flash animation

for my flash i am going to do an animation for the song "i like giants" by kimya dawson

i have some of it done and it is on youtube : D

after seeing it i can tell some of the timing problems i am having but overall i really like it!

flashing is like an addiction, time flys by so fast with each minute detail that you have to worry about in its linear form. i like being able to tweak things so small yet making such a change to the story.

ill post the final too once its done.. yay!

video collaboaration

well we got to make a movie.. and i have to say that i think it turned out rather well in the end with some careful editing and transitions; the final product was good. the getting there process was a bit frustrating as it is when you work in groups. to start off with we brainstormed different ideas. this a fairly simple task turned into a debate and i felt that people were being favoured over others so i decided to leave the conversation. the brainstorming was difficult. finally the group ended up going online searching for a storyline.. and using that. the storyboards with then quickly, and sketchily drawn; and handed in without much thought to shot sequence, transition, style, scenes or any other thing for that matter. over the next few days i worried about how our project was going to turn out, with so many voices and only a few being heard... i worried. so i kept thinking about concepts that would work with this narrative. and because its supposed to be an awkward joke i thought that the office style of filming and sequences would work perfectly to portray the essence and motif of the film.
once we started shooting things went pretty smoothly. we realised that it was getting a little bit long so we decided to cut a scence out that coule be represented in a different way, which ended up working out.
it was difficult for us to co-ordinate times to get together to edit the video so it was sort of left up to a few people in the group. they did a very basic editing by splicing shots together and making it a whole. but without transitions effects or sound, which were imperative to the film. kind of frustrating as well b.c. as a group we had depended on these people to finish the film on time... so... during class i decided to take it upon myself to finish it off. and it turned out really well!
the experience on a whole was... well... difficult since non of us had any experience in editing films, which gave us a disadvantage considering many of the other groups had more experience, or at least one more literate person where this was the first time for all of us doing this, or any other projects in our class for that matter. in that respect i think that everyone tried his or her best, but sometimes people are lazy. i also think its difficult to work in groups where nobody really has an idea where to start because they have never dealt with this type of medium before. also in large groups people need to learn how to listen to everyones ideas and take them into consideration, myself included. i really enjoy editing and have realized that a lot in this class... i have an ability to pay attention to detail (its called perfectionism) and feel overall our project turned out well despite shaky beginnings.

audio presentation

so, while doing this project i kind of was thinking to myself that it would be interesting to mix real life sounds with more mechanical and maybe a type of musical sound. through the process it sort of became something else all together. while brainstorming, we decided that it would probably be a better idea to sort of mix quick snippets of sound to represent one thing or another while maintaining the real live vs. mechanical feeling. and i really liked the quick changes that they make in the film requiem for a dream so we decided to use that as a jumping off point, with a bit of a modification.

Webpage

i hate this
making this webpage nearly bleeding killed me.
its the worst thing i have ever seen.
LOOK

Story boards

So, i tried to find a few different pages, with different layouts. it seemed that a lot of pages were filled with basically the same layouts and many many ad's the only page that didnt have ad's were band webpages (i.e. beck.com). i guess the reasons for this would be funding. the globe webpage was strucured very simply, much like a regular newspaper and each section corresponded to how it would look in a paper and who the audience is. the mtv.ca page was very busy and flashy... which i suppose reacts to the audience to which is appeals to. the pages were all set up the same, so i didnt continue drawing more.

so here are my storyboards. --if the image is too big then you can just drag it into to address bar for a full size look;)--


MTV.ca website layout



globeandmail.com website layout



Beck.com website layout

two days of pure agony...

since i don't really play video games and i don't know how to use photoshop or photo editor or anything of the sort (though im trying to learn) i decided that the technology that i would use would be a website that frequent... and frustrates me every single time that i go on it. WebCT.
day 1. (yesterday) i visited in the morning to re-read this assignment and make sure that i was getting everything down. while on the site i noticed the site going at a much slower rate than usual. no one likes to wait. then when i click on the discussions tab, since there is a little green star which i take to indicate some type of new msg or something the thing logs me out. so i log back in and try to get back to the discussions board. it logs me out again... this is very frustrating so i give up and walk away. i use it again in the evening- which is usually when i would be on the computer messing about or doing homework of some kind- i return to the page to find a paper that i had to read and when i try to print it nothing occurs. i check several times more and the output on the printer screen says ) pages, so this means i have to read off the screen. my tolerance to sit and stare at the computer screen without migrating towards something else is very low. so i inevitably end up surfing over to other pages, and whenever i return to the document i seem to be signed out. i am in deep dislike of WebCT at this point. in order to use WebCT properly you must have the basic ability to navigate around the site and quite possibly a lot of patience to deal with all of the glitches that it has. I am not sure why this was happening, as i only have basic knowledge of computers and media tools in general.. its not a difficult site to manipulate, colour changes and posting is simple enough with a tool bar at the side that guides you through the process...
day 2 so i decide to try and navigate my way around WebCt a little bit more to see if i can figure out why it continues to log me out and has loading problems. in this mess i try and figure out how, if possible, to load a pciture on. this proves impossible as does figuring out how to fix my tech. problems; i suppose ill have to call a tech guy who knows more about these things. in the meantime i changed the colour of my pages to my favourite colours of
BROWN
and
GREEN
that was fun. i realized that using this website is a fact of life, i need it to get my readings, find out when assignments are/post assignments and reply to discussions. so i might as well learn to at least tolerate it. i realized that its a great way to get help with assignments because you can keep in contact with the whole class without having to physically acquire everyones email address or screen name. I am pretty tech. illiterate so its fairly easy to use nature is useful for those like me or even less tech. literate. I find it easier to use it during the middle of the night when there is less traffic and it isn't slow and frustrating. it doesn't require much just basic motor skills, visual skills and the ability to be patient. which i am not. if you are more cognitive than others with tech, as described earlier, you might have an easier time on this site than i. or maybe not.
i can say clearly that
i.
... am not a fan.

