This was a nice startup assignment to get me going for the week.  I got to experiment with iMovie a bit more and figure out things like transitions and credits and such.  I did lots of different things for this.  When considering this assignment, the first thing I thought of was Gandalf and the Wise Old Man Archetype.  Then I thought of several characters that related to the Wise Old Man throughout film and things like that.  I came up with Dumbledore and Obi-Wan Kenobi immediately.  I had a bit of trouble with the other two and just wandered through the internet aimlessly until I came up with the guy from Ghost Rider and Alfred, who is more of a moral guideline for Batman, but it was fitting in some senses.

The second step was finding clips of all the characters that had a good quote of action to use for the characters.  I ended up going to youtube to find these and searching for each character’s name and quotes.  After I found quotes within the videos that were useable, I included downloaded them using iLivid, an app that allows you to download youtube clips onto your Mac.  Here are the videos I used:

I think the pieces I chose demonstrate wisdom that the characters portray.  Obviously, the Wise Old Man is a prevalent character and exists heavily in the movie film genre.  Gandalf is the original old wise man, and, in my opinion, none of these other films would have existed without The Lord of the Rings except for maybe Gandalf.  It really is incredible how so many characters really are the same, exact thing, and it goes much farther back than to Gandalf.  I’m talking Ancient Greek times.  Anyway, here’s my final video.

I put the whole thing together with iMovie.  It was pretty easy to figure out which quote I wanted after I heard it.  The only regret I have is that some of them are quite long and, consequently, made the video longer.  Not the end of the world, but I wish I could have made it shorter.  I also added clips of the names and the names of the movies the characters are from between each character.  Hopefully this does not backfire on me with some random youtube law thing.  It was really just about selecting the right area of quote, dragging it around, and then putting it together.  Then I inserted the character name transitions in between each clip and the ending credits.  After that, I finalized the clips, which took like an hour to put together, loaded it into Youtube, and now we here…

Here’s some of my workspace:

The second assignment I planned out last week was the A Word…A Picture…A Story… You can read about my pre production plans here.

I was at the beach while I wrote up the assignment so I went with a beach themed story. I picked out pictures that I wanted to use and uploaded them to Flickr. However, when I put this story together I realized I needed some more pictures. So I went to Google Images and got a few more.

From there I uploaded them into iMovie and added a Title Screen and Credit Screen. I went with the “underwater” design to match the beach theme. I absolutely LOVE the beach and have since I was just a little girl. So my inspiration for this story was from my own experiences.

In the video the little girl builds sandcastles, boogie boards, catches sand crabs, gets ice cream from an ice cream truck, chases seagulls, and flies a kite. The day ends with a rainbow over the ocean, which I saw about 4 times this past summer. Life at the beach can’t be much better can it?

For the music, I wanted something instrumental so as not to be so overwhelming to the story, especially so people could concentrate on reading the words. I felt it was perfect to go with the song “Carolina Girl“. I good an instrumental part of the song and had to make it longer, so I tried to line the song up evenly. Unfortunately there’s a minor hiccup, but I don’t think it’s too noticeable. I worked on it for a while and it just didn’t happen. I also tried to make the end fade out a bit, but once again I had issues and I still feel like it ends a little too abrupt for my taste. I did all of the music work in Audacity and then added it into the video.

I’m really happy with how it turned out. I think it’s pretty adorable! Let me know what you think!

I was browsing through the video assignments in the DS assignment bank and came across Watching Movies with the Stereo On {***}. I always feel like certain songs go with certain clips in movies – this assignment was perfect for me! I knew just what I was going to do.

The Hangover. Oh yeah. And for the song……..{drumroll}…….. Got a Little Crazy – Kenny Chesney. So perfect.

This was going to be good.

I started by converting this YouTube clip into an MP4 file with KeepVid. That website is a lifesaver! I uploaded that clip into my Windows Movie Maker. I already had the song on my iTunes, so I was ready to get clipping, trimming, and going! Here is my clip:

I first took out the sound of the original video clip. Then, I trimmed the clip to get exactly what I wanted. I made sure that the song and the clip went together in the best way! The song is so perfect for the clip that I chose. It almost fits too well. I’m surprised this clip wasn’t on the movie, or the second movie….maybe it will be on the third! :) Next, I uploaded the audio file into my Windows Movie Maker and changed the settings to fade out. So when my video is close to being done, the song is fading out. And viola, my clip was done.

I was laughing so hard at my video once it was all done. It went together so well with the song that it was just comical. I’m going to go watch that movie when I am done writing this blog post. And if you have never seen this movie….well, tsk tsk.

