Article Response: "8 Habits of People Who Always Have Great Ideas"

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    Something I struggle with most when trying to create a new video: ideas!! I'm always striving to come up with ideas that are original and apart from the "cliche" movie moments, but it's not as easy as it sounds. It tends to put a lot of pressure on me, which in turn, leads to me putting it off for a while. This article, written by Stephanie Vozza, provides eight tips for people wanting to come up with great ideas, just waiting for that "AHA!" moment.

    The first tip listed, is that if you want to come up with an idea, look in unexpected places for inspiration. Many people go after information already in their industry, however, by the time you incorporate it into a film, many people have most likely already used it. Instead, look outside your field, as there are endless amounts of areas where you can search for inspiration. Also, take your time when making decisions. "Deciding prematurely stunts your ability to find great ideas." You need to give your mind time to think things through, consider the possibilities, and work off of there.

    Motivation is also huge when coming up with ideas. The film your creating needs to be something your at least somewhat interested in or excited about. Create characters with engaging back stories and fun personalities, a setting that you can easily dive into, and incorporate the things you love into it. Next, start from scratch. Instead of improving an already existing idea, start from the beginning and go from there. "If you want to make something different, you have to behave as if there is no such thing." Also, taking risks and trying new things are important for successfully coming up with a creative idea(s). Find connections between experiences, meaning, connecting two unrelated items could result in something new. Lastly, be open. Ideas are out there, all you need to do is find them and bring them to life.

    Quite a helpful article, in my opinion, for someone who's bad at coming up with ideas, like myself ! For me, it's somewhat difficult to muster up motivation to start thinking of ideas for a project. But this article was very straightforward, and I'll definitely try practicing some of these tips in the future! :)

Weekly Comments #5: Tutorials Galore !!!!!

    THIS IS HALLOWEEN THIS IS HALLOWEEN

    (Well, almost... As you can tell I'm very excited about it, ehehehe.)

    This week we learned more about Premiere... a lot more about Premiere. In fact, we learned a new topic about it almost everyday this week. Four new topics = four new tutorials, and my goodness, were some of them frustrating! There was a bit of confusion concerning the first tutorial with some continuation errors, and the rest were quite long and tedious... however, worth it, I believe. I learned quite a bit from doing them! Still not sure what Theft Unexpected was actually supposed to be about, though... I'm assuming I may never know. :0

   Not much happened this week besides that! Although, I did have to write a speech for my Public Speaking class. I made a really nice looking slide that was projected onto the whiteboard with a quote by Audrey Hepburn, and I talked about why I liked that specific quote. I was all prepared and ready to go when I walked up to the podium, but something happened and my brain just stopped. I totally bombed it. :/ Usually I do pretty well, but I guess I wasn't really feeling it that day. Oh well.

    SO LET'S TALK ABOUT HALLOWEEN OKAY. I have no idea what I want to dress up as. I'm going to go to Spirit sometime next week to see if I can find something cool. I'm not going trick or treating this year, I'm afraid last year was my final time going. But I want to make this year just as awesome as last year !! Maybe by going to a haunted house or watching scary movies with friends ? Hmm. Also, my mom and I bought pumpkins today! We picked them up at this pumpkin patch I pass by every day on our way to Boces. It was so cute seeing other families there with their kids, running around and trying to pick up the heavy pumpkins. C: So cute, so cute.

    I suppose that's all I have to say so, link of interest: The Nightmare Before Christmas Behind the Scenes! I wouldn't say it's my favorite Halloween movie (The Shining is definitely first on my list), but I really admire the amount of time and work they put into making it! Stop motion has always been so interesting to me, although, I'm afraid I wouldn't have the patience for it. Maybe I'll try it out someday. *Shrugs*

    Anywho, have a nice week everyone~!

Article Response: "Behind Marvel’s Marvelous Trailer Titles"

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    Nerds and comic book fanatics alike, if you ever mention the word "Marvel" around them, be prepared for them to talk your ear off over their favorite Marvel movies. This discussion could possibly consist of their own theories, favorite moments, how they were in awe over the amazing graphics, and of course, fangirling over their favorite character(s) (one of which is most likely Loki). No doubt, countless hours of writing, filming, and editing were put into the making of the films in order to make them so captivating, and with every good movie, there's always the first release of the long anticipated trailer. But what makes Marvel's trailers so... well, marvelous?

    Fxguide.com recently interviewed Fede Ponce, an artist who has created trailer titles for big films (such as Marvel) in the past, about how he got started working on titles. He first started creating trailer titles in a small studio called Creating Advertising in Los Angeles, and worked on the first Hitman movie trailer in 2007. It was one of the first well thought out campaigns that included graphics, and inspired the use of visual effects in many other trailers. For a trailer title to be made, however, the designers are usually given small clips of the movie itself, although, the finished project may not be released for 2 or 3 years. Their job is to plan out everything from the theatrical teasers, take the ideas from the client that they wanted for the titles, and make something entirely new out of it. They then create sketches and use programs like Maya and After Effects for the final work.

