Class Reflection 4/14/11

Last class started out with a little bit of confusion. It took a half hour of people trickling in to the designated class area for Doc Chris to finally get his full attendance. That's because we apparently had a mis-communication about what time class started at. I was only fortunate enough to make it at the correct time (4:30) because I had been hanging out on the Humanities Deck and saw Doc Chris approach the spot we were having class and sit down, so I astutely realized that class must have been soon and went to sit with the Doc. The Judge Doctor Chris show may have had it's largest collection of offenders ever as Doc Chris pretty much walked from student to student interrogating them and video taping them, I got interrogated and I hadn't even done anything wrong. After the extended episode of the Judge Doctor Chris Show we ordered Chipotle, the order itself took about 20 minutes and then it took an extra 30 or so minutes for the food to show up. After everyone got their food we discussed our final (apparently there's two of them?) and we all left as needed. I left a little early because I had somewhere to be and I didn't order any food to eat.

I guess class was a pretty big success, Doc Chris got to put tons of people on trial, and we also managed to organize a lot of important details concerning the end of the school year, and the final project/final exam. Not to mention we got free food in class, which is pretty much any college students dream of how to spend class time. I think Doc Chris did a good job in class, although a lot of us were a little confused initially about the whole final scenario, and I think I may still be slightly confused so I'm just hoping the Doc will go into further and possibly better explained details next class. As far as learning in the class room went, I'd say most of our learning was done from watching the Doc fill the court house with offenders on his show. He gave us plenty of sound sight and motion material with that. We didn't work in our groups today so I can't say much about that. But the edutainment level was pretty good as usual and was probably a bit higher on the entertainment factor with all the free food and people on trial. But what Doc mentioned about the final was informative and I guess you could consider it to be educational. That's pretty much all I remember about class and I think this wraps it up.

Class Reflection 4/7/11

The beginning of class was a little confusing. Almost all of the students went downstairs to the classroom (like we always do unless told otherwise), and we waited there for a good 10 minutes or so after the early 4:30 start of class until finally a messenger came down and let us know Doc Chris had no intentions of meeting us downstairs and was waiting for us outside. So, out we went to meet Doc Chris. When we finally found out where he had been hiding, he gave some TWITAS to people who did a good job on their exams, and shook his finger at people who didn't or completely forgot to do it. He then gave us our next assignment/test after an extensive debate and we all set out to go capture some video and photos for about 15 or 20 minutes. When we all got back court was in session. Doc Chris gave his warnings, but due to some pretty impressive lawyering skills the Doc was unable to incarcerate anyone. Then we started our second extensive debate to figure out what was on the menu for next class...as in literally whats on the menu, and what are we gonna be eating. This was yet another sad, lost battle for the Doc due to the flip of the coin. After we finally found out what we were ordering and what our homework was, the Doc sent us on our merry ways.

I don't think that the class period was really all that learning oriented. I felt as though the goal today was more skill practicing as opposed to skill learning. The picture taking made me think in advance about what I was gonna try and say about the pictures for the test, and I think that was a big difference between our first photo test and this one. Through Doc Chris' patented Edutainment teaching style, I learned that I really don't want to get put on trial when we're having outdoor class, it attracts wayyyy more attention than I want or need. I didn't feel like we were really working too much in our teams today, my team suffered due to an unexpected absence and then we had a few late showers on top of that. I felt like most of our work was individual if you everyone in your group had their own cameras, but I did post my photos onto the facebook group in case my group members and classmates need a hand with the exam.

I sort of spent today's class just roaming taking my own pictures and didn't spend too much time partaking in our debates over the punishments Judge Doctor Chris wanted to hand out. I chimed in every now and then when I felt like the class was getting a bigger load than we could handle but that was about it. I was definitely entertained in today's class and I think that I learned a little bit more about how to make some good pictures for evaluating with the vulcan tool.  I'm pretty sure I understood the lesson today and think that it was really just meant for self development of your skills, which I think I succeeded at.

Lastly, I think Doc Chris did an awesome job leading class today and I think he's gonna have some pretty full classes in the fall after putting on his classroom show right outside in front of all the passing by students. Class was fun and we figured out some  important details for the next few classes, so I'd say this class was a big success.

Exam 3

 Opinion: This is a photo of one of those big tress out on the quad. I liked this photo because the tree has a ton of branches that make for an interesting shape which could make a fun challenge while trying to vulcanize it. I also thought it was really cool how the light sort of burst through the tree branches.

Vulcan: The image portrays a very large object sticking out of the ground. The object seems to be natural and has a very unique form. Its main shape is a sort of cylinder/pole shape erecting straight from the ground, and then off of this main section multiple other cylinder like sections burst out and break off into different directions. The majority of this objects mass is suspended in the air, hanging over the ground. and the sections of the object breaking off from the main bit appear to be blocking the sunlight and making it very dark in the picture.

 Opinion: I chose to take a picture of this trash can because it has a pretty unique construction and I thought it would be interesting to try and describe it's shape in vulcan form. Other than that I really had no reason to take a picture of a trash can. It's bizarre though how the exam has me looking at an every day object like a trash can in such a different way. It almost makes me think the trash can looks nice...

Vulcan: This appears to be a photo of a mostly cylinder shaped object. The object is painted black and seems to be some sort of a container for holding waste. The object is constructed mainly of durable, hard bands that run up the object, each band is about 1 or 2 inches in width, and there is a space that is the same width as the bands between each of the bands providing gaps to see into the receptacle. Near the top of the cylinder the bands break away from the center of the cylinder and lean out so their ends are pointing out away from the object, the ends of the bands are attached to some sort of open circle, and above this open circle is a smaller closed circle that is somehow hanging over the open circle.

