Freak Factor

The article “Freak Factor” is a list of suggestions of how to overcome various weaknesses in life that may come up and how to address them when they do.

I think that the first suggestion of “What’s Your Problem?” is a great one.  Before going in to job interviews I know the first thing that will be asked, or if not, one of the early questions, will be what are your strengths and weaknesses?  I like to think this question through before going in and it really helps.  Instead of fixing my weaknesses I like to build my strengths, as I think if I am good at one thing it may overshadow the bad qualities that I have.  Of course, this is not always true and I go about it based on the situation.  I think that this step allows for a good chance at self review and allows for character building.  It is one of the most important questions one can ask themselves.

The fourth rule goes hand in hand with my previous answer to rule number one, “What’s Your Problem?” and it is “Forget It: Don’t Try to Fix Your Weaknesses.”  I agree that it is a waste of time to try to fix things that can’t be fixed or won’t really matter for all the time you put into fixing them.  I think that fixing a weak area is a hopeless cause and shouldn’t be recommended.  Why spend time on fixing your social skills if you are going to be working in a field all alone or vice versa: why work on something you don’t need?  It makes no sense whatsoever.  I think that working on strengths is the best bet at finding a great job that you love someday.  I hope to build on my strengths and do good in media.  That will make me the most happy.

I agree with rule number eight as well, which is “Freak: the Power of Uniqueness.”  This suggestion is really good, as all innovation is the result of a mutation from the norm that is introduced into the world and gains notoriety because of how unique it is.  Doing something different gets you noticed and if people like the unique idea will go for it and invest in it.  Being unique means you stand out from the crowd and that is not a bad thing.  Blending in will make you bland and show that you have nothing to offer to the world.  That is why I try my hardest to stand out in everything I do, from movie ideas even to the way I edit behind the scenes footage, like I did for the movie Getting There.

I think my weaknesses in the Creative Process are explaining my ideas, a problem I have had for a while. I think everyone thinks like me, so it is hard for me to explain to others what I have in mind.  My strengths are probably that I am good at thinking outside of the box.  I like to do things that other people don’t think of, especially in the way I edit and when I direct photography.

9B

collapsus

Blog 9A

I think that in our presentation we could have explained mechanics a little bit better.  It is tough to convey to an audience how to play the game.  We didn’t have a whole lot of information to explain it all and it was a pretty confusing system.

I also think that we could have talked about our characters more.  I think we barely touched on their back story and why they all have their certain motives.  It is hard to explain a story that was created by me.

I think the hardest thing to explain is mechanics, because without actually playing the game it is hard to picture what we are talking about.   We could have incorporated visuals, but even if we did it would be hard to see how the mechanics work.

super hero

Superheroes 8B

I liked Harrison’s character Taffy Man and his ability to contort. It really reminded me of Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four.  In his animation, he used a lot of movements. One of these movements is weight, used when the hammer crushes the evil people with guns.The movement in Harrison’s project is really good.  It makes it feel like the hammer is super heavy and really hurts when it crushes their heads. The movement is a lot smoother than that of the Notorious BLOB , who moves rather rapidly and in a jumping manner it seems.  There is a lot of overlapping movement in Harrison’s, as he throws the gun while the guy shoots.  There is a lot of contrast and affinity between the two characters, including color.  BLOB seems to be white, while Taffy man is blue.  Shape is a big contrast between the two, as BLOB is small and round, while Taffy man is tall and skinny, and can change shape to help him in his surroundings.  This fits their looks, as evil is usually round, like the penguin played by Danny Devito in the Batman movie.

For the next villain/hero combo I picked Zack Eisenfeld’s.  Zack Eisenfeld’s evil villain uses color to express how evil it is.  The red head really shows that the character is evil and that the saturation of the red really catches the eye.  The red also catches the eye because it is so bright compared to the white and black background.  The triangle shaped head also reveals the evil side of him, as most normal people do not have a huge triangle for a head.  The whole animation was in red, black, and fire colors, so it really gives the sense of evil.  There is a lot of tension when the triangle man pulls out a bazooka, and it is released when it explodes. Unfortunately, Zack’s hero video was not working at the time I viewed it, so I could not compare the two.  If I could though, I am sure that there would be a lot of contrast in the color of the two, as good colors are usually blue or cooler colors than what is typically seen on a villain.

