Bits & Pieces

First Grade productions from “Just My Book and Me” at Highcroft Campus 2008.

 

 Ms. Franchot: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Ms. Johnson: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Midwest biologists and recreation enthusiasts should beware. Asian carp (The Lurkers) are popping out of the water everywhere following floods in the 90’s. What damage will they cause? How will we stop them. Watch to learn more.

 

 The Lurker Below: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lemmings don’t really follow each other over cliffs. They do inspire campfire talks with other legendary creatures however. Watch this video to learn more.

 

 Podcast Video: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

First there were no people, then there were people….  lot’s of them. They cut down trees and built things….. so, what’s next?

 

 Changing Times: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By 1830, the Southern (aka California) Sea Otter was nearly extinct. With between 10-30 individuals remaining, action was taken to bring them back. We learned that keystone species such as these were necessary to hold an entire ecosystem together. Whew, close call.  Watch to learn more.

 

 Plight of the Sea Otters: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

These are scenes from  the first production day of the slowmation project. The Blake School, Minneapolis, MN.

 

 Podcast Video [1:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I had a lot of intentions for this project. It wasn’t just about getting a good grade, I really wanted to make a movie that would make my peers think wow that was great timing with the music, or what a unique use of time. I wanted to astound my viewers, have something that I could show to my friends and give me inspiration for my own movies outside of school. There was a lot more freedom for inspiration and interpretation with this project, and that’s probably why I’m still thinking of new shots, maybe a fast forwarded clip with camera filming a blank room and then looking upward to see someone hanging near the ceiling. Originally I had expected a project that would be much more difficult and confined, but I was obviously proven wrong.

The project was difficult but very rewarding, I had walked into the classroom thinking about how hard and trying this project was going to be, and when I walked out I had seen an opportunity for me to have some fun, to make a film that would be difficult but definitely rewarding, because I might watch it on my i-pod with a friend and tell them “Hey I thought of that!” or simply about the funny mistakes I had with my team along the way like actually hitting someone in the face on accident but in the process making a shot that had a shot with amazing recoil, looked, and was actually real. This project was very hard but incredibly rewarding. I love working with music in general. I had a lot of fun timing the impact of shots with the timing of the music. I spent a while working on the “real shot” and it’s timing so that it would seem as though I had hit him pulled back and hit him again all with the impact in time with the “da da”. I also had an ephiphany with the motion in my shots. Earlier than most of the class I had asked Mr. Hill how to alter time. I had a lot of fun with this. I would reverse the motion of dives, jumps, and rolling so that they would have a super-human or spy touch to them. I worked a lot with matching the general flow of a clip with the music. When you look at the longer fight clip that is split with a push slide, check out the timing it was serendipity that I had put the clip in the exact place where that flow of a drop kick matched perfectly with a quick “ta ta”. It was a truly a wonderful mistake.

I would say that overall my film is a B. It has overall good timing with the music and the overlay, but in the begning the timing is off with the music, and the clips are long. The timing with Ikram riding a scooter and jumping is terribly off, but then again quick finally the timing of the impact of three or four hits is very precise. If there were more time I would’ve liked to work on the content, so that more clips were more action packed. I would’ve worked on the timing and precison of many of my clips. If I could go back in time I definitely would have given each shot more clips so that I wouldn’t have had to worry so much about the push slide. I wish I had paid better attention about the push slide, because then I completely ruined my original project where the timing was beautifully precise. All in all I’ve learned much, lost some things, and I’m coming out of the experience feeling proud about the final product.

 

 Alex B's Mission Impossible project: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(Artist’s statement not submitted)

 

 Grant L's Motion Project: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

(Artist’s statement not submitted)

 

 Evan O's Motion Project: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Artist’s Statement - Peter I.

For my motion project, I first attempted to create cheesy comical preview that mixed a horror movie with a cell phone that rings and ruins the movie. I came up with this idea just randomly, but also because I had seen a movie over the weekend at my friend’s house called Vacancy, and I had also seen a cell phone ruining preview flick in a movie theater.

