Moving Forward

I'm slowly making more progress on my project this semester. I met with my director again the other day and he and I discussed more little things I can do to make my final project the best it can be. Hopefully I'll be done editing soon and can move on to just working on finalizing the presentation board.

Workn towards the goal

          I’m making some decent progress this semester towards completing this project. Sadly it seems to be a case of two steps forward one step back. I’m doing well at getting all my editing touch ups done and making progress towards my business cards and presentation board, but I’ve missed two submission dates due to outside interference. Hopefully I’ll be able to get everything straightened out soon and get my overall project back on track.

It's a Musical World

The world of musicals is great and varied. From The early 1920s through today, musicals have captivated and enchanted audiences. The fun thing about musicals, from a technical standpoint, is the dual-aspect of the narrative. In a traditional filmic narrative, object A leads person B to perform action C. In a musical, this doesn’t necessarily occur. Object A could cause person B to perform action C at the exact same time that person D uses object E to perform action F. Both sequences occurring at the same time and possibly leading into each other but otherwise disconnected from each other.

            This duality

Working towards the goal

Well, another semester of my capstone is off to a bang up start. I still don't have consistent internet access so my blogs are going to be patchy at best. I'm continuing my work on last semester’s project as I previously stated. It’s going alright so far. All my footage is still in usable condition so I don’t have to reshoot anything which makes me extremely happy. In addition to that, I received footage of the final production with all the choreography and costumes. This allows me to splice in this new footage into what I’ve already got to help showcase the finished product.

My editing is looking nice at this point. I’m slowly putting Jakes voice from his interview in the background of the opening sequence in order to introduce the viewer to him a little quicker and help fill in some of the dead audio space I unfortunately had last time. I’m also doing my best to clean up a few patchy spots in the audio track to make it smoother to listen to. It’s my hope that I can get a nice smooth audio track with no pops or hisses and very little background noise. This allows the viewer to focus on the video as a whole and not get distracted by things in the audio.

I’ve also started to find a design for a business card that I’m happy with and feel represents me and what I’m capable of. So far I’ve found three possible designs and I just need to settle on one. It’s important to choose the appropriate design for a business card because this is part of your introduction to the professional world. A childish card can have a negative effect on a prospective employer’s decision.

Hopefully by the time I finish out the semester, I will have a product I can be proud to have made that looks professional enough to help me locate a job after school and be shown as an example of what to do for future classes. With any luck this semester will help me get ahead of people in the job market and make any future positions more secure.

Senior Capstone (take 2)

Well, it’s time for me to try this again, my senior capstone. Luckily I already have a project started. It is my intention to use this semester to not only completely finish my previously started project, but to make some improvements to it. Mainly focusing on smoother transitions between scenes and making it a little more concise. I also hope to improve the title sequence and add a decent end credits sequence. This is in addition to making my presentation board look as professional as possible.

The project in question is a short documentary about stage combat, focusing mainly on the combat troupe I work with closely. This group, Body and Blade Swordsmanship focuses on teaching how to do proper theatrical stage combat, which is both safe and appears real. My documentary follows the group through a single performance season, from beginning of the choreography to the end production. By following from beginning to end like this the viewer gains a little bit more perspective into what goes into making a modern stage fight. It also contains interviews with Jake Priddy, the founder of the troupe and main choreographer, as well as interviews with several members of the troupe who rank in status from novice to adept and scholar.

Having an extra semester to work on this also has the added benefit of allowing me more time to build up my portfolio, both online and hardcopy. I also have a little more time to make my business card look professional. I recently had the idea to include a QR code on my card which would link directly to my online portfolio and resume. This will allow me to hand out my business card at job fairs and let interested parties look at my site immediately from their smart phone or other device. This shows prospective employers that I have the ability to work in a multimedia world and keep up with innovation.

Hopefully by making my presentation look better and improving upon my portfolio and business card I will be able to get a good entry level job upon graduation.

Intro to the Studio

So far, this semester looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun and help me to be a better-rounded member of the Communications field.  For example, after reading the syllabus for Studio Production I feel that this course is going to help me polish my skills in the realm of television production.  During high school I took a basic intro course on television and news production, which peaked my interest and got me started on the communications path.

One of the key ways this class looks like it will help me is by allowing me to expand on which production jobs I know how to do successfully. Mainly I hope to learn more about the positions of producer, director, and floor manager. I haven’t worked in those positions before and hope that, with a little more experience, I will be able to put on a resume that I can work in those positions. I understand the basics of both producer and director and understand what they should do in a production. I’m very new to the position of floor manager, which the syllabus describes as the one that “gives talent cues, and keeps the crew on task” (Williams, 2013). This sounds like it could be a very interesting position and also one which seems like it will help me to better function in the other positions since it will let me view how everything connects together.

My hope for this class is that, by the end of the semester, not only will I have a better understanding of everything that goes into the production of a television show but I will also be able to put this knowledge to work in the field of television or movie production. This course will also allow me to work on my ability to schedule all the individual units that go into making a show and translate that ability into my everyday life.

As I read over the syllabus I find myself getting more and more excited about beginning production on whatever show idea comes first. I look forward to getting into the studio and really beginning to make a show come to life.

The importance of sequence

       One of the key threads which ties all form of comic book together is sequence of images. Trying to communicate a message through a single image can be difficult, especially if the message is complex. By adding a second or third image to the series, the artist can expand upon the message that the reader will receive. This also makes it easier for the reader to determine what the message is and what tone an event should have. This method of communication through sequential images has been around for hundreds upon hundreds of years stretching back to the beginnings of communication. Don’t believe me? Go look up an image of Egyptian murals. Go ahead, I’ll wait here.

        Back already? See what I meant? Even the ancient Egyptians knew to put images one after the other to help get the point across. This trend continued throughout the ages and into modern comics and graphic novels. Take Art Spiegelmans Maus for example. By the end of the first page the reader has been told a story about a young man who fell down while playing with friends, and when they left him behind he went home. It doesn’t show every single second of this happening that would take too much paper. Instead, it shows key events in the sequence such as the boy falling and watching his friends leaving, and then arriving at home, in order to tell the entire story. And it doesn’t stop there either. Through the entire story events are shown in little flashes like that in order to convey all the important details while skipping over some of the everyday things like on page 32 with the train ride. The entire journey isn’t shown but the distance involve is conveyed to the reader through the view out the window, the train stretched across the top of the page, and the dialogue. By doing this the entire trip from Poland to Czechoslovakia takes place over the course of two pages.

        This method of communications is vital to a successful graphic novel or comic book because otherwise it would just be a very long novel with illustrations.