Apparently many of us misunderstood the constraints of using music to our pieces, and for that I think some pieces that were very good lost alot of points. I had originally understood that we could use music, but we COULD NOT edit to it. Meaning, dont make your cuts to the beat of the music used. Many of the examples posted online used this method, including to some extent Matt Leavitt's, so it was my understanding that we would be alright. However, when we started viewing and were immediately assaulted with death threats about us all doing music videos.. I could not help but be confused...
I think some people did some great work, and made really great pieces. I personally wish I had experimented a little bit more, I had some interesting things rolling around in my head, but they got lost somewhere in translation.
As a side note, even though Raph seemed upset that many people procrastinated, I know that several classmates all started thinking things through last week. The topic of conversation was always on this assignment outside of class, but many simply did not start the actual execution until a little too late.
Response to Rob: I will agree and say that the majority if not all of us were coming up with story lines and trying to figure out how to make them interesting last week. I know that I viewed examples he posted and tried to find some on YouTube to help find out what worked and what didn't.
As far as the reaction to my piece goes, I did use slow motion more than once in my piece, and played around with time little. I'm glad I decided to stay away from using an exterior audio track, but I found the ones that had it and were brave enough to show theirs with it benefited from it. I can understand why Raph wouldn't want us to use audio, and that is because using audio is an easy way of evoking the emotion that your piece should be able to do on its own. I guess we all learned our lesson for next time.
I guess the best part of todays class is the fact that its over now. I thought everybody did some pretty neat work over all, I actually found it interesting how people were choosing to show the mundane in a different manor. I was a little pissed about the music thing, it seemed that you could use music as long as you had the occasional piece of ambience thrown in there, the tough thing is that so many edits are happening that the audio gets fucked up quick. For my "Music" I chose a very weird song I guess, it was more or less an interlude between songs on a CD, but judging on the way Raph reacted to any music, it wouldn't have flown with him. On one hand the criticisms make me want to try harder, but today they didn't seem very constructive as a whole. It's pretty obvious that the whole class was on a different page on this one, but there will be more assignments and life goes on.
I agree with matt: the best thing about this class is that it is done. I was very frustrated with the whole thing, especially the portion of the critique that dealt with the linear aspect of the narrative. Nowhere in the previous discussions did Raph or anyone else speak on the linear elements of the narrative being a negative thing, so I focused more on cinematography and interesting aesthetics. The fact that a linear narrative automatically breaks the piece honestly pissed me off.
The point of the critiques, I was led to believe, was to make us improve on what we have by using constructive criticism. Instead, all that was given to the class was "Awful, only linear, too much music, THINK!" and the occasional "good." This is not a critique that I learned about anything except what Raph likes.
Whatever, let's just forget it and do it again another time.
Like many posts above me, I can't help but feel slightly angry at the whole "music" issue. My understanding of a music video was one that the edits/cuts were made to enhance the music and that the video itself was tailored especially to the music. I did the opposite and looked for audio that would enhance my piece, not the other way around. In the example that was given to us, background music WAS used throughout most of the piece and is a music video according to Raph's definition. If we're not supposed to do something in an assignment, don't give us an example that does that very thing and expect us not to be confused. It's one thing when one student misses the point or misinterprets something that the professor said; however, when a majority of the class misunderstands, that falls under the lines of it wasn't explained or instructed in a clear manner. /end rant Overall I thought everyone's pieces were well-done. Every piece had at least one unique and well-done aspect to it and for that I applaud everyone for at least reaching that goal. At least now we know what Raph means by a "music video" and the danger that comes from going down that dark path. Have a great weekend everyone and remember: have work done for Tuesday....morning!
Well today sucked, but not as much as my edit on 12 frames!! I was a little upset to hear Raph crap all over my face for adding music when I know for a fact (and many others know) that he said we could use music as long as it didn't go with the video. I edited my video, THEN chose music to put behind it. I guess that was a big no no though because he had a fit when he heard music playing.
Response to Matt and John:
I am glad today is over too. I think a lot of people had issues figuring out exactly what the assignment was because I can honestly say I edited almost every frame in my video, but I guess that doesn't help how boring it was anyway. It really just frustrates me to see that so many people did a lot of work on this and still got crap for not being non-linear. I agree with John in how Raph never talked about linearity being a bad thing, he only talked about being DYNAMIC!! He did say we could do anything we wanted, just as long as we stayed with the 1 rule he gave us (to edit of 12 frames) but whatever. I know I started late, and I know it's my fault I started late but I did think about it all week and had a plan written out in my notebook that I still have.
