The point of this assignment was to add into this video what was lacking. That included putting in pictures, maps, texts, music, etc.. I liked the creative aspects of Popcorn and I would use it if my computer and browser function well with the program. Sadly, It took my hours to complete this video when it should not have taken me more than one, and it still is not the way I would like it to be. I like that it allowed to incorporate photos, videos, and music into the video and make it my own. I never knew of software that would allow me to do all of that at once. It was frustrating to try and upload videos from vimeo or youtube because it took 3 or 4 try’s just so it would upload onto Popcorn. The video before the edits was funny, and at the end of this frustrating assignment I still laughed and smiled about it because it was a nice experience.
This assignment was one of the most difficult I’ve done in quite a while. The Mash-up Assignment which is called “Where Should Alan Go on Vacation?” is completed using the web browser program Mozilla Popcorn. Having never used it before, there was a bit of a learning curve in completing this assignment.
I started off with the Popcorn Mashup of Alan in the edited format but soon ran into problems. I really disliked the split scenes and white screens which came up so after tinkering around for a while, I simply deleted them and upload the full video uninterrupted. I then added some pictures and audio to round out the video.
For Alan’s vacation, I had him visit Hawaii with the beautiful sand beaches and great weather. I first referenced this using the map and wikipedia page. I then built on this theme using the lei in his suitcase and the Hawaiian dollar to fund the trip. Additionally, the inclusion of Jack Johnson’s “Better Together (Hawaiian Version)”, I think complemented the video quite well. I finished it by adding a short montage of Hawaii.
This post is dedicated to my experience with the remix assignment using Mozilla’s Popcorn Maker. The goal in this assignment was to take a video that was pre-created and remix it, adding images, video, and audio to it. I really liked how this was set up. It was set up similarly to a tutorial, making us learn by fiddling with Popcorn Maker, but also assisting us in what and where to add things. There was a wide array of things we needed to add. Things from images to music to videos. We were also even opted to add a map.
Now, here’s my video:
Overall, I was not very fond of this assignment. I know it served a great purpose, because it made us learn how to use new things on our own. But for me, I got frustrated with Popcorn Maker. It was somewhat difficult to use for me. The interface, and more specifically, the layering was hard to use. It didn’t really have a syncing ability so that two different layers could lock to match up at the exact same times. Other than that, I thought this was pretty cool and I can understand why people would use this for remixing in assignments. I found the computer screen probably the coolest thing, I also really liked the pop up boxes. The only thing I really couldn’t figure out was adding a map to the blank map he pulls out. I tried but for some reason I just couldn’t figure this out. I got the map to display on the screen similar to an image but I could not achieve making the map lock onto the physical blank map.
Other than that, I liked this assignment. I think it served a good purpose in getting familiar with remixes and the purposes behind them. It served as a learning tutorial for people to acclimated on how to create these remixes. If you’d like to check out this video you can find it here. Other than that, have a good Sunday everyone.
Oh, wow, this project was easily the hardest of the assigned. Mozilla has some excellent tools to introduce novices to the world of coding and digital creation, but the platforms can be tricky and a bit buggy depending on the computer you’re using.
While I was re-mixing Alan’s vacation on the Mozilla Popcorn interface, the program would often freeze, and I couldn’t carry on editing (this happened to me in X-Ray Goggles, as well, in the above link when I was re-writing the app review). I’d have to re-load the media for the section I was working on into the platform, or–worse–I’d have to re-load the page and start all over (thankfully, this only happened once)! I also didn’t realize until halfway through the assignment that you could directly access Wikipedia and Google Maps through the side panel rather than having to constantly paste a link into the “Get Media!” search bar. This realization arriving sooner could have saved me a lot of needless, careful screen-capping and tinypic uploading for direct URLs!
All of this frustration elongated the whole ordeal about an hour, and I took a much needed break mid-assignment to watch The Giverwith my family. Side note: I’ve never read the book (horrible, I know, because so many people consider it a classic!), but the movie was quite well acted and emotionally moving! I recommend it!
Despite the less-than-smooth process, I had fun picking material to add into the video! Here’s a run-down of the most memorable additions and my reasoning behind their choices:
IMAGE ON COMPUTER SCREEN: CORGI HATES CABBAGE CLIP
You may have seen this .gif floating around the Internet, especially if you follow memes like I do. I picked up the habit in high school thanks to I Can Haz a Cheeseburger?, and as they say, old habits die hard. Though, I keep track of memes via Tumblr now more than other websites.
Poor thing.
Anyway, however I found this, and regardless of whether or not this is your first time seeing this, I do not know why that poor corgi hates cabbage so much. As soon as Alan said his student posted a “crazy” example, my mind immediately flashed to this .gif, because look at that unexplained fury. What did the cabbage do to the dog? What kind of monster does the dog think that cabbage is?!
This is what noobtheloser on Tumblr seems to think happened, but if you stumble upon the truth of this corgi’s fury in the vast expanse of the Internet, PLEASE let me know. I’m genuinely curious.
