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Title: Find Yourself

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Difference Between a Service Dog & Therapy Dog

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Abstract: This music video titled: Find Yourself, lets us take a peek into the life of a girl who struggles to find inspiration artistically. She then sets off on her own to explore her surroundings and landscapes that she often overlooks.

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Music Video Presentation

A few days before the presentation in class, I managed to capture the last 15 seconds of footage that we needed to complete our music video before we review and critique the whole music video again. I filmed Vanessa, hanging up her exquisite painting and we were on our way to completion. We pieced all the footage nicely together and then sent it to all our friends to get feedback on areas we could improve.

In class, we showcased our music video and what we achieved of it thus far. However, we were still a little unsatisfied with it and decided to ask for more feedback from our friends. The music video was uploaded to Youtube for this purpose. We were astounded by the amount of negative and positive comments on the music video, but we then knew the music video needed more work. We threw out scenes that we felt were too messy or draggy and replaced them with footage from our library we collected.

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A step closer to completion of the video

In week 11, Sandra and I reviewed and discussed our progress on the video and started to critique it. We didn't like some scenes as it was too blur or shaky and some scenes seemed completely irrelevant to our storyline. We decided to throw the unfortunate scenes out and added new scenes that would fit the whole video better. We also adjusted the speed of some of the clips of footage to match the tempo of the song. About this time,we realized that we were missing footage for the final 15 seconds of the music video and that we needed to arrange the last shoot with Vanessa.

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More on Development of the video using iMovie and completion of Mashup

In week 10, Sandra, a couple of friends and I decided to go on a road trip to Warburton. We took this opportunity to capture more footage of nature considering we hardly ever wander out of the city.  We decided to incorporate both rural and urban elements into Vanessa's exploration process. When capturing footage with the iPhone, we decided to use the time-lapse feature as we felt that simple videoing wasn't going to be adequate.

After many reviews and listens, Sandra and I agreed that the mashup was ready and had it finalized. We then exported it into an .mp3 file to ensure compatibility with iMovie. The completed mashup gave us a better direction for the video editing process as it helped with adjusting the scenes more accurately to the change in beat. We took a step further to enhance our storyline . We thought of how we wanted our actress, Vanessa to go out and explore nature and gain insight then come back into the city before starting on her painting. When starting on the painting, Vanessa chose to infuse colours from nature with monochrome colours of the city skyine and created a painting of a vibrant and colourful skyline. In fact, you will notice that at times, the colour of the sky in Melbourne especially when the sun is setting, turns pinkish orange.

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Gathering of footage and editing of video in iMovie

With the footage that we previously shot, and the latest version of the mashup, Sandra and I decided that we needed to start on the editing of the first minute of our music video.  Sandra collected some amazing footage when we went for a couple of music events and when she visited Luna Park in St Kilda. The footage we captured portrayed many artistic sides of Melbourne which was in line with our direction for the music video. You will notice scenes of the murals, the architecture of the buildings, the "trippy" lights and more.

The mashup was only  about halfway done and it needed more refinement. Seeing that 2 songs were blended together, I had to keep adjusting where the song would reach its peak at the appropriate time and then drop. Another consideration was where to input the instrumental effects and where the vocals were to be included. I had a bit of a tough time doing this having to listen to over and over again to find where I could cut the song at the right place and past over and effect bearing in mind that there should be a smooth flow. I adjusted the tempo at the peaks and build up's of the song as well so that it created a hype for the viewers.

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Development of the Mashup

By week 8, I created 7 different versions of the mashup and was undecided on which effects was best to use. I was unable to tap into my creative pool at this time as it had dried up and  so I decided to sought the help of Sandra to get another perspective and feedback on the mashup. Sandra came up with some interesting ideas to add some cool effects in the first half of the mashup track. We started to recreate existing sounds and used new effects such as the echo effect in our mashup which you will not miss ! We continued to refine the mashup to fit the different moods that we wanted to portray in accordance to our story line. Sandra and I then arranged a couple of dates and locations to shoot some footage with the Vanessa for our music video. We also created an online drive on Google to put up all our ideas,footage and proposal for sharing purposes so that anyone involved in the music video production had access to it.

