More tests. Yeah they're cool, I guess.

Did another thing on Trapcode Particular. Woah. Super duper cool. I'd say this is probably the most complex thing I did so far with this set of plug-ins in the Trapcode Suite. I did some stuff I haven't done before. Liked the look of it., but it's somewhat difficult to tell it's an audio reactor until later...I'll learn eventually.

Well alright. The list on this one might take a while. After all, the tutorial in itself was 40 minutes so...

(Simplified)
-Make a new comp
-Choose background color, add a ramp effect (the darkening color from top to bottom)
-Add a vignette
-Make a new comp
-Add soundtrack/song
-Duplicate twice, add High-Low Pass effect (seperates track into the high and frequencies)
-Add Trapcode Particular effect to High Pass or Low Pass (can't remember)
-Adjust settings so there are more particles so it looks like a line
-Change colors of particles
-Adjust velocity of particles with expresssions
-Adjust x and y rotation of particles with expressions-Duplicate entire Trapcode Particular
-Adjust duplicate so it's opposite of first one.
-Add lights to cause shadows on the particles
-Export
-Upload

and yeah. That's about it. Satisfied with the result. It'd be cool to actually use this for something, not just a test. I have a friend that's learning to make dubstep that might be able to use this for his songs he says. Other than that, I don't know where to go with all these...oh well.

Meh. Music.

Found this song recently. It's not often you find rap songs that spread positive messages, or at least according to the stereotype. This song seems to be one of the few that straight up address issues and say they're bad. I'm not strictly against a lot of issues brought up my rap and hip hop music. But sometimes it's good to see someone change it up a bit. An occasional reminder is necessary.

It's shows and speaks about the consequences of drugs, gangs, etc.
The music video shows what happens to a boy named Jake who, with a friends, tries to get some weed, but then there's an initiation that forces him to beat up his friend.
It uses a lot of good figurative language (yes, I did just make this post dull and educational). Lots of metaphors, diction,etc.
It also uses propaganda like the snowball effect.

Alright, basically, I just felt like posting something. I'll make something more interesting over Thanksgiving break I suppose. Apologies. Check out the song anyway. Has Tim Shieff in it, so can't hate really.

Trapcode Form Audio React

A test of another After Effects plug-in, Trapcode Form. People must be getting bored by now. wow. But they're fun. So put up with it.

I chose a track I liked to make an audio reactor to, and boom. Made this with the influence of a tutorial.

- Choose a track: "Take A Walk" by Passion Pit (The M Machine Remix)
- Make a background, add a bit of clouds, lower they're opacity.
- Make a sphere, customize it.
- Set sphere's audio reactors (disperse, sphere size, etc.).
- Duplicate layer, shrink it a bit.
- Add an effect to make the particles in the sphere look a bit liquidy.
- Add Trapcode Shine effect to make spheres have a blue-ish aura thing. To, well...make them shine.
- Make particles using Trapcode Particular that go up.
- Make particles that go sideways that are different color.

And that's it I believe. Cool story, right? Totally.

Oh, watch in HD, otherwise, it's dumb.

Logo Animation Test

So, as usual, I was messing around on After Effects recently (today) and decided to do something new. I made a title sequence after going through a huge list of tutorials. I found an interesting one, and attempted to create something similar. I added the logo of a great company (that's run by people i know in real life) and here's how it turned out! I sent it to the head of the company, and he said he'd use it in the intro of their videos.

I made this all in After Effects and used the plug-in Trapcode Form (a great set of plug-ins the Trapcode Suite is). I had to make about 10 layers:

- vignette layer for background

- particle layer

- layer with text "Amiercan"

- layer with text "Parkour"
- layer with logo "APK" with string dissolve
- layer with logo "APK" with particle dissolve
- solid white layer with a wipe
- another layer with a wipe
- and a few more that I forgot

Check out that channel here: http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanParkour

Plexus Test

Oh yeah. I did another test of a plug-in for After Effects. It's called Plexus.

It connects dots and lines. "Wow. Stupid." you might say.

FALSE. It's so cool. Just look at it. Look.

So basically. i made a circle shape. Added a fractal reaction. Messed with that to make it look cool. Duplicated it, made it smaller. And then made it spin along the x-axis for the whole video. Woah.

