Project 3 for Doug Finishing up my part

My brother and I were tasked with utilizing an augmented reality app called aurasma and create the videos for it. At first I thought it was going to be easy, but it took quite a while to create the videos due to issues with the program After Effects. The newest version of After Effects on my PC no longer supported a file format known as flv. This was needed to create a video that had a transparent background utilizing the RGB+Alpha channel feature, which Adobe removed for the flv format. That was the biggest obstacle in my path. I spent three days researching how to get the video to have support for an RGB+Alpha channel in the flv format, but all I was able to produce was a 200mb avi file that did support the RGB+Alpha channel, but it was not supported with the augmented reality app. It was frustrating not getting it to work at home, but as soon as I checked on the PC's at school to see if the version of After Effects supported the flv format, and it turned out that it did! I was so relieved that it worked because it was essential for the project. All the struggles to get this working has made me an expert in making a video that has a transparent background. I wish Adobe had never removed the file format flv because people like me and others needing to create something similar will have a hard time doing it. The format flv is considered obsolete, but in my opinion, Adobe really shot themselves in the foot by doing this unnecessary removal of something helpful.

Here is the link to the game (if it doesn't work, the website people are still probably doing updates): http://www.perfectevil.com/

English 402 Newsletter About Drones

For my English class I designed a newsletter that discussed my findings about peoples perceptions about drones. I created the survey a couple of days before Turkey Day and put it on the website fluidsurveys where I needed at least fifteen different responses. Once I got the responses I needed, I then compared the data to see if there was anything interesting. I found that a majority of people were comfortable with drones when they were used by the military, but not many were comfortable when they are being used domestically by companies like Amazon. Amazon is considering implementing their drones delivery system soon, and it's bothering many people. I use Amazon frequently to buy things that are not available in my small town of Othello, so something like drone delivery would come in handy for people in small towns like me. For those who don't shop online very frequently, something like drone delivery wouldn't be as helpful. The on;y problem I have with drones is that if they are being abused and being used for purposes that harm others, like acts of terrorism. I've seen a TV show called "Fugitivos de la Ley" which is spanish for fugitives of the law, and they were using a drone to observe a hostile gang related area and it worked out well. As long as drones are being used by responsible people, I wouldn't have a problem with them being used

TV show Project Greenlight

On my DVR I recorded an interesting show called Project Greenlight. It's a documentary about upcoming film directors that created short films, and the goal of the show was that one of these directors would be selected and then be funded by HBO to create a mini series. The ones that get to select the directors consists of talented producers, writer and even actors like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. The winner was selected based on the short film they created, and so far the show is getting good. The winner had some interesting comments about how we wanted the series funded by HBO to be shot. He wanted it to be shot in film rather than digital, and insisted on it over it's better quality. But the producer working with him insisted that he was wrong and that digital filming is the way to go, and that shooting in film is a dying medium. I'm not sure if shooting in film is better than digital, but it's interesting to see that the winner doesn't want to back down from his decisions. I haven't finished the show yet, but watching it shows me just how much hard work gets put into the script, production, and post production. Filming a big movie is a team based effort, no one director can tackle such a huge project all by themselves and expect something great to happen.

Project 4 Dreamweaver

I am not the biggest fan of Dreamweaver, but it does taking a while to get used to. Last semester, I worked with Dreamweaver in one of Sena's class, which taught me a lot about the program. I watched a really helpful video on the Adobe website that discussed Dreamweaver and provided a tutorial. I followed along with the instructor on the video and created a professional looking website. I then used what I created from the tutorial as a template for my website. I will be tweaking the website for my project accordingly and my brother and I will be working on separate pages to provide the content. My brother created the poster, while I was working on the trailer for the film, just in case people wanted a sneak peek before they saw the full video. Overall it's coming along well, I downloaded Dreamweaver on my PC so that I can work on it at home. The semester is just about wrapping up, which is great, but I am going to miss working on creative projects since that's what I really enjoy doing. Who knows, maybe next semester will be filled with some more creative projects, I can't wait!

Reminiscing about The Watermelons

I still feel like the break was short, but I'm sure everybody does. The week of turkey day was quite relaxing, not doing much homework was refreshing. All my classes can sometimes be overwhelming, but when I look back at my Summer job at the watermelons, it put things back into perspective. I would rather be in my comfy room than in the scorching heat waking up at 4:30am to go to work for some many hours. One week at the watermelons we worked a total 80 hours! Talk about a big paycheck! But extremely exhausting mentally and physically. Starting at 5:30am and finishing at 9:00pm was the latest we got out at work, I will never forget that because the next day I still had to get up at 4:30am the next day! That didn't include the time to get home, shower, eat, and then finally sleep. I slept like a baby that day because all my body was drained of every calorie I had in me. My current workload is nothing compared to the watermelon days, even just thinking about it makes me want to write a blog post about it. I would rather read hundreds of books and do everyone's least favorite, blogs, than be at the watermelons. It's kind of a hate and love job, the pay is good, but there is a catch, lots of hours and being sore everyday with just one day off. It's like doing P90X on steroids, but at least I can say that I get paid to workout. Every time I see a watermelon, I say to myself,"A lot of hard work went into picking those babies, people better not be wasting watermelon."

Internship

After searching, I finally found an internship that is going to be with Michael Mays, the director of the Hanford History Project. I was searching for an internship that utilized everything I learned from the various DTC courses I have taken. An internship that accepts multiple people was something I was looking for, because it would be convenient for my brother and I since we commute together. I would have wanted one in the Summer, but this one will be in the Spring. I wanted the internship to take the place of a Summer job, but I will be on the lookout for a paid internship to do in the Summer. Professor Doug Gast helped my brother and I find this internship and it's an internship that we are going to do together, which is extremely convenient for the both us. Also joining the team will be one of our classmates who was also looking for an internship, her name is Ryann. My brother and I are all set for next semester which will be 4 classes along with the internship. The internship will require us to work for about 9 hours a week, and on top that will be my other classes, I hope that I can manage to stay on top of things for next semester. I believe the internship won't be a paid one, but it's still required for my degree, but the main thing I want to get out of this is a lot of experience working in a potential real world situation with a possible future employer.

Narrative storytelling

Currently for my English 370 class we are reading one of Shakespeare's dramas called Hamlet. It's a great example of how to tell a narrative that has an introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and conclusion. These are qualities of a narrative that my brother and I tried to follow and reading Hamlet gave my brother and I some ideas of how to put this kind of storytelling in action. There are multiple kinds of storytelling, but another type of storytelling that was present in some of my classmates projects was something called a non-linear narrative, which is also another way of storytelling. But with a linear narrative, a lot of planning will be involved, but there should always be some sort of planning even with something like a non-linear narrative. I think some people weren't sure of how to tell a narrative, but either way, I enjoyed the projects from my classmates. Something interesting that I remember from a popular film called The Matrix, directed by the Wachowski brothers, and there is a scene half way in the film where the main character Neo, awakens out the mainframe. That scene was shot last because it required him to have his head shaved, which obviously was planned ahead of time. This kind of planning is important in making a film. The scene needed to be shot at a specific time during the film making process and organized in post production to fit the narratives storyline properly and make sense.