Category Archives: WINTER 2017

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

 


Sleep & Play All Day

          Hello,

I kinda sorta like dogs. So, I decided to make the subject of my final one of my friends dogs. My friend is Chloe, and she takes care of the Star Winnipeg. We call her winni for short. Winni is seven years old, or 49 in dog years. I was thinking about “a day in the life of Winni”, but decided to make it a little bit more simple. My ultimate goal with this video is to make people feel good. Sleeping and playing is basically what winni does all day. I titled the video that, because those are winni’s favorite things to do. She is a very funny, happy dog to be around. She has arthritis, which makes it kind of tough for her to move, but it doesn’t dim her bright attitude she still acts like a puppy when she plays. To create the video I used iMovie, and this time around I was able to adjust the sound a bit more precisely than the other video. The video with my dogs was monotone, at that time I was unsure on how to adjust the sound like I do know. In this video I was able to quiet it down while she was napping or resting, and bring the volume back up while it was a photo of her playing or being active. Overall, I feel pretty good about this video.

 

 

By: Nieman T. Adams-Jackson


Southern California Day in the life

This project was by far my my most complicated and best in my personal opinion. I original was going to do a continuation of my last work out video but unfortunately not all plans come to completion. My friends who original agreed to act again for the project backed out and told me they had absolutely no time to film something amongst all their finals and studying. My other idea I had brought up was possibly making a video about the day in the life of a skateboarder or a surfer. I ended up using my current situation to boost me into an optimal opportunity to kind of keep my foot in both of the worlds I wanted to do. I was traveling home last week for my grandparents 60th anniversary and figured I would film it while I was home. I ended up helping my buddy who I used to work with shoot an advertisement clip for his upcoming Summer Clothing look book for his company he had just began working with again. We ended up calling our friends and got them over and even got our buddies parents to let us use their Lamborghini. Most of the shots were pretty simple and even got to use Elijah camera which is a pretty nice camera. I used my GoPro to get the underwater shots. He helped me achieve some of the solar flares and told me what angles would look best which was good when filming something so Important, it was nice having someone I could ask when confused and direct me. The whole scene is a mini story in itself. It is a look into the lives of what me and my friends do when it is nice out in Southern California while also helping show off some of the clothes. I added the Lamborghini to give the video an idea of a story (Yes it is a bit over the tope but who would pass up an opportunity to work with a Lamborghini). It is like a small peak into a fun day in the sun, which I am sure we have all had but with my friends from back home! I added the quote in the beginning because it perfectly incapsulates all of our love for the water/ocean and what our summers are like. I think overall I am proud of the final product.


“The final to this thing we call…” and other fun facts about my video

Fun Facts about This Video:

-The original idea for The Billy Billy Butthole Show was an all animated short with a song that explained that he lived on a boat in the middle of the forest but I realized I had no idea  how to do animation. so the first few seconds of the video is just screenshots i took and moved the arm in photoshop.

-Preserved ducks egg (aka century eggs) is duck eggs that they preserve in clay, ash, quicklime and rice hulls for several months where the yolk becomes a green-grey creamy consistency while the egg white becomes a brown translucent jelly with a salty flavor. They are totally gross. If you want one, I still got a couple so let me know.

-As a little kid I had a teddy bear named Toby

-One scene I filmed but didn’t make the cut was about a man who marvels about the magic in “the blue waters” of a portapotty and how this “beauty must be filled with secrets.”

-Another idea was a PSA that let’s kids know its ok to eat HALF of a scab. It would then cut to my roommate Dave picking off a “scab” and eating it. When i asked Dave to do it he replied, “Why do I have to do it?” and instead of explaining to him how I couldn’t be on camera, I said forget it.

-My older brother was originally going to introduce the video, explaining that he was Billy Dyball and how this was his 7th attempt to pass Intro to Media Arts and how he just wants to pass and stop going to LCC, but because of time limitations, his role is now non-speaking and uncredited at the end. If you notice, you can see he is wearing my camo jacket and grey hoodie.

-If you can’t tell, this project involved into a three minute sketch show.

Hope you enjoy and succeed in your future!!!!!

