Concerned Citizen

Concerned to Committed from Spark of Clark Productions on Vimeo.

So we might have gotten a little bit ambitious.  We knew we wanted to do something original and do it well.  Our concerned citizen: Brent Adams.  His concern: The moral decay of the entertainment industry.  Entertainment plays a huge role in all our lives.  We see images all day every day -- for the better or worse.  Brent Adams founded the animation program at BYU in order to flood the film workforce with good, moral people.

We knew we had a strong subject, however, we didn't realize that we wouldn't be able to cover our topic in the described one to three minutes.  When we originally edited our piece we ended at about seven minutes, more than double the assignment description.  Needless to say, we had to do a lot of cutting and throwing out -- which was hard because our concerned citizen gave such a great interview.  Fortunately Jason came to our rescue to make the workload at least somewhat reasonable.

Overall, our piece was a great collaborative effort.  Aubrey brought editing mastery to the table, Jason brought audio insight, and Tanner handled the cinematagraphy.  Each of these elements came together to produce a piece we can be proud of.

By,
Aubrey Clark
Jason Richey
Tanner Wilson

Protest Poster - "Breaking News"

I was in a lobby the other day and the news was on their TV. The news station was focused on the election and mudslinging candidates, while the news ticker at the bottom counted the death toll caused by hurricane Sandy. The magazines next to me all had a similar focus. They raised eyebrows and doubted the future of our country while claiming to have the latest polls inside. Political projections took the largest and boldest print on the covers of these magazines and within the folds of that day’s newspaper. The election has taken over our media. As important as the election is, it sometimes seems like the news and media are focusing more on pointing fingers at and digging dirt on candidates than important world issues or even recent events like Sandy.

Some of my friends and relatives have sworn off the news and newspaper until the election is over. I believe the media has been negatively affected and consumed by this campaign. This is what I wish to communicate with my protest poster. Its title, "Breaking News", is a play on words, emphasizing how the election has broken our news and media sources' stream of information and their purpose.  

I made some aesthetic choices to further my argument. The stickers are covering the real news story. The corner of the TV is over exposed, just like the electoral coverage. I chose to use black and white for the TV and the covered image, because then the political stickers are really able to pop.

The stickers are bright, colorful, and appealing. They make what they are covering up and the surrounding world seem dull and less important as they take less of the media’s attention. That is the message I get from the media lately; the election is of dominant importance. Looking at my piece, I could have also emphasized the more negative aspects of the heavy election coverage on the media. I could have tried to also emphasize just how ridiculous and ugly this election has gotten at times because of the influence of the media and public perception.

I posted my first draft of this image to Facebook to get feedback. When I first posted this, all I got were some “cools!”, “I agree!” as well as a few likes. I was afraid I wouldn’t get much constructive feedback. As time went on, a few friends gave some great suggestions. I wasn’t able to incorporate all their ideas, but all the ideas contributed in some change or consideration in my final piece.

I had a friend share it and say, “This really makes me contemplative. What really mattes here folks?” With this being a ‘protest poster’ I felt it had served its purpose. I was able to bring a message across, raise questions, and even have it begin to spread.

Webspinna Reflection

This was one of our most experimental and entertaining assignments yet. I had never thought of using the Internet in this way. I often forget the title of this major is “Media Arts Studies” and not just “Film Studies”. I think it is great that we are given such opportunities to branch out and experiment with different mediums to see what they are capable of.

Reflecting on my experience, at first I had trouble mixing sounds I wanted to go together. Instead of flowing, it sounded like a layered mess. I was finally able to achieve a nicer sound by layering and experimenting with simpler sounds.

I had rehearsed my creation several times before, and was able to do it the same way a few times in a row and was very pleased. When I got up there to perform, I clicked on the wrong sound on one of my websites. At first I thought my planned piece was ruined, but it actually really worked. I decided to really take a chance and experiment with more sounds on the spot. I think it ended up sounding a lot better than my rehearsed composition, and it was a lot more fun and in the moment. I actually didn’t end up using one of my planned websites because I got into using and exploring those tabs I already had up.

I was second to last, and I heard a lot of the sounds I wanted to use being used. I at first saw it as disappointing, because mine wouldn’t be as unique or innovative, but we all used the sounds in such different ways. Those few unifying threads brought interesting contrast. I also really liked how we kept it as one continual piece.

For my Webspinna, I wanted to have a constant beat, and layer sound bites and effects. I started with the sound of a spinning vinyl to contrast this modern representation and bring sound back to its roots.  I then contrasted this at the end with a voice telling how technological our society has become. This clip discussed the progression of our technological society on top of our shedding of old ideology. Early in my piece, I included a sound clip from Brecht’s communist hearing. In that time period, many experimental arts (and even mainstream arts) were seen as communist informed and influenced. The government recognized the power and influence the media can have, so they cracked down. We have come a long way technologically and ideologically since. These Webspinna are such an abstract and advanced means of sound creation. (We have come from vinyls to the internet and from guitars to screaming animated beans).
Each Webspinna probably meant something to its creator. There is probably a good reason they chose the sounds they did, but we each had a different experience listening and interpreting the individual works. I think the last line of the sound clip I included helps us understand this piece and many others worked on in this class. It says “this is not about what I produce, it is all about what others receive”. This was a process of experimenting, creating, and interpreting for both viewer and listener.