Editing Transitions Between Scenes

When making a movie, you have many opportunities to make it look as professional as possible. One example is to add and incorporate editing transitions between scenes. This process is adding a certain element to switch from scene to scene in a visually effective way. One could possibly use a dissolve method that makes the scene do exactly that; dissolve into where the other scene begins. This process makes switching from scene to scene look appropriate and in addition, the dissolve process could indicate a change of time, possibly a flashback. Whereas a fade transition (just quickly having the first scene fade to black and the other scene fade in from black or just appear in the shot) would just indicate a scene in current time. Professionals have been experimenting with the best kinds of transitions for years, seeing which ones fit the best for each scene.

For example, if you were to be viewing a slideshow of nature, a slow cross fade (which is moving from scene to scene in a slow fashion) would be the best transition because the scene is calming and the speed is not too quick to take away from the scene or from the viewer taking all the time needed to enjoy the shot. The video below shows an example of scenic shots and the slow cross fade, which makes the transitions seem more professional. Also, the video shows a quicker paced slideshow of motocross. Here, we are showed these scenes with quick transitions to be more visually stimulating to what we're seeing and how quick we're seeing it. All in all, what I learned is that transitions are very important. Not just because it looks well done when completed, but depending on the scene, certain transition speeds are important to making your movie look top quality.

Blog #8- Bootleg Culture

Rojas makes some interesting insights in his piece "Bootleg Culture." He says, "where turntables now routinely outsell guitars, teenagers aspire to be Timbaland and the Automator, No. 1 singles rework or sample other records, and DJs have become pop stars in their own right, even surpassing in fame the very artists whose records they spin" (Rojas 1) I thought this was really interesting, being a teenager now, and relating with the material I just read. To me personally, i'd rather have turntables than a guitar, just because I think I could get more out of a turntable. Why? Because where I am as a person, in the music I listen to, and where our culture is, in the music we as a whole listen to, the turntable is almost a better investment. I remember a line from a Jedi Mind Tricks song, "Anybody with a tape recorder can rap now." I thought that was thought provoking and related to "Bootleg Culture," in a sense, because it's pretty much true. With youtube out there, anyone can make any sort of media and put it out there to be viewed. To go back to Rojas, I agree with his points completely. The "man" of the industry, throwing out what is illegal and what isn't (to a very extreme certain extent) is stifling musicians creativity. Who's to say what truthfully is a creative work. Apparently, according to some, creativity ONLY lies in making something one hundred percent original. Those people don't take into account the time and effort mashup, remix or bootleggers put into collaborating more than one sound (often many sounds), making it sound professional, and making it sell. They believe it's just a crime, when really, as Rojas brilliantly put it, "Pop culture in general seems more and more remixed -- samples and references are permeating more and more of mainstream music, film, and television, and remix culture appears to resonate strongly with consumers. We're at the point where it almost seems unnatural not to quote, reference, or sample the world around us" (Rojas 1).

I choose two pieces of media. This first is a parody of the funny 1996 movie "Happy Gilmore" starring Adam Sandler. As we have all seen, or know, Sandler is a comedic genius, and his early movies were some of the funniest comedies to ever be released (opinion based). Given that, it would be silly to comprehend his movie "Happy Gilmore" to be anything but a hilarious comedy (which it is). However, someone used different scenes in the movie, and scary music, to make the movie look like a horror flick. I think if done well, it's brilliant. Now who's to say that isn't creative? My other piece is the famous rapper Notorious B.I.G, where his song, "Party and Bullshit" is played over the new song "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. I think it's done well, sounds professional and it's catchy. What more could you ask for in a song? I'm impressed as a listener, and that should be enough without having legality issues brought in. The only thing this song could do (in terms of sales) is promote more for both artist. Seems like a win win to me. What else I think is done well, is B.I.G is purely gangster rap, whereas Miley Cyrus is very new age pop. I think it put together is harmonized excellently which is very impressive to me, seeing as their very different genre's.

