This mashup is for Assignment 771 and was a no-brainer because I’m a tremendous fan of the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Ever heard of it?? Of course, it had to come out in 1984, which is relevant as it plays off of George Orwell’s novel but in a weird, obtuse way. Ellen Barkin is just one of the many actors I could have picked for this Actor Transformation mashup from Buckaroo Bansai–there’s Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum, Christopher Lloyd and others. Look closely and you’ll see them in the two clips I chose. I picked the scenes from the movie to meet the terms of this assignment which is to watch the actor change roles and character–to see what they’re like in the beginning of their career compared to now. I also thought you could get some of the flavor of this quirky, cult film which as a sci-fi action cult film is as different as it can get from Barkin’s later film in 2011, Another Happy Day. Happy Day is a dark comedy drama and I found clips in different translations, the last one being in the original English. I hope that doesn’t through you off–just watch Barkin’s expressions, how she’s matured as an actor, and where she is in her life.

The process was relatively straightforward. I found the two movies as far apart in Barkin’s career and genre in her body of work then looked for clips that I could download. I decided on multiple clips even though it would make the end-product longer, just to give the viewer more of an understanding of how Barkin has evolved over time. I decided one 10-second clip per film wouldn’t do the assignment justice. After cutting each clip down as tightly as possible to focus on just her facial expressions from five total clips, then I created titles for each film in PowerPoint and added them to the OpenShot Video Editor project. I exported the final product to my hard drive, then uploaded it to Vimeo so I could embed the file in my blog. E voila! We have a finished product below.

So I did the Actor transformation (2,5 stars) mashup, to show how Jennifer Aniston has evolved since the beginning of her career in the 90s. I want to know the woman’s secrets though because she honestly hasn’t changed much in 30 years. Crazy.

I used Quicktime to record my screen while the movie clips were running and then put it all together in iMovie. I added a song from free music archive as background music and uploaded to youtube!

Original Assignment (4 stars)

Actors/Actresses change roles and characters all the time. It’s always cool to see them progress and grow throughout the years (if they make it that far). Some make it, and some don’t, that’s just the way Hollywood is.

I was originally going to use Mark-Paul Gosselaar as an example for this assignment. He is most known for his role as Zack Morris in Saved By The Bell, and is still acting to this day. I had to switch actors because I could not find any decent clips of the show on youtube (they have all been remixed). My next choice was Tommy Chong, most known for the classic stoner duo, Cheech and Chong.

I picked him because I recently saw him competing on a show my mother was watching, called Dancing With The Stars. It’s crazy to see someone his age still busting moves on the dance floor. I kept thinking to myself, “I wonder if he gets high before every live televised dance”? After viewing some more of his dances from the show on youtube, I must say, he held his own for someone who has no dancing experience.

Editing in iMovie

After searching through clips from both shows, I picked what I needed, and downloaded them as MP4 files, thanks to KeepVid. After importing into iMovie, I cut out certain clips and meshed them together to display the past and the future. The video starts off with a clip of Chhech and Chong smoking in the van, and then dissolves into a dance routine with Chong and his partner on the dancefloor (Cheech was actually a part of the routine at the beginning). This assignment reminded me of that show, “Where Are They Now”? Enjoy the final clip below.

For my final Mashup Assignment, I decided to venture into video after making the other two using photoshop. I went with an assignment called Actor Transformation which showed the transition of actors from earlier in their careers to the present day.

I went with Will Smith who has been a Hollywood staple now for the past 20 years. He started off as a rapper in the late 1980’s and has become quite a successful actor. Despite this time span, he has magically failed to age. In any case, its pretty cool to see how things have gone full circle.

In this mashup, I included 5 different scenes showing this transition:

1988 – DJ Jazzy Jeff & Will Smith – Parents Just Don’t Understand

1990 – Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

1995 – Bad Boys

2002 – Men in Black II

2007 – I Am Legend

2014 – Winter’s Tale

I created this video by downloading them off Youtube using KeepVid and uploaded them in Windows Movie Maker and simply split off the excess parts of the video. I then used the fade technique to give the video a seem less transition.

1. Adjusting the transition to use fade

2. Final editing procedure

*** 4 Stars ***

Actor Transformation: Okay so we all watch actors change roles and character. It’s crazy to see what they were like in the beginning of their career compared to now. Find a actor or actress and use film clips to show a metamorphous.

One of my favorite actresses is Sandra Bullock, I think she is an incredible actress who has had an unbelievable career. She was born in Arlington, Virginia, and went to college at East Carolina University, leaving just 3 credits shy of her bachelor’s degree to pursue a career in New York for acting.  Read More…

One of the most spectacular transformations:

-Hangmen 1987

-The Preppie Murder 1989

-A fool and his Money 1989

-Love Poison number 9, 1992

-When the Party’s over 1993

-Fire on the Amazon 1993

-Speed 1994

-The Net 1995

-Two if by the Sea 1996

-In Love and War 1997

-Hope Floats 1998

-Forces of Nature 1999

-Miss Congeniality 2000

-Two Weeks Notice 2002

-Miss Congeniality 2, 2005

-The Lake House 2006

-The Blind Side 2009

-The Proposal 2009

-The Heat 2013

The video was created using clips from all the movie above. Although a long process, it was very interesting to look and see how much Sandra Bullock has changed through the years.

I created the video by using a Youtube to MP4 converter.  Downloaded the video to my computer so I could then import it into iMovie. Within iMovie I was able to trim videos and place them in the correct order of the year they were released.

Screen shots:

Worth 4 Stars: