Made with my iPhone & dJI Osmo Mobile!

Song: “She’s a gift” By: Borrtex

By: Sarah Andrews, Love Lock Media, Beebop Studios

Sweetest couple ever!

By: Sarah Andrews Photography

This project started out with a list of my top 5 favorite foods. That quickly changed to focusing on one of those foods-chocolate. It did not take me long to think of the five factor. So I decided to summarize the process of baking a cake in 5 unrealistic steps, or phases. That factored down to just incorporating 5 throughout the video: five letters in the title and five phases. I wanted to incorporate 5 summary photos/video in each phase but some images did not come through well and I ran out of video time.

I sketched my shots first with notes for what I was to aim for. This helped me a lot and saved me a lot of time. I used my Canon Rebel T5i. I wanted to use my iPhone, but it died and I wanted good quality. As I started shooting, I became aware of lighting and shadows. This played heavily into directing the people who helped. In the opening video, I played a lot with shooting smoothly and in focus while moving down the counter. I also became aware of the fact that photographing food is not easy. When the light sources were rather poor, how I positioned people and set up props was all the more important. Also, baking, being a poor college student and being on a time crunch, I had to make everything I did count. I took tons of stills when the shots were needed (and to factor in that my hands are shaky) and made sure that my video tools were set up right.

With Premiere, I have never used it until this project. It is not as intuitive as I would have hoped. When I opened the software, I had no clue what I was doing. But a few classmates gave me some helpful tips and then I ran from there. I did do some research on the zooming out effect and I think the pan effect too, but after doing that once, I was able to figure out some things. Keeping my work organized was huge. I created a folder for each phase that contained all the images for that phase. I then pulled the hopefuls out and edited them in Photoshop. Then I exported the finished files into subfolders for the top picks. When I started placing my work in Premiere, I just went to those subfolders. One challenge I faced included showing the stills correctly in the Production window. In this window, my stills were zoomed in and it took awhile to fix that. Setting the text was also a challenge that took me some time to figure out. After playing around, I found the solution. I just knew that I needed to get this project done, so I kept my effects simple.

Overall, for being my very first video, I am pleased. And I appreciate my mom and my neighbor helping me out. This was a fun project.

By: Maurissa Keller

As many of you know, I have been digging deep into the world of freelance. Primarily this is due to where I am right now and the income/skill opportunities that have come up within the past few months. As students in the Media Arts program, you get your first taste (unless you have a past in business) in Business Practices. In the class, you cover different types of work, contracts, and important forms to have when meeting clients. These are great things to get you started. But that is just it, the class is a starter kit for much more. Hence, I am in that “much more” category.

This need for more information and insight is how I met Chris Elliott. She was referred to me by Teresa. Chris is a delightful professional freelancer in multimedia with an impressive background (which is rather important to have) that provided her the foundation to start her own business, called Elliott Image. When Chris started working, she began in the restaurant business. Her responsibilities ranged from traveling to hiring managers. That, I thought, is quite a significant jump from multimedia. On her website, she stated that one word, however, had changed her life (these are my own words-not hers). I became greatly intrigued. When I asked her more about this, she said that after she started a family, she had wanted to return to school, but did not know what to pursue. When she went into U of O, she looked in a catalog and saw “Advertising.” You could now say that the rest is history, but there is so much more to tell. Anyway, what drew her to advertising was that, hopefully like many of us in the graphic design/multimedia programs, she wanted to do something that enabled her to be creative while also using strategical and analytical skills at the same time. Creative problem-solving-that is what we do.

This next question was geared towards whether Chris’s professional knowledge came mostly from her experience working for an ad agency (she was hired on after graduating) or research. Since I don’t have the solid background of prior experience, I have been wondering if I can make it still being a fish only swimming in the shallows, grasping at info-tidbits when I can understand them. Chris replied that most of her knowledge did indeed come straight off the job (again, in my paraphrase). While her restaurant experience gave her the ability to communicate with businesses (a HUGE plus being both a designer and a freelancer), she learned about doing creative work with television and radio and how to build campaigns for those creatives. But she learned the most while working at a tv station. It was here that she found herself doing more than what her education provided her with. And she succeeded to the point of becoming manager. This is where she did audio/video to help promote the tv station, worked with both small and large businesses, and software research (more for her know-how, but her research came in handy).

