Week 11 - Response 1 - Appropriation Progress 1

I have managed to find videos relevant to the story I am attempting to tell. I have taken clips which depict women working as or working towards becoming Engineers or Doctors, what is usually known as a "man's only" field as well as incorporated a "How to be an Independent Women" video in which the person in the video gives advice on how women can become independent if they so desire to do so. Other videos include 2 music videos relevant to a portion of the lyrics and a scene from the movie Brave which depicts the main protagonist shooting arrows at a target for her own hand in marriage as she does not want to be forced to marry someone she does not love or know. I'm not entirely confident there is enough of a balance between the real and the animated, but again, what is recommended of me is not my strong aesthetic. For now, In will keep it as is until I can show it again to get even more critique and change it accordingly, but as it stands, many of my peers think it is good.

Week 10 - Response 2 - Old+Old+Old=New

In don't feel the need to describe this reading in detail as it as like many of the readings that have been assigned, going into the matter of copyright. I do find it interesting in the way they execute the reading. They start by listing reasons for why the topic is being discussed. They state that what they "are not focusing on in this piece are the debates surrounding the ability of individual authors and artists to make a living producing and selling their work," but rather the "agency and action writing teachers can take in a world of media monopoly." They continue on to list key questions relative to the topic at hand as well as actions one should take when wanting use someone else's work.

Week 10 - Response 1 - Appropriation Project Inspirations

For Project 3, we are required to create a video using already established videos online. The goal is to use these videos to create a new story. My first idea was to promote cosplay by using the a parody of the song "Happy" by Pharell Williams and using different clips of cosplay with it. Unfortunately, the critique given to me was to try using other videos, not relating to cosplay to draw a comparison/contrast between the cosplay itself and an inanimate object. This made it difficult for me to continue forward with this idea of cosplay and caused me to rethink my video. Much of my inspiration comes from what is called AMV or "anime music videos" in which a person can tell a story of a song using clips from different anime or animated shows. I then began to look through what would be most easy and came across an original song entitled "I don't need a man" which depicted many of the known Disney Princesses and how many ended up being with a Prince of some sort and how Elsa from the movie Frozen was annoyed at this fact since women don't actually need a man to live. My idea started with making this into an animated version of the video by using clips of the different princesses' showed in the original video. however, again the critique was, use real life examples. As much as I understand the need to do so, it doesn't match my aesthetic, however I continue on my search to make the video the way I was critiqued to do.

Week 9 - Response 2 - Free Culture By Lessig Pgs 213-234 and POL Chapter 5

In Chapter 13 of Free Culture, Lessig describes how a man by the name of Eric Eldred, attempted to get his daughters' interests in the works of an author by the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne by posting all the works of Hawthorne online and by using "links to pictures and explanatory text, would make the nineteenth-century author's works come alive" (213). While his plan failed, Eldred was able to make these works more accessible to people who could not obtain the print version. This created a possibility for non-commercial works to become public on domains. It came to a point where a piece that Hawthorne created had it's copyright extended which caused Eldred to "fight back" (215). Lessig, the author of Free Culture, also joined in on Eldred's battle. It's really interesting to see the author promoting himself as it can further garner the readers' interest, but at the same time, can cause many to believe in bias.

In chapter 5 of Practices of Looking, it discusses the matter of Copyright. It's no secret that copyright is an issue in society. It has come to a point where Professors will literally sit and compare all papers submitted to them so as to make sure there is no copying between students and as ludicrous as that is, it has come to the point where it is now necessary. Sturken does on to discuss how it didn't use to be a problem, but after the expansion of the Digital Age, the matter became a serious issue. The controversy about the digital age comes to artist who try to self promote themselves. There are many ways to bypass a copyright online and as I have mentioned before, Richard Prince was able to do just that due to various manipulations which caused the supposed "story" to change.  

Week 9 - Response 1 - Tactical Media COMPLETE

After 2-3 of constant struggles in scripting, mixing voices. directing actors, and finding a high definition scene, the tactical media project in which I did a satirical dubover is now complete. There were many delays to the project due to lines needing to be either re-scripted and re-done, however the end product still turned out awesome. I do have to say that my only complaint is that at one point, the music and sound effects tend to be louder then the voices which makes it difficult to understand the scene itself, but if you really pay close attention, it can still be understood. I have to thank everyone for helping me out with this scene including my girlfriend Katie, who not only voiced in the scene, but also assisted me in scripting and directing too, as well as Eric Llrenas who helped mix/engineered the scene from scratch. While I did the voices, Intro and Outro, and subtitles he did both the Sound Effects and music, and of course the wonderful actors who made the scene come to life. I ponder what the class will think of it, but hopefully everyone will enjoy the hard work put into the scene.

The scene can be watched below

Week 8 - Response 2 - Free Culture By Lessig Pgs 53-79

Right from the start, one thing that caught my attention was the beginning portion about Thomas Edison and the creation of the Motions Pictures Patents Company (MPPC). Edison is famous for many innovations we use today such as the lightbulb, however this beginning portion sort of makes Edison seem like a narcissistic, selfish individual. He created the MPPC in order to control piracy. The problem I see is that Edison seemed to want to control almost the entire creative properties industry. This is merely an idea that I have perceived and it may not be correct, but as I continue to read the chapter, mention of Edison also continues. The chapter itself revolves the idea of piracy and how people tried to control it. Piracy is defined to be "using the creative property of others without permission" (53). The chapter discusses what types of medium piracy was involved in such as Radio, Television, Film, and music. Piracy exists in different shapes and forms, even today. One of the most controversial kinds of piracy is fanart of characters from different tv shows, games, etc. Fanart is not an official drawn portrait and yet is still sold for money. Oddly enough, many creators do no mind this selling of fanart, however it should still count as piracy since it is not originally made content. Another type of piracy is fandub or dub overs that are not from a official production company. Many aspiring voice actors are guilty of doing this and I believe it is okay to do a fandub of a short clip or scene from said production as it more or less advertises that production, it is obviously not okay to fandub an entire series as this is letting the viewers view the production for free. I do want to point out that "Let's Players" on Youtube, the people who play video games as a career do not get into any legal trouble at all for playing entire game series. This makes me ponder why as it is still letting a viewer see a product for free without needing to pay. There's quite a bit of mysteries relating to the concept of piracy and hopefully they will clear up soon.

Week 8 - Response 1 - Tactical Media Progress 3

Project 2 has progressed at a nice rate. Voice actors have recorded and I have mixed in a majority of the lines. I may ask for redos due to lines not being done a certain way that I feel is necessary for the scene. I have also begun to think that I need to change a line in the script into a full on Japanese phrase as this would further enhance the joke about a specific character (Mine) and why the bullies/punks are calling him a certain word. With so little time, I have also decided to ask a friend of mine to help me mix in the sound effects an music into the scene. I have been unfortunately busy with both work and class projects in other classes including a reading response (3-5 pages) this week, a book review (5-9 pages) in 2 weeks and several others that require my attention. I'm hoping my senior year will tone down a bit as I feel overwhelmed with so much work. Just remembering that I still need to do an internship scares me if my workload is this crazy.