1. What do you know now that you did not know when you entered this class? Name at least three things?
Thanks to this class I now am significantly better at analyzing photographs, videos and real life situations for sight, sound and motion. I feel like writing the blog was almost similar to journalism in some senses as well and that by writing the blog I became a better writer and learned to express my opinions better in my writing. The third thing I learned was how different angles, lighting and shadows can enhance a message's strength or purpose in photos and videos.
2. What will you remember most about this class about your group and its performance, the class and its performance, you and your performance and me and my performance? Be specific.
The thing I will most likely remember about this class is the unorthodox manner in which it was run. I'll remember how my group was able to enhance it's performance and step it's game up throughout the semester and I'll remember my personal growth in my ability to express my opinion through blogging. I'll remember Doc Chris as being incredibly enthusiastic no matter what the circumstances are, he came in sick and still came with his A game and was always excited to be teaching.
3. Are you less aware or more aware of your environment in terms of sights, sounds and motion as a result of taking this class and please explain?
I am far more aware of what is occurring in my environment after taking this class. I pay closer attention to sights, sounds and motions after taking the class. I've also found that when watching TV a pay a lot more attention to commercials now and pretty much analyze them as I'm watching them.
4. Have you re-evaluated your views in terms of how student are educated in a classroom as a result of taking this class? Explain why you have re-evaluated your views or why you think that college should continue teaching ONLY in the traditional manner?
I used to be under the impression that all classes are pretty much the same. You go into the classroom, take a seat, and then listen to a teacher talk at you for a predetermined amount of time as they occasionally ask a question every 10 minutes or so. Taking this class definitely proved me wrong. I enjoyed the change in pace by taking this class and experiencing the edutainment that Doc Chris had to provide and while I'd say his methods were definitely effective in this class, I'm not entirely certain if they can be applied to every class subject. It seems difficult for me to imagine a biology class or math class taught with edutainment but maybe I only think this because I'd never seen it done before. I probably would have told Doc Chris his plan wouldn't work if he had shot it by me before attending class this semester and he proved it does work.
5. Now that you have experienced my teaching style based on my Edutainment & Convergence research what do you think of the future of the communications field and education fields in the future? Will the future of education be linked largely to the communications field using the Edutainment & Convergence methods and technologies that we used and pioneered the use of in this class? Is this a good thing or bad thing? Explain.
I have a hard time seeing the edutainment and convergence spreading throughout all school systems, but I'd definitely like to see it in a few other communications classes here at Loyola. I think that it would be a good thing to bring edutainment and convergence to other campuses and try to spread the joy, but I think it would take a while for it to catch on widely at all campuses. In conclusion I definitely think edutainment and convergence is a good thing, and I think it needs to be shown to more schools.
6. How many of you will be using some these Edutainment & Convergence methods in your other classes to keep yourself on track, communicate with classmates, and work in groups? If you have done this already this should be easy. Can you see yourself using tools like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, iTunesU, iTunes, Google, and blogs like Blogger to create papers, outlines, conduct research, get quick facts from legitimate sources, and more even if the teacher is not using these tools in class?
I can definitely see myself using facebook in the future to try and organize with classmates and group mates but I'm not sure if I'll be using some of the other resources. I think it depends on the subject and the way the class is run. If a teacher has students all set up blogs that everybody can share I'd definitely utilize this resource to better understand some assignments. In presentations or projects I probably will and already have used youtube to share videos with classmates and it was convenient and effective.
7. Now that each of you has assisted me in creating the course for next year's students what are some things that you would like me to add to this course and what would you like me not to use. Caution here! We have to do Vulcan throughout the semester by order of the Supreme Court Justice of Communications at Loyola: Dr. Cook. This course is based largely on phenomenology and this is an important research tool that many of you will learn to use in graduate school if you take a qualitative research course and quantitative research courses that require direct observation.
The one biggest complaint I'd have about the class is something that you have addressed and made clear was out of your control. The upset was just that we weren't given studio time to actually try and create some of our own, more polished sight, sound and motion and then record it using the camera tricks we learned in the book. It would have been cool to assign a group project where students have to make some sort of a polished video featuring sight, sound and motion as opposed to do our sight, sound and motion on the quad or observing natural sight, sound and motion in the college center. Other than that I can't think of any complaints.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Final Written Exam
1. Describe how lighting, colors, and shadows are used to create a mood or feeling in commercials, TV shows and movies and use a YouTube video as an example to explain your answer. Name a movie, video or a director who uses lights, colors and shadows effectively and why?
