Museum of Moving image

This museum is literally 20 minutes away from my house, so I thought, why not? I loved this museum when I went before, I thought I might as well check it out again after all of the renovation. My favorite part was the gaming section. There were tons of old arcade games that you could play! I'm a fan of video games so I loved that fact that you could play these arcade games(including super mario and sonic) Although, paying for it was a hassle. Aside from this, going through all of the museum and seeing the collections of makeup design all over the place was amazing. It's fun to see if you can guess where a specific prop was from just by looking at it. Everything looked really real. I wanted to touch everything in there. We watched different films from the past, learning about how they were made and how they used to color in the film! Watching the way they used to make movies, compared to now is insane. The video cameras compared to now is quite different. Everything was much larger and heavier! Even much more expensive. The T.V. sets in the 1950's were interesting as well! They were all shaped like house appliances to get women into watching T.V.! I went with a friend of mine. Both of us liked the hands on things that you could do. Like taking photos! Or making a frame by frame flipbook. It's really funny. Especially when you do something really ridiculous. When we got to the audio booth, we knew we could have fun with it. You could put your voice into a movie. We did not, at all, put our voice in correctly, or with the right accent but it's hilarious to hear your voice out of the context you're used to. There was barely anybody there. We could just go over and over if we wanted to. There was even a section were you could change the sountrack of a movie to change the pace and feeling. It was actually extremely interesting! Music really does make the scene. The last thing we decided to do was the sound "library". How they choose sounds to go into movies. It wasn't a shock to me because I heard about it before but the thing they like to highlight in the Titanic movie was the elephant wailing sound slowed down to mimic the breaking of the watertower. All in all, it was great to just go to a museum with a friend for extra credit.

Final Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi8XcY6ed3w&feature=youtu.be

Story Board

Synopsis and Preproduction List

Ruslan Ivanov

Kevin Pena

Regina Nuzbrokh

Continuity Assignment: Synopsis

            The shot will open up with a close-up shot with a clock that is up on the ceiling that has its hour hand at 12 and the minute hand at 15 and a ticking sound.  We will then have a boon-shot starting at the student’s feet and moving up to his face that bears a nervous expression, all the while we hear the student’s quickening heartbeat.  A sequence of nervous twitches, in which the student is perspiring at his forehead, scratching his head, anxiously biting his lips, and taping his fingers on his table, will follow. We then shoot to a long shot of the teacher at her desk, looking over some papers, with the chalkboard behind her displaying “Exam Today. Start Time 10:30 AM End Time 12:15 PM”. This is followed by a sequence of quick shots in which the teacher glances around the class and then glances back, and also glances down at her wrist, at her watch.  The distance between the student and the teacher is shown using an extreme long shot. In the next shot, a point-of-view shot, the student begins to get up to hand in his exam; all the while we hear his heartbeat quickening, we see his nervous expression, and his determined eyes. A quick medium shot displays the object of the student’s determination – the teacher who stands at the front of the classroom, collecting the exams students hand in on their way out. As the student approaches the teacher, he trips over his awkwardly placed feet, and the audience observes this through a point-of-view shot. The students proceeds to get up in a medium close up shot. He brushes himself off in a medium close up shot. In an extreme long shot, the student then walks over to the teacher, who is standing by her desk. An over-the-shoulder shot (from the student) shows the student extending his arm to give in his paper and the teacher smiling at him endearingly. In a close up shot, their hands briefly brush each other’s when the paper is being exchanged. In a medium-close-up, the teacher and student look at each other. An extreme-close-up of their eyes (both the student’s and the teacher’s) is followed. Then, a 6-shot sequence of extreme-close-ups portrays their lips, breathing, the teacher brushing her hair behind her ear, and the student scratching his collar. In an extreme-long-shot, the teacher and student run into each other’s arms, however, as they’re about to touch, we hear a CD scratching and the camera is cut and the screen goes black. A point-of-view shot shows the teacher waking up, blinking, looking down at her watch to see 10:20, and jumping up out of her seat. She then gathers her things quickly, and in a medium-shot, exits through a door. The door happens to be the staff lounge, which is displayed on the medium shot through which the teacher is seen, though not her face, exiting.  In a long shot, the teacher runs down the hallway and opens the door to the classroom.  She then enters the classroom and accidentally drops her books, papers, and glasses – all the while, her face is not show on camera. A flat-shot displays a medium-close-up of the teacher kneeling on the ground and collecting her dropped things, when two feet enter the shot.  An extreme-close-up of a pair of hands holding glasses is shot and then boons out to the face of the student, who bears a nonchalant smile. The student hands the glasses to the kneeling teacher in this medium-shot and the teacher puts on her glasses. A tracking shot shows the teacher walking over to her desk and writing on the board “Exam Today. Start time 10:30 AM. End Time: 12:15 PM. The scene closes with the clock in the center of the shot with the hour hand on 10 and the minute hand on 30.