I started out with a basic plan of a boy playing basketball and then hears a scream. He walks up to a door, opens it, and finds a person dead on the ground. Then, to put in creepy words with creepy letters that would flash out in the screen to make it an eerie clip. I also wanted to make the film a little blurry and to make light streams you see larger and extending out.
I began by filming. I was lucky to find that Taylor Reed was able to help me with my project. We went down to the gymnasium and she filmed me play basketball, walk towards the door, open the door, and film my cell phone ringing and I quickly turn it off. She also helped me by recording a scream and lying dead on the ground for me (for about 15 minutes in the boy’s locker room).
Afterwards, I put myself to work on motion. I had a basic construction of what my project would look like and began with the creepy words. I attempted to find the exact creepy font I needed (which resembles the font: sand), but failed. I found a different font which was: cracked. I also found a livefont that shook and was written out which gave a strange effect that can be taken as a scary thing. I gave the words with livefont a transition blur which gave it a really cool/scary effect of how the words form. I also used basic motion to fade in/out the text and make some sink into the background. Then, just for the heck of it, I added in a cheesy comment at the end stating something obvious. I finished on the words and began on video.
I realized the video I took was decent, not great. I didn’t want to use most of it because it looked crappy. I changed the format of my project and decided to make something out of whatever I had so far and to “go with the flow.” I ended up using only short clips I cut out from the video in my project. I also decided that I would just jump into the so called “action,” where I am about to be killed.
Next, I went to sound. I wanted really scary music and Mr. Hill ended up giving me a really good disc that gave me music. I used that music within the text parts and decided to change the music as the project went on, just to add more. I went into garageband and found some sudden sound effects which are used in scary movies and put them into my motion project. Then, I thought of how scary movie previews sometimes have breathing or screams to add to the video. I found a cheesy scream from sounddogs.com and used it at the part where the lights turn off suddenly and “my” screams are heard.
After I added in sound/music, I made sure everything was marked up in a position that worked and transitioned one after another. For example, I marked the music up to the text forming and sound effects to the text that pops out. After that, I finished my motion project.

In addition, I changed around the project knowing that I would not have enough time to accomplish what my main goal was. I changed the project steadily to try and face the challenge. I ended up finding a certain path which helped me a lot to create a structure of this piece.

I believe this project turned out well for me. I don’t think I like it much, but it is still a pretty scary/cool preview. I think if I had more time, I would be able to find more of what material I needed to complete my main goal. I think I put together this piece really well, considering that I completely destroyed it and put it back together again by changing my path. If I were able to improve this, I might change the text to my desired font because I couldn’t find it before and I only had one font to work with. I would shoot more/better video for my project to make the quality better, and probably the scenes better. If I would be able to find better music I would switch it with the music and sounds I have at the moment to make the piece better in the sound department. Overall, I would completely destroy this project and start over, although for now, I was stuck with what I had and I made something out of it. In addition, If I had more talent with the motion application, I would really use my knowledge of the program to make the project a lot better in any way possible. One example would be to make the text shake and pop out randomly and find more screechy music.

 

 Peter I's Motion Project: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Artist’s Statement - Stu M.

My goal for my project was to make a commercial-like promotion for Ben Padoba Sports. I got my inspiration from Ben Pobuda’s athletic versatility. I wanted to have something exciting but very realistic and look like an actual commercial. I tinkered with different effects trying to get cool things to show up. I then found a song that I could tailor exactly to my project and it made it so much better. I’m pretty happy with my final outcome. I do wish I might have been able to make it 30 seconds than 15 but it isn’t that big of a deal.

 

 Stu M's Motion Project: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Artist’s Statement - Jack H.