    It's not as easy at it may sound, though. Most of the time, ideas that go through a long process of being created and animated get scrapped by the client, and they have to start over from the beginning. Sometimes they have to construct a brand new type of font in order to make it work, and they have to put so much detail into them and adhere to very strict requirements in order to make them look interesting.

    I actually had no idea how much work went into creating a trailer title, I suppose I've never really thought about it before. I think the most interesting thing about this interview was when Ponce explained they're usually given assignments a couple years before the actual film is finished. It's amazing to me how much time can be put into just one film, and into the very small details, like a simple title. Paying attention to the details is definitely key when creating a film, no matter how long it will take.

Article Response: "5 Ways You Can Use Music & Film Scores to Make Your Film More Dynamic"

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    It's common film knowledge that having music and compositions present in a scene can easily make it more powerful, emotional, humorous, frightening, etc. For hundreds of years, people have used music compositions in their films and animations to leave an impact on the viewer and make it more memorable. In this article, written by V Renee, she examines the way music is specifically chosen and written to give an audience an emotional response while watching a film.

    Now, there's a difference between a soundtrack in a movie and a score. A soundtrack is a song that wasn't written solely for the movie, while a film score was written specifically for what was happening during a scene. Music can be used in a variety of different ways, for example, the setting of the film. It all depends on the time and place. If you were to make a movie with it taking place in the 1920's, you would have older sounding music playing, rather than music from the 2010's. It would just sound odd otherwise because of the time difference, unless your goal is to make the scene more comical or modern sounding.

   Music can also be used to alert the viewer of something happening off screen, or foreshadow an upcoming event. For instance, one of the most famous scenes in Jaws when the girl gets pulled underwater by a shark. The music starts up before the shark even touches her, but it's an indicator that something bad is about to happen. You can even build a sense of continuity, for example, in Friday the 13th, once you hear that "Chchch, hahaha" music play, you know that Jason is most likely going to show up soon.

    Something that I never realized was so difficult to do, since I often use this in my own videos, is filling the silence. I'm a big fan of using music wherever I can in my videos, although I've realized that I may need to just leave certain scenes without any background music as it may be fine that way. However, sometimes you need to fill the silence so that the audience doesn't feel uncomfortable watching something so quiet. It's difficult though, because you need to make it so that the music goes unnoticed.

    I really liked reading this article because, as I said, I love using music in my own videos. I love being able to create an atmosphere and having the audience feel certain emotions just by adding in a composition. Whether it be a hero swooping in and saving someone, an antagonist being introduced, the loss of a main character's best friend, or a ghost popping up and scaring the audience, I believe music will always be a vital aspect in adding emotion to each and every film trope.

Article Response: "Disney Research App Turns 2D Drawings into 3D Characters"

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    One of the first things you learn how to do when you're young is how to draw and color using a variety of different utensils and supplies, such as colored pencils, a box of crayons, gel pens, glitter glue, etc. Scribbling through coloring books has always been considered fun for children, and with technology advancing and improving everyday, people working at Disney have thought of a way to make coloring more engaging and enjoyable. This article, written by Jennifer Wolfe, goes more in-depth with the app Disney Research has created and what it does.

    The app was primarily created for children to be able to turn their 2D drawings into 3D animated characters, just by holding a tablet/smartphone over it. The app monitors the drawing and is able to take the character and make it move. During user testing, with adults rather than children since the app is still in early study, many of them agreed that it increased their motivation to draw in coloring books. This could be a great invention to encourage kids to be more creative and imaginative. 

    However, it's more complicated than it may seem. For instance, applying color to the back of the character was a more difficult process, since they wanted to make sure there weren't noticeable seams where the color would stop. They decided to create a "lookup map" for the characters, which would match the pixels on the front of the drawing to the back of it, and carefully connect it so that there would be no breaks in the coloring. Also, because paper in coloring books doesn't lie perfectly flat, the team created a "deformable surface tracking method to monitor surface changes and to keep the virtual character".

    The app seems like a very intriguing invention that could easily catch the attention of anyone at any age who likes to color and draw. Although, I believe the app itself may be slightly problematic due to glitching, and not to mention it may take up a lot of space on your device of choice because of how advanced it is. But, it's great to see that people are working to bring our childhood dreams to life, because really, who didn't want their terribly scribbled drawing to be able to move when we were little?

Weekly Comments #4: MANY FRUSTRATION !!

