Here is the full movie, Don’t Screw With Wild Animals.

Shortened version of my final.

Carlos P.

I really wanted to do something cool and was very excited to play with stop motion. The day I decided to film came to halt when I realized I need something to keep my phone steady.

I sat for a couple of days and thought about what I would do with little resources and i thought about him traveling across my house, sliding his way using counters and even a banister. Things were quite shaky unless my phone was propped but not everywhere in my house or even outside had that kind of access.

to make it better I decided to I would make it a silly guide, and added the videos at the end as bloopers that weren’t as stable, or cute. I had lots of fun creating my character, based on a real character in a horror game I like called Five Nights At Freddy’s. I found a really awesome video/movie editor that the video will self promote and ruin parts of the video.. and couldn’t figure out how to get rid of. I had lots of fun creating his potato friends but it’s not what I wanted. but still I tried my best to turn it around and make it at least a little enjoyable. I think this assignment would have gone better with more planning and educating myself further on requirements for stop motion, like a tripod. I also didn’t realize how tedious the process is, but there was also reward in that. My family enjoyed my little creations with me. I think I will try stop motion again in a different time, when I have better resources.. and maybe when things are a little less stressful.

I definitely should have given myself more time, and space for error as I came across many. I’ll defiantly do better next time!

This class went by so fast, maybe it was because I was happy to edit again. And I can’t wait to see everyone’s projects! 

For my final I wanted it to focus on something that I am very passionate about, and share it with all of you.

I deal a lot with anxiety and depression, and due to Covid, racism, and recent trauma from a very toxic friend, this year has been very overwhelming. But throughout all these struggles, cosplay has helped me get through it for so many years. For those who don’t know, cosplay is a mix between the words costume and play, and it is the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game. But this hobbie let’s me express myself in a creative way.

But for my final I wanted to show my daily life, and me living with depression. Everything feels like there’s no color in the world. And the scribble animation is done by yours truly, and this is what anxiety looks like to me. And by the end of the video, when I get into the full cosplay, it shows it bringing color back into my life.

For this project, I wanted to show that when things feel down, doing what makes you happy, like art, sports, cooking, music, and even cosplay, will help cope with your day to day struggles. And I hope a lot of people got the message in this project. 

I’m sad that covid got in the way of attending this class in person, but overall, I really enjoyed it, and I enjoyed watching everyone’s creations. It was nice to get to know everyone, and If any of you want to talk , feel free to send me a message. Anyways, I hope your day is good. Stay safe, and stay healthy. -Gyllian

For the final project, I decided to test my skills and patience by making a stop motion animation. I wanted to do something fun, cute, and creative. Using very detailed Playmobil toys as my characters, animals, props and structures, I got to literally play with my ideas and use a sky blue colored sheet to act as the background. Imagining and creating these scenes was the fun part of the project, using a variety of props and animals to show attention to details. I knew that filming would be tedious, because it’s taking hundreds of photos and moving the toys and props a half an inch every frame; but this was not even the worst part.

The most challenging part was by far editing. So initially I was going to use Vimeo, however my Vimeo membership had expired, so I tried to go the free route. Big mistake, I used FilmoraPro to edit my video because it was listed as one of the better softwares for free editing on Google. After completing my video, I exported it and discovered that due to using the free version, there was a giant water mark in the center of the frame for the entire video. There was also a constant piano key being played, actually ruining the audio. So after purchasing the premium software (Filmora9), I had to download more software, only to discover that I am unable to retrieve any of the edits I made on the free version. So we are in the process of starting editing over, and scrambling to redo everything (hopefully it’s done before Sunday). I strongly recommend not using Filmora for anything.

As stated earlier, all characters, props, animals, and structures are Playmobil toys. I was able to use royalty free sounds and music from personal recordings and freesound.com. I used Filmora to edit, but again, It’s great for editing, not exporting. I also used the Stop Motion Studio app on my phone to record all the stop motion clips. Stop Motion Studio is a great app for anyone trying to make simple stop motions, while keeping all photos and videos consolidated in one app. Despite this project to be challenging at times, I do think I achieved all of goals to test both my skills and patience while making an entertaining short film. Please enjoy this preview in the meantime!

For my final project I decided to make a video. It takes inspiration from the movie Le Samourai by Jean-Pierre Melville. We had talked about this film in Concepts of Visual Literacy and we even watched a scene from it.This film is about a French hitman named Jeff Costello who is seen by witnesses during a “hit” job. I later decided to watch the whole thing on my own time and I just loved the way the director framed movement coming in and out of the frame. I was kept engaged watching this man move from location to location it all seemed slick and seamless. The attire from the 60’s was something I also really liked I feel like it added to the coolness of it all. There’s a sequence of about 5 minutes where Jef Costello is released from being held under police custody after being a suspect of the murder, he leaves the station gets in a cab and takes it downtown where he is on his way to meet his employer. He suspects he’s being followed by a police officer therefore walks for a long time to lose him. This is when the director thrives in his composition and really makes you feel like you’re walking with him trying to lose whoever is following you. 

My interpretation has a simple plot. I had my talent wake up from a nap to a phone call that doesn’t clearly tell you what’s going on but you can see it sets him off in his journey out the door. This is followed by a long walking sequence where he walks through several sceneries until he gets to his location right before dark giving the effect that he walked for a long time. At the end you can see a car pull up in front of him and an exchange being done with the talent and the driver. What would look like some kind of drug deals ends up actually being a deal or transaction for a cloth face mask.