In my motion project I wanted to make a project that kept with the theme of ‘Ben Padoba,’ a theme used by many others in the class. Ben did not want me to make my project about him at first, so I changed the name to Ben Padoba, and took photos on my own so that he could not tell me I couldn’t use them. I also videotaped Grant Laco, and then pasted Ben’s face on top. This was a challenge because I could not just use a behavior to make Ben’s face position in the right place, so I had to use keyframes, which took a lot of time and was a little frustrating. In the end though I liked how it worked because Ben’s head follows Grant’s motion, and still looks cheesy which fits into my project well. For this project I used a lot of video clips, and worked on timing them to the smusic I used in the project. The biggest challenge in my project was getting the keyframes to fit the motion of the video. I think one of the most important parts of my project is the music because it fits perfectly with the cheesiness of the video, and works to tie together the other aspects of the project.

 

 Jack H's Motion Project: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Artist Statement - Taylor R.

Originally I wanted my Motions Project to be about pineapples and Spongebob Squarepants but soon I changed it to something I loved more, STEPPS. I wanted to promote STEPPS because it is my favorite program in the school. I wanted to first start out with an atom in the center of the screen, then the audience would hyper speed in the atom and see everything we do in STEPPS. It would look like the ESPN commercials about soccer except with instead of soccer balls it would have tennis shoes stomping and hands clapping. Pictures of our faces and dance moves would be in squares going by and all of the pictures, hands, tennis shoes and back round would be blue. But as the days passed my project idea changed rapidly.
One of my changes and challenges was hyper speeding into the atom. In the end I decided not to hyper speed in the atom but to put what was going to be inside the atom on the outside of the atom. The pictures, shoes, and hands would appear as soon as the orbital starts moving. As time past I found myself making little tweaks in the project that made only I would notice in the end. So I had to rethink how I was going to do my project to make it better on a larger scale. Another challenge was getting footage of STEPPS. It was difficult because when I needed to film I also had to practice at the same time.
For my project I am not totally satisfied, because I ran out of time to do what I really wanted. In my project I do like the green screen affect and the orbital on top of the person. I also like the star affect in the back round. It shows that the world see us stepping but behind all the stomping, clapping and dancing there is a light and energy that we thrive on, allowing us to show the would our true talent. Over all I do like my project I just know I could have done better work if I had more time.  It was a little difficult not to know how to work a lot of the motion but with more practice I know it would get easier. With more time I would have done my original idea. Also after the due date I hope to continue this project on the side to see how far I can really go with it.

 

 Taylor R's Motion Project: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Artists Statement- Collin W.

When I started this project football season was just coming to an end, and I had an inside joke with Jack Hollander about how all he did ride the stationary all season because he was injured. In reality I don’t think he ever actually touched a stationary bike, but the joke was funny all the same. This was the basis of my project. I decided not to story board it because I generally like projects more when I just come up with ideas as a I work. I feel like they develop better then when I plan them all out to begin with.

So that is what I did. I started working with a base of ideas and just continued to add while playing up the joke. The biggest challenge I faced was that there was no working stationary bike to take a video of in the school. The bike that was in the weight room was broke in the most improbably way, to the point where we could not even figure out what even happened to it. I just improvised with a bench and the front of the bike. It worked out fairly well.

I think the project worked out very well. I wished I had used a little bit more of the capabilities of motion instead of relying on pictures and videos, but I think I have enough. I added a bunch of graphics and motions and behaviors at the end. The video I took was poor and looks shaky but overall I liked how my project came out. If I had more time I would have done more of this.

 

 Collin W's Motion project: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Artist Statement - Ben P.

My basic goals for this project were to have the theme be like a promotional video for Stew Morton. I wanted it to be a little random as well just to add a nice little touch. I added some pictures of Stu in order to get my point across. I think that the photos add a little extra touch to give the viewer that I am teasing Stu. My inspiration came from everyone else doing a project about me so I decided that I wanted to do a project about one of my peers. My favorite affect was by far the explosion because it happened right when Stew Morton Sports got to the middle section then it exploded. I really found this project to be fun because I loved al l of the affects that could be used.

 

 Ben P's Motion Project: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Kimi Goldstein

By far my favorite project this semester, the Fight Scene brought together everything we have learned. It gave us the opportunity to concoct an idea and experience what it is like to be a filmmaker. I worked with Tess, Hilary and Minty on this project, none of whom I had collaborated with on past projects.

