This week we had to do 10 stars of video assignments with at least 4 being of our character. This assignment called what do you do? instructs you to make a video clip (no longer than 8 seconds) of a specific thing you do on a daily basis. It is worth 4 stars. After like an hour of looking through video assignments, I thought this one I could use my character for. For this I simply used my phone to take the video. I really wish I could go back in time and make a female character so I actually could do other assignments, but I am doing the best with what I have. So since Bob is a rancher, he has to put on his cowboy boots every morning before going out on the ranch. This is just a video of him (me) putting on his cowboy (cowgirl) boots before heading out to the ranch. Sorry it isn’t super creative. I literally could not think of anything else. I am not happy how it turned out. I really would have liked to of done something else.
For this week we had to select from several video assignment bank options. I decided to go with My Favorite thing. This assignment bank post tells you to take a short video of yourself doing your favorite hobby then explain the hobby in a blog post.
One of my favorite hobbies is snowboarding. This is a video taken of myself on a GoPro at Mount Snow in Vermont. I fall all the time, but I love snowboarding so much. I started skiing when I was six and then switched to snowboarding when I was eleven. I used to go a lot when I was little because we lived in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Moving down here though I didn’t go a lot. I got my first snowboard of my own in high school and I try to go several times a year now even though that doesn’t always happen. This year I only was able to go twice because it was a hot season causing a lot of ice to form at ski resorts. My favorite place to snowboard is Sugarbush in Vermont! So a quick description of this video is that it is a blue slope (intermediate) at Mount Snow. The video starts right after I turn to come off the ski slope and then it meets up with a black diamond (hard) slope. I turn off that slope again back onto the blue one and fish at the bottom. The last hill was really steep so I slowed down as I went down. This day there was at least five inches of fresh snow which is great to snowboard on, but I fall a ton because my board ends up getting stuck. Â (My boyfriend is the one filming and he is also snowboarding that is why it is a little bumpy)
For this video assignment, âWhat do you do?â I was to record myself doing something I do every day. As such, I decided to record a video of myself skating. I chose to video myself skating because I really like to skate (well most of the timeâŠ) and I spend a lot of my time at a rink. If I am not in class or at home, the rink is the place to find me. I strive to do each of my skating elements about seven times a day. So, below is a video clip of one of my jumping elements that is in my program. To complete this assignment I used my phone to video myself jumping, then I uploaded it to youtube so I could embed it here within this post.
This assignment was worth three stars adding to the fulfillment of this weekâs ten star requirement.
This week we were to complete one of the provided video assignments so, I chose to complete the video assignment titled âMy Favorite Thing To Doâ. For this assignment I was to video myself doing my favorite hobby and describe what I am doing in the video and why this hobby is my favorite thing to do in my spare time. So, I videoed myself skating. However, skating is much more than a hobby to me, it is more of a lifestyle. I practice and complete work out and stretching sessions daily. I began skating at about seven years old. I love the challenges it provides, as well as the ability to feel like I am âflyingâ. Because of skating, I have been very fortunate and have had the opportunity to not only travel to many different areas in the U.S. but around the world as well. I have been able to make many friends and meet people that share the love of the sport. But, of course it is just like any sport and there can be many frustrations, like days when your body just canât seem to do anything right. However, I feel that moments such as these (among others) have taught me that perseverance and determination are key characteristics that not only can be applied to skating but also to life in general. Skating has taught me many life lessons but, I feel the most important lesson it has taught me is to never give up. No matter what you are going through, no matter what people say, you must not give up and you must continue to strive through the ups and downs to accomplish your goals and become the best athlete and person you can be. I used Windows Movie Maker to create this video of a mashup of some of my skating clips.
I completed the four star assignment Moving Object.
The goal is to make a moving object using vine.
I chose to make a stop motion video using my boots:
Using the app Vine on my iPhone, I created the video seen above. The app vine gives us the option of recording a video of variable length for moments at a time. I would record for short moments, stop the video, move one boot and record again. I repeated these motions several times. The end product is a stop motion video which features my boots “walking.”
I believe the hardest part of this video was keeping a consistent angle. To capture the same angle I ended up receiving aid from a friend who would move the boot for me during takes.
This assignment was pretty cool. I’ve never created a stop motion video and am open to creating more in the future.
I completed the four and a half star assignment origami.
While it directed us to create origami for halloween, I chose to create origami for my character instead. I haven’t created origami art for a while and figured it’d be some fun.
I used this site to teach myself how to make an origami cowboy hat, which wasn’t hard to learn. The only hard part of the assignment was figuring out how to record myself at a clean angle creating origami. So I placed my phone on the edge of a desk focusing the lens on my origami area which was a book on the floor. This provided a visible area and angle where viewers could clearly discern how I was folding my paper. The end product is seen above.
