Megan Scalf's hero and villain's were named The Good and The Ugly. There was a contrast in the hue between the two characters. The Good consisted of brighter hues on his outfit such as the orange shirt and as well as the background of the photo which is light blue. The hues on the character The Ugly consisted of darker blues and shades of gray and black. The photos also used a form of subtext, if you will, by the use of the scruff/beard on The Ugly. During the presentation the scruff on the character was supposed to represent that hes dirty, not well kept, and the antagonist. I explain this using the term subtext because costume (facial hair in this case) is a form of subtext in visuals. It represents a characteristic that may otherwise not show in the text.
To see Megan Scalf's Hero/Villain drawings and animation click here.
Vic Sherrick's heros are a team similar to the idea of Batman and Robin. The heros are the characters Wiz and Oz. Both of the colors on the characters are primary colors and again bright hues like Megans to appeal to the younger audience. In his animation he manipulated the movements by utilizing weight in the part of the animation at about 19 seconds, where Wiz's red top hat hits the ground and squash and stretches back to its original form. He also utilized text in his animation. They used words like "Poof!" to textually represent the sound effects in the animation.
To see Vic Sherrick's Hero Duo drawing and animation click here.
Joshua Strizak's villain posted on his blog is called the Firebomb. The drawing of his character consisted of darker and lighter saturations of the same hue of blue. He used this shading to show shadow from the character's body onto other parts of the character's body (for example left side of character's head.) I found the color choices of a blue body vs. the fire coming from his body (red and orange) to be interesting. Villians with the power of fire seem to usually be red rather than blue but i definitely did not think this took away from his character at all. If anything the contrast in colors helped represent that his character is maybe cold hearted and the fire being bright reds and orange contrasted with the blue helps the fire to stand out in the photo. This immediately draws attention to the fire and his name Firebomb. In his animation he used parallel movement lines (arms and legs strait and 'moving in the wind') that indicated that his character was flying forwards. I do wish he used more lines when the character was flying to add to the effect but over all thought it was a good animation and character drawing.
To see Joshua Strizak's character and animation click here.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Blog 8a: Audio response to This American Life
Click to listen to the "First Act" of This American Life
My Audio Critique:
The Super Power I would most like to have would be to be able to read minds. A superhero that possesses the power to read minds is Professior Charles Xavier of the X-Men mutants.
TIDBIT:
Pisces Characteristics
My Audio Critique:
The Super Power I would most like to have would be to be able to read minds. A superhero that possesses the power to read minds is Professior Charles Xavier of the X-Men mutants.
TIDBIT:
Pisces Characteristics
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Blog 7: My Group's Video Joke Project/Review
#1: Le Bar- Film Noir
#2: What's Your Number?- Buddy Movie
(couldn't find the video on the youtube search so heres the link to youtube for this video)
What's Your Number?
Joke we chose:
JOKE #6
"A very shy guy goes into a bar and sees a beautiful woman sitting at the bar. After an hour of gathering up his courage, he finally goes over to her and asks, tentatively, "Um, would you mind if I chatted with you for a while?" She responds by yelling, at the top of her lungs, "NO! I won't sleep with you tonight!" Everyone in the bar is now staring at them. Naturally, the guy is hopelessly and completely embarrassed and he slinks back to his table. After a few minutes, the woman walks over to him and apologizes. She smiles at him and says, "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. You see, I'm a graduate student in psychology, and I'm studying how people respond to embarrassing situations." To which he responds, at the top of his lungs, "What do you mean $200?!" "
Video Joke Review:
For my groups video joke project we chose to film the scripts Le Bar written by Erin Riordan and What's Your Number? written by Nathan Hoover. The first video we filmed was Le Bar which was shot and directed as a Film Noir type of film. We really wanted to make sure we were creating a sense of affinity between the genre we were going for and other elements, such as the way the film was shot and the music we used. We used this same technique in What's Your Number? which was shot in the genre of a buddy movie. We wanted to keep it light with a slap-stick type of humor so the choice of music had to be upbeat and fun loving as did the voice over. It was important to us to stay true to our genre in this project because we felt it added drama and humor to the film.
We did a great deal of contrasting the shape of our male character with the shape of his surroundings to make him seem uncomfortable. It was important to make the viewer feel that our male character felt out of place because in both scripts, he does. We got a bit deeper into this by really utilizing shape in both Le Bar and What's Your Number? In both films we had our male character in more of a circular shape (using the hat to add to the effect in Le bar and not using the hat in What's Your Number? to reduce the weakness of the male slightly) and our female with defined shoulders and strait posture to give her a more squared shape. The circular shape of the male allowed him to look intimidated by our square shaped female character which is exactly what we wanted to portray in both films.