The concept for our scene was something along the lines of “bad chick-flick”/“cheesy teen romance.” I actually came up with the preliminary plot just after being assigned the project, before groups had even been chosen. I had briefly heard Mr. Jolten describe a scene, previously created by students, in which two people physically fought over who got the last cookie. That thought got my wheels turning and as I began to think of other “things” that people could “fight” over, my mind strayed away from objects and coasted straight to people. From there, I envisioned two girls having a catfight over a boy who was flirting with both of them. After dividing up into teams, Tess, Hilary, Minty and I began to brainstorm and elaborate on this idea, of which all of them strongly liked. We decided to not only have the two girls fighting, but to have them turn against the boy in the end, after realizing it was his fault, not each other’s. The final plot went something along the lines of: 1. “The buildup” Minty (the stud of our scene) is seen with both Tess and I at different locations, but it is clear to the view that Minty appears to have feelings for both. 2. “The realization” I am seated at the end of a hallway talking to one of my friends when Tess approaches from behind. At the same time, Minty is coming up a staircase, inevitably leading him to both Tess and me. Minty waves to both of us and doesn’t realize his crime until we both wave back… 3. “The confrontation” Tess and I notice immediately that both of us are flirtatiously waving at Minty and as I stand up and we began to stare at each other, Minty runs down the stairs to safety. 4. “The first pushes” Tess begins the physical part of the scene with a light push to my shoulder, which I return with just as much anger. We continue to lead up to the main fight by circling around each other. 5. “The fight” Finally, we both get into the fight! There are punches, slaps and shoves flying around and the tension just keeps building. We reach a breaking point as I grab Tess’ hair and she firmly holds my wrist, creating a moment of struggle and pressure. 6. “The intervention and the second realization” Minty, obviously having heard the commotion of our fight, rushes back up the stairs and attempts to break us up. 7. “The turning-against and conclusion” Tess and I realize that we should be mad at Minty, not each other, and we make this point very, very clear to him….

I enjoyed working in a group because it brought to light dozens of ideas and perspectives that would not come to light while working alone. The creation of this project was pretty evenly divided up, with Hilary doing the vast majority of the shooting and Tess, Minty and I acting. Once we got to the editing stage, things weren’t as smooth as they had been. It was difficult for more than one person to edit the video at once and as we each began to work on separate things, that job became mine. Tess and I edited the beginning of the scene, but as she went on to search for music (a very exhausting and difficult task because of copyright), I continued to edit the video alone. Minty and Hilary recorded sounds effects and divided them up so it was easy to import them into the video. We all had equal say in the actual plot and throughout the whole editing process, I often would have the other 3 watch the piece and give feedback. This method worked seamlessly, as Minty, Tess and Hilary could pick out extra frames and tiny mistakes that had slipped beneath me as I focused on the over all project and choosing which take to use. All of us were able to spend some time during this last week outside of class, to ensure the final project was done in time to present.

Overall, I’m extremely pleased with how this project turned out. It was better than I could have imagined and as I watched it yesterday, I found myself still laughing at the story and still cringing at the kicking and punching. I was uncertain as to whether or not we could pull off such a silly (for lack of a better word) plot, but I believe all four of us truly committed ourselves to this project and made a seriously funny and well-edited piece. The only areas in which I wish we could’ve done differently were lighting and sounds. It wasn’t until we had shot and uploaded everything that we noticed that the two days of shooting had given us two drastically different days of light, despite being in the same location. After Mr. Jolton couldn’t completely fix it easily, I suggested we make the whole fight portion of the piece in black and white. While this was a quick-fix, it looked very good, and just further emphasized the transition between lead-up and climax. Second, I wish we had spent more time on our sound effects. It could’ve been that Hilary and Minty hadn’t seen the whole scene before recording sounds, but as we added the effects in at the end, I found myself in a time crunch and there were parts when a perfect sound couldn’t be found. It was hard to settle for anything less than ideal, but the quality of our video and camera angles sure make up for it! I would leave the visual parts of the scene exactly as they were and with corrected colors and improved sounds, I believe our project would be perfect!