 


My First Music Video by Evan Curby

Where to even begin with the explanation of my final project? That is most certainly a hard place to start. I have gone through a full range of emotions in my attempt to bring something aesthetically stimulating to the viewer. I must start with the only known truth in regards to this final which is, I, Evan Michael Curby was overly ambitious in my ideas once again. As a result of my unwillingness to change my idea entirely, I have brought forth a project that is not anything I’d consider disappointing, but not wholesome to what I was trying to portray.
When it first came to concepts, the idea came to me rather quickly. I have been producing hip hop instrumentals for a while now under the alias of Alphur1, and have always wanted to make a music video for one of my songs. I knew immediately that the track I was going to make this video for was “What’s with it.”. It has always been one of my favorites and I had this idea for it for a long while now. The original concept was supposed to be an unknown, urban style, ninja humanoid would be fleeing battle with a life threatening wound. In his mind he would have visions of the beach when he was child, and his motivation to live was to return to the beach before his inevitable death from blood loss.
I wanted to shoot the scene in Cape Perpetua on the Oregon coast. In this landscape you can find all sorts of visually stimulating locations which I thought would only improve the viewers visual experience. In my attempt to make this I wanted to steal some of the best ideas I had seen previously from other music videos. In the ones that truly captured my attention, there was heavy focus on the aesthetics. I wanted to replicate that feel in this video in a concept that I would like to consider as “Visual Meditation”. That is why you will not find a lot of movement in my video, because I wanted the viewer to really have time to take in the depth of each scene. Was I able to effectively communicate that? I guess you will be the judge.
On my attempt of filming, I had my concerns due to the forecast. It had rain, but I figured it was going to be a light rain and decided to move on with the shoot. Once arriving on location in turns out that it was quite a bit more than just a light rain. It was absolutely pouring and the wind was hell bent on ruining everything in regards to the shoot. My model for the video was very patient as I tried tirelessly to get the shots I needed, but at a certain point, I had to pull the plug on it. Not only was my Canon T5i getting rained on way too much, but the weather had took a turn for the worse to the point where we were actually jeopardizing our safety being out there. I was very frustrated and had to try and adapt my original idea.
After viewing the footage, I was not entirely upset with the footage I had gotten. Not wanting to ditch my first idea entirely I decided to try to make what I had shot work for me. I had to cut the the original story entirely and sort of adapt this “mysterious protector of the coastland woods sort of vibe. I would have liked to have had about 20 more different shots to work with, especially that of my model, but all things considered I’m not upset with what I was able to produce. In my end goal, I looked to create a visually pleasing video that complimented the audio of my track, and if you can find some enjoyment in this video, than ultimately I will feel successful. In conclusion it was a good test run, and I look forward to producing my next one.


The X Factor

 

Phil Jackson is arguably one of the best coaches to have ever lived. One aspect that he is renowned for is his approach to the mental aspect of the game.

He introduced mindfulness to basketball at a large scale. Not only would he use this psychological process on individuals to develop their perspective on the game, but he would use it on entire organizations to win championships.

He won 11 of them.

He had to be doing something right. Right?

I read one of his books, and I tried out some of the techniques he talks about on myself. I was shocked with the results, so I decided to test it on someone else.

I’m also studying psychology, and in one of my classes we had a pretty lose final that aloud a lot of creativity, so I came up with an idea for an experiment that would cover my final for both classes in one video.

I tested it on my teammate Jesse, and you heard about the results in the video.

Mindfulness is something we study in psychology as well, and it’s being modernized and is now used to treat mental illness, and improve memory, focus and mental strength.

After learning more about mindfulness in psychology, I think the benefits go past athletic performance and could help any non-athlete tremendously.

I still wonder how Phil Jackson applied it to entire teams, but I guess that’s why he’s known as one of the greatest.

 


P6 Final

 

This final project was created to inspire those who watch it. I enjoy photography and have since I was a sophomore in high school. It was an option of what I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing, but I was still very indecisive at the time. So I continued doing what I was doing, taking classes in high school, on the newspaper staff, and going about my life. As you can probably see, the quality on some the photos in the beginning aren’t very good, but as the years progress, you see the quality increase, the composition get better, and my subjects become more alive. This is when I started to really fall in love with the work I was creating.