I reviewed many articles about film analysis and the details on how films are created. As such, for this assignment we were to choose a scene in a film and analyze it and reflect on how certain aspects of the scene related to the new information we learned through our readings. The movie I chose a scene from to analyze is titled âTombstoneâ. I chose this movie for multiple reasons, I feel it contains very good imagery/scenery that emits certain emotions to the viewers, it is centered around the western theme, and takes place in the same town as my audio groupâs radio show we completed last week! The specific scene I chose from this movie to analyze, which can be seen below, was when Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) confronts a town citizen. Â I chose this scene because I feel it embodies multiple concepts I learned through the resources provided about analyzing movies. As such, in my opinion this scene most definitely contains Ebertâs idea of âintrinsic weightingâ. When he discussed his idea of âintristic weightingâ he stated that âcertain areas of available visual space have tendencies to stir emotions or aesthetic reactionsâ. This is apparently based on the location of the actor/actress within the image. Interestingly enough, I found his concept to be quite true. For example, in the scene I chose, the character sitting at the poker table is on the left side of the shot and seems in the wrong because he is sitting in Wyattâs chair. However, as the scene continues to play the poker man is shifted to the right side of the screen, becoming not necessarily more positive as Ebert states but, more innocent and blameless. While, Wyatt transitions to fill the left side of the screen providing negative emotions to the viewers that he (Wyatt) is being nasty and overpowering the other character.
Another key aspect I feel this scene depicts very well is one of Tony Zhouâs ideas from his series âEvery Frame is a Paintingâ. This specific idea he titles âShot/Reverse Shotâ and his video can be seen here. This concept can be seen in the beginning of this scene because the camera is set between the two characters and flips back and forth between them so each have their own camera shot when they speak. Due to this technique used within this scene, I feel it is in part used to make sure the viewers are aware of who is speaking and places more emphasis on the emotions and what the character is saying. I feel that this technique within the scene I chose not only achieves the above, but also seems to build the tensions between the two characters because the camera starts slow then gets slightly faster shifting back and forth between the characters until they both are in the screen shot. Also, in the opening of scene I chose, another one of Tony Zhouâs concepts is used. It is called the âPraise of Chairsâ and this concept is about how important an object that is usually overlooked can be within a scene. For example, in the beginning of the scene I chose, Wyatt tells the other character that he is sitting in his chair and due to this, their scuffle with each other begins to build, exhibiting how important a chair can be within a movie scene. Tony Zhou relates the idea that a chair/ a particular characterâs chair can express what type of person the character is. At first, I found this idea silly but when I noticed the chair within this scene that Wyatt states is âhisâ chair, it seems to be relatively high class, very strong, and well made, which would be fitting for a character like Wyatt who in the film was known as a very successful lawman (on the higher class end of society) and strong, both mentally and physically. Overall, I feel I have learned a great deal about analyzing movies by reviewing the provided resources and now have a better understanding of the details and thinking behind the creation of films.
I used Windows Movie Maker to trim and edit the scene. As such, first I had to download Windows Movie Maker onto my computer then import the movie, then I was able to cut and pick the scene I wanted to use for this assignment. I saved the clip but, it saved as a .wlmp file and would not load onto my blog or youtube. I struggled with this for quite a while, but eventually figured out how to save it as a .wav file. Once in a .wav format I was able to upload it to youtube and embed it here.
 My favorite thing  to do is play basketball. It has gotten me a lot of places and is even the reason I am at the University of Mary Washington. I have created a video to showcase my love for this wonderful sport.
In my video, I included serveral different things to showcase my affection towards the game. I included some video clips of me actually playing. There is nothing like playing on game day. It gets me so hyped to be on the court and see all my team and my’s hardwork pay off. I also included still action shots that show me playing in the games as well. I love basketball becuase it not only teaches you a lot of life lessons, but it is just fun. It is also fun to build relationships and chemistry with your team. That is why my video includes pictures/videos with my teammates. They are my best friends. They are my family. The relationships I have made through basketball is one of the most special and irreplacable things about it, so of course that had to be a big part of my video too. Hope you enjoy:)
In my bio/intro post I talk about my favorite thing to do which is lifting. For our assignments this week we were required to pick an assignment that was given to us and I decided to do my favorite hobby. And like I just said before, my hobby is literally walking to the gym and picking up heavy objects and then walking home. Being strong makes me happy and when I’m at the gym I set aside all my stress and focus on the weights. It is my break from the world and that’s why I do it. The gym is fairly empty on Sunday mornings so I decided to bring my Canon with me to film myself doing deadlifts. I simply set up my camera on a box, aimed it at yours truly and had my best friend hit record. I used Windows Movie Maker to cut the video down and added Eric Church’s – Jack Daniel song over so you can’t here me ask if it was recording or hear the weight slamming down. This was just a double at 225lbs, nothing special. I promise I did more, after this double people started coming in and I didn’t want to be “that girl”.
This photo explains it all. I, Emily Toney, am guilty of making too many faces. Some good and others really bad….But! there will never be a dull moment around me, because of my faces…haha (very old photo; I am no longer blonde)
