The hardest thing about this week was choosing the video assignments I wanted to do and how to incorporate my character. At the beginning I think I was thinking about it literally, I thought that my character had to be in the video however, after looking at some of the video ideas I realized that I could reframe the assignment and mold them to my characters description. The first assignment I did felt complicated when creating it however, I think the video came out well. The mix of videos and photos allowed the video to still have a sense of interaction. In addition to this the X’s in the video came from a green screen tricked I learnt in a previous class. The second assignment was interesting as I was putting myself in the chose of my character a little more and developing a relationship to things within the real world with a fake person. At first it was a little bit confusing because I felt as though I was taking about myself, so I tried to add things that do not relate to me whatsoever. I used PremierPro for both projects. I think Premier having the option to have multiple tracts, make it easier to stack videos, photos and audio. For the last assignment I used iMovie, which was not intervention however, I was having some trouble with my Fantastic Mr Fox footage so I used an alternative.

With working on my videos, I got a little distracted and forgot about the daily creates so I did one at the beginning and end of the week. The daily creates I did where polar opposites of one another but, I think that made them interesting.

Reviewing my goals was definitely helpful in addressing the benefits of this class and the progress I am making. As this is an asynchronous class it is often difficult for me to have a general understanding of what is going on as I am not checking in with anyone face to face. Looking back at goals that I established for myself allowed me to see that I am in a good space and I can afford to take more risks. I feel like I took a bigger risk than anticipated this week with creating three videos and editing them all, although the videos were not long editing always takes me awhile.

I had no expectations for this class as I don’t know anyone who was in it previously in the class. As I have done digital classes before, I felt prepared in the begining but I wanted to develope new skills. For the first assignmnets I did not learn anything new, I felt as though I was developing on the skills I already had. I really like the assignment page, having the choice between a multitude of assignmnets at different levels allowed to to feel more in control of what I was able to do. I strarted to learn more with the videos and using different audio tools. I am not someone who has done much with audio before, so that was a completely new experience.

I like the videos that are linked with each assignment as they provide more background information as to what is being expected of me. I think that I am learning more about media, which is what I hoped. I feel like learning more about media and its effects helps with the creation process. I also liked the videos because they help me to get in the mindset of being in an actual class.I now am more willing to try new aspects or tools I have previously learned in other classes. I think I have made progress with creativity, and also stepping outside of my comfort zone. There were multiple times where I could have chosen the easier options and I decided against that, I wanted to push myself.

With my previous assignments I definitely struggled with creating ideas for what I should do, I genuinely thought I was a creative person but I think I can only be creative within a certain context of what is being told of me. I also did not have a lot of knowledge on tech-noir, and what that means for society.

I can now confidently say that a majority of the assignments are not limited to just tech-noir and the topic of the class is not hyper specific which makes being creative easier than I thought.

Beyond assignments, I think I was a little lost with having to describe my process under the actual assignment however, I definitely gotten better with describing the process of what I do. I think It was difficult because I often don’t think about things as I do them, they just get done. The process of writing down what I actually did allowed me to understand more about the process and things I was learning and doing.

For my future in this class I know I need to include my character in more things because it’s fun when I do.

This week was really intersting because I enjoy directing media and learning why films are made they way they do. As someone who is majoriting in digital studeis I have been in a lot of classes where we have disected movies and learned how and why people make the choices they do. The videos we watched before making our video essays helped me to get in the mindset of watching a tv show or movie from a different perspective. David Fincher is one of the best directos and a lot of his movies are filmed in ways that allow you to recognize the pattern within his styalistic choices. Seven, a murder mystery movie uses the camera angles in various ways to convey the information being recieved by the characters. The camera is higher when the audeicne has the upper hand however it will lower when the characters have more informtion. Another aspect I like learning about is color and different kind of shots abd how they are able to convey emotion without words.

For my video essay I chose the hated in the nation, episode 6 from season 3 of black mirror. I watched it twice because the first time I forgot to take note of how specific aspects of filming helped to convey the story. One aspect that I did not talk about in my video essay, but I enjoyed was the movement of the camera. There were several moments where the camera seemed to glide or follow behind characters without it feeling too edited. I think this added to the aspect of the view being present within the show. Everything was done swiftly. The scene I decied on from my video essay was the first courtroom scene. I chose this because it established who the main character was in a way that brought out a lot of emotion from the chacter ad audience without having the give the plot away. The camera focusing in her eyes, and hands pulled the audience into the world immeditley. Tony, spoke about eyes and how close up on eyes often work and the chnages in actors eyes that reveal things.

An additonal aspect of this episode that was interesting was the lighting choices, I think the major contrast between natural setting and the darkness that came with technologies intrusion on nature was defenitly showcases through scenes that where dimly lit.

Another aspect of Black Mirror that I enjoyed was that it had the ability to create story lines that cenetr around the dangers that can come from tech without having to create future-ristic worlds. I think this added to the emotion I felt watching the show because you can imagine something similar happening now. We may not have bees but we do have drones. I also thought it was interesting to see how humans do things to destroy nature and create “nature” with technology that ends up working against us. 

Though this week was focused on film I still had a great time making my daily creates. I’m defenitly not a poet, but I’m having a better time just doing them for fun than thinking too deeply about them. I also did not realized that I was meant to do partial recaps of the assignments under the actual assignment, I thought that was something we included in the weekly re-caps so that’s my bad. This is another side note, with commenting, I’m commenting on peoples website pages, is that what we are supposed to be doing ?

