For this mission I had to create a 30 second documentary that showed, rather than told.
I decided to document something I’m amazing it… making sandwiches. I’m good in the kitchen (but no baking, can’t bake to save my life), the only thing I’m probably better at is eating and enjoying food (I have to soul of a 300lb chef).
I decided to make it a bit amusing by speeding up the process (I did so manually- as in a made my sandwich extremely quickly lol) and by taking myself VERY seriously. The sandwich is sauted chicken breast and a eggplant based paste called “Baba Ghanooj” (its like humus, except with eggplants… its amazing). Nothing fancy, but a masterpiece nonetheless because … well it was made by me.
As funny as it is, I think it has a deeper meaning. That sometimes the attitude is what makes it a feast, not the food. A slice of pizza and a soda can be turned into a feast if the approach is proper. This is a huge part of me. I’m big on sharing meals, and really appreciate good food; I think it is a universal that brings people together.
Wow, what a week! Video activities in ds106 have kept me very busy. Add a full-time job, a concussion, and various other issues this week and I’m almost surprised I survived…with my sanity at least!
This week in the world of Daily Creates, cogdog expressed his frustration with lack of consistent participation with The Daily Create and issued a 7-day Daily Create Challenge. Rising to his challenge, I worked to complete the Daily Creates daily, everyday. And here’s what I came up with:
I took this picture through the open sunroof of my car while sitting in traffic on my way home. I promise, traffic was dead stopped…I was NOT trying the photograph and drive simultaneously! The clouds were looking quite omnious as a storm was brewing. Looked like trouble to me…at least this was not going to make my commute home easy. I didn’t see it initially, but cogdog commented that he could see a raven. Then I saw it…yet another sign of trouble!
This one was super easy and FUN! Referring back to the ds106 Packing List for web-based drawing tools, I found Flamepainter! What a cool concept! Selected my colors for a fiery theme, looped the cursor around a few times, and…easy, peasy…a fiery tornado. After uploading, it got the attention of a few participant that left complimentary comments, including a comment inquiring about Flamepainter. After publishing a tweet about it on Twitter, I think I turned a few excited followers on to a new tool to play with!
I so love the photograph challenges! It gives me an excuse to play with my camera. I am still amazed at the power of the zoom on my little red Canon PowerShot SX260. I was standing quite a distance away, using the max 80x zoom to capture these bees on a flower. I love how sharply focused the flower and the bees are while blurring the background, showcasing the subjects! In keeping with the instructions, there is not a single human artifact in this picture, foreground or background!
And we’re back to video again…but this one is easy, even to an amateur like me. I had to wait until late in the day to do this though, because I had the DirecTv guy working on hooking me up with a Whole Home DVR system and new equipment, so I didn’t have TV access most of the day. Using my iPhone camera to record this short clip, I discovered that channel 106 is not accessible to me! You see, channel 106 is ESPN-3D and it promptly reminded me that my TV is not 3D, so it could not play this channel. Maybe one day…
This one left me a little stumped at first. Not to mention, I still avoid hearing my own recorded voice whenever possible! But I sucked it up in the interest of not letting cogdog down! Anyway, it finally occurred to me that credit repair services and debt reconciliation firms are constantly advertising too-good-to-be-true services that will magically “fix” your credit problems and stop debt collections. A shame, really, as I’m sure in the current economy, they find plenty of desperate victims to prey on. Using the SoundCloud app on my iPhone, I was able to record and upload this short call quickly, once I had an idea to work with. I do admit using Audacity to edit out a segment that I didn’t like.
So there are 5 Daily Creates in a row. Sorry, cogdog, I still owe you yesterday’s TDC! No excuses, but in my defense the video session of ds106, combined with a concussion, quite frankly kicked my ass this past week! I’ll have it up later today and will amended this post then.
I would like to pont out that only 2 daily creates were required for ds106 students this week, so I more than doubled that requirement!
Ok, so TECHNICALLY I can live with my iPhone. Unlike cogdog insulin pump, my health and existence does not depend on it. But it sure does make my life easier, keeping me organized, in touch, entertained and more productive. The millions of apps available make it fully customizable to suit my needs and desires. I’ve been an iPhone user for 5 years and I am so happy with it. I can’t wait to see what Apple has in store for the iPhone 5!
There is always that moment when you hear a new song, watch a new show, or see a new movie and go “wait, I swear I have seen/heard this before.” That’s probably because you have seen/heard something very similar. After watching “Everything is a Remix”, Kirby Ferguson makes valid points about entertainment and media all just being reused then reused again. A lot of “action” or “journey” films follow the same basic plot line. For example in comparing Harry Potter to Lord of the Rings. Frodo and Harry Potter are both simple characters but are destined for greatness. They go an epic journey to achieve a certain goal which is saving the world from evil. They go through moments of weakness but have their friend(s) pick them back up again. In the end, they achieve their goal and save the world from destructions. It’s hard to find a unique and original movie. I would first off say documentaries are original, but thats obvious. Toy Story, is another example in my opinion of an original movie. Toys come to life and have their own world based in a child’s room. They go on adventures and want to always be loved by their owner (andy).
It’s hard to come up with a completely original idea when so many movies have already been produced. I think now it is more about how well can a director spin off from a movie idea that has already happened and how well can they sell it.
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.
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.
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.....
