Who am I? 

My name is Allison Bode, I am interested in Computers, Video Games and a lot of Media I have had years of experience with Video editing, Filming, and Photography I take a lot of pictures in my free time when I see a snapshot opportunity. I enjoy video production the most and I also have experience with Photoshop, but I look forward to learning even more as I continue to explore with Multimedia. 

Why Media? 

I discovered my passion for Multimedia when I was in High School, I have worked with photoshop, Premiere, Final Cut Express, and a little of Blender. The part I love the most about media is the enjoyment I experience while working. I have learned so much in the past 4 years and I am learning even more programs as I go and I look forward to my journey that is still yet to come. I plan to pursue a career in Multimedia production.

Being that I want to major in cinematic studies I wanted to find a web page that could give me good advice/tips to help me get a better grasp on what I’m getting myself into. A website called Big League Film School had exactly what I was looking for. It has a comment section that allows you to get feedback and information from amateur and professional film producers as well as a page that provides tips and tricks to help you work on your skills. On top of both those wonderful resources, the website provides a multitude of monthly videos that cover all aspects of cinematography. My favorite part of the website is the comment section. There are so many responses (majority positive) that you can find an answer to almost all ones questions. I think the website was produced very well, it looks very plain and easy to find your way around. It contains loads of valuable information and really gets down to the point.

Although this website stands out a little more than the others there are countless websites that provide amazing information and comments that could be useful to film makers of all ages and skill levels.

www.bigleaguefilmschool.com

The Big Picture is the Boston Globe’s photojournalism blog.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/bigpicture

The Big Picture is a massive series of extremely beautiful photos taken from large news sources like Associated Press and Reuters. Each photo is paired with a brief caption explaining the story behind it, but otherwise the photos speak for themselves. There is an FAQ section where it explains that the blog is moderated by the Boston Globe photo editors and various other things. When you click on a photo that you like it opens up a series of photos on the same topic all with separate captions. When you scroll to the bottom of that series is where you can comment or share to email, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, or LinkdIn.

One series that caught my eye was on the recent flooding in Lousiana. The blog really cements that you can take real events that are newsworthy and hard hitting and make them artistic and as visually appealing as any other artist’s blog.

Those photos are just the beginning, they have 45 amazing photos posted that show beyond words the disastrous affects of the flooding.

One thing I don’t like is their font choices. It takes away from the beauty of the photos to see a heading and caption that look like someones first attempt at creating a Myspace account. I am also surprised that they decided to not link to full articles about these stories just in case you want to read more.

Overall this is a really cool photojournalism blog that has personally inspired me to go out and take some shots if I get the chance.

Lately I’ve been asked professionally who is someone that you look up to, typically an artist always comes to mind for me, Loish. Lois van Baarle is a very active artist who I think really expands on what illustration is and character design can be. Without going too far into details of how I enjoy her art I really admire how she uses color for character design. Color-wise; the technique and even brush strokes really define that they are her characters. Her style is so defined that it functions for even graphic design.

Even her blog has complete function, which is what I really like. It’s a lot more than just the front page and that gives the viewer something to relate to. On her blog there is artwork, sketches, process, news and update, random, and archive. All of these options allows you to see her artistic process which is really unique and professional for an illustration blog.

The area that the picture is actually in the random page. Why I chose this image is it emphasizes how she expands the functions of an illustration blog, she has tutorial videos and is making a Kickstarter for the said project.

This isn’t even her only blog, if you were to Google Loish you would be able to find that the whole first page is filled with all of her different blogs. Each of these blogs able to please many different demographics with dramatically different formats for each website. With each different format of the website it allows the fan to see her art in many different approaches, which gives a lot of dimension to each piece individually and her style as a whole.

I thought that my personal favorite website of hers was her professional blog, which is in the picture above. It greets you with a business card and already allows you to choose what kind of art you personally are most attracted to. For instance, if your interested in having some art for you home then her original art link would direct you to different themes of her illustrations. All of the art on this webpage is so neatly organized and that makes even the web design aspect of art fun. In conclusion it’s one thing to make beautiful art, though to me it’s about how you make the art and what and how you bring art to life.

#illustration #graphicdesign #characterdesign #activeartist

As I have stated in my previous blog post filmmaking has long since been a passion of mine, with my dream of becoming a successful filmmaker being the career path I am pursuing. In my effort to find useful information on filmmaking I have recently discovered a fantastic blog containing tutorials of immeasurable importance.

As the upper image suggests, this blog contains many useful tutorials on horror filmmaking (another interest of mine). As far as the blog’s design and format, it is pretty straightforward. The blog is split in to sections that detail specific categories, from the above shown Blood, Bullets, and Stunts to Stage Effects and Green Screen etc.  Each section lists links to tutorials based on these categories, which is very useful for any filmmaker and not just horror filmmakers. One such link for example, takes you to an in depth video on how to create  realistic fog for scenes in your video giving your film great atmosphere. This is just one example of all the helpful tutorials featured in the blog which seems to me to be well produced and finely detailed. It’s well worth checking out: 666 DIY Horror Filmmaking Tutorials

By Hayden Larsen

In 1998, Frederator Studios was founded by Fred Seibert. His studio makes cartoons for television, movies, and the Internet. The company has produced 16 series and over 200 short films including The Fairly OddParents, Fanboy & Chum Chum, and Adventure Time. You can find their cartoons on Nickelodeon, Nick Jr, Cartoon Network, and Channel Frederator. His blog was created and published using Tumblr, a popular website made specifically for visual blogging. You can find the Frederator blog right here.