Hands-down, while you in are studying at Lane, either in the arts or not, you have either been asked, or pondering still, or already know what you want to do after graduating. For some of you, it may to work with an employer, others-freelance. So I asked Chris about when she knew that starting her own business was the right move. She replied that it has been a desire of hers for a long time. For the last 4 years of her 18-year employment with the tv station, the thought of starting out on her own was much heavier. I am used to hearing of freelancers being successful, but not so much when they were in a good position at their employers. Chris was scared and, despite her professional experience, still insecure. However, she has made a very successful business. Taking risks-that is definitely a trait of a freelancer. If you are not a risk taker, then being a freelancer may not be the right career move for you. Yet again, if you want to be moved out of your comfort zone and like making your own schedule, then it might be worth considering. When it came to resources, Chris said that it did not take much, such as equipment. I then asked about the business side since my research has not been super successful. Chris was very helpful in telling me that Commerce (I think) offers free consulting for small businesses or online research. Chris did need to research insurances a bit as there are a few different kinds to consider when taking your business startup to the next level.

If you are wondering what a multimedia freelancer’s day typically looks like, I did ask Chris. One of the perks of course is making your own schedule-that includes the ability to sleep-in or not. Overall though, she does a variety of tasks, especially those related most to multimedia. These tasks range from writing (she writes scripts and creates concepts), doing post-production, and photography. She did say though that 75% of her time goes to the computer.
Due to the variety of jobs she has and their varying complexity/priority, I was curious about her means of balancing it all. Her remedy? Lists. She said that lists help you keep current with projects. Sometimes those lists are categorized by the time frame of the project, sometimes it’s by type of job. As a freelancer, you could choose what you do during the day. Chris also uses a calendar as well to track information such as mileage (you may be needing to travel) and client work. I should say right now that if you are considering freelance, you need to be go-getter. As part of your job (maybe a large part of it) is going to go to self-marketing.

What about pay? This topic is tough and every freelancer I have talked to has a slightly different reply. Chris has a plan, though this part of her work is still challenging. Because she knows her skills, her capabilities, and resources, plus has an excellent work ethic (this is also HUGE), she treats each job with its own price. I have heard this from other designers too. She has a flat rate, but it varies. I currently have an hourly rate, but unlike Chris, I am starting right out of school. So my rate is also a lot cheaper. Even when bidding for projects, she provides a safety net within her budgeted price and never exceeds it. When considering how you’ll charge people for your work, be real about this. And really know yourself so that you charge what is fair for you, but also for the potential client.

I also inquired about industry competitors. This is a decision I am facing, and I am sure you will too. Chris’s approach (so that you maintain professionalism in everything) is to purposefully change gears. The people who work with Chris know that she is highly ethical and will not give out information. She literally changes ‘hats’ between jobs and solely forces herself to focus on that one job. As she said, “there’s always enough room for everyone to play in the sand.”

What about interns? She has worked with them before. However, she is not taking any right now. She loves providing them experience and understands the value of on-the-job-learning aspect of internships. So I asked her about an ideal intern. Her reply? Passionate and excited! Excited about learning and is energetic. That is contagious for lots of creative fun. So I asked her her advice for recent graduates. One of the bigger positives of getting employed after graduating is that you get to know a lot of people. That networking is very important, and could be helpful when freelancing.

Chris was incredibly insightful and really fun to meet. If you want to learn more, visit her website: www.elliotimage.com.

Image provided by: Verena Yunita Yapi from Unsplash.com

By: Maurissa Keller

Recently I had the pleasure of taking a field trip to Imagination International. My first impression of this nifty warehouse, was the large mythical blue creature painted upon the  side wall where I parked. As we approached the building, more murals wrapped around each side calling to my attention and pulling me in. However, what I found inside was much more magnificent. To my disbelief, sat before me the creator of the beautiful creature on the side of the building, framed by her very own brilliant creations, and inspirations. Still knowing so little about the adorable woman and her dog behind her desk, I couldn’t stop thinking about her and her work. Leaving Imagination International I promised myself I would go back in that office again someday, somehow. Little did I know a little over a week later I would have the opportunity to sit down one on one with this lovely lady, Terryl Whitlatch in her office.