We also manipulated rhythm in both films. In both of our video jokes we had a variety of shots including an establishing shot in both films, followed by several close up, medium, and a few wide shots throughout the films. In Le Bar we attempted to utilize the close up and medium shots more often to give a more dramatic Film Noir-esque flair. The rhythm between the close ups from the female to the male character and vice-versa allowed our voice overs to make more impact and also created powerful virtual lines in the scenes.
Speaking of lines, we made a point to not only use virtual lines in our films but also use the actual lines in the space to help frame our characters. For example, in What's Your Number there are lines from the bar as well as the pool table that frame our female character and lines from the table that help to frame our male character. In the scene where are female character falls there is a direct line from the pool table and floor pointing strait at her and receding backwards towards the background characters who are laughing at her fall in the scene. This helps bring more attention to the female character's current embarrassing situation and adds humorous impact to the scene.
Overall, I was very happy with the way both videos turned out and how well our group worked together. Each one of my group members in the project are talented and have many great ideas. I really enjoyed this project and thought we did our best to hit all the goals we set out for both films.
#2: What's Your Number?- Buddy Movie
(couldn't find the video on the youtube search so heres the link to youtube for this video)
What's Your Number?
Joke we chose:
JOKE #6
"A very shy guy goes into a bar and sees a beautiful woman sitting at the bar. After an hour of gathering up his courage, he finally goes over to her and asks, tentatively, "Um, would you mind if I chatted with you for a while?" She responds by yelling, at the top of her lungs, "NO! I won't sleep with you tonight!" Everyone in the bar is now staring at them. Naturally, the guy is hopelessly and completely embarrassed and he slinks back to his table. After a few minutes, the woman walks over to him and apologizes. She smiles at him and says, "I'm sorry if I embarrassed you. You see, I'm a graduate student in psychology, and I'm studying how people respond to embarrassing situations." To which he responds, at the top of his lungs, "What do you mean $200?!" "
Video Joke Review:
For my groups video joke project we chose to film the scripts Le Bar written by Erin Riordan and What's Your Number? written by Nathan Hoover. The first video we filmed was Le Bar which was shot and directed as a Film Noir type of film. We really wanted to make sure we were creating a sense of affinity between the genre we were going for and other elements, such as the way the film was shot and the music we used. We used this same technique in What's Your Number? which was shot in the genre of a buddy movie. We wanted to keep it light with a slap-stick type of humor so the choice of music had to be upbeat and fun loving as did the voice over. It was important to us to stay true to our genre in this project because we felt it added drama and humor to the film.
We did a great deal of contrasting the shape of our male character with the shape of his surroundings to make him seem uncomfortable. It was important to make the viewer feel that our male character felt out of place because in both scripts, he does. We got a bit deeper into this by really utilizing shape in both Le Bar and What's Your Number? In both films we had our male character in more of a circular shape (using the hat to add to the effect in Le bar and not using the hat in What's Your Number? to reduce the weakness of the male slightly) and our female with defined shoulders and strait posture to give her a more squared shape. The circular shape of the male allowed him to look intimidated by our square shaped female character which is exactly what we wanted to portray in both films.
We also manipulated rhythm in both films. In both of our video jokes we had a variety of shots including an establishing shot in both films, followed by several close up, medium, and a few wide shots throughout the films. In Le Bar we attempted to utilize the close up and medium shots more often to give a more dramatic Film Noir-esque flair. The rhythm between the close ups from the female to the male character and vice-versa allowed our voice overs to make more impact and also created powerful virtual lines in the scenes.
Speaking of lines, we made a point to not only use virtual lines in our films but also use the actual lines in the space to help frame our characters. For example, in What's Your Number there are lines from the bar as well as the pool table that frame our female character and lines from the table that help to frame our male character. In the scene where are female character falls there is a direct line from the pool table and floor pointing strait at her and receding backwards towards the background characters who are laughing at her fall in the scene. This helps bring more attention to the female character's current embarrassing situation and adds humorous impact to the scene.
Overall, I was very happy with the way both videos turned out and how well our group worked together. Each one of my group members in the project are talented and have many great ideas. I really enjoyed this project and thought we did our best to hit all the goals we set out for both films.
Character Animation & Drawing
^ Character animation
^ my character: Dr. Dirt Nasty
link to meng's character drawing of Bubble Bath Man
link to meng's character drawing of Bubble Bath Man
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Video Game Critique
Super Mario 64 clip
Critique =
Critique =
The biggest point that we had trouble conveying was describing who our audience would be. We had a tough time defining this because our game has so many options and is so adaptable based on the person who chooses to play that the audience could virtually be any one. Another point I felt we had trouble conveying was that we were trying to sell our game to investors. I feel we kind of dropped the ball on that aspect of the project mainly because even though we could explain the games to ourselves, explaining it to others proved a bit confusing.
