Biopic Me

Charles Maurer

Charles is a very funny man. His favorite word is fuck and he loves his beer. He particularly loves Budweiser. He is a painting contractor of his own business, Chameleon Painting and Decorating, and leads a very interesting life through his career.

He is 100% a paint expert and does a very professional paint job. This is no easy job however. Specific jobs require him to use ginormous ladders. His day starts at the early hour of 5 o’clock a.m. He makes coffee and lunch for everyone in the house, which includes his wife who does bookkeeping for his business and his daughter who is home from college for the summer. He then needs to load up all his equipment onto his green Chevy Silverado.

This includes a 36-foot ladder. Yep, Charlie climbs all the way to the top of it in order to reach tough spots on some of the jobs he does. Imagine a ladder that is taller than three stories, perched up against a rotting deck and planted into the side of a sloping dirt hill with rocks holding the legs in place. Who would ever think of climbing to the top of that? Charlie would, and while he is up there, he even decides to take a ‘selfie’ to send to his daughter! Crazy painter.

Even more insane is the task of the chicken hook. This is a remarkable feet that only talented painters can do. It is when you attach a hook, which looks similar to something you would hang on the back of your door, to the top rung of the ladder and attach the other part to the corness of a roof. This is how the ladder stays in place. No doubt, Charlie gets nervous during jobs like this, but when he is done, he hops back onto the ground and asks his favorite question. “Who am I?” an answers it the same way every time “I’m the Chameleon!” he says in his smart ass, humorous and genuinely kind tone of voice.

Inspire Motivate!

Nature by Nature

The Hocking River

The Hocking is mucky, brown, dull and mysterious. 

The murky water wades past the stringy brush.

I can here the sound of the freeway that borders the river.

A bird rustles in the grass nearby.

Beautiful World

Serenity

Bamboo on PhotoPeach
 

Peace It Together

Spider

I was trying to evoke fear, anticipation and reflection.

Opening 4 Reflections

Walter Murch: Hollywood Sound Design

I found the comparison between digital editing and banking to be very unique. I would have never thought of the two as being similar but after Murch described it, it made complete sense and really helped me conceptualize the movement from analog to digital in a way I have never seen it before.

The extreme amount of physical space and physical work it used to take to edit is mind blowing. The notion of literally getting lost trying to dig through tape really put it in perspective for me. I found that very interesting. I also think what Murch mentioned about not being able to see every frame when you fast forward with digital were interesting. He has a very good point that sometimes what you are looking for is not what you need.

Pop Music

I found it interesting that three as a magic number was brought up in this as well. I found the idea that you don’t know if you thought of something or if you have just heard it before pretty intriguing. I think so much of what we do creatively is influenced by the work of others. I could imagine how difficult it would be to come up with a new melody, especially with so many melodies that have an incredible way of sticking in people’s minds.

Expression Yourself

Normal Penguin

The expression of the normal penguin is very plain and ordinary. 

In his case he looks a bit like a crack head, but this is a normal expression for this penguin. 

Ghostly Penguin

This penguin has lost his soul. 

Either he has just been scared or has passed into the realm of the living dead. 

This is shown by the lack of pupils and tongue.

 Sad Penguin

The penguin has been brought to tears by some unfortunate circumstance.

You can tell he is sad be the droopiness of his eyes and the lower positioning

 of his pupils along with the fact that he is frowning.

Devious Penguin

The penguin has just come up with a devious plan!

You can tell by the triangular shape of his pupils contrasting with the 

reversed triangle shape of his eyes. He is also pursing his beak together 

as if he is holding in his devious plan.

Confused Penguin

His smarter penguin comrades just said a very technical phrase that 

confused the penguin. His eyes narrowed as if he is blocking the others from 

seeing that he has no idea what they are saying. It is obvious he is clueless however, by 

the fact that his beak is barely parted and he is speechless. 

Goofy Penguin

The penguin has suddenly gotten in a quirky mood. He is showing this through the crossing of his eyes and the weird way in which he is construing his beak. 

 Super Excited Penguin

The penguin has just seen a giant bowl of fish and is ecstatic with excitement. 

This can be seen by his wide eyes and raised brow.

 His pursed beak curved up at the ends magnifies his excitement.

Knocked Out Penguin

The penguin was just in a serious fight with a seal. 

While flying out of the water to escape the hungry beast, he hit an ice block and was knocked out. 

You can see this by his boggled eyes and tongue hanging out of his beak.