SO all in all I felt this class wasn't successful. I don't understand much of what Raph wanted for this assignment and I don't think he did either.
I was impressed by the video today for the most part. I know some of you in class and I have had classes with you before. I which students do the basic work and don't take the time to go above and beyond. I'm not saying that I'm a perfect student in fact far from it according to the university however I don't get any sleep either. I work my ass off on a piece and what it looks like in the end it what it looks like in the end. Which can be good or bad. I thought my film sucked after the shooting. To my suprise that when the editing was done my film looked much better then I had anticipated which really proves the power that editing can do. I thought my piece was a little long but I wanted to make sure that I had enough to work with and tried to not do the bare minimum. Their is alot to be said though for to much to work with.
The video pieces critiqued in today's class sort of followed the guidelines. A lot of people feel into the music video trap that Raph constantly warns us about. I liked how we watched some of the pieces without the sound because it forced us to focus on the visual and less on the music. Matt's piece definitively disrupted the linear narrative and was the most successful. In terms of my film, I can see why Raph thought it was unoriginal because Matt or TA did a piece on the same theme. I'm just glad I did something a bit different than a morning routine or cooking. People in our class really like eggs!
Today wasn't a good day in 304. Well not for me at least. My project was essentially the worst thing that anyone has ever laid eyes on and seemed to be nothing more then a waste of bytes on a computer. I thought going into it that I had a good understanding but as everyone saw and Raph so clearly stated I did not. Like Rob mentioned above I guess I was also unclear on how to use music in my piece. Also I agree with Matt on the idea that the criticisms and how they didn't appear to be constructive. It seemed as if everyone had a different idea on how the project was to be done. I also agree with Matt in that the best part about todays class is the fact that its over now. Looks like all there is now is shot for redemption on A3.
I much prefer the classes where we review and go over things with substance and meaning to the classes topic at hand. As much as I love Euclid, I do not give a shit about Euclid in the frame of a video editing class. We discovered that raph hates music videos to the point where he will despise videos that are backed by music in virtually any way, even if a music video is not truly what is being created. Harsh, but at least he stated it beforehand. My biggest complaint is the resolution restrictions inherent to the tasks. I have a 1080p camera at my disposal when i rent one, we have multi terrabyte hard drives, why can't I even submit something in 720p at minimum? Raph talked up reducing the lengths of time we will have to do assignments, and as someone who took the whole week to work on his I think thats a god awful idea. This is not my only class. This is not even close to the only class wherein I have work due. I even have a job. I would rather have a full week to do something and do a good job than scramble for two days to make a piece of shit, only to have lots of free time the rest of the week to do my other duties. Giving unrealistic due dates does not improve student work, thats just a bad idea. Overall though, I liked the class, review and critique functions better in the learning process than half baked discussion and argument. Hopefully we'll get to do it often.
wow, i couldn't have been more wrong about my assignment. But after seeing how bad i misenterprited my project, i understand what i did wrong. Temporal distortion wasn't used much at all, and i'm going to try working around that more often as well. It seems everyone got something wrong with the assignment in one way or another, so i'm not so upset that i seemed to misinterperate the project.
I enjoyed critique. I though it was interesting how there were doubles of projects. In that I mean that there were two of the same scenario in different peoples projects. ie. cooking eggs, playing drums, shaving... but I think if we had round two to work on these and show them again the product would be much more to raphael's standards (obviously).
Started class a little slow. Maybe it was the three cups of coffee during my previous boring class but 25 min on the ipad was a little much for me. I thought that for the most part everyone did a decent job on the projects. I like critiques because afterwards there is always a couple things I would go back and fix. To make my video less linear I think I would highlight the small door a little more and maybe a few other things. I think i had a lot of content so I risk making it too long and boring. Im glad the music in mine didnt get shot down. The BIG song was what was actually on the radio when I filmed him driving to the basketball court. I did all the edits without sound and then turned the sound back on. i overlaid the orchard lounge song when he walks out the small door to enhance what what about to happen. I had fun during this project. Depending on what the other projects are there might be a sequal
Today was... FRUSTRATING...
