Reflection on Internet Archive Videos

Section 1: 

The aim for this project was to research how the youth is using new media to better understand the political and controversial events of today's world.

Section 2: What I learned

I learned how advanced the internet has become, in the sense of its various tools it offers to create and compose. We are becoming more and more dependent on the cloud aspect of things now, and one can only imagine how dependent we will be 10 years from now. I have grown to understand the helpfulness of the internet. I used to view the internet as a sorry excuse for not being able to independently create in productive manner. 

The internet is evolving on a daily basis and becoming more and more sophisticated. Our tools of today our accommodating their selves to this evolution with every new update. For instance, my Macbook Pro has come with several new functions that communicate directly to the internet. Facebook and other social networks are now integrated in the operating system itself. Our lives are now on the internet.

Section 3: What I would like to learn

I have learned to see what the basics are of these tools. I do see much potential in their abilities to help the user prosper in the world of digital media. There certainly is room for mastering these programs and having them become second to how we function in this modern world.

section4: My video exercises

Camstasia was a great simple tool to organize our researched topics in a creative manner. Not as advanced as I would have liked it to be, but it still got the job done. I did prefer the complete overlay cut. It provided a new story between the videos and the music helped seal that unison. The research videos certainly have their genre and serve the importance in the world of video remixing.

Bibliography:

Internet Archive Video

My new DMA assignment consisted of creatively editing two videos that related to the same subject. I chose to research about Kony 2012 and had one gentleman's commentary on what occurred last year with the ridiculous advertisement campaign to bring Joseph Kony to justice.

I had several lucky accidents pop up while editing this project. It's nice to have the freedom to explore and choose media you feel will go well with each other. Some lucky accidents that you may notice are the moments when the civilians of Uganda speak to the camera and are almost in sync with the voice of the commentator. And the very last lucky accident happens when the video is about to end and the civilians run away from the camera because rocks are being thrown at them and the music I inserted coincidentally has  a very climatic ending as well.

It's always nice to see how the different pieces of media unintentionally communicate with each other in a logical way.

Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAX9vFC_Ez8&feature=youtu.be

Here's a screen shot of the work in progress:

DMA Internet Archive

This week in DMA we had an interesting assignment where we had to research and gather two videos and an audio file from the Internet Archive. There was much freedom in this project. I chose my selections depending on how I was feeling in the moment. For some reason I was feeling partly Italian and partly Old School Jazz.

I ventured off into the Archive and found some interesting stuff, very random. It was through this random escapade that I married these forms of media into one new piece. One version is a double exposure and one version is a parallel edit. 

Both videos were edited under Camstasia. Camstasia is a very simple video editing system. It was so simple and basic that at times I just wanted to use my complicated Adobe Premiere CS6 for faster creativity. But it is here that I realized sometimes restrictions are necessary in order for there to be more concentrate on the objective of the assignment.

END of YEAR REFLECTION

Reflecting on the overall DMA course

I started the term with an intermediate perspective of what the internet is. I have always been very technologically savvy, so learning new tricks was not as hard for me. When it came to the video compositions I was able to incorporate my verstality with filmmaking into my projects. With my knowledge of video construction I was able to select media that naturally would work perfect together.

I learned the importance of composing with the intent to get your voice through the emerging media of today. We have all these new tools at our disposal that are being built for us to move this global society to the next level. As artist of the 21^st century our lives now have to take advantage of the several forms of expressing our visions through the web. Blogs, StumbleUpon, and other databases were stamped with academic approval through this course. DMA showed me that these new forms of media composition could seriously be used to make something worthwhile and virtuous.

A more expansive world of digital media still exists out there. A mastering of these tools and outlets still awaits my arrival. It would definitely be great to wield all these different swords properly without making a bloody mess.

I have always had much respect for the new –media related issues. Awareness of today’s world is key to better molding a better you to present to the world. As a storyteller I believe I have the obligation to keep myself up-to-date with the news and world issues that influence the lives of billions. This way my stories can reach those all over and not be stuck in just one out-of-date realm. Of course our past is just as important, but we hold on to the past without knowing we will use it better our present and future.

 Reflecting on a selection of spring-semester courses

Each class has a specific aim for what they expect the student to accomplish. Fortunately, other classes symbiotically crossover with similar tasks, ideas, or directions. For instance, I had something very interesting occur to me this last few weeks with an Academic course and a Fine Arts course. In my screenwriting course we have explored the many facets of approaching a screenplay. Our final screenplay assignment was to create script that showed an understanding of past exercises. One of our past exercises focused on fairy tale adaptations. And recently my English Composition professor has given us the opportunity to create a creative written piece that deals with Fairy Tales, Beowulf, and/or Grendel. This was pure luck. I was able to work with a story that interested me dearly and used several resources as its roots. New Media also took its influence in this project. I depended much on video reports from several news networks around the world that covered the current events in North Korea.

My screenplay took the characters of Kim Jong-Il and gave him the attributes of John Gardner’s version of Grendel. I noticed connections between Kim Jong-Il and Grendel. Just like Grendel Kim Jong-Il was born to be evil and rule as a monster. So I took the story of Grendel and retold it through the modern life of the young Dictator Kim Jong-Il.

Reflecting on the school year = CREATIVE COMPOSITION - IMAGE