Project 2 Bully

Reading assignment 2

This assignment deals with the wide view and future creation of social communication and interaction through technology and computers. Lev Manovich's new media concentration on user generated context leaves me to believe the way social communication and other sources of human relationships are changing and becoming very lazy. I mean lazy in the sense that we can communicate through video now on youtube and other technologies which allow use the convenance of never leaving our homes creating more future generations of hermits. I also sit and waste hours upon hours of my time towards the computer but I acknowledge the fact we're becoming ever so reliant on technology to create easy tasks for usual means of everyday life. The reading I didn't quite understand but explored the reinventing youtube article which takes the revolutionary means of finding media sources through out the world in video posts. This further evolves into user creation to make videos of any type of source material for the viewers entertainment, education, understanding, and amusement. 

Project 1 Critique

This project is untitled but if I had to name this piece I would probably call it "Waking Dream". Waking dream or a another name for a night terror or nightmare. I was very excited with the creation of this project because of the interesting requirements to work around. The idea of creating tension I continued to play around with extensively for this project. I went through many rough versions of the story but coming to the conclusion which was the final product. 

I believe I could have further evolved the slideshow probably by adding more buildup on the tension played out within the story. I worked on creating relationships with objects and color by comparing the shade of the protagonist toe nail to the carpet color and the use of light creating diffused images outside the house. After watching my project over and over I've become very happy with the mood and atmosphere I wanted to convey. The style of shots and music I created went perfectly with what I was trying to express. The way tension played out in the story I thought was very successful because I broke it off in two parts the climax(buildup) and open ended closing. The first part where the door bell rings and the tension rises having the protagonist look through the window without seeing anyone and the final shot where the person breaks in right behind her and cuts to black creates the open ended closing. I wanted the viewer to ask themselves what will happen to her? What was that person behind her in relationship to the girl? Is there a connection or is this random? I wanted the viewer to create there own interpretations after the slideshow. 

Sound played a very big role in the project because I needed two distinct elements to link the piece with tension or anticipation. I played around alot with pro tools and soundtrack pro until I stumbled on a piano key on pro tools that created a very unique scratching noise. I was immensity innovated by this sound that I knew this would be my window into making the atmosphere throughout the story. The two key musical scores within the piece are the beginning song which I worked on with pro tools and soundtrack pro to create a calm yet interesting mood of waking up starting the day. The other strong song in the story comes in the middle of the slideshow as a scratching violin immediately tells the audience something bad is going to happen. 

Editing was interesting with this project because I edited my pictures with cs4, then created my music in soundtrack pro, pro tools, and then went into final cut pro. I started editing by complying everything into final cut and then sinking up the images with the music. I laid down my pictures first then through the music I played with the timing of each image compared to the sound. After everything felt good I then started to make minor adjustments until I was happy with the success of the clip. The sound was important because without it the audience wont get the sense of tension I was working to explore. Everything is layered in a way that if some components are out of place or missing the whole mood and theme expressing the project is lost. 

Watching the slideshow without sound is something completely different. The images stand out within the 2:30 minute duration but the overall project becomes what I think is a very bland and unappealing show. The idea of listening to the project with other sources of sounds I believe wouldn't work because I really tried to create the overall world of this project by going through many different types of music sources. I've imagined this piece with a upbeat sound, something lively but it doesn't fit well at all with the images and actually becomes very outrageous and comical which are total opposites of what I was striving to achieve. The sound I put into this project is so extensive that the loss of the ambient sound throw away the whole theme of the project to me. The sounds of birds, cell phones, static from the Tv, refrigerator, door bell, and knocks all play very important key elements with the story and without them it simply doesn't work.