Here’s my “spooky” little Halloween flash animation project I did for my New Media Production I course at Emerson this semester.
Silly, but fun . . .
October 2006
Monthly Archive
Tue 31 Oct 2006
Wed 25 Oct 2006
“Pinwheel Dance” Critique
Posted by colinrhinesmith under Media Education , Grad School , Emerson CollegeNo Comments
Below is my critique of my second project for my Foundations of Image and Sound course. The final version of the video is here.
Objective
My objective was to create an experimental piece. I wanted to use ordinary, everyday objects and manipulate them to have more life-like characteristics, in this case dancing pinwheels.
Process
* I lined up 5 pinwheels in a V shape.
* I set-up two fans on either side of the camera and turned them on high to make the pinwheels go around.
* I zoomed all the way in to the farthest pinwheel to set the focus and then zoomed out gradually.
* I knelt down in one place during the entire video, while shaking the camera “in tempo” with the shutter speed.
* I slowed the shutter speed down to 8, on the Sony PD150 I used, to create the blurred motion with the pinwheels and the lights.
Audience reaction
The audience reaction was much different for the final screening than for the first screening without sound.
Many students questioned whether the sound was the best choice to go along with the video. I think this was because the sound was perhaps more abstract than some would have chosen.
A couple of people mentioned that I might have stayed too long on the first opening shot, which I am undecided on. I totally understand and appreciate this comment, but I am not sure myself if I would change it.
What I liked
My favorite moment of the piece is when the second pinwheel is introduced. I like how the the second, higher pitch is introduced to accentuate the light(s) entering the frame.
I also like in the opening shot how it seems to “fill” the frame and occasionally revealing that that the image is actually a pinwheel. I like how the pinwheel seems to be flying around the screen.
I like better how this version of the audio reflects the light and dark - thanks to Rii’s comments. This is reflected in the final version with the higher pitch sounds reflecting the bright and the lower rumbling sounds reflecing the dark spaces in the video.
Other approaches I could have taken
Another approach to the music would have been to sample some of the synch sound and manipulate it (hint at it) in the final audio mix.
Originally, as I sketched in my storyboard for the piece, I was hoping to have six pinwheels dancing together. But, I couldn’t find a sixth piwheel that was the same size. I thought six pinwheels would have created more of an even V framing. Instead, I skewed the framing turning the camera a little on its side to create I what I thought was a more interesting perspective.
Overall, I was very pleased with the piece. I learned that I really enjoy creating more abstract compositions.
Mon 23 Oct 2006
“Fast-A-Thon” for Darfur at Bentley College
Mark Frydenberg invited me to speak at Bentley College this evening as part of the CIS Presents “Current Topics in Information Technology.” The title of the lecture was “Technology and Social Activism”. So, I gave a version of the talk I was hoping to give at the ACME Summit.
Over the past year, ACMEBoston has used blogging, podcasting, videoblogging, and open source technologies like our Drupal-based ACMEBoston Projects site as online tools to organize for media and progressive social change. This evening, I talked about some of the ways we’ve used these tools and how these technologies have helped increase awareness about our work and the issues involved.
I shared the example of how Andy Carvin’s video for Rocketboom, featuring an excerpt from our National Day of Out(R)age - Boston rally and press conference on May 24, ended up (briefly) in a segment about Net Neutrality on the PBS show NOW with David Brancaccio. Because we knew that it was going to be difficult to attract local media to the event, we reached out to local bloggers, podcasters, and videobloggers who we knew were already concerned about the issues involved and who we thought may be interested. We were fortunate that Andy Carvin, Steve Garfield, and other local citizen media folks showed up to cover the event on that day.
I also talked about how ACMEBoston has been working with the Boston Neighborhood Producer’s Group to help bridge the “Knowledge Divide” when it comes to learning how to use these new media tools. I noted that we used our video blog on blip.tv to help share the two short videos that Danielle and I shot during our meeting at BNN’s Multimedia Center to help raise awareness about our work and to encourage others to get involved in creating empowerment through sharing knowledge.
I enjoyed talking with the students this evening and appreciated the invitation from Mark to be there. The podcast will be available later this week on the CIS Lecture Series blog.
Oh, yeah and I took this picture (above) passing by one of the buildings on campus.
Wed 18 Oct 2006
“Pinwheel Dance” Final Version
Posted by colinrhinesmith under Media Education , Grad School , Education , VM613 , Emerson CollegeNo Comments
This video is licensed under an Attribution Non-commerical Share Alike 2.5 Creative Commons license (as is all other original content on this site).
Tue 3 Oct 2006
Podcasting & New Media in Education
Posted by colinrhinesmith under Podcast , Berkman Center , Education , Web 2.0 in EducationNo Comments
Mark Frydenberg stopped by the Berkman Center today to give a luncheon presentation on podcasting & new media in education. David Weinberger took some excellent notes during Mark’s talk.
As a preview for the talk today, Indigo shot this great video with Greg Smith interviewing Mark. I’ll be putting up both the audio & video podcasts by tomorrow over at MediaBerkman.
