So this is one of the assignments that I, myself, created! I had fun with it. I hope there are no other assignments like it, I browsed through most of the video assignments to make sure. But for my assignment you have to find a media clip with at least two people creating dialogue and you have to mute one of the voices and use your own voice to create one of the voices in the dialogue. Now you cannot simply repeat the dialogue, because that is no fun. This class is Digital Storytelling, so you have to create a new story when you replace part of the dialogue with your own.
In my example I took a segment from the Godfather, one of the most recognizable segments of dialogue, and muted one of the voices and replaced it with my own to create a new story about how my cat fluffy is sick and needs to go to the vet. I did the assignment by downloading the original Youtube segment of the Godfather onto MPEG Streamclip and then saving it. I then uploaded the saved version onto Windows Live Movie Maker. I split the scenes where the dialogue that I wanted to mute took place and then i mute the dialogue. I then went onto Audacity and recorded the segments that I wanted to voice over with. I uploaded the different sound segments onto Windows Movie Maker into the areas that I wanted my voice, and viola I was done! We now have the Godfather helping me save Fluffy! …such a generic name for a cat I know.
Okay so I decided to do a Product Review, I got a little corny yes. But as I was looking through my desk trying to figure out what to do it on my eyes caught the post-it note dispenser. Call me nerdy… but it is honestly one of the most useful things I’ve come across. Better than notifications on your phone, or virtual post-its on your desktop. I use them all the time for homework, and at work as well. I have some coworkers laugh at me remarking “you know we are in the computer industry, you can type using a keyboard”.
… they just don’t get it is what I think. Nothing makes things stick or helps quite like a post-it note. The dispenser is awesome, always there and handy. Dispensing one at a time- always.
I decided on doing the Kuleshev Effect Assignment because I felt it could be very expressive. I wanted to relay a message or thought to the viewer of my video. Something that I try to live by in life is to always remain positive, even if you feel like things aren’t going your way… you have to sometimes tell yourself they are anyways.
The video was easy to make, I got my sound clip from freesound.org, and used a little bit of Windows Live Movie Maker magic to transition through scenes as if they were pages of a book.
So here is my short story, narrated using the Kuleshev Effect….
For this assignment I had to create a scene or film from a horror film. This assignment took a TON of time. By the time I got to editing, I had over 25 clips. I had a mood in mind that I wanted to create, and shooting for a scary movie… is well difficult. Lighting, sound, speed, and angle are really really crucial- moreso than in other genre’s I believe.
I think this was a great personal success though. I can feel the emotion, and hope you can too!
TUTORIAL:
1. First I shot scenes , usually only a few seconds in length. If you don’t have a light on your camera, use a small lamp to light a room (make sure it’s BEHIND the camera though). You can also light a room down the hall or next door (I did this in the hallway scene at the beginning of the video). Experiment with panting, screaming, and shaking the camera to create moods as desired. I used candles as well in a lot of my scenes.
2. The opening scene, I held the camera myself and lit a candle. I recorded myself panting and shaky, and just walked to the closet slowly.
3. The hallway scene was shot in a dark hall, I had a room down the hall (behind me) lit. And then used the bathroom lights to create a flickering effect by turning them on and off.
4. I simply had someone stand next to the candle out of line of sight, and blow the candle out to imply an erie presence once the closet was open.
5. The scene where the closet monster/ghost walks by, I used my younger sister in a black hoodie. She just walked past the camera creeply.
Now that you’ve shot a few clips, upload them onto your computer. You are now ready to edit them into a scene…
1. I opened Window’s Live Movie maker
2. Went to the upload videos and photos button and uploaded the scenes I wanted. You can move them around to order them as you please. Use the split button under the edit tab across the top to cut scenes up into pieces.
3. After ordering and splitting scenes as desired.. you can use the animations tab to have scenes fade in, or animate in in a certain way. That is how I got some of my scene changes to blot out.
4. Using title and credits buttons under the home tab you can ad whatever titles and credits you please, and customize them in terms of font, color, size, and even how the enter and exit the screen.
5. Finally use the add music button to add sound from a file to the video, at whatever desired location in the video. You can fade the sound in and out (I faded mine out at the end) by going to the music tools options tab. I searched and downloaded my sound clip from freesound.org , and you can edit them using audacity if you choose. I did not edit the sound clip at all for this assignment, I liked it and just simply put it into my video.
This is a screenshot of the home tab… I have the things I wrote in bold circled, it’s very easy to navigate.
Also… don’t forget to have fun, experiment with it, and share!!!
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.
When I think back to my childhood, I think about ice-cream sandwiches, playing Barbies, hours of swimming with my cousins, making clubhouses in a copse of spindly trees, the babysitter asking me if it was ok for her to smoke in the house (turns out it wasn’t), and watching some great, but entirely inappropriate, movies. In my early years of elementary school I was watching Jaws, Halloween, and The Shining. I discussed the merits of Nightmare on Elm Street on the school bus. Jesus, was I eight-years-old when that came out in 1984? I definitely didn’t see it in the theater, so maybe I was 9 or 10. My point is that I was young.
It’s not like I was sneaking around to watch these movies. My parents knew that my sister and I watched horror films. My cousins’ parents knew what they were watching too. It was all perfectly fine as long as we didn’t have nightmares. It may sound like a totally insane parenting philosophy, but I’m thankful that I grew up that way. There wasn’t a lot of parental oversight when it came to what I watched, read, or listened to. If something made me uncomfortable, I stopped watching. If a book was over my head, it was probably boring, so I stopped reading. I appreciate that autonomy, and hope I can raise my son with some modified version of that. I think I’d like to have more open discussion concerning the media and art he brings home when the time comes.
So here’s a short video on three movies that impacted the most. They should’ve been terrifying. They should’ve left me afraid of the ocean and afraid of the boogeyman, instead I’m left with some unforgettable memories of growing up free range with my sister and cousins.
* For the record, I don’t really think that my parents’ choice to let me watch these movies was bad parenting. I think I turned out ok in the end.
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.
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.
I laid out my idea for a vintage educational video along with a script in this post, and only had to change a few little mistakes I made before recording the real thing. My son John played the roll of “Johnny” and did a great job! At 6 he is a natural actor already and loved playing along with me.
We recorded our audio in Garageband and edited out our mistakes (my mistakes actually, John didn’t make any). I moved the audio to iMovie and added the images and video clips. I wanted to add video effects to make it look like old, black and white video but iMovie doesn’t let the effects apply to still images. I completed the video, exported it out, then started a new project and imported it in so it would all be “video”. Finally I was able to apply the filters I wanted to make it look old. Here is the final product:
This Video Assignment (http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/lip-synch-your-favorite-song/) was by far my absolute favorite assignment ever. For the assignment we had to lip sing a song. I decided to get out of my comfort zone (signing Adele or Brittney Spears) to rapping Nikki Minaj’s verse in Bottom’s Up. I must have watched some of her music video’s 100 times so I could try to capture her personality. I had so much fun rapping, good thing I knew the lyrics (it’s me bestfriends favorite song) . For this video I had my little brother record me. I think for the most part I did a good job lip syncing. :)
Looking at the video I don’t even recognize myself, it’s like a complete alter ego.
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.....
