The Project That Almost Killed Me

Music video.  Check.

WHAT. A. PROCESS.  Lemme back up for a sec.  This fall quarter I entered my first real Video Production class.  All pre-reqs are finally done and out of the way.  Now I can start the good stuff.  MDIA 240 - Intro to Video Production.  This is by no means an easy basic class.  The projects in class take work; the projects out of class take work.  Our first project was a 1-3 minute short narrative, complete with character conflict and resolution.  We thought it was pretty good, but sadly, our professor and some peers did not.  You can watch it here.  Our second project - a music video.  Getting the rights to the song we used was not required, but highly recommended.  Again, it had to have a story/conflict, and had to be between 2-4 minutes.  The rest was all up to us.  And I must say, that certainly sparked some creativity.

We met as a group 2 days after getting the assignment to figure out logistics and come up with a story.  We didn't have much time to execute (it was due in 12 days) so we needed some good ideas and fast.  I was running a little late to this first meeting...when I finally arrived, I was hit with one big idea....and about 30 million components.  They were certainly being ambitious when I was MIA.  The few things that I kept hearing were "lots of locations," "lots of people," and "all in reverse."  Can I be honest with you?  I really wish I could've been on time to this group meeting to STOP all these ideas when they were still forming.  Because all those phrases were really coming into my mind as "lots of location releases," "lots of image releases," and "editing's a bitch."  I hated it.  All of it.  I decided to keep my mouth shut though, and see where it went.

Kelly, our producer, and I sat and thought about which bands we could email a request to use their songs.  We're both huge fans of Passion Pit, so we shot out an email asking specifically to use one of our three favorite songs..."it won't be used for profit, we'd really appreciate it, blah blah blah."  4 hours later, Passion Pit's GM had approved us and "Little Secrets" was in our hands.

We sent out emails upon emails, to dining halls, club sports, sports centers, equestrian ranches, and PEOPLE.  Lots and lots of people.  We told people we'd be shooting that following Sunday.  And so the setbacks begun.

Setback #1 - No people.
Yeah.  2:30pm, Sunday, October 9th.  Then 3. Then 3:30.  Thank you to the 9 (?) or so people who showed up that day.  You guys rock.  We actually shot for about 4 hours that day, went home to eat, then shot for another 2, thanks to Andrew, our sound guy, and his Athens Middle School WyldLife kids and their parents.  And more image release forms.

Setback #2 - Lost footage.

After about 3 straight days of shooting, I came into my scriptwriting class Wednesday morning, only to have bad news broken right over my head.  Yeah all that footage?  "It's gone," said Alex, our DP/camera guy.  "My card reader really sucks."  I wanted to scream.  My professor, who overheard what was going on, actually encouraged me to.  AAALLLLLL that shooting.  Gone in a split second.  Needless to say I was a little bitter that day.  Prayed a lot.  I guess it worked, because at about 8pm that night, Kelly texted me saying Alex had somehow gotten it all back.  Thanks, Father in Heaven.  Much appreciated.

Setback #3 - Where did all our group members go?
A little later in the week, we were really having a hard time getting us all together in one place.  When 3 could meet, one was in class, one was sleeping, you get what I'm saying.  One guy who was always around whenever we needed him (for the most part) was Sam, our lead actor.  He was boss.  We need to buy him a steak.  Moving on.

Setback #4 - Why the eff do we need to have a story for a music video?
We would've dismissed this aspect of the project if it wasn't worth 35 points on our rubric.  We NEEDED to come up with a story within the video.  The best thing we came up with didn't match our 4 minute song.  We scrapped the song and inserted in it's place "Sleepyhead."  Same band, and we still had the rights.  And so we began to shoot revolving around this song.