I think one of the flaws of our game was that we kept it way too open. Yes, it is fun to have many options but we made it so our game was virtually unlimited, which makes it a bit more difficult to explain things such as goals and objectives. The goals and objectives were by far the most difficult to explain. The goals in the game are basically to acquire more ‘gadgets/things’ to be able to do more in further levels. For example, if the game gave you the option to pick up an iPod that was not yours, if you took it you could use that to your advantage (sometimes disadvantage) in further levels. This was also confusing when discussing the goals and objectives because every choice you get is linked with chance, so although your objective may be to choose to take a certain gadget (in order to reach your goal of more ‘options’) you never know if taking or not taking the gadget is a good or bad choice until you find out the meaning or consequence of taking that gadget later in the game. The idea of this concept is extremely intriguing but a bit confusing to explain to an audience of investors without having an example of the game to show. We definitely could have overall, done a better job at explaining those aspects of our game and possibly given more of a visual to the audience by comparing our game to Sims for example.
Overall, I do believe that we were creative in our game creation and each added a lot of innovative ideas to the game. The rules were very clear. For example, avoid dying and the fact that there are restrictions built into the game (cannot run into the street when at a destination; virtual walls). Also, although the mechanics slide on the PowerPoint was underdeveloped by the requirements of the grade sheet, I do feel the idea was fully developed and explained properly by Max when he explained how you used the WASD keys to play the game ect. Each of us had no problem understanding the game ourselves but because the idea was so developed and complicated with several different options it made explaining it to an audience a bit more difficult that we would have liked. I had a really great time designing the game and really wish we could have conveyed our idea much clearer. I think if we could have done that, the game would have impressed the audience.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
5A. reimaging visual framing
Reframed Image
Original Image
I was drawn to this image by Sally Mann mainly because of the Visual Intensity of the photo. Even though we are not sure what the context on the photo is it is easy to assume that it is representing a melancholy and intense situation. I chose to reframe the image by focusing on what I thought was the most visually intense aspect of the photo and that is the boy's faces, specifically their eyes and the direction in which they are looking. The direction of both focal points (each boy's eyes) have affinity in their direction. They are both fixed on the camera. I wanted to magnetize the visual intensity by reframing the image around the boys faces and eyes to take away from the distraction of the contrast in direction between the direction the boys are looking and the direction the lines on their shirts are going. When you minimize the presence of the other lines on the photo the lines are perceived a bit differently and there is more focus on the virtual lines (eyes to camera) vs. the actual lines(striped shirt) which is what I was going for when reframing. The shape of the boys heads may look similar but I believe they are different. The boy on the left has more of a circular shaped head and the boy on the right a square. Because Sally Mann included more of a presence of the boy on the right's hair, that added to the shape of his head as a square. I do not believe this was done by accident especially when you consider the element of blood on the boy on the right. Clearly, the boy on the right is meant to be the dominant figure between the two boys. When reframing I also decided to manipulate the shot type and change the photo from a medium shot to a close up. I feel that closing in the space and focusing on where the visual intensity lies in the photo (the boys faces) would increase that intensity.