Then, I added two audio reactors. Made them into circle point things. (Didn't know I could do that.)

Lastly, I made some small thing on Trapcode Mir (last week's test) and used Trapcode Shine to make it shiny and bright. I think that spins too. Maybe. Not sure. Did it a few days ago.

Here it is.

Capture the Fall - Autumn Leaves

Let me start with exporting takes forever. And you have to do it nearly a dozen times before you figure out the right settings so you're video doesn't look like five pixels. Oh HD, how dearly I need you. Yeah, so. I've been trying to export this for about an hour now. Still working on finding the right format. Then comes uploading. And because I don't have FiOS Quantum, it'll be awhile. Because any video less than 100 mb is gonna look terrible. And upload speeds are extremely slow.

Finally, It's done. Free at last. Free of the terrors of all these dumb formats! Oh why can't it just be simple. .avi or .mov formats that aren't over 5 gigabytes, impossible.

Here it is. I did this one day with a friend and a neighbor (remember him from Senseless?)

Just some shots of us raking the yard, creatively.

Put in a awesomely pointless time-lapse. and voila.
(Yay for free intervalometers in hacked firmware that broke sister's $1000 camera. Woop woop. But it's all good. We got that insurance. #magiclantern)

Put on some color correction. Boom. Wonderful.

Next: Add a tilt-shift effect cause I felt like it, and who spends $2000 on a single-purpose lens anyway. Fools.

Next: Add some of that good music and titles. Yeah, they're cool. I guess.

Export. Reference first paragraph. and Upload. Oh, THE TERROR!

Official Dystopian Trailer - Senseless

This is my group's dystopian trailer, Senseless. It was a long and tedious process to release, but a new, fun experience. In the end, I'd say I'm satisfied with the outcome. I know certain parts could've been better, but for the first real project of the year, it's decent.

Process:
Pre-Production
- Create a dystopain premise and start to develop a plot
- Start writing a scipt for the movie
- Make a storyboard to visualize the shots
- Make production schedule, scout locations, find actors
Production
- Get to locations, set up shots
- Film shots
- Review shots to see if they need to be reshot
- Redo shots if need be
Post-Production
- Import shots into computer
- Edit shots into composition, in right order, not too long, etc.
- Color correct shots
- Add Effects
- Add titles and credits
- Export video
- Upload to YouTube

Video Graphics Test

I've recently discovered many plug-ins for the editing program Adobe After Effects. A lot of them are really interesting, but also complex. Today, I decided to mess around with a plug-in called Trapcode Mir. It generates these 3D geometric designs that you can animate in many ways. You can color/texturize it with a random picture or video. It's pretty insane. Here's a video of what I came up with in an hour or two after the first time I forgot to save it even once and the program crashed. Editing is quite RAM and computer memory intensive, and at timse can slow your computer to the speed of a sloth.

To do this entire thing I had to:
- Install plug-in to After Effects
- Make a new project
- Make a new composition
- Add different layers
- Find a color gradient/texture
- Find a song
- Apply the effect
- Mess around with settings for a while to learn what they do
- Keyframe settings to animate the design
- Export from After Effects
- Upload to Youtube
- Find out the audio is too low and HD is amazing
so...yeah. I'll test a few more plug-ins when I have the time. Which means the end of the school year because CAP is a load of work at times.

Here it is:

Expression through more unique means.

ASOS Puma 'Os Pixadores' from Pulse Films on Vimeo.

As of recent, I've been more interested in abstract art and graffiti, and when I saw this video, I was in awe. However, this video is about 'pixadores'. Pixadores are gang members in Sao Paulo who express themselves and tag their gang through art and graffiti, often times illegally. Now, is this right? No. Is it legal? No. Why would a company like Asos or Puma essentially sponsor this? This has been the question many people are asking. I, too, am confused, however, I don't really mind. It's definitely a better way of expressing themselves than killing people or committing much worse crimes as some gangs do, but it's still illegal. It's hard for me to side against these guys though because of my interest in their art and all. I don't mind small crimes like trespassing or whatever these artists are doing. As long as you're not disrupting anything or damaging anything, I don't see anything wrong with trespassing. Psh. Why not be communist? Let's all share our property. Sounds good to me. And their graffiti can always be removed if need be.

