This week at camp was all about video! I have totally fallen in love with moving pictures. It is amazing to see new ideas and stories come to life through them and how different elements in a movie can change how the entire feeling of the story. It was amazing to actually get to be involved in creating something like this.
This week my favorite assignment was definitely the Animated Music Video.
It was fun to make and I am very happy with the result. So don’t worry, all that cartoon watching has paid off.
While the ds106 video weeks have gone speeding by like some kind of super-luminal neutrinos, I’m still trying to wrap up my account of the audio radio project. Here’s the summary of my project.
The DigiOuijas (Bunk 5 group) decided on a theme of the morning after the apocalypse. Each participating member created a short piece which was compiled into the final production. I decided to write a story loosely based on the Mayan Apocalypse (scheduled for 12/21/2012) in which time and space come to an end in order to make way for a new world. I wrote a story from the perspective of a survivor who somehow finds his way into the new world, albeit transformed into an alien form, no longer human.
Since the project was audio, I wanted something more than just myself narrating the story, so to give it some aural interest, I had my story read by a text to voice reader. I intentionally searched for a reader that was less than perfect, so that the voice was distinctly unnatural. I used an online service at vozme.com. After the story mp3 was created, I added in some sound effects (mostly from Freesound.org) I used Audacity for the audio edits.
Here’s a the embed of my story on Soundcloud. DayAfter by wwnorm
After the story was uploaded, there was some chatter online about a possible gathering in Second Life where the DS106 radio feed could be heard. I thought it would be fun to join in. I’ve used Second Life a few times, and I’ve seen some really outrageous avatars there. I got a crazy idea to create a avatar of my transformed apocalypse survivor to bring to the Second Life meeting. Not knowing anything about Avatar generation in Second Life, I turned to my Second Life go-to person, @Cris2B (virtuallyfoolproof.com) to see if she had any tips to get me started. In response she offered to work with her Second Life partner Ajax to make the Avatar for me based on my description. That’s one of the great things about ds106; the sharing, helping, spirit. A day or so later later, they came back with this awesome Second life creature for me to use. Some screenshots were tweeted during the airing of the radio shows. Here’s a few more.
While the turnout in Second Life was not huge, we had fun listening to all the radio projects there. By the way, the sound quality of the DS106 radio feed was excellent in Second Life so there was no downside to listening in from there. We had fun taking pictures of the alien avatar and exchanging remarks on the broadcasts in the Second Life chat area.
I wanted to do something with some of the screenshots from Second life, so I decided to make an album cover for the DigiOuijas radio broadcast. I hope none of my bunk mates are upset that I made this album cover so self-centered, but if you are, you can always go make your own album cover. So here it is, front and back:
Below is my video for week 8 and my 2 daily creates! This is basically a recap of a weeks worth of assignments for my ds106 class. I had to do edit three videos, watch a video clip by Kirby Ferguson, and create 2 pictures.
After watching Everything is a Remix: by Kirby Ferguson, I agree. There are many movies that I have seen and songs that I have heard that I swear I have seen/heard before, even if that is the first time that I have seen/heard that movie or song. It is true that everything is a remix, everything is inspired or made of something else. The one movie that I have seen that I believe is original is the Lion King. The movie with the lions with that plot seem familiar to me. Oh wait, brother killing brother for throne and then son prevailing. Okay so maybe is wasn’t so much original, but the fact that they used lions makes it slightly original. However since then there has been many movies made based off of that movie. After watching Everything’s a remix I have come to understand that even situations aren’t necessarily original, because the phrase, “Listen to the knowledge, that the elders have” would be pointless. Everything comes from something, it just might be a slight remix.
One of our assignment was to watch a four part series on the notion that everything is a remix. Which after watching I agree, especially with the idea of the basic elements of creativity: Copy-Transform-Combine. We make adjustments to old ideas or inventions to create new ones. I don’t think I have ever seen a movie that would be considered “uniquely original.” I mean everything is a spin-off of a genre, book, documentary, or something else. But this is how we get great movies! I have probably seen like six different versions of Cinderella, but each has something different to offer, and each one I have enjoyed.