 Opinion: I'm not entirely sure what motivated me to take this picture, I think I just liked the perspective of it. It's kind of cool to see the bushes run down parallel to the steps and while the bush declines evenly down the hill, the steps have a jagged and rough decline.

Vulcan: This picture consists of two sides in a sense, the left side of the picture contains a hard almost rock like surface that descends a hill, while the right side has natural looking object running down the hill. The object on the left side is a brownish sort of sand like color, and it looks as though this object was placed on the hill and then they took large notches out of it so that people could step on it and easier get up and down the hill. The object on the right is green, and brown. The brown color belongs to long, narrow cylinder type objects that run wild throughout the objects mass, and at the end of each of these brown objects is a green object that is small and randomly shaped.

 Opinion: I took this picture because I liked the way the bushes ran up parallel to the pathway. I also liked how strong the green color was in contrast to the gray brick on the pathway. The picture has kind of a neat perspective as you can see the bushes shrink as they get farther and farther away from the camera.

Vulcan: This picture has a column of some natural looking green object. This green object just looks like a large cluster of small green this stuck together in a shape that somewhat resembles a sphere, but because there are multiple of them lined up with each other, it resembles a line and looks like a column of green. To the left of the column of green you see an occasional black pole rise up from the ground next to it. On the right of the column of green there is some sort of a gray pathway that all the people stay on so that they don't touch any of the green ground.  

Opinion: I took this picture because I thought the railings took a really interesting shape it was really cool how the light reflected off all the metal and just lit it right up. I also thought it was kind of a cool angle and almost makes you a little dizzy when you're looking at it.

Vulcan: This picture has a lot of shiny, metallic, silver objects running through it. The first one of these seen is a shaft/cylinder/pole that runs elevated over the ground and down a hill, it probably is meant to provide some sort of support for people walking down it. The second obvious shiny part is a sort of sheet of the metallic looking object, that has a series of rounded off rectangular cut outs in it so that you can see through it. This sheet is then support by several gray colored column like objects that run up the side of the sheet to hold it up.

VIDEO SECTION

Sight: The video starts and shows several people walking by, and several buildings/structures. There appears to be some sort of walkway that goes up over another walkway and creates a type of tunnel thing. There are also 2 green objects hanging from poles with large orange and black cylinder objects resting on top. On the banners are the symbols "L" "O" "Y" "O" "L" "A" on them. The colors are all brownish colors as that is the color of all the structures and the pathway that has some sort of stone like material laid over it.

Sound: There aren't very many different sounds in this video, but the prominent sound seem to be people laughing who aren't caught in the camera. The people walking by aren't making any noise what so ever, and are not acknowledging that they are being filmed. In a deep, raspy voice what sounds like a male says "Ohhhh yeah, look at it, oohhhhh" and after this point is when the laughter erupts off camera.

Motion: The majority of the motion is just people walking by the camera all nonchalant like. There is also one person who goes into one of the structures through some sort of a swinging wall like thing. The camera also demonstrates motion as it moves around behind one of the walls and begins to lose a visual on some of the people.

Sight: The video appears to be of somebody's legs. The legs are wearing a light blue fabric, and on their feet is brown footwear that wraps over part of the foot and has a smaller piece going down to the sole in between the toes. The ground consists of hardened looking rectangular shapes that are all the same size. These rectangles also appear to be laid out in a precise looking manner.

Sound: There only seems to be one sound in the video. It is the sound of the foot stepping onto the hard ground/surface. The sound of the foot hitting the ground is a rather loud clacking noise, some steps are louder than others though.

Motion: The motion in the video shows the legs reach out, one in front of the other for the whole length of the video. You can also see a shadow mimic the legs' movement. As the legs move the camera moves with them which produces an effect as if the ground is zooming by past the camera.

Exam 2 Opinions

 I chose to use this photo because I thought it did a great job of showing colors. The picture also plays a large role in showing lighting techniques for subjects. The person in this picture is entirely engulfed in a shadow while the bottles just behind him are fully lit.

 I thought this picture also did a good job of showing the effects light can have on a photo. In this case I find that the light has a negative affect on the photo and that is damages detail on Doc Chris.

 This picture was another awesome demonstration of lighting and it shows a lot of dark lighting and outlines of bodies with very little detail. The light coming out of the post office area also has a cool affect in outlining bodies' borders.

 I thought this was an interesting take on color, the colors in this photo are for the most part very bland and gray, with the exception of the food serving window on the back wall which steals the image by showing so much light and color and contrasting the other colors so strongly.

I liked this picture because it is able to capture motion without using video. The picture may be incredibly blurry, but it is still very cool and gives viewers the idea that the subject is moving quickly.

I selected this video because it does a good job of demonstrating background noises that can really interfere when trying to film dialogue in a crowded area. Although I was standing no more than 10 feet away from Doc Chris when I shot this clip, you can't hear a single thing he says because of all the other noise interfering in the background, it's pretty interesting stuff.

I chose this video because it showed a key piece in sound and motion and how the two are correlated with one another very often, and it also had a lot of cool visuals such as the lighting and dance moves.

I chose this video because it can be compared to the other dance video and it can show how the pace and beat of a song changes the way people move to it drastically. And because like the previous video the blue lights were very cool.