Final Project Direction

I’m really unsure of the creative direction in which the project will go but I do think it will be a very well executed video. I believe it will be very straight forward but at the same time still have some good humor and be entertaining. It could have some humor in the beginning with someone who is totally unsure of what they want from a career and then move towards more information about “Candid Career” with some light humor sprinkled in. Finally another sketch with the same person finding what they were looking for…also having light humor.

Midterm Blogs Top 5

Top 5 Midterm Blogs

All of the Midterm Blogs were awesome! Each one had it’s own personality and feel to it. However, my Top 5 Midterm Blogs were:

1. Retro Gaming For Beginners
2. The Hidden Wild
3. The Homeopathic Helper
4. For Reel
5. Give Me the Aux

 Retro Gaming For Beginners: retrocampblog.wordpress.com

First thoughts: “This is  awesome”. I think this blog is so visually appealing right from the first page. The background is so cool and the whole idea of retro gaming is awesome. I think the whole Mario theme is really nice, especially the evolution of Mario in the welcome post. Overall I think the blog was done very well and had a very cool theme to it. However I do think it could use more pages in the header, but besides that I loved it.

The Hidden Wild: thehiddenwildblog.wordpress.com

I was immediately drawn to The Hidden Wild upon opening the link. The natural landscape photo and quote is a great way to welcome new comers. I think it is really cool that it is the entire screen and the cool colors do not make it hard on the eyes. Furthermore I think the idea of scrolling though the blog to get to other pages such as “About” and “Contact” is a very nice touch. I also really like the overall idea of the blog I think it’s a really cool idea, and was made in a very stylish way.

The Homeopathic Helper: thehomeopathichelper.wordpress.com

I really like this blog. It has an almost “homey” feel to it and I think the concept is really cool. The different categories and blogroll were really cool, and I liked the title for the calendar, I thought that was very clever. Despite all these positives, I do think that the blog can use some work, especially the header. I like the header image, but I think that it should have been blended into the background better. Besides that though, I really did think this was a good blog.

For Reel: forreelreview.wordpress.com

This blog was really clean and cool. For one the logo with the “R-Rating” is awesome. I am also not usually a fan of yellow, but the golden/yellow highlight text really stood out nicely. Furthermore the header image was very cool, I like the different iconic characters in a montage, very cool. It was hard to pick between this blog and the Homeopath Helper, the only reason I ranked For Reel lower was because the concept didn’t catch me as much as Homeopathic Helper. Besides that I loved it.

Give me the Aux: givemetheauxblog.wordpress.com

Finally we have Give Me The Aux. I really like the concept of this blog, Hip/Hop and Rap are musical genres that I really like, but I never know about any knew or “hot” music in these genres since I mostly listen and follow Alt. Rock. I really like the video content asking people about rappers they like or think are hot. I also really liked the opening page with the blog’s name and pictures of famous/classic rappers. My biggest problem and why it is last however, is the video quality was not that great and the header pic was pretty blurry, but I overall really liked it.

Video Game Politics

My experience editing video has been very easy. I’ve done video editing for years even editing a thirsty minute school project in middle school. I have to admit it was a little hard to match the screen cast to my audio, but after just a little effort I was able to get the job done. All in all it was a pretty painless experience, there were no major issues and it was actually pretty fun. Unfortunately I did have a sore throat while recording it so the voice quality is not what I would prefer, but it wasn’t a big deal.

Moving on, the topic of video games and politics is really very interesting. I feel as though there are many times while playing through a game that I will witness subtle hints of social issues or political satire. I find this to be a very useful tool to convey a specific opinion or point of view. I think this can be used even more in the future to try to sway public opinion in a specific direction. However this can be both good and bad. On one hand, if there is something unlawful happening in the government or something, using subtle plot points, or full on politicized video games can be used to sway the public into a more stable or clear stance on an issue. Conversely though, this technology can be used to change public opinion for the worst. In this case, a company can use this technology to support their own interests.

Politics in video games is growing rapidly and increasing in relevance to current issues. In my opinion subtle political stances to sway opinion will grow as time goes on and gradually become a greater and greater force in the video game community.