The process itself interests me. I love scaling walls and buildings. It's not hurting anyone, but the fact it's sometimes illegal is exhilarating. On top of that, most people haven't been on these roofs, etc. which, to me, is entertaining because it's almost like the most basic form of exploration. Sometimes you can see everything from a different view, or see new things you've never noticed.

And about the video, it's good. Really well done. Color correction on spot. Angles and speed of film perfect. Interesting story because I don't think many people know of these pixadores, or at least in the United States. Music and sound effects fit well.

A Look At Our Law Enforcers

Saw this shocking video today. I've heard similar stories before on the radio station NPR. Every time, it's so angering. It just gives people even more reason to hate the police, which I slowly find myself doing. I respect the police when I see them, but slowly, through media, I feel I'm being slightly brainwashed. There's a feeling inside my head that wants to hate the police, and there's reason for it, as shown through this video. I want to believe the police and law enforcement systems are doing their job correctly, but it's difficult with evidence like this. When someone hasn't even done anything illegal, and the police officers try to find something to charge them for, and the way they disrespect the "criminals" is simply bothersome. Especially because it has to do with race and other things, irrelevant to the crime "committed".

Now, I myself, as most people have committed minor crimes if they're even worthy of that title. J-walking, trespassing, blocking pedestrian traffic, just to name a few. Knowing things like this are being used to arrest people is enraging. Many of these simple laws are for our own safety, and definitely, for first time offense, are not as punishable as some police departments make them.

Just saw this video and felt the need to write a reaction.

*Warning* Lots of explicit language

Life in a Handstand: Homeless (Ep 4)

This video series is an interesting concept, and is incredibly well done. The filming and color correction look cinematic. It uses sliders, timelapses, film grain, and lots of other great stuff. Some really interesting camera angles that definitely help get the point across, like the close ups of the cigarette scene. Visive Productions is the best filming group I know that's not some major Hollywood group. They only use DSLRs (Two Canon 7D's) and a GoPro, I think.

Considering it's not a real actor, decently emotional, and the fact he's totally not homeless cause he drives an Audi.

Oh...and the skills required to balance on his hands...not easy as well. Props to Livewire.

Russians

Psh. Russians. They must not have backbones or something. Parkour and freerunning at its finest.
So explanatory. Nothing explains it better.

But basically, this video has some of the craziest moves I've seen. Russians always seem to be the first to do the new trick and seem to be able to morph themselves like nobody else.  Who else does gainer precisions? Anyone else wanna try running forward, doing a backflip and landing on something else? Doubt it. Or jump, do half a gainer, and catch a 3 foot high bar in your legs and not hit your head, and then land on your feet. Impossible.

Parkour analysis makes me sound like some crazy person. like that guy ^

*excuse explicit content. once again*

Dystopias in Pop Culture

I recently remembered this music video I saw a while ago and thought it a great example of a dystopian world. Everything about it is fantastically done. It's interesting to see these sort of videos in pop culture.

*excuse any explicit content*

Dystopian Trailer Poster

We were assigned to make a propaganda poster for our dystopian trailer with the option of using it in them or not. This is my group's poster. We chose to design it this way because we thought it effectively communicated some of the ideas behind our dystopian premise. For example, the social classes in our trailer will be divided through loss of their senses between the different classes. The poor can't see or hear the rich. This poster shows this through an eye with a businessman (or rich person) as the pupil. It's also blurred because tha helps show the idea that they're living in a perfect world. The font we chose looks somewhat post-apocalyptic or dystopian which is fitting for this assignment. I do not think we'll be using it in our actual trailer.



Dystopian Film Trailer Review/Critique

V for Vendetta . James McTeigue . R. 2005
When Great Britain becomes a totalitarian nation, a rebel, by the name of V (Hugo Weaving), starts a revolution, calling on the people of the country to help him revolt. He rescues a woman, Evey (Natalie Portman), to later find her to be a useful partner in crime.