Blog #7-Confessions of an Intellectual Property

McLeod, the writer of "Confessions of an Intellectual Property," has a few different thoughts on the copyright of today. He has this idea that copyright today is outdated. Do I agree? I'm not really sure to be honest. I find the whole concept confusing. For example the "Grey Album" by Danger Mouse was highly publicized and deemed illegal because he uses samples from other artists. McLeod says, "Under the current copyright system, owners insist that it’s illegal to sample without permission, even if one offers to pay royalties" (McLeod 2). However, McLeod discusses Eminem's tracks being put over an 80's pop song "Come on Eileen" and that's completely legal. In fact, McLeod adds, "His powerlessness illustrates how he, as an author, has little control over how his music is received and understood—that he literally does not have the final word, as Roland Barthes would say—no matter how hard he tries" (McLeod 6) I find this whole spectrum here rather confusing. Therefore, I suppose I do agree that copyright is outdated. There's so many different elements that come into play, that it's hard to even tell what's legal and what isn't. In addition, there's a lot of jargon that comes into play that might be used to confuse some, so they don't have the best grip on what is legal, or what needs to be obtained for legality purposes.

In terms of "mash-ups", I actually really enjoy them. There's a lot of people in the industry now that work with compiling different artists together, and when it's done well, it's really enjoyable. For example, lets look at the artist Girl Talk. Girl Talk is completely all just mash ups. He has four albums now, and every song is just artists on top of other artist's songs, and the way they all fit together is phenomenal; it's like the song was meant to be recorded that way in the first place. I chose the following example for a few reasons. One, Eminem has a part in this Girl Talk song (called "No Pause"), and Eminem was referenced in McLeod's piece, so I thought it would fit well together. Next, I find this song incredibly well done; if you go to wikipedia and look up the song, there's 26 different artists, all with segments of their songs playing over each other. However, it's compiled so well, that it all fits perfectly, sounds great, and seems like the song should have been made this way originally. I find this work incredibly hard to do, thus requiring much talent in sound editing. I applaud these types of musicians from breaking free of the typical norm of making music and finding a new medium that's interesting, sounds professional and is fun to listen and dance to.

Linear Structure

When making a movie, you have many choices on how you can film it. Of course, it depends on the direction that the director, cinematographer, producer, etc. want to go in. There are certain films out there that are cut up. Meaning, the end scene(s) of the movie might come before the middle or even the beginning scenes. Directors have been playing around with this film technique for many years, as a way of possible foreshadowing or letting the audience in on something the characters might not know yet. A good example of this is the blockbuster hit Pulp Fiction. The very first scene in that movie is actually the last scene that brings together the whole plot. Therefore, the ending came even before the beginning, and gave the audience clues as to what's going to happen in this film. It's a great way to keep audiences on their feet and leave them until the last scene to really understand why that scene was shown first.

However, what was just described above is called NONlinear structure, where the scenes in the movies are not placed in sequential order, but rather mixed up. Directors use this method sometimes to express the characters memory, and the scenes switching from past to present often shows the characters remembering what has happened to them throughout the film, thus helping them to figure out certain clues in the plot. We here are discussing just linear structure, which is the exact opposite. With linear structure, everything in the movie goes from beginning to end, no necessary switching from past to present. This filming style is basic and used in most movies that have been produced. While it's a very easy technique to film, it's not typically as exciting as nonlinear structure, because the film may be more predictable. Either way, linear structure is common, and easier (in my opinion) to follow.

Sound in Editing

Sound in editing (or just sound editing) is a process that's used in mainly all television shows, video games, movies or media that requires sound mixing. As the title almost says it all, sound editing is going through the (we'll say movie) and completing the final stages of editing with sound. Sound editing is rather essential in today's popular films, for it creates very smooth transitions from shot to shot, making the audio and conversation clearer, and the background noise not as noticeable. This is a very delicate process, because the audience hears everything in the theatre (while there's dead silence). If the editing isn't done well (or correctly) everyone will be able to hear the lack of smooth transition, and the film wont get as much praise. Like any specific role someone has in making a movie well done, the sound editing is by far one of the most important.

The sound in editing is a specific role that is taken on by someone called the "sound editor." It's this person's job to accomplish these smooth transitions. Within the role of film editor, there are three different "divisions of sound". Those are, dialogue, effects and music. According to wikipedia, big filming areas such as California and New York's sound editors are given the role of just one of those divisions, because it's such a big project to work on. However, in smaller filming locations, sound editors are expected to do all three divisions. Editing can often be challenging for in addition, sound editors are sometimes expected to use mixing skill as well. "Editing effects is likened to creating the sonic world from scratch, while dialogue editing is likened to taking the existing sonic world and fixing it" (Wikipedia). Usually the program for sound editing for Mac computers is called pro tools.