In terms of how our entertainment is just a remix of something old, I say oh well. That is how things are transformed! Most people like a certain genre of lets say music. Well if my favorite genre of music is country for example, there is certain elements presented in all of country music that are similar, each could be a combination of other country songs, and that would be why I like country music.
After watching these videos I felt a little embarrassed about how I am one of those people who can justify using others’ work to create something of my own, but I get very upset when others use my work. How hypocritical! And after he gave all the examples of how different inventions and pieces of work were transformed off one another to give us the music and technology and movies we like today, there should be limited restriction on the sharing ideas. I guess this goes back to the Creative Commons movement. If everyone shares their ideas and are not so selfish with them, wonderful things can be created.
Hey, OMG this week was soooo intense, but at the same time it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed working on videos despite the amount of time it took, it was a ton of fun. In my video I included a clips of videos that I have worked on. I hope it speaks for itself… Enjoy
For my last few stars worth of video assignments I chose to do an assignment called “Watching TV With The Stereo On.” I was trying to think of a movie clip to do for this assignment and since one of my other video assignments was from a Disney Movie, I started thinking about different Disney movies. I thought about some of the classic Disney movies and thought of Cinderella. I went on Youtube and looked at the different scenes that were available. I came across the scene where the little animals were making the dress for Cinderella and then tried to think of some music that could go with it. I decided upon the song “Taking Care of Business” by BTO. These little animals are really getting “down to business” to make that dress for Cinderella. As a side note, if you have not figured it out yet I am a Disney fanatic. Anyways this seemed like a good fit and the music really does correlate with the video clip, especially when the song says “….and the girls who try to look pretty…” or “…quit your slaving job and get your pay…” It does sort of match what Cinderella is doing.
Once again I used MPEG Streamclip to upload the clip from Youtube and then edit it down to size. I then uploaded my edited video clip onto Windows Live Movie Maker and muted the sound from the clip. I had the song by BTO on my itunes, so I uploaded my itunes song onto mp3cut.net. I had to do this because I cannot upload songs from itunes directly to the Movie Maker. Once the song was uploaded to the mp3cut site I was able to download it to Audacity to cut out some parts. After that I uploaded it to Movie Maker and faded the song in and out of my video. Last but not least I added a title and a credit scene and my video was complete!
Here are some screen shots of my computer while I was editing the video clip.
Day 3 of the Seven Day Daily Create Challenge now raises the ante- after day 1 and day 2 of drawing and photographery (easy peasy), we have a video challenge. Will they hang on?
But hey, anything counts in The Daily Create. The real question will be, at the end of 7 days, what story can you weave from all 7 bits? It shall be interesting. Check ‘em out, some favorites just below el fold…
Dr Garcia shows us how it is done with The Investing Edge (I think you can get this video at Walmart)
Melanie’s station announcement assures use that no public displays of affection wil happen on this channel
Andy Forgrave does a nifty flip between analog and Digital Channels:
I like the any angle goes view here
And how could you not fall in love with an interview with the 11 year old artist of Instant Isaac comic?
Martha goes deep into late night programming with a trippy Camp Magic Macguffin highlight reel (I dig the ominous shadowy leader figure shown in the preview, is that Mr E?)
Look at what the channel’s field reporters from Ghana have brought us? Amazing
With some great opeing ds106 graphics, we get to the bottom of what th eheck the United Kingdom is
And how my friend Dr Coop uses some video effect for home golf (I think I recognize her feet)
This is a review of my iHome, I love this thing besides my computer and cell phone this is probably my most useful object because it wakes me up when I need to get up and it keeps my Ipod charged and I love my music so without it I would be at a loss.
Camp is now over (see the final story. If you are craving an experience like this, head over to ds106 and see how to participate. For more on the Summer of Magic Macguffin, see.....
