Category Archives: Past Student Work

My trip to Portland, Oregon

As a kid that grew up in Los Angeles, California I feel more comfortable being in a big city. I move to Eugene, Oregon June 2015. Eugene is tiny compared to L.A. My section of L.A. itself way bigger than Eugene. Eugene is your stereotypical tiny college town only having a couple things to do. Portland, Oregon is Oregon’s biggest city and one of the most desirable cities to live in the United States. Getting a place is hard plus the amount of competition you have to deal with to get a place. Portland alone is tiny compared to Los Angeles. I’m hoping I can move to Portland by the end of July or the beginning of August and attending Portland State University in the winter term.

Portland does remind of home at times with taller buildings, quite bit of traffic, and more of a diverse culture. Portland have a great amount of culture and food. Portland focuses on food carts and mom and pops shop. Portland compared to most cities in the United States have amazing public transportation. Los Angeles have came a long way from their public transportation issues in the past. Still compared to Portland, Los Angeles public transportation is bad. Public transportation in Portland makes it easier to get from Point A to Point B real easily.

This project was the worse one I did in this place. My production and editing was awful. I did not plan this project as well I should have. This project will teach me a lesson on what not to do in the future. I have numerous issues with this project and did not do well in post production. After doing this project I promise myself I will never make a crappy project like this ever again.

 

Milton Pareta


Playtime at the Hill House

    So here it is.  A project that had many transformations.  Originally the plan was to make a promotional video up at Dorris Ranch, set in the 1800’s.  And it worked.  But as I toured the property, on such a dark day.  My mind wandered with gloomy fantasies.  The scent of old tar covered wood, creaking boards, and dark abandoned houses gave a recipe for a horror.

     It was great when this idea came to me on the ranch.  Then all my filming followed suit.  I would really try to get close to surfaces, so its age would show thru.  Giving the viewers a much more interactive experience, that they were there too.  Driving home the creepness thru texture and light.  Ironically  Dorris Ranch is a  place that is set for families, weddings, and field trips. Too then flip that notion it on its ear, was the fun part.

 That is the beauty of this class.  Our assignments are very vague with small parameters. Giving us the opportunity to dream and create.  Your imagination should never have restraints and I am happy that our projects didn’t either.  Coming to Lane initially I had photography on my mind, but after this class and my first experience with Premier, it’s videography that really inspires me.

Disaster Movie

My disaster movie was a blast! I could put Barbie through hurricanes, dinosaur attacks and volcano eruptions and not feel bad, because she’s a doll!

This shoot was fun but it took quite a while. The editing took even longer but I’m happy with the result. I hope it’s funny because that’s all I was trying to do. There’s nothing informative or educational about this. It’s just supposed to be fun.

I thought of this having seen many trailers of movies, “in a world where Barbie goes through hell all in one day….” I thought of all the disasters movies I have seen: Earthquake, Towering inferno, Airport 76, The Poseidon Adventure, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012 and just went for it. There was not just one disaster but many! I was going to use more food for effects ( the hail storm was Kixx cereal) but the other disasters just did not lend themselves to that.

The coughing sound effects in the volcano scene are real as I’m still fighting a cold. I just left it in. The volcano was done by putting charcoal at the bottom of a mud pile, lighting it and splashing lighter fluid on it.

For the ending I had originally just had Barbie recuperating in the hospital but I remembered I have a Freddy Kruger doll and thought that would make a much better ending. Barbie thought everything was fine but no, Freddy came for her!

So as my final project I hope this looks good and entertains.

By Melissa Norton


Thoughts on IMA Final Video Project

Hi Friends and fellow classmates.  The final is finally upon us.  This was a good project and challenging.  In this project I shot approximately an hour of video of my wife making a cheesecake.  What’s challenging about that?  Well, to reduce that hour of footage to 3 minutes for starters.  I learned more on this project than all the others combined; especially about editing.  While I’m not under any illusions that this video could, on any level, be considered great; I learned that pacing and cutting can be implemented aggressively while still maintaining continuity and a modicum of watch-ability.

While editing this video I thought I was being aggressive.  So, when I finished the first edit and found that my video was still around 15 minutes long, I wasn’t sure I could condense it in a way that could be both watchable and still come in under 3 minutes.  That’s when I started slicing and dicing.  I found that cutting on the action and using dissolves to suggest the passage of time helped me to eliminate huge portions of the footage that wasn’t nearly as important as I had originally thought when had I shot it.  I also found that there were some key shots that had defects in them (i.e., slightly out of focus or something distracting in the frame I hadn’t noticed while filming).  For the most part, I was able to cut around these defects and realized that I enjoyed the process very much.

