ITEM #6: Creative Work

This audio piece is from MDIA 1200, Audio Production Basics, with Nicholas Antonuccio. This piece is titled City Narrative and tells a story using only sound effects from the OU sound effects library. For this assignment we were given a simple picture of a busy city. We then had to add our own creative aspect to the story in the image. In my piece, I am telling a story of a regular day in the city with a creative twist; a dinosaur invasion. The city people along with other armed forces take town the dinosaurs and save the city. For my project, I used over 20 different sound effects form the OU sound effects library. This project was completed on Tuesday February 5^th 2013 in the Radio and Television Building computer lab using Pro Tools 10.0 

https://soundcloud.com/abbyseitz/abbyseitz-city-narrative

ITEM #5: Weaknesses

In David Rendall’s “FREAK FACTOR: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness”, I have found that 2 of his suggestions for success are valid. I believe that Rendall’s suggestions of Failure and Fire are very good methods to follow when trying for success.

Fail: Allow employees to be the worst, so they can be the best.

From reading Rendall’s article, I have found that failure is the key to success. If no one ever failed, we would have a very messed up world. With failure comes motivation and determination. When you fail, you want to get back up and try again. If everyone succeeded at everything they tried, everyone would be lazy and not want to do anything. Failure is what makes us unique. Everyone is good at their own thing and has their special talents and interests. I can implement Rendall’s suggestion into my own creative life through the media classes that I am taking. If I struggle with a class or project and do poorly, it only motivates me and inspires me to try harder. With this motivation, it will help me to become a greater thinker, student, and eventually employee.

Fire: If you love them, set them free.

            I find that this suggestion from Rendall is valid because I believe that you should do what makes you happy. In Rendall’s article, he says “We waste far too much time trying to turn people into the person that we need.” (Rendall). We cannot control people and make them into something they aren’t. I believe that we must help people come into who they are and encourage them to be themselves. If we really care about them and their success, we must not be selfish and help them discover who they are, not who we want them to be. I can relate to this suggestion to my own creative life because it teaches me to not give up and do what I really want to do. Personally, I have found that there is a lot of competition for what I want to do in life. Sometimes I let this factor control me and persuade me to change my career path and goals in life. Rendall’s suggestion has helped me because I realize that if I love myself, I must give myself the best and work for what I really want to do. 

As far as the creative process is concerned, I believe that my weakness is inner strength and intimidation. Sometimes I find myself being negative and I often believe that I will fail. I believe that this field is very competitive and sometimes I feel like I don’t belong. I know that this is not true because deep down this is my passion and what I want to do. Although these are my weaknesses, I use them to help me. When I find myself being negative I stop myself and try to encourage myself that I can do it. I truly love everything with the creative process and I am constantly working hard to get where I need to be to make it my career. I believe that I can overcome my weaknesses with determination and drive to reach my goals. 

ITEM #4: Personal Essay

Ever since I was young, I knew that I wanted to have a job with communications. I have always been outgoing and a people person. With my Media Arts and Studies education, I hope to earn a degree in Media and Social Change. With this education, I will hopefully be able to travel internationally, work with non-profits, and most importantly put myself out there in the world. I believe that with this education I will not only be able to help others, but also help myself. Traveling internationally is one of the things that I have always wanted to do, as well as work with non-profits. In high school, I was very involved in service clubs and held leadership positions. From doing those things, I found that I really like working with people. Another reason I chose to be in Media Arts and Studies is my love of media and production elements. With this education, I hope to be able to do a lot of hands on activities and jobs. I do not want to sit at a desk for the rest of my life doing paperwork. I want to be hands on and actively working for causes all around the world. I enjoy things like video and audio production as well as putting projects together or coming up with creative ideas. I enjoy using all kinds of technologies and would like to use these things that I learn in Media Arts and Studies in my future career in Media and Social Change.

If I were to place myself into a historical context, I would place myself in the early 1800s; the time of the telegraph. I would go to this time because it was a very crucial moment for communication all over the world. It did many things to improve communication such as separating transportation from communication, making information a commodity for people, helping the military industrial complex, and improving railroad schedules. People no longer had to worry about distance, speed, the number of copies there had to be of a message, or the quantity of the message. The telegraph greatly improved communication in the 1800s and is responsible for many more great things. I would have like to be here at these times because it would have been amazing to receive a telegraph for the first time, wireless message, or hear the first phone call. With my education from Media Arts and Studies, I could have helped with the growth of the telegraph, wireless messages, and telephones by installing systems in places such as hospitals, police stations, or other important places that would need rapid and current communications. With my Media Arts and Studies education, I can help makes changes in the world and maybe even help create the next form of media that could change society. 

ITEM #3: Media Critique

            For my creative piece, I have chosen the opening clip from the movie August Rush. August Rush is a movie about a young boy who runs away in search of his real parents. He searches for his parents through his love of music and amazing drive and talent. In this opening clip we first see darkness and the opening titles along with the narrative voice of the main character, August. Next, we slowly start to hear small background noises such as flutes, humming noises, and the sounds of nature. These sounds are all casual sounds. We hear the sounds of wind instruments and nature, and then we actually see all of these things making the noises. We then see a close up and out of focus shot of the sun and some grass in a field. After this comes a shot of the main character playing in a field. He is imagining that he is directing the wind and grass to make music. This is a form of reduced, or acousmatic sound. This is true because we see the grass blowing but hear sounds of violins and other orchestra like sounds. The main character is imagining that he is directing an orchestra, so the grass and winds are representing the instruments being played. I believe that this is a great opening clip because of its use of both casual and reduced sounds. I like how it goes from casual to reduced because it encourages the audience to use their imagination. There is also the element of figure and ground. This means that we can see the grass moving and the insects flying while they are making their noises. The music also has good tempo and rhythm that draw the audience in and captures their attention. The music and sounds perfectly match up to the movements and rhythms of the picture being shown. It is upbeat and happy music that makes you want to keep watching the movie. Another thing about this clip is its use of medium shots that pan rom up to down. This gives the scene a larger feel and makes everything seem wider and bigger. There is also a lot of close up shots that are out of focus. These also give the clip an interesting feel. In conclusion, this opening clip has a lot of technical aspects that draw the audience in and give the movie a warm and magical feeling. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyDwYmYpDwE