I was a little intimidated at first when I saw that it was video week. I don’t have a whole lot of experience when it comes to taking and editing videos. I went through all of the video assignments and found ones that I thought would challenge me and help me grow my skills but would also be fun. First, here are my 10 stars of video assignments for the week:
Avon and Stringer Fight: Chipmunk Style
I did this 2.5 star assignment using both Windows Live Movie Maker and Audacity. I figured it would be a good introduction to how Windows Move Maker works. Not super hard but not super easy either. When I was watching the episode I knew that I had to do this assignment for that scene. I knew it was going to be hilarious and it didn’t let me down. I laughed all the way through it, especially when they were actually fighting and Stringer was on top of Avon yelling at him. Oh it is great.
How I did it:
Well this was a bit of a struggle to make but eventually I got it. First I found the scene on YouTube and opened the Free YouTube Downloader that I have on my computer from when we were making our GIFs. I first downloaded the video as an AVI file. But that wouldn’t open right in MPEG Stream Clip. Then I re-downloaded it as an MP4 file. I opened this in MPEG Stream Clip in an attempt to trim it. However, I don’t know if it was too long or what but MPEG Stream Clip did NOT want to trim it for me. It kept crashing. So I decided to try to open the MP4 up in Windows Live Movie Maker and edit it there. After messing around for a little in Movie Maker I figured out how to trim it there. Then I tried to chipmunk-ify them in movie maker. I looked around a little and couldn’t figure it out. Speeding it up just made it hard to watch and listen to. So I googled it to see if you can adjust it in Movie Maker. I saw a few videos on how to do it but I guess I have a different version of Movie Maker than the one they were using so I couldn’t figure out how to do it. However, I knew that I could make it high pitched in Audacity. So I went back to Free YouTube Downloader and downloaded the same clip as an MP3 file. I imported that into audacity and went to Effect>Change Pitch and changed it so it sounded chimpmunk-y enough for me. Then I trimmed it to where I thought it would fit with my video. I imported it into movie maker and the sound was a couple seconds off from the video so I had to go back and trim the audio a little more in Audacity. The second time I trimmed it it fit perfectly! I was happy that it only took two tries to work. In order to post it on here I couldn’t just post the WMV file because it didn’t like that so I used zamzar.com to convert it to an MP4 file and downloaded to my computer and then uploaded it to my blog (unfortunately, for reasons not yet known, the video won’t work on my blog even though I converted it to MP4). You can hear the sound but you can’t see the video which is frustrating.
Was High School Really Four Years Ago?
For my second video assignment for this week I did “High School Memories” (4.5 stars). I thought this would be a fun assignment to do, especially being able to reflect on my high school years. No, they weren’t the best four years of my life but I did have a lot of fun while they lasted. I also worked very hard during high school (and had the GPA to show for it) but that didn’t leave a whole lot of room for a social life. Luckily I was able to set aside enough time–especially junior and senior year–to have fun with my friends. I don’t regret it one bit.
How I did it:
Since I did not have this computer in high school, all of my pictures are at home and on Facebook. So I went on Facebook and went through the pictures that I am tagged in and saved the memorable ones. I then went through my pictures that I have posted. Unfortunately I couldn’t figure out how to save a video from Facebook (if someone can enlighten me I would be more than happy to re-make my video with some videos in it). When I was done going through Facebook, I opened all of the pictures in Windows Live Movie Maker. I then figured out how to group them so it would make the most sense. I rearranged the pictures so they would be in that order. I then added title slides to each section so people wouldn’t be confused and it also kind of breaks up the pictures rather than having just 78 pictures straight for three and a half minutes. I then clicked on “Add Music” and imported a song I thought would go well with my pictures, “All American Girl” by Carrie Underwood. I clicked on “Project” and “Fit to Music.” I then went to “Animations” and clicked on “Automatic Pan and Zoom” which picks a pan or zoom type for each picture. I decided to do this because just looking at pictures stationary for three and a half minutes was boring. I also didn’t want to make it the same animation for each slide so I decided to do the random one. I then saved the video “For Computer” and went to zamzar.com to convert it to MP3 from WMV. This video took a lot longer to convert and download than my other one did, likely because the amount of files that are in it.
It also would not let me direct upload to here so I had to put it up on YouTube first. It was 2MB too big >:(
For my final video assignment this week I did “This Is My Story” (3 stars). I chose this one because I have, oddly enough, always wanted to make one of these videos where I tell my story through writing even though it is on video. The hardest part was choosing a topic to talk about. I thought about doing my life story but that’s really just boring since I have lived one place my whole life and only have one sister and had a boring, school-focused life until college. So I decided to go with what makes me happy. Obviously this is the short list of what makes me happy. I could have gone on all day but I figured I should keep it relatively short and sweet and to the point.
How I did it:
I first figured out what I was going to write and wrote it on note cards in fairly neat handwriting using marker so it was easier to read. I then opened up Cyberlink YouCam (my webcam). I knew the video would show up backwards but I recorded it anyway. I was hoping I could flip it somehow. After I recorded it, I opened the file in Windows Live Movie Maker. I then looked under “Visual Effects” and there was a “Flip horizontally” one so I did that and voila, my note cards were readable. I then chose a song that I thought would go along well with this theme and I chose “Doin’ What She Likes” by Blake Shelton. I imported it and I figured out at what point I wanted to start the song. I decided to start it at :19 when he starts singing. It also happens to cut off close to the end of a line so that was nice too. Once that was done I saved the movie “For computer” and changed it from WMV to MP4 using zamzar.com and downloaded it so I could put it on here.