ReplyDeleteApparently many of us misunderstood the constraints of using music to our pieces, and for that I think some pieces that were very good lost alot of points. I had originally understood that we could use music, but we COULD NOT edit to it. Meaning, dont make your cuts to the beat of the music used.
Many of the examples posted online used this method, including to some extent Matt Leavitt's, so it was my understanding that we would be alright.
However, when we started viewing and were immediately assaulted with death threats about us all doing music videos.. I could not help but be confused...
I think some people did some great work, and made really great pieces.
I personally wish I had experimented a little bit more, I had some interesting things rolling around in my head, but they got lost somewhere in translation.
As a side note, even though Raph seemed upset that many people procrastinated, I know that several classmates all started thinking things through last week. The topic of conversation was always on this assignment outside of class, but many simply did not start the actual execution until a little too late.
Response to Rob: I will agree and say that the majority if not all of us were coming up with story lines and trying to figure out how to make them interesting last week. I know that I viewed examples he posted and tried to find some on YouTube to help find out what worked and what didn't.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the reaction to my piece goes, I did use slow motion more than once in my piece, and played around with time little. I'm glad I decided to stay away from using an exterior audio track, but I found the ones that had it and were brave enough to show theirs with it benefited from it. I can understand why Raph wouldn't want us to use audio, and that is because using audio is an easy way of evoking the emotion that your piece should be able to do on its own. I guess we all learned our lesson for next time.
I guess the best part of todays class is the fact that its over now. I thought everybody did some pretty neat work over all, I actually found it interesting how people were choosing to show the mundane in a different manor. I was a little pissed about the music thing, it seemed that you could use music as long as you had the occasional piece of ambience thrown in there, the tough thing is that so many edits are happening that the audio gets fucked up quick. For my "Music" I chose a very weird song I guess, it was more or less an interlude between songs on a CD, but judging on the way Raph reacted to any music, it wouldn't have flown with him. On one hand the criticisms make me want to try harder, but today they didn't seem very constructive as a whole. It's pretty obvious that the whole class was on a different page on this one, but there will be more assignments and life goes on.
ReplyDeleteI agree with matt: the best thing about this class is that it is done. I was very frustrated with the whole thing, especially the portion of the critique that dealt with the linear aspect of the narrative. Nowhere in the previous discussions did Raph or anyone else speak on the linear elements of the narrative being a negative thing, so I focused more on cinematography and interesting aesthetics. The fact that a linear narrative automatically breaks the piece honestly pissed me off.
ReplyDeleteThe point of the critiques, I was led to believe, was to make us improve on what we have by using constructive criticism. Instead, all that was given to the class was "Awful, only linear, too much music, THINK!" and the occasional "good." This is not a critique that I learned about anything except what Raph likes.
Whatever, let's just forget it and do it again another time.
Like many posts above me, I can't help but feel slightly angry at the whole "music" issue. My understanding of a music video was one that the edits/cuts were made to enhance the music and that the video itself was tailored especially to the music. I did the opposite and looked for audio that would enhance my piece, not the other way around. In the example that was given to us, background music WAS used throughout most of the piece and is a music video according to Raph's definition. If we're not supposed to do something in an assignment, don't give us an example that does that very thing and expect us not to be confused. It's one thing when one student misses the point or misinterprets something that the professor said; however, when a majority of the class misunderstands, that falls under the lines of it wasn't explained or instructed in a clear manner.
ReplyDelete/end rant
Overall I thought everyone's pieces were well-done. Every piece had at least one unique and well-done aspect to it and for that I applaud everyone for at least reaching that goal. At least now we know what Raph means by a "music video" and the danger that comes from going down that dark path. Have a great weekend everyone and remember: have work done for Tuesday....morning!
NMD 304 : Reflection : 1/28/10
ReplyDeleteWell today sucked, but not as much as my edit on 12 frames!! I was a little upset to hear Raph crap all over my face for adding music when I know for a fact (and many others know) that he said we could use music as long as it didn't go with the video. I edited my video, THEN chose music to put behind it. I guess that was a big no no though because he had a fit when he heard music playing.
Response to Matt and John:
I am glad today is over too. I think a lot of people had issues figuring out exactly what the assignment was because I can honestly say I edited almost every frame in my video, but I guess that doesn't help how boring it was anyway. It really just frustrates me to see that so many people did a lot of work on this and still got crap for not being non-linear. I agree with John in how Raph never talked about linearity being a bad thing, he only talked about being DYNAMIC!! He did say we could do anything we wanted, just as long as we stayed with the 1 rule he gave us (to edit of 12 frames) but whatever. I know I started late, and I know it's my fault I started late but I did think about it all week and had a plan written out in my notebook that I still have.