Setback #5 - (A personal one).
Long story short, I was supposed to be editing this, with Alex as my first assistant.  It was a busy weekend with OU homecoming and whatnot, so trying to get the footage from him was next to impossible.  Saturday night (the 15th) at around 1am, I received an email from him telling me "my backpack was stolen with my phone inside it, and sorry, and blah blah blah, and you can edit it now if you wanna."  Well, truth be told, I had already dismissed editing at this point, knowing Alex just wanted to do it...and he can pull all-nighters; I can't.  I trusted him.  I've seen his work.  It was all good.  I could finally relax for a second after 12 days of shooting.  I saw a rough cut of it the following day and really liked it.  This idea I thought was so stupid was actually looking pretty good on the screen.

I will quickly add that on the day our video was due, we were still shooting to fill up some empty time Alex still had in the song.  Video due at 5:10, and we wrapped at 4:00.  Are we crazy or what.  Alex made some quick cuts and exported it.....

Setback #6 - IN THE WRONG DIMENSIONS.
It's now 4:50.  Thankfully, Kelly's sister offered to drive us all to class.  We squeezed in the backseat with Alex's laptop open and re-exporting into the right dimensions.  We arrived to class on time, the project still exporting.  Class started and students began to present their projects.  We all kept looking at the little blue bar on Alex's computer.  After the video finished for the second time, Alex opened it up only to realize he had exported in Standard Definition, not HD.  File > Export.  Again.  This time he got it right.

Our turn.  We all got up, named ourselves and our positions, and showcased our video to the class and our professor.  She's the one we were really worried about.  My heart was actually pounding.  Hard.  It finished, we returned to our seats, and about 5 hands shot up in the air.  I braced myself.  Students began to talk....wait, I think that was a compliment?  They liked it?  Yes to the art design?  To the editing?  The direction?  All good things.  Our eyes moved to our professor.  "Two things," she said.  "And they're really minor."  She gave her tiny critiques (really tiny), and finished with, "I loved it.  Great job."

PHEW.  Suddenly, all the stress of the work, the hours of shooting, the image release forms, the tension in the group, melted away.  It was all worth it.  Am I really saying this right now?  Yes.  All. Worth it.  Because we created something we are pretty freaking proud of.  You can check out our masterpiece here, and feel free to let us know what you think.  Passion Pit did!  Which leads me to

Setback #7 - Passion Pit's response....

"Good video.  Great job."

You can't have everything.

YoungLife Leaders are Heroes

I've been inspired to blog again, thanks to all my awesome friends who keep blogs about their lives.  I never really realized what interesting friends I have.  I am genuinely intrigued by what they have to say.  Go figure.

This past week at school has been nuts.  I picked up 20 credit hours, expecting to drop one within the first week, but you know what, I think I'm gonna stick with all of them.  I'm only working a few hours at the dining hall so that I stay sane in the midst of homework, fellowship, and leading.

Leading!  I'll be honest, I was nervous to get back into the swing of things at Nelsonville High School.  And honestly, there's only been really one actual "swing," with that being All Area Club this past Monday night (which was AWESOME).  I'm still waiting to get hit in the face when the swing becomes continuous.  Anyway, I was nervous because I felt I had suddenly lost my passion over the summer.  Which seemed un-freaking-real because I LOVE YoungLife and I LOVE high schoolers and I LOVE my team so it didn't really make all that much sense to be feeling the way that I was.  I was worried about my attitude because the thoughts going on inside my head were, I'm gonna have to go to the school, instead of, I freaking WANT to go to the school.  See the obnoxiously important difference in those two thoughts?  I had.  And freaked.  I was fearful that leading was not where God wanted me and I had made a mistake getting placed and signing a contract and AH.  Deep breathe.  