Lighting, colors, and shadows are utilized in videos every day, especially in professional video productions such as commercials, TV shows and movies especially. Lighting, colors and shadows are utilized best to get an emotional reaction from viewers. Dark lighting is often associated with a depressing, and sometimes scary mood. While lots of bright colors are usually associated with joy and a happy event. Some movies will combine dark lighting and darker colors to create an eerie feeling. One director who knows how to get a reaction out of viewers through their use of light, color and shadows is director Frank Miller in his movie Sin City.
The majority of Miller's scene is black and white and it has very dark lighting and lots of shadows. A unique asset in this movie however, is that it uses colors in some areas to emphasize a particular item to get the viewer's attention. In this particular scene Miller chose to make the blood red while everything else was black and white. This gets viewers to acknowledge the blood. The lighting on the other hand adds the eeriness in this incredibly gory and dark film. The woods in this scene are dark, and there are flashes of lighting that are startling and scary. These are perfect examples of how these assets set the mood. One other neat feature is when the shot goes completely black and white, with no in between grays. This occurs when the dog begins to eat his owner (I know, Miller is sort of messed in the head) by leaving the colors like this the viewer is given a very bare image, as a result they are left to fill in the blanks with their imagination concerning what is going on and how gory it is.
2. Describe how natural sounds, music, voice and noises are used to create a feeling or mood in
TV shows, commercials and TV shows to get a response or deliver a message. Again, you must
use a YouTube video as an example to explain your answer. Name a movie director or a
performing artist/musician/group who uses sound, music, voice or noises to create a feeling or
mood, and describe the mood (s) they create by their use of sound and yes use a video clip to
back up your point. Post the link when post your answer as a Doc on FB.
Natural sounds, music, voices and noises are all used to get different types of moods from the audience. A slow, patterned beat can be used to build suspense in viewers, while a fast beat can give them an adrenaline rush. Loud sounds can either cause excitement or fear in viewers depending on the context and their heart rate when the sound first approaches. In the movie The Matrix their is a memorable scene were they enter a very secure building, set off a metal detector and then start a massive fire fight.
In these scene sound plays a huge role, the excessive gun fire is used to give the reader a sense of the chaos that is going on in the lobby and the music is used to increase the heart beat of the viewer and give them an adrenaline rush similar to how the characters in the movie are most likely feeling. The beginning of the clip has a slow beat that stimulates suspense and at the end it becomes completely quiet to represent the new calm and threat free environment.
3. Describe how motion is utilized in TV shows, commercials, and films to get a response and to deliver a message. Yes, you must use a YouTube video as an example to explain your answer. Post the link also.
Motion pretty much sets the pace of movies, with motion the pace of action can speed up and slow down instantaneously. Motion can gain viewers' attention by creating unique and interesting motions that are commonly found in fighting scenes, it can also deliver messages by in the way motions are committed. The motions in this selected fight scene from Kill Bill Volume I get a reader's response and deliver a message.
In this scene Uma Thurman's character gets a response from viewers through her motions. The scene is filled with blood rocketing out of people's body and limbs flying off, these motions that come following the slicing motion of a blade get viewers to cringe at the sight of these gory, gory motions and images. The message delivered through all of this motions is obvious: don't mess with Uma Thurman and her katana, she'll mess you up.
4. What is the best part of your experience in this class and why? What were the most important things that you learned in this class? List at least three.
The best part of my experience in your class was simply attending class. Each class period was a new experience and Doc Chris always found a way to class time fun and educational. It was the only class that I truly looked forward to going to. The most important thing I learned in class was to view movies and other videos in a new light and really analyze the sight, sound and motion in the videos. One other thing I've learned in class is the importance of coordinating group work. My group didn't do this very well and because of it I fell we struggled. One last important thing I learned in class was that college classes can in fact be fun, and that not every class is the same boring lecture period.
5. Explain how you like working in groups in this class, and how has your team grown. Did you like using Facebook as the primary communications tool, and did think it made the class closer as a group?
I enjoyed working in groups in our class, however I can safely say that my group struggled in this aspect. I don't think my group fully utilized the communication resources that were available to us by messaging each other on facebook or sending each other emails. I think that throughout the classes my group got better at communicating but it is still far from mastering this. I think that if class was more than once a week my group would have grown tremendously. I think that it's really cool we used facebook as a primary communications tool and it came in handy. Using facebook made it incredibly easier to ask questions to not only the teacher, but the class as a whole, and this was very useful. I definitely think that using facebook made the class closer as a group, it encouraged our communicating with each other.
Evaluate your team. To be fair being put on trial tough; however, it literally happens every day at TV stations, ad agencies, film studios, government studios and PR agencies; do you understand why folks were put on trial rather than giving a failing grade for making mistakes and why the trials were public? Explain. Did you notice that people grew after being placed on trial, and cite and example?
