Actor Transformation

The goal for this assignment was to take an actor, and show him getting older, as sort of a metamorphosis or transformation (hench the title).  I chose Christian Bale for this assignment because I know he has done movies at 3 pretty clear stages of this life, child, twenties, and now mid thirties.  The movies I chose were “Newsies” where he is 17, “Metroland” where he is 23, and “Dark Knight Rises” where he is 38.  I like the way his face has really clearly aged in each clip.  I completed this assignment by downloading the three movie clips from youtube using keepvid.com, then cutting them down in Mpeg Streamclip, and finally putting the clips together in iMovie.

Toy Story MashUp

This is 4 star mash up assignment “Ben Harwood’s Track blazing troubadour” it is mash-up assignment 135. The assignment read:

“Make a movie trailer by taking a trilogy, or any series of movies (LOTR, Saw, Final Destination etc.) and combine scenes from all the trailers to make one trailer…”

I chose to use Toy Story, I found a trailer for each movie and mashed them all up together. (Media used: Toy Story 1, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3)

I used a few small clips from each trailer to create my own trailer! In my new trailer the story line is a little different. . .

While Andy and his friends are downstairs all of Andy’s toys are watching TV. The toy soldiers are on the lookout for intruders and warn the other toys when Andy is coming upstairs. Then all the toys become lifeless again. UNTIL Woody is toy napped! All of the toys go on an adventure to find and rescue Woody. They rescue him, but when they return they find out Andy is all grown up and leaving for college soon. Andy’s mom asks him want he wants to do with all of his toys, he has a flashback of when he was younger playing with his toys. Although Andy is very attached to his toys, he knows he doesn’t need them. He donates them to a daycare where they are violated. The end.

I used Windows movie maker to create this. I watched each trailer a few times and then I began trying out different clips in different orders, I didn’t go in with a plan. I just figured out what I wanted and didn’t want as a created the mash up. I think it came out pretty well, there are a few areas where the editing skills could have been a bit sharper. But I am content with the way it came out.

I wonder why they have so many Toy Story movies, I like them all rolled together better!

 

What is the Color of My World? Puuurple.

Honestly, I have so much more purple than this at home. But alas, I can’t show you a picture of my purple accent wall from home. Anways, these are purple things from school. Most of my school accesories are purple.
Of course, this is my favorite color. This is for the What Color is Your World Assignment? This was two stars.

This is how I did it:

Step 1: Take pictures.

Take the Picture

Step 2: Send it to your computer.

This can be through emailing it to yourself, flickr, uploading, etc.

Step 3: Open iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, etc.

Drag and drop your images to iMovie, etc.

Dragndrop

Step 4: Add transitions

To do this in iMovie, go to the bottom right. There will be a weird looking hourglass shape. Click that and it will list the transitions. From here, drag and drop them to the appropriate place (usually between the pictures).

Trans

Step 5: Add music

I used Fly by Ludovico Einaudi. To add music, click the music note by the transition button. This will give you the option to use iMovie sounds (jingles, effects, etc.) or add music from your iTunes library. This is what I did. Click the down bar and select iTunes music. From here, search in the seach bar for your music and drag and drop the name of it (in this instance, Fly) over to your pictures. It will automatically shorten the clip to the necessary length to cover your pictures. It will be a green marker over your pictures, like in the screen shot.

music

* Ignore the weird pictures my sister and I took when I first got my Mac. Also, I have no clue why it says 1969.

Step 6: Export
This is the “equal” of saving. Go to share > export movie and then select your location and voila!

[5/7] stars

Movie Mashup

Mashup Those Movies

I realized after doing this Mashup that I already had 7 stars. But, why not publish it. So here it is. I mashed up two movie posters. They are both robot movies but completely different. WallE is more of a love story about two cute little robots. I robot is a story of robots taking over the world. So, actually they are completely opposite because WallE is trying to save the world!

walleIrobot

What is going on!? Walle is a good robot who loves others and is trying to help save the world. How could his kind be so evil!? New robots are taking over his world. They are evil and coming to turn his sweet little story upside down.

Always Recycle

Recycled media to make a new story 

http://minus.com/mvKXzhhcO has a pool of recycled media from unused art of all ds106ers (and beyond)

 

I found this audio in the pool or recycled media. I decided to theme my project using it. I imagined creating a visual of a walk outside. With the birds tweeting in the background, I began to look through the media. I found many photos of the outdoors. I narrowed them down to images that would be on this “walk I was creating. By the end I had many different ones that show the progression from the person’s home, through the town, to a river. (I guess it could very well be a walk here in Fredericksburg).

I created this film in Imovie. After choosing all the photography I want to use for my story, I then organized it to tell a story. Although the video is a collection of snap shots, the way I put them together looks like a logical walk. After placing the photos, I added the bird noises and some transitions. The photo’s zoom in as you watch the film which I liked because it added a movement to the film.

