Blog 9B :Audio response to Collapsus

My audio review of www.collapsus.com and my media 203 class

Blog 8B: Written Reflection on the Hero/Villain assignment

Pete Fumosa’s character assignment involved Larry the Lawyer and Mr. Doctor. They used lighting so show the character motivation. Larry the lawyer is more shaded; one side of his face is much darker than the other. His colors, black and red, are symbols of a darkness and blood. The mood comes with his shape; his shape is very overpowering and dominating. Mr. Doctor, the judge, and the nemesis of Larry the Lawyer has almost no shading at all, giving him a lighter feel. His color scheme of yellow and blue have happy and uplifting symbolism that comes with the blue sky and yellow sun. His rounder shape and goofy face give him the connotation that he is definitely the good guy. The use of contrast and affinity is used between the two characters. The affinity lies within the characters themselves. Larry the Lawyer, has red, black, orange and yellow are analogous to one another. Mr. Doctor’s colors of yellow and blue are complementary to one another. Between the two characters they contrast. The mood given with Larry the Lawyer because of his coloring and shading is much darker than that of Mr. Doctors lighter, yellow and blue coloring.

Andrew Nalette’s characters are very creative and interesting. Him and his partner chose to have their hero and villain be represented by the sun and the moon. I really liked that their epic battle happened during an eclipse when they finally stop “chasing” one another. I thought the idea in general was very creative. Due to the nature of the characters, lighting was obviously their main difference. Shadows/darkness was used with the moon, where as the sun was very bright and yellow. Because the moon comes out at night, essentially always associated with night, the moon is the antagonist in this story. The sun being associated with the daytime and good times and good weather, he is the antagonist of the animation. Also the symbolism that comes with the sun and the moon also contribute to their roles in the animation. The sun has a happy, fun and warm connotation; therefore he is the protagonist of the animation. The moon symbolizes night, darkness and, spooky things, therefore he is the villain. The mood that is set during their animation is mostly by the connotations previously states but also with their facial expressions. The sun has sunglasses and a smile, where the moon has a deep brow and a frown. There is nothing more contrast-y than night and day so these  characters are very contrasting, where their shapes are affinitive

Blog 10: Written response to reading: FREAK FACTOR

David Rendalls “ FREAK FACTOR : Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness
http://changethis.com/manifesto/45.02.FreakFactor/pdf/45.02.FreakFactor.pdf


is a great read and really helps you feel better about yourself. My favorite three topics that he covers are:

3. Flawless: there’s Nothing Wrong With You

4. Forget It: Don’t try to fix Your Weaknesses

7. Fit: Find the right spot

Flawless: There’s nothing wrong with you introduces the idea to the audience that we truly have no weaknesses that our weaknesses are merely out strengths in reverse. With each weakness, an opposing strength usually comes with it. For example, if your disorganized your probably very creative and if flexible, your probably inconsistent. These ideas help you look at all of your faults in a completely different light that lead to your strengths. He tackles three common “flaws” that people think they have, Disorganization, Dyslexia and Addiction. He tells that disorganization, something usually frowned upon is usually a good indicator of creativity. “Albert Einstein, probably one of the most creative minds of the 20^th century, was also a proud member of the messy desk club saying, ‘If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, then what is an empty desk a sign of?’” He also tells us that 1/3 of the entrepreneurs in America are dyslexic and tells a story of how a man overcame his addiction to drugs with an addiction to Ironman Triathlons, he did try to diminish his addiction, he merely re-routed it. I found this significant to me because, being an awkward, tall, redhead, I'm not like most people. And to think that there is nothing wrong with me just new strengths is really cool and uplifting. Creatively I can accept that I am not very good with technology , however I am really good at working with people and being both a leader and a follower.

                        Forget It: Don’t try to fix Your Weaknesses I found almost inspiring and made just SO much sense!! The points that he makes in this section are basically, trying to fix our weaknesses suck, is no fun and usually doesn’t work. The next section is about how it is the complete opposite with evolving our strengths. I think that the way that he and many of the authors on this site think is fantastical that if you don’t want to do something and if you don’t enjoy it… don’t do it. Simple as that, and that we have been trained through years of public schooling that some things in life you just have to do, because your making us do it. If school nurtured children’s initial instincts, think of the creative minds that we would have today! Accepting that we are not perfect and that trying to be is impossible is the key to realizing that we should work on being the best version of ourselves. I think self realization is one of the hardest things to do, which ironic cause you are you, and it would make sense that you know yourself, right? But people have a really hard time figuring out that they are human and have limitations, and that others are human and too have limitations. Trying to fix these problems is hard / impossible and really just kind of depressing. Creatively, I can stop worrying about things I am no good at and start concentrating on the things I am naturally good at.