Im very happy to have had the chance to finally do a short video. I also feel fortunate to have good friends that understood my vision and helped me make this. I learned that it takes multiple shots and camera angles to get a well rounded sequence. I constantly kept continuity in mind as we had to do retakes when moving the camera to a different angles of the same shot. I thought it would be funny to use the face mask at the end as it’s relevant to right now. I also used some fun pieces of my wardrobe to replicate the same “cool” feeling I got from Les Samourai. The music used is actually an original piece from my friend Sebastian Hernandez and his dads album called Fade Away. I challenged myself in this project, did my own interpretation of something I liked and i’m proud of the outcome. 

By Carlos Padilla

For my final project I decided to make a video. It takes inspiration from the movie Le Samourai by Jean-Pierre Melville. We had talked about this film in Concepts of Visual Literacy and we even watched a scene from it.This film is about a French hitman named Jeff Costello who is seen by witnesses during a “hit” job. I later decided to watch the whole thing on my own time and I just loved the way the director framed movement coming in and out of the frame. I was kept engaged watching this man move from location to location it all seemed slick and seamless. The attire from the 60’s was something I also really liked I feel like it added to the coolness of it all. There’s a sequence of about 5 minutes where Jef Costello is released from being held under police custody after being a suspect of the murder, he leaves the station gets in a cab and takes it downtown where he is on his way to meet his employer. He suspects he’s being followed by a police officer therefore walks for a long time to lose him. This is when the director thrives in his composition and really makes you feel like you’re walking with him trying to lose whoever is following you. 

My interpretation has a simple plot. I had my talent wake up from a nap to a phone call that doesn’t clearly tell you what’s going on but you can see it sets him off in his journey out the door. This is followed by a long walking sequence where he walks through several sceneries until he gets to his location right before dark giving the effect that he walked for a long time. At the end you can see a car pull up in front of him and an exchange being done with the talent and the driver. What would look like some kind of drug deals ends up actually being a deal or transaction for a cloth face mask.

Im very happy to have had the chance to finally do a short video. I also feel fortunate to have good friends that understood my vision and helped me make this. I learned that it takes multiple shots and camera angles to get a well rounded sequence. I constantly kept continuity in mind as we had to do retakes when moving the camera to a different angles of the same shot. I thought it would be funny to use the face mask at the end as it’s relevant to right now. I also used some fun pieces of my wardrobe to replicate the same “cool” feeling I got from Les Samourai. The music used is actually an original piece from my friend Sebastian Hernandez and his dads album called Fade Away. I challenged myself in this project, did my own interpretation of something I liked and i’m proud of the outcome. 

By Carlos Padilla

By Anne Starke

I can’t remember exactly what Teresa said in our Zoom class while she was telling us about our final project, but it inspired me to make my final project be about something that has brought me joy during these interesting, turbulent times. Life during quarantine has been an emotional roller coaster, but I have discovered small moments of joy and peace while working in my garden. These moments surprised me because even though I’ve been an experimental gardener for years I’ve never noticed how the garden makes me feel, literally, happy while I am in it. So I set out to capture the cuteness of small things in hopes of conveying some of the joy and peace I feel when I engage with them.

I shot the video on a couple of different digital cameras, experimenting with focal lengths and discovering which camera is best for getting down into the plants. Filming allowed me to engage with the plants and bugs in a new way; all of a sudden the caterpillars were interesting subjects rather than evil destroyers who must be eradicated (although I must confess to murdering them after filming them). Interestingly, I often saw more bug activity when viewing the film later than what I saw in real life. I put the video, music and sound effects together in Premiere Pro. It was fun to learn and I know I just barely scratched the surface of what it is possible. The music came from the YouTube Music Library and the sound effects from freesound.org.

I enjoyed this form of expression a great deal. It has definitely inspired me to learn more and continue taking classes in multimedia design.

DISCLAIMER: All parties shown in this video are above 21. This video was shot in Eugene, Oregon where the use of marijuana is legal in a private residence.

For the final project, I knew I really wanted to make a music video. I’ve had a passion for creating video and photo content from a young age. Recently when I’ve started thinking about what I’d like to do with my future, video and photo work for musical acts is what I’ve landed on. Since a music video was even one of the suggested options, I thought this would be a great time to start getting some real experience under my belt. Luckily I live with a few different guys who are pretty established in Oregon with rap music. However, this project showed me that even when you see someone everyday locking down a time to actually shoot can be quite difficult. That combined with trying to find the most PC song of theirs that they wanted to make content for made the shooting process of this harder than expected. This video ended up being shot on a random night when Vincent’s friend was in town for the night. I had originally wanted to combine VHS and digitally shot video. I managed to include a little bit of digital video but for the most part I couldn’t make it cohesively flow like I’d seen done in big-budget videos. Beyond that, this was my first time shooting with a VHS-C camera and using FinalCut Pro. Both came with their own frustrations and learning curves. Though, after a few stressful hours of troubleshooting, I can say I’m so happy to have those skills under my belt. I’m really happy this project gave me the push to learn how to edit in FinalCut Pro. I’ve been using iMovie for years and didn’t realize how much I was limiting myself in terms of what I could create with videos. I’m really looking forward to using the program on my own time and honing my skills.