Blog 10 - Freak Factor

6. Focus: You Can’t Do Both

This suggestion really speaks to me because I like being able to do it all.  In high school, I acted in theater, played instruments in band, did a lot of graphic design work, and worked on video production stuff as well.  This course was really nice because I got to do all of those things again, but I realize that now I have to make a decision and stick with it.  first of all, there are always going to be people better than me at each thing.  But if I don’t focus on getting good at just one thing then I will be making it easier for people to beat me out for jobs and positions.  It’s really hard to give up something that you really care about and that you really enjoy doing, but at some point I have to realize that I am only hurting myself by doing that.

8. Freak: The Power of Uniqueness.

I really like to think that I am an unusual person.  There are certain things that I can do that I like to think that no one can do better.  Thats not true obviously, but I like to think it nonetheless.  One thing I have noticed about uniqueness though is that it isn’t enough to be unique and exceptional.  It helps so much to surround yourself with unique and exceptional people as well.  If there is one thing that you are good at that’s great, but then there are so many areas that other people are exceptionally good at, and their input will help you out.  Impressive creative works are not the product of one exceptional person doing exceptional things.  Its a collection of multiple unique people who are doing exceptional parts of a greater exceptional whole.

4.  Forget It: Don’t Try to Fix Your Weakness

This is very counter-intuitive.  I always think of how to solve problems and face addicitons, and I remember that the first step is admitting you have a problem.  So to say that that is also the last step confuses me.  But it makes sense.  At some point, if we are too obsessed with fixing our weaknesses, we could be consumed by always trying to fix ourselves.  Because we will always be able to find something wrong with ourselves, and we will not be able to fix it all.  Now I do disagree with some of Rendall’s reasons for why we shouldn’t try to fix our weaknesses, especially the second reason: it’s painful.  I think to some extent, if you know that something is wrong with you and then you choose to ignore it, you’re just being lazy and weak.  Even if something is painful, its better to suck it up, and do whats best for yourself.  If its fixing the weakness then do it.  If its not, then don’t.  But I don’t see this step as something that always applies.

My own strengths and weaknesses?  Well I think that my strengths often are my weaknesses in terms of creativity.  On one hand, I think that it’s a good thing that I like to be involved, and get things done.  On the other hand, I don’t do that great of a job of recognizing my own limitations or leting other people help me with things.  Even in group projects, I sometimes have a tendency to try to do things on my own.  I think another strength I have is my dedication to things.  However this can also be a weakness.  I have stuck to things and agreed to do things for people and then realized later that its either a waste of my time, its taking time away from more important things, or it’s just going nowhere.  But I have a hard time stepping away from things like that.  If I’m going to dig my self into a hole, I am going to dig as deep of a hole that I can make.

Blog 9B - Collapsus Review

www.Collapsus.com 

Blog 9A - Gaming reflection

Blog 8B - Superhero Critique

The first combination that i’m critiquing is Madolyn Nianouris’s villain Dr. Dirt Nasty with the hero Bubble Bath Man.  First of all there is a very good contrast between both the hues and brightness.  Dr. Dirt Nasty is dark and brown, while Bubble Bath Man is lighter and is in brighter colors.   I think that idea is really cool, because there is an obvious motive behind the characters.  The animation was especially good.  It did a very good job of showing the characters’ movements and I really like the colors that were shown.    The movement shown was pretty impressive as well in terms of how it was animated.  The character both move at the same time so it created a very realistic fighting scene.

The second hero villian pair that I am comparing is Ian Reynolds Merman and Petroleum Man.  I first off thought that this was a very topical choice, since it sort of makes a parody of the BP oil crisis.  It sort of gives each character their own sense of symbolism, where Merman represents enviromental safety and care, while Petroleum Man represents the greediness of capitalistic entrepenuers.  The colors that were chosen for both of them were blue.  I thought that this affinity was a good choice since both of these characters spend their time under the sea, so the colors reflected their environment.  They complemented each other well.  I also really liked the fight scene between them.  It did a good job of showing not only how each character moved, but also how they fought.  

The last hero villian pair is Erin Riordan.  Erin chose the hero Justicia, and her partner made the villian Firebomb.  Now I wasn’t entriely sure how the two characters were linked together, because they seemed to be chosen rather arbitrarily from each other, but I really like the drawing and design for Justicia as well as the choice to make a female superhero.  The animation for Justicia was also impressive because it used props and several characters.  There was a lot of movement between Justicia and the monsters that she is fighting, and it has a humorous sense to it.   I would have liked to see Justicia fight Firebomb because I think that it would have ben interesting to see how she deals with an alien when she doesn’t really have any “superpower” other than fighting ability.  I think that the shadows used in Justicia’s drawing is really cool.  Her black and white outfit is really cool, but the shading done on the side oh her exposed leg is pretty impressive.

Blog 8A - Superhero Reflection Response

  www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/superpowers 

Blog Assignment 7 - Joke Essay

            First of all, both videos used very similar framing of shots.  There was an affinity between their senses of space.  In the first joke, there were a wide variety of how close the camera was to the United Way representative.  It showed the size of the office and also showed the representative’s emotions and reactions.   In the second joke,  there were a lot of close-ups of the detective and his actions while the wider angles showed the entire room and table the detective was at.  Also, the detective leans back and forward in his chair to transition from his reverie where he is farther away from the United Way representative into his close confrontation with the representative.

            The videos contrasted in their use of rhythm between shots.  In the first joke, the film had fairly similar rhythm of shots throughout the video.  It had fast and short segments broken up with text boxes, and the middle part of the joke had the same formula of a shot of the lawyer, text box, and then reactions from the United Way Representative.  The second joke however stayed on the detective and only showed him and various close ups of his face and body.

            Finally, the videos contrasted in whether they used active or didactic storytelling.  In the first joke, the story was very straightforward, and did not stray away from the joke at all.  It showed visuals, then supplied text boxes to tell the audience exactly what was going on.  In the second video however, it seems like the joke is telling the actual story, but has a twist ending.   There were also subtle jokes that required more scrutiny to find. First of all, you had to understand how internal monologues are a huge part of film noir to get the punchline.  Finally, there was a subtle joke with the detective’s name.  The United Way representative asks if the detective is Mr. McCrevis, and the detective responds with “please, call me Phillip”.  This means the detective’s full name is Phillip McCrevis, which is a joke name, like Biggus Dickus (Monty Python’s Life of Brian reference).

Game Powerpoint and Trailer

Game Presentation (no sound)

Mock Trailer for Game