    As you can tell from the title of this blog, this week was not the best. Not just in boces, but outside of class as well. Recently, a lot has been piled onto my shoulders and I've hardly had time to sleep. There have been a lot of days this week when I ended up having to go to bed at 2 in the morning, only to have to get up 3 hours later for school. Thank god coffee exists!! I'm definitely planning on sleeping a lot this weekend.

    So this week in boces, we continued working on our audio projects, which I feel I had a very creative idea for mine. However, I ended up deciding to continue working on it at home since I felt I wouldn't have enough time to finish it at school. Once I got home, I downloaded Audacity and was all ready to go, but then, of course, my computer told me I had a bunch of updates waiting to be installed and had to restart my computer. Wonderful.. thanks, Microsoft. So, I restarted it and it ended up taking about an hour, as I assumed it would, and during that time I accidentally fell asleep waiting for it, and woke up around 7:30 pm.

    So basically, I stayed up until 2 am only to get half of the audio done, and then in the morning when I plugged my flash drive with the file into my boces computer, I noticed it rendered wrong and a bunch of sound effects were missing! I'm not sure what I did wrong ? Ugh. In short, I had to turn it in a day late.

    We also started working on learning about Premiere, which is exciting! I'm still not sure as to what I'm going to do for my PSA video... Hopefully I'll figure something out this weekend!

    And last, my link of interest, rare behind the scenes footage of Jurassic Park. I just thought it was cool to see what it's actually like to be on set as an actor and director, with the director showing the actors what to do and giving orders. I've always thought Steven Spielberg was an amazing director, and he's someone I look up to, so it's fascinating to see him at work.

    Also, question for anyone reading this, what's your favorite movie? I need movie suggestions. c:

Video Response: "Why Do Action Scenes Suck?"

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    Sure, action scenes in films are great to have for catching people's attention while they're watching a movie trailer, but are they absolutely necessary to make a film more interesting? Action scenes generally don't add anything to the characters or expand the story, so what's the point of having four different fight scenes in one film? This video created by SamAndNiko explains why they believe action scenes suck, and gives amateur filmmakers advice on how to make a successful action scene.

    After watching this video, I learned that good action scenes tend to show the action rather than imply it. Meaning, you should show what's happening with a wider shot, rather than up close with quick camera changes that could confuse viewers. Also, you can improve an action scene by having a longer movement that helps add to the energy and intensity of the scene, having a clear sense of space, and showing an action + reaction in the same shot. Implying an action is described as having too many close ups, obscuring movement, hiding the action, and having a shaky camera which can make it harder for people to understand what's really happening. 

    You should instead use action scenes to your advantage, to convey what a certain character is feeling. Make it more than just a fight, having an emotional arc can make a scene more engrossing. For example, most fight scenes in Star Wars are incredibly emotional; every light saber scene is just the characters trying to get a grip on their emotions. However, creating a good action scene is not easy. You need to have an incredible team working on set, the budget to make it work, and it takes patience, practice, and persistence. 

   I really enjoyed watching this ! I liked how they gave advice for filmmakers instead of just explaining why they believe certain action scenes suck. This video really changed my outlook on most action scenes, and it's definitely something to keep in mind for future projects. 

Weekly Comments #3: IS IT HALLOWEEN YET

    Hey! This week was alright, besides the fact that it's been freaking cold out !! I mean, I guess I don't really mind it, since I can finally wear sweaters and leggings.. but in a month like September, you really never have any idea what to wear because it's always cold in the morning and warm in the evening. Make up your mind, Mother Nature !!

    But anyways, in boces we were given two new assignments: an audio project, where we're only allowed to use various sound effects to tell a story, and the self portrait project, the last Photoshop project, where we have to make a montage of things that describe who we are. I'm very excited about both projects! I already have a pretty interesting idea for the audio project that I really hope turns out alright! Not sure what we're doing after this just yet, but I'm hoping it's some kind of video project so I can finally start learning about Adobe Premiere!

    Something that frustrated me this week, hmm, well, I came back to school after the weekend with a cold - runny nose, headaches, coughing, watering eyes, the whole package. So I probably blew my nose at least 100 times while I was at my computer (don't worry, Miss Licata, I used a ton of hand sanitizer!!), but I ended up getting a bloody nose, and it wouldn't stop bleeding for 20 minutes. :( I felt like a mess. But I'm fine now - pretty sure my cold is gone!

    Last but not least, my link of interest this week is here! The title of this video is "A Few Simple Tips For Becoming a Better Editor", by Indy Mogul, giving advice for amateur video editors on how to cut/overlap dialogue clips correctly, getting rid of unneeded scenes, and cutting clips down so they're not too long and boring. Some of these are things I've learned recently from going to the LCTV group during the summer - it's really helped me a lot, and this video explains it very well.

That's it ! Hope you all had a nice week, and an even better weekend! :)