David Rendall's "Freak Factor"

“Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness” by David Rendall discusses nine main points. Number one is your problems from other people’s perspectives.  Interviewers, parents, and friends will always point out your flaws and weaknesses. Instead of being insulted, improve on these flaws. Number two is addressing your own weaknesses in your eyes. We seem to see our own weaknesses more than others do. However, we need to realize that the things that our flaws make us different and special. Number three states that everyone is flawless. The author says, that our flaws are what make us unique, and therefore, aren’t flaws at all. What you may view as a weakness someone else may view as strength. The author points out a few “weaknesses” like disorganization, dyslexia, and addiction that could be strengths.

Number four is don’t try to fix your weaknesses. This takes too much time, effort, is distracting, and doesn’t work. Number five says to build on your strengths. Building on your strengths gives you more potential and opportunities. Number six is focus. The author says you can’t try to both fix your weaknesses and build your strengths. You have to choose one or the other. Number seven is to find the right spot. You want to fit in to situations and places that cater to your natural strengths. Trying to fit in somewhere that you don’t, won’t lead you to success. Number eight is the power of uniqueness. Instead of being normal, strive for being exceptional. Exploit your differences. Finally, number nine is to put your quirks to work. You can do this by spending your energy on what is important, doing away with everything you don’t like to do, engaging in partnerships, and finding people like you, or people who are also unique.

Although I thought the entire article was kind of obvious and repetitive, I will talk about three of the points that I thought were interesting. Number two, which discussed discovering your own weaknesses was a good point. The author listed a bunch of typical weaknesses such as procrastination and poor listening skills, and turned them into quirky attributes. He said that he personally was able to overcome some of his major weaknesses by finding a strength that was close to it. Although, I think some people can achieve this, many people won’t be successful if they have such debilitating flaws like being impulsive and resistant to authority. I think you need to find a balance of what your strengths are, and how you can use your strengths to correct your weaknesses.

Number four, which said not to try to correct your weaknesses, seemed like a horrible point to me. He basically said that people couldn’t change. I think this is untrue. I know a lot of people who have noticed something about themselves that irked them, so they worked to change it. It may have taken a long time and been difficult, but it is possible. If you’re a person who has a flaw of always being late, you can’t just decide not to change that. You’ll never be able to keep a job because your employer won’t allow you to be late all the time. Some weaknesses need to be corrected.

The third point I will talk about is number nine. Overall, I though the tip was good, but something about one of the suggestions bugged me. It said, engage in permanent procrastination. So instead of procrastinating activities that you don’t like, just stop doing them all together. I think this is a very bad tip. If people stopped doing things they didn’t like to do, no one would get through grade school. No one would know how to add or subtract. No one would care about American history. Just because you get bored with something or don’t like it, doesn’t mean you should give up on it all together. Sometimes the greatest things that get achieved have a boring lull in the process. Some of the greatest inventions might not have been created if the inventor decided just to give up. I think everyone should persevere through every hardship until they finish what they started. 

Collapsis Trans-Media Project Assessment

Podcast discussing the Trans-media project, Collapsus.

Audio: Here

Game Design Assessment

I thought my group's game design presentation went well overall. Our biggest strength was our objectives and goals for each character for Level 1. The objectives were very specific and laid out clearly so that the audience understood exactly what the player must do to complete the level. For example, the objective for Finnigan was to help his neighbor William find his kilt, while Sinastra's was to destroy William's kilt. The goals were well thought out and creative, too. They were specifically tailored to each character. As the hero, Finnigan had to collect "good" items such as bagpipes, while Sinastra had to collect "evil" items like poison and ropes. Another strength was the in-game sounds. The interface and background music was very fitting to a Scottish game.

Our biggest weakness was probably the game rules. They were a bit vague and could have been more specific. The wording of some of the rules may have confused the audience. Rule # 6, which stated, "if lives run out, the player returns to the last fully completed level with 5 new lives" may have needed further explanation. We could have said what causes a player to die, and how to avoid that. Another weakness was our mechanics. We should have thought more about the placement of the keys on the keyboard because some of the keys we assigned actions to may be hard to reach if pressing multiple keys at once.

Video Game Characters

Hero: Finnigan Strongjaw

Villain: Sinastra Pikespear

Critique 1: Adam Martinelli

Adam and his partner created the hero of a lumberjack and a villain of a dark ghost-like figure. The lumberjack displays color through his bright red jacket and green pants. These colors are complementary. He also wears a blue hat. The villain is mostly shades of black and gray, creating a monochromatic color scheme. He has red eyes that create great contrast from the darkness of the rest of his form. The lumberjack is smiling creating a easy-going and confident mood. Because he is a lumberjack, that also symbolizes strength. The ghost moves by floating swiftly through the air. This tells us that he is lightweight, but also fast. We also see that the lumberjack's axe acts like a boomerang because it returns to him. 

