Beautiful Minds

I have learned so much from this semester. I have created videos before, but the more I create new one’s the better I get. I wanted this website to reflect all I have done in this past semester, something for me to look back on in the near future and see how far I have come. Because of this class I have been contacted to take people’s pictures and videos, and also create another podcast for my job. The main thing I learned from this class was not to try to be like everyone else, but to learn as much as possible and see improvement. If I try to compare myself to others I will only be following in someone else’s footsteps. I have learned the importance of persuasion and that not everyone is going to automatically fall in love with something you talk about, and that it takes a lot of work to make people love what you have created. This semester has been about challenges and feeling uncomfortable in order to create something beautiful and unique because in order to make people interested you have to make sure it is different from other things they have watched or listened to in the past. This website has helped me understand that an ugly website can help me make beautiful memories of the great people in my own community.

The Art of Planting: Growing Music

One More

 

Now when I watch movies or simple television shows I think about the story thought process behind every angle and words said. I just began to realize that creating a movie or even a talk show comes with a lot of background work. The questions that will be asked, the way one will speak to the audience in order to keep people interested, or just the subject that is talked about in general. Making sure that your story both hasn’t been told and it is so unique that everyone wants to know more about it. The one thing I loved about this class was the fact that we could actually choose who we wanted to be a part of our projects and how different all of our work was when we all had the same directions. I have open the way I tell stories to so many forms and my favorite was expressing the love I have for music through video and the fact that I had control of everything from the person talking, to the music that is chosen and where everything is placed. I liked having the control of the audience and being able to control their emotions with just simple sounds. Work-shopping my pieces in class made me feel so open and was a way to share with others what ideas I had flowing through my head. I also understand angles better because of the reading we had in class that explained in detail the different shots that can be taken in order to either leave thing out or add to a photograph to tell a story. Everyone has a story to tell and it is up to us to find the importance of each story.

 

Eagle Video:

Walk in his shoes

When I was trying to decide which video clip I would focus on the titles and which one really popped out at me. I think that is so important, the front of a book has to attract the reader’s eye before the reader even wants to begin reading. The same thing goes with a title for a video and also the picture you choose to be the first thing the audience will see. The video first starts out with some guy running towards the camera and my first thought was, I hope this is interesting. In no time the story completely changes and to my surprise I fell in love with the character once he began his story. I realized that I found the story more effective because we got to see Ronnie in action and what a day in the life would be like for him when he was homeless. The director made sure to get shots from all angles, showing his life from all sides and showing us that he has nothing to hide from the audience. When Ronnie first came on the screen I thought he was just an average man, but I slowly realized that he has been through so much and in less than 3 minutes I learned so much about him. The message I got from this story was not to automatically judge someone and that each individual person has their own story that no one knows about. I want to make sure I capture real moments throughout my project because I feel like that would make the audience fall in love more than just seeing someone sit in a chair and talk at the viewers. I found this video of Ronnie very interesting and I think both the background music and far shots of Ronnie really made me think about my own project and the approach I will take.

Life Happens

Ready. Set. Listen.

While I was growing up, I remember hearing different stories on the radio. My family would listen to Adventure in Odyssey every night at 6:00 pm while we drove home from school. My family and I normally took this time to enjoy the silence and absorb the new story each day. After the story time was over we would normally discuss the different events that occurred. This daily ride with my family brought us closer together even though at the time we didn’t even notice that. I normally enjoyed the different stories told on the radio or even listening to audio books in my free time, letting my mind run free and create a world in my mind was very exciting to me. No one could ever tell you that the way you created a character in your mind was wrong.

I loved listening to Stochasticity by Radiolab and I was already hooked on the show once the music began. I didn’t realize how much control people have when they are telling the story and choose certain sounds to be in the background. This does not always have to be a song playing, but different fun sound effects that can either make you feel so happy or even sad. I got so trapped into the stories being told that I forgot about the background music and how it made me feel the suspense at the right moments. I loved not knowing what was coming next when we were introduced to the the two women who have the same first and last name. I thought this was crazy and the fact that the description of the two girls made me visualize what they would look like if they were sitting right in front of me. I think that telling an audio story is harder than I thought it would be, but I am ready for the challenge and I keep thinking of better ideas that I am trying to make as interesting as possible without it being too dramatic.

 

Fun sound piece:

Breathe.

https://aneamichelle.atavist.com/untitled-project-bjzkw

Kristen Obama

Only One.

We are so small in this big world. Sometimes I find it hard to think about about how important we are to other people, when you think of the entire earth and how we don’t matter to someone all the way on the other side of the world. While looking at these great pictures and keeping the reading in mind I thought more about the backgrounds of each picture and the facial expressions of all of the beautiful people in these photographs. I wanted to know more about where they came from or who lived in the houses that were in the photographs. I also focused more on the angles the pictures were taken and what things were missing from the pictures in order to tell an entire story with no words.

If you think about it the only proof we have that something or someone exists is to actually see them or having a picture or video in order to make others believe that the person is real. Each picture that was taken in The People You Meet at McDonalds, just proved that there are so many different types of people all around that we have never met but can find so many similarities with these strangers. “Photography has become one of the principal devices for experiencing something, for giving an appearance of participation” (7). I didn’t realize how much we rely on pictures and how much control photographers have when they decide to show us what they are viewing. In a way we are able to see through someone else’s point of view while obsessing over a simple  picture and understanding what they thought was important enough to be captured and the emotion that comes with the picture. 

Her.

This woman is very important to me, we spent a lot of time together over the years and before calling her my grandmother I remember calling her my best friend.  The picture was taken on December 24^th, my birthday and I remember choosing this crazy purple outfit because I wanted to standout and look the best. That’s exactly what happened; my mother told me that I was crazy for wearing all purple: purple socks, corduroy pants, a plastic necklace, and lastly a purple furry tank top. My grandmother Shirley told me it looked great and as long as I loved it, it was perfect. Any time I feel like something doesn’t look right I think of that moment with her and how she’s right, what other people think isn’t important. People would stare at us anytime we were together in public and at times it got a little hard not to notice the glares of disappointment on people’s faces. While I was growing up I didn’t see a difference between my grandmother and me until I was in the 5^th grade and notice the different faces in my classes. I noticed all of the different shades from black to brown to yellow, to people with small eyes and people with big green eyes.  I went up to my grandmother and stared at her big blue eyes and tried to understand why we were different colors. I also tried to figure out why people looked at me strangely when I brought my grandmother to school for performances and not even realizing that she was the only white person in the room. On my own I thought of what my grandmother said about my crazy purple outfit on my birthday and that if I love something or someone nothing else matters.

I remember walking into a store and a police officer went to my grandmother and asked if I was bothering her, she got so upset when he asked this question but I didn’t understand. The reason why he was asking was because there was a small black girl following a white woman around the store. We never talked about this incident, but slowly I realized that my grandmother telling me “it was perfect” on my birthday, was her way of saying we don’t have to be like everyone else, being different is alright. As long as I was comfortable with any situation or the people around me then I was doing the right thing for me. I didn’t realize how much this picture meant to me until right now writing this. My grandmother still lives in this same house with the same wooden table, ancient globe in the corner that I was never allowed to touch, or the Christmas decorations on the table that were put out every year before my birthday. Taking pictures with this woman was always difficult because she always wanted to be the one behind the camera either recording or just taking photos of every moment. Like the things in the background, nothing has changed between my grandmother and I. She still hates taking pictures and I still love being different and smile just as big when I see her during the holidays.