Video Editing/Podcast Experience

My experience making the audio was pretty pain free, and quite fun. The hardest part for me was picking what songs i wanted to edit. I wanted it to be uptempo but I didn’t want it to be overwhelming (at least for the first song). Then actually editing the audio around my voice and doing the cross-fade was stress free. The only snag I hit was getting the second song to fade in at just the right time, but that was an east fix after all of 5 minutes worth of finagling. I then had the idea for the diner sounds in the beginning while eating at Henry’s Diner on Livingston with my friends, so I immediately took out my laptop and recorded like 10 seconds to loop for the first part of my intro.

Screenshot Captured from http://redlettermedia.com/

I watched the video by Red Letter Media, which was a review of Starship Troopers. I though it was a very funny review, and it was well put together. First off, they had 4 different angle which was cool. They had the landscape view in the beginning with both hosts in the frame, then they had a side shot of one of the hosts. Throughout the video the switched between frontal views of each host individually. It appears that audio was recorded using a lapel mic which is visible on the bodies of both hosts, and I presume there was probably a boom mic too behind the scenes. The actual review was shot themselves however they borrowed clips from the movie to use as reference throughout the review. They must have edited it in a way so that the two hosts knew what clip would be added in post so they could give space to place the clip in during editing. I have no idea where they may have edited their video, but I’d assume in a studio of some sort, not necessarily a professional studio but maybe like a home studio.

“Coffee Thoughts” Podcast Intro

This is my intro to a fake podcast “Coffee Thoughts”. I received an email saying my first one was removed so I mad another, but the the first one is back! So I have 2 with different body songs, lemme know which one is better! 🙂

Audio Editing/Garage Band

Audio editing has been a very useful tool in my life. I love music and have been playing guitar, piano, and ukulele for years, as well as listening to just about every genre of music. I learned how to use Garage Band in middle school for a school project and found it to be very useful for video projects. The audio editors in movie programs are not very good, so it was nice to be able to edit audio in Garage Band and then transfer it to iMovie. I do not know how I will use audio editing in the future but I do believe it will come in handy. Although I am a freshman and do not have a solid plan, I know I want to work in Social Awareness for Environmental Issues, so I know that I will probably be using it in the future. As far as using audio editing as a hobby, that is something I already do. I use Garage Band to create and record backtracks for my music. Since I do not have many musician friends, I rely on my ability to create a rhythm to play in the background while I play. I find this very useful and fun as I can get creative and edit the sound to something different than the instrument I am playing, like adding a delay to my guitar, or turning my piano into more of a synth. I also will occasionally create a simple beat using the loops provided by Apple, however they do not offer the drum style I prefer so it is not always the most fun, and creating a drum track on the system is tedious since I have to use the musical typing, which is annoying and tedious to begin with. However, I do not have the money to purchase a quality recording device so I usually do not keep my backtracks because they are poor quality. In the future I hope to get a quality recorder so I can actually make music instead of crude backtracks.

Sound City Recording Studio from soundcitystudios.net

Photo Editing

Photo editing is not one of my best skills, however I do have some experience with it. I do not use any professional tools. The only programs I use are the ones provided on my devices and a free photo editing app on my phone. I do not do a lot of editing but I do some simple photo-editing for friends and family as seen in the photo of my friend skydiving and I also like to just edit photos for myself or for social media like the picture of my friends Bel Air Nomad. I do not have any skill using photoshop or any other advanced photo editing software although I have used them before very briefly in high school. I really only learned the basics but consequently I do not remember them because I took that class as a freshman. Although I do not have any solid experience using photo editing software I do believe that I will be able to pick up the basic skills and other actions very quickly. One skill I have with technology and editing software is that I can quickly learn how to use it for my basic needs. Despite the skills I can gain however, I am unsure of what I will use photo editing for in the future as of now However this is also due to my lack of knowledge on the applications of photoshop and other such programs in the professional world. Additionally I am also pretty unsure of what can actually be done with photoshop. Despite these uncertainties I do feel that these skills will be helpful ones that I can add to my list of skills, and that in the future I will be able to help my company or organization with them.

Skydive Edit – 2016

Nomad Edit – 2012

First Blog Post

I’m Mike Hanlon, and this is my blog.