I would like to give a shout out to Megan Hubbard for paying attention in class while I mostly spaced out and asked her what we were supposed to be doing afterwards. Thanks Megan for paying attention and staying awake while I asked you questions about assignments and deadlines. I would also like to note that she helped me out extremely with our in class assignments because (much like in class) I had an extremely short attention span when it came to watching the lynda videos. So Megan's more experienced hand at photoshop helped me out a lot and thanks to her I learned all about the eraser tool that helped me create my comic book. Pretty much everything I started out doing for the comic was created in photoshop. Although I did watch all the lynda videos for photoshop I found it kind of dull and hard to retain the information after I had watched the videos. When we had to work on in class assignments that demonstrated our knowledge of photoshop I was completely lost. I had never used photoshop before and felt like I was the only one in the class who had absolutely no idea what they were doing. I am so glad that Megan sat next to me and helped me with my photoshop issues. I feel like I got more out of photoshop working in class with Hubbard than at home watching lynda. Thanks Megan!
I picked out two different photoshop books I would like to read in the future. The first book is Photoshop CS5: Top 100 Simplified Tips and Tricks by Lynette Kent. Now that I am familiar with photoshop on a very basic level I can see myself using it in the future for other projects. This particular book is not a general instructional manual however, it does provide instructions on how to do 100 different things in photoshop. This book is more on the fun side of photoshop. It offers quick and fun tips verses learning the program from the inside out and it also got pretty good reviews from amazon customers.
The next book I was interested in was Scott Kelby's The Adobe Photoshop CS5 Book for Digital Photographers. I was also interested in this book because it is way more advanced and shows you how to do things step by step. Although the examples the author gives you are obviously from his own past works, the general instruction is all the same. I think this would be a good tool to help with multimedia authoring if one is into digital photography. The author is an instructor as well as a digital photographer so he is familiar with teaching as well as executing his ideas and theories.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Documentaries
Documentary is a nonfiction film that communicates some sort of message, history, or even just general information. I would argue that the main focus of any documentary is the attempt to represent some sort of truth or shed light on a subject an audience may or may not be familiar with.
I liked when Hampe said "I've thought a lot about what goes into a successful documentary. And by "successful" I mean a documentary that communicates to an audience exactly what you intended. That means I'm a theory maker" (12-13). I think that Hampe's reading communicates the dos and don'ts of documentary film making in an extremely scientific way. So when Hampe communicated the idea that he was a "theory maker" I thought it fit perfectly. Films that aren't documentaries are usually shot for entertainment purposes while documentaries attempt to educate or persuade their audience.
I think that Hampe's opinion on incorporating interviews into documentary films was particularly significant and something to take into consideration when we film are own documentaries about technology. An interview is undoubtedly going to be a part of the assignment. "A major problem with interviews is that they're about people talking when your goal should be to show things happening" (6-7). I think that my first reaction to our assignment would have been to simply focus on an interview. Hampe's point about the negatives of doing just that propelled me to think of something more clever for my own assignment.
Hampe, Barry. Making Documentary Films and Reality Videos. Henry Holt and Company, New York: 1997.
I liked when Hampe said "I've thought a lot about what goes into a successful documentary. And by "successful" I mean a documentary that communicates to an audience exactly what you intended. That means I'm a theory maker" (12-13). I think that Hampe's reading communicates the dos and don'ts of documentary film making in an extremely scientific way. So when Hampe communicated the idea that he was a "theory maker" I thought it fit perfectly. Films that aren't documentaries are usually shot for entertainment purposes while documentaries attempt to educate or persuade their audience.
I think that Hampe's opinion on incorporating interviews into documentary films was particularly significant and something to take into consideration when we film are own documentaries about technology. An interview is undoubtedly going to be a part of the assignment. "A major problem with interviews is that they're about people talking when your goal should be to show things happening" (6-7). I think that my first reaction to our assignment would have been to simply focus on an interview. Hampe's point about the negatives of doing just that propelled me to think of something more clever for my own assignment.
Hampe, Barry. Making Documentary Films and Reality Videos. Henry Holt and Company, New York: 1997.
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