The Three Wise Men. . .Films

Sooooo, the task for week 5/6 was to find three internet delivered short films (max 10mins) and imbed or upload into a new post. And "just providing the link wont suffice." Oh ho.

Hmmm, so naturally, this required a lot of thought.

And racking my brains, the first thought that came to mind was for some reason the Harry Potter series. If you don't know who Harry Potter is, well...I honestly have no idea what to say other than "where the hell have you been for the past ten years? Jesus Christ.". But anyway, the Harry Potter series has spurned a whole crap load of merchandise from the pointy hats from the $2 store to games on your PS3, has years worth of horrific fanfiction that you'd rather gouge your own eyes out with a spork than read and of course some truly disturbing and epic short films. So, when I thought of Harry Potter I thought of the classic Potter Puppet Pals series.

"Wizard Swears" arguably the most popular episode of the Potter Puppet Pals series and has had over 14 million hits on youtube, has spurned its own t-shirt line, cups and backpacks, has won several comedic awards and is naturally one of the greatest Harry Potter spoofs ever created. It's funny what a little jab at a can do, huh?

The Potter Puppet Pals creator Neil Cicierega has also due to the series "invented" the term "animutation" which of course is a web-based computer animation, typically created in Adobe Flash that is made of unpredictable montages of pop-culture references set to music and in a language foreign to the intended viewers, at least according to wikipedia, our favourite encyclopedia website. :)

And so wracking my brains again, and for some reason feeling rather geeky, I came up with the classic Twilight With Cheeseburgers. Anything that mocks the worst book series that somehow made it in the bestsellers in my eyes deserves a medal. Seriously.

Now, while this was professionally made as it featured on the monthly sketch show called "The Midnight Show", if not for youtube I never would've heard of this clip and it wouldn't have ever likely to have been as famous as it has been, it too thanks to youtube being viewed millions upon millions of times.

...And watching this clip makes me rather hungry... Goddammit.

Randomly deciding on my final "film", though this is more of a mockumetary, is the dude MyChonny on youtube, which goes to show that random films about nothing in particular can get you famous.

Now, once again, without youtube, MyChonny would probably never be as well-recognised as he is today--which goes to show that the internet has most definitely changed the world.

...Ohh, what a sappy way to end this post.

I deserve to be shot.

My Big, Fat Information-Filled Blog.

Sooo, tonight by chance I took a look at the "marking criteria" on that place with all the important stuff on it (that being right here) and it turns out I haven't quite completed all the criteria for the end of week five. So, I decided that because I have nothing better to do this Sunday evening I thought I'd try and type up the stuff I missed, and here we go~~

1. Okay, so while I'm pretty sure I've completed the convergence stuff properly, it turns out that I haven't really added two youtube videos. So what I've decided to do is add another youtube vid to this blog, this video about something that has apparently been "converged"...or whatever.

Soo, do you have an annoying child who doesn't know when enough is enough? Do you go through several rolls of toilet paper each week due to your child's incompetence? Do you sometimes get diarreha? Yes? No? Curious regardless? Look no farther and watch this:

An auto toilet dispenser.

A wonderful and unique way to cut the cost of your toilet paper down each week. ...Though mind you, it'd probably just be easier to rip the paper off yourself. It'd be much quicker and save you a lot of money. ...But that's just my thoughts here.

2. So I haven't written timelines for the history of the internet or computers themselves. ...And given that this is a class written about technologies....I suppose I should be strung up for it. Or drowned in a shallow bathtub. Or some other creative way of dying or something. While I'm friends with a History-Geek, learning about the fascinating (note the sarcasm) stories of my forefathers hasn't ever entertained me much. Even if the history is about the most awesome inventions evarrrr.

Anyway.

Computers.

They've been around longer than I thought they have been. Like, when I was a little kid (so the early 1990's) I remember my family having a computer...sure, it broke it somehow, but yeah, computers haven't really been cool since the late 90's when the world wide web was available to every man and his dog. ...Well, every man and his dog who can afford it, that is.

So let's be brief.

The Mr. Main Man when it comes to computers was a Pom called Alan Turing who was born long before my grandparents were even considered, that being 1912. This dude did most of the serious work when it come to the development of the computer, but computers weren't really anything big till the 1950's. Which, in the 1950's they were this big hunk of crap that the military used to hide research on aliens, Santa Claus and Jesus and stuff. Oh, and they were produced by the IBM.

Continuing on, nothing much happened till the 1970's when the first PC (Personal Computer -- oh creative!!) was released...and after that, all hell broke loose. Soon after that brought on the pure win that is Apple, crappy Microsoft and all the other systems that I can't be bothered mentioning...'coz we all know that Apple is the most superior model here. But yeah, each system has its similarities and differences (though apple is the best to me but people who are inferior like to argue with me), but let's move on and discuss the internet. (http://nct09-gc.blogspot.com/)

So when it comes to the net, you'd be surprised about how much stuff and years went into creating it. Mind you, when you think about it, the net isn't really all that simple. But because I don't want to waste even more of my life typing up this huge-ass timeline, I searched around a little and found a picture of what happened instead. :D

(http://depts.alverno.edu/cil/mod1/webtutorial/internetstart.html)

And finally task 3 that I have yet to complete was to watch a movie and talk about different screen shots that were used and stuff. Okay, so the last film I saw was My Sister's Keeper which if you were human was a real tear-jerker.