I came to college, saw my team, and BOOM.  I was instantly back in love with Athens, my co leaders, 11 Stew, the whole shabang.  I've seen my high school girls (and guys), I've been to the school, I've hung out with my team, etc.  The passion came back, like I knew it would, deep down in my heart.  This is what I was built to do.  Love kids.  Lead them to the Lord.  Why?  Because that's what my YoungLife leaders did for me.  They invested their time and love and energy in me.  They prayed for me.  They weren't getting paid.  Sometimes they weren't even getting loved back.  And, despite my perceptions, they were actually human too.  They got tired.  They got frustrated.  They got weak.  Did we, the highschoolers, ever see that?  Nope.  They slapped on their smiles and amped up their energy for us, so that we might see the light of Christ shining out through them, even when they felt their darkest.  They walked the hallways of our high school and took us out to eat.  They came to our sports games and musicals and talent shows and graduation parties.  They sought us out and just listened to us talk about our problems that sometimes weren't even all that big, but they comforted us as if they were.  They held bible studies and cabin times so that we would not fall away.  They kept persevering even when they were shut down time and time and time again.  They planned their lives around us.  All because they knew about this incredible love that God has for His people, and just wanted to share it with us.  Just wanted us to know about it.  Because they care.  Because they love me.  And because they want to see me in Heaven.  Did I mention they're not getting paid?

I understand all this now because, well, I'm going through it.  Although I led WyldLife (YoungLife for middle school kids) in high school, I'll be honest, it was never this intense. Never in a million years would I have guessed the amount of time and energy spent on planning club, praying for kids, fundraising for camp, holding each other accountable, etc.  It's exhausting.  But I get why we do it.  I get it because I had it done for me.  And so of course I'm gonna want to keep passing the love.  These are kids lives we're talking about.  Don't you think it's slightly important?  I certainly do. 

I feel like this is such a jumbled mess of words but I had to just get it all out in the open onto a page around the world whatever.  My YoungLife leaders were my heroes in high school.  They're actually still my heroes.  I definitely would not be who I am now if they hadn't stepped into my world.  I would not be doing the things I'm doing if they hadn't showered me with their love and the love of God.  Whoo.  I just hope that one day, some kid would be thinking the same thing about me.  Calling me their hero.  Because I believe that's what YoungLife leaders are.  Just trying to make sure they're gonna see everyone in Heaven.

The original 7 leaders who brought me to Christ and changed my life.

Collapsus [Blog 9B]

I Wish I Would Have.... [Blog 9A]

Well, I was excited to present our game design project.  For the first time all quarter, I got to work with some GIRLS for a change, who wanted a good grade as much as I did.  We met in the library one evening and discussed our game concepts; what we wanted it to look like, the music behind it, the characters, etc.  Leaving the library (after someone else had offered to do the powerpoint so I wouldn't have to for a 5th time, another plus!), I was feeling good.  It was Monday and this project was already done.  What a great end to the quarter this was turning out to be!

We presented in class on Friday, along with everybody else, but as I watched other groups present, I noticed some things in their powerpoints that we didn't have.  Pictures, music, sound effects.  None of these were required, but nonetheless, it made their presentation, you know, prettier.  We did the best presentation we could; I was feeling good and confident.  After all, I've maintained about a 100 all quarter in this class (my TA is pretty frickin' awesome with grading).  Well, grades on Blackboard had a different story.  My first B+.  Ouch, even though I shouldn't really be saying ouch.  An 88 is not bad!  But you know, compared to the rest of the quarter...let's just say I was kind of wishing I had done the powerpoint myself like every other week.

Thankfully, I can make up for it in this blog by reflecting on a couple of my mistakes with the presentation.  Nothing I like doing more than blatantly pointing out my own flaws as a creative person.  Just kidding, I'm over it.

The first thing we could've done was add some pictures to spice up the visual attraction of our presentation.  We left our audience kind of in the dark when explaining what our game would look like.  We wanted it to be a side scrolling game and very colorful and cartoony, kind of like this picture:

Side-scrolling view, colorful, cute

We also wanted to convey to the audience of how our character was going to look (you could pick boy or girl, kind of like Wii style) and how he would advance to the next level: by collecting balloons!  Sorry he looks like Harry Potter, but there's nothing really wrong with that, right?

We could've also added in some music as an example of what we wanted to be coming out of the speakers when our little kid demographic would play this game.  The second part of my soundscape I did early in the quarter would have definitely sufficed for this.  It was upbeat and jazzy and even had kids laughing in the background.

