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Final Project

Final Project: Personal Narrative

Before:

I thought it would be fun to summarize my day in little video clips. I was hoping there would be funny conversations with my friends, because we think we are very funny people and always joke about having a reality show. I knew that I would be going to a fundraiser at Donatos that night and thought showing that experience on camera would be interesting.

During:

I was surprised at how uncomfortable it was at times to film myself. There were times where I was walking with the camera, trying to get good video but also trying to hide the camera. In class there was the pleasant surprise that my camera made a beep every time it records or stops recording. As you can imagine teachers do not like when you randomly beep in class, so filming during class was a little challenging. At work, I also felt uncomfortable filming. I didn’t ask my boss for permission, I was only filming my face, but we work with very confidential information so I felt a little uneasy having a camera in the office. That night I went to dinner with my mom, having a camera while I was trying to talk to her, eat, and drink was another problem. I ended up using my phone a lot since it had a kickstand to help hold it up.

During filming I didn’t really have any thoughts about the project, I guess because I hadn’t seen it yet. I was also busy that day and didn’t really focus on how I was going to prepare the video or what the focus would be.

After:

            After watching the footage, I think the biggest surprise to me was how much time I spend alone during the day. On an average day (this Thursday being average) I have 2 classes and work and sometime of meeting or dinner plans after, with very little time in between each event. Of course I am with people in class or walking to class, but I actually only talked to another person once in each class and once on the way to one class. It is almost sad how I can be at a place with so many people and just put in my headphones and ignore everyone. At work, I talk to my coworker a little, but we cant even see each other because of the wall separating us. My only real conversations during the day are conducted over the internet through e-mail or from cell phone to cell phone. This is interesting because as soon as I was done with class and work, I went to dinner with my mom and wasn’t alone the rest of the night. I got ready with my roommate, went out with my friends, and went home with my roommate. At this point in the night, I only used my phone to find people, not to hold conversations.

            I decided that every time I was alone, not speaking to anyone I would make the scene black and white, and speed it up. This represented the fact that when I was by myself I was less happy and that this part of my day wasn’t as important. Every time I am with someone I changed the video to color and slowed it down so you could actually see the interaction and hear the conversation. In some cases the camera didn’t pick up the conversations well, unfortunately, and it was almost distracting from the video trying to figure out what was being said. In these cases I took out the sound and added music. This helped to keep the focus on my facial expressions, which were usually happy during these situations. The music I added were all songs I think describe me, or my friends have said describe me/my life. I think the music helps to explain the video, since there is no blatant message in the title or the end of the video. The last part of the video is all screenshots of my friends from the footage. As I was editing the video there were so many times that I wanted to take a screenshot because I thought that moment was a perfect representation of that person. That sounds really corny, but I don’t know how well staged pictures do of representing someone, and I think these pictures actually did a good job.

            Overall, I think the meaning of my video is that the best parts of life are not the things you do but the people you do them with. That may be cliché, but if you watch my personal narrative you will definitely agree.

What to do?

Original Idea: Video tape what I do after I take too many shots.

Analysis: I like the thought of the idea and it could be really fun, but I also think it could turn out too cheesy and ridiculous. I want to show a video of my life that isn't staged photos and videos, but naturally (from my perspective) the things that happen. Thats the best part about pictures, remembering how you felt when they were taken. And that is what I want to show.

New Idea: Take a 5 minute video clip every 30 minutes. Starting right as I wake up (8:30 a.m.) then I will take the next one at 9:00 a.m. all the way until I fall asleep. My target day is Thursday (tomorrow).

My schedule for Thursday:
8:00-8:30 a.m. - Wake up
8:30- 9:00 a.m. - Get ready
9:30 to 10:55 a.m. - Class
10:55- 11:15: a.m. -Walk Home
11:15 - 11:30 a.m. - Drive to Work
11:30 - 2:30 p.m. - Work
2:30 -2:45 - Drive Home
2:45- 3:30 - Lunch ?
3:30 - 3:45 - Walk to Class
3:55- 5:15 Class
5:15 - 7:00 - Dinner
7:00 - 3:00 a.m. - Go out?

