Blog #4

I enjoyed taking Media 160. It extended my knowledge in digital media. I learned a lot of Final Cut Pro, and it was definitely beneficial to my future since I love video editing and plan on making personal projects. All of the assignments were interesting, productive, and most importantly—fun. What’s a digital class good for without enjoyment, right? The podcast assignment was a good practice for me since I plan on entering the field of journalism. I’m currently taking a couple of interviewing classes and this assignment played a good role for my major.  A lot of my classes corresponds each other including Media 160. The video assignment was great because it allowed me and my partner to use our creativity. It allowed us to work as both directors and actors. We sketched the scene prior to the shooting, and formulated the script. Last, we incorporated a soundtrack that would be fitting to the scene. Next, the Haiku assignment was a great commencement to web production. I have a history of designing websites, but HTML is still a bit blurry to me as I get baffled easily. Using Text Wrangler throughout the semester alleviated my comfort with HTML. The coding became more familiar, and I gradually accepted it to my designing repertoire. I plan on using HTML codes more when I design. Last, the animation assignment was something totally fresh to me. I always knew that Photoshop had the tools and options to create animated GIFs but I always disregarded it since I assumed that I wouldn’t be able to master it. However, I learned the features quicker than I expected, and I created a short thirty-second animation without much problem. Overall, the class was great. I’d recommend it to anyone—especially media majors. 

Blog #3

I had a lot of fun doing the video assignment. Earlier in the days in retrospective, a couple of friends and I gathered together to make a couple of short films. It was for fun; nothing serious, really. For this assignment, my priority was to compile loads of clips that me and my partner filmed, and develop a neat three minute film. The concept was very similar to my old filmings, except this assignment has a pending grade on the line. The filming process was fair and developmental. As we created new angles, we inserted more potential scenes. It was a little bit of everything including pre-arranged written scripts and impromptu takes. There were endless possibilities but we had only so much room to cover the limited time frame. Initially we chose to film in the subway station. We alternated roles carrying the camera and filmed the train arriving and leaving. Our story was summarized as two classmates who were having a horrible day being way under the weather. We took turns filming each other missing the 6 train, and other things that would push us to the edge. There was a scene where I was acting as a furious guy on the phone with whomever. The scene concluded with me smashing my phone to the brick wall. I found it interesting and hilarious that I drew a handful of attention. People was unaware of the act and just presumed that I was just another angry new yorker carrying problems. Although our characters had problems, we didn't have any on the settings. Everything was run smoothly and we finished promptly. In our final scene, we had the privelage of having professor Lucas film us by the classroom. Overall, it was a good experience.