Like I said earlier, my team had trouble communicating with each other which proved to be a problem, but in the end everybody did their part of the work so it didn't end up being too big of a problem. I am under the impression that folks were put on trial for the sake of giving them an extra chance instead of just failing them for one mishap. The trials were public because it served as an extra motivator, the class knows who was put on trial, and when they were, and through this everyone knows who does their work and who doesn't. Knowing this information could cause humiliation to people put on trial so they will try harder and also people put on trial who may need help will know who they can ask by looking for people who either aren't put on trial often or are put on trial for good work and recognition. I think that after being put on trial students tried at least a bit harder. I was put on trial only once and it was for good work, this served as a little booster to my motive and made me work harder knowing that I was doing well. I also recall John Kenyon being put on trial once or twice and you saying that his work has improved tremendously since then.
Do you think that being put on trial made you more accountable to your group, this class, yourself and your professor?
I was only put on trial once and it was to acknowledge my hard work and the timely arrival of my assignments, but even this sort of trial proved to be really useful. It made me feel like I was doing a good job and that I could help out people if they needed any. So I would say it made me feel more accountable for my group, the class, myself and Doc Chris.
6. How have you grown in this course thus? Has it helped you critically think and have you applied what you have learned in other courses yet? Examine your blog for 20 minutes and review your reflections, do you understand why Dr. Chris did some things that appeared unorthodoxed at first but made sense in the end? Do you feel more aware of what you see, do you view things that you know differently, and are you more aware of your environment after having taken this class?
I think that I've definitely grown in this course and have become better not only at doing the SSM technique but also at expressing my own individual opinions like I did in my DC blog post. I have used what I learned in this course in my intro to comm class so the skills I'm learning are definitely coming in handy. On the first day of class I thought it was really weird that the teacher had us staring at an over head projector and describing it, but now I think I fully understand. By doing all of these Vulcan posts it helps us learn to look at things differently in the way that maybe someone shooting a video would need to. In a way it almost helps to increase the capacity of our imaginations by doing these SSM analyzations. The answers to the last questions are yes, yes and yes. I definitely am more aware of what I see and hear and it gives me a whole new perspective on things.
List your favorite part of the Sight, Sound & Motion process and why?
My favorite process is sight because it comes very easily to me to describe it.
List the most challenging part of the Sight, Sound & Motion process and why?
The most challenging part to me is motion, only because it takes the most time to describe and analyze
List your least favorite part of the Sight, Sound & Motion process and why? Do you understand
My least favorite part is motion because it is the most difficult for me to analyze.
why it is necessary now even though it is not your favorite part of the process?
I completely understand why motion is necessary even though it is not my favorite. It is a key part in the communications field and is something used every day, making it very important.
Should I keep the Soul Train Line as a motion activity or add more unique motion activities like skate boarding, volleyball or soccer?
I think that you should keep the soul train line but it'd also be cool to throw in something like volleyball or soccer because it's something you see everyday, but you never look at it in that light.
What was your favorite moment in this class?
My favorite part of class was probably all the class periods when we got free food. But I also was surprised by how much I enjoyed making a blog and expressing my opinion on matters.
7. Evaluate Dr. Chris. Did he do an effective job coaching you and preparing you for the production process? Do you like the fact that social media, applied exams and exercises, and intern hours instead of using primarily textbooks, notebooks and handouts? Explain why or why not. Would you recommend this class with Dr. Chris to a friend or classmate? Why or why not? Do you think that other other professors should utilize these methods? Did you feel like you received indiviudual attention and support from Dr. Chris when you ran into a problem in the course? What grade would you give this class? What would you like Dr. Chris to done more of in this class? Did you feel confident with the Sight, Sound & Motion process now after having taken this class? Knowing what you know about this class would take it again with Dr. Chris and why? Did you like doing non-traditional examinations where you actually demonstrated your knowledge inside College Center, in the main quad and in the classroom? Why? Did you realize that you were the sight, sound and motion that created sight, sound and motion from the people in your surroundings? Do you feel more confident approaching other classes based on what you learned in the class.
