Five Big Fish In Their Little Ponds

By mbransons in Digital Storytelling 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Finding five ‘obstructionist bureaucrats’ proved too difficult a task in class yesterday for my second one archetype five films in five seconds video assignment. Also the keeping it to five seconds has been next to impossible. I think Kat’s Five High School Bullies is the best really short one I’ve seen. But I don’t think the exact length matters so much as long as you do your best to use the minimum amount for each clip.

The bureaucrat is a pretty interesting character type in films as you need the person who’s not really a villain, yet is constantly getting in the way of the protagonist(s). And they are really hard to search for too! It’s not a particularly popular archetype, as I was only able to find a few examples on the TV Tropes website (I actually didn’t see the examples at the bottom of the page until I was finished, I discovered two they listed but will have to edit the page and add my three.)

Here’s the list in order:

Ghostbusters (William Atherton as Walter Peck) He forces the shutdown of the ghost containment unit at the Ghostbuster’s firehouse wreaking havoc on the city as thousands of ghosts are freed at once. There’s a great subsequent scene in the film in which Dan Akroyd calls him ‘dickless’ for shutting down the system. The mayor asks Bill Murray if this is true, to which he responds, ‘Yes it’s true, this man has no dick.’

The Incredibles (Wallace Shawn as Gilbert Huph) The diminutive boss of the Bob Parr (Mr. Incredible) realizes that Parr is helping insurance claimants navigate the bureaucracy, and is ‘not happy.’ Later in the scene Parr tosses his boss through five walls for not allowing him to rescue a mugging victim they both observe through the office window.

Rambo: First Blood Part II (Charles Napier as Murdock) Rambo was supposed to only document whether American POWs are alive in Vietnam, but disobeys the bureaucratic order from Murdock to not rescue them. After fighting his way out of camp with one POW and reaching the extraction point, rescue helicopter hovering overhead – Murdock kills the mission leaving Rambo to be captured. Later while in captivity, Rambo is tortured into admitting crimes via radio broadcast to Murdock – instead Rambo indignantly utters while clenching the microphone, ‘I’m coming after you Murdock, I’m coming after you.’

Die Hard 2 (Dennis Franz as Captain Carmine Lorenzo) As the head of police of an airport, Lorenzo epitomizes the obstructionist bureaucrat again and again bringing John McClane’s efforts to go after the bad guys to a standstill. McClane finally convinces Lorenzo after shooting him with machine gun – filled with blanks.

Jaws (Murray Hamilton as the mayor of Amity Island) A mayor can’t help but be a bureaucrat, it’s the nature of the job I guess. But allowing a few of your citizens to continue to be eaten by a great white shark is political suicide!

What’s been interesting about this assignment was how it revealed archetypes are often employed in similar ways across movies. The obstructionist bureaucrat was consistently condescending, dismissing the knowledge of the protagonists. And despite having a position of power, the bureaucrat always must eventually be publicly exposed and/or humiliated. If only that could happen in real life – trips to the DMV would be so much shorter and our license pictures would be prettier.

Dollhouse of Nerd Girls

By mbransons in Digital Identity, Digital Storytelling 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

We did a video blitz assignment in today’s class that I’ve turned into an assignment called, One Archetype, Five Movies, Five Seconds. The assignment asks you to create a five second video of one archetype from five different movies cutting together one second of each. The exercise gave everyone the opportunity to experiment with downloading YouTube videos as well as working with a video editor such as Final Cut Pro or iMovie. We looked at the UMW links to a lot of great video creation resources, a few of which we will need today, such as: Handbrake, MPEG Streamclip, and Video DownloadHelper.

I drew ‘Nerd Girl’ for my five seconds and used the following films:

Welcome to the Dollhouse (Heather Matarazzo)
Napoleon Dynamite (Tina Majorino)
Superstar (Molly Shannon)
Sixteen Candles (Joan Cusack)
Square Pegs (Sarah Jessica Parker)

Admittedly I exceeded the five seconds by quite a bit, for the sake of action, dialogue and the use of the ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’ song. But the spirit of the assignment I think is still there.

Here’s a grab bag of character archetypes for you to choose from (or pick your own) for the assignment:

Prisoners, Thieves, Beauty Queens, Kings, Robin Hoods, James Bonds, Bank Robbers, Assassins, Bad Boys, Kung Fu Masters, Femme Fatales, Sports Heroes, High School Bullies, Rogue Police Officers, Brainiacs, Pregnancies, Principals, Mean Teachers, InspirationalTeachers, Gunslingers, Gangsters, Monsters, Bartenders, Warrior Princesses, Swordsman, Knights, Mad Scientists, Nerd Girls, Obstructive Bureaucrats, Sidekicks, Wise Old Men, Hardboiled Detectives, Tough Coaches, Swooning Ladies.