I love experimenting with the different effects that Windows Movie Maker has to offer. It is super easy to navigate this program. And you can upload it straight to YouTube {which is what I have been doing}. I am kind of sad that I am already at 11 stars :( I guess I will have to keep this kind of stroytelling in mind!!!

For my next video assignment, I chose to create a Music Video {****}. For this assignment, I had to pick a couple of scenes from a movie and add a song that complements the scenes.

I chose the movie 127 Hours for my music video. If you have not seen this movie yet, go rent/get it right now. This movie is based off of a true story! It is incredible!!!!

I wanted to tell a story in my music video so I chose clips that, when put together, told the story by themself. The song would just add to the story. I followed the basic outline of the movie: he falls down a cliff, he tries to get water, he cuts his arm off {don’t worry, I didn’t include the gross parts}, he gets rescued. I converted the clips from YouTube into MP4 files via KeepVid.

The song I chose to complement these clips was The Funeral – Band of Horses {also my blog post song title}. This song reminds me of this movie everytime I hear it.

I opened up Windows Movie Maker and opened up all of the clips. I ordered and trimmed them in a way that told a story. I added a title page and credits before adding the song. I always make sure the audio clip is the last thing I add. If you don’t wait, and trim or clip something, the audio file will get messed up as well. It’s better to have everything perfected and then add the audio clip {in my opinion}.

Here is my finished product:

I chose to make all of the clips black and white because they had different color saturations and when I put them together, you could tell they were very separate. Since this is a music video, it is supposed to all flow. I also added smooth transitions to each video clip because I didn’t want it being too choppy. I am very proud with the way everything turned out. I didn’t even plan this, but sometimes the song and what is going on in the clip match up so perfectly. I think this is a powerful story by itself but adding this song made it even more powerful.

The other assignment that I planned during week 9 was YOLO is the Motto {**}. Oh man. This was fun. First watch my video, then I will explain everything to you. ENJOY :)

YOLO. You Only Live Once. This is something we hear all the time. Does anyone know what it even means?? I don’t think so. My friend and I were running today and she said “we’re running four miles today, YOLO.” The thing is, everyone has a different interpretation of what “You Only Live Once” means. This was my inspiration.

The phrase ‘YOLO’ could actually mean something, if people used it properly. It’s kind of like ‘lol’. When people text you ‘lol’, do you think they actually just laughed out loud??

I thought it would be funny to gather up all of the bad or misused examples of YOLO from Google and compile them into this video assignment. I got the videos from YouTube and converted them into MP4 files via KeepVid. This let me put them into my video on Windows Movie Maker. I also wanted to “interview” people and ask them what YOLO means to them because I wanted to put “my touch” on this movie too. I filmed my interviews on my phone and uploaded them straight into my movie. I had the song on my iTunes and converted it through the online convert website found in the DS 106 handbook.

This video is supposed to show how no one really knows what YOLO means. Everyone has a different interpretation of it because everyone interprets things differently. Because of the ambiguity in when to use YOLO, the phrase is used way too often and in the wrong context. This video sheds some light on this and it supposed to be funny.

I had a lot of fun exploring the different effects on Windows Movie Maker! My first assignment was just putting pictures and audio together. This one involved pictures, videos, and audio – oh my! Interestingly enough, that is every topic we have covered in DS 106 so far… *lightbulb goes off*. I can see why the topics are placed the way they are now.

I can’t wait to keep working with Windows Movie Maker this week!!!!!!!

Blog post title: YOLO – The Lonely Island

For the first video assignment, I chose Where Are They Now? {**}. During week 9, I planned this assignment out so all I had to do was create it! I based this assignment from the movie The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Here is the finished product:

I created this with Windows Movie Maker. I had never used this before, but it was very simple. You can click to uploaded pictures, audio, and even videos. You can even add the text to the picture right from this program. I downloaded the audio from YouTube and got the pictures from searching on Google. I uploaded it to YouTube through Windows Movie Maker.

I wanted to do this assignment because I hate how movies kind of just end and the directors don’t tell you what ever happened to the character(s) that you fell in love with. Some movies have sequels and some have triologies, quadrilogies, and so on. {I feel like if you don’t know what a movie sequence is called because the number is so high up, you shouldn’t make the movie.}

At first, I just google searched the actresses’ names. I tried to look for funny pictures maybe from the paparazzi. I found some good ones and even some that looked photoshopped. I wanted the pictures to be funny so that my update on the girls could be funny. After all, this class is based upon imagination and creativity. It would have been boring if I told the truth. I credited the website in which I found the photos on the credits section of my movie.

Blog post title: Everybody’s Changing – Keane