SO all in all I felt this class wasn't successful. I don't understand much of what Raph wanted for this assignment and I don't think he did either.
I was impressed by the video today for the most part. I know some of you in class and I have had classes with you before. I which students do the basic work and don't take the time to go above and beyond. I'm not saying that I'm a perfect student in fact far from it according to the university however I don't get any sleep either. I work my ass off on a piece and what it looks like in the end it what it looks like in the end. Which can be good or bad. I thought my film sucked after the shooting. To my suprise that when the editing was done my film looked much better then I had anticipated which really proves the power that editing can do. I thought my piece was a little long but I wanted to make sure that I had enough to work with and tried to not do the bare minimum. Their is alot to be said though for to much to work with.
ReplyDeleteThe video pieces critiqued in today's class sort of followed the guidelines. A lot of people feel into the music video trap that Raph constantly warns us about. I liked how we watched some of the pieces without the sound because it forced us to focus on the visual and less on the music. Matt's piece definitively disrupted the linear narrative and was the most successful. In terms of my film, I can see why Raph thought it was unoriginal because Matt or TA did a piece on the same theme. I'm just glad I did something a bit different than a morning routine or cooking. People in our class really like eggs!
ReplyDeleteToday wasn't a good day in 304. Well not for me at least. My project was essentially the worst thing that anyone has ever laid eyes on and seemed to be nothing more then a waste of bytes on a computer. I thought going into it that I had a good understanding but as everyone saw and Raph so clearly stated I did not. Like Rob mentioned above I guess I was also unclear on how to use music in my piece. Also I agree with Matt on the idea that the criticisms and how they didn't appear to be constructive. It seemed as if everyone had a different idea on how the project was to be done. I also agree with Matt in that the best part about todays class is the fact that its over now. Looks like all there is now is shot for redemption on A3.
ReplyDeleteI much prefer the classes where we review and go over things with substance and meaning to the classes topic at hand. As much as I love Euclid, I do not give a shit about Euclid in the frame of a video editing class. We discovered that raph hates music videos to the point where he will despise videos that are backed by music in virtually any way, even if a music video is not truly what is being created. Harsh, but at least he stated it beforehand. My biggest complaint is the resolution restrictions inherent to the tasks. I have a 1080p camera at my disposal when i rent one, we have multi terrabyte hard drives, why can't I even submit something in 720p at minimum? Raph talked up reducing the lengths of time we will have to do assignments, and as someone who took the whole week to work on his I think thats a god awful idea. This is not my only class. This is not even close to the only class wherein I have work due. I even have a job. I would rather have a full week to do something and do a good job than scramble for two days to make a piece of shit, only to have lots of free time the rest of the week to do my other duties. Giving unrealistic due dates does not improve student work, thats just a bad idea. Overall though, I liked the class, review and critique functions better in the learning process than half baked discussion and argument. Hopefully we'll get to do it often.
ReplyDeletewow, i couldn't have been more wrong about my assignment. But after seeing how bad i misenterprited my project, i understand what i did wrong. Temporal distortion wasn't used much at all, and i'm going to try working around that more often as well. It seems everyone got something wrong with the assignment in one way or another, so i'm not so upset that i seemed to misinterperate the project.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed critique. I though it was interesting how there were doubles of projects. In that I mean that there were two of the same scenario in different peoples projects. ie. cooking eggs, playing drums, shaving... but I think if we had round two to work on these and show them again the product would be much more to raphael's standards (obviously).
ReplyDeleteStarted class a little slow. Maybe it was the three cups of coffee during my previous boring class but 25 min on the ipad was a little much for me. I thought that for the most part everyone did a decent job on the projects. I like critiques because afterwards there is always a couple things I would go back and fix. To make my video less linear I think I would highlight the small door a little more and maybe a few other things. I think i had a lot of content so I risk making it too long and boring. Im glad the music in mine didnt get shot down. The BIG song was what was actually on the radio when I filmed him driving to the basketball court. I did all the edits without sound and then turned the sound back on. i overlaid the orchard lounge song when he walks out the small door to enhance what what about to happen. I had fun during this project. Depending on what the other projects are there might be a sequal
ReplyDelete