I believe Sally Mann had similar thoughts when framing this photo. She did not want to do a very wide shot because that would minimize the intensity of the photo as well as distract the viewer from her focal points. But I definitely see a reason that she did a medium shot vs. a close up and I believe that has a lot to do with the shirts the boys are wearing. I want to point out the difference in the striped shirts of the boys. I find this very interesting that she did this. Like I said earlier, I do believe the boy on the right has a square shape and the boy on the left a circle but at the same time the boy on the left has more defined, solid, stripes on his shirt vs. the boy on the right who has thick and thin stripes and his shirt is a bit wrinkled. I found this contrast very interesting. The head shapes give the impression that the boy on the left is less dominant than the right, that may very well be the reason the boy on the right is the one with blood on his face. The boy on the right is wearing a wrinkled shirt, with contrasting stripes, and a white under shirt with blood on the color. The boy of the left is wearing a unwrinkled shirt with solid stripes and no undershirt showing, his hair also looks less of a mess. If this picture was depicting for example, a terrible case of domestic abuse, by costume choice, line and shape, and space in the photo you can put all of the elements together and assume that the boy on the right is the more dominant personality therefore, presumably, the most likely of the two to be beaten. Many of Sally Mann's photos seem to have a dark melancholy concept behind them and by manipulating the aspects of framing, lines and shape, visual intensity, and space in her photo's she is able to get across some very intense situations and feelings in her photos.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Brainwashed
Brainwashed by Seth Godin
In Seth Godin's menefesto Brainwashed he begins talking about the 7 levers you can utilize to reinvent your self by saying DO WORK THAT MATTERS. " The economy just gave you leverage—the leverage to make a difference, the leverage to spread your ideas and the leverage to have an impact," says Godin. This is so true. It is time for us to use our creativity that we so greatly value and put it to good use. ACKNOWLEDGE THE LIZARD. In this section Godin explains the lizard brain as, "the part of our brain that worries about safety and dishes out anger. Being laughed at is the lizard brain’s worst nightmare. And so it shuts down our art." He explains that this fear of our art being rejected is the sole reason for us to resist our creativity. We are so afraid that someone might laugh or not understand something that we create that means a lot to us that we completely throw it away all together. I know I definitely have been guilty of letting my lizard brain get the best of me when it comes to my music. I have refused multiple times to play my own music, songs that I have spent hours creating, that mean a lot to me, in public because of the fear that someone may judge me for it. This hinders my creativity and feedback from people. Feedback is so important to art because it improves it, the artist grows with feedback, and by letting the fear of rejection and laughter hinder this we are killing our creativity. This section explains that ignoring these negative criticism's and the voice of skepticism is crucial to creativity. So we must acknowledge it. Acknowledge the lizard, know that the skepticism is there and push through it but you must acknowledge the lizard in order to ignore it.
The other lever I found that speaks to me is the 1st lever, Connect. We are in a world where we have the ability to connect through endless amounts of technology and utilize social media. Although many people view social media as a time wasting, vapid ritual, I believe if you use it to connect with the best creative intentions it is genius. The section talks about how the artist for the Obama poster could freely share his work and how connecting with social media allowed his creative talents to be shown and appreciated all over the country. Even though he wasn't paid his work was widely recognized and respected. Now he has made a name for his creativity and will most likely be sought out rather than him struggling to find work. The impact technology and social media has on our creativity and lifestyles is endless. Take Youtube for example. Some of the biggest acts in Hollywood have been started by this site. Justin Beiber for example was just a kid with a large talented voice who posted videos of him singing and playing guitar on Youtube. A few short years and posted videos later Justin Timberlake and Usher are battling it out to sign this talented 14 year old boy. Youtube gave him a medium to create and post his creative works and talent to a wide audience that would never have been available until now. Not only is social media a great means of sharing your creative content but also a great medium for sharing personal and emotion issues you may struggle with. In a MDIA course I took last quarter we discussed the importance of social media for creative and emotional reasons. One huge topic was the use of Youtube for podcasting personal issues to a wide audience without having to publically stand in front of everyone. When you think about it, when you post a podcast or video of your self on Youtube you are essentially speaking to an endless amount of viewers but at the time of the post its just you and your computer but with the sense that someone out there is listening and cares. We watched a documentary with several interviews of people who's podcasts and videos are widely followed. A man was interviewed who lost his 12 year old daughter to leukemia and used Youtube as a form of therapy to get his emotions out to anyone who wanted to listen who may understand. He explained it wasn't until he started posting videos and talking about the internal emotional suffering he was going through that he felt any healing. Youtube gave him a space to talk about what he was going through without having to feel judged the moment the words came out of his mouth. For this man the feedback was tremendous. People from all over the world offered advice, counseling, help, and could relate to his situation. The man explained that Youtube and the people following his podcasts and videos completely saved him from a deep depression after the death of his daughter and the screen names without faces and the comments on his posts gave him hope. In my opinion social media is not a waste of time. It is a creative outlet for people who want to be heard and believe me, there are billions of people wanting to listen.
Acknowledging the lizard and connecting both do relate to the blogs we are creating this quarter. First of all, whenever you create something of your own, be it the songs and soundscapes we have created or even the opinions of the cover songs and which songs we chose, there is always that fear that someone will judge us ( even if it is for a class .) Having to do this for class helps us acknowledge the lizard and realize we must ignore it, not just to get the assignment done, but to get used to being proud of our creations and sharing them with others. Blogging is also a great way to connect. I am very grad we have to blog for this class because it has inspired me to want to create a blog of my own where I blog about my creativity and interests and others music and art that I find inspiring. Why wouldn't I want to share my opinions about something I love and am passionate about? Blogging for this class has made me realize just that. I feel that the blogging exercises has helped me in being more organized with my opinions and how I post them. I want to intrigue people with my writing and posts and that is something that I will continue to work on improving. I am not sure if the blogging exercises makes me a better student over all but it definitely makes me a better media student. It is important for students in all media majors to understand the effectiveness and importance of sharing your creativity and gaining followers. Media is a business in which you must be able to be followed and you must have intriguing elements in order for others to want to follow you. A blog is a great way to help others gain insight on what you are all about. I really enjoy blogging for this class and I intend on making my own blog in the near future discussing and posting things I am passionate about. In today's world it is so important we stay connected and blogging is a great way to organize creative thoughts in social media.