Tess Perese

The fight scene project was a blast! It was so much fun that we were given so much freedom to come up w/ a concept of what we wanted to capture and how and with what sound effects. The project summed up what we have been working with this entire semester. Film, sound, chorography, and angles. When this project was introduced I had no idea what I wanted to do for the fight scene. When Kimi came up to me and asked me if I wanted to participate in her idea of having two girls fight over the same guy because he is playing them both that immediately sparked my interest in this project to another level. The basic concept of our project developed into Minty trying to have relationships with Kimi and I, both w/ out having either of us find out about the other. But as it happens he makes the mistake of “waving” in both of our directions causing us to get confused and realize what is actually going on. So Kimi and I take a little bit of time to realize what’s actually going on and that Minty has been playing us this entire time then we start by fighting each other until we realize Minty is the real one to blame and should be punished. So we switch the anger to Minty for playing both of us.

For the process of making this fight scene we took many different clips of each scene. Our fight scene begins with a split screen of Kimi and I walking down the hallway each with Minty. We then go to Minty giving me a flower then Kimi to get across to the viewer what his motives are. After these sequences of getting the idea across to the viewers that Minty is “playing” Kimi and I the shot switches to Kimi and I both in the same spot and Minty encountering this. This is where the whole fight scene begins the part before this was what we called the lead up to the fight. Overall personally I really enjoyed this project. I loved acting in it, but I wish I could have been able to participate more in the editing process. Truthfully I did do some of the editing I just wish that I could have been able to do more. Collaboratively I think our group worked really well together during the editing someone edited well the rest found music and sound effects. It was very efficient but could have been divided up between the editing and music finding better.

This was a very fun project and I would not change a thing about the way you present it to us, I really liked the freedom you gave us. It was so much fun!

Minty Kunkel

In this project, what we were going for was a funny, believable mock version of a bad teen movie. It came together pretty well, through use of similar rock tunes and a plot strangely reminiscent of John Tucker Must Die (which by the way was the worst movie I’ve ever seen. That’s the last time I ever get forced to sit through a movie like that).

On a technical level, we used many different camera angles, particularly for the fight to keep things fast-paced. One regret I have is that at times in the film, it appears as if my character is completely isolated due to the lack of appearance of the other two characters in the clip, like in the part where my character comes up the stairs and waves. We used sound effects from footage of me in the staircase and gym hitting various parts of my body and Kimi and I applied the sounds to the correct timing in the video. I was surprised that sometimes you can’t tell whether a sound is too late or too early—it just sounds wrong. It was equally surprising that even in a piece without other audio, a correctly timed sound could be so believable.
We started off the project with a general idea for the plot. We discussed specifics on Monday and spent the rest of the week filming. Before each shot, we talked out exactly how things would work in the clip and about where in the piece it would be presented. We did 3+ takes of just about every c lip, usually with at least two different camera angles. This opened up a lot of flexibility in editing, which was great to have. It really let us choose the best of everything and to change up the pace to keep the fight exciting. The next week (review week) was editing and sound footage. Kimi chopped up the video footage mostly, while Tess, Hilary and I oversaw the video come together, filmed sounds, and searched for music, which ultimately came from Garageband and Newgrounds.com. The four of us met on Wednesday of exam week and Kimi and I finished the project in about three hours’ work.

All in all, I’m satisfied with how the project turned out. I think I learned a lot about the importance of sound timing and variance and camera angles. I think I’ve come out much stronger this year in terms of familiarity with software as well as shooting and editing techniques. Good stuff.

 

 Fight Scene - Kimi, Tess, & Minty: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Zach Kagin - teno sax, Sam Tornio - trumpet, Rachel Bowens-Rubin, Jay Jasper - piano, Eric Peltola - vibes, Trent Palmberg - drums, SPECIAL GUEST ARTIST: Michael Gold - bass. Recorded at Creation Audio in Minneapolis, MN on April 7, 2007. Steve Weiss, engineer.

 

 Enhanced Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download