Final Project/ Research Question

Introduction- With this project I wanted to focus on actors- more importantly young actors and the affects of gender advertising. Being an actor myself, I know first hand of the dangers that lie in feeling inadequate,not beautiful or handsome, and not feeling like I will make it. I have felt at times, that I will never be successful in this profession- which I now don't even care about, because I just want to act Period. Or that I don't even want to be in this profession anymore. So I based my research question of of something that I felt close with and something that I felt has importance. My research question- Does Gender Advertising Negatively affect young actors...? My flow/Concept Map Image- Work Cited- http://www.genderads.com/ This is a website database that has a lot of information of gender advertising. It has every single image out there, grouped into specific catagories... It's pretty great. http://www.listal.com/list/actors-of-our-future I thought this would be useful to get an idea of who are specific young actors and actresses that may be affected by gender advertising. http://www.mediaed.org/assets/products/238/transcript_238.pdf This pdf document has a list of popular shows and movies that have specific gander effecting things. Everything from the film, ''Boys Don't Cry.'' to ''The L Word''. http://www.startips.com/ This is basically, a how to, on starting a child acting career. Video Exercises The Literacy rational,which is defined as the ability to read/interpret and write and compose in video format. This was a new and unique challenge for me to grasp, because video- is not a field that I am used to working in. But, basically, having an idea and following through with it, is something that I learned from this. In this week's study, I searched and gathered information from the Archive, a huge online database/ library and took two separate videos,and a sound bite to create something like a new media composition. Also working with a new program like Camtasia, taught me a lot. The assignment was to create a video double exposure and a parallel video. The process for me, as I stated before was pretty challenging because I have never edited, yet along filmed a video before. So I had to figure it out as I went along, added to my educational adventure. But my original ideas was to use something Parkour related, as it is a big passion of mine. So I searched up this, along with FreeRunning on the Archive database and surprisingly a lot came up. So with the two videos that I found, one was an older one. One from the days when I first got interested, and the other video was one from this past year. So I decided to use those two, to sort of show the evolution that the art form has made.Showing what it was, to what it now is/ has become. The double exposure was exciting, and so was the Parallel. The only thing that I wish I could have done better, is that one of my video files, sort of got messed up during uploading. But I am enthusiastic about my finished product. Research Oriented Video Composition- I think I would love to explore something of inspiring, and informative research composition in the near future. Project Video Composition- For this project, I focuses on my research topic-child actors and Advertising.I wanted the piece to be inspiring and I wanted something that would have a message. Luckily the pieces that I found online in the Archive, were both interesting. One piece was a video slideshow of famous child actors, and the other was a talk on Talent. I put them both together, showing mainly the images of the child actors and actresses, but I wanted to focus the sound on the talk on talent. I blended both of the audio tracks together, but set it so that more of the talk on talent could be heard, so I had to go in and set and tweak the volume in different sections. I am happy with the turn out, and I think that it is a cute and informative video for people to watch.

End of Unit Blog Reflection

Initially, the 3D definition of Professionalism is something that makes sense. Professionalism is one thing that I recognize as the foundation for an Artist's career. The sort of first dimension being training, always approaching yourself and work to better and have a professional attitude. The second dimension, pushing beyond the training. Being creative, and always working at something, which works into the third one. I think this is a great way to complete the whole thing.

I learned some pretty interesting stuff in this unit. For one thing, Audacity. Audacity has always been something I was interested in because I love to write and sing music. But I never really learned how to use it. I find it funny, how I actually ended up learning how to use it because of school. Which is something that I USED to never see myself doing. But I really had to crack down on it in this unit.

I decided to work with a creative track. Because I feel research is something that I will always be doing. But the creating gets me going. So I got a theme of Friendship. Which is something that I think is really important, especially in life. Relationships, Careers, and happiness... are things that I think are due in part from friendships.
I got an idea to record a song. Or at least attempt it. I thought about what I could work with. I wrote some lyrics about a crush, or a girl that I would have a crush on. Sort of embodying it all. Then I thought about working with my friends. So I recorded the piece in the open, with my friends, so that I could get them talking about work and I could get the natural sound of a busy place. It really added a different dimension. Sometimes the take/ recording would be bad, because the sounds that I wanted, weren't really what I was looking for. But I just started over. The overall thing came together completely.

Overall, I feel the piece and my work is good. I am happy with it. I enjoy that I had an idea and followed through with it. I didn't change it, because it wasn't working out. I followed through with it. I really learned  more about what it takes to make a real project. It takes patience, and time. I think I was working on it for hours... but that is just what I takes I guess. That is the beauty of it. Of course if I were to make this a reall song of mine to show to people... I would put more touches on it, and make it longer and go back and write more lyrics. It still needs more work, and I plan to finish it and show later...  But I am happy with it.   Thanks.

DMA Sound Compositions

Working with new media audio composing really taught me a lot about the power sounds have. It has taught me that what we hear, and what we think we hear are two totally different things. The meaning, subject, and also... the way it sounds changes dramatically with the smallest change. During this process of creating, I really had to think about my daily life, and what that would sound like, as well as my artistic life. I thought about running, and then Shaskespeare. Two of my favorite things. While constructing my pieces I even learned something about the recording program Audacity. Things are looking up.
 Links to audio compositions- https://soundcloud.com/user966462/dma-sound-parallel-final
https://soundcloud.com/user966462/dma-double-exposure

For my professional artistic future, I think a more creatively oriented audio project would have a lot of gumption. It would challenge me, and only allow me to get better...