Stoned Penguin

The penguin is clearly in a trance.
His pupils are very large and not focused on anything. 

He is too consumed by what is occurring in his mind to even open his beak. 

Scared Penguin

Something very frightening is approaching the penguin. 

His mouth is quivering and his eyes are ominously looking 

in the direction of the frightening mystery creature.

Words + Image

My Never- Blue October

I used my visuals to explore the concept of missing someone
 and the moments you shared with that person. 

Opening 3 Reflections

How Art Made the World – Once Upon a Time

I think it is interesting how the first story was originally words and was changed into pictures because very few could understand the writing of that age. It is interesting to think of pictures as a universal language.  It is a language of the masses, not simply the elite or well educated.

I see Ashurbanipal’s story as one that was largely propaganda to make him look like and elite ruler. Something that I believe backs this assumption up is the fact that there was no emotion connected to the brutality. As the film discusses, there is no reason to care and therefore it isn’t easily relatable to. It simply serves more as a history lesson depicting how great the king was rather than something those viewing the reliefs could really relate to and engage in.

It is interesting how clear depictions of emotions and the uniqueness of each character’s emotions can make a piece more believable and engaging.  Trajan’s story is very similar to Ashurbanipal’s in that it tells a story of his accomplishments and paints him as the hero. The difference however comes in the characterization of the figures. Just by adding emotion to the figures, the viewers are then pulled into the story and actually care about it.

Both could be considered propaganda, but know doubt, Trajan’s is certainly more convincing.

The Visual Magic of Comics

I’ve never thought of comics in the way Scott McCloud explained them. Comics always seemed very straightforward and honestly somewhat boring to me. But taking into account what McCloud mentioned, comics really do offer a lot more visually than I originally realized, especially with new forms of technology.

I think the comparison of comics to the ancient forms of story telling that were discussed in “How Art Made the World,” was a very understandable one. Although I had never discovered the commonalities before, they are so apparent upon reflection. That being realized, comics have a powerful ability to entrance people with an assortment of senses outside of sight.

To go further than traditional comics, the newer forms of comics have been made into television shows and I think this can be directly compared to the aboriginal’s form of storytelling. Although the shows more greatly represent film, I wonder if there are any that are simply pictures like traditional comics, but have sound and music and dialogue to go with them, very much like the still images of the aboriginals that, when combined with sound, became a vivid flowing story.

The Man Behind the ‘Incredibles’

I think it is interesting how the creators of ‘The Indredibles’ started with a voice for the costume designer character and had the artists draw the character based off that voice. I think it shows an interesting correlation between sound and image. Going back to the ancient visual stories, they didn’t have sound with them, the exception being the aboriginal’s, so I wonder if they had a certain dialogue streaming through their imagination while they were drawing, painting or sculpting their characters.

I would argue that in Ashurbanipal’s story they didn’t, as most of the characters were very similar to each other and had very little emotion. With Trajan’s story however, I imagine the artist acting as each character when he was creating them and really delving inside the properties and emotions of each of these characters. Without sound or dialogue however, I think the height of which these characters are developed really falls off during the transfer from creator to viewer and loses the impact it was meant to have.

48 Hour Shootout

Touched by Time

Cover Campus with Cover Song

Opening 2 Reflections

Where do Ideas Come From?

I really connected to this speech. It does feel as if the creative process doesn’t solely come from within us. Rather than being a mystical creature of sorts however, I see it as an idea or thought that is shaped by outside influences.

Yes I agree that it is something that just comes to you in a moment and if you don’t pay attention to it in that moment there is extreme fear that you may never get it back and for me at least it makes me feel as though I am losing a piece of myself or a bit of my creative thoughts, but upon further reflection I realize that that thought or idea wasn’t mine at all.

Sure I had a part in it by seeing it and conceptualizing it in my own terms, but to me, that idea came from things around me. Most every thought you have is in some way or another influenced by what is around you whether it be people, experiences, contrasting beliefs, shared beliefs or a psychotic lapse of sanity. It is something that isn’t inherent to you alone but rather something that when you find it, discover it, or loathingly lose your mind inside of it, is then transformed from whatever it was conceived as in another beings brain, another beings experience, or another beings emotions, tangible and intangible, it forms from your creativity, and has a way of shaping you in return.

The Power of Myth

I really connect with and agree with how George Lucas believes we are all mentors and we are all teachers and that we teach by living our lives not necessarily by lecturing. I think this is very true because all our actions have an impact on others, some of which cause learning experiences whether intentional or not.

