Even More Thoughts on Project 5

I am starting to understand the real life component to this project thanks to the examples given in class today. I was thinking about using GPS of some sort. I have an iPhone 3G which has GPS built in to the hardware. I was thinking about maybe doing screen shots of my location from now until the project is due, to show where I am at all times.

That is just a starting point for me. I think the more that I think about this project, the more likely I am in coming up with something a little more unique and a little more creative. With each of my projects I have wanted to do something political, but I think I want to stray away from that now that the election is over. Maybe something a little more personal regarding the way I live my life.

Questions

Are there any resources online that I could use that could take my GPS data and formulate it in to something more user friendly?

Thoughts on Blogging

I think that blogging has evolved drastically in many ways over the last couple of years. I began my first blog when I was 17, almost 5 years ago. For me it was a way to log what I was writing and never having to worry about losing it. I would just write anything usually. How my day went. What I was thinking at the time. Things that got on my nerves. Anything really. Now, I have my own website and blog that has a bit of a following. I use my blog not just to talk about what I am thinking but to use as a medium to promote things that I believe in. When people started responding and commenting on the things I was writing, I started to realize that this blog and website wasn't just for my own good: people were actually checking it on a daily basis. Once I realized my audience, I knew I could use it as a tool to spread ideals and opinions that I hoped others would share with me. Specifically I was a firm advocate of Barack Obama in the last year or so. I would use my website to support his campaign in any way that I could. Would Barack Obama have been elected had I not supported him through my blog/website? I guess we'll never know.

I think blogs have a very powerful command over people. Just today I was reading online (probably a blog) that the gossip website PerezHilton.com was rated the most viewed blog in the world by people. His website, for what it is worth, influences media and marketing in many ways. This website generates nearly 10,000,000 hits per month. When Perez Hilton posts a blog about an artist no one has heard of, it is obvious to see the direct impact when the artist's sales dramatically increase. People look to these types of blogs to stay current and know what's new.

Thoughts on Project 5

I really have no clue what I am going to do for my fifth project. I know that I want to gather information from every day life. I have always been fascinated by sociology and the way people think, as expressed in my fourth project. I think displaying what a mass amount of people are thinking is so interesting.

With my fourth project, I used peoples' facebook statuses to showcase a collective thought on the election. This election was very personal for many. People seem interested in showcasing their emotions via Facebook statuses, which I think is very unique and interesting.

I was thinking about Photoshopping some ridiculous picture of me doing something, or being somewhere, or something extremely controversial and posting it on Facebook. I would then tag everyone I know in the picture just to see what kind of responses I get. Usually something religious gets a lot of feedback. Maybe I will make some radical religious assertion (like, oh I don't know: Barack Obama is a Muslim) and see how people react to it.

I think about how I am going to work with this fifth project a lot because I want to do something unique, so hopefully something will come to me.

Project 4 - Nobody Knows Me

After much input from various people and an extensive editing process, my project 4 can be found by clicking here. It's very important to click "watch the video in high quality" just below the project display screen.

I was going to just embed this video to my blog but I can not embed the high quality version of it for some reason.

Meta Text

I knew from the first time that I read the syllabus for this project that I would end up doing this fourth project based on something political. This election season has been filled to the brim with all kinds of scandalous, radical and ridiculous assertions from all over the political spectrum. For some reason the American people had become enthralled with voicing their own opinions on the subject--in a way that I don't think has ever happened.

Leading up the Presidential election, I didn't think that there were a lot of strong opinions towards the Presidential candidates. Everyone had a couple of things that their candidate stood for, to give as examples if he or she were ever in an argument. But, there wasn't an onslaught of emotional reactions.

Finally, the hours after the election, I was watching as my Facebook newsfeed was flooded with varying degrees of emotional reactions from my friends. Most of them seemed elated about Barack Obama winning, but there were some rather ignorant ones that caught my eye. It was these statuses that really sparked the lightbulb in my head for this fourth project.