In Seth Godin's menefesto Brainwashed he begins talking about the 7 levers you can utilize to reinvent your self by saying DO WORK THAT MATTERS. " The economy just gave you leverage—the leverage to make a difference, the leverage to spread your ideas and the leverage to have an impact," says Godin. This is so true. It is time for us to use our creativity that we so greatly value and put it to good use. ACKNOWLEDGE THE LIZARD. In this section Godin explains the lizard brain as, "the part of our brain that worries about safety and dishes out anger. Being laughed at is the lizard brain’s worst nightmare. And so it shuts down our art." He explains that this fear of our art being rejected is the sole reason for us to resist our creativity. We are so afraid that someone might laugh or not understand something that we create that means a lot to us that we completely throw it away all together. I know I definitely have been guilty of letting my lizard brain get the best of me when it comes to my music. I have refused multiple times to play my own music, songs that I have spent hours creating, that mean a lot to me, in public because of the fear that someone may judge me for it. This hinders my creativity and feedback from people. Feedback is so important to art because it improves it, the artist grows with feedback, and by letting the fear of rejection and laughter hinder this we are killing our creativity. This section explains that ignoring these negative criticism's and the voice of skepticism is crucial to creativity. So we must acknowledge it. Acknowledge the lizard, know that the skepticism is there and push through it but you must acknowledge the lizard in order to ignore it.
The other lever I found that speaks to me is the 1st lever, Connect. We are in a world where we have the ability to connect through endless amounts of technology and utilize social media. Although many people view social media as a time wasting, vapid ritual, I believe if you use it to connect with the best creative intentions it is genius. The section talks about how the artist for the Obama poster could freely share his work and how connecting with social media allowed his creative talents to be shown and appreciated all over the country. Even though he wasn't paid his work was widely recognized and respected. Now he has made a name for his creativity and will most likely be sought out rather than him struggling to find work. The impact technology and social media has on our creativity and lifestyles is endless. Take Youtube for example. Some of the biggest acts in Hollywood have been started by this site. Justin Beiber for example was just a kid with a large talented voice who posted videos of him singing and playing guitar on Youtube. A few short years and posted videos later Justin Timberlake and Usher are battling it out to sign this talented 14 year old boy. Youtube gave him a medium to create and post his creative works and talent to a wide audience that would never have been available until now. Not only is social media a great means of sharing your creative content but also a great medium for sharing personal and emotion issues you may struggle with. In a MDIA course I took last quarter we discussed the importance of social media for creative and emotional reasons. One huge topic was the use of Youtube for podcasting personal issues to a wide audience without having to publically stand in front of everyone. When you think about it, when you post a podcast or video of your self on Youtube you are essentially speaking to an endless amount of viewers but at the time of the post its just you and your computer but with the sense that someone out there is listening and cares. We watched a documentary with several interviews of people who's podcasts and videos are widely followed. A man was interviewed who lost his 12 year old daughter to leukemia and used Youtube as a form of therapy to get his emotions out to anyone who wanted to listen who may understand. He explained it wasn't until he started posting videos and talking about the internal emotional suffering he was going through that he felt any healing. Youtube gave him a space to talk about what he was going through without having to feel judged the moment the words came out of his mouth. For this man the feedback was tremendous. People from all over the world offered advice, counseling, help, and could relate to his situation. The man explained that Youtube and the people following his podcasts and videos completely saved him from a deep depression after the death of his daughter and the screen names without faces and the comments on his posts gave him hope. In my opinion social media is not a waste of time. It is a creative outlet for people who want to be heard and believe me, there are billions of people wanting to listen.
Acknowledging the lizard and connecting both do relate to the blogs we are creating this quarter. First of all, whenever you create something of your own, be it the songs and soundscapes we have created or even the opinions of the cover songs and which songs we chose, there is always that fear that someone will judge us ( even if it is for a class .) Having to do this for class helps us acknowledge the lizard and realize we must ignore it, not just to get the assignment done, but to get used to being proud of our creations and sharing them with others. Blogging is also a great way to connect. I am very grad we have to blog for this class because it has inspired me to want to create a blog of my own where I blog about my creativity and interests and others music and art that I find inspiring. Why wouldn't I want to share my opinions about something I love and am passionate about? Blogging for this class has made me realize just that. I feel that the blogging exercises has helped me in being more organized with my opinions and how I post them. I want to intrigue people with my writing and posts and that is something that I will continue to work on improving. I am not sure if the blogging exercises makes me a better student over all but it definitely makes me a better media student. It is important for students in all media majors to understand the effectiveness and importance of sharing your creativity and gaining followers. Media is a business in which you must be able to be followed and you must have intriguing elements in order for others to want to follow you. A blog is a great way to help others gain insight on what you are all about. I really enjoy blogging for this class and I intend on making my own blog in the near future discussing and posting things I am passionate about. In today's world it is so important we stay connected and blogging is a great way to organize creative thoughts in social media.