Video Games and Storytelling

I’ve never really thought about how different it is to write for a game rather than a movie. The fact that the audience participates in the story you are writing is a complex idea and I can see how it would be challenging. It is interesting to think of it as passive versus linear storytelling, a comparison that opened my eyes to how writing a video game significantly differs from normal story writing. It is definitely unfortunate that well written games don’t typically sell. But I feel if publishers actually pick them up, there would be a large market of buyers willing to buy well-written games.

Musical Language

I find the idea of perfect pitch very fascinating. I also think it is very cool how certain languages are pitch languages. I never explicitly realized that certain languages are characterized by pitch variation. It also seems as if they are more in touch with one another through this. With English, in my opinion any way, we can recognize a change in someone’s tone and it may indicate a change in mood but this change in meaning of the words as it transforms with the change in pitch is something I don’t think is extraordinarily perceived among native English speakers.

The Power of Music

I find it very interesting that music has this sort of power. We all know it has the power to evoke emotion but I never realized how much power it had outside of that and how different tempos can completely change the song and completely change how it effects the world around it. I found it incredibly mind blowing that after 150 decibels, sound actually could become plasma in the air. The fact that sound can literally physically change matter is incredible. I think a lot can be taken away from the notion that how sound varies can really affect how the listener feels and is something worth a lot of attention in creative works which a majority of media pieces are.

Joke Video

The Greedy Lawyer

Original Story Board by Tyler Putnam

Video Adaptation by Brett Maszczak and Carly Maurer

Storyboard can be found at this link

http://www.sendspace.com/file/q8hsek

This creative project went fairly smoothly except for a few minor mishaps. I started by looking through all of the different storyboards. Most of them required many different actors, and I knew I would not be able to accurately represent them. I was pleased when I finally found "The Greedy Lawyer". One of the most difficult shots for me was creating a wheelchair. I used a normal chair and my bike, with some clever cropping it sort of appears to be accurate. The most difficult part of this project was correctly reading the lines, I believe there are a couple instances where I say a word that was not in the original script. There were no errors that had an impact on the overall story though. While shooting I did not notice that the "United Way" logo displayed on my laptop was minimized for the second half of the United Way employee's lines. Also, I did not notice that the employee's tie was showing underneath the collar. I worked with one other MDIA 1020 student Carly Maurer. She did well for what I asked of her, but the other actors I had to use for one of the scenes were not as enthusiastic as I would have liked. At one point I thought I would need to do all of the roles in this video by myself so I am grateful for being able to find people to help me.  For the most part I am happy with the outcome of the video.

Audio Documentary Pitches

*These are ideas that I am working on.

Farmers Market

This would showcase the farmers market in Athens as well as the vendors that frequent the market.  Sound bites I plan to get include the vendors setting up, the selling of the goods, what the food they are selling sounds like when eaten, the exchange of money for the good and other aspects that go into creating the atmosphere of the farmers market.

I also plan to interview vendors and customers about why they sell or shop at the farmers market and what they think it contributes to the community. This is important because it will help create the theme of the community aspect of farmers markets.

The central audience would be community members of Athens whether they frequently go to the farmers market or have never been. The narrative spine will be finding out the answer to the question ‘why do these vendors decide to sell here and what makes the buyers buy here?’

Chipotle

Chipotle’s motto is ‘food with integrity.’ They try to use the best food possible with commitment to the animals, the farmers and the community. I would twist this idea a little to adapt it to the Athens Chipotle and what that commitment means to those who work there.

The theme would be workers with integrity and it would interlace with the food with integrity motto. The central audience would be the general public but more specifically people who are interested in sustainability and local grown food. The narrative spine will depict Chipotle’s dedication to their customers and to creating healthy and fresh food as well as how that dedication radiates on their employees.

The Guy that Drives the Horse Drawn Carriage at Halloween

This piece would showcase a single person, the guy that drives the horse-drawn carriage in Athens.  The theme would be what his reason for doing this is and what it means to his life. While tying into the theme, another central idea would deal with the passengers he has met throughout the years.

The Narrative spine would start with him in the present day, driving a carriage, and trace back to the inception of his interest in this, whether it be the very first time he rode a horse or the very first time he rode in a carriage or what ever event it was that began this passion.

The central audience could be anyone, although not everyone is interested in horse drawn carriages, most people are interested in other people and learning about their passions and how those passions affected their life and the lives of those around them, which is why the train will focus on this aspect.