The blog focuses on all things cartoon, and provides information about the Frederator company, the cartoons it has created, books Fred Seibert has written, and even a way to pitch your own ideas to be made into a cartoon. The blog links to many other blogs made by cartoonists that provide plenty of good resources for getting into the industry. The website is very laid back and posts something at least once a day, but often there are interviews and information about various cartoons within the posts. There is even a proper explanation on how they operate their channel on Youtube. The blog even provides cool images showing color keys from the animation and simple recipes inspired by their cartoons.

Overall, the blog is very entertaining and informational. Its a website for a company that focuses primarily on animation and cartoons, and openly allows anyone to apply and incorporate ideas into reality. It is definitely a nice and friendly introduction to what making your own animation studio must take.

By: Megan Rockwell

TheFirearmBlog.com is a blog that I’ve been reading for a long time. They are constantly producing articles and reviews. Since they started in 2007, they’ve put out over 10,000 posts ranging from industry news to product reviews.

In the firearms industry they seem to be on the tip of the spear as far as information release. When news broke about a possible new generation of Glocks, People flooded their blog (myself included) because they were one of the few places with news about the topic.

In their post “Breaking: Photo of the New FBI Glock 17M Leaked” they used their resources inside law enforcement to get sent images of one of the first models released into service. Doing their best to extrapolate what they could just from the images, they were able to learn a lot about some of the design and component changes. They listed the changes in an easy to read manner and made sure to leave caveats making it clear that there may be more information than what they are privy to.

When the first of these new gen Glocks were recalled, The Firearm Blog stayed on top of the story posting updates to their page as they came. The most recent being, “Glock 17M Recall Update.”

This seems demonstrate the impact of having an industry respected blog where people want to share their new products and a large enough writing team to facilitate large amounts of information dispersion. According to their “About” section, they currently have four staff writers in addition to their Editor-In-Chief and weekly guest writers.

One of the reasons I chose The Firearms Blog for this project is they are what I’d like to model my blog after. They have well written posts and have also integrated a YouTube channel “TFB TV” into their content production. I’ve always viewed their content through the eyes of a consumer. This project made me dig a little deeper and look more into the “how” as opposed to just the “what” of their blog.

Hey, my name’s George and here’s a little about myself. I was born and raised in Eugene, but have traveled around a bit, going to places like Colorado, Wyoming and even as far away as Germany. I love to travel and explore the unknown, soaking up as much knowledge as I can about other cultures, especially languages.

My other favorite things are games, art and my cat. My favorite games are RPG and RTS style games though my table top game skills are something to be feared. I love a good battle of the minds and am always ready for a good challenge. I’m not so good at drawing, painting, sculpting, what-have-you, but I enjoy spending my time learning about the different artistic areas and learning more about them. I’ve definitely improved my artistic ability but I still have a long way to go. My true love is my cat and as odd as that is I don’t know what I’d do without her. I took in Maggie from a friend with two dogs and 4 other cats that would always pick on her as she was the smallest of the litter. I was hesitant at first but I quickly fell in love and have never regreted the decision to take her in.

I enjoy other things such as snowboarding, creating games, going on walks and other activities. While I can tell you what I enjoy, I’m not sure I can tell you who I am. I say that because I’m still not sure and honestly hope to never find out. It’s an amazing experience when you can discover something about yourself every day. It makes me look forward to tomorrow and the surprises it will bring.

By George Bleekman

I was born in Pullman, Washington on March 10, 1994 the eldest of two other siblings. After staying there for a year we moved to Oregon which I lived for most of my life. My dad, a veterinarian, and my mother, who was studying to become a teacher ,were both christians and raised me as such. I was considered different as a child, something that would later be discovered as low spectrum autism and aspergers.

Life as a kid was interesting and one of my favorite past times was looking around the neighborhood for “critters” such as bugs, snakes, and lizards with my  little brother. As my family continued to grow we moved several times over the years, until we made it to our permanent residence in the country. Ever since I was a kid I have always been fascinated with monsters and film, something I still am interested in today. I was highly creative as a child, constantly creating senarios and “movies” in my head.  When I grew older this passion never wavered, nor did my fascination with animals. At first I wanted to be a wildlife biologist when I grew up, however, I later changed my career path to something that would satisfy myself creatively. Since I always had a passion for film and writing,  I decided that I would pursue a career as a filmmaker. As I grew older life never once got easier, but in spite of its dull moments, sorrows, and triumphs I have learned the only was to move forward is to press on as the rewards are all worth it in the end.

By: Hayden Larsen