Preproduction List

Location Information: The area in which we will shoot is in a classroom (one that is empty and usable). It will be dimly lit/brightly lit, depending on the mood we’re going for. We will then move to another room, the teacher’s lounge that will then move into the hallway. These locations are the basic places we plan on using.

Props needed: Chalk, different outfits, glasses, books, papers

Actors: Regina, Kevin, Ruslan (maybe some extras) But it’s not essential in our planning stage.

What I hear.

     Like most people probably did, I took the time going to school last week to open my ears to the sounds of New York. There were a couple of things I noticed about walking without my music on. In my neighborhood, there was construction going on, I'm guessing for these purposes it would be thought of as a foreground sound. Because that was the loudest, I would focus on that until I passed it. As I was distanced from the construction site, the noise slowly dwindled and I could hear the scuffling of my feet. The way my leather jacket would make a slight squeaking noise as I moved my arms from side to side. As I would wait on the corner, this silver pole would make a sound to signify the lights changing, it was some sort of sound that was reminiscent of a lock opening. I could hear the shortness of my breath and the sound of the air if that makes sense. I don't know what it is but my neighborhood seems to just have a sound to it. People talking,  leaves falling, birds chirping, it's this sound that is a combination of individual things. While it is not an intense sound, it's enough to hear in the background.
     I took notice to the sound  of opening doors as I walked by apartments, cars screeching, stopping, honking, passing by from quick movements. Without my headphones on, I could hear background noise of other people's headphones as I waited for the light to change. It was all sort of a catastrophic melody. It's things I never actually pay attention to. The garbage men throwing bags of garbage into a truck, the sound of stock men moving merchandise onto a conveyor outside of the supermarket and even the dying sound of a rag over glass as the waiter cleaned the window. It was the sound of workers. It was the sounds that I intentionally avoid as I block it out with some my own work or distractions.
     As I moved onto the train the noise i could usually hear on my headphones was even more dominant. The train itself seemed to increase twofold. I could again hear the conversation of surrounding people, the sound of muffled music coming from the girl next to me. The swift movement of a person turning to page to read a book. Although, as soon as I heard the ding at Lexington avenue 63rd street I immediately put on my headphones because I consolidated enough information to write this. It's amazing to think how we like the sound of something familiar. The way I could barely get through a train ride without my music. I'm used to it. I'm used to hearing the click my ipod makes if I press next. Because without the sound I'm used to I just don't feel the same in the mornings.      

Kevin Interview

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWPuBJSvhIA&feature=youtu.be

My Mis En Scene Project

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3rXIdL6w_o&feature=youtu.be

Evaluation of Scene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S0hKD7WnZ8

This scene is really simple and is the ending to the movie Like Crazy. Just to set up somebackground information, this couple have been in love for 5 years but because of a mishap with her passport, she got sent back to her country and couldn't see this guy she loved. They tried to make it work long distance. Eventually, they went on with their own lives but still talking to each other every now and then. She ends up leaving her dream job and boyfriend at the end to be with this man and he breaks up with his gf. This scene is a depiction of their first night together. First, I love that it's set in one space. It's a shower scene that is a 2-shot close up of the  the couple. What matters most in this scene is the expressions in their faces.

The rushing water mixed in with the uneasiness of the scene creates a tension in the audience. It seems both parties of people are deep in thought. Then the flashbacks occur. A second of the past flashes before their eyes ever so slightly. When the music starts playing, it creates a melancholy atmosphere. Being this is how the movie ended, it really allows the audience to interpret what they want. This scene was nothing more than a shower and six seconds worth of flashbacks. So you have to pay close attention to every other detail, such as their faces, the shakiness of the camera work and even the way they used to look at each other versus they way they did in that scene.

My experience in the Class.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in this class. It has really made me see that media may be the path for me. I'm not perfect at a lot of the things in the class yet but with some practice I think I can prove to do really well. I loved coming in on mondays, even though it was in the night. I think Makia is a wonderful TA. I'm not just saying that to get points. Promise. Ish. But she really helped us in any way that she could and took time outside of class to give us any help we may have needed. Lectures were heavy in information but I really enjoyed the hands on aspect more then I did the informational aspect. I'm really excited for media 160 and hope that it will be as amazing as this class was!

My Website!

http://fmundergrad.hunter.cuny.edu/~penak/

Let's Stop at Gamestop.com

I visit gamestop.com at times to check the latest games, read the player reviews and to get a sense of the direction video games are going. What I did not pay attention to was the website itself. I wouldn't say it is my favorite website but I chose it because it works well with 3 things that I personally pay attention to when I'm on a website. Overall design in terms of color, organization and simplicity.

