Music for my project!

So before we started filming, I began searching for music to play during the skating part in the film. I have to say that I was successful, and I'm pretty happy about it. A friend of mine recommended this artist to me the other day, and I checked him out on myspace. The artist's band is "The Chain Gang of 1974", and he is straight out of Denver. His real name is Kamtin Mohager, and I contacted him on mySpace to ask If I could use his song "We at the Disco" in my project. He was cool with it; so now I'm going to promote his newest song. Hope you enjoy the video.

You suck at photoshop!

So I found out about this series of tutorials from reading time magazine, and they were right when they said it was both hilarious and informative. If you want to learn some very essential photoshop techniques, while getting a few laughs in, then this is for you. It's a pretty neat concept that this "Donny" came up with. He uses pictures that are relevant to something in his life, usually negative, and then he shows us how to use certain photoshop techniques to fix his mistakes, such as taking a wedding ring off his hand. I haven't watched many of these tutorials because I have not had much reason to use photoshop until now. Since I am a part-time photographer for the Independent, I will be using the program frequently, though not in the same manner as Donny.





I just felt like posting this last video because I always get a kick out of it, and also because a lot of people don't know that Jim Carrey was on "In Living Color" for a couple of seasons. In fact, many people that I show this to are completely oblivious to the show, and have never heard of it. There are plenty of other great skits by Carrey, sucha s the one where he is the captain of the Exxon Valdez'. Check them out, I bet you'll love em'!

http://thewildernesswanderer.blogspot.com/2008/09/song-of-week-2.html My Comment!

Project Update

So my crew and I began filming the skating portion of my video on wednesday, and so far, everything looks pretty good. We got over thrity minutes of footage, with maybe 1-2 minutes of usable film. I also got a good wreck that will transition perfectly to the next scene, so I was pretty happy with that. We had over 6 people skating, so their is quite a diversity in styles, as well as the shots filmed. Since I wanted to have a couple parts in the film, other people had to record, which is nice because it switches up the shots and angles. One problem that I didn't anticipate though is weather. If it is raining, then we simply cannot get any shots because we can't ride our boards in the weather. Another problem, though it only pertains to me and my parts, is that skating can be hazardous. My body is definitely feeling the effects from the past two days, and add weightlifting into the equation, and that equals linguine legs. The good thing is that I have plenty of talented skaters willing to do what they do best, skate. Today is the last day that we are going to film skating, and tomorrow we will begin filming the razor part, which should be pretty fun. Basically, I am on schedule so far in regards to filming, and hopefully everything works out like it should by tuesday.

Rodney Mullen

Who is the first person that comes to mind when skateboarding is mentioned? Tony Hawk. While Tony brought skateboarding to the mainstream, Rodney skated in the background. What most people don't know is that Rodney is the most accomplished skateboarder of all time, and he is still going strong. Mullen and Hawk skated together growing up when they were a part of the Bones Brigade. One interesting fact about Mullen is that out of 34 contests, he had only lost once, coming in second place because he was sick. He is a pioneer of more tricks than any other skater, and he is still pushing the envelope. One of my favorite quotes of all time is from Mullen,

"Do what you love and try not to look at what other people occupy themselves with. Most people seem restless and bounce around too much to focus or even pay attention enough to themselves to figure out exactly what they really do love, as opposed to what the people that surround them are doing."

After school, one of the things I would like to do is be involved in the production of skate media, whether I'm filming or editing. For our first project, I am going to be filming friends and I skating, and I thought this was a good indicator of what the best in the world are doing right now with skating.

Mockumentaries

Mockumentaries are something I enjoy thoroughly in the world of film. The name mockumentary pretty much explains itself, a mockery of a documentary. Spinal Tap is a classic example, and Reno 911 as well. The following video I selected is from Gangsta Rap: The Glockumentary. It's about a rap group, "Gangsta Rap", that started the entire gangsta rap scene is now making a comeback "at the top of their game." Murda Mike and Du-Rag provide the lyrics with DJ Ballistics at the wheels. The movie had me laughing throughout, and it shows that you don't need a large budget to create something better than what is offered at the theatre. This particular song is their single off the related soundtrack, which I discovered in the KDUR station. Many of the songs on the cd are featured in the film, and they all sound like 80's gangsta rap (NWA).

Mindmap Exercise