Minutiae 22: Details in Nature

plant life is so intriguing. more often than not it's over looked but the small details make up for everything

Minutiae 21: Details in Nature

look at this dude.

Project 4 Brainstorm cont.

   My peers were SO helpful yesterday when we discussed my storyboard and film ideas. I've made a fair amount of progress filming already and can't wait to continue. Previous assignments in this class have felt more like projects to me, and this is the first assignment that I identify as something that I could make into a work of art. Nonetheless, I'm excited. Here's some info to summarize my progress so far. 

_____________________________

Goals: 

- The underlying attitude of the film will be quiet and eye opening, maybe give the viewer a sense of contentment 

- To provide to the viewer my passion of environmental awareness and get people interested in the cause (especially concerning recent events with Trump and the EPA)

- To get some really great footage of nature's most important and useful resource 

Suggestions: 

- No dialogue (I was thinking about this idea too but wanted other opinions), instead using heightened natural sounds 

- Adding a small narrative involved with all of the montage shots 

- Additional "death" idea: flushing a toilet 

- Spelling out life phases using water or using some sort of hand written text (?) 

Storyboard:

   I'm creating a montage, so the narrative of my storyboard isn't as important as the videos themselves. I'm mostly working on deciding which shots will be defined as "birth", "life" or "death" and coming up with more ideas. Below is a photo of all of the ideas that I've categorized so far, though the organization isn't as necessary until I've collected everything that I want to use. 

Crit Response

Project 3 Breakdown:

- Self Created Element: Hand Written Words

- Found Element: Photographs, Trump logo, landscape images 

- Text: "I want you", and "My administration..." 

Critique Response:

- I wasn't terribly happy with my final project for this assignment. Things that were brought up during the crit were things that I was expecting to hear. I as well as my classmates felt uneasy about the arrangement on the "Attack-Trump" poster, and the hand written elements felt out of place. I spent a fair amount of time putting these two posters together, though the lack of experience I held with Illustrator proved to be a roadblock in my process. I find my lack of experience in digital art frustrating, especially when I have a well thought out vision but not enough knowledge to execute the idea. 

Project 4: General Planning & Storyboard

brainstorm:
- water
- natural sounds
-
outline:
1. beginning/problem: where does it come from [origination] ~birth~
2. middle: what it does and how it works [movement] ~life~
3. end/resolution: where it goes [evaporation, condensation... etc] ~death~
film styles:
stop action animation: 
- watering a plant and taking pictures throughout the day to see how the plant moves
- turning on a stove top and taking pictures of water boiling
real time video: 
- water movement (ocean, lake)
- rain falling
- shower head
- taking a sip of water from a glass and putting it back down
appropriated video:
- water in nature (creeks, brooks, waterfalls, etc.) 
- water evaporation.. ?
integrated youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwB2Xhw2r1I (creek)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTszQ6Lcvus (creek)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlLSVBBAeag (waterfall)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI3yNckfSvU  (ocean)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGZycsGruJc (jumping into pool)

Minutiae 20: Details in Nature

SHROOMS

Minutiae 19: Details in Nature

Minutiae 18: Details in Nature

SHELLS

Minutiae 17: Details in Nature

Minutiae 16: Details in Nature

Minutiae 15: Details in Nature

Video Ideas / Response

   Crystal's work is amazing and something that I feel is totally independent from traditional categorization of art. I was really taken off guard by the genre of her videos and experimentation with different types of audio tracks, but grew fond of it over the course of the studio time that she spent presenting her work. The videos were interesting and made some pretty fair points. I find film/cinematic art to be intriguing and though I don't have much experience in the field, I look forward to the opportunity of developing ideas that I may have acquired in the past. I'm also really fond of animation and how style and preference play into different genres and categories of film.

Visual Pleasure Response

      This article brought up many interesting ideas that have remained seemingly 'underground' in the film industry for years. Firstly, I'd like to address the first and most eye-opening concept of the author's "peeping-tom" theory. I found myself re-reading this portion of the article several times as my entire cinematic experiences started falling into place. It's so obscure to think about a trip to the theatre as a cheeky eavesdrop into somebody's private life, but that's really what it is. Movie producers thrive to create experiences that individuals can relate to and more often than not, they're extremely private and personal scenarios. I also thought that this author was addressing general issues of female perception and objectification of women, especially in the cinematic/hollywood lifestyle. Women are so easily used to manipulate ambitions and storylines in a movie setting and the projection of it's result onto the audience is essentially brainwashing. Even in pixar and disney films, there is commonly a romantic interest that diverts from the overall journey or goal. In more severe cases, women in the movie scene are just completely sexualized and the audience most always receives that information as normal and relatable.