Song Critiques
** Please note I could not complete one of the critiques because it would not allow me to view the song if I was not a friend of the person who posted it on youtube.
Monday, January 31, 2011
3A. Cover song or Original? Ride Wit me by Nelly; Cover by I Call Shotgun
ORIGINAL ^ Nelly
COVER^ I Call Shotgun
The arrangement also differs between the two versions. For most of the cover song the arrangement stays the same untill we get to the end of the song where the cover version throws in a cover of the chorus from another song, Cupid's Chokehold by Gym Class Heroes. This adds creativity to their cover and in my opinion fits in quite well with the pitch and speed of the song. The arrangement of ICSG's cover is a bit more chaotic than Nelly's version when you consider the lyrical changes and the surprise extra bridge where they add the cover of the chorus by GCH's. The instrumentation of the cover vs. the original also has an effect of the arrangement of the song. For instance back beat in the original vs. acoustic guitar in the cover. The different instruments in each version drive the song. The Rhythm of the cover vs. the original also differs mainly because of the difference in the genre the song is being played (acoustic soulful reggae vs. rap/hiphop. )
Overall, I think both versions are great but personally I would have to say I favor the cover by I Call Shotgun. The creativity the band used in creating this cover is very unique. It is rare that an acoustic band covers a rap song so successfully and makes the song sound very legitimate even considering the context of the song. Their use of vocal melody also added so much to this cover and really gave an awesome groove to the song. I really enjoy this cover alot and hope you will too!
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Ways to Get Ideas
14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas- Mitch Ditkoff
In order to generate brilliant ideas we must first allow ourselves to be inspired. Mitch Ditkoff"s 14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas is a collection of valid suggestions in order to help the creative thinker/innovator take what inspires them and turn it into an idea and eventually a reality. The first point discusses fascination. He explains that when one feels fascinated by an idea it is a clue that there is something there worth our engagement. We must let these fascinations and inspirations "grow inside us," he says. I feel this suggestion is extremely important and a really great suggestion to help ones creativity. When digging deeper to fully understand what Ditkoff is trying to say in tip 1, I looked up the dictionary definition for inspiration. The definition that would make most sense with Ditkoff's idea he is mentioning here is that inspiration is, "a stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings, etc. to special or unusual activity or creativity." While I believe this definition is true, I unexpectedly found one of the definitions extremely intriguing. An alternate definition for inspiration is the, " the act or process of inhaling; breathing in." This definition opened my eyes to the importance of being inspired and letting your self dwell on inspiration. Although, they are referring to the actual process of breathing it is also a metaphor that without inspiration your ideas cannot breathe and will eventually die. Ditkoff is making this point here and telling us to not only allow our selves to be fascinated but immerse ourselves in fascination and inspiration in order to let our ideas grow.
A suggestion of Ditkoff's that struck me harder than most the others was suggestion # 3: Tolerate Ambiguity. One's ability to stay in a "grey zone," he calls it, and not know. This suggestion is a great suggestion that I really felt I needed to take notice of and act on. It is definitely something I struggle with. I get impatient when I can't find the answer I'm looking for and it hinders my creativity greatly. This is definitely something I need to work on. I found a quote he uses in this section very meaningful. He quotes Thomas Edison after he was asked how it felt to fail 800 times before coming up with tungsten as the filament for the light bulb. “Fail?” Edison said. “I didn’t fail once. I learned 800 times what didn’t work.” This quote really sums up for me the point Ditkoff is trying to make. That we have to allow ourselves some breathing room and realize that not knowing is not always a bad thing and just because you may not be finding an answer when you want to doesn't mean the answer is not there. One can only fail when they decide to stop trying.