The next person who I looked at was Scott O’Lone’s character Dolphin man and his evil villain of the shark.  His character used color to show that it was good.  He used a lot of blue with high saturation. He also used a lot of brightness to show that it was good.  The hue was all around the blue area of the color wheel, and blue is typically seen as a heroic color, like on Superman.  The shark was a lot more of grey and darker colors without much saturation.  This darkness makes him seem evil.  I think the contrast of color tells you that the two are evil or good and will often battle each other.  There is little afinity between the two characters, other than that they are both sea based super people.

Jokes

Our two videos were based on the baked beans joke.  My video was a little more liberal with the story, while Nate’s was more true to the original joke.  Nate’s video used line when Harrison was looking at the engine of his broken down car.  The lines of the parking spot center on him and puts the eyes toward him when viewing the video.  The other thing that Nate’s movie did was use rhythm when he walks by the curtains in the diner.  It makes the shot feel smoother and gives the eyes a certain rhythym to look at.  My video used a lot less movement in it, as it was mostly about the emotions rather than the actions.  Nate’s had the character walking all over the place, adding to the idea that he was on his way home.  My video also had a lot of tight shots that really show off the emotion of the main character, portrayed by yours truly.  By showing the tight shot, you can see facial expressions and how said the character actually is, like when I am seen eating the beans underneath the staircase. You feel bad for the character, who has given into his horrible bean addiction.  Both videos used a lot of tension and release, in that they started off with eating of beans, and then tension came with the gaseous feeling or eating of the beans.  All was released at the end when the family was in the room while both people were farting continuously.  This added to the humor.  The movies use straight  text instead of subtext.  The joke is straight forward with no hidden meaning at all.  There is no other way it could have been to add subtext, or the joke would have made little to no sense.

superhero

Blog 6B

Blog 5B

Blog 6A

How to Be a Creative Person

Blog5A

In my picture, I decided to zoom in on a Helen Frankethaler piece of artwork entitled “Left Handed Purple.”  The piece consisted of more of the brown, white and black lines before I zoomed in on the corner that included a red dot and a green paint brush mark, which to me seemed to depict a type of flower, most likely being a rose. The idea of what the blotch is is subjective to whoever views it.  The red has a lot of visual intensity and really drew my attention that part of the page. Because of the contrast to the brown, black, and white I was immediately looking at the part of the picture that I zoomed in on.  The affinity of the darker parts lets this red and green spot stand out.  I placed the red spot where it would also stand out with the rule of thirds, but unlike in the original, I moved it closer to the upper right third.  Previously it was in the lower right third.  I created a Mid Shot (MS) on the red spot, as it was previously included in a long shot (LS).  I think this made the picture seem more intimate.  Now the red and the green are right up in the front and now can be noticed more than they was before.  I also used the idea of lines that point to the red, including the black line that is in the white that seems to end up at the red.  The white line itself also points to the rose and so do the edges of the black and brown sections on the top and bottom of the painting.  It makes the eyes travel the path of the lines and end up on the red blotch, which is exactly where I tried to focus attention.

My Photo

Original

In Class Animation

Song Blog

Harrison

Joey

Dalton

Brainwashed

Brainwashed

Acknowledging the lizard is when someone attacks our art and therefore our art side shuts down to stop the hatred and embarrassment.  Connecting is when we are allowed to meet people we would not meet in other situations and take the opportunity to learn from them.  The lizard concept is used because I usually play it safe when creating instead of showing my true art side, afraid of judgement.  The connection side helps because I get insight on my art from people I would not see otherwise and who can see my art objectively.  These exercises are good because they help me exercise my art side and give me a chance to work with people I could not otherwise.

Soundscape Comments

Zach Eisenfeld
Ian Bullington
Joseph Buccini

Song

johnny cash vs. nine inch nails

I enjoyed the song “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails, but once the song was covered by Johnny Cash, I fell in love with the cover more than the original.  Johnny Cash recorded his version in 2003, very close to his death.  The original came out almost ten years before in 1994.  Both are great, emotional songs.