Project 3 ideas/sketches

Political controversy: Trump vs. NPS (Trump vs. Environment)

[pro NPS sketches]

pretty self explanatory 

context: business man = business world. turning over national park land to the states 

context: trump's cabinet includes rick perry (an ally of the oil industry), rex tillerson (ex-chief executive officer of exxonmobil), and scott pruitt (who has sued the EPA 13 total times)

nevertheless, she persisted !!!! 

ironic opposition 

[pro trump sketches (i really hate myself for this)]

[not mine]

"you have to think anyway, so why not think big?" - trump

the out of context photo really helped him on this one

could be used in a similar context...

again... i cannot emphasize enough how much i hated doing this

write up: I feel like one of the biggest and most under minded issues with the Trump administration is the dispute with the National Parks Service and his general environmental policies. I care about this issue a lot because I'm a huge advocate for wildlife preservation and the National Parks Service in it's entirety and I identify with the controversy more than anything. One of the things that affects this situation most is the confirmed presidential cabinet and who he has chosen to take a part of his 4 year process (see above). It won't be easy for me to sympathize with him and make the 'opposition' poster, but I definitely feel like I should look into the issue a bit more. I may go over his environmental policies word by word and see how I can use what he's already said. 

How to Ruin a Great Design

      I feel as if this is an issue that is constantly under minded and forgotten about. I do however, feel as if it's a bigger deal than it's perceived to be. I have watched countless logos develop and "modernize" over time in attempt to draw in larger crowds or identify with their organizations more, but I strongly feel as while these logos are becoming simplified and cleaner, they are losing their authenticity. A good example of this that I can really relate to, is the development of the PSU Nittany Lion mascot/logo. This is something that be immediately recognized as a Penn State affiliate, but recently it has started to change dramatically. Keep in mind that I grew up and currently live in State College, where everything and everyone holds some kind of connection to the university. It is something that our residents and students bond over, and that people can hold on to for as long as time. However, I feel as if with the new changes in the logo, the State College community has become very distant from the students and the university, creating a new atmosphere that alumni and affiliates cannot relate to. Check out an example of how the logo has changed within the last 2 years, and how impersonal it has become. 

Minutiae 14: Details in Nature

on the contrary... be careful out there!!

Minutiae 13: Details in Nature

some plants are edible! pro tip: buy (or make) a guide and go on an edible plants hike :~)

Fake News

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/13/entertainment/adele-beyonce-racism/

   This article details Adele's experience at the Grammys and how she believed that Beyoncé should have won her award, and how more importantly, how she thinks that the only reason she won it was because she was white. Though I do believe that racism is prevalent in Hollywood culture, I do honestly believe that Adele won the Grammy due to her lifetime accomplishments and incredible talent. It is something to consider though.

Truthiness

       I get the majority of my information from online sources, with exception to social media. I generally refuse to pass on any misinformation until I know for sure that it is 100% true. I use sources such as New York Times and other online newspapers, pretty much any established media organization. If I ever share anything on facebook, I'll do a quick google search to double check that the information that I'm sharing is true. The whole situation with the Trump inauguration was very messy. I know that the media downplayed his ceremony a bit but I 100% believe that generally just has less of a support group behind him. With regards to his reaction and how he handled being belittled by the media, I wasn't surprised. Of course one of the first things that Trump would do during his first day in office would be to criticize and denounce the CIA in reaction to the public opinion. I think that all three of these articles provide insight to both sides of the story, but the New York Times provided the most. Some of it may have been out of context (I don't know), but it truly reveals our President's behavior and details what is yet to come for our country. The term truthiness is very interesting and relevant to the Trump administration, and is something that relates to both sides of his campaign. There are things interpreted by the president that he wants to believe are true based on his personal beliefs, and there are things that the public wants to believe are true based on their opinion of him. The Post-Truth Picture Book is really amusing and ironically true when considering what parents push on their children. A lot of kids transition into adulthoods with opinions that are not their own, based off of what their parents have told them. Something to think about.