A Ride Along

This would be another showcasing piece that would instead showcase a group of people rather than a single person. The group is cops in Athens. 

The theme of this story will focus on why these people decided to become cops and how that affects their lives. It will also focus on the principles they live by and work under and how those differ or compare with stereotypical views people have about cops.

The train of the story will begin with a look at the family life of a cop who is a father and will jump between his role as a police officer and his role as a father and how the principles he has learned on the job add to how he raises his child.

Fitness Class Instructor at Ping

This story would be a glimpse inside the job of a group fitness class instructor. The theme would focus on why they decided to become a fitness instructor and the challenges and rewards that come with the job.

Sound bites I would use would include the background music from the class, the instructor shouting to his or her group members, the sound of the exercises and the sound of the fan in the room.

The narrative train would begin with the event or events that pushed the instructor down this path and would follow that path into the present and the future. The central audience could range from people interested in fitness to those who have struggled trying to stay in shape or possess a positive self body image.

Create Your Own Games

Guinith

I used Stencyl to make my games. I looked at the templates and brainstormed a creative theme to make. I decided to make the Labyrinth game into a frozen tundra and have a penguin trying to catch fish because, well, penguins are adorable. In order to do this I had to switch out the template blocks with ice blocks and replace the characters with a Penguin and fish. Finally I modified the maze aspect to make it a little more challenging.
http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1390959378

Circus Balloons

For the Balloons game, I thought a circus theme would be cool so I imported a circus tent as the background. I also changed some of the balloons into wands and updated the effect that occurred once the 'balloons' were popped and added sound effects for the popping noise.
http://www.swfcabin.com/open/1390959464

Photo Documentary

Opening 1 Reflections

Rip: A Remix Manifesto

I think it's interesting that medicine ideas are patented too. With this patent comes no room for growth, development or change.

The amount of money that the lawyers and companies take from people that copyright is ridiculous, especially when you consider the fact that most of these people who copyrighted were not doing it for money. So who really is the one exploiting the other for money?

The future cultures really do build off the past. We are controlled by a small number of people and things need to change.

Whispering in the Leaves

I think it's incredible to be that in touch with the sound and the world around you and to really pick up on and hone into things a lot of people don't hear and go their whole lives without even trying to hear.

I think you become a lot more one with yourself when you focus on all the little things that make up the life around you

Stories like this have a great facet on the radio because it's truly about the sound and what it makes you see in your head rather than seeing it and creating what you think it would sound like from that image.

Radio Lab: Who Are You?

I had never listened to a radio lab segment before, and I was definitely missing out. I really like how they give spaces of silence and just music to allow the audience to think.

I really enjoy the discussion they are having about how well you really know a person. How well can you ever really know someone and truly know that person? Which really makes me wonder, how well do you know yourself? Undoubtedly, you know yourself better than anyone else does but do you look past or shrug off certain parts of yourself as if they aren’t really you? Or do you pay attention to everything about yourself and accept all parts.

I really enjoy how they start the discussion about this topic by looking at babies and how their minds function.

I agree that you have to work off these leaps of faith because one day these babies will really experience these moments and learn from them.

One of the women featured on the segment wasn’t acknowledging certain aspects of her husband, and then when they came in, she didn’t think it was her husband at all. This goes back to my question, is there parts of yourself you refuse to acknowledge and then at times when those parts come in you convince yourself it isn’t you but rather just what the situation turned you into? So are you ignoring yourself? Or do you not want to know yourself or accept yourself?

Which leads well into deception, if you can deceive someone consciously, then you can get into their mind intimately. Perhaps you can just get lucky with the guess that it will work. But when it comes to knowing yourself, deceiving yourself enough to tell yourself that it is the situation that turns you into the person you tell yourself isn’t actually you, means that you truly do know yourself and deep down whether you want to accept it or not, you know the parts you chose not to acknowledge are a part of you as well.

But maybe this deception and self-convincing is what we have to do to survive with ourselves and love ourselves. Or maybe we don’t truly love ourselves with all our self-noted flaws until we stop deceiving ourselves.

So then can it be said that you don’t truly love another person unless you never deceive them?

I thought it was very interesting that the actor mentioned that Hamlet’s ability to put to words what he was discovering at death, ended before he discovered it. This is somewhat in reverse of the theory of brain growth in newborn babies that was discussed in the beginning. In both instances, the body and mind was discovering something it couldn’t entirely fathom at the moment. The inception of growth and awareness with the world around you and yourself.