I think that Doc Chris definitely did a good job leading the class and that his methods were not only engaging but effective. I like the way Doc Chris ran the class and think it's awesome that he acknowledged how terrible the text book was and actually did something about it as opposed to most teachers who say "this book is outdated" and then continue to teach you on it. Doc Chris pulled out the key ideas of the book and then taught them to us in a way that proved more affective and entertaining. I would definitely recommend Doc Chris' class to friends or classmates interested in a communications class. I think that thanks to the way Doc Chris teaches the class it is easy, and that even though it's easy it still helps students learn. I think that anyone would enjoy the class and would be glad that they took it. I think that thanks to the way Doc Chris set up the class on facebook it was really easy to contact him and ask him questions. He also gave us ways to reach him at home, like his phone number, which I never used but always knew was there in case I needed it. I think I'd give this class a solid A. It taught me a lot, but I still feel like maybe there were one or two more things I could have learned about the production process. I feel like one thing I'd have liked to do more is practice some terminology such as the terminology we used for lighting and camera angles. Although I feel like those things are sort of common sense to me at this point in my life I don't think it would have hurt for someone else to try and teach me about them. After taking the class I feel more than confident with the Sight, Sound and motion tools taught to us by Doc Chris. I would definitely take this class or another class again with Doc Chris, the classes are really fun and more importantly I actually learn a lot from them. I enjoyed doing non traditional examinations and think it was refreshing to get away from the pencil and paper for a while. The examinations were fun and I felt a lot more confident leaving the non traditional exams than I usually do leaving a pen and paper exam. Now that I think back to it I don't think I was aware of the fact that we were the sound, sight and motion for other people at the time of exams, but it makes sense to me that that's what the case was. I am planning on taking a video class next semester and after taking this class I feel very confident about going into the video class and really practicing some of the sight, sound and motion techniques I learned in Doc Chris' class.
Here is your last Sight, Sound and Motion exercise. Briefly describe this class using the Sight, Sound Motion tool that we created to describe this class with the Vulcan method and then your opinion. Good luck!
Sight: Dark male in front of rows of table like objects. Rectangular metallic objects with light bursting out of one side are set on top of the table like objects. Around 15 or more people are all sitting in front of the light bursting objects looking at the dark man who appears to be talking. The people are sitting in rows of 3.
Sound: Low, ecstatic, crackly voice. Laughter follows this voice. Miscellaneous male and female voices respond. Music and random other sounds play. clapping, snapping, whistling.
Motion: People file into a room one by one at random intervals. A dark male moves left and right and up and down rows approaching people. People walk down an aisle formed by two lines of people doing different motions that seem like they could be dances.
Lighting, colors, and shadows are utilized in videos every day, especially in professional video productions such as commercials, TV shows and movies especially. Lighting, colors and shadows are utilized best to get an emotional reaction from viewers. Dark lighting is often associated with a depressing, and sometimes scary mood. While lots of bright colors are usually associated with joy and a happy event. Some movies will combine dark lighting and darker colors to create an eerie feeling. One director who knows how to get a reaction out of viewers through their use of light, color and shadows is director Frank Miller in his movie Sin City.
The majority of Miller's scene is black and white and it has very dark lighting and lots of shadows. A unique asset in this movie however, is that it uses colors in some areas to emphasize a particular item to get the viewer's attention. In this particular scene Miller chose to make the blood red while everything else was black and white. This gets viewers to acknowledge the blood. The lighting on the other hand adds the eeriness in this incredibly gory and dark film. The woods in this scene are dark, and there are flashes of lighting that are startling and scary. These are perfect examples of how these assets set the mood. One other neat feature is when the shot goes completely black and white, with no in between grays. This occurs when the dog begins to eat his owner (I know, Miller is sort of messed in the head) by leaving the colors like this the viewer is given a very bare image, as a result they are left to fill in the blanks with their imagination concerning what is going on and how gory it is.
2. Describe how natural sounds, music, voice and noises are used to create a feeling or mood in
TV shows, commercials and TV shows to get a response or deliver a message. Again, you must
use a YouTube video as an example to explain your answer. Name a movie director or a
performing artist/musician/group who uses sound, music, voice or noises to create a feeling or
mood, and describe the mood (s) they create by their use of sound and yes use a video clip to
back up your point. Post the link when post your answer as a Doc on FB.
Natural sounds, music, voices and noises are all used to get different types of moods from the audience. A slow, patterned beat can be used to build suspense in viewers, while a fast beat can give them an adrenaline rush. Loud sounds can either cause excitement or fear in viewers depending on the context and their heart rate when the sound first approaches. In the movie The Matrix their is a memorable scene were they enter a very secure building, set off a metal detector and then start a massive fire fight.
In these scene sound plays a huge role, the excessive gun fire is used to give the reader a sense of the chaos that is going on in the lobby and the music is used to increase the heart beat of the viewer and give them an adrenaline rush similar to how the characters in the movie are most likely feeling. The beginning of the clip has a slow beat that stimulates suspense and at the end it becomes completely quiet to represent the new calm and threat free environment.
3. Describe how motion is utilized in TV shows, commercials, and films to get a response and to deliver a message. Yes, you must use a YouTube video as an example to explain your answer. Post the link also.
