Video Joke Project

We created two different videos with different scripts, both based off of one joke. Alex's video is about a man who has an addiction with beans, but he farts every time he eats them. He ends up eating beans before a surprise birthday party, which has a dramatic ending.



Nathan's video follows the same basic story line, but includes different details in the story. Neither video uses music. In fact, the only audio in either video are the farting noises. The ending scenes are almost exactly the same as well.

A key concept shared with each video is the concept of space. Both videos use primarily the same confined space aspect. There are a few shots from greater distances, but most shots are waist shots or closer. I believe this is in part due to the limited camera action rules we were given. In order to keep the scene interesting, and to prevent the audience from being bored, we used multiple closer shots to keep the field of view changing. It was still easy to follow the motion in each video.

A key concept that the videos used the opposites in was rhythm. Nathan's video had a character leave or enter the scene at every scene change. This created a rhythm for the piece. Alex's video creates a rhythm with a specific scene. The scene of the man eating beans under the stairs occurs throughout the video. Similar music would have accompanied these scenes, had we added music to our projects.

There is tension and release in both of these videos. The tension is built up when the man is left in the room with the blindfold on and starts farting. Then he removes the blindfold to find that his family and friends have witnessed his attack. This is the climax. The reactions of the people lead to the release.

I believe there is also some subtext with the beans. Unless you knew that beans made you fart, you wouldn't get the concept of this video as well. You had to have previous knowledge about the beans to know how dangerous it was for the men to consume them before a surprise birthday party.

Freaks

This blog is in response to the article "Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness" which can be found at changethis.com. This article explains that every trait has an opposite. Strengths and weaknesses come in pairs, and they cannot be separated. If you are enthusiastic you are obnoxious, and if you are calm you are emotionless. The article explains that there is no way fix your weaknesses , because you then lose your strength. Instead, your weaknesses can be used to direct you away from things you are poor at, and towards things you are good at. For example, if you don't like authority, you might run your own business. I believe all of the article's suggestions are valid, and I will critique three of them below.

1. Flawless: There's Nothing Wrong With You

I find this point to be very valid. Every strength has a weakness. There is no way to "fix" a strength, because you are then creating another weakness. We generally think of weaknesses as things that are problems we need to fix. They are in fact guides to finding your strengths and excelling in those while avoiding your weaknesses as much as possible. The article gives the example of addiction as a weakness. Instead of being addicted to a drug, you could become addicted to something enjoyable, like reading or exercise. I believe there are also ways to turn our weaknesses into useful mechanisms, as this example proves.

2. Focus: You Can't Do Both

This is also a valid point in the article. When you chose one strength, you are rejecting all other strengths and accepting a weakness. If you then choose another strength, the same endless pattern will continue on. If you spent time trying to have multiple strengths and work around multiple weaknesses, you would be losing time and energy that could be spent focusing on one specific strength. This also limits the total progress you will make with your strengths because you will be spending the same amount of time working on double the amount of skills. Doing both will prevent you from becoming exceptional in any specific skill.

3. What's My Problem?

This last point discusses the way most of us view our weaknesses; we view them as problems. The article explains here that the many kinds of weaknesses aren't problems in need of fixing. They are instead clues to what your real strengths are. If you aren't a team player, you are good at working in isolated conditions. Finding your biggest weaknesses can lead you to finding your greatest strengths.

Your weaknesses make you different from everyone else. When you match your unique characteristics to situations that reward those qualities, you will become successful. I believe I have the weaknesses of being stubborn and impatient when I create my media. This leads me to my greatest strengths, which are dedication and passion.

Hero/Villain

These are the characters from my Hero/Villain project, followed by their animations:

Nathan Yellon's Project:

Hero - I really like the goofy animation of the bouncing worm. Media is always better when it is created with humor in mind. The worm moves perpendicular to the ground and the birds flying at it. I was specifially critiquing the movement of this animation. There are overlapping movements when the bird is flying at the worm and it bounced up and comes smashing down on it. I like how the worm appears to bounce when it hits the ground. This is somewhat like the squash and stretch technique. There's not a lot to critique in this animation, seeing as it is repeated several times, with only a slight variation.

Villain - I also found this animation very humorous. The same pattern of the bird moving up and down is interrupted only at the end, when it swoops down and punches a worm. The bird is moving vertically, up and down. The villain character appears to have very minimal "weight". The bird does flap its wings as it is in flight, but there is not much else occurring in this simple animation. I don't believe there is any parallel movement present.

Etiam Addisem's Project:

Hero - This assignment was not posted.

Villain - This assignment was not posted.

Kieren Astall's Project:

Hero - This assignment was not posted.

Villain - This assignment was not posted.

Creative Manifesto

After reading the partial manifesto list by Karim Rashid, there is one point that especially speaks to me. "There are three kinds of beings - those who create culture, those who buy culture and those who don't give a shit about culture. Move between the first two." This is very true about the world today. Some people create things, some people buy those things, and some people don't care abut those things. However, they probably care about something else being created, continuing the cycle.

To conclude my blog postings, I have created my own short manifesto to sum up my attitudes concerning my creative endeavors.

1. Don't take the easy way out, even if it saves you time.

2. You can't force out new ideas.

3. Spontaneous ideas are the best.

4. Humor is a great creative tool.

5. There is always an alternative route.

6. The longer it takes you to do something, the more you are learning about it.

7. The future is not always the best. Sometimes the "best of times" was the "good ol' days," but that doesn't mean you can't recreate that in a new light.

8. If it has no meaning to you, there's still someone whom it gives every meaning.

9. If you don't have the resources, create them with other things.

10. Someone will always hate what you're creating.

11. Don't follow the rules.

Extra Credit

I went to the student expo at the Convocation Center on May 13th. My favorite student project was the video game called "Pangaea Arctica". I really enjoyed this project and thought it seemed very realistic, considering only a small team of students created it. I only played the game for about 2 minutes, and there was no sound, so I'm sure the game is much more exciting than my short encounter with it.

This blog is in response to the article on Collapsus.com.

Reflection of My Videogame Presentation

I believe that one very strong point we had for this presentation was the fact that this is designed as a Wii Sports game. Most people already know the Wii Sports games, and are familiar with their simplicity in design. We didn't have to try very hard to explain how the game would look and what the sounds would be because all of the Wii Sports games have virtually the same aspects. Included in these aspects is a lot of fun, as any person who has experienced Wii Sports would report.

I believe the only hard part about giving my presentation was trying to explain the game knowing that the audience did not know the rules of lacrosse. For some aspects of the game to make sense, you have to understand how the game works in real life. For instance, if too many players are on the wrong side of the field, a penalty is called and gameplay is stopped. This is why explaining the RULES of the game was the most difficult concept to explain. The rules of this game follow the rules of the actual sport of lacrosse. Unless you know those rules, some parts of this video game concept might seem confusing, and you might find yourself saying, "Why does this happen when I do that?"

The easiest part of the game to explain was the GOALS. The object of the game is like most other sports games; to score the most points. This is a very general concept that everyone already knows about. This could possibly make for a boring game, which is why we added other challenges into the design so that players can unlock new things, like clothing for their characters. This keeps the game interesting, despite the repeatedness of the scoring concept.