the evils of facebook

so facebook takes up a lot of my time, and i mean a lot. its not that i want it to i just somehow cant stop checking it, wondering who has msg'd me back, who posted photos, whats going on this weekend etc etc.... its a monster. i literally am on it whenever i am on near around or even away from my computer, i refresh the screen when i walk into the room, and its rather embarrassing to admit it and write it down. why do we ( i am among many) feel the need to check facebook that much. is it a sort of addiction: addiction is defined as-the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma- would i suffer from severe trauma if my facebook was taken away?? no more or less than i would if my cell phone or msn. but these are all means of contact with other people in my 'community' of friends. are we becoming a fundamental co dependant society that depends upon its impersonal technology to contact and keep in touch with one another. it seems that the deeper we get the more impersonal our means of contact become. its like the last sienfeld episode when elaine is trying to get in contact with her friend and she "looses the call waiting faceoff" and gets the "airplane phonecall" that are not deemed worthy for the type of conversation that she is about to have... have these stigmas been replaced by the ease with which we can crush off a comment on facebook or myspace and quickly leave a msg for a friend on their birthday rather than making the effort to give them a call or send a letter. do we rank people and importance based on how we remain in contact with them?

I would like to believe that facebook -or other forums like this- are great ways to keep in contact with people....


but are they???

having friends overseas i find it a quick and handy way to keep in contact without really having to put too much effort into it. the ease with which we can do this scares me. but really how intellectual or meaningful of a conversation can one have while posting on another's wall, with feedback only periodically? and does this stem back to my so called addiction to facebook... why do i need to check it so much, and waste so much time...

sad... but true

i watched three hours of television on the net today....it all started with brittany's performance (wow!) and moved on from there... i'm ashamed. i don't even like these shows but i got drawn in with its flashy eye appeal; and once you watch one, its like a soap opera, you need to know what happens to your favourite characters.

List-y

9:00 phone alarm goes off
9:17 alarm goes off again
10:01 iPod goes on
16:23 enter apple store and google then write a msg on facebook... leave store quickly before salespeople catch me on facebook
16:27 re-enter apple store and play with new iPhone... realize its not worth the hype... the buttons are very difficult to press and it needs to be upgraded, it would be silly to purchase one now
17:34 re-enter car and resume iPod listen-age
19:01 Facebook/msn
19:01 check email
19:02 check other email
20:06 blog/facebook
20:26 msn/facebook/webCT (so frustrating)/ manage a few photos and experiment with different ways to post them on blog
20:47 meet dwindledust... newest distraction...

21:10 realize the clock on blog is wrong and try to find someway to change it but really don't know how
21:29 finally figure out how to change the clock, and realize i was distracted by facebook/msn/myspace/webCT and email all whilst doing this

free day

okay, so i didn't post yesterday, but that was due to a media free day!! i decided that i would try to go a whole day without using any type of media... without cheating. the only thing i gave into was one text msg to my mother. which needed to be answered. it was tough, it made me realize how much we rely up in the media, i had to go somewhere, and instead of just looking it up on the internet i had to find a mapbook and look it up... instead of going on msn messenger to quickly let someone know that i was headed over to talk to them, i had to find a land line to ring them on, i had to listen to the radio or nothing at all, i had to find other ways to fill time, and i found that i was more productive than i have been in a while. with all the distractions that the internet and cell phones and iPods and email and facebook and all those other sites that you just stumble upon bring you waste a LOT of time. this frustrates me. i generally get frustrated by this because i depend a lot on the internet for communication. and i wonder when it happened that i needed to check my email a few times a day, or play cards for hours just to be distracted. and when im sitting reading the computer just distracts me. i could be chatting with friends, playing game, talking on the phone, listening to iTunes and reading. this distraction leads to less retention of information. ive decided to make lists.....