The melody in both is pretty much the same, except with a few exceptions.  In the Nine Inch Nails version, Trent Reznor seems to bend the notes of his voice a little bit in order to produce a more intense, angry vocal effect.  In the Johnny Cash version, he sings like normal, just singing with straight notes and no real vibrato or effect.  Other than this slight difference, the overall sound of the melody is the same.  

Their is a difference in pitch between the two pieces, as the Johnny Cash version is song way deeper than the Nine Inch Nails version.  Johnny Cash tends to sing lower, so this may be why the octave was chosen for this song.  The timbre is the most clear and obvious difference, as the Johnny Cash seems to be more folky, with acoustic guitars and pianos.  These traditional instruments are part of Johnny Cash’s sound, unlike Trent Reznor who regularly uses odd instruments and different effects in order to produce a new sound, referred to as industrial music.  His instruments are all out of tune and layered more than Johnny Cash’s and therefore have a completely different timbre.  The effects on his instruments also change the timbre of his version.  The speed is pretty slow in both versions and it adds to the overall sadness of the songs.  The rhythm also stays the same in both versions and is essential to the intro to the songs.  The picked A minor chord lets everyone know what the song is.  The intensity of the Nine Inch Nails song in the second chorus and even in the bridge is much greater than that of the Johnny Cash version, which picks up a little bit in volume as well, but not nearly as much as the Nine Inch Nails version does with distortion and Trent Reznor screaming out the vocals, showing his pain.

Overall, the songs are both very similar and very different.  It all comes down to whatever version the listener finds to have the best musical quality.  The difference in the timbre is so different that each are considered to be completely separate genres, but both are widely known to be great songs. I prefer the Johnny Cash myself.

Nine Inch Nails

Johnny Cash

Soundscape

Find Your Howl

In Find Your Howl, Flaum uses a story of a red wolf who was raised in captivity and released to the wild but could not howl.  In his adventures through the wild he meets a deer who tells him when he is hungry for his howl it will be there. He then eats the deer and the raven who is eating the bone tells him that he is not listening to his feelings with the right part of his body.  As he is running he changes, but eventually comes across the barrel of a gun held by a farmer. The wolf runs into the barrel and then finds a tribe circling a fire, beating a drum that turns out to be his own heart.  The people were dressed as a red wolf, and the wolf walks into the fire without being burned and howls, and the tribe responds, and the wolf leaves middle earth and sees the moon overhead. Flaum is trying to say that we have to overcome inner battles to finally show our full potential, but it is a hard and painful process.

"We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities."

This quote speaks to me because I never know where I am going to take my creative work when I am doing it. 

14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas

In Mitch Ditkoff’s Manifesto entitled “14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas” he addresses a difficulty most of us have at some point in life: where to get creative ideas.  He begins by explaining what the new important thing in business is: innovation.  He breaks down innovation to people and then explains how people get innovation from creative ideas.    He then dissects the origin of creative ideas into fourteen distinct points and encourages the reader with little challenges to further help the reader understand the point.  Out of the fourteen points I found three to be particularly useful to myself and my career choice.

The first point that I chose was the first, to “Follow your Fascination.”  This was the first point in Ditkoff’s Manifesto and is one of the most important, whether in media or any other field.  Fascination is the easiest way to develop creative ideas, as it allows the creator to take an idea or interest in their head and use it to develop something new. Fascinating things make us all think, and in turn takes our brains places they would not go otherwise.  Fascination leads to curiosity, which leads to understanding, which leads to innovation and inspiration. Without fascination there would be no inspiration and in turn no creation.  Whenever I create something new, it is always based on something that interests me at the time.   The hard part in this, however, is trying to create something new off of the old idea and not plagiarizing.  If this can be done, then fascination is a great place to start.

The second way to get ideas that I found interesting was “Immerse.”  For me, this a point that I wish to use more.  It is usually easier to build on an idea if you take the time to sit down and think it over.  I cannot tell you how many times I have thought of a movie idea or a hook to a song in my head, but have become distracted and then completely forget it.  I find myself thinking that if I had just written it down or kept building upon it then the idea would probably not have been lost.  Concentrating on an idea is a wonderful way to create new ideas based on an old idea and in turn make one a more creative person.