Well, due to some kind of technical difficulties that I don’t really understand, the video works on my computer but when I upload it it won’t show the video. And because I have a song behind the video, YouTube mutes the song but allows you to see the pictures. I had all kinds of issues with my videos this week.
Daily Creates:
I did Tuesday’s daily create just in the nick of time. Obviously by the time I decided to do it, it was dark outside so to make it hard to tell what the object was I had to make it dark in the room as well. It may be obvious what it is, nevertheless I am happy with how it turned out.
It’s pretty low quality because of how dark it was in the room but it is still apparent that there is something in front of the blinds. It’s a lamp for those of you who are playing along at home.
The moral of the story is don’t fall asleep on the softball bus. You will have pictures taken of you. I could post a funny picture of myself where I fell asleep with my hands in my pocket. I chose this one because it is funny. We have several pictures of this girl (one of my roommates) asleep in a similar position so it was a running joke on the team to get more pictures of her in the same position. So this is one of the best sleeping pictures that I have:
This week I was inspired by one of the posts that I commented on last week. It was Jeremy’s post from October 2. He made Cedric Daniels into a giraffe. It made me laugh but it was also a great choice of animal for Daniels. I was inspired by the simplicity of it but also the thought that went into it. He not only chose a perfect animal for Cedric–because of the methodical way that he moves–but he also chose the perfect face. Cedric seems to be saying “How did I turn into a giraffe?!?!” I commented on the inspire post and here is the picture:
The other post that inspired me was Nicky’s How-To McNulty for Dummies. It was also posted on the inspire page so I commented on the inspire post. Her post inspired me because it was very creative. It was a great idea to make a how to McNulty for dummies because he is a very interesting character. He is not a character who is typical of all shows. He is a main character who tries to be good but is really corrupt. I love her description of what the book is about. She also inspired me in the quality of her work. It is very high quality and I wouldn’t have known where to start with that project. Here is the picture of it:
The scene I am doing “Look, Listen, Analyze” for is the scene where Dennis tries to get his permits to transform the warehouse into a gym. The scene starts at 17:49 in Episode 9 of Season 3. These are my notes upon watching this scene.
Look:
Wide shot of Dennis walking in, then focus on his face, and pan up to the “menacing” door.
Blank look in Dennis’s eye—he looks anxious, confused,
amused
angry
and impatient depending on who he is talking to
He walks out looking dejected
Listen:
Cars
Get louder
Walking up steps
Opens door
Elevator ding
Property zoning—talking in codes that Dennis likely doesn’t understand—talking about everything that he needs and he probably doesn’t understand—he is likely overwhelmed—phones ringing. Elevator dings at the end
Opens the door and you hear him walking down the stairs
They were talking super-fast, not allowing him to get a word in edgewise
Analyze:
Cars get a little louder when it zooms in on him (when we get closer to the street)
“A boxing gym” *ding*–that was interesting
He looks confused when she is reading the properties zone B1, B2, B3, B4, or B5
It was interesting how they meshed all of the different people talking together to make it seem like a coherent stream of talking even though he wasn’t hearing them in that order
He also talks to all different kinds of people but the way they make their thoughts one stream of consciousness is interesting
I also thought it was interesting how the scene begins and ends with an elevator ding—kind of like a boxing match to represent the beginning and end of a round!!
You can see all the pictures from these clips in my original blog post.
Well this clip may as well have been silent because I obviously didn’t understand anything that was said (I took Spanish as my foreign language). I guess voice inflections kind of tell us a little bit but I really didn’t understand a whole lot. Anyway here is what I saw:
The kids are playing a game that the lady up on the balcony (I assume she is a mom) does not want them to play. They stop until she goes inside and then they continue playing. To me this shows me that they don’t listen and that is foreshadowing for something that will likely happen later on in the movie.
You know that one lady is pregnant before you even see her belly because of the way she struggles getting up the stairs. I am not sure of her role in this scene but she may be important later on in the movie.
The little girl almost gets hit by a car which to me was foreshadowing that something bad would happen. It could also be seen as her staying out of trouble but that is not how I saw it.
Then you see the lady setting the table for two right after the little girl almost gets hit by a car–to me that showed me that maybe the little girl wouldn’t end up making it home. And then when you see the shadow looking at the little girl you know that she won’t come home. I am sure that sign was some kind of wanted sign for that guy and the fact that he had probably abducted other children recently.
The mom is worried that something is wrong because the little girl should be home soon. Then she didn’t show up with the other kids. You then see the little girl getting a ball from the creepy guy. Lang does so many things to make sure that you know that the little girl isn’t going to come home. Then the mom gets her hopes up when the mail man rings the doorbell, but you know that it is in vain. She looks down the stairs and calls the girl’s name, looks at the clock again, calls out the window to her and gets more and more frantic. The camera shows all of the places that she isn’t and then finally her ball rolling away.
It is crazy to me that you don’t have to know German to understand what is going on and what has gone on that hasn’t been explicitly shown on the screen.
Comments:
http://www.nixmemita.com/ds106/teach-me-how-to-ziggy/#comment-8098
http://ds106.meredithfierro.com/blog/assignments/tv-trailer/#comment-354
http://www.tpeedhispants.com/assignments/simple-can-be-better/#comment-16356
