weekly comments due 4/19

1. I learned that recording audio outside is super cool if you can get the ambient noise done right, plus fresh air is nice.

2. I'd like to learn how to film a dark scene without it looking super grainy and gross, but not lit up either. I can't seem to get it right.

3. I was frustrated for a bit with my poem, ran into some problems and had to record audio a couple of times, and reshoot video a couple of times. Plus rain got in my way of filming outside, but I dealt with it. Also I hate NT high school. For many reasons.

4. I liked that I DID finish and hand in my poem with no time to spare... The grade probably won't be great though... 3 days late, no prep work...eww. But it beats a zero so there's that side.

Weird link issue, I'll fix it in class tomorrow.

response to becoming a better director article

Directors do not have it easy, it's the hardest job in the field, mainly because they do a little to a lot of everything. It takes time, effort, and more time to master being a director, but here's some of the article's tips that can help. 1. Know what you want done, and how you want it done. Then clearly explain it to the people who will get it done. 2. Don't always stick to the script, sometimes you'll get some feedback and ideas from the people around you that can actually make your film better. Sometimes they are dead wrong, but learning from mistakes is a part of growing too. Lastly as previously stated being a director takes time. Be patient, take your time and be efficient, people will be coming to you with questions and you should usually know how to answer them.

Nice tips! I think I want to be a director more than any other (realistically attainable) career. So, its nice to learn about it. Especially since being the director seems like the most tasking job in filmmaking. You are the top dog and you bring everyone together to get the job done right. I believe its important that the director should know what he wants done and how to do it, especially since practically all my projects have been some sort of improvisation due to time constraints... or snow... Snow, you monster. But yeah being a director is super cool even though its hard work.

response to animating with your face article

Recent technologies have led to one of the easiest way for animators to work on their characters, filming their own face and the character copies it. Adobe's new character animator allows a Photoshop or Illustrator layered character's face follow the features of the animator via a web cam. This allows ease of animating eyebrows, eye position, simple head movements, and blinking, along with lip syncing as well. A program like this can help out beginners who are new to character animation and experts alike. Currently the program can even aid in characters breathing and swaying body parts.

A rather small article, but neat. This is an animator's dream, and by that I mean an easy way to do a tedious task. Facial movements are normally not an incredibly hard thing to animate, however time and time again one might find themselves looking in a mirror to see what their expression looks like at a certain time. This software can make that happen much more quickly. Just record your own face and boom, easy. I'm certain it probably has its bugs and kinks now, but think about what this could mean for the future! You could film your entire body and have the computer do all the work! Walk cycles will actually be fun! And, NO MORE BONE TOOL!!!

response to how films can control our minds article

Movies actually do have the ability to 'control' ones mind....kind of. It depends on the skill of the director, for example, Alfred Hitchcock was notably great at it. One can study the brain of a viewer and see which scenes are the most engaging by looking at how much activity is going on in the brain at specific points. In theory, the director would be able to make their movie great completely by studying the viewers mind and fixing the boring parts.


Well it's official, directors can brainwash their viewers... Bring on the mass panic. I mean sure we've essentially been brainwashing people for years, (propaganda, etc.) but this is still a little unsettling. I love that we have the technology to study a person's brain and we're using it to see how engaging a movie is... Welcome to the future. Also, it's not like we would need to have someone view a movie and the movie would change itself, the director would view it and edit it where they needed to. I'm not sure If I like the whole idea about mind controlling people, but hey, if you're film makes money than do your thing.

response to why you shouldn't want an animation job article

This article is about Will Finn's career and how when he got a job in animation he'd expected to get a career of it working for a place like Disney. The article is not a list of reasons why someone shouldn't get a job in animation, instead its the chronology of this man's MANY different experiences at doing different jobs that he worked at then left or was fired until he found another job and the process would repeat. Finn is stating that each job he took built his career, and he learned something from each gig. It took a lot of jumping from one gig to the next but it built his skills, reputation, and knowledge.

I don't think he meant what I read the article title as. When it says something like Why you shouldn't want a job in animation I think he's saying "hey don't get into animation, its a bad career choice and here's why" but it seems to me he's saying you shouldn't get ONE single long job, but instead take multiple different jobs and learn from each experience. Don't get a job, get a career. As previously stated, the multiple jobs he took were new experiences that increased his skills and that he learned from. That's pretty cool.

(Obviously stating each place he worked at and what he did would just be tedious, and there's not a whole lot of information besides that. Weird article to do this kind of response to.)