The final point I chose to discuss is “Fantasize.”  This point is a great one as well.  I get all of my greatest ideas from just sitting and creating stories in my brain.  Taking those stories and taking them into the real world is exactly how I get all of my real world ideas.  Taking the last step of immersion and mixing it with this idea would be perfect, as it would give me time to focus on fantasies and then pump out ideas based on those fantasies.   Fantasizing allows the brain to do whatever it wants, to break the barriers of logic, and to just run wild.  This is especially important in a field that almost completely relies on creativity and the ability to think differently than everyone else.  In my particular interest, film, there is even a whole genre dedicate to fantasizing: fantasy.

I have recently (within the last two years) become fascinated with independent films.  I am not sure where this fascination started, but I suppose that is just the nature of fascination: it comes from within.  After coming to Ohio University and learning of the various clubs and activities I could become involved with I decided to pursue this fascination and try to work on independent films.  I have worked with Film Club and am currently working a short independent film entitled Getting There, but recently the possibility of making my own film came up when my friend in Media Management said that he was interested in me and a couple other students making a movie based show for Athens Video Works.  This has been an exciting thought for the past few weeks, but tomorrow is when my group will pitch the idea to the AVW Productions board.  Tonight I can honor this by working on my presentation for the board.  I plan on doing a PowerPoint and developing a schedule of the show’s airing times and shooting schedule.  Everyone on the team is meeting tonight and it is going to be a long night to get everything together.  Hopefully the idea gets picked up, and I owe the whole process to my fascination in independent movies.

Influences on My Creativity

I am a person who uses my creativity to express myself and not to impress other people.  I really like to show emotion in what I do and usually get inspired from everyday life.   I really like to be visually entertained and to be emotionally entertained, but usually go through my better creative periods when I am depressed or angry.  I would say my two biggest creative influences are Stanley Kubrick and David Fincher.

Stanley Kubrick influences me with his ability to use themes that are mostly active and allows everyone who sees his work to make up their own mind about what they were supposed to learn or gather from his movies.  A great example of this is the ending to 2001: A Space Odyssey that either makes the film (as it did for greats such a Stephen Spielberg) or ruins it. This  scene allows everyone to put the movie into their own perspective: was the movie all a great story of evolution, or was the monolith just an alien species interfering with humans?  It is all up to the viewer.  I love this aspect of Kubrick films, as it gives the movies an ability to relate to everyone.  I like to do this with anything I create, and it is not an easy ability to have.  I also like the overall dark feeling of Kubrick’s films, and that is a huge inspiration whenever I am writing or doing editing.  The dark tones and different approaches are key in his genius.  For example, in 2001: A Space Odyssey, he lets the feel of the movie and the lack of the dialogue to control it. His ability to stir up emotions by using tension and release is great, especially in the horror movie The Shining.  By giving everyone an uneasy feeling he grabs their attention and this has taught me to follow this technique when creating something of my own.  

Another huge influence in on my creativity is David Fincher, the director of Fight Club and Se7en.  I really love his use of text and subtext, and a great example of his use of subtext is that in Fight Club.  He uses the approach of the unreliable narrator,  leading us to believe that Tyler Durden is real, until of course the very end, where we find out that the narrator is in fact crazy and Tyler is part of the narrator.  I enjoy his use of the twist ending in movies like Fight Club and The Game, and also his ability to switch between different genres of movies.  I have tried to be able to use twist endings and have tried writing many different genres since I have begun writing simply because I see great directors and writers like Fincher able to take on these different aspects of human emotion.  For example, his movie The Social Network is not even close to his work in Se7en, as one is a dialogue based drama and the other is an action based thriller.  Again, I appreciate the overall dark scheme of Fincher’s movies.  The feeling I have after watching one is indescribable.  Someday I hope to be able to leave my audience with the same feeling, like they are somehow emotionally attached to the movie but have no idea why.  Fincher has been doing this for years and that is why his fan base is so large.

TA's Blog

T.A.'s Blog

Adding photos

Inspiring People in Media

Stanley Kubrick is a huge inspiration to me.