Project 4 FA 333:Documentary

For my FA 333 class we are working on a documentary, and since I have never done a documentary before it is going to be rather interesting. My partner and I are working on it together and I think the editing is going to be challenging since Doug wants it a specific way. Once my partner and I finished recording the footage that we wanted to use, we both began to edit it using Final Cut Pro. One thing to mention, Doug said that the more people that are in a group, they are required to have a more impressive documentaries and since I am just in a group of two, there really is no pressure. We recorded using two DSLR 5i cameras to get a couple of angles. As we soon approach the last couple of weeks, for all my classes we are working on many of our final projects, so I have been busing working on many of those and getting a early start doesn't hurt. I can't wait to see other peoples documentaries since I find documentaries rather interesting. Overall this has been a very pleasant semester and I have learned  so much about art.

DTC 355 Cinema Verite Project

For my DTC 355 class everyone completed their cinema verite videos. I felt that a lot of people had the same footage of cars passing other cars which is really an indicator that a lot of students commute to school from long or close distances. Other than that, there really were some diverse pieces that I really like. I think the highlight of my cinema verite is the soundtracks since I think that it kept the video interesting as the songs changed. I wanted the songs that I chose to match the video, but this didn't work out for all my footage. The problem that I struggled with was the transitions from song to song. I wanted each transition to the next song to be as smooth as possible. I learned that video editing is very different than editing video. I think that for next time I am going to be paying attention to the way shots are being taken, like for example, the rule of thirds and also complexity of shots. I also posted it on YouTube as well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOvhwhT8NgQ

Art of the Digital Age Ch 5-6

On page 122, Wands discusses many performance artist and one that I can never forget is sound artist John Cage with his piece called water walk. This piece is very interesting because it's really playful, and watching him on stage create various sounds make his actions unpredictable. On page 135, Wands mentions Rain Anne Ashford's work called Dustharps, which is not only a performance or sounds based work, it is also a participatory work that is manipulated via a mouse on computer screen. This piece is unique since instead of having professional sound and visual animators, this piece allows the user to control what sounds and visuals appear on screen. As I read on page 142, Wands discusses how long it takes to create animations and that there are very few artists who attempt a daunting task like this. My brother and I have had a small taste of how time consuming something like animation can be, as seen with our stop motion work. But even though the animation process takes a long time, it's well worth it once the piece is complete and it's exactly the way the artist envisioned it. Also, on page 147, Wands discusses artist Cory Arcangel, and I am impressed that he created his own works with software that he created! Now that is impressive, I don't think I have seen a lot of artists do something like that.

FA 333 Project 3: Music Video

For my FA 333 class I worked on a music video, and I decided to use a Christian rap song, since that is my favorite genre of music. I began to listen to every single song I had and I narrowed the song down to a song called Theology Q & A by artist Shai Linne. Once I had the song that I wanted, the next obstacle was to decided where I wanted to film and how I wanted it to be shot. I decided to shoot at out local church. I started to record with the DSLR camera really early, since I knew that other people were going to reserve them so I decided to get a head start on the project. I shot the video from many different angles and varied locations to make the video interesting. Once I had the shots that I wanted, I then began to edit it on Adobe After Effects. Once I had the video completed, I decided to add text for the whole song, which took a while. Once I had it completed, I watched it several times to make sure the Lip syncing was close. I also wanted the video to be convicting to its viewers, and a song that someone can learn something from, and not just a song that most people listen to entertain themselves. We finally presented them in front of class which was interesting to see everybody's video and what songs that they chose. If you want to see the video, here is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwTjjqBkbTc

Art of the Digital Age Ch 3-4

On page 76, I like the quote  by Rob Fisher that says "One should use the computer when it is appropriate: to save time or to permit development of forms that would otherwise be difficult by virtue of their complexity, engineering or scale" (Wands). In special architectural projects, I can see where creating a 3D rendering of what it might look like would really be helpful. Creating a 3D rendering would be really helpful in not only architectural projects, but also artists who are working on a large scale project and they would like to see how it looks like in a simulated real world environment before they begin creating it. I would only say one drawback to a 3D rendering is that it can't take into consideration the effect of gravity because in a program, the object may have no problem standing, but in the real world, gravity can make things tip over. On page 80, I see works like Breakout, Outreach, and Insurgent all from artist Bruce Beasily, and the works were first modeled in a 3D software and finally realized in cast bronze. The pieces are very impressive, and to me, they seem to defy gravity, which I thought was interesting and I am not sure if he had to overcome some obstacles to make them stand correctly. On page 99, Wands describes the piece called Lorna, by Lynn Hershman Leeson, and this is a online piece that allows the participation of a user, which is a capability that digital art has over physical installation art.