Fiction Project

For this project, I am working with Lori, Chelena, Mark and Avery. We have chosen to use Chelena's script to make our fiction project. The title of the script is "Ripples of Hope." The story is about a guy named Aaron who throughout the first part of the story, is made out to be a jerk. He doesn't help when someone falls on ice, when someone gets their car stuck in snow and he eats his roommate's cereal. Throughout the story, there is a voice over for Aaron describing how he feels alone and the scenes become very dark. As the story progresses, we find out that all of this behavior from Aaron has been made up; none of it was real. Instead, Aaron has been a very positive character, lending a helping hand everywhere we previously see him avoiding it.

I personally really like this story and am excited that we get to develop it because it's touching. It really hits home and delivers a good message that is going to leave our viewers thinking. I like how we're keeping the people on their feet about Aaron's character. Until the final pages of the script, Aaron is really someone who viewers will dislike. It's going to be interesting to watch their perspectives of him change as they see the whole picture and understand the plot. If done correctly and well, this story is going to be top notch.

For this project, we have all chosen a role to make this film. The choices were producer, director, editor, cinematographer, and production designer. While everyone has picked one, my specific role is going to be the cinematographer. My specific duties are all about lighting and camera, so in retrospect, I have a pretty essential role (not to say the others don't). I constantly have to be on my feet. My specific job has me coordinating with pretty much everyone in my group to make everything flow well.

I am all about the lights, camera, action. I work with the sound designer in renting out equipment, I'm always ready with the lighting from wherever we're filming (inside, outside, cloudy or sunny days), with the camera ready to shoot. I work hand in hand with the director as well, because the director gives their insight to what lighting he/she wants to use and different camera angles he/she thinks will work and look the best. During scene, I'm going to be responsible for moving the camera around (if need be) to really capture the best shot I can. I'll also be working with the editor to make sure we have all the scenes we want, and all the bad lighting or bad camera shots can be edited out. I'm excited to get started!

Postman Amusing Ourselves to Death

Neil Postman has written a book very similar to the other books we're reading in this course. Postman also even references McLuhan, including that McLuhan was Postman's english teacher 30 years prior to "Amusing Ourselves to Death." This book discusses the fact, (Like Brave New World, only in a more "realistic, in the present" sort of view) how we've come to an age of being unintelligent. We are so accustomed to the age of television now, that “we are people on the verge of amusing ourselves to death” (Postman 4). He discusses how during the printing press era, America was more a more intelligent discourse community. We relied more on intellect and using our minds to live life rather than being subjected to a television screen. Since the boom of television, the American mind has been warped and molded into the shape that the media controls, thus we've become dumber as a nation. He claims that the reason television is making us less intelligent is because "Television gives us a conversation in images, not words" (Postman 7). Basically, Postman is saying that we're not having to learn anything watching television, we're just being entertained and becoming mindless blobs in front of a screen. It is true; television is a major advancement in technology leading to more and more kids putting down books and picking up XBOX controllers. Postman also discusses americans in the media saying, "Indeed, in America, God favors all those who possess both a talent and a format to amuse, whether they be preachers, athletes, entrepreneurs, politicians, teachers or journalists" (Postman 5). He means here that the only people on television are good looking behind camera, and entertaining. Whereas the people who aren't fortunate enough to have camera skills are the ones who sit at home, being amused by those on TV.

In terms of media surveillance, this book so far has made me think of the medium of video games as a whole. Looking deeper into video games, take World of Warcraft for instance, WoW is one of the most successful online video games, with 11.5 million monthly subscriptions. Now, if there's another medium out there more addictive than WoW, please share. Imagine the amount of kids every day, who get home from school, and the first thing they do is log onto their WoW accounts. No longer do kids come home and take out a book for some easy reading; instead, kids subject themselves to sitting in front of a screen for hours upon hours everyday. Postman is one hundred percent accurate in claiming that our society is becoming dumber. We're no longer learning on our own, but instead being programmed by all forms of media every time we're at home. Is there a solution? Who knows, but hopefully some benefit will come from the constant attack of media soon.