Analysis: We will see how this goes?

Failure Blog

         Looking back on this semester, I believe my biggest failure was not planning properly. When I am first assigned a project my head starts spinning with crazy ideas. I usually pick one of them and begin attempting to complete it. Eventually, I finish the project and I review it. At this point I usually come up with a brilliant new idea and have no time to complete it, or the time for the photo/video has passed. If I could go back and re-do every project, I would sit down and brainstorm for 15 minutes before each one and come up with the best idea then.

        

         Reflecting on this failure has shown me that I come up with the best ideas after I think about the project for a while. From now on when I want to do something creative, I will plan more before attempting to complete the project.

         Also thinking back on this project I realized my favorite project of mine was the “Walk to class” project. I liked the fact that I had multiple pictures and could arrange them in any way I wanted. I also liked that when I took the pictures all I had to do was take pictures of everything I saw, instead of thinking about the reason behind each picture.

         This project which I consider to be a successful one has shown me that when I have a very defined prompt I am less likely to dislike my project once it is finished. This makes complete sense and is actually a very common subject of consumer behavior. When given more choices consumers are less satisfied with their purchases, as opposed to when they choose from less options.

         If I had to change or re- do a project. I would re- do the video project. After seeing the other projects I thought of a lot of better ideas that could have improved my project. I think the video project was awesome and I wish I could have done something I was happier about.

MP5

I started by thinking about the words I was assigned, chip and suspend, and what they meant. While taking my dogs on a walk, I was thinking about what object I would use. It hit me that I should use my dogs as  my object. My dogs are a huge part of my life and my family, and they are also some of my favorite things to photograph. My next step was to follow my dogs around with a camera and wait for them to do something suspenseful. When my dog, Gracie, started running around I really liked the way the fur looked in the light, and as it moved.  I finally got a great picture of her jumping, suspended in air. Until I left for my trip I had not decided to change the background, but when I was on the airplane I had an idea for the background.

I decided to make Gracie suspended in air, behind a chipped glass window. I think this picture is really cool, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything but I like everything together.

MP4

 

This was an interesting process that actually revealed more about my artistic personality than I thought. My video is my regular morning routine, (which I cropped down a little for interest). Then I videotaped myself coming home from the day as well, because I thought walking up and down the stairs looked cool mostly. Then as I was editing the sound I somehow turned my daily routine into a melodramatic suspense soundtrack, which makes me question my sanity. But I think it sounded really cool, despite the possibly disturbing meaning behind it. When I added the video to it, I didn’t think the plain in color video did the overly dramatic music justice, so I added the blue filter. Then I cut out some of the in-between footage so it seemed choppier. I think this added to the suspense and overall creepiness. In the end, I think that most of my decisions were the result of the happy accident that I like to make creepy music. Once I made the soundtrack I knew what type of video I wanted an deliberately made it that way. This was a fun experience because making music is not something I usually get to do, and it was nice to do it in such a creative way.  I think my final piece portrays a “What the heck” emotion, sort of a state of confusion and dislike. I know that doesn’t sound like a good emotion to have a piece portray, but I like it. 

Blog 9: Cathedral

This was probably one of the weirdest articles we have read yet. And by weird I mean more along the lines of unexpected or different. When I read I usually try to guess whats going to happen next, or to analyze what is happening and make predictions. With this article I was completely off. For one I didnt anticipate the weed smoking, that was a curveball. But I also thought the ending was very unexpected.

The narrators attitude from the beginning was a little odd. He was so against the blind man, almost condescending towards him. I feel like most people would be more apprehensive if a blind man was coming to stay with them as opposed to feeling angered or inconvieneced. He also appeared to be sliightly jealous of the blind man and his wife. He kept referencing their interactions. As I read I thought that this condescending and angered feeling would turn into respect and understanding at the end. That suddenly the narrator would be illuminated and realize he was wrong about the blind man because he said something or made an interesting point.

So I was looking for this quote that would turn the narrator into a more accepting man, and it never came. The surprise was that the blind man didnt have to explain anything to the narrator, he inadvertently showed him that he was wrong. By making the narrator draw the cathedral and then the narrator not wanting to open his eyes right away, it seems like the narrator has a new found respect for the blind man. That his condescending demeanor is almost in awe of the feelings that the blind man has daily.