TAKE A BREAK! Tip # 8. I am so glad Ditkoff mentioned this. This is a tip I already do and it truly has helped my creativity and ideas flourish. Sometimes you just need to clear you head to make room for the next cycle of ideas and questions to fill your brain and allow you to move forward. He goes on to explain Seymour Cray's strategy for breaks and work time during his designing of high speed computers. Cray would divide his time between designing and digging an underground tunnel below his home. He explains that Cray would return to the lab with new ideas and when he was out there digging "elves" solved the problems he had in his lab so when he returned he was ready to continue. Although, he was clearly joking about elves it made a lot of sense to explain it that way. Whenever I am struggling with writing a new song or struggling with an issue in my life and I cannot find the answer I'm looking for I go for a drive. A long drive with no particular destination is my underground tunnel. Whenever I need to clear my head I get in my car, pop in a good CD and just drive. Eventually, I have reached the other side of town and cleared my head of whatever issue I had been having before. I find once I pull back into my driveway I suddenly get inspiration and am ready to continue working.
At the end of the article, in his description of Tip 14, he quotes Einstein in saying, "not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted." This quote resonated with me and really stuck with me to take the advice and not look at everything so concrete all of the time. Like tip 14 says, suspend judgment and logic. Enter a state of open mindedness and give your creativity and inspirations room to grow. The prompt asks: What can you do this week to suspend practicality, logic and rationality in service to birthing your big idea? This week I want to focus on feeling my inspirations and instead of picking them apart and dissecting what I think is useful, simply stop thinking just let myself feel the inspiration take hold of my idea. Use mediums such as film and music to broaden my ideas and take myself out of my head and into an open space of free thinking. I feel if I suspend my self in a state of open mindedness and immerse myself in a pool of feeling and inspiration rather than thought and fact, my ideas will begin to flourish.
In order to generate brilliant ideas we must first allow ourselves to be inspired. Mitch Ditkoff"s 14 Ways to Get Breakthrough Ideas is a collection of valid suggestions in order to help the creative thinker/innovator take what inspires them and turn it into an idea and eventually a reality. The first point discusses fascination. He explains that when one feels fascinated by an idea it is a clue that there is something there worth our engagement. We must let these fascinations and inspirations "grow inside us," he says. I feel this suggestion is extremely important and a really great suggestion to help ones creativity. When digging deeper to fully understand what Ditkoff is trying to say in tip 1, I looked up the dictionary definition for inspiration. The definition that would make most sense with Ditkoff's idea he is mentioning here is that inspiration is, "a stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings, etc. to special or unusual activity or creativity." While I believe this definition is true, I unexpectedly found one of the definitions extremely intriguing. An alternate definition for inspiration is the, " the act or process of inhaling; breathing in." This definition opened my eyes to the importance of being inspired and letting your self dwell on inspiration. Although, they are referring to the actual process of breathing it is also a metaphor that without inspiration your ideas cannot breathe and will eventually die. Ditkoff is making this point here and telling us to not only allow our selves to be fascinated but immerse ourselves in fascination and inspiration in order to let our ideas grow.
A suggestion of Ditkoff's that struck me harder than most the others was suggestion # 3: Tolerate Ambiguity. One's ability to stay in a "grey zone," he calls it, and not know. This suggestion is a great suggestion that I really felt I needed to take notice of and act on. It is definitely something I struggle with. I get impatient when I can't find the answer I'm looking for and it hinders my creativity greatly. This is definitely something I need to work on. I found a quote he uses in this section very meaningful. He quotes Thomas Edison after he was asked how it felt to fail 800 times before coming up with tungsten as the filament for the light bulb. “Fail?” Edison said. “I didn’t fail once. I learned 800 times what didn’t work.” This quote really sums up for me the point Ditkoff is trying to make. That we have to allow ourselves some breathing room and realize that not knowing is not always a bad thing and just because you may not be finding an answer when you want to doesn't mean the answer is not there. One can only fail when they decide to stop trying.
TAKE A BREAK! Tip # 8. I am so glad Ditkoff mentioned this. This is a tip I already do and it truly has helped my creativity and ideas flourish. Sometimes you just need to clear you head to make room for the next cycle of ideas and questions to fill your brain and allow you to move forward. He goes on to explain Seymour Cray's strategy for breaks and work time during his designing of high speed computers. Cray would divide his time between designing and digging an underground tunnel below his home. He explains that Cray would return to the lab with new ideas and when he was out there digging "elves" solved the problems he had in his lab so when he returned he was ready to continue. Although, he was clearly joking about elves it made a lot of sense to explain it that way. Whenever I am struggling with writing a new song or struggling with an issue in my life and I cannot find the answer I'm looking for I go for a drive. A long drive with no particular destination is my underground tunnel. Whenever I need to clear my head I get in my car, pop in a good CD and just drive. Eventually, I have reached the other side of town and cleared my head of whatever issue I had been having before. I find once I pull back into my driveway I suddenly get inspiration and am ready to continue working.
