Rating Project This Semester

1 = Most Favorite
6 = Least Favorite

To be honest, this is very difficult. I enjoyed the process and final product of all of the assignments immensely.

1 - 16mm Film Manipulation
This was my favorite of many reasons. First, it was just pure art. No agenda or plan, just messing up some film and seeing what happened. That was another reason I enjoyed this project, working with film. It is something that is rare these days but I feel is a necessary experience in film school.

2 - Crowdsourcing (Jawbreaker)
This project was so much fun. From beginning (writing the "blind" stories) to filming, to drawing all the frames, to the final product. It was the only project the whole class worked on and I think the result of everyones effort reflects that.

3 - Stop Motion
I had never done stop motion before but it was a lot of fun. Not only did we get to experience traditional stop motion but also sand, charcoal and paint.

4 - 360 Project
I have always wanted to shoot in 360, I wish we had filmed something better suited for 360 though.

5 - Video Letter
Forcing people to work outside of their familiar comfort zones was very cool. The results from this were interesting and fun to watch.

6 - Rhythmic Edit
This project was my least favorite I think because it is difficult to watch. I enjoyed the filming and the editing process because it was so different, but watching everyones final cuts was hard.

Experience with the 360 Shoot

Experience with the 360 Shoot

I had a fantastic experience with the 360 shoot. I have been wanting to work in the medium for a while and this class made that dream a reality. 

As for the actual shoot, I think it was a great idea to limit each group to one shot, one minute, and two takes. I am a big believer that putting a box around people will help them be more creative. 

The camera was easy to set up and use (especially because it was one take) and the phone capturing the footage made it easy to make adjustments to the camera. 

The editing process was not to difficult to learn, and once it was all stitched together, it was like editing any other video.

Giving students access to this medium is amazing and I would suggest keeping this as one of the assignments in future classes. 

Rough Theater

What is your Rough Theater?


My Rough Theater can be seen in the style that I story-tell (in person stories and short film stories). It may not be the proper and right way. It may not follow the typical rules of a story. It may not have clear rises and falls and Acts 1 and 2. What it does have is emotion and the stories are usually able to provoke emotion other people as well. I am sure that I will study and learn the "correct" way to tell a story but I will always hang on to what I believe makes a good story, and this is where style comes from. Just like how the notes from a flute have imperfections (which makes them good and human) so will my stories.

16mm Film Manipulation Experience

The film manipulation was an overall positive experience for me. I enjoyed having the elements to base an idea off of. It is interesting making a project that I can not see immediately how it will look, it makes each scratch and stroke of the pen more dramatic and important. That is exciting. Two aspects I especially enjoyed were the bleaching and the magazine transfers. Bleaching the film and letting the filmy-liquid drip down the strip had an awesome effect. I am excited to see that through the projector. The magazine transfers were also enjoyable because I am interested to see the final project, but the process of putting the magazines ink onto the clear film was a lot of fun. Picking colors and shapes that match two elements and then cutting, tapping, soaking and peeling. The process was relaxing, I will experiment with it again outside of this class.

R2 Response

Crowdsourcing is an exciting idea that I am interested in exploring further. I myself have crowdfunded a number of times and it always turned out successful. I have also used a crowdsource design service to create a logo and after working back and forth with a couple people, we finally got the logo I was looking for and I was happy with the experience. Open Innovation is an aspect of crowdsourcing I have no experience with or knowledge of, but it seems like it could be very useful for people, especially internationally. Sometimes I have trouble communicating tone through text, so I can see how it would be sometimes difficult to clearly communicate instructions for a crowdsourcing project, especially with people where English is not their first language. 

Anytime I want to learn more about a specific thing, I will always go strait to Wikipedia. I have probably read thousands of articles and have become smarter because of Wikipedia. I remember back in middle school, it was almost taboo to access Wikipedia because teachers though because anyone could edit or post that most of the information must be wrong. This has not been my experience and thats not what Jimmy Wales reports in the quality tests. The fact that anyone can access the total sum of human knowledge is an amazing tool. 

Aaron Koblin’s projects were all mesmerizing to watch. Everything from the visualization of the planes, communication and cell phone use to the sheep, the song and the Johnny Cash project. They had a great sense of community and were pleasing to watch and hear. The creativeness needed to conceive and then execute these type of projects is honestly inspiring. The was Koblin thinks is unique and he is using every tool as his disposal efficiently. It is great to see people come together and create something beautiful.

Reaction to Experimental Short Film

First reaction to the short film is positive. The music and the beat throughout was enjoyable to watch, listen and feel. It was as if the filmmaker assigned different shapes and colors to different instruments and notes. Harder more crisp melodies had staring more solid colors. While more fluid softer melodies has more wavy likes and not so harsh of colors. This is also happening with other shapes. I am not sure why it feel so natural and easy to watch, did the filmmaker just randomly choose colors and shapes and if so why do I agree with him/her.