                        Fit: Find the right spot. This point emphasizes that sometimes your weakness is your strength in disguise. For example, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’s nose was his weakness that everyone teased him for, but in the right spot of the foggy Christmas Eve, his weakness became his claim to fame and his strength! So we have to put ourselves in or create situations where our strengths shine in order to enjoy our lives to the fullest.  We just need to find a situation where we can be our fullest potential. He also advises us to find people that complement our weaknesses as well in order to create a full being to get everything done (like within a business). I think that finding the right spot is a great idea. Growing up I tried all sorts of sports and had a miserable time with them and was really down on my self-esteem. When I joined band and the flag team, and found my right spot my self-esteem sky rocketed and I had a great time in high school. So, even if its dorky, band was the right spot for me and I'm really glad I found it. Creatively, I can apply this so that I am not doing things I dislike or am not good at and can find a different place where my skills are needed.

Blog 9A: Reflections on the Gaming presentation

I liked our video game concept and the characters that we came up with, however I’m not sure that the idea of our decision tree came across as strongly as I would have like it too.  We did not emphasize in the PowerPoint and in our presentation what we thought was one of the coolest parts that we thought of. Basically, we wanted it so when you had a certain amount of characters you could split off into different groups so that when you play the game a second , third or fourth time you can fight different bosses, try different paths to getting to the same area. And I think we should have emphasized this characteristic g the game more.  I think we did a very good job describing the characters and what they represented and the musical leitmotifs that would accompany each character. We had four examples of the good guys and the evil being that the game‘s objective is to defeat. We also described what kind of music you would hear with each character and what kind of music you would hear when you were approaching a battle of some sort. I think our presentation would have been stronger with the music elements being real music instead of an explanation of music and an example of the world htat the characters lived in would have been cool to have as well.

I think that discussing the objectives with others are the easiest things to do because the objectives are the moments that really move the game forward and give it a point. Most objectives are not obscure as some players goals might be. To talk about mechanics, that seems more a common sense thing that something to discuss, for there are common practices that all games use on each console that do certain things. Rules are somewhat tricky to because everyone has different ideas on the limitations that a game may have and that has the possibility to become a point of controversy. This is why I think Objectives are the easiest because they are the driving point of the video game that makes the whole thing make sense and virtually, all the other aspects are somewhat dependent on the objective.

My Animation

Blog 8A : Audio response to This American Life.

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/superpowers

Jean Grey/ Marvel Girl/ Phoenix

My Audio response to This American Life and explanation of what superpower I want and why I like Jean Grey ( pic above):

Blog 7: Written Reflection on the Video Joke Assignment

Joke #1








Joke #2

In our first video joke we used the idea of sex but also farting to appeal to the college student audience. Using the idea of awaiting sex we created a tension, especially with the farts while the girl is out of the room, builds the tension and stress of her return on two different levels. The release is when she finally takes off his blindfold to reveal the surprise of a camera crew in her room. We used rhythm with the farting in the first joke where we show different moments in his room with him farting and really emphasizes that his farting is going on for a long period of time but also that it makes you pay attention to the consistent in the frame, which is his farting and associates the fart movement that he makes with farting so they wont be confused.

            The second joke we use lines a lot. His shirt is affinitive with the linear floors; table, walls and doors at home all have straight lines that direct your attention to him. However this is contrasting to when he is ordering beans on a round table, in a round bowl with round beans. We also use the idea of all the straight lines at him home to direct your attention to the round cake on the round plate that will foreshadow a celebration, usually involving more people. Basically, straight lines are good things but curvilinear objects are dangerous. In this the lines are also used when he is walking home, he creates a diagonal lines within each shot of him walking home on the screen for that scene. This makes it so the audience can concentrate on the jokes going on within his headphones and less on the surroundings because he takes the same path in every segment.