Category: Random

Sound Like Muzak

Continuing the theme of remixes, below I have compiled a list of remixes, mash-ups, medleys and well whatever you call this, that I rather enjoy and believe definitely worth their own post.

 

Pokemon Dubstep Remix – KHG & Lindsay Stirling

Kurt and Lindsey have been YouTube veterans for ages and I have been a massive fan of all their covers. This particular own re-imagines the iconic Pokemon theme song and truly is the very best.

Evolution of Beyonce – PTX

Pentatonix have compositions of songs that make you heard go crazy, but get this they do it all A Capella. So not only did they arrange the songs, but also practically recreate complete songs from scratch. It is the epitome of taking something that exists and making more awesome by making it your own.

Across the Universe – Andrew Huang

Now this is an original song, but the instrumental isn’t. The entire song was composed by sounds from the recording of Comet 67P. Andrew has been known to use unconventional instruments to cover songs, like balloons and meth lab equipment?, but this is by far the most interesting. He sampled the recording and mixed, remastered and toned out those sounds into such an out of this world song.

2015 Debut Mashup – The Ark

Okay so this may seem out of nowhere but hear me out. These girls are a South Korean girl group that just recently debuted, but I’m not here to advertise them. Well I am a bit, ever since I heard their first single I was hooked and found that they did amazing live covers and mashups. This particular mashup is my favourite because they don’t shy away from mixing Korean and English songs, and in all honesty the mix of languages doesn’t phase me as I thought it would. They mix the tunes so fluidly and they all take this art very seriously. They have fun and listening to them go UP, DOWN, UP, UP, DOWN is just too fun to not dance along too.

 

Follower

So after our class on post-broadcast era audiences, I wanted to reflect on the amount of media content I consume daily. To help liven it up I was going to just retrace my steps for today and comment on what I was doing. This is just an exercise for myself to see how much time I really do spend on the internet.

1130 – Woke up and instantly checked phone. Apps used

  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Email

1255 – Got out of bed, got ready while still using my phone

1330 – Had “Breakfast”, still had phone

  • Netflix
  • YouTube

1348 – Took shower, used phone

1430 – Opened laptop to do “work”

  • Facebook
  • Email
  • YouTube
  • Tumblr

1724 – Toilet break, had my phone like every other person in the world

  • Facebook

1739 – Dinner, still got my phone

  • Netflix
  • YouTube
  • Facebook

1804 – More quality laptop time

  • Facebook
  • YouTube

2134 – “Bedtime” which means I’m still on my laptop but I have moved to my bed

  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Netflix
  • Email

 

Seeing all this has made me realise how much I actually use online media, and social media specifically. I check Facebook constantly, and although I use a lot of YouTube mainly for music I swear, it’s still really concerning how much time is used up on those things when I could put it towards completing actual work (like that popular culture group project or the annotated bibliography).

Ottakaji

This week we were given our final project to complete for Media 1, and it was something. I’m not sure if I’m the only on that walked away bewildered at the amount of content and alack of experience to understand what we had to accomplish. I know what we have to include, but my group mates (Annie & Sammy) have not really had much planning yet as to what we are going to do as the final product. It’s going to be a slow start I think, but I’m excited to learn new things in the process.

Don’t Blink

This is a short film that asks the audience to interpret the film however they please. There is no definite answer, only what is said and seen in the short. Gilbert himself says that it’s a short scene in something huge that only we as an audience can create in our minds. Since this week we talked about audiences and how they view things differently, this is a task that seemed relevant. What did you think happened in the film? My interpretation is that the protagonist has been involved with some alien gang that was introduced to him through the diner waiter. After losing all him money the aliens take his liver and he wakes up angry at the world. He then goes to the diner waiter and shoots him in rage, but soon afterwards dies because he has no lover. It may sound outrageous but like we discussed, it is whatever the audience perceives the text as that is true.

An Open Door

We has a special visit from our school library liaison Amy Saunders who educated us on the various way we can access so many resources online and through the library. It wasn’t the first time I had had a lecture with her, but to be honest the first time I blanked out and didn’t pay attention at all. This second time around though, you can bet I listened everything she said because I knew with the research task ahead of us in project brief 4 I was going to need all the help I could get. There really wasn’t much you could say about her lecture aside from how much information you can access without ever having to leave your bedroom. In the past I only used the internet to access wikipedia pages and tumblr, but now I don’t even physically need to go into a library to get articles or papers on about almost anything.

Let It Go

I’ve gathered footage over the past few days for various things, but they are all pointless. I can’t think of ways to incorporate these into my assessments or even archive them in my personal collections. It may see drastic but I am going to let it all go. I’m not going to completely destroy them from existence, but I am going to move them all into a new folder I’ve created call “COMPLETELY RANDOM AND STUPID THINGS THAT DON’T NEED TO TAKE UP SPACE BUT I MIGHT AS WELL KEEP THEM HERE”. Some of these clips are of my friends as a test drive for my 3rd project, and also some of them are downright terrible quality images that hold nothing but memories. If I’m going to be a professional in this industry I am going to put a higher standard on how I produce my own content. So this is my pledge to hold myself responsible to create better and more useful content, rather than just sitting around a doing things when convenient.

Reflection

Found Footage.

When I heard we would be using found footage in our next project I was ecstatic. I had millions of ideas running through my head of specific clips and shots that would enhance my portrait, but then I actually looked at the criteria. The found footage that they wanted us to use had to be granted permission to use. That meant no dramatic Avengers shots, or hilarious Disney scenes. I had to limit the amount of things I could use then, but that didn’t discourage me. After looking through some of the suggested sites, I saw that there was bountiful free to use content available. Even in one silent film I could see potential re-contextualization in almost every shot. It gave me hope that I could improve on my storytelling ability and editing, and I could see that this certain requirement could play well to my advantage.

It’s just very exiting to consider all the different ideas and ways I could execute this project, but like always, just because I like the task doesn’t mean I will begin it on time. I know I can accomplish so much in this project, I just hope that I actually do complete it on time.

 

Thinking Out Loud

11:54 – I am hopelessly scared as I upload my self-portrait video to Vimeo. Before I officially post my final assessment piece online I wanted to give a little context about my journey to the end result that my entire class will see tomorrow. Collecting pieces and artefacts for my first self portrait was difficult for me since I didn’t really take a lot of photos or keep memorabilia of my personal life. Everything in my life has been about the things I enjoy. Books, TV shows, movies, friends, music, these were the things I defined myself with. When the focus came upon me I wasn’t sure how to present myself. Did I go for a flashy slightly skewed but better version of Jenny Pham Vo who was efficient and productive and appeared reliable, or did I go with the truth and showcase all the laziness and sloppiness of my life. In the end I chose to show the world the truth, even though it was embarrassing and completely un-artistic. I didn’t use any symbolism or follow through with motifs like my peers, I chose to show a blunt, gluttonous, sloth who always chose to avoid responsibillity and find the easy way instead of the right way. And in the end create a sef-portrait that I could proudly say encompasses the real features of me. It’s not going to be the best self-portrait made, and trust me it’s not, but it is the best I could achieve at this point in time. It is now 12:05 and I need to upload this video to my blog. I shall see you on the other side I guess and hope for the best.