Reflection of MEDP 150

There was a lot of material to learn in this class and I just feel as though time just flew by and I didn't really grasp it all as I wanted to. It was really frustrating to memorize terminologies and knowing how to articulate them on paper during examinations. From the beginning I knew that we were going to touch upon various aspects of media and I was excited because it just gave me more areas to be interested in. I suppose it may have been a bit difficult for me due to my lack of experience and feeling inadequate compared to my classmates and even though it was an introductory course, it was a bit intense. I wish that we did more hands on learning and I believe that would have made it easier for me to understand some the material. For an example, I still do not know how to identify cables even though Dylan brought them to the lab and showed them to the class. Maybe if we had more time to play with them to know which cable goes where and is for "what" as opposed to memorizing images on a sheet of paper. When we began to use Photoshop, I was excited because I always wanted to learn the program and even that I felt was rushed because I remember using it only three times during lab which was when it was introduced, starting my stamp, and finishing it by a deadline. I just wish that we had a little more time to become comfortable using the program, but it did not permit.

Designs I like

School Daze

In the last scene of School Daze
I noticed that there were various types of technical choices that the director, Spike Lee and the cinematographer made than were shot in the previous scenes. I believe that wide lenses were used when the character ran towards the camera, everything was in focus such as the building behind him, the trees on both sides (giving balanced composition) and the subject himself. However, when the distance between the subject and the camera changed, there was no longer a deep depth of field and the focus had to be changed. The change in the focus became a close up to his face as he shouted "Wake up!" I believe that there was also a switch from a wide lense to a long lense, zooming, and tracking backing causing the background to become compressed. I am still curious to now what device or method was used that caused theh subject to appear to rise and closer to the sky... Tracking from left to right was also an effective technique that the director used because it gave brief insight of the emotions of confusion, enlightenment, shame, etc on the students' faces. I also noticed that the lighting changed in which I believe more hard lighting was used, casting shadows on the characters' faces. Before, especially for the musical scenes, soft lights were used to make the actors and actresses look appealing as possible, indicating fantasy and ignorance.

My Trip to the Museum of Moving Images

I had a really good time at the Museum of Moving Images. I was
intrigued by how far we have come in technology based on the evolution
of television sets, cameras, camcorders,and etc. When we looked at
the older filming devices, I instantly became very grateful because
they were so much larger and heavier than the ones that we can find in
studios today. Believe me, we have come a long way.
One interesting and a bit offensive detail that was pointed out
while viewing the older television sets, was how there wer built
intentionally to resemble household appliances such as the stoves and
washing machines to "cater" to housewives. However, I did like the
interchangeable television and music player that were able to be
hidden as a livingroom set. The tour guide told us that mostly
wealthy families owned them during that time which was logical because
of how big they were and it's capablities to serve multiple purposes.
Even for that time period, I think that it was very clever and could
possibly sell today.
One thing that I did learn is that in animation, it was much easier
than I thought. Contrary to my previous assumption, instead of
drawing characters over and over again with slight movement (like a
flipbook) the way to get it from one place to another is to capture it
is separate frames as you move it. Then, you can playing it back as
movie! Alongside having fun making my own animation, I liked making
the voice over for a scene in the movie "Babe" and being apart of a
flipbook. After visiting this museum, I have a greater appreciation
for how we are able to experience moving image technology. Today, we
can enjoy televsion without being annoyed by interlacing across the
screen, images move more realistically, and fluently compared to how
we viewed them before. Even if a person isn't a media or film major,
I would reccommend going to the Museum of Moving Images just for the
experience and for $4, it is definitely worth it.