Silent Era Cool Hand Luke

By mbransons in Digital Storytelling 11 Comments Tags: , , , , , , ,

This Return the Silent Era video remakes the 50 eggs eating contest in the 1967 classic prison camp movie Cool Hand Luke. On a sweltering stormy night, the prisoners are dreading the closing of the windows of the barracks as it will mean a sweaty night of misery. Luke (Paul Newman) takes the bunch off guard by flippantly suggesting he can eat fifty eggs. Even his biggest fan Dragline (George Kennedy) finds it hard to believe this is possible. Soon a wager is born and the camp is again distracted from their suffering through Luke’s impishness and levity.

The contest scene takes about ten minutes in the movie and I was pretty sure I wanted to keep the silent version much shorter. So I decided to cut out most of the haggling over the rules of the bet as well as speed of the film. At times I made moments as much as 2.5x faster than the original footage, which quickened the pace but also reflected the unnaturally fast footage often seen in silent movies which were shot at frame rates lower than the 24fps standard of sound pictures.

Another hard decision was to choose which pieces of dialogue to place on title cards. The most important elements of time and the number of eggs eaten were included, as well as a number of Dragline’s colorful comments as he coached Luke through the contest. Also I hoped the Dueling Banjos soundtrack would provide an emotional substitute to a lot of lines.

I edited the film using Final Cut Pro and made the title cards in Photoshop. But I again found a good use for my iPhone as part of the process, similar to my recent discovery of using it in my designs. The 8mm app has some really awesome antiquing filters for video, including a ‘Noir’ and ’1920′ filter. I ran the video through both filters.

Bouncing a three minute video at almost 100MB in size bacj and forth between the computer and the phone and then back again is little cumbersome but the effect I think makes it worth it. There’s even an included projector sound effect.

Preparing for Silent Cool Hand Luke

By mbransons in Digital Storytelling No Comments Tags: , , , , ,

Every since I saw Alan’s post about Artsifiying Youtube Videos and the Return to the Silent Era assignment, I was pretty sure I wanted to do it. And it’s been helpful to see some students have done the assignment, particularly Kill Me Silently Baby! which I find really captures one of the major genres of silent cinema – vaudevillian slapstick.

So I’ve decided to make an attempt at the slapstick by remaking the 50 eggs scene from Cool Hand Luke.

YouTube Preview Image

I’ve already downloaded the video and starting some cutting in Final Cut Pro. I also created this title card, and a blank one that anyone is welcome to use.

I’m using Photoshop to create the cards, and I’ve used the Shit Happens font from Dafont.com, but I’ll need to find others for the dialogue.

As for music, I’m planning to use Dueling Banjos, which I believe will provide initial tension as the bet is made with the slow parts, and the fast paced playing during the contest itself.

Finally, I’m hoping to speed up the pace of the whole film (this reflects the 18 frames a sec used in silent films) and push it through an app on my iPhone called 8mm Vintage Camera to antique it.

Lots of work to do here, so I’m hoping to find the time!

 

CUNY Week 8 – So You Want to Make a Movie…

By mbransons in Digital Storytelling, Teaching and Learning 2 Comments Tags: , , ,

Pre-production
cc licensed ( BY NC SD ) flickr photo shared by Michael Branson Smith

With the rest of ds106 we are going to be jumping into making videos for the next few weeks and we had a fun start with the #ds106xtranormal blitz in class. I think that there was some really interesting re-envisioning of dialogue in – It’s Just a Cigarette, There is No Me and You and Don’t Touch My Radio. All of the language for these clips have a lot of aggression and cursing, so there must be something in the robotizing of posturing that’s disarming and humorous.

I’ve decided that following the UMW plan to do a film analysis and some video assignment pre-production is going to be a good one so I’ll summarize the assignments here, but you can look at the full description on ds106 as well.

Assignments for this week:

1. Choose a favorite film that you believe exemplifies quality filmmaking for its compelling writing, directing, cinematography, art direction, acting, and editing. Jim Groom suggests looking at AFI’s list of the 100 Best movies of all time for inspiration (good advice).  For the film you choose, pick three scenes that exemplify your beliefs about the film and blog about it. For analysis tips, consider Roger Ebert’s ‘How to Read a Movie.’ Be sure to embed screen captures and/or video clips for each of the three scenes in your blog post. Tag this post ‘analyzethis’ (no quotes).

2. Because ds106 video assignments will require added technical skill compared to the design and audio assignments (think combining them actually and you have video assignments), we are going to do a little pre-production for this first week. Select two video assignments and create a blog post for each describing how and what you will need to make the video. UMW suggests Return to the Silent Era, Vintage Education Video, Opening Credits Redux, Play-by-Play, Plinkett Review, Make a Scene from a Horror Film, and Redub a Movie as good assignment choices.

Make sure that the assignments you choose will be ones you will want to complete next week, as that’s the next step. For each of these posts tag them ‘preproduction’ (no quotes).

In class next week we’ll be playing with a number of the tools you can use to create videos, so I’m looking forward to coming up with a blitz assignment for us to practice.

DS106 XTRANORMAL BLITZ!!!