So of course, it being a drama there were all types of camera angles used to convey the mood, display the scenes and all that kind of stuff, but the task here was to discuss the Who, When, Where, Why and How of cinematography. So let's get started.

Who/Why: Pretty simple. Yes, Close-Ups (where an image is zoomed in) were used quite a lot throughout the film and it gave us a more detailed view of the character(s) so you can get a feel of their emotions, physical looks, their actions and subsequent reactions, ect. Here I have is a picture of the Fitzgerald Siblings--Kate in the middle is obviously our cancer victim--and the three look pretty happy.

Where/When: "long shots" (shots where larger things all fit in a single shot) were generally used to show the different areas wherein scenes took place. The film had many different settings, though I will use this picture of the Fitzgerald family at the beach:

Long Shots, Medium Shots (a shot less large than a long shot) were also used to show the events that take place at the end of the film (I'm not going to spoil it!), which also explained how and why certain things happened, though the voice-overs naturally helped as well. Flashbacks were also used through long shots and its smaller versions as well to set the time where the scenes took place also.

But yeah, so I think I've covered pretty much everything.

I pity the poor soul who has to bunker down and read this. I sure as hell wouldn't.

Have a good one.

Scavenger Hunt (oh yeeeeeerrr)

Okay, so this week's wonderful tutorial task (whooo T T) is to find some crap on a list without using google and avoiding wikipedia...easy enough stuff, right? Not.

1. What is the height of the world's biggest tree? How long did it take to grow?

-- So apparently the world's tallest tree is a Coast Redwood by the name of Hyperion (oooh, sounds otherworldly like something outta a science fiction, huh?) standing at a whopping 115.5 metres tall. Wow. As for how long its been growing, Hyperion has been growing for around about 600 years now, which apparently is roughly 20 human years in tree, which I can't help but admit is freaking amazing. Not bad eh?

2. What is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact Madonna?

-- Not that I would ever want to willing call her, one would gather that the best way to contact Madonna would be by using a phone. Or emailing. Or even sending a letter. ...Quickest definitely being to give her a quick phonecall, if you don't mind punching in all those extra numbers. As to how you're gonna do it? No idea. But here's another Madonna, I'm sure she'll like it if you flick a comment her way: Madonna. She lives in Vegas, isn't that great? :D

3. What is the age of the oldest ever captive elephant? Is this older than the average wild age?

-- Given that this is the last one I had to search for (meh, saved the most boring one till last), I asked a friend. Apparently the the world's oldest elephant in captivity was 86. Good God, I'd rather be long dead. But yeah, here's a link to stuff about elephants anyway, the info is probably in there.

4. How would you define the word "glycomics"? In your own words, what does it really mean? What does the term "seagull manager" refer to?

-- According to the Griffith Uni (I know, right?) website, glycomics is a pretty fancy chemical way of talking about sugar, or other things that are sweet and stuff. The griffith site has a whole load of crap ranting on using words I couldn't dream of understanding, but from what I could gather, its a science, people run tests on it and there are apparently 9 common sugars. Fascinating. Truly fascinating. . . .

As for a "seagull manager", by using my own amazing brain skills I'd deduce (yeah, a smart word right there) that a seagull manager would be a dude who spends his time watching seagulls fly out to the ocean to die (The Simpsons is a rather educational show, you know.), but apparently they fail even more in life than I originally thought they did. Using the Urban Dictionary, a seagull manager is a boss who hovers around the office, steals the awesome ideas you come up with while shitting on everything else. Nice definition, guys.

5. What was David Cronenberg's most recent feature film? Which of his films had 'Blondie' in it?

-- This whacked-out fella's most recent film is "Spider" (2002) according to the gore-loving website debased. As for Blondie's feature, you can find it in the film "Videodrome" released back in 1983.

6. When was the original "Hackers" released?

-- According to the imbd website, Hackers was released back in 1995.

7. Why do phone numbers in Hollywood flicks start with a "555"?

-- Haha, now this one just goes to show how stupid some Yanks can be. Hollywood films use the numbers "555" at the beginning of their phone numbers so people don't call up their favourite film characters, like God from Bruce Almighty, or the GhostBusters. 'Coz yeah, movies are totally real and if you dial that number you really will find God on the other line! Jesus. Oh yeah, I found this out here.

8. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Cairns?

-- Cheapest form of travel for sure would be to somehow fall in a toxic vat of waste (or Chemical "X" or something equally gross) and gain the ability to fly. Like Superman. Or be able to walk on water like ninjas and Jesus. But if you somehow can't find that, just knock out a kid on a bike and steal that.