What was intended to be an hour of interview time, resulted in almost an hour and forty minutes of beautiful stories. If you don’t already know who this highly sought after conceptual artist, professional animal designer, etc. is, then let me tell you some things I find quite interesting about her. Terryl Whitlatch was born in the 60’s, strongly influenced by her parents and their skill sets. She grew up on a ranch where she was surrounded by horses, nature, and animals. In high school Terryl stumbled upon a man who came to talk to her science class from a university. This man became a huge impact on Terryl as an inspiration and a mentor. He helped her decide that she wanted to study Zoology at Sonoma State University, and later pursued her college career at Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

To receive a bachelors in Fine Arts Terryl was required to do a personal art show. After her pieces were hung she received a message from LucasFilms, launching the beginning of her successful career. Her very first project with LucasFilms was Star Wars episode 1. She later worked for LTD, Industrial Light & Magic, LucasArts, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Imagineering, Electronic Arts, Paramount Pictures, Sony, Miramax, PDI, Pixar, and currently Imagination International. She also has several published books, among which she says “The Katurran Odyssey” is her baby. Not only does she share her work visually, she also speaks at art conferences and is an instructor on animal design in both workshops, and online.

After over 25 years in the business Terryl is one of the most successful artists of her kind. She has taken part in the creations of Star wars, Polar Express, Brave, Jumanji 1 & 2, Men In Black, Dragon Heart, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Curious George, Zafari, Beowulf, Brother Bear, and many other works of art. I asked her what her favorite project was, and she mentioned Brother Bear because of the connections she made. I found this especially moving as Brother Bear is my favorite movie, which I was honored to share with her. A few other interesting things about her, were her sense of humor, soft welcoming aura, adorable greyhound, and sense of engagement. She spoke very soft and lightly, and shared with me that she loved the Adam’s family, which in my opinion made a lot of sense. She has a sense dark humor that she finds intriguing, and utilizes in her work. With her greyhound by her side named Sweet Josette, surrounded by her throne of endless art supplies, is this lovely little lady whom I find so captivating.

To finish off with our short time together, I asked her what advice she might have for a young aspiring artist just starting college. She advised to learn from my mistakes, and to be original. I shared with her that in my art class we were learning to follow through with our work even if we made a mistake to learn from it and move on, to which she replied my art teacher is teaching me right. At the end of our interview I even had the opportunity to watch her draw a quick character. Within moments she had an anatomically accurate adorable creature drawn out. This experience by far was one of the highlights of not only this term but of my life.

Everyone dreams of going to Hollywood and making it big at one point in their lives. It’s hard not to; seeing stars on silver screens and directors accepting trophies at awards ceremonies, it all looks very lavish. But behind the glamour and opulence there is a level of hard work and determination that would deter any slacker. “My end goal is to be a showrunner of scripted television… I want to create the story, write the pilot script, sell the concept, and run the writer’s room and the entire show.” That’s Andrew Daily, a production manager down in Los Angeles. If you were to look at the film industry as a well oiled machine, a production manager would be the one that makes sure it stays well oiled. Daily is responsible for making sure things like the catering and hiring of production assistants all goes well. “So that’s very difficult to get into. There’s probably only less than three hundred of those jobs in the world.” That’s a pretty staggering number when  you consider that, according to the Bureau of Labor, there are just under 400,000 people working in the film industry. That means that only around 0.08% of the people that work in the film industry work as showrunners. So how does one get such a job? “The typical route that people go through is through becoming a writer’s assistant and then a writer and then, you know, producing writer, and so on moving up to the writing side, but I’m actually going a different route…” He was. When Daily made the decision to move to LA, he didn’t know anyone there. He was diving in headfirst, and he wasn’t sure if he was headed for water or asphalt. Luckily, his old youth pastor had a connection in the industry, his sister was the VP of Sony Pictures, Leah Weil. The pastor set Daily up with a meeting in which Weil showed him the studio, walked on the set of the popular show, Ray Donovan, all the while they talked about his skills. By the end of the meeting, Weil had set Daily up with a job as an art production assistant, and since then he’s worked in almost every avenue of the film industry, from producer to floral arrangement. “From there, you know, I just impressed the right people, and it eventually led to work, but I only probably work fifty days out of my first year in LA.” That threw me off. Here was an experienced and well connected industry professional that only managed to find work fifty days out of the year. “I wasn’t interested in making friends and partying and messing around. I was interested in ‘Alright, let’s work, let’s grind, move up cause you’re too old to be a PA forever.’ You know?”  Time was, of course, growing short and I decided it was time to bring the interview to a close, so I asked Andrew to provide some tips for students looking to get into the industry. “My number one tip is just save money in advance, because like I said I only worked fifty days out of the year. I was fortunate to have that connection, but you might be surprised by who you know, like a friend of a friend that might lead to a job, but when you start out you have to do a lot of free work and you have to be available, because you’re gonna get a call and they’ll be like ‘Hey we need you tomorrow to come in.’ and you have to be able to be able to say yes in order to meet the right people. I was fortunate enough where I flipped a house, and I had a bunch of money saved up to where I could commit a year to not having to work consistently, but you have to move to LA. You have to meet people, and you will, you know? There’s always someone in film or TV who can be an in for you, because when I’m hiring PA’s I ask my good PA’s ‘Hey, do you know any friends that want work?… You have to be in LA, talking to people communicating your interest, and something will come up.” Becoming a part of the industry is, by all means, equal part hard work and pure luck. Your entire career could ride on whether or not that friend of a friend thinks of you when they’re hiring for their project. So keep an eye out, and your ears to the ground, because that opportunity could be right around the corner, or right under your nose.

