Category Archives: Past Student Work

Rock’n’Roll is the answer!!

I have always been a music fan. Since I can remember, there was always music of varying genres playing, all imbedded in my pea sized brain. Musicals of the early to mid 20th century were mixed with classic rock of the 1960’s entangled with the punk and new wave of the 1980’s engrossed my early childhood. Puberty hit and I was influenced by whatever MTV showed me at the time, and my own taste was quickly developing.

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Middle School Ragamuffin

The crossroads of teenage delinquency was the turning point of what I listened to. Iggy and The Stooges album Raw Power changed my whole life. The fury and awesomeness that came from the 8 tracks that was bleeding in my ear drums was pure fresh air! The fuel in my blood from the first notes of the opening track, made me realize that it was what I wanted to be apart of. I MUST BLEED MUSIC! The only problem was that I didn’t know how to play any instrument. I told my mom I wanted to be in a band early in life and, being the supportive soul she is, remarked that how could I possibly do that if I couldn’t play? I will find a way……

Tried to play the guitar but my fingers couldn’t figure out. screw it! I will figure it out. maybe I will find a couple of musician type people, dress like them and follow them around? AND IT WORK!!!!! I was now a frontman and have been doing it ever since!

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That was a drunk Halloween!

I’ve been doing a radio show on the University of Oregon’s radio station, KWVA 88.1 fm, now for about year now and it’s just as good as being in a band. With this platform I can play all the music I am a fan of and connect with anyone who is listening. I play everything from Britney Spears to Skinny Puppy. Checkout my playlists, its wild! As much as I love it, it does not beat performing on a stage……

(Warning: Cuss Words)

 


Recording in the Digital Age

Recently, our band Snowdragon has been recording a ten-song LP to be used as a demo reel. We have a large show coming up this summer and the venue requested we send a small collection of the type of music we play. This would be nearly impossible on our collective schedules if it weren’t for the evolution of digital recording within the last couple of decades. Being able to record near-perfect audio signals into a desktop computer is a huge technological accomplishment, and something I love doing every day.

Personal computers have made a huge impact on the way we all live our lives. Whether it be for entertainment or starting your own career, they’ve changed the way many, if not most, things work in America. Ryan “Fluff” Bruce, a producer/audio engineer has founded his career and lifestyle with digital audio recording. His website (http://www.blackmetalbicycle.com/) highlights his roles in his field as well as his current projects.

Another producer from Oregon’s own Eugene, Billy Barnett of Gung-Ho Studio (http://www.gunghostudio.com/) has been in the business since tape and vinyl, but has comfortably made the transition to digital in recent years. When I asked how well he took the switch, he answered,

“In the beginning of the digital era, things were not very good. Most software was extremely expensive and didn’t record with very high fidelity to the source. In the last decade or so, it’s streamlined so many processes and has much higher quality sound.”

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I’ve been working out of my own home studio for the last few years now. Be it recording my own projects or a local band, I’ve always had fun with it and have always been interested in challenging myself further.

Below: A short video of a simple little song recorded in my studio in two hours.


“Listening to Emerson”

Part I

 After my second attempt in reading Emerson’s essay, using a couple of the reading strategies I picked up from “Listening to a Text,” clear meaning emerged within me. I initially read the first five pages of “The American Scholar,” and I was overwhelmed by unfamiliar words. On my second attempt, I implemented annotating, marking unfamiliar terms and references and I searched for visuals that enhance verbal content.

First, I went through the text highlighting unfamiliar words, opportunities for visual enhancements, and I used annotation in the columns. My understanding of the text improved by simply re-reading the five pages.

I proceeded to go back through the text, researching all of my highlights revealing definitions to unfamiliar words and phrases, but I also searched for images of these terms to give further enhancement of the verbal content.

Combining these three reading strategies, I have a deeper understanding of Emerson’s intentions for his essay. Noting organizational signals and identifying points of difficulty are two more reading strategies that could aid immensely when wading through tough literature as such.
Part II

After a brief search of Ralph Waldo Emerson, I learned that there was such an occupation as an essayist. Emerson was an essayist, lecturer, and a poet. He stood for transcendentalism along with individualism and he published essays and gave over 1500 public lectures in America in the mid-19th century. Among his essays were

While attending Harvard Divinity School, Emerson’s conviction for transcendentalism emerged. Transcendentalism is a spiritual or philosophical movement which appeared as a response to the general state of intellectualism and spirituality that was present in the late 1820s and 1830s in the eastern United States. A core belief of transcendentalism is in the innate goodness of people and nature; that people are at their best when they are truly self-reliant, not having to depend on others for stability. Emerson was a co-founder of the Transcendental Club in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1836 and published in their journal The Dial. Emerson wrote of individuality, freedom and manifesting one’s true greatness. In the 1840s, he was strongly influenced by Vedanta (Indian philosophy) and many of his writing had strong shades of non-dualism, or non-duality, a term and concept used to define various strands of religious and spiritual thought. Emerson’s principal concerns were collectivism, conformity, totalitarianism, and social engineering to name a few.


Final Project – The Man Among The Trees – [concept] Trailer

 

So… this is my final project for this class. This time around, I decided to go with something more creepy in tone, like my Audio project.

This project actually started nearly 5 years ago. Back when I was a Sophomore in High School, I picked up a hobby in screenwriting. The first script I ever wrote was the first draft of a horror film called The Man Among The Trees. It was inspired by the Slenderman character, but with my own original take. Since then, I have written 6 different drafts of the script and am currently working on a seventh.

The basic plot is that it’s about a young man who returns to his hometown for a funeral, but upon arriving to the town, he can’t shake the feeling that there’s something watching him from within the woods.

I decided to use the basic concept of this script as the basis for my final project, because I wanted to work on something more cinematic and eerie in tone. Plus, I wanted to work more closely towards something I have a strong passion for (film-making).

The original plan was to have friends of mine walk around the woods and say a few lines that would build up the suspense surrounding “The Man” (in the script, “he’s” referred to as The Figure). Also, before the main title card, I wanted to film a sequence where the main character would walk around the woods in the dark with a flashlight and he heard a twig snap near him. He would then turn toward the source of the sound and a dark man-like figure would lunge at him before cutting to black. Sadly, I didn’t get to film these scenes because the friends that I talked to that said they were available never got back to me when I checked in with them. Thus, I was stuck with about 30 minutes of footage of trees, branches, and a couple of squirrels.

I admit to being disappointed with the video, because I personally don’t feel like everyone is going to get what the story was supposed to be based on a montage of trees and branches. There isn’t really a narrative here.

I don’t know. Maybe I’m being too harsh on myself, but I know that I could’ve made something more unique with this concept if I had more talent in front of the camera and more time to get some more variety in my shots.

By

Hunter Ruland