Video Final Project

So what was I was trying to do in this video was get across the point that playing rock band instruments deep down wasn’t like playing real ones. I tried to use the videos to show the similarities in technique of the two, which would seem at face value to actually hurt the point I was trying to make; but in reality there is more to music than just technique anyway, which is a point I make at the end of the video. The comparisons between the instruments are not soo much to amplify the argument but more to be entertaining and informative. That and I felt that I had to look at all aspects of the issue to make a good argument. To be able to talk about the differences I had to talk about the similarities that existed.

I didn’t do anything really fancy with my footage. I tried to keep everything pretty straightforward. With my background music I tried to pick music that amplified the subject I was talking about. For example, while I talk about the guitar I put in a southern blues guitar song. Then whenever I talked about drums I tried to put in a song with a dominant and apparent drum groove. Then in my conclusion I tried to pick a song that you could really feel the emotion to while listening as to compliment my explanation of the feeling musicians strive for when they make music.

Overall I put a lot of work into this video and I hope you enjoy it!

Update

Well here’s an update on my project. I’ve decided to dump my original point somewhat. I realized with all the rockband comparisons most of the video was sort of unrelated to the subject. So i’ve decided instead to do something simpler and argue why real instruments and rockband instruments are different.

I don’t think the message is quite as good but it will make the video more clear.

Proposal

Oh wow, I can’t believe I never posted the proposal for my Video Project, well here it is.

Well, my main argument is another musical one. I got to thinking about the difference between being a musician and being an artist. You can be a musician and an artist but if you are a musician I may not necessarily consider you an artist. There are tons of musicians out there who only play written music and work on their technique. That isn’t art, it’s just replaying someone else’s art. Now though there isn’t anything wrong with that, I think all musicians should be encouraged to use their instrument to really express themselves.

So I got to thinking “How could I use this idea in my video project?”. Well I was playing Rock Band with some friends one day and I got to thinking about how everyone bashes it for not being like a real instrument. So I thought, How different are they really? Aside from the obvious technical reasons and difficulty to master, the only difference was that with an instrument you can create, and with Rock Band you can only play whats already written. So I thought “Wow, just like musicians who only play written music!”

So I figured I had to catch peoples attention first, so I’m going to start the video out showing the physical similarities between playing RB instruments and real ones (There are some similarities I’ve found) Then gradually start getting to the real message.  So I’ll shoot video of the similarities and then have commentary on stock footage I take and pictures.  For the stock footage I’m going to use video of some friends playing rock band and I have an arrangement to video a band playing. Then for pictures I’ll probably use some sheet music I have on my computer.

Well that’s my plan, hope you guys like my idea!

Visual Argument Final draft

It is the musician that matters, not the instrument. It is the musician that shows its colors, the instrument is just a medium through which the player projects themself.

A good musician can be a star whether he has a top class instrument or a piece of junk.

A musician can create something truely epic without the help of a great instrument. Any everyday object can be used to create something great.

My arguement is that music is about the musician, not the intrument. A great musician doesn’t need a great instrument to show what they are made of. The first Image I just made the background black and made the drumset black and white so that the musician is the only thing with color. In the second image I inserted the carboard box drumset onto a grand stage for an ironic approach, rather than the full drumset on stage its the fake one. (Image was found at http://www.gaylordentertainmentcompany.com/images/MediaRoom/HiResPhotos/Ryman/Stage.jpg). The third image I just tried to go overboard on the editing and make everthing seem outlandish. I wasnted to make the picture with the simplest instrument the one with the most editing and the brightest of all.

Visual Arguement Rough Draft

Only the first one is finished. The ther two I just rendered for further editing. The first one was easily the most difficult to render and color. It doesn’t look like much but it actually took me 2 hours to render it. The other two weren’t as bad.

A girl like me response.

I liked this video but I had some issues with it. I think there was a problem with the clarity of the message of the film. At the beginning it seemed to me that the film was about people being unhappy with themselves physically. Whereas in the second half it seemed to be more about how African Americans are looked upon. There are factors in the film tieing the two ideas together but I think it would have worked better to express the main point of the film more at the beginning.

I also had a issue with the “Doll Test”. Though you can’t dispute that there is some truth to the point they are trying to get across with it, I think as a whole the test is flawed. It becomes a matter of self fulfilling phrophecy when you watch it. You know what you are looking for, so you find it. It would seem that the children all pick the white doll because they think the white one is better, but there could be any number of factors as to why they chose it. Maybe they grew up with a white doll and thats why they chose it. Maybe they have a baby brother that they resent so they pick the one that looks different from it. I just feel there are too many factors that could be involved.

Other than those problems I thought the film was very good and they seemed to get a wide range of people to speek for it which was nice.

Visul argument photos

Here are the photos for my visual project. My goal is to use these pictures to emphasize a player’s ability rather than the instrument they play on

My Audio Narrative Final Draft

http://drop.io/gxx0thi

Literacy Narrative

http://drop.io/x50s0ga/asset/ross-s-literacy-narrative2-doc

Hello world!

I am just a young man who likes playing drums and has an odd obcession with rubber ducks and chimni sweeps.