 

Presto! Mashup!

I created a Mashup assignment!

This was a difficult assignment category to create a new assignment for. However, I was up for the challenge. I went through several ideas trying to create a mashup. A lot of failure was because “PwnYouTube” ( the MP4 converter I use) would not work for clips I wanted. However, I finally came across a Hilary Duff clip that worked. And I thought, man it would be funny to show her back in Lizzy Mcguire compared to her singing career. I don’t know much about Hillary now, but I loved Lizzy Mcquire as a kid. It was fun going through old episodes. I used one where Hilary is upset talking to her mom and cut the clip down in MPEG. I then found a clip of her singing. I used two related dialogues to give the mashup rhythm. This assignment takes thought, creativity, a good amount of searching and technical skills. All that considered, I rated it 4 stars which put me a good amount over for the 7 stars needed this week.

 

Recycle the Media

For the Recycle the Media assignment, my story is of a typical UMW student. Most likely the student is female. So I choose a picture of a bookcase of heels (lucky duck). Then I choose the stair case because most houses around here are indeed two stories. I decided that most UMW students love coffee, thus the picture of Mc Steamy. Then I choose this beautiful picture of leaves and cars. I got a picture of Chandler from the site because I live close to it (as do a lot of students). I put in the picture of nail polish for the fashionable students here who take time to paint their nails. Then, I choose the house where this student “lives”.

All sounds are from Freesound. The sounds are of “hmm”, as in “which shoes today?”. The nest one is of heels click clacking. Then it is of a coffee pot making coffee. The next is leaves crunching under feet. Freesound also has a sound of pages being flipped in a binder, which fits perfectly. Then I had people laughing for the nail polish, like the student was painting her nails in a big group of girls. Then I have snoring to signify sleeping.

The story goes as follows:

Lucy is a UMW student who lives of campus. She wakes up in the morning and picks her shoes from a bookcase of heels. She walks down the beautiful staircase every morning to go get her coffee. She walks to campus everyday because she lives off campus and is ecofriendly. She is a business administration major, so she spends her day in Chandler in lectures and reading her books. She goes back home in the evening and paints her nails with her roommates. Then, she goes to sleep in her quaint little house.

Boom.

[8/7]

 

Smokey the Bears

Mashedup Children’s Book

“Mashup a children’s book based on another cultural artifact.”

I decided to mash the Bearenstain Bears with Smokey the Bear in a children’s book cover:

I made this remix by finding a picture of the Bearenstain Bears on google (which I referanced above) uploading it in Picasa, editing it with the Picnik software in Picasa to create the flames and fire hose and then adding the text with the Picasa editor.

When I saw this assignment in the assignment bank I liked the examples on the college humor website but had trouble thinking of a childrens book and cultural artifact to mash up myself.. so I googled children’s books and tried to think of well known figures I could relate them to. This is what I came up with! It turned out better then I expected it to, my computer is not the most cooperative drawing with paint.

I think this would actually become a good children’s book if someone wanted to write it. The Bearenstain (Smokey) Bears could be like the town firefighters teaching people about fire prevention!

Mash up: Elle Goulding

 

 

For 3 out of 7 stars of my mashup assignments, I decided to remix my three favorite Elle Goulding songs. In this remix is Starry Eyed, Lights, and Anything Could Happen.

These songs are very similar in sound, but all sound different at the same time. This is a remix because I took three “old” things and created one “new” thing out of one.

I took the piano from Lights and copied and pasted it multiple times to create the piano in the background. I amplified it and used phaser on it to make it “dip” like it does.

Then I took Anything Could Happen as a base for the rest of it. I added bits and pieces from both Starry Eyed and Lights into it. Sometimes it sounds choppy and I’m un sure how to fix this totally. I faded them in and faded them out.
Overall, I like the remix. It’s almost too similar for my tastes, like I needed a different drum or something, but I wanted to keep it within the same three songs.

3/7

My World is Pink

I came across the assignment What Color is your World? and thought it could turn out interesting. At the beginning of the semester (well it actually started last year) came up with a specific color combination we wanted to decorate our apartment in. Our main colors are teal with accents of pink, green, and yellow. My first thought for this assignment was that I wanted to do blue and do the song Blue by Eifel 65, then I looked at the example. I decided to take a different route. Our main accent color is pink so that was my next best option. I first took picture of random pink accents in our apartment and uploaded them to my computer. The next step was trying to figure out the song. I couldn’t think of any off the top of my head so I googled it and came up with this list.  Most of them I was familiar with, but the one that really stuck out was Geek in the Pink by Jason Mraz. He is from Mechanicsville, Virginia so I am a bit biased towards him.

The next part was hard: actually putting everything together. I wanted to make it flow, but the song is a bit choppy. I added many effects including: pixelate, zoom, pan, brighten, and posterize. With these effects and some credits at the end I think the whole movie came together perfectly!