After perusing some of the YouTube comments and translating Japanese as best I can via Google, it seems that some dogs just act extremely possessive over food and get angry when pulled away from said food, so, basically, that dog seriously loves that vegetable.
“OLD SCHOOL” BACKGROUND MUSIC: “AFRO CIRCUS”
Is Madagascar3 (2012) old enough to qualify for “old school?” Oh well–I’m using it regardless! I didn’t want to choose a musical artist whose value and talent could be contested (The Police? The Ramones? SO MANY CHOICES AND DIFFERENT MUSIC TASTES TO CONSIDER), and I didn’t want to inadvertently insult Alan by implying he would have certain artists in his collection versus others, so I just chose another favorite meme of mine: “Polka Dot Afro Circus” from the movie Madagascar 3.
The song is silly, fun, annoying, and ridiculously catchy, and best of all, no one–hopefully–will argue about whether it’s good or not! They’ll just watch my remix of the video and either chuckle or go crazy as the SoundCloud club remix of the song plays in the background.
VACATION LOCATION: CAWKER CITY, KANSAS
Since Neverland (see the opening pop-up text!) isn’t a feasible vacation location option, I decided to go the total opposite of the mythical land: super simple and close to home. The U.S.A. is known for interesting Midwest spots claiming to have the largest/tallest/etc. of this-or-that, and I always remember one particular item I read about: the largest ball of twine. I remember being fascinated at the thought of what that must look like, so the thing has always stuck in my brain. Therefore, I did a quick Google search and discovered its location is Cawker City, Kansas, and its OFFICIAL title is “the largest community-rolled ball of twine.”
The video at the end of the remixed movie by Bill Cash on YouTube says the ball “smells funny,” but, hey, it’s still kinda cool looking, right?
VACATION FINANCING: NOVELTY R2D2 PHONE
I personally am more of a Star Trek fan rather than Star Wars, but I’m well aware of how intense the fans of Star Wars–heck, both Star franchises–are! The Darth Vader costume from the original film apparently grabbed more than 250,000 dollars at auction! If Alan found the right buyer and right Star Wars item, he could make some nice money to fund his trip to Cawker City.
I thought that I would first search novelty figurines, because those collectors are intense.
Largest Dr. Who Dalek collection. Whoa.
After searching through Star Wars novelty items, however, I stumbled upon this wonderful R2D2 phone. It seems to fetch a couple of hundred dollars, and that could buy at least a few tanks of gas for the trip to Kansas!
RANDOM THING ALAN PACKED: PERSONALIZED STAR TREK AUTOGRAPH BOOK AND BAG
I tried to think of something funny that a person could bring on vacation–especially vacationing to a sleepy, Midwestern town–and decided on an autograph book. After all, you never know who you might meet while traveling, right? Never mind the extra weight or space!
After looking through some Google Images of autograph books (most of them were more than a century old or Disney-fied), I was displeased with the variety of aesthetic choices. Then, after Googling something along the lines of “autograph book unique,” this gem popped up.
Apparently, it’s a Star Trek: Original Series personalized bag and autograph book for/from Comic-Con. Uhm, how awesome is that? Not only will Alan have the opportunity to grab celebrities’ signatures, but he will do so with Captain Kirk and Spock!
I’d rock these accessories.
To end, I found the aforementioned video of Bill visiting the Ball of Twine and used it to represent Alan’s experience. While not grand or exotic, Cawker City, Kansas could at least be relaxing, and that’s the point of a vacation, after all!
First off, Mozilla Popcorn is a tool that I would not recommend. After many times (and I do mean many times) of starting over from the beginning, I started to get the hang of it and was finally able to complete this damn assignment. I could have remixed this assignment in iMovie, but I’m not a quitter, and I was determined to learn Popcorn and give it a shot.
Finding the images and video to incorporate into this remix was the best part. I added a mixture of images, gif, and video to give it a nice balance. Some of the images I used had to be edited in photoshop. For example, the items in his drawer and suitcase needed some tweaking (cut out separate from the original image) to make it look more realistic. As for the item in the suitcase, I hope I did not offend anyone. Mr. Levine reminds me of a stoner from the 70’s, so I decided to have some fun with it and add a bag of weed.
For Alan’s vacation, I did not chose an over the top location. I sent him to the “Big City Of Dreams” (New York). He would experience “The Big Apple” in a whole new light. I found this video on youtube where they do helicopter rides through the city and classic landmarks. The footage was amazing, and I thought it would be a good twist to add than the normal NY experience (Times Square, Central Park, etc.).
For my video, I kept each transition clip flowing into the next one, without the flash of white that was there originally. The pausing between the newly added media was minimal, just enough to view and make out each individual media type. One thing I forgot add to my video was the text bubbles. I ended up deleting all of them, and forgot that I needed to keep them and add my own text. I was just relieved to finally finish the assignment. The amount of time I put into it, just trying to get it right almost gave me a migraine. But I’m glad I was able to pull through and check it off my list. Check out my contribution below.
This project was one of the most challenging projects for me. I created this project 3 times on two different computers and was faced with so many challenges.
One of my first challenges was getting the video to load, I would get to the part where you added a picture of where to send him, and it would just freeze. I guess it was thinking, i’m not really sure. After I was able to get past the first picture I faced a lot of problems with the picture replacing the image verses just going on top of it. Also the video kept stopping. I thought it might be my computer so I switched computers and started over. With patience I was able to make it through the second time. I finished the video and everything, but I was not able to share the link at all, or embed it. There was a traffic cone beside the URL, and I had never seen that before. The only thing I could figure out how to do was tweet what I had. So here is my first attempt.
Just to add to my problems, my blog will not allow me to embed media into my post, so I have to screenshot the tweet. Nor will my blog allow me to add media to my post any more. I get an error message, so all my pictures have to go through my flickr, and then I can add them into my account.
So I choose to reduce the Popcorn project four days later hoping that it would go smoother, and turn out better. Things were looking good at first, it was only loading every once and a while, but images still wouldn’t overlap. But I did my best to understand how to use the Mozilla Popcorn Maker program, and completed the project. But am still not able to embed the video or the tweet, so below you can see where I tweeted the video as well as a link to the video.
The inspiration behind sending Alan on a “vacation” to Sudan was because I am leaving in less than a month to go on a mission trip to Honduras. I was trying to think of a nice place to send Alan, but decided I was going to send him on a mission trip to Africa. In the beginning of the video Alan seemed surprised by where is students were sending him. So I figured a picture of a third world country would really surprise him.
Through all the difficulties with this project at least Alan will be going on a nice vacation to volunteer.
This assignment I, surprisingly, didn’t find as difficult as it seems a lot of people did. I had a bit of fun with the spaces we were to fill in, and Popcorn Mash up maker didn’t error more than twice. I got lucky!
Basically, Alan decides he wants to go to Scotland on vacation, and brings his pomeranian and saves up enough money by selling his Hannah Montana DVD (as we all d0). Here it is,
This assignment was incredibly frustrating to me on several levels. I am somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to editing, and the lack of effective editing tools inside Popcorn left me disappointed with the final product. Most of the pictures simply looked like they were pasted on top of the video (which they were). I did not see that it was not required to complete the entire mash-up in Popcorn until AFTER I had already finished. On the bright side, I got some good experience with the program. I also made my mash-up from the raw video, not the edited mash-up with helpful notes and cues. This added an unnecessary level of difficulty to an assignment that was already challenging.
For his vacation, I decided to send Alan to Alaska! I figured that most others would send Alan somewhere sunny and warm, but I thought that maybe he would enjoy an expedition to the Alaskan Tundra. The objects that I had Alan “find” throughout the video fit into this Alaskan theme. The gold nugget that he uses to pay for his vacation came from his previous trip to the state, while his winter parka would be more than necessary for the below freezing conditions in the Land of the Midnight Sun. The song that “played” on the turntable came from this Soundcloud post.
Overall, I am happy with what I produced with Popcorn. The program has its limitations, but overall it is good for a free browser-based program. Here’s my final Mash-up!
In this assignment we had to remix a video and add our own aspects in it of where we thought Alan should go on vacation. I used the Popcorn Maker software in order to remix the video. This assignment was very difficult and time consuming for me, and the software was very difficult to use. It was really hard to learn on how to add stuff and also timing it up with certain areas of the video. After a few hours of playing around with the software, I started to understand how it worked and it became to easier to remix the video.
When it came to the assignment itself, when it came to the images that I chose to add into the video, I wanted them to be unique and funny. I wanted images that would surprise people when they watched it. As for the vacation spot I chose Paris, France, there was no particular reason for this vacation spot, to be honest it was the first place that popped into my head. When it came to the music I wanted something that was old school and very popular. Overall, this assignment was very difficult and did take a while to figure out how to use the software, but I feel it could be useful with the other assignments.
So….Popcorn Maker is the worst. Using it for the “Where Should Alan Go On Vacation” project was one of the worst experiences I’ve had in this class thus far.
In theory, it’s a very simple program that you can use to create some pretty nifty things. As a free online video editor, it’s pretty great. But it definitely has its flaws. The way I struggled the most was accurately lining up all the timing on the various media that I added. In addition, it seemed a little jerky and not super intuitive, and as a result the final product looks a little slap-dash and at times juvenile.
And then there was the “reloading” problem. I do not exaggerate when I say that the page made me reload due to an unknown error at least 10 separate times. It was extremely frustrating and would reload on me, and then freeze for minutes at a time.
To create this remix, I used the following medias:
I don’t feel like there is a cohesive story within this video. I had initially wanted to go with the Mount Everest theme, but I ended up choosing random media that I found funny instead. Initially the transparent Jay Z in the suitcase was actually supposed to be a tiki mask. I had copied the Jay Z link to send to a friend, and accidentally put it into the video. I thought it was hysterical to have Jay Z just chilling out in the suitcase, so I left him there.
My proudest achievement in regards to this remix was solely that I finished it. I’m not overly happy with the final project, and I am definitely not using Popcorn Maker any time soon ever, ever again.