Motion pretty much sets the pace of movies, with motion the pace of action can speed up and slow down instantaneously. Motion can gain viewers' attention by creating unique and interesting motions that are commonly found in fighting scenes, it can also deliver messages by in the way motions are committed. The motions in this selected fight scene from Kill Bill Volume I get a reader's response and deliver a message.
In this scene Uma Thurman's character gets a response from viewers through her motions. The scene is filled with blood rocketing out of people's body and limbs flying off, these motions that come following the slicing motion of a blade get viewers to cringe at the sight of these gory, gory motions and images. The message delivered through all of this motions is obvious: don't mess with Uma Thurman and her katana, she'll mess you up.
4. What is the best part of your experience in this class and why? What were the most important things that you learned in this class? List at least three.
The best part of my experience in your class was simply attending class. Each class period was a new experience and Doc Chris always found a way to class time fun and educational. It was the only class that I truly looked forward to going to. The most important thing I learned in class was to view movies and other videos in a new light and really analyze the sight, sound and motion in the videos. One other thing I've learned in class is the importance of coordinating group work. My group didn't do this very well and because of it I fell we struggled. One last important thing I learned in class was that college classes can in fact be fun, and that not every class is the same boring lecture period.
5. Explain how you like working in groups in this class, and how has your team grown. Did you like using Facebook as the primary communications tool, and did think it made the class closer as a group?
I enjoyed working in groups in our class, however I can safely say that my group struggled in this aspect. I don't think my group fully utilized the communication resources that were available to us by messaging each other on facebook or sending each other emails. I think that throughout the classes my group got better at communicating but it is still far from mastering this. I think that if class was more than once a week my group would have grown tremendously. I think that it's really cool we used facebook as a primary communications tool and it came in handy. Using facebook made it incredibly easier to ask questions to not only the teacher, but the class as a whole, and this was very useful. I definitely think that using facebook made the class closer as a group, it encouraged our communicating with each other.
Evaluate your team. To be fair being put on trial tough; however, it literally happens every day at TV stations, ad agencies, film studios, government studios and PR agencies; do you understand why folks were put on trial rather than giving a failing grade for making mistakes and why the trials were public? Explain. Did you notice that people grew after being placed on trial, and cite and example?
Like I said earlier, my team had trouble communicating with each other which proved to be a problem, but in the end everybody did their part of the work so it didn't end up being too big of a problem. I am under the impression that folks were put on trial for the sake of giving them an extra chance instead of just failing them for one mishap. The trials were public because it served as an extra motivator, the class knows who was put on trial, and when they were, and through this everyone knows who does their work and who doesn't. Knowing this information could cause humiliation to people put on trial so they will try harder and also people put on trial who may need help will know who they can ask by looking for people who either aren't put on trial often or are put on trial for good work and recognition. I think that after being put on trial students tried at least a bit harder. I was put on trial only once and it was for good work, this served as a little booster to my motive and made me work harder knowing that I was doing well. I also recall John Kenyon being put on trial once or twice and you saying that his work has improved tremendously since then.
Do you think that being put on trial made you more accountable to your group, this class, yourself and your professor?
I was only put on trial once and it was to acknowledge my hard work and the timely arrival of my assignments, but even this sort of trial proved to be really useful. It made me feel like I was doing a good job and that I could help out people if they needed any. So I would say it made me feel more accountable for my group, the class, myself and Doc Chris.
6. How have you grown in this course thus? Has it helped you critically think and have you applied what you have learned in other courses yet? Examine your blog for 20 minutes and review your reflections, do you understand why Dr. Chris did some things that appeared unorthodoxed at first but made sense in the end? Do you feel more aware of what you see, do you view things that you know differently, and are you more aware of your environment after having taken this class?
I think that I've definitely grown in this course and have become better not only at doing the SSM technique but also at expressing my own individual opinions like I did in my DC blog post. I have used what I learned in this course in my intro to comm class so the skills I'm learning are definitely coming in handy. On the first day of class I thought it was really weird that the teacher had us staring at an over head projector and describing it, but now I think I fully understand. By doing all of these Vulcan posts it helps us learn to look at things differently in the way that maybe someone shooting a video would need to. In a way it almost helps to increase the capacity of our imaginations by doing these SSM analyzations. The answers to the last questions are yes, yes and yes. I definitely am more aware of what I see and hear and it gives me a whole new perspective on things.
List your favorite part of the Sight, Sound & Motion process and why?
My favorite process is sight because it comes very easily to me to describe it.
List the most challenging part of the Sight, Sound & Motion process and why?
The most challenging part to me is motion, only because it takes the most time to describe and analyze
List your least favorite part of the Sight, Sound & Motion process and why? Do you understand
My least favorite part is motion because it is the most difficult for me to analyze.
why it is necessary now even though it is not your favorite part of the process?