By mbransons in Digital Storytelling No Comments Tags: ,

Take any 30 sec piece of dialogue from a movie or tv show and create an xtranormal parody from that same clip. Be sure that the 30 sec clip exists somewhere online. If it’s part of a longer youtube clip let people know what the cue point is in the video.

Transcribe the dialogue to text so that you can use it in xtranormal. First focus on getting the dialogue into xtranormal and watch the result. After that you can focus on changing gestures, expressions, and camera work.

When you’re finished, use the upload to Youtube tool and tag your video ds106xtranormal (no quotes).

Tweet two links, the original video (with the exact cue point using the Youtube shorthand) #t=01m25s at the end of a video link. Example:

Spicoli Meets Mr. Hand

and your xtranormal version Youtube version with the hashtag #ds106xtranormal.

With some gesture & expression work.

CUNY Weeks 6-7 – Time to Make Some Hideous Sounds

By mbransons in Digital Storytelling, Teaching and Learning 23 Comments Tags: , , , ,


A remix of cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo shared by WordRidden & cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by Martin Lopatka.

For the next two weeks our class will be exploring the use of audio to create projects and tell stories.  In class yesterday we got off to a good start with a foley artist project blitz in class working together to perform live a soundtrack for Charlie Chaplin’s Lion’s Cage. This assignment was completed by students in Jim & Alan’s UMW sections of ds106.

We introduced the class to the art of foley by watching this great one minute video produced by the LA Times as well as legendary sound designer Ben Burtt (Star Wars, Indiana Jones) describe the history of foley art in early Walt Disney animation. After that, the class was divided into four groups and given 20 minutes to explore ways to create sound, allocate roles for performance, and do some quick rehearsing. It was a lot of fun to see what kinds of tricks students pulled out of their pockets and from the hallways of York College to produce sound – newspapers, keys, nylon backpacks, a tray from a planter, a doorstop weight, and more…

Each group performed in sequence 50 seconds of the soundtrack while I walked around the room recording with a microphone attached to my iPhone. Below are the results of the two groups, which I think each had some great moments of creativity.

Assignments for the next two weeks:

1. The same group with which you explored foley will be your group with which you will create a 20 minute radio show of any variety, theme, topic, and/style you want. By Monday 03/12 10PM you will need to collaboratively create a 30 sec bumper/teaser for your show and post it to your blogs. Only one student need upload the file to Soundcloud, and each of you should embed it to your blog and describe your role in producing it.

Please have a look at the ds106 page for additional description and links to some examples of bumpers and shows created by previous students. The final 20 min show is due by Sunday 03/11 at 11:59PM, again only one student need post the file to Soundcloud, but everyone needs to blog about their experience creating the show and embed the file in the post. We will be broadcasting your shows Monday 03/12 on DS106Radio for a live show.

In a comment on this post, please let me know your group’s name, show topic, and the members of your group. If you don’t already have a group, use the comments on this page to find one to join by asking to get in on one, or by creating your own and inviting others.

2. You will also be exploring the audio assignments bank and doing 15 stars worth of assignments over the next two weeks. I would like everyone to do the three star sound effects story assignment during this time. Read the post I wrote last semester describing the main tools needed to do sound projects. It talks about recording, sample sources, editing, and publishing tools.

Also you can visit Alan Levine’s 106tricks site for additional resources about working with audio over the next two weeks. And here’s a lot more links to videos about foley if interested.

And the title of this post is inspired by Bob Dylan infamously dismissing the majority of modern music since his time saying, ‘the radio makes hideous sounds.’ Well I say in response, let’s turn these two weeks ‘up to eleven.’

Rear Window Animated Movie Poster

By mbransons in Digital Storytelling 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Alan Levine’s post about watching cool flick’s with Jim Groom finally got me to get of the snide and finish this animated movie poster for the amazing Hitchcock classic Rear Window. I have an older post with animated GIFs from Rear Window, but all things GIF need to ratcheted up a notch every few weeks.

This poster is was created for the limited theatrical re-realease of the movie in 1999 after an extensive restoration. I am a little disappointed with myself as if I were to really make something truly awesome, it would have been modeled after the original theatrical poster, which showcases all the happenings in the many neighbors windows. *Note to self, amazing summer project might include creating a number of Hitchcock animated movie poster GIFs.

To make this poster, I used the James Stewart GIF from the previous post, as well as made a new one for Grace Kelly. The work on Grace Kelly’s GIF was a lot tougher as it required the erasing of the background on ten separate frames (not fun). Here’s what one of the frames looked like beforehand:

To create the animation, I used the animation timeline in Photoshop in which you basically turn on and off different layers per frame. This is also a bit tedious, but it allows you to create some interesting timing options. Each frame can be assigned its own amount of time, which is how the pauses work. Here’s a look at a few frames of the animation timeline:

And here’s a look at the layers:

Since Alan’s post refers to Blow-Up as well as Rear Window, looks like I still have more work to do.