Documenting things because reasons

Well I was going to do a blog post about nebulae (plural form of nebula) but seeing as that would involve a lot of research and image citing and all that and its late, instead I shall shamelessly promote Connor, Sam, Max's documentary.  Huzzah?



Honestly, this documentary depressed me.  C'mon America, be smarter.   The writing on the white board to clarify ideas was actually really good, but it also made me sad because whoever was writing has way better handwriting than I do.  Am I allowed to blame American schools?   But it was good because it was clear, it didn't go too fast, and it gave real solutions to the problems.  And cinematographically, rack focus is just generally awesome and there was great typography.  So generally, this was a good documentary.   Hopefully it will win the CSPAN thing.
(For obvious reasons however, my groups documentary about Europa will be far superior, because we went to Europa to get footage.  It was only like 433 million miles away )

Ok I lied about there being no nebula stuff.
Nebulas are beauteous clouds of gas and space dust and what not.  It's where stars are born.  And they are cool because no one really knows how exactly stars form, though we have a general idea.   But since I will be writing a much longer blog post next week about it, I will just leave this as a wonderful little taste of their epicness.
But it would be mean to just end this blog post without any sort of nebula picture, so here is a wonderful picture of the Orion Nebula.

 

 

This is why Nasa and Hubble are awesome.  So beautiful.

Image Credit

Robot love seems to be a concerning theme in pd. 4

So for this assignment we took a break from well, everything to do a fun super short project with the awesome kids from England.  So we had to make a 60 second movie using a random prop.  We got a big box filled with two clock timer things, tubing, fairy wands, something called a film cleaner, random bits of metal and a broken plastic beaker.   We knew we wanted to do something sort of sci-fi esc.  Eventually we came up with the idea of a mad scientist who creates an android and falls in love with her.  But alas, the robot cannot feel love.  So the scientist discovers a code to make the robot fall in love (and therefore more human).  But then the robot falls for another.   We were able to write the script (it was easy since there were no words) and a story board on the first day, film on the second, and edit on the third.  We stayed after school to finish it. 
The overall making of this was actually pretty smooth, there weren't any major roadblocks.  Time was a bit of a constraint, but since we came in after school two days, we managed to get it done.  Another problem was that we had a piece of music that we wanted to use, but it was download only (you couldn't modify/create derivative works) so we had to find another song.  Searching through Free Music Archives takes a loooonggggg time.  Ruth found a really great song though.
This experience helped us to understand how to tell a story with as few shots as possible.  The CAP Hollywood movies will not be that long (only like 2 minutes as I understand it, though I think it should be more like 5) so it will be important to know how to use a few significant shots rather than a ton of unnecessary ones.   I also learned a bit more about editing.  I had a lot of fun color correcting.   I will definitely use color correction to give my CAP Hollywood film the right mood.
On a slightly related note, the short stories are coming along great.  It took me a long time to think of an idea.   I generally don't enjoy reading realistic fiction, so coming up with an original idea was challenging.  Fortunately, late at night before the first part was due, I was able to find a loophole.  My story is about a girl who is bored and starts daydreaming that she and those around her are in a fantasy world.  Ah loopholes.  I really really want this to made into one of the films.  If it doesn't get picked, I'll just make it myself, because I have a clear image of what it should look like.

Concluded Leisure Unsure Sauce

So today I have no good blog ideas, so I will be writing a short story based off of randomly generated phrases using this:
http://watchout4snakes.com/creativitytools/randomword/randomphrase.aspx
The way this works is I'll take the first pair of words as the prompt, and the second two will be used somewhere in the story. This should be fun. 

"concluded leisure unsure sauce"

Worker 2984 sat in the bleak center of the break room watching television.   2984 was told that enjoyment should be derived from the leisure time; so 2984 allowed himself to feel pleasure from watching the television..  2984 turned his head mechanically towards the clock as he heard the sound of the characteristic click that came before the announcements.
Click. "Leisure time will conclude in five minutes and 39 seconds," a female voice sang out.  Her voice had been perfected to sound emotionless while still being a pleasure to listen to.  Only if one listened closely could they tell that the voice had a slight change in the fluidity of it's pitch, signifying that the voice was indeed a robot.   Computer or not, Worker 2984 was in love.  Everyday the voice would sing out, reminding workers when to wake up, get dressed, eat, work, leisure, eat, work, go home, eat, sleep.  2984's one happiness was to wake up in the morning to the sound of her voice.  He named her 5. It was a pretty name, he thought, so exotic and unique.  That morning he had stayed in bed just to hear her say,
Click.  "Worker 2984, wake up! Wake up! Time for work! Wake up! Do not be late, Worker 2984!"
It was so unlike him, to sleep in late.  But, it was then that he had realized that he loved her, in that moment when she had said his name.

Click. "Leisure time has now concluded.  Please return to your work, workers."

The rest of the workers filed out obediently to return to their jobs making sauce, but 2984 lingered behind, unsure.  One minute passed. Then two.

Click. "Leisure time has now concluded.  Please return to your work, Worker 2984."

Five minutes passed. Then ten.  Then twenty.  Every two minutes, 5's heavenly voice would sing down.

Click. "Leisure time has now concluded.  Please return to your work, Worker 2984."

2984 waited for one of the bosses, probably Boss 34, to come in and drag him back to the sauce factory floor, but no one came. 2984 didn't know why he stayed.  Something kept him glued to the spot as he gazed up at the intercom.  Perhaps it was in the way she said his name, but 2984 was unsure.  He knew one thing, however.  He knew that no force in the world could drag him away from here in that moment. 

Click. "Leisure time has now concluded.  Please return to your work, Worker 2984."

Suddenly an idea struck him.  It was an innocent idea, a harmless one.  But no one had ever done it.  He stood up suddenly.  But in that moment his confidence abandoned him and he was left feeling unsure.

"5?"  He whispered hesitantly, saying her name aloud for the first time.  He liked the way her name tasted on his lips, how smooth and easy it was to say.  She did not respond.

"5?" He tried again, a little louder, his voice suddenly hoarse.  There was the usual click before the voice, but there was a long pause of silence.

"Worker 2984." 5 suddenly said, her sweet voice somehow different than before, but still the same.  2984 was suddenly struck with panic. What should he say now?

Suddenly he could hear the sound of footsteps down the hall, heavy, heavy, footsteps.

"5!" He cried out. The boss entered the room, "5!" He cried out again as he was dragged out of the break room.  He knew the punishment would be severe.

"5!" He was sobbing now, he had never sobbed.   He struggled against the ginormous man that was Boss 34, trying to get back to the intercom. He had never struggled.  He just wanted to hear her voice.
The door began to close.  Faintly, as if in a dream, a sweet mechanical voice floated through the crack of the closing door.

"Goodbye Worker 2984."

 Image Credit