I’ve discovered that I enjoy editing, and I want to learn how to do it better.  I’ve enjoyed meeting all of you in this class almost as much as I’ve enjoyed viewing your work.  I think all of you are very creative and have bright futures.  Keep up the great work, and I hope to see your names in the credits some day.

Warm regards,

A. H. Norton

Professional Practice X4 – Nitro Circus

FullSizeRender

May 7th, 2016- Autzen Stadium @bradyygreyy

Nitro Circus- 05-07-2016

What Was The Event?

On May 7th, 2016 I had the chance to go to a Nitro Circus event at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. This event was the perfect opportunity for me to do this project and also to have the chance to get to watch professional FMX,   Skateboarding, and even a guy nicknamed “Wheelz” in his wheel chair do crazy, and dangerous stunts. Hopefully to give you guys a better idea of what nitro circus is, I’m going to try and explain it in a way of witch I experienced it. What was interesting to me is that this event in Eugene was one of their largest stops on their North American tour. Half of Autzen stadium was filled with 17,000 people. Waiting for these crazy athletes too perform crazy unseen stunts. I was pretty excited, and I honestly could not wait any longer for it to start.

I was also excited to see “Aaron” as known as “Wheelz”, and “Street Bike Tommy” because they were really the only original nitro circus crewmembers that I recognized from the nitro videos and movies that I have watched/seen. “Wheelz” is a friend of Travis Pastrana that does crazy unknown stunts with his wheelchair. “Wheelz” is the first guy to turn his disability (Spina Bithia) into an ability that will pioneer an all-new extreme sport. Mostly everyone here was new to the freestyle crew for the nitro team. They were all really good and did some amazing stunts, but it would have been cooler if all the original guys were their. The FMX riders did all the known tricks or freestyle such as the “superman”, the “whip”, and the “backflip”. It was also fun to see the skateboarders and BMX guys do their stunts and tricks, street bike tommy (the speaker) did name all the tricks, but when having too much fun, I honestly forgot them all.

3-Rider-Backlip-Eugene-1200web

Nitro Circus Blog – Eugene, OR @nitrocircus

The speaker of Nitro Circus (Street Bike Tommy as they call him) was great as well. He really kept the crowd engaged to what was going on, and to what they were doing. He spoke with enthusiasm, and excitement. Letting everyone know a little known information on how they come up with the stunt, as well the effects of it if they did it wrong. He really brought the crowd to an overall involvement. For one stunt he asked for thee Volunteers, two of them would ride with “Beau Bamburg” a local FMX rider from Beaverton, Oregon to do a backflip with him and the two volunteers on the back. The good news is that the stunt overall turned out to be successful, as the volunteers when for it. Although street bike Tommy made them sine wavers as well as shows them pervious footage fatal events that happened when this stunt was performed in the past. As for the last volunteer, he as well did a backflip, but on a bmx bike. I can’t remember the bmx, freestyle riders name all that great, but all in all this stunt turned out the same. Thankfully know one was hurt in either one of them. The three brave souls that they picked did get to keep the FMX gear that was provided for their safety as an award for entraining the crowd.

The overall presentation seemed to be great to see. For people that are into this type of media/professional practice like me, it was a overall fun, and great time. I thought this would the overall a great way in showing a professional practice that in someway showed activity towards media. Too bad they wouldn’t let me fly my drone for a video.

 

By: Brady Grey

 

 

 

Professional Practice X4 – Nitro Circus

FullSizeRender

May 7th, 2016- Autzen Stadium @bradyygreyy

Nitro Circus- 05-07-2016

What Was The Event?

On May 7th, 2016 I had the chance to go to a Nitro Circus event at Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Oregon. This event was the perfect opportunity for me to do this project and also to have the chance to get to watch professional FMX,   Skateboarding, and even a guy nicknamed “Wheelz” in his wheel chair do crazy, and dangerous stunts. Hopefully to give you guys a better idea of what nitro circus is, I’m going to try and explain it in a way of witch I experienced it. What was interesting to me is that this event in Eugene was one of their largest stops on their North American tour. Half of Autzen stadium was filled with 17,000 people. Waiting for these crazy athletes too perform crazy unseen stunts. I was pretty excited, and I honestly could not wait any longer for it to start.