I like that they use white as a major part of their background and whenever a new games comes out, they change the background in order to promote it. This makes the website new and exciting because the background is constantly changing. Gamestop also uses very simple colors and utilizes them to organize systems into sections. Each system has a list that makes it easy to read for your eyes. Your eyes just glide along each section because of how it's placed on the page. There are a large array of colors that make you realize what you should be reading.

I think the page itself does well in having a simple layout with a lot of information. For a person who is looking for a specific thing, gamestop has a search bar at the top and for those who wants to browse, gamestop has sections that make it easy for that as well. In terms of marketing, the advertisements they use are strategically placed at the top. Although, this is not the only thing at the top, gamestop makes sure that the first thing a person sees are the new deals and rewards. I feel like this is important in terms of designing a website for a market. At the bottom in a black prominent surrounding is information on gamestop which is what people see last.

I would change very little about the website but what I would change is the amount of space they use for advertising. I understand that it is a huge part of gamestop's profit but it is overwhelming for the viewer. At least, in my opinion, if they made the advertisement just a bit smaller, than overall it would fit in nicely with the website.

Not Traffic. Trafficking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfdlgVnP6L4

Parallel

I would crash my car by looking at this Billboard

            I saw this photo and immediately wanted to write about it. I think this was a wonderful design in terms of how it was composed. To start off, the building itself is a bland, light color. The red billboard of coca cola is ostentatious; it stands out in the area. This itself was the start of a good design; the location around the billboard has softer colors. The ad itself has red space all around, red being a color that has such a huge effect on the human eye. In plain font it says “Refresh on the coca cola end of the line”. You see elongated straws enter the windows of people who live in the apartment. For one, I think this is clever because the apartment mimics that of a person. The house is personified. The people on the other end of the straw are the ones “drinking the coca cola”.

            The over exaggeration of the bottle and the straws give a sense of coca cola being much more widespread and universal. It is such a simple design yet so effective. When looking at this billboard, I would laugh. I would feel connected to every end of that straw because I would be drinking from one as well. People like to feel connected to something bigger, apart from their lives and coke does a simple job with this billboard. The product is also involved in the sentence, which makes your eye jump not only to the name but to the product itself. The font only changes when it hit “Coca Cola” because that is the trademark font. It is well known because of how well coca-cola is now. I consider this to be effective for anyone seeing this billboard because of how I think a effective design is, simple, strategically located, appealing to the eye, clever, humorous and innovative.

When did Potato Head become a Monster?

Distance.

When I walking to school, I noticed this flag which was not only quite dirty and beaten up but was over this barbed wire. I liked the perspective I had and I composed this photo in the specific way to send a message that I hope was conveyed.

Please! Comment and discuss!

Extra Photos For Discussion!

We had these extra photos leftover from our excursion that we enjoyed but couldn't fit into our theme! So, we thought we would post them up to see what you guys thought!

The Artist Statement.

Reality sucks. There is something about living in the real world that makes being a simple organism such a complex being. We all like an escape. Some have art, some have film and others may have porn but the underlying theme is common, we are, at times discontent with the world we live in. When I was young I had a PSone. This decently sized box contained the hope that Pandora left after she let out all of the evils in the world. I would immerse myself in graphic worlds with graphic characters and enriching storylines. Fast-forward a couple of months to when a mishap with my “mechanical heart” broke. It was the first time I cried for something that seemed so meaningless, for something that to others, had no purpose or value. With all of the folly and wasted time associated with playing video games, I found meaning. I am interested in providing a portal for that meaning for other people, in any facet of media, whether it is in advertising, video games, film or public relations.

Sometimes we don’t understand each other as people but what media can provide is an outlet, an outlet for expression but most importantly a mode of escape. If a person can look at my work and smile, or cry or feel then I’ve done my job as a creative artist.  

Lines. Cold. Color.

Resonating Image for Image Resonation

I look at this image and see truth. In any situation, in every story (especially in media) there are always two sides. There is always something to question and always something new to learn about a story. The real problem seems to be that people do not want to hear both sides. What are we if we don't understand both sides of a story? Ignorant. This actually makes me feel pretty angry. There are TONS of situations I have been in or situations that I have seen other people in that have a neglected side. You have to see things in every perspective or you'll just be blind.

Just a thought..

My name is Kevin Pena. I thought it would be smart to introduce myself, that's what you do with one of these things right? I'm in my room trying to understand something. The heart. It makes no sense to me. For every answer that science provides, for every blog or every magazine we read, the heart still is a topic that we as people can never understand. So, why do we continuously perpetuate this cycle of curiosity?

The answer is simple, curiosity is one of the last human attributes that lasts forever.