9. What song was the top of the Oz Pop Charts this week in 1970?

-- Okay, so its a bit of an odd title, but by Creedence Clearwater Revival, the song top of the charts this week back in the 70's was "Around the Bend / Run Through the Jungle". This interesting little tidbit can be found on the australianmusichistory website.

10. Which Brisbane band includes Stephen Stockwell on keyboards and vocals?

-- Not that I have any idea who this dude is, but Stephen Stockwell plays the keyboard and sings in the band "The Black Assassins". Oooohhh, creative title.

And yes, that was our 10 tasks (wow, T T again!!) for this tutorial, so I'm done for today.

x.

The Language Of The Screen.

Sounds like a truly fascinating title for this week's blog, huh?

But anyway, so for this weeks lecture/tute thingy we discussed screen terms (and some other stuff too...but the lecture was 8 in the morning, so I can't be asked to remember everything now), and so yeah, the task for the week to eventually earn me my passing grade is to explain some definitions--some truly thrilling stuff right?

VLS/WS: VLS/WS is a wide shot, which pretty much where something takes up the whole frame. And so here I have a traino.


LS: LS or "long shot" is a shot in which a large figure (like a human body) fits easily within the shot. And 'coz I'm all for dramatics I've got an example of some dudes on a trip somewhere in Jakarta.


MLS: MLS or "medium long shot" is a shot in which a largish object (the human body from the lower leg up) fits easily within the frame. But because I'm going for a more interesting theme here, I've got a hospital. With colours. Oh yeah.



MS: MS or "medium shot" in which a averageish sized thing (like the top half of a human) fits in the frame. And so here I have a loner in the dark.



MCU: MCU or "medium close up" is a shot halfway between a mid shot and a close up. This shot shows the face more clearly, without getting uncomfortably close. But here's a tranny.



CU: CU or naturally a "close up" is a shot where a small object (like a head) is zoomed in to fit in the frame. Here's a monkey. Isn't he adorable?


BCU: BCU or a "big close up" is a another zooming shot, where a smaller object is made larger. I like animals. So what.



ECU: ECU or "extreme close up" is a shot where a tiny object (again) is zoomed enough so that fits in the frame. So here I have some leggo men. Aren't they awesome?


So now for some references:

Our Traino: http://cyberaddict.deviantart.com/art/wide-platform-350333

Dudes in Jakarta: http://agie.deviantart.com/art/Four-Men-in-Long-Journey-28966257

The Hospital: http://hairyrob.deviantart.com/art/Hospital-Long-Lens-49252476

The Loner: http://PheebsYeahBaby.deviantart.com/art/Medium-Format-124263329

The Tranny: http://FRSickly.deviantart.com/art/D-Spoon-18-121394965

The Monkey: http://billyunderscorebwa.deviantart.com/art/Up-Close-and-Adorable-119511961

The Cat: http://ajuse.deviantart.com/art/the-close-up-61359424

The Leggos: http://Donny-B.deviantart.com/art/Group-Shot-01-113906725

And the rest: http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/medium-closeup.html
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/shots/wide-shot.html
http://www.dur.ac.uk/m.p.thompson/filmterms.htm
http://ncowie.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/film-terminology-for-visual-texts/

And so I'm done. :)

Wk 2 -- Tute 2 : Convergence Baby~

Convergence. Like peanut butter and jam on a sandwich (for lack of any more creative ideas), according to the Princeton website, convergence simply put is “two or more things coming together”.

Technological Convergence, now, to get into the nitty-gritty (and boy don’t we love that? =D) is as said by the great wiseGEEK to be “the trend of technologies merging into new technologies that bring together a myriad of media”…though not quite in those words.

A great example of an awesome combination of two of my most favourite technologies coming together (it’s beautiful stuff, truly.) is the oddly fantastic (and drumrolls please~) and most assuredly useful (though not really.) internet fridge.



Now, by just taking a look at this wonderful piece of awesome, at a whopping $15,000, the internet fridge does what its name suggests: cools your booze and freezes your icecream all the while allowing you access to the wonderful thing that is the world wide web. ☺

Another example, a real fan favourite is the rather impressive iphone.


A combination of three devices in one, those of course being internet access and an ipod combined into a pretty stiffy mobile phone (the phone itself being device number three~), iphones have pretty much revolutionized the technological world, and like having a Chihuahua in your massive, oversized purse as a socialite, to be without an iphone … gosh, it’s complete social suicide!

Something that’s just a little odd now, laser scissors.


Want the perfect line but you’re just not capable of cutting straight? Look no further and get yourself a pair of laser scissors. ‘Coz sure, cutting in a straight line is so hard.

One more example (‘coz four is the required number after all~), we have the rather adorable climbing light.


Another oddity that pretty much explains itself: a cute ass little lightbulb that climbs a wall. Really, isn’t it cute? =D

Heeeerreeeee’s Barney:





So yeah, society has told us that sometimes it's okay to combine things to make one awesome piece of technology because hey, we're all lazy people.