I was also excited to see “Aaron” as known as “Wheelz”, and “Street Bike Tommy” because they were really the only original nitro circus crewmembers that I recognized from the nitro videos and movies that I have watched/seen. “Wheelz” is a friend of Travis Pastrana that does crazy unknown stunts with his wheelchair. “Wheelz” is the first guy to turn his disability (Spina Bithia) into an ability that will pioneer an all-new extreme sport. Mostly everyone here was new to the freestyle crew for the nitro team. They were all really good and did some amazing stunts, but it would have been cooler if all the original guys were their. The FMX riders did all the known tricks or freestyle such as the “superman”, the “whip”, and the “backflip”. It was also fun to see the skateboarders and BMX guys do their stunts and tricks, street bike tommy (the speaker) did name all the tricks, but when having too much fun, I honestly forgot them all.

3-Rider-Backlip-Eugene-1200web

Nitro Circus Blog – Eugene, OR @nitrocircus

The speaker of Nitro Circus (Street Bike Tommy as they call him) was great as well. He really kept the crowd engaged to what was going on, and to what they were doing. He spoke with enthusiasm, and excitement. Letting everyone know a little known information on how they come up with the stunt, as well the effects of it if they did it wrong. He really brought the crowd to an overall involvement. For one stunt he asked for thee Volunteers, two of them would ride with “Beau Bamburg” a local FMX rider from Beaverton, Oregon to do a backflip with him and the two volunteers on the back. The good news is that the stunt overall turned out to be successful, as the volunteers when for it. Although street bike Tommy made them sine wavers as well as shows them pervious footage fatal events that happened when this stunt was performed in the past. As for the last volunteer, he as well did a backflip, but on a bmx bike. I can’t remember the bmx, freestyle riders name all that great, but all in all this stunt turned out the same. Thankfully know one was hurt in either one of them. The three brave souls that they picked did get to keep the FMX gear that was provided for their safety as an award for entraining the crowd.

The overall presentation seemed to be great to see. For people that are into this type of media/professional practice like me, it was a overall fun, and great time. I thought this would the overall a great way in showing a professional practice that in someway showed activity towards media. Too bad they wouldn’t let me fly my drone for a video.

 

By: Brady Grey

 

 

 

Professional Practices Portfolio Workshop

 

For my assignment I went to a workshop that taught me how to make a portfolio. A portfolio is similar to a resume but instead of giving a summary of your strengths and abilities it shows the work you can do. A portfolio is usually kept on a file or on a disk and you never stop adding your work to it. You can think of a portfolio as a tree. In a portfolio you take out the old work that wasn’t as successful and you bring in the new work that was successful. When you do this your actually building a package with your resume and portfolio that shows why you are the best candidate for the job. During the workshop there were many speakers that came in and discussed the importance of having a good portfolio. In Adams speech he discussed the aspect of presenting yourself as a media professional. He explained that when you present your portfolio you want to highlight your work by explaining what it is your good at. He also mentioned the importance of keeping your portfolio organized. When you organize your portfolio you want to make it easy for your interviewer to find what they are looking for. For example, if you are applying for a job as an editor your work of editing should be the first thing your interviewer finds when looking at your portfolio. Another thing that’s important when presenting a portfolio is being honest about your work. If you work on a project with a group then you have to explain that it was a group project and what your piece of the project was.

The next speaker in the workshop was Tom and he explained the importance of branding yourself. The part that caught my attention in his speech was when he said “the public has no patience for you.”If the interviewer is even the slightest bit confused on your portfolio they will tell you no.”What this means is that you have to make your work clear enough so that the interviewer isn’t questioning what you were trying to accomplish. You also have to get straight to the point on your work because as Tom said “the public has no patience for you.” Tom also mentions in his speech that you have to use a consistent look with your portfolio. You have to make sure to not over design your portfolio with too many things going on at once. He explains that it’s okay to have white space in your portfolio as long as you get the point your making across to the viewer.

The next speaker was a former graphic design student named Char. She explained her job working in the media field and ways that you can showcase your work. When you work on a portfolio you have to show your own creative style to it and also make it look professional. She also explained that it’s good to show a variety of work you can do in your portfolio. For example, if your specialty is in graphic design and you also do photography make sure to leave a space in your portfolio showing those skills. You also have to be passionate about your work and showcase it by explaining why your passionate about it. Overall, I’m glad that i went to the portfolio workshop. I learned valuable skills that I can use when I start making a portfolio like how to design, present, and organize it.

 


Craigslist Guy

http://www.colinhouckphotography.com

A month or so ago, I had responded to an ad that had a nice Nikon camera for sale.  The advertisement was bright and well written.  Pictures of the camera were very nice, and absolutely didn’t look like a normal thrown together add.  It was weeks later after the purchase that I realized this craigslist guy was a perfect candidate for my professional practice.I had contacted him, and asked for an interview over the internet. Setting aside a few questions that I personally wanted to know, and that also would be helpful for anyone in the Multimedia design world.