I was really expected for this assignment as I enjoy watching video essays so being able to create my own was interesting. I used a video downloader to upload footage from Netflix to my video editor. Before this assignment I had never downloaded clips directly from Netflix, so that was interesting to learn. There was a lot of trial and error as Netflix has strict privacy policies however I was able to figure to out. I have used Premier Pro before so that is what I used this time. When deciding which scene I wanted to analyze, I though a lot about how scene made me feel and what I though was beneficial. For this reason I choose the beginning of the courtroom scene, I think her eyes really sold the tension. Though it is an essentially minimal scene, I think there is a lot that can come from it , I chopped a bunch of specific clips together and essentially duplicated them to make them match the length of time I was talking. For the voice over, I used my phone which I thought would sound like I was in a microwave but it was not that bad. Then I decided to do the voice over first before I added my clips in because I was difficult to match what was on screen with what I wanted to say. I thought about adding music to the background however, I could not find anything that matched the tone I was going of so I decided against it. I also induced captions to be ADA accessible which is Premier allowed me to do fairly easily.

I had a lot of fun this week. As someone who is not very fond of the radio other than when I am in a car and I do not listen to podcasts unless I am able to see them, I have found a new fondness for audio media. The videos from Jad Abumrad highlighted the reality of radio and its importance. Similar to music, media that is consumed audibly has a connection that can often be deeper. There is an aspect of intimacy that lies within the existence of imagination that you are able to unlock through just audio consumption. As Abumrad says, audio gives people a voice who do not have it. As a society people are often consumed by looks so sometimes audio can get rid of bias and allow people to really understand who is being said. 

The audio from the “in an event of a moon disaster” was difficult to listen to however I think it was able to build a connection, with my review I highlighted how audio is able to reestablish a sense of humanity. The audio made me think of what could have happened and how at the end we are all people, even people who do extraordinary things.

I had a meeting during the radio show time and then I forgot the new times that it would be playing so I listen to various podcasts from two up productions. I listened to a couple episodes and they made me enjoy listening to stories, similar to audiobooks. They feel continuous and I am able to understand and generate my own opinions. The sound of the choir and other sounds specific to humanity like clapping and talking allowed the episodes to establish a general feeling of togetherness, they were all consuming. They made me feel like I was in Limetown, the voices made the story a little more real to me. I think the level of production through these episodes allowed people to develop a general understanding and ability to follow the story. The sound of life included in these audios wake the listeners up and continue the story. Sometimes stories, especially difficult ones can be difficult to draw an audience in wholeheartedly , however I feel these audios follow like a story that gives the listener a sense of relatability. 

Beyond the listenings I also actually enjoyed using audacity, I had never used it before, however I used it for my sound effect story and bumper assignment. For my sound effect story I used audio from the BBC and wanted my story to showcase the change from nature to industrial reliance and what that sounds like. Similar to the blade runner, I think a society that relies on technological advances would sound different to the one we are in now. The bumper assignment pushed me out of my comfort zone as I did not know that those brakes actually had names. When I was creating mine I wanted to include music that would allude to our tech noir theme but I also wanted to say something catchy. I was fortunate to know how to use artlist.io which is another free music application and that’s where I found my audio for that project. 

These assignments allowed me to better understand how the tools and audacity worked. I don’t know how I did it but I initially downloaded audacity wrong and it was a completely different application even though I went through the website which was weird. Other than that it was pretty smooth sailing. I get nervous trying new things but it was not as complicated as I thought. The bumper assignment was really interesting as I did not know that those brakes actually had names. When I was creating mine I wanted to include music that would allude to our tech noir theme but I also wanted to say something catchy. I was fortunate to know how to use artlist.io which is another free music application and that’s where I found my audio for that project. 

Additionally, though week was audio heavy with me creating my own audios, I was able to use the audio assignment bank to delve into music that already exists. Through my humming and reverse it assignment I chose to use musicals as a stepping basis as I love musicals. I also think musicals are incredible story telling tools and they can evoke real emotion that is often difficult to do through general story telling.

Brainstorming was a little difficult because my brain was just blank, however the ideas I did brainstorm came from places that I enjoy researching, as a philosophy major I am consistently wondering how AI will effect how people view art as well as what makes us human. Why the human experience can not be replicated and what replication would entail. My favorite daily create was the dinosaur, I love dinos and my drawing was not too bad, even if I do say so myself.

I need to comment more it’s just an aspect I keep forgetting and that’s my bad. Should I comment on peoples actual pages or in the discord?

The inclusion of words from the radio at the very beginning feel immersive, i think it helps to build the connection between what happened and the listener. Throughout history it is often difficult to understand that these were just people. People who tried.I think the word “bud” humanized them. When we think of the moon landing, it is often hard to conceptualize the humanity of the people who are able to achieve these things. I also think the radio specific element does highlight a certain intimacy that comes with the human voice as opposed to visual media. You can sense their emotion through the speakers. The phrase “The radios dead” and the echoing of materials also highlights the abscess of humanity and earth. If the moon landing did not go as planned I think there would be a very different view of space. 

Money,The economic state of the world, Robots, Apocalypse, Artificial Intelligence and art, What Is Art, What Does It Mean To Be Human,

Reverse It!