I completely understand why motion is necessary even though it is not my favorite. It is a key part in the communications field and is something used every day, making it very important.
Should I keep the Soul Train Line as a motion activity or add more unique motion activities like skate boarding, volleyball or soccer?
I think that you should keep the soul train line but it'd also be cool to throw in something like volleyball or soccer because it's something you see everyday, but you never look at it in that light.
What was your favorite moment in this class?
My favorite part of class was probably all the class periods when we got free food. But I also was surprised by how much I enjoyed making a blog and expressing my opinion on matters.
7. Evaluate Dr. Chris. Did he do an effective job coaching you and preparing you for the production process? Do you like the fact that social media, applied exams and exercises, and intern hours instead of using primarily textbooks, notebooks and handouts? Explain why or why not. Would you recommend this class with Dr. Chris to a friend or classmate? Why or why not? Do you think that other other professors should utilize these methods? Did you feel like you received indiviudual attention and support from Dr. Chris when you ran into a problem in the course? What grade would you give this class? What would you like Dr. Chris to done more of in this class? Did you feel confident with the Sight, Sound & Motion process now after having taken this class? Knowing what you know about this class would take it again with Dr. Chris and why? Did you like doing non-traditional examinations where you actually demonstrated your knowledge inside College Center, in the main quad and in the classroom? Why? Did you realize that you were the sight, sound and motion that created sight, sound and motion from the people in your surroundings? Do you feel more confident approaching other classes based on what you learned in the class.
I think that Doc Chris definitely did a good job leading the class and that his methods were not only engaging but effective. I like the way Doc Chris ran the class and think it's awesome that he acknowledged how terrible the text book was and actually did something about it as opposed to most teachers who say "this book is outdated" and then continue to teach you on it. Doc Chris pulled out the key ideas of the book and then taught them to us in a way that proved more affective and entertaining. I would definitely recommend Doc Chris' class to friends or classmates interested in a communications class. I think that thanks to the way Doc Chris teaches the class it is easy, and that even though it's easy it still helps students learn. I think that anyone would enjoy the class and would be glad that they took it. I think that thanks to the way Doc Chris set up the class on facebook it was really easy to contact him and ask him questions. He also gave us ways to reach him at home, like his phone number, which I never used but always knew was there in case I needed it. I think I'd give this class a solid A. It taught me a lot, but I still feel like maybe there were one or two more things I could have learned about the production process. I feel like one thing I'd have liked to do more is practice some terminology such as the terminology we used for lighting and camera angles. Although I feel like those things are sort of common sense to me at this point in my life I don't think it would have hurt for someone else to try and teach me about them. After taking the class I feel more than confident with the Sight, Sound and motion tools taught to us by Doc Chris. I would definitely take this class or another class again with Doc Chris, the classes are really fun and more importantly I actually learn a lot from them. I enjoyed doing non traditional examinations and think it was refreshing to get away from the pencil and paper for a while. The examinations were fun and I felt a lot more confident leaving the non traditional exams than I usually do leaving a pen and paper exam. Now that I think back to it I don't think I was aware of the fact that we were the sound, sight and motion for other people at the time of exams, but it makes sense to me that that's what the case was. I am planning on taking a video class next semester and after taking this class I feel very confident about going into the video class and really practicing some of the sight, sound and motion techniques I learned in Doc Chris' class.
Here is your last Sight, Sound and Motion exercise. Briefly describe this class using the Sight, Sound Motion tool that we created to describe this class with the Vulcan method and then your opinion. Good luck!
Sight: Dark male in front of rows of table like objects. Rectangular metallic objects with light bursting out of one side are set on top of the table like objects. Around 15 or more people are all sitting in front of the light bursting objects looking at the dark man who appears to be talking. The people are sitting in rows of 3.
Sound: Low, ecstatic, crackly voice. Laughter follows this voice. Miscellaneous male and female voices respond. Music and random other sounds play. clapping, snapping, whistling.
Motion: People file into a room one by one at random intervals. A dark male moves left and right and up and down rows approaching people. People walk down an aisle formed by two lines of people doing different motions that seem like they could be dances.
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Final Exam Vulcan Section
Sight
Vulcan: The photo features six people who are all leaning over on one of their leg joints and the other leg is being supported by it's foot and is creating a 90 degree angle with the two segments of the leg. All the people are wearing red on their torsos with the exception of one person who is wearing pink instead and another person is wearing some black clothing on their torso over some red clothing. The red on the people's torso contrasts with all the vibrant green at their backs the gray stone on the ground also contrasts the green and red.