Then in 2015, the summer before my senior year, I welcomed my baby nephew. And in that moment, watching him come into the world, was when I knew who and what I wanted to be. I was going to be the best aunt imaginable because, although my parents have siblings, they were never in my life. Therefore, I was never going to let Ethen feel like he had family who didn’t care to get to know him. He helped me figure out that photography was what I wanted to do with my life. And he knows it too. I’ve had a camera in his face since the moment he was born, and I have no regrets about it. He inspired my photography business name, EDM Photography. It represents his initials. Capturing all his little milestones for my sister made me want to do the same for others.

That is what I believe photography is all about. It’s about capturing a full experience in a certain moment. I love what I do, and I hope to continue doing it no matter where life takes me. It brings me a special kind of joy. This is also why my video opens with the quote, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” I see beauty all around me in my everyday life, but I see a greater beauty through a camera lens. Every one of my subjects is beautiful in their own way, whether it comes from a single person, a group of friends, or in nature. So I ask my viewers this… What do you find beautiful?

By: Gabby Mujica


Flowers & Ice

 

I was originally going to do a cute cartoon about my toddler, I worked on that for about two weeks and decided to set it aside until I have more time to learn other creative cloud programs. So instead I got an idea from someone showing me a metric montage of varying clips of a t.v show and it gave me the idea to use a collection of photos I had made for an image communications final, called “Ice Flowers”. I took around 872 photographs of flowers that I had selected, purchased, and froze into big ice cubes, using an assortment of different sized containers. I shot at different times of day and also in the dark using only a small LED light. I learned a lot from doing this experiment and cut 3 different versions of this video, each a little better than the last, overall I am very happy with the entire experience. I enjoyed doing the entire photography project so much that I am doing it again this weekend one last time before the term is over and I have no access to camera equipment, I already have new flowers waiting in the freezer.. woohoo.

By: Sarah Andrews

 


The Haggis, a documentary

Choose a subject you are passionate about. I am pretty passionate about haggis, whenever I am back in Scotland I aim to consume at least my body weight in the stuff and for many years my dad and I whenever we were out and about would attempt to try as many different haggises as possible and then rate them based on their taste, texture, greasiness etc, (if anyone is ever in Scotland and interested the best we found was from a butchers in West Calder, the worst came from a Scottish shop in Vancouver).

Scottish Highlands

There could be haggi in them thar hills!

I decided to try and do a sort of pseudo nature documentary around the common fib told to tourists who don’t really know what haggis is and since I don’t have any actual haggi lying around I decided to do it as an animation. Initially I was just going to do still images but decided that wouldn’t be very exciting so decided to play around with making animations in Photoshop, I’m not going to claim any brilliance but its at least more interesting that still images. I thought it would be funny to enlist some other Scottish people (namely my parents) to do the narration and really ham up the accent and the lowland Scots dialect then add subtitles in “normal” English. Getting the subtitles in place was a bit of a bear, tantrums were nearly thrown but I won out in the end.

I certainly need more practice with Premiere to get my audio sounding right, I messed with it in Audition as best as I could but I’m still not sure its right. The same probably applies to the whole video, much like anything else you make yourself and stare at for probably 40 to 60 hours I have no concept of whether its all that great but there we go. Doing the animations was kinda fun and I may revisit it again but possibly after a lengthy break and a lie down in a darkened room!

By: Fiona Harlan

 


Digital Drawing Club

My first suggestion is to watch my video at 1080p. Unfortunately, the auto 360p kinda annihilates the quality of the video.

Anyways, I decided to make a promotional video for the Digital Drawing Club here at Lane! The title of the club is pretty self explanatory of what they do. Students come together to draw digitally and learn new techniques from each other. Not only that, they have guest speakers come in and different workshops. They just recently had a portfolio workshop. So, they always have something new to offer Students.

For Winter Term, their current meet up time is Fridays from 12pm-2pm. The location for the club is in Building 17, 2nd floor next to the indie lab.  Everyone is welcome.

As for the filming experience, it went pretty smoothly except the first part of Mac’s interview was kinda soft. Not only that, a couple of my shots in the video are shaky. Normally I have the camera on the tripod, but for those two shaky shots I was in a rush to turn on the camera and start filming since one of the people in the shot was about to leave. I didn’t really have time to attach the t5i to the tripod. Sometimes, you just don’t have control and have to roll with it.

Overall, I think I might work on this a little more after finals and give it to the Digital Drawing Club to use as an ad on OrgSync or something.

I hope you like it! And remember, feel free to stop by the Digital Drawing Club.