Category Archives: Fall 2015

The Traveler

Let me start off by saying that this project has absolutely  drained me.

Although it has shown me that I am capable of  creating short illustrations, I think It will be awhile before I even think about starting a new one ( and that’s after I go back and finish editing this one to my standings).

For this project I wanted to step back and do something more serious, whether this was addressing an issue in our society or making a video that really made the viewer think (such as the Lifetime Ban video we watched in class). I eventually came to the idea of making an informational video on what Cystic Fibrosis is, having lost a friend to it around this time last year.
My plan was going to be to interview the family (to give a second-hand insight on what it means to live with CF ) and doctors. Due to personal problems, and after traveling roughly 500 miles to meet the family; I was still not able to sit down with the family over the Thanksgiving holiday.

With no friends to use in my footage and not being able to be in the frame, filming was out of the question. I was running low on time and I came to the idea that I was going to have to do illustration. I played with a few story ideas of what to illustrate and after overthinking it for some hours I finally pushed myself to just go with one. This is the end result.

Problems I encountered:

  • Time constraints after not being able to do my first idea
  • Finding decent text and making it “fit” with the background
  • About half-way through my first roughcut, I realized that the style I had originally gone with was horrible on the eyes when using a series of frames. Meaning I had to go back and redo my 90 frames (Which I later cut down).

 

29 WoWScrnShot_120315_051311

 

 

  • At one point I was using a computer at the Library. I had to leave and did not save my audio to my thumb-drive. Without realizing this I instead saved it to the desktop. When I opened my project up and realized I was missing files, I returned all the way back to the computer at the library. Only then did I realize that the desktop is cleared every time you sign off, meaning I lost about 5 working hours worth of finding/editing audio. 

Programs I used:

  • Adobe Photoshop CC 2015
  • Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2015
  • Blizzard Model Viewer

 

So I don’t know how to really end this off. I’m happy that I learned the steps on how to do all of this, yet I went through an unnecessary amount of stress and problems. Was this supposed to be a metaphor for life?

By Kendrick


Murderous Clown

About 3 and a half years ago my little brothers made a video on youtube called Murderous Clown (1/2) but they never actually made a part 2.

 

Over Thanksgiving break I was over at my parents house and asked my brothers if they wanted to make a part 2 to their video. Hunter (the clown) was okay with it but thought that the whole video was dumb.  Devin (the kid running from the clown) though was really excited about my idea and was totally up for it.  The only problem though is he wanted to make it serious even though the original video that is flashed in the begging obviously wasn’t serious.  I wanted him to talk more like he did in the first video but he wouldn’t.

Despite some difficulties directing and getting the actors to do what I wanted them and my dog being annoying to I think it turned out pretty good.

The story is about a boy waking up from his house and going out to hunt for some food when he sees the killer clown from 3 years ago passed out.   He thinks the clown is dead but then it gets up and goes after him.  It ends with a flash back of the clown pwning Devin then back to Devin who pwned the clown

Final Project – Le Jelli

 

I had a lot of fun with this project. Finally getting to apply the skills I have learned over the past year, both inside and outside of class, was extremely rewarding. It was also very cool to have the opportunity to poke fun at pretentious art-house films, because that is a style I very much love, but also see the flaws in. I was originally going to create a voice over monologue that would have played throughout the short, but I did not have enough time to write and record one. I also really thought about whether the monologue would have added, or taken away from, the final product. I figured that if the monologue was not recorded with nice equipment it would have made the whole production seem even more amateur than it already is. I firmly believe it is better to create something simple and polished, rather than overreach and create something that looks like crap. That is not to say that my final looks perfect – it has more than a few flaws. I was disappointed with the shakiness of a couple of the ECU shots specifically. All in all I am proud of what I have created, and I am very excited to continue making more stuff.

Moonlit Night- IMA P6

What do I say about this project? It was fun to work on despite the stressful time constraints and I found myself really attached to the characters and wanting to flesh out their stories more. Gosh golly I wanted more time than three minutes but that’s ok. Honestly #1 Dad is my fave thing.

When Derek asked me to help him on this assignment I wasn’t sure what to think since usually I’m the one having to ‘spearhead’ project ideas. But when I read his story outline that this video was based on, I really liked it. Francis and Mizuki have a cute story that will be great once it’s fleshed out more. I liked the drawings Derek did and wish I had only done more justice to them in clean up (line art takes so long like wowy). But you bet your boopy that I got really quick at slapping out frames in photoshop by the end of this. Heck yeah.

In this video we went back and forth on the idea of it being like a trailer for the comic or just a summary of the story. We went with the later and even though we omitted Mizuki’s suicidal episode, I hope you still get an idea of their relationship. I like the idea of having two people care for each other whether they end up romantically together or not. I know what it’s like spending time with very important people and knowing it’s all on borrowed time.

Thanks Derek for letting me help with your children on this project. The whole group effort was a relief and really fun, thanks for the motivation when I wanted to die. We did it ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ (Psssst if you want to redo this for the spring art show I’m up for helping out).

This project gave me a few ideas for some things I know I want to get done for the spring show. I guess expect an animatic/comic for the Jade Project.

Oregon Cannabis Legalization Documentary

I wasn’t really sure what to do for this project, so I looked at the project ideas at the very end of the assignment page and decided to do a short documentary about cannabis legalization in Oregon.

My wife works at The Greener Side, one of the busiest dispensaries in town, so I was able to shoot some video in there one morning before they opened, and get a short interview with the owner, Joseph Hopkins. I also have a medical marijuana card and a grower, so I interviewed him in his growroom.

I interviewed a friend who lived in Coloado in 2012 when recreational cannabis was legalized there, and then he moved here before it was legalized here. He’s been to dispensaries in both those states, and Washington, which are the only states that currently have recreational dispensaries, so I interviewed him, but I could tell soon after I started editing that there was no way I would fit everything I wanted to cover in the three minute time limit, so I never put any of his interview into my edit.

There was another segment I never put into my edit because of the max run time. It was about a local cannabis convention called Ganjacon that happened in October. I didn’t have any video from it, just a few photos, so it was one of the things I was fine cutting. Even without including either of those segments or any kind of conclusion, I still had to go back and shave off four seconds. Fitting the video into the three minute time limit was the most difficult part of this assignment for me.

Sneaking Suspicions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvcgIqdfV_Y&feature=youtu.be

 

I was having trouble coming up with an idea for a video for this project. My husband and I were talking about it and we came up with the idea of someone who feels like they are being followed. Just because your paranoid, doesn’t mean someone is not out to get you right? I didn’t want to make it into a horror piece because I’m not  sure I have enough experience with editing video to scare people yet. (That is definitely something I would love to work up to though.)

The ending was a hard question for me. If I’m not going to scare anyone, then what should I do? The idea I had was that the person following him is just a bored room mate who wanted to mess with him. We all had a lot of fun making the video. My husband is the guy who is being followed, and his best friend is the one following. You don’t think about it before hand, but when you are walking around with a guy in a mask and a camera people do notice you. For the shot I have of Joe walking into the store, we made sure to tell the cashier what was going on and ask if she was okay with it. She was nervous about it and seemed like she didn’t trust us, but she said it was okay. I wanted to be sensitive to her, so I only did the one shot, and left as quickly as I could.

One of my favorite parts of the video is the music. I think it really made the video and helped get across the feelings that the character was experiencing. This was only my second time doing video and it was inspiring. At first I wasn’t sure if I would like doing video, but I think I could get to like it.