In my elementary years, I was actually required to create a board game for an accelerated program I was in (yea, I was one of those kids).  I came up with a great idea, but when it came time to formulate and explain the rules to other people, I got stuck.  I think the same kind of thing might have happened here.  Although we explained the rules and delimiters pretty well to our audience, I definitely feel like it was the most difficult concept to present; we had an excellent idea of how the rules would work in the game because, well, we created it and spent an hour sorting it out.  If you explain a game to someone, usually it takes a little application on their part to fully grasp it, right?  You wouldn't just try to explain to someone how to play Euchre.  You first explain it, then play two or three open hands, then re-explain what trump means before actually diving into a game.  Same thing goes for this I think.  We knew that rules are things that the player has to do in order to advance, so we tried to tell our audience about the criteria needed to be met during a level for the player to advance (i.e. they have to give an answer).  We tried to make it clear through our delimiters what things would be holding a player back (i.e. the answer the player gives needs to be correct; the player cannot advance until the required amount of balloons collected per level matches the quota set by the game).

Overall, game design is pretty fun.  You're the boss: you make the rules; you make the delimiters; you add in your own sound effects.  It's neat, just not something I see myself spending my life on.  Editing still sits in #1.

Critique Critique Critique [Blog 8B]

http://mdia203kardos.blogspot.com/

I first looked at Chelsea's animation.  She and Josh did theirs as a whole minute long production.  The first thing I noticed about their animation was all the intense color!  Whereas most students did the average stick figure on a white background (including me), Chelsea and Josh decided to spice it up with a full out city scape scene.  Their first 30 seconds introduces the villain with greys and greens contrasted against a purplish background.  Everything is very saturated to give the audience a very heavy feel.  The villain is also dressed in very dark colors, and the hue of his red fire adds to the intensity.  The hero, on the other hand, is very contrasted right from the beginning, as her scene is very bright, unlike the villain scene.  Her landscape is of bright grey buildings and a blue sky and SUN!  The hue of her blue water and bright pink uniform contrasts well with the villain too.  Each time the hero gets shot at, the audience should feel the tension build as they try to guess if the hero will meet her fate or not.  The release comes when she puts out all the fire bullets coming toward her with her water.

http://mdia203marchetti.blogspot.com/

For Gabe and Brandon's animations, I want to look at the movement within the characters.  There is a lot of weight to the hero as he kneels on the ground and prepares for takeoff.  I also loved the parallel lines that follows his movement as he flies into the air, as well as his head coming at the audience before he makes a quick turn and continues flying to the right.  In a very simple animation like this, it is a hard thing to make characters or objects overlap.  However, the hero takes the lightning bolt and pulls it in front of his face before throwing it down, creating the concept of overlapping completely.  I LOVE the way the villain moves in his animation.  His head is larger than his whole body and he is constantly walking with his head past his feet, which I find hilariously devilish.  The movement of the villain's eye back and forth as well as the blowing of his hair also appeals to the sneaky side of the animation.  There is obvious contrast in characters and the way that they move (flying vs. walking) but the affinity comes in how they were drawn, each with a little added touch of color (cape vs. eyes).

http://mgmulig.blogspot.com/

Mike's hero and villain animations both made me laugh.  They were really good!  The lighting is shown in both animations easily.  The mood conveyed in the hero animation is very uplifting because of the bright colors chosen for the hero's body as well as the action of saving the ice cream cone.  The mood is also humorous as the hero chucks the rock into the air (although it looks more like it floats into the air).  While the hero animation was very simplistic, the villain animation added a lot more detail and conveyed more to the mood of the piece.  Because nothing happens within the first 4 seconds of the animation, there comes a heavy tension as the audience has no idea what's about to happen.  The release comes as she finally swoops into the frame from the top.  The villain's main "power" seems to be spewing this black venom-like substance to kill her victims and get what she wants.  The blackness is symbolized to look like a large looming shadow, which adds to the darkness and evil of the character.

Superpowers [Blog 8A]

To listen to the first 20 minutes of "This American Life" radio show, click on the link below!
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/superpowers

Dash

Hero/Villain Animations