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InDesign and Storyline of Music Video

InDesign was a program I would use to create print works such as posters, flyers, brochures, newspapers, magazine etc.  I was initially thinking putting up my journal on a custom made brochure of sorts using InDesign, but the settled to use Padlet instead because the layout just seem just right for my liking.

Sandra and I then thought up some ideas for our storyline of the music video and came up with three drafts before we decided to move forward. At first, our storyline was centered around appreciation and conservation of Gaia or better know as the earth. The music video was to be filled with footage of scenic and picturesque views of nature.However, we realized that we were students living in the city and we were surrounded by urban developments more than nature unless we went far out to the suburbs or to higher altitudes in Victoria.

We threw that idea out and came up with a new storyline or backbone to our music video which was to cover the arts & culture scene in Melbourne, the in-city sight's and sounds. We wanted to create a music video that sold the city and portrayed it's beauty. We later on, decided that maybe including a character would assist us in explaining or in this music video, telling a story. We asked a couple of friends if they wanted to be cast as an artist or painter in our music video.  We managed to get Vanessa, the girl you will see in the video) to help us out. Vanessa possesses artistic talent and capabilities and she loves to paint in abstract styles. We brainstormed further and developed the abstract of the video, but we couldn't decide on a title. Inspiration for the abstract was drawn from the lyrics of the one of the songs to further develop the storyline. With a more or less confirmed storyline, Sandra begun to collect footage for the video. I continued to work on developing the mashup.

The Abstract
This music video lets us take a peek into the life of a girl who struggles to find inspiration artistically. She then sets off on her own to explore her surroundings and landscapes that she often overlooks. She then draws inspiration from intricate details that she notices from different corners of Melbourne to produce an artwork that overcomes her creative block and surpasses her expectations.

Video

The video will consist of a series of scenes that serves as a visual representation of what the character is feeling internally as she explores and learns more about her capabilities. To shoot the video, we were going to use the iPhone camera after considering it's camera capabilities and that it was an economical choice rather than purchasing or renting a camera. iMovie was the video editing program that we used.

Mashup/Remix

The sounds that accompany the video, comprises snippets of tracks from contrasting genres such as trance, alternative, electronic and pop. The mashup/remix will complement the video in telling the story of the character. The songs that we selected were 1) John O Callaghan- Find Yourself and 2) Gareth Emery- Sanctuary. We used Audacity to produce the mashup/remix

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Garage Band and  Birth of the Music Video

Garage Band was introduced to me in Week 6. I personally explored a lot of sounds and effects that were provided in the program so that I could draw some ideas for the mashup. I learnt how to add different effects and sounds bars to compose a song that would later be used in in my digital story that I was creating the past few weeks. Garage band is a magnificent tool as it gave me a better understanding of how to use different sounds and beats together. I took what I learnt from the workshop about Garage Band and applied it to Audacity to create the mashup. I then understood why “Everything is a Remix”. My thought processes generated ideas that were born from different songs, sounds, effects and beats that I’ve heard before. I listened to the songs that I had shortlisted for the mashup and decided to start off by editing and throwing in effects to the first song that I retrieved from Soundcloud. I kept running through the different effects that were available on the program and played around with the song.

In the same class, another student and friend, Sandra was in the birth stage of making a video montage. She was going to use the stock music in the iMovie. We both decided to team up for the final project since our ideas were interesting and could blend together to create a music video. Sandra was going to handle more of the video component while I, the mashup song for the video.

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Adobe Illustrator and Development of Audio Track for the Final Project

Adobe Illustrator is a fascinating tool for designers. I delved deep into the amazing features of this program and explored it's capabilities with the help of Emma to produce some interesting images just by manipulating shapes. I was provided with 2 images of a cupcake and a flower that was to be replicated using the tools available in Adobe Illustrator. The image that I produced eventually deviated from the original image but whilst "digressing"from it, I learn how to create new shapes that were manipulated into the image you see attached.

Having experience mixing audio tracks when I used to work in an events company previously, I decided to shortlist a few tracks to mashup.I then decided on contrasting genres such as trance, alternative, electronic and pop  for the mashup.Already being acquainted with the music software program Audacity, I decided to start playing around with the tracks on the software to see if they were compatible and if I could create some flow to it.