For the X-4 assignment, I interviewed by phone Kyle Seidlitz a web master for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. The interview was short because of his work. (5 min long) I asked him about his education and how it effects his calling within the church as a webmaster. Kyle responded by saying, “Having a college degree in web authoring and computer science helps as well.”

I asked him what does he do on the church’s website and how long does it take him to accomplish his work he does every day/every other day. Kyle said, “I help maintain the website with other web masters from different wards and aids with online tithing and processing it for the church.”(There is a lot).

The third question I asked him was “how does a web master help the church other than online tithing offerings?” He responded by saying,” I help maintain the site as well as post talks/information and dates/locations of events the church is holding.”

The last question I had was how does media play a role in the within the church? Kyle stated that he was short on time but he answered the question. He said, “It helps to get information about who we are as well as cover a wide array of topics ranging from basic scripture study to the path on becoming a member and staff directory. Media also spans beyond the internet. There is television and radio which is used for trying to reach people and get them to come to church. If people have questions they can refer to the site or set up an appointment with the missionaries to have some questions or they can come on Sunday and talk with the bishop after the service. God bless.”

In my experience with media/computers (personal/LCC) setting up and maintaining websites takes a lot of work when done by hand. Nowadays there are sites that will allow you to build it much easier than hand coding HTML/CSS/JavaScripting which can take weeks if not more plus the education on what and how to write is enough give a person not versed in computer language a whopper of a headache.

In summary education in computers seems to be a large portion of a lot of media and other subjects. Attending the Sunday service and talking with Kyle allowed me to have a different perspective for webmasters by asking questions I myself, wanted to know. However due to a short time talking I could not get all my questions answered within the allotted timeframe. Thirst for learning a complex subject takes time, dedication and faith in all you do and all you interact with is all you need to succeed. I also learned now in the age of technology churches are using media across multiple platforms to reach everyone and every age etc.….

Media impacts a lot of what we do today as well as influence target groups that the media is meant for across most platforms that are needed to reach the target audience.

