Under the British Kids...

As you may or may have not noticed, the title of this post is a cross between a couple of things.

1. Exchange students from England are here.
2. "Under the Bridge" is a Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) song. (I'll get back to this in a second).
3. "Under the weather" is an expression meaning that things are kind of bad. (I'll also get back to this).

In the past two days, I have learned a lot about England from the kid that I am hosting, Nick. I've spent some time with him and learned that he really likes the band RHCP, especially the song "Under the Bridge" so I thought that the title was fitting in that respect. But I fear that I will not be able to spend as much time with him for the rest of the week.

Unfortunately, I will be spending time doing homework.

My teachers (both CAP and non-CAP) haven't really adjusted our workload to accomodate for the English students. (Except for Mr. Freeman, props to you). This is not quite what I wanted to do with my exchange student. I think that our teachers should try to organize a hiatus in normal schoolwork so that we can do more activities in areas that specifically pertain to the exchange trip. Learning about different countries, sharing experiences, and getting to know each other. After all, they are only here for a week.

Not to say do no work at all, just saying that we should do more inclusive and fun things for the British kids, such as Mr. Mayo's project where we are taking a break from documentaries to make a short video.

Bottom line: Less/more fun and inclusive work, so that we can take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn about other countries and have fun with our guests.

Opinionatedly written by Connor Smith.

"What is life without a little bit of fun?"

-Zephyr

British Kid Vid

Here's my video of Silver Spring to the British Exchange Students.
It's over 1:30, but, after syncing it to the music, I didn't feel like cutting it down. Plus, it's a pretty good video.
Check it out:

Shot with Canon t3i and a Nikon point and shoot
Edited on Final Cut Pro X (with lots of stabilization)

P.S. I am done with my documentary, I'll upload it after the judging has been done (Early March), and tell you if I won anything.

"Edit all day
Edit all night
Say you wanna edit
Lets edit allright, now"

-Zephyr

Documentary Progress

Well. This is going to be a quick blogpost, because I need to study for the NSL exam.

I've spent the entire weekend configuring my new computer that I am going to edit our documentary on.

It is a beast.

I didn't like any of the mac computers on the market, so I built my own from "PC" parts, then hacked it so that it thinks it's an Apple computer. The program After Effects CS6 loads in 4 seconds.

Anyways.

I have an audio rough cut, and I'll be filling in video and making the final edits the rest of this week, as well as studying for finals.

I have a couple clips from my documentary that I thought were especially cool. Check them out.





Off to study for NSL!

"Upload download
left load right load.
So slow,
I don't care
I've got a hackintosh"

-Zephyr

Documentary Review

Documentary Review - Bike Thief 2012 by Casey Neistat

Connor Smith

Period. 4

For my documentary review, I watched the Op-Doc "Bike Thief 2012" by Casey Neistat. Although it is only 3 minutes and 47 seconds long, it conveys the message of the documentary. I think that I can apply various aspects of this short documentary to my C-SPAN documentary in order to make it better; more so than a full length documentary, which follows a different style because of the change in length.

Here's the video:


The documentary takes place in New York City, and reveals how police, as well as citizens, do not seek out bike thieves, nor confront them, even when walking right by the thief, and in a public place. Neistat shows the absurdity of this by locking his own bike in a public place, then stealing it. He does not even try to be discrete about stealing the bike, he openly forces it out of chains. Many times he is able to get away with the bike. The only time he is stopped by the police is when he uses a loud power tool to break a thick, metal-pipe lock. Neistat explains the purpose of his documentary to the police, who then let him go. Neistat also asks the police if they have ever stopped or arrested someone for stealing a bike, to which they say no. Neistat does a very excellent job in conveying his point that the police should be vigilant about bike thieves, especially in New York, where many people get around by bike.

The literary aspects of the film, namely the dialogue, setting, and tone make the documentary great. The quippy dialogue makes the documentary funny, but also persuasive at the same time, because it makes the viewer think that the police's inaction seem ludicrous. The setting of New York city (although necessary for the documentary) also provides an element of "realness". Finally, Neistat's tone helps clearly establish his opinion that the police are not doing a good job and need to step it up.

The cinematic aspects of the film are less evident, but the camera shake and the long shots that are zoomed in give the feel of being there where the action took place, and the feeling of a real documentary. The text track also helps explain what is going on in the documentary.

I would recommend seeing this short Op-Doc because it was funny, but also conveyed a serious message at the same time. I will try to clearly state my opinion in my short documentary, just as Neistat does so wonderfully in his.


"Bike Thief 2012" is not rated, because it is a youtube video. If I were to rate it, I would rate it PG. It is now on youtube and playing everywhere with a computer and an internet connection.


"Document everything
for if we don't
we cannot share
we cannot learn
and we cannot be sure"

-ZZZephyr (I'm sleepy)

How to Make Colored (Holi) Powder

Hey guys, I don't really feel like writing that much today, so heres a video I made explaining how to make colored powder.



If you remember, a while back I posted this video to show you guys what I am going to do in the spring with the powder. Its a cool video.



"Change up the physical state.
Change up the state, like a revolution"

-Zephyr

Fire Wire

Last night, I did some fire wire and colored fire experiments. Unfortunately  the colored fire didn't work, but here's the video anyway:


Here is a tutorial  on how to make fire wire:




"Let the sparks fly...
but the fire remain at bay"

-Zephyr

Simple Stories. Amazing Stories.

I found these videos a while ago while getting lost in the depths of Youtube. Check them out.






These videos, although short and simple, are interesting because they convey a story, and have a character that the viewer cares about.

In the video "The Guardian", viewers are invested in the boy because he appears normal, but has the tremendous task of saving the sprites from the evil guy with the monocle. The character is both relatable because he appears normal, but awesome because he can fly (at the end), and beat the bad guy.
"The Guardian" is also pretty awesome just because of the music. Is epic-celtic-viloin a new genre?

The video "Alight" is the story of a boy made of fire, and a girl made of water. The viewer cares about these two characters because they are cute (check out this video on cuteness), and because they seem good-intentioned. Unfortunately, the girl gets killed, which makes the viewer sad. The fire boy then proceeds to take revenge. The ending doesn't really make any sense, but that doesn't matter because the feeling is conveyed. How did you feel after seeing the video? Chances are its something like: 'woah, that puts stuff into perspective', 'hopeful', 'slightly downcast', or maybe just 'what?'. However you felt about it, the message was conveyed.

I should have a video coming out about making that color video soon, if not, I'm also working on a tilt-shift video.

"An epic can't be short,
but a short can be epic.
Take that Homer."
-Zephyr