Critique 2: Angela Solerno

Angela and her partner did a ballerina as the hero and a caped man as the villain. The ballerina displays brightness because of the pink tutu she is wearing. In the animation, she is skinny and of a light blue hue. The hero's animation has a light-hearted mood with her prancing around and doing various ballet moves while fighting crime. We can tell that she is fast because of the lines that go by when she is jumping/flying. She has overlapping movement when she jumps, plies, and moves her around around all at the same time. The villain has a red cape, glasses, and curly black hair. We can tell the villain is evil because he thinks about setting the world on fire. This is symbolic of his personality. The villain moves quite slowly, but is able to create an energy ball from his hands. There is contrast between the moods of the animation, but affinity in the weight of the characters. 

Critique 3: Gabe Marchetti
Gabe and his partner Brandon created hero Captain Awesome and villain Eyesore. These two characters are very different, contrasting with each other in many ways. First, Captain Awesome has a red, white, and blue color scheme symbolizing that he is patriotic and good-hearted. He carries a lightning bolt and a gun, suggesting that he is powerful. Eyesore, on the other hand, has a very dark color scheme, using mostly gray and purple. His slanted eyes and jagged claws create a very ominous mood. Captain Awesome lifts off and flies. We can see movement because his cape is flapping. Eyesore's actions are very wiggly. We can see that although he may look threatening, he might not be that evil. 

Joke Video

VIDEO HERE

Joke Video Comparison

I did a comparison between my group's video (video 1) and Andrew Sewell's group's video (video 2). In this essay, I will be comparing and contrasting space and movement. I will also talk about tension and release, as well as contrast and affinity. Video 1 starts out with the camera moving down the hallway and going into a bedroom. This shows deep space because you can see the depth of the background. The shots within the room are mostly medium shots, with several extreme close ups of the clock, planner, deodorant, and toothbrush. These shots are also flat because there is no depth to the room. The outdoor scenes where Michael is running features a lot of wide and extreme wide shots. He in constantly running straight towards the camera, away from the camera, or across the camera's field of vision. When he enters the elevator, there are a series of close up shots in flat space. The final shot is from a high angle to convey Michael's weakness/stupidity at mixing up the dates.

Video 2 starts off with an establishing shot of an office building, then cuts to a medium shot of a man at his desk. The room is mostly white and the man is wearing black creating great contrast within the frame. This shot is also flat. The next cut is to the man's wife who is in the kitchen. It is a medium shot in limited space because the main focus is on her, but you can see elements of the foreground and background. She is also located at the right vertical point of interest. After an establishing shot of the house, we get deep space as the man walks up the stairs and enters through the door. After his wife blindfolds him, she leads him into the dining room. This sequence is a series of medium and close up shots. The man freaks out at his wife and there is a cut to a medium shot of his co-workers standing there staring at him. His co-workers display visual rhythm because they are all dressed in blue.

Similarities between the two films include several close up shots that are also flat in terms of space. Mostly, the two films are very different. In video 1, there is a lot of character movement on screen, while video 2 had little movement. Video 1 features a lot of wide shots, while video 2 features close up and medium shots. Video 1 also has a variety of shapes and colors, while video 2 features a black, white, and blue color scheme.  Tension and release is used in video 1 through music. The intense music while he is running builds then tension, then releases when the music stops. Tension builds up in video 2 as the man gets stressed out at work, and doesn't release until the end, when he ruins his own surprise birthday party. 

Analysis of Movie Scene

Assessment of Hugh McCloud's "How to Be Creative"

Analysis of Artwork

I was drawn to the original image because of its simplicity. There are very few colors, but clear and distinct lines. The original image has actual lines that lead the eye from the white stripe to the red blotch. The quality of the white lines are linear and diagonal, while the blotch is curvilinear. The cropped version makes the lines seem shorter. I also thought that the red spot looked like a strawberry because of the green line that is shaped like a leaf. Movement is achieved through the use of lines. This can also be classified by the Gestalt Principle of continuation, where we move through an object to another. In the big picture the white stripe leads the eye to the red spot (point of interest). We know the red spot is the point of interest because it is located in the right third of the frame. Shape is a huge factor, using triangles in the areas filled with black and brown, a rectangle for the white area, and a circle for the red area. The red blotch almost seems to be the foreground, while the other shapes and colors are the background. There are few colors in the picture: black, brown, white, red, and a little bit of green. The colors are not bright, so the picture doesn't seem to have much depth. In the original image, the red spot seems sort of small. In the close up, it is the focus of the frame, making it seem rather large.  The original shot is more of a wide shot because you can see the big picture. My cropped version is a close up. It is not an extreme close up because you can see the entire red spot (not just part of it.) The only lighting the picture has would be the stripe of white, which adds importance to the red area because the colors stand out against each other. This causes us to focus our attention on the red. 

I chose to reframe the picture with the focus on the red circle because it is the main focus of the original picture. I wanted the audience to be able to get a closer look at its details. I think the artist framed the picture the way she did because she wanted you to be able to feel the rhythm of the painting and move your own eyes to the red spot. She wanted you to be able to explore the colors and lines of the whole frame before focusing on the red area. I like that she did that. I like the big picture better than the cropped one.