At the end of the article, in his description of Tip 14, he quotes Einstein in saying, "not everything that can be counted counts; and not everything that counts can be counted." This quote resonated with me and really stuck with me to take the advice and not look at everything so concrete all of the time. Like tip 14 says, suspend judgment and logic. Enter a state of open mindedness and give your creativity and inspirations room to grow. The prompt asks: What can you do this week to suspend practicality, logic and rationality in service to birthing your big idea? This week I want to focus on feeling my inspirations and instead of picking them apart and dissecting what I think is useful, simply stop thinking just let myself feel the inspiration take hold of my idea. Use mediums such as film and music to broaden my ideas and take myself out of my head and into an open space of free thinking. I feel if I suspend my self in a state of open mindedness and immerse myself in a pool of feeling and inspiration rather than thought and fact, my ideas will begin to flourish.
Monday, January 17, 2011
1A- The Emotions of Sound
I get a lot of my creativity and inspiration from listening to songs with a deeper meaning. I really enjoy decoding lyrics and trying to understand how the artist/s must have been feeling or what they were inspired by when writing the song. The emotional tone of the message also has a large impact. Some artists that I am particularly inspired by that I believe embody all that I have mentioned include Manchester Orchestra, As Tall As Lions, Brand New and Death Cab for Cutie. Manchester Orchestra has especially influenced my work, especially when it comes to my use of text and subtext in songs I write. They use incredible metaphors and manipulate words into poetry. With first listen, some of their lyrics may feel confusing and seem to not make much sense but once you take a deeper look the meanings they hold are extremely powerful. Andy Hull ( lead vocalist/guitar/writer) and the meanings behind all of his lyrics are an extreme inspiration to me and my work. My favorite example of their use of text & subtext is in the song I Can Barely Breathe.
A few lyrics that represent their use of text & subtext in this song are " But then I saw your face. Your turning skin into a dirty secret." The text it's self seems a bit confusing but in my opinion the meaning behind these words (subtext) is an extremely powerful message. " You're turning skin into a dirty secret," in my opinion is him referring to a girl and her wearing a lot of make up for example and this representing societies fear with being yourself and the media's obsession with improving your self and keeping the natural you a secret. Another lyric in this song that I feel holds an important message is the lyric " everybody has their reasons that's the reason we're all gonna die." The use of text here is saying everyone has their reasons but the subtext is that everyone has an excuse for putting themselves above everyone else and at the end of the day, " that's the reason we're all gonna die," only looking out for ourselves and not the people around you will eventually be your demise. The last lyric I wanted to mention in this song is the one that I feel is the most powerful. Not only do the words hold a strong meaning but the tone and dynamics of this part in the song shake you to your bones and really add a strong emotion to the end of the song. The lyric is " When I fly solo, I fly so high." I believe this lyrics sums up the message of the song and also has a bit of irony to the words. The subtext of this lyric is when you are alone you can focus on your self and therefore have more room to succeed. But I feel there is a bit of irony to this line because you may be alone and successful but at the end of the day you are alone. You may fly high when you are alone but flying high alone is not happiness its avoiding the effects others have on your life.
Brand New is another band that really inspires me and fuels my creativity. Although I feel Brand New has some incredible lyrics and complex meaning to their songs what I really feel they do best is their use of tension & release. They use tension & release to increase the dramatics of their songs and they do it beautifully. The song in particular that I want to mention is Jesus Christ. Towards the end of the song they hit you with a set of extremely powerful words accompanied by an intense dark melody. Then suddenly the music cuts and its silence. The silence continues for an unusual amount of time. Its not a long time but enough for you to feel uncomfortable wondering if the song is really over or not. Then it releases the tension when it hits you with the main riff a few more times as the song comes to a close.
emo but loveable nerd who brought the comedic relief to the show. Death Cab and their music helped solidify his character and keep the affinity or similarity between the character or Seth and the image of Death Cab. Their song Title & Registration has been a big inspiration to my music. It was actually the inspiration for a recent song I wrote about how things from the past, be it pictures, gifts, notes, etc. always seem to find a way of creeping up on you in the present. The song Title & Registration is about accidentally finding things from the past that you have stashed away in your glove box and reflecting on then and now and how things have changed and where you stand with that emotionally. I feel this song deals with the conscious and subconscious in an interesting way. The song describes that consciously you are just looking for something in the glove box, not consciously looking for things from your past. But when you find that small reminder subconsciously the glove box doesn't become just a place for important papers but for memories you thought you have forgotten or stashed away that have always subconsciously been there but have been hiding from you. Take a listen.
These are just three examples of hundreds of songs that inspire me in one way or another. They say a picture is worth a thousand words but a song is worth a million pictures and I've found that to be nothing but truth.
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