Vulcan: This picture features the same group of six people that are wearing mostly red in the previous picture. The difference between this picture and the last appears to be their stances. In this picture all six subjects are standing up on their two feet. The main similarity in their stances is that they are all looking at one person in the face and grabbing their shirts with two or three fingers and pulling them outward away from their chests. The subjects are grabbing their shirts on the upper half and their hands are spaced apart by about 6 or 8 inches roughly. You can just barely make out that the clothing one person is wearing has the symbols "G U N I T." The person with this clothing is also the person that everybody (with the exception of the person on the far left) is looking at.
Vulcan: This picture consists of three main objects. There is a large amount of deep green blades sticking out from the earth ground, on these green blades stands a pair of large orange footwear of some sort. This footwear stands out from normal footwear because it has no strings and the area the foot is inserted into extends all the way up to just below the knees. The final object in the picture is some faded looking black object just behind the orange footwear. It looks as though this object is only the base of something that is a cylinder like shape. All the colors in this photo have a very strong contrast.
Vulcan: This picture consists of what looks like six legs. Most of the legs are bare with the exception of two legs which have a seemingly tight fabric wrapped around them. Another similarity is that all the feet featured in the picture are wearing a similar style footwear. The toes on their feet are all exposed and the base of their foot (the area before the toes) is wrapped in some sort of material that binds the foot to the bottom of the footwear. Most of the footwear also has a strap that runs in between the biggest toe and the one next to it and attaches to the binding material wrapping over the base of the foot. Some footwear however, doesn't have the unique strap and instead makes up for it with excessive strapping around the base of the foot.
Vulcan: There are also six people in this photo, all wearing green on the torso except for one (on the far left) who is wearing yellow. They are all standing on the seemingly hard gray material on the ground and are all standing up on both their legs. They appear to be standing in some fancy pattern though. The person on the far left is facing away from the camera while the person next to her is facing the camera, then the person next to him is facing away from the camera (in the same direction as the first person) and so on. There is also one person who is just oddly standing alone away from the group of six, I get the feeling this person was not meant to be in the photo.
Sound
Opinion: I think the red team kind of took the easy way out with a lot of these sounds, and the blue team was definitely more creative with the sound section, but I suppose it's also important to think about those not very creative every day sounds you hear such as clapping. By picking such a basic sound it kind of shed light on what you're really hearing when you hear clapping.Vulcan: As soon as the clip starts you begin to hear clapping. It sounds like sort of a popping noise but the pop is created by the collision of people's hand palms. The clapping sounds like it is spontaneous and that there is no pattern whatsoever in all of the clapping. A few seconds in a deep somewhat crackly voice says "Ya Got it? Everybody got it?" another voice responds in a low, not very enthused voice stating "Yeahhh" dragging out the pronunciation of the word. The first voice then says "Wait a minute, this is a video" and the clip stops playing.
Opinion: This is another basic sound brought to you by the red team, however, like I mentioned earlier I kind of appreciate the fact that the red team chose some basic every day sounds. Its kind of a fun challenge to try and describe such a common sound that is always referred to by it's name, not the sound it makes.
Vulcan: The clip starts and you immediately hear a series of thud sounds made by peoples' feet smacking against the ground. Smack is another good word to describe the sound. The sound is completely random and follows no noticeable order. Near the end a deep somewhat crackly but enthusiastic voice says "You guys gettin' it?" and group of voices responds with "yup" "yes" and "ya" and the man restates the question saying "Everybody gettin' it?" at this point the video ends.
Motion
Opinion: Although none of these dance moves were very advanced (with the exception of Doc Chris) they all got the job done and gave us some motion to analyze, so with the videos serving their function, I really can't complain about them all that much. I just feel like it's gonna be a pain to analyze all of these motions in the soul train line.
Vulcan: The video starts with two lines next to each other and with a large space in between, as the video proceeds people step out of the lines and into this space. The first person to do so is a man, he walks down the line with his head facing down and arms outstretched to his sides snapping. He does fancy footwork as his legs sort of take alternating step sizes one at a time. The next person to go down the line is a girl, she goes down the line with both her forearms crossing her lower chest, and parallel to the ground. As she proceeds down the line she bobs up and down and performs circular motions with her arms occasionally sticking one of her arms into the air and then proceeding with the circular motions. The next person to go down the line walks down the line rotating their body left and right while pulling on their jacket. The man does a few side to side steps here and there and also flings his legs out occasionally. The man ends his walk down the line with a sort of hop. There is then a several second pause in motion. The next person goes down the line hopping off of one leg and then off of the other while throwing her arms into the air like a wave. The next person goes down the line waving her arms in circular motions to her side. She then pulls her arms towards her and sticks one arm out. While doing this she sort of bobs up and down.