A dystopia, by definition, is "an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one." (Google). V for Vendetta is a trailer that contains these aspects of a dystopia: a totalitarian society and a nation where many citizens were unhappy. The director conveys these ideas through the use of a speech given by the head of the government (1:16), and the use of montages displaying the government's power (i.e. 1:27).  The trailer is edited with a dark, grey/blue tone to show the dreariness of the situation. The language throughout the trailer is all very powerful and emotion-provoking. There are many quick flashes to keep the viewer on the edge of his or her seat, nervous for the people of the the nation in the movie. There are also many scenes of violence and chaos showing how horrific the place the dystopia takes place truly is. The director uses these and many other techniques to provide the qualifications for a dystopian story.

In my own dystopian trailer, I plan to use many different filming techniques to communicate the dystopian theme. I hope to color correct the footage to cool colors and darken and sharpen it to give it a grungy feel. I also want to film in contrasting environments to show the difference between the high and lows of society in our dystopia. I will use dramatic voiceovers of the main character to keep the viewer's attention through listening closely, as well as watching carefully. With these different techniques and others, my group's trailer has a lot of potential.

5x5 Video Project

1. A shot from an outlook of a town/village near El Salvador's capital, San Salvador
2. A shot of a fishing pier and market at a beach on the Pacific Ocean, south of the village Zaragoza
3. A shot of a wild, starving dog at the foot of "La Puerta del Diablo" translated to be "The Gate of the Devil"
4. A shot of some performers demonstrating traditional Salvadoran dances
5. A shot of a village on the way to the capital, San Salvador

For this video, I used the Canon EOS T2i with the 18-55mm kit lens. This was edited on Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5. The edit was simply compiling the clips, no color correction or changing the audio. Everything went smoothly, without any problems.

Personally, this 5x5 is probably as good as I could get with the limitations, but there are a few things that I would've preferred. The video itself is a bit grainy, and shaky, but it's handheld, what can one expect. I also  obviously, would've preferred to be able to color correct, etc.

For our next independent video project, I think it'd be interesting to have everyone make a video that displays some parts of their life, similar to a day in the life video. It could be hobbies, school life, etc.

For our third assignment, we've been told to find an expert on a topic we're interested in relating to our class.     It was required we read an article about subscribing and connecting to people through RSS Readers.

The article talks about the new methods of learning provided by the internet, called the "Collaboration Age" because it allowed students to collaborate with peers, and find experts on topics to learn from. This technology allows one to work with people from all over the world. Different websites or apps can be used to tag websites, write documents as a group, share media, and much more. These tools can prove very beneficial for students, but only if used correctly. This style of learning and teaching requires teachers to step back and rethink their role as a teacher: to be more of a connector than a knowledge provider. This new age would force kids to think about the content of what they're engaged in, whether it can be trusted. If controlled, this new teaching method could be one of the most effective ways to this day.

Annotations: http://diigo.com/0sx64

One of my favorite videos to date. Great cinematography, color correct, and editing, as well.

Today was my first day using the website/app Diigo. It lets you annotate on text and create tag lists.

The movie review was structured mainly around the plot, giving bits of information about the characters. It seemed to avoid the cinematic and dramatic aspects for the most part. The author seemed to be quite critical of the movie despite the popularity and recommendations among people. He first compared "Inception" to other movies about the mind and dreams and then gave his opinion. The review lacks recommendation.

I think for our film class's movie reviews, we could give a basic plot overview, discuss the main characters, setting, and cinematographic aspects, such as: angles, transitions, color grading, etc. Analyzing all the different aspects of a film will only better our understanding of movie-making and help improve our own videos.

See my annotations of a movie review of "Inception" by A.O. Scott of the New York Times.
"This Time the Dream's on Me"
http://diigo.com/0sswq

I'm Sam. I'm a sophomore at Blair. I do parkour and play cello. I have a sister who is a junior also in CAP. I'm really interested in cinematography and video editing. I'm a terrible actor and don't particularly like being in front of the camera. I recently bought myself a DSLR and edit using Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, however, in this class, we're using Final Cut Pro. I'm excited to learn a new program. I like the mechanics of filmmaking, as well as the accessories, lenses, and editing programs. I did two years in middle school of a film-making class and a semester in high school. Of the video-making I've done, it would be hard for me to choose one as a favorite because I often find myself unsatisfied with my work shortly after it's completed and I've never gotten to make videos on topics that particularly interest me.

We could use these blogs this year to express our opinions on our school assignments, update each other on how a project might be going, and share media we find to be fascinating and intriguing as inspiration for others.