For this assignment I attended a talk by photographer Evan Baden whose work is being displayed in the Building 11 Gallery. I had wandered through the exhibit a couple of days before, unaware that the artist was coming to speak on his work, and thought that the portraits were interesting in the concept I perceived from the title given. “High School Yearbook Project” as a standalone name would make me think of kids flashing big smiles or bright happy faces, but all of the portraits were very stoic. It was cool getting to learn about his process during his talk. Baden began by going over the themes he explored in his previous works, “Illuminati,” and “Technically Intimate,” both of which revolved around the impact and influence of technology with teen culture. This new way in which people were interacting with each other on this level separate from “real life,” in a way created its own virtual world that teens were becoming a part of, which mostly had become a new phenomenon during the mid 2000s, is something he talked about exploring with his projects. He spoke about the overall concept of “real” and “fake” and how it also related to his thoughts on photography in general. He feels all photography isn’t real reflection of what it shows, because it only captures a small moment in time, only captures what falls within the frame, leaving the rest or the undesired parts to the wayside. Which he then related to social media, and the way photography plays a part in these depicted lives of others that are so well crafted and appear “real,” but are only a snapshot, or an exaggeration of reality, because there is no way as a consumer to know what was really happening in real time when the photo was taken. He also spoke about his process of taking all his portraits for this work, which was interesting in and of itself. He uses a contraption that takes large format images and is unintended for portrait photography, because it takes a series of around 6 images that it then composites into a whole image. I’m not too technologically savvy so I became a bit lost during his explanation, but essentially to photograph people, he had them stay still for a longer period of time, I believe he said around 10 seconds or so, much like the in the past, so it was kind of a strange mix of old and modern photography. But the process gave him more leeway as far as modification during the shoot; he was able to switch things around in different portions of the frame because of the way the contraption captured the image in bits and pieces. He related this process to further his concept of the manipulated “reality” depicted online and through photography, which I thought was an intriguing connection. Overall I felt the talk was super illuminating, I was already interested in the work before but afterwards I left kind of blown away by all that went into it. I’d definitely say I was a fan of his work.

by: Andrea Del Rio

For the X-4 assignment, I interviewed by phone Kyle Seidlitz a web master for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. The interview was short because of his work. (5 min long) I asked him about his education and how it effects his calling within the church as a webmaster. Kyle responded by saying, “Having a college degree in web authoring and computer science helps as well.”

I asked him what does he do on the church’s website and how long does it take him to accomplish his work he does every day/every other day. Kyle said, “I help maintain the website with other web masters from different wards and aids with online tithing and processing it for the church.”(There is a lot).

The third question I asked him was “how does a web master help the church other than online tithing offerings?” He responded by saying,” I help maintain the site as well as post talks/information and dates/locations of events the church is holding.”

The last question I had was how does media play a role in the within the church? Kyle stated that he was short on time but he answered the question. He said, “It helps to get information about who we are as well as cover a wide array of topics ranging from basic scripture study to the path on becoming a member and staff directory. Media also spans beyond the internet. There is television and radio which is used for trying to reach people and get them to come to church. If people have questions they can refer to the site or set up an appointment with the missionaries to have some questions or they can come on Sunday and talk with the bishop after the service. God bless.”

In my experience with media/computers (personal/LCC) setting up and maintaining websites takes a lot of work when done by hand. Nowadays there are sites that will allow you to build it much easier than hand coding HTML/CSS/JavaScripting which can take weeks if not more plus the education on what and how to write is enough give a person not versed in computer language a whopper of a headache.

In summary education in computers seems to be a large portion of a lot of media and other subjects. Attending the Sunday service and talking with Kyle allowed me to have a different perspective for webmasters by asking questions I myself, wanted to know. However due to a short time talking I could not get all my questions answered within the allotted timeframe. Thirst for learning a complex subject takes time, dedication and faith in all you do and all you interact with is all you need to succeed. I also learned now in the age of technology churches are using media across multiple platforms to reach everyone and every age etc.….

Media impacts a lot of what we do today as well as influence target groups that the media is meant for across most platforms that are needed to reach the target audience.

This is an article based on the interview with Heather McBride-Anders, story writer, director, and producer of the psycho-thriller film, “In Her Blood”. that premiered at Lane Community College (LCC) Ragozzino Performance Hall on November 3rd, 2017. The idea for this interview is to show aspiring filmmakers part of the process of filmmaking through Heather’s experience with In Her Blood.

It was a labor of love that she first began at a continuing ed screenwriting class at LCC about 10 years ago. At yhr time Heather was going through a separation she and was able to put her focus into writing, the story that came out eventually became “In Her Blood” is partially based off of her life and mostly fiction. Several years later and after submitting her finished screenplay in for a contest in Hollywood, Heather was contacted by Danny Mannis, who wrote the movie iFrankenstein. Mannis consulted her on her screenplay and Heather used this advice to make some edits, finalized the screenplay and resolved that she would make it into a film.