For this project, I wanted to showcase the range of emotions that my friends on Facebook were experiencing minutes after the election was called. I think it is so interesting that I am able to understand how people are feeling via a social networking site. So many people use this website as a medium for expressing themselves, and I couldn't think of a better way to portray my friends' feelings.

I struggled a bit coming up with a song that would fit as an anthem for this project. The project actually began with the idea of focusing only on the statuses that were disappointed with the results of the election. As I started taking the screen shots I realized there were a lot of very powerful, positive messages that I felt should be displayed as well. I came to realize that a lot of people seem to think they know Barack Obama and John McCain personally. Asserting that Obama is a Mulsim (which he is not) and that our country is going to fall apart (it already has) as well as McCain is going to die soon, so why choose him, were all statuses that portrayed the unrealistic impression that my friends actually know these candidates personally.

The song I settled on was a song by Madonna called, "Nobody Knows Me." Click here for the unofficial lyrics. This song was on one of the only Madonna albums that I liked, "American Life." This album was basically centered around the ideals and culture of America. The song really seems to vocalize what I feel Barack Obama or John McCain would be thinking if he actually met any of my friends and their assertions of either candidate. The reality is, none of my friends actually know either of them, yet they believe that they truly do.

I used a few different methods to create this project. First, I took screen shots using my Mac, of each Facebook status that I thought was significant or powerful in one way or another. I took about 40 screen shots, and after reading through and editing, settled on the ones that fit the overall idea of what my friends were feeling at the time. I then used Photoshop to blur out each person's name and photo. I did this to create anonymity amongst my friends and so that they weren't offended by my using their information for a public video. I then imported every edited screen shot in to Final Cut Express and created a cross-fade effect for each. After I created the image rotations, I imported the song, "Nobody Knows Me." The final image I used asserts that America is "doomed." I thought this was ironic considering America is in the worst shape that it has ever been. I decided to do a zoom in on the word "doomed" to show some of the irony that I was trying to portray throughout the piece. Also, it adds a bit of drama to the otherwise steady movie. I exported the video in YouTube's preferred codec, H.264, but as with other videos I have tried to do for this class, was unsuccessful in the finished file. It seemed to skip just like the others. I finally tinkered with the export codec and found settings that were perfect for the YouTube upload. I suggest watching the video in high quality (an option on the actual page) to get the best viewing exprience for this video.

More Thoughts of Project 4

As mentioned in the posting, I think that this project is going really well so far. I think the material of the project is awesome but it's a matter of getting the video quality to a point that will work on YouTube. I know that YouTube uses H.264 codec, but when I export my video using this codec it makes my video skip and lose frames: the same thing that happened in my Obama video for project 3.

I just bought Final Cut Express and have been using it to edit my video but it is pretty advanced. I am still getting used to the interface but will hopefully know enough by the due date to export it in the highest quality video for YouTube.

Also, I've Googled "Best quality video export for YouTube" and have had some various results. Some of them work really well, but are too small while others want the video to be exported using H.264 which seems to always make my video skip.

Anyway, I am rambling. I think my project will turn out the way I wanted and I am very excited to see what people think about it.

Project 4 Draft

So here is the link to my draft of a video I made. Basically, I was amazed by the racist, ignorant, and frankly absurd Facebook statuses that were popping up after the election last week. I was stunned by how many of my friends were racist or just severely out of touch with reality. What I did was take a screen shot of every Facebook status that I thought was interesting, whether it be inspirational, racist, ignorant, or satisfied.

I wasn't sure what music to set the screenshots to, however. A friend of mine suggested this song called "Nobody Knows Me" by Madonna. Not a huge Madonna fan but the lyrics of the song sort of fit with the tone of some of the statuses that you'll read.

For the best results, click the link, and make sure you click "watch in high quality" just under the right hand corner of the video. I have to find a good codec to export my video in to so that it can upload to YouTube in good quality as a default. That is being prepared for the final draft. I understand that some of them are hard to read, so I will be adjusting that in the final draft.

Click here for the video -- don't forget to watch in high quality.