Opinion: My opinion on this video is pretty much the same as my opinion on the red team's motion video. The dance moves are pretty sub par (especially since Doc Chris wasn't going down the line) and they still serve their purpose of creating motion, so, I really can't complain about it.
Vulcan: The set up for this motion video is the same as the previous, but there is one difference, in this video subjects walk down the space in groups of two. The first 2 people to walk down the line do so acting as if they are swimming. One person reaches their arms out in front of them and pulls them in as if they are swimming while another person pinches their nose and ducks down with their free arm waving over their head as if they were pencil diving into the water. The next two people walk down the line with their elbow joints at a 90 degree angle and doing circular motions with their forearms and bumping their hips together. The next group slows down the motion for a while as they discuss what motion to do. Once they start walking they go down the line they do so with their elbow joints at 90 degree angle and leaning to the left once, then again, then they begin leaning to the right, then do it again, and then they repeat these motions. The next two people go down the line very sloppily, all they do is hesitantly bounce hips again and again with a hesitant pause between each bounce.
Freedom of Speech
May 2nd, 2011 is a day that will go down in American history as a major turning point in America's war on terror. Although many people will think of the day as the day that an elite force of American soldiers assaulted Osama Bin Laden's hiding place and killed him, I'll remember the day as a time when our country came together to celebrate and rejoice because a man responsible for countless murders and crimes against our country is no longer able to do so. Although it's true that the death of Bin Laden will not go without retaliation from his followers, for the time being many Americans can feel a sense of closure knowing that one of our country's greatest enemies is no longer a threat.
I remember exactly where I was when I first heard this news and I remember exactly what I chose to do as a result. I was sitting at a kitchen table doing homework when a friend came in an informed me that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. I went onto facebook and my newsfeed was filled with statuses relating to his death and I then turned on the news. Another friend then came in and suggested we go to celebrate this great day in American history, and what better way to celebrate it than to travel to the capital of our country. So, that's what we did.
We arrived at DC just after 2AM and our first reactions were kind of confused ones. At first glance the city looked like a dead zone. There were literally no people and we were in dead silence when we got out of the car and began heading for the white house. We could see the Washington monument sticking out of the ground lit up in the dark night sky and that was literally the only thing we could see worth noting. We began our small trek to the President's home.
All you had to do to find the white house was follow the flashing red and blue police lights and the crowd of people giving out high fives, chanting "U S A!" wearing absurd amounts of red, white and blue. You could feel the enthusiasm of the people from 5 to 7 blocks away from the white house. People driving down the straights were laying their hands down on their car horns and had passengers sticking out of all their windows screaming. Some cars were blasting music and had passengers standing up out of the sun roof waving their hands.
Here's what it looked like approaching the white house, the crowd was massive. Police officers were standing all throughout the are and you could tell they weren't too happy about being at work at 3AM on a Monday. You could hear the people all screaming out of joy and excitement at this point and the urge to run into the crowd and celebrate was unbearable.
This picture was taken in front of the white house and shot to show how far down the street the crowd went. You can't even see the end of the crowd in the picture, but you can see multiple American flags waving in the air and a few other interesting red white and blue articles of clothing like that guy's hat on the right of the picture. The chants were overwhelming from the center of the crowd and you could see news crews running around filming and snapping pictures to try and capture the moment and the high spirits in the crowd.
The final picture I took features the white house and the crowd in front of it. The white house really stands out with all the spot lights on it, and if you look closely you can see the American flag flying over the white house. This is a really awesome sight to me, it shows how much people care for their country and is a strong demonstration of patriotism. I stayed at the celebration till 5AM but I am more than certain that some people stayed their until the sun come up. It's too bad Obama probably had trouble getting some shut eye last night but I think he'd agree it was worth it to see the people he leads celebrate on account of what I'd consider his best decision yet as president. The one thing I can't stress enough about the photos above is that all the people featured in them are celebrating, and that it was an incredibly peaceful albeit very loud celebration. I have now seen multiple people make posts that are opposing the celebration in DC and calling it "blind patriotism" or referring to it as "the DC riots." Take it from someone who was there, both these statements are so far from the truth I can't even begin to understand how people got those ideas into their heads. What occurred in DC on the morning of May 2nd, 2011 was patriotism at it's finest and the celebration that took place demonstrated support for our country and the decisions made by it's leaders.
I remember exactly where I was when I first heard this news and I remember exactly what I chose to do as a result. I was sitting at a kitchen table doing homework when a friend came in an informed me that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. I went onto facebook and my newsfeed was filled with statuses relating to his death and I then turned on the news. Another friend then came in and suggested we go to celebrate this great day in American history, and what better way to celebrate it than to travel to the capital of our country. So, that's what we did.
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