His name is Colin Houck.  A current student at LCC studying political science, also studing marketing and photo journalism at the University of Oregon.  Currently he owns and runs his own photography business from home, and goes on specific shoots for various clients.  My first question for him was; When did you fall for photography? “At about 9 years old, in my grandparents garage,” Colin replied.  His love for photography unfolded literally within a collection of National Geographic magazines.  These images and stories had opened up a whole new world for him and was the initial spark that remains to light his passion today.

Next I wanted a simple follow-up from the first question. Why do you love it?  “Well?” Colin contemplated.  “I love story telling, and the way we can captivate in a visual method.”  He explained that this was especially true in still imagery.  We discussed how video is very similar, yet so much different then photography.  That video does seem to dominate most of our media, but photography still holds something special.  “It offers us a frozen moment of time, where a viewer creates their own space, for a more meditative experience, ” he explained.  That quote in itself took me back, and I truly knew I was talking with an artist.

Who inspires you? I asked.  “People inspire me.”  He describes the articles from various magazines are what stand out the most.  It was their documentation and experiences of the world that drew him in further.  Specifically in the seventies and eighties, National Geographic had published a lot of articles and stories of rural america.  Those articles, and especially the images, really stuck with him.   “I can’t really put my finger on why, but salt of the earth types fascinate me to this day.”

At this point in our conversation, I had been transcended by the way he views what I thought was just a job.  It was and is, so much more!  He really loves it by the way he articulates every word.  I feel so much more inspired by our conversation, to truly push that harder in my own work. How about traveling and living abroad?  “I spent all of my late teens and twenties living a carefree life, galavanting around the country and half the world.” We both shared a similar upbringing and by our early adulthood, I suppose you could say, we just wanted to travel and live on the breaths of wind.   Floating around the world and back.  The only difference between our dreams of this lifestyle is, Colin, actually did!  But settling and establishing strong roots is the path he is taking now.  “Right now, I am focused on finishing my degree, and growing my business.” Colin said.

I wanted to finish this conversation with a very open and vague question.  Advice for people who want to become a photographer?  “As for advice all I can say is to keep at it.”  Don’t get discouraged when photo editors or clients don’t come beating down your door.  Keep putting yourself out there, network, attend workshops and conferences, apply for grants, scholarships, internships, competitions etc.  The more you put yourself out there, the more you’ll get back.  It was all this advice that really stuck with me from talking with Colin.  Of course I have heard all this advice many times, and from many different people.  But this time it actually stuck, I had seen his work, could feel the passion thru his words, and mostly he was actually, LIVING IT!  Letting his photography speak for him, and never stopping.  That relentless spirit is something I have always admired.  I am forever thankful for finding him thru craigslist, and stars do seem to align in the strangest ways.  His advice will stick with me forever, and inspire me to always push forward in life.

Notary 5

 

I had a lot of great plans for this project. However, we could not get Premiere to work at home so we were really pressed for time. We’d been sick also so I basically started on the last day we had to work on it. I was plugging along ok, then ran into some technical difficulties, things got deleted, etc.

Well enough of the excuses. When I thought “5” I remember when I was a notary. It sounds silly but it was really satisfying to draw a perfect 5. I even had a voice over recorded talking about that satisfaction. You have to find the little pleasures where you can when you work in an office. I was going to demonstrate that (working for an evil corporation) by putting in a picture of the Death Star and play the Darth Vader music.

It was going to end with the picture of May 5 and I had another voice over that said “May was the best”.

This project could have been really fun if I had a better handle on the technology. I guess it makes me excited for the final project now that I know a little more about it.

By Melissa Norton


What Does The Number “5” Mean to You?

What an intriguing question.  The number 5 symbolizes man. It represents half of 10. It’s how many fingers you have (hopefully) on one hand and, who knows, maybe it’s the meaning of life.  All I know is that it represented a uniquely nested series of poop sandwiches that culminated in a very nasty case of indigestion that is this assignment.  That said, it was fun.

I wanted to explore the question of “5” in a more theatrical way, but resources and time pushed me in a more traditional direction.  I filmed this in a single take with a DSLR Canon T5i with an 18-55 zoom lens mounted on a tripod while I also filmed b-roll with my iPhone 6.  Unfortunately, the iPhone footage didn’t make the cut, but the idea was to cut different shots from the iPhone footage into the T5i footage, then sync up the sound in post.  I thought this would add some edginess to the finished product.  I think it would have, if I could have had a little more time.

In a side note:  In this clip Melissa appears to speak very openly about her brother.  I want to underscore that Melissa is an actress who was improvising a scene.  She loves her brother very much.

Enjoy.

By A. H. Norton