Blog 8 - Commencement

This reading could not have come at a more appropriate time. The past month has been a stress filled, roller coaster ride that will hopefully end with me working at a rewarding internship this summer. I think it is easy to get stressed out about work, and jobs, and getting jobs, because these are things we are supposed to do. These are the types of things we use to value our lives, and ourselves. And that is really freaking stressful to think that if  I dont get a good internship im not going to get a good job and im going to hate my life.

This speech however, really makes you question which things in life are important, and how we should view the things we do. He talks about the monotony of day to day, routine life and how that can be something we look at so negatively, but we can choose to change that view. He talks about looking at a  situation, like a frustrating super market experience, from the central "all about me" point of view, and then switiching that view to take into account the other people around you.

As  a Catholic, this is ingrained in our brains from a little age. We were always told that people could have it worse than us, and not to complain. My parents hated whenever we complained about not having things, and would always find a way to show us that what we thought we needed was ridiculous compared to what some people actually needed. Over the years, however, I feel like I have lost some of that concern for others. Not on purpose, but I feel like everything in my life is changing and every decisision is increasingly more important, and it makes me a little self centered.

So now, after looking at this past month, I realize that I should be excited and proud that I have had multiple internship offers. I should be happy that my biggest dilemma is deciding which one to take, not trying to find one. The future should be exciting not scary and from now on im going to think about every difficult future related situation, as an opportunity that others may not have, and not a problem.

The Things We Carry..

This is an image I created  using pictures of the things I carry with me everyday.


I think the overall image is representative of me as a person because, its really crazy and fun. There are lots of different colors and things going on and I think that represents my personality. I also think the mix of items shows my love of activity and hatred of boredom.

I am not a very neat an organized person, but I still manage to make it work, and I think this is what this image shows.

I  think this picture doesn't how much I value my family or my friends. It almost seems like I am very materialistic with the phone charger, laptop, and expensive bracelets. But the only reason I like my bracelets is because of who gave them to me, and my favorite part of my laptop is that it was a gift from my grandma. Overall, I think I am the type of person you have to get to know to really understand and I guess this image is the same way.

What Do I Carry Around

Personality Defined
The first image is my Pandora Bracelets: these are always on my wrist and represent so many different things to me. They are charm bracelets, so each charm has a separate meaning. Overall, they represent my personality and my relationship with those closest to me.











 
Music for Moods
The second image is my headphones: I have these in every bag I own and take them with me everywhere. Whether i'm walking to class, studying, or working out, music is the best way to make any situation better. If I am upset I listen to music to cheer me up, I listen to music because I am happy, and I listen to music for motivation. I am a very busy personality, I dont like having time to think alone, and I dont like being bored, so music solves both of these problems. I also love dancing which isnt possible without music.









Digital Entertainment
The third image is my computer. I am always doing something on my computer, whether it is studying, playing online, watching TV series, or working. I carry my laptop with me everywhere because you never know when you are going to need to do something, especially in class. My laptop was also given to me as a graduation gift by my grandma so it means even more to me.





 




Constantly Connected
The fourth image is my phone charger. I also carry a phone charger with me everywhere, in case my phone dies. I am a very social person and I dislike being alone, so if I have my phone I can talk to my friends even when I am by myself. I also use my phone for my calender and to do list, as a very organized person it is important to me to have everything with me at all times.

Sparkly Athlete
Lastly, the fifth image is a sparkly hairband. I have tons of these and they are always on my wrists or in my hair. These represent several things about me, the first is that I love my long hair. I have been growing my hair out since high school and I love it long, so I have to carry hair bands around to control it. Second, I have had hairbands on my wrist since middle school, because I played sports almost every single day. I always needed a hairband for athletic events so I started keeping them on my wrist. Lastly, these hairbands are sparkly which I love because even though I am athletic, I am now trying to have a more sophisticated persona. So I have upgraded my plain black hairbands to ones that can almost pass for bracelets.