With this screenplay and being in charge of producing and directing the film, Heather was able to achieve some crowdfunding and then used her own money to fund a majority of the film. Next step, find a cast and crew! Heather went to Lane Community College to meet with Teresa Hughes, professor in the Media Arts program to ask her if there were any students looking for internship opportunities.  Three of the LCC interning crew were Rich Robison, Alan R. Thompson and Jeffrey King Osborns who did numerous jobs including cinematography, set design, prop creation and more. “There is a certain amount of giftedness in that group of those 3 guys, their synergy, you know. So I think I accidentally landed upon some genius.” Overall the film took 5 months, 14 actors, and 23 locations and don’t forget crew (for which I don’t have a figure). The main location for the film, an old 1888 victorian home called the Shelton McMurphey Johnson House was lent by its board for free, for over a month for filming. This house is a tourist attraction in Eugene OR. “The place had some pretty freaky energy”, said Heather. Making it the perfect place for a film setting such as this. Another location used during the shoot that has an interesting back story was a fraternity house on Alder Street called the Lorax Manor. This place was perfect, there was a basement there that already had meat hooks attached to the ceiling, a cage, old dirty mattresses, tools were strewn about the room everywhere and there was a pool table in there that looked like it was about a hundred years old. The set design was basically already done for them, so Heather saw the perfect mess and said, “Alan, go in there and make the set!”. He fixed it up perfectly for a lovely day of shooting film. You’ll know the scene when you’ve seen it.

Heather McBride-Anders projects energy and pride when talking about the film and especially when talking about her team she spent over 6 months with while making the film. From start to finish creating a movie was not without their fair share of struggle. Heather shares that writing can be long and agonizing. “It took 10 years and you get really attached to the writing and you don’t know if it is good enough.” The post production process also turned out to take much longer for unexpected reasons, but she comments, “Working with a crew is so tiring but it is like being on a high from morning to night. When you get a shot, people would be celebrating and then, “move on!” Energy and ideas happened.” Heather goes on to explain that there was the occasional clash of egos that happened on set that had to do with creative decisions. “…but you have to have a little bit of ego starting out to survive the constant onslaught of people’s opinions and if you don’t stay true to yourself then you lose your art.” This is good advice for someone starting out, stay open to the ideas of your team and also stay true to your ideas because there will always be varying opinions.

What I really like about Heather is that she used the internet to learn to do anything that she didn’t know how to do, she learned to make things. One of the challenges was learning how to make realistic bodies for a scene in the movie. Instead she found an easy method to make heads in jars for a scene instead of complete bodies while browsing the popular website, Pinterest. Alan Thompson did the work to bring these heads to life. Heather’s advice to filmmakers starting out is to “Leave your mind open and start exploring on the internet!” She has reroofed her house and fixed a fridge and more from tutorials online. Much of the knowledge she used to learn to make to make this movie a reality came from online resources as well. Some sites she mentioned specifically were YouTube, Pinterest, and frugalfilmmaker.com.

Heather’s biggest takeaway lesson from producing “In Her Blood” was regarding sound. As a filmmaker you may have heard about the importance of quality sound, I certainly have but we can benefit from hearing it from a first-hand account. Heather tells us that she was so focused on the filming and video aspects of the film that the focus on audio was minimized, so the postproduction process was extended for about 2 months. Here’s her specific advice regarding managing your sound production process:

1. Test audio ahead of time.
2. Use external audio.
3. Always sync your audio with video at the end of the day.
4. Don’t start editing your video until your audio is synced with the video.
5. Use either Mac or PC to do your edits on since these two platforms don’t “talk” with eachother easily or well.

Jumping into a film project is going to be a rewarding and challenging process! Trust your gut and your creative capabilities, get help and work with people and use your resources to your advantage, there is tons of help out there waiting for you online and through organizations such as Lane Community College and other people willing to help you for cheap or free such as the board of the Shelton McMurphy Johnson House. My hope is that this article enlighted you to some of the rewards and challenges of being a first time filmmaker.

Thanks for reading!

By Daniel Martinez