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Hurdle Task and Presentation

This week called for the formulation of a well presented presentation that was to be given during the workshop. I was tasked to share the digital artifact that I had chosen with the class. For more information on the Crystal Universe, please refer to the video attached below. This workshop opened up my eyes to the different digital artifacts chosen by the other students in our class and gave me a better understanding of how many kinds of digital artifacts there could possibly be in the world, ranging from music videos, to digital art exhibitions to 3-dimensional games.I had also thought up a couple of ideas for the final assignment during this class and I was fixated on creating an audio mashup/remix of a couple of songs.

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This artwork uses accumulated light points to create a sculptural body, similar to the way distinct dots of color form an image in a pointillist painting. In Crystal Universe, the particles of light are digitally controlled, and change based on the viewer's interactivity with the work.

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Digital Storytelling and Padlet

This week was also focused on developing my digital story that I had started on the previous week however, this week I learnt about a new platform called Padlet which i plan to use for documenting my reflective journal for the final assignment. It is, to put it simply, an online virtual platform or some might call it a “bulletin” board where all students could upload their Hurdle Task so that both tutor and student can collaborate and share links, pictures, videos and other digital artifacts in a secure location.

To touch further on the 6 elements to creating a good digital story:

The first element,Living Inside Your Story- the story is told in first person, whether through a narration or your own captions. This is done so that viewers can experience how the creator lives inside this story rather than a detached telling that a different events have happened.

The second element, Unfolding Lessons Learned- The most unique feature for digital storytelling is the ideal outcome or expectation that the story conveys an insight of how a specific event or scenario tugs at the heartstrings of the community or humanity.

The third element, Developing Creative Tension- A great story is one that creates some form of interest or strain around a scenario that is posed at the start of the story and determined at the end, and at times unforeseen twists. The strain of an unresolved situation captivates and grasps the viewers attention right till the unforgettable end of the story.

The fourth element, Economizing the Story Told - Every good story has a journey’s end and of course, a point to convey to viewers. It seeks the shortest route to the destination. This refers to the being adept in shortening the story yet preserving the essence of its tale.

The fifth element, Showing not Telling- Images, music and different sounds can be expended to portray part of the context of the story, develop a variety of settings, provide information and further more give emotional meaning that the traditional written and oral stories do not provide.The use of both words and media will help to reveal thoroughly details rather than simple statements.

The last element, Developing Craftsmanship - A good story incorporates modern technology in artsy-fartsy ways by communication sounds, colours, animations, designs, special effects and images that could help to illustrate and illuminate the story.

http://creativeeducator.tech4learning.com/v04/articles/Take_Six

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Digital Storytelling and iPhoto

In week 2, I learnt more about digital storytelling and the use of an application, iPhoto during the workshop. There are 6 elements of a great digital story according to Bernajean Porter. The elements are as follows, (1) Live inside your story, (2) Unfold Lessons Learned, (3) Develop Creative Tension, (4) Economize the Story Told, (5) Show, Don’t Tell and lastly (6) Develop Craftsmanship.  I was introduced to blend some simple images, captions and some tunes (more focus in Week 3) to create a fun and interesting story. This was different from the old-fashioned way writing a novel and creating images to better communicate the story. Through the use of iPhoto, I took one step further into my creativity pool and selected a bunch of images themed around wildlife and nature to tell a story of how different animals lived harmoniously together. The images were carefully and thoughtfully chose. After which, I added captions to each image so that there would be a flow in the story I was going to tell. After finalizing the images and the substance of the story, it was played into a slideshow. In fact, there are various ways and applications to use to create a digital story. To list a few, stop-motion animation, Microsoft Powerpoint, audio clips, video clips and more.

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Adobe Photoshop

I commenced the Creative Projects: Digital Technologies module by exploring the wonders of the program, Adobe Photoshop. During the first workshop, I learnt how to meld stock images that were downloaded from the web together.Furthermore,knowledge of different features in Adobe Photoshop were imparted to me by Emma. To highlight a few, I am now adequately skilled in using the marquee and move tools, how to create a layer palettes so that we can edit on different images or shapes and combine them together later on. I also explored the use of filters in Photoshop which helped to create some nice tones on the images I had used. I was also taught how to control and adjust colour on the images through different settings such as the brightness, contrast, hue and saturation. At the end of the class, I surprisingly managed to produce a kaleidoscopic image that I was really satisfied with.