script is to follow. I read a few other scripts and they where really had to read. So if you need an example to go off of I would use this one.

Damon Dark Fiction

I don't know how Brandon last term got such great quality with his videos because unless a movie is by Hollywood that I have seen you can tell that they are homemade. But eventhough Damon Dark is homemade and you can tell it is, it's still pretty good. When the opening credits came up I thought the movie was going to be better quality than it was but oh well.

I like the fact that the director made this film black and while because it is suppost to be a freaky film. The voice that the doll has adds to the freakyness of the film as well. The shoot taken from under the guys chin upwards and how shaky the camera work is, also adds to the freakyness.

I really like how the film is shot from first person but inside his head. The voice-over worked really nicely the way it was done. Then the flashback using fadding from different objects while he was talking like the rock and the candels was done well also.

What I didnt like about the piece was the use of still pictures. Like the uses of the picture of the graveyard. That in my mind was cheesy. How hard would it of been to use a real graveyard. I wish that a real doll would have been used instead of a picture of one. When music was used it was very fuzzy and hard to focus on the film when it was going.

Other than that I really liked the story and how it was presented. I just love black and white films.

The Ultimate Wedding Dance

This movie was shown to me by my husband to be. When I was first viewing this video I was not sure why he was sending it to me because it takes a while to get going but the wait is well worth it. This has got to be the funniest thing that I have seen in a long time. You can imagine that with my wedding a few months a way how much I really like this video. I would totally do something like this because I love how original the idea is and I love how the couple might have seen how boring a couples first wedding dance can be to the rest of the people watching. So if I can get Jake to do something like this we are going to! But I really don't see that happening. Then on the other hand my dress is very form fitting so maybe it would not be such a good idea. But either way I hope my wedding is as much fun as that wedding turned out to be.

Anyway enough about me lets talk about the video. Besides it being really, really, really funny, like I said before I love how creative the couple was to think of something like this. So they get 10 stars for making a memorable experence for thier guests. I just love how when they were first dancing everyone was talking in the background but has soon as they got with it and broke into thier secret dance moves all the talking stopped behind them. I just hope that maybe a movie that I do one day will stop people in thier tracks. I know the quality was not good but the idea was and that is what really makes this video. What could have make the movie better was if the camera guy would have known about this event before and placed himself or her in a place that would have had a clear view the entire time. Maybe the camera guy did know but they just did not pick a great spot to be. But other than that I have to say that this is my favorite youtube movie of all time.

Animals are the Best!

People are interesting but watching animas is so much fun. But from personal experience they can be hard to shoot becuase they do not understand why they have to stand still or do something over again because you messed up the shot. Patience is something that needs to be taken into account when dealing with animals. You have to be willing to wait on them also when they are not ready to do something. But in the end when eveything had finally been shot it will be worth the hours it took to get an animal in action.

When I saw this video on a trick hores it made me smile because I used to have a mule that would lay down on camand. But for some reason she never liked too when we where taking pictures of her. So when I saw that this horse was not camera shy I was glad that I was able to see this horse in action. The shoots are pretty fuzzy so I wish that they would have focused the camera before they started. I wish they would have planed out their shots more so that we could see what the trainer was doing to make the hores do it's thing. The zooms were either to fast in some places or to slow in other places. Sound, I really wish that they would of incorperated into the video. It didnt have to be music but I know the sounds that horses make and it would for made the video better if we could of heard the animal.

Graduation Day

Well keeping with the theme of graduating I founf this music video - Graduation Day with Chris Isaak. I Really don't like the song but I really like how the movie was done. I'm a big fan of black and white so I love it when movies are done in black and white when it is needed. The use of balck and white really works for this song becuase it is talking about the past and regrets I think.
I like how the film shows his memory. It's not just him singing it's him singing and you get to view the girl he is taking about. The fading that was used in the shot to show his memory coming back to the present is cool. Your going in and out with him.

I like how the setting is at night because his memory is sad almost and night is dark and can give the feeling of that. The old cars that where used and the drive up movie that is playing in the backgroung just really gives the film a coolness to it and makes it seem that he could be anywhere and that is what makes it relatable. So bad song but it has some good ideas for shooting.

One last Time!

Wow I can't believe that this is my last term of school forever!!!!!! I can not wait until May 2, 2009 at 11:30 in the morning! So ya I really dont want to take this class because I hate computers and tech! I really should of been born in the 1800's when everone was doing the hores and wagon thing. So a little more about me and what was on my list - I love Jake, my husband to be in a few months! I love our black lab Tater! I really love green chili and the color pink. I hate getting sick and computers. I fear letting people down. I beleive in God and I value God and my family. I want to graduate and find a job that I love and I cant wait to get married and have kids. What I know about myself is that I cry a lot, I'm hardheaded and I'm very determined!!!!! So even-though I dont want to take this class I'm going to do it and get it done so that I can get out of here!