Digital Story 2010

RMFTR - A Digital Story from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.

James Cameron and Celine Dion are taking over the world...

This guy is everywhere it seems. Not only did he just put out another mega blockbuster with Avatar, but his one before that, Titanic, is still just as a alive as ever...

Also, Celine Dion gets thrown into these references, so its not just Cameron, but the two together that get so often mentioned, thus inspiring this rant.

I had three classes in a row yesterday, in three different genres of study, and had all three teachers in some way or another mention the film Titanic.

In TCF, Dr. R mentioned how the score of Titanic with Celine Dion belting as the ship sinks would have sucked without that...

Then, in Stress Management, we were practicing mediatation methods and the professor says "just imagine Celine Dion singing the song from Titanic as you monitor your breathing"... I immediately notice this as the second Titanic/Celine reference and think, "what the fuck is up with this?"

THEN, in my next class, AMS 300: the histpry of popular music, I fully expected to hear a celine/titanic reference because we have a book we are reading about this canadian dude trying to figure out the worlds obbsession with Dion and why he hates her.... and sure enough, within the first 5 minutes the teacher is comparing some 1930s broadway lyics by Hammerstein to "my heart will go on" and i knew it had happened:

Celine Dion and James Cameron had officially taken over the world as we know it.

-End Rant-

Stories, of the digital variety.

I have had some trouble finding specfic digital stories that i can personally connect to or find interesting in terms of what i normally enjoy. So, in order to complete the assignment, I have decided to post some ones that I thought were good, although I was underwhelmed (which surprised me, partly due to the fact i couldnt find any about the music/film/sports, etc that i follow almost religiously) by most things I found. But, here goes nothing.

So the first one is from the CDS under the place category, titled Untitled. I thought this was good because she incorporated some moving video along with pictures and also some schnazzy editing to add some more "umph" to the piece. I liked the subtitles obviously, as i do not speak espanol very fluently. But what i liked about the context is that she is able to see where she has been in life and use that as a positive towards her future. I screengrabbed the one scene with the line "its not the road, but the destination that counts" because that is true and all of lifes endeavours. You cant appreciate where you are without knowing from whence you came.

And then, I came across this one titled "First Person Digital Story".

The title didnt catch my attention in any specific way, in fact it was one of the less creative ones I saw but decided to click it anyways. Its the story of a daughter celebrating the death of her father in a most peculiar way. The story is told from the POV of one her co-workers/friends and is an unbridled and unfiltered look at the events that unfolded on this night... I really enjoyed this one, so I hope you do to.

First Person Digital Story from Gavin Atilano on Vimeo.

My Audio Project

Okay folks, here is the long awaited debut audio story from "Monsters in the Closet", home of the newest and most badass ghost stories you have ever heard....

Brandon Baker-- Audio Story-- Monsters in the Closet from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.


I am just kidding, but it the premise for my audio story. I will admit I procrastinated a little on this one but I think it turned out pretty good. I wanted to do something humorous but not over the top. I struggled to find a good idea until I just sat down and recorded a good ole mad lib rant... and this is what came of it.

Through this project, I learned that telling a story without video, for me, is a lot more difficult than I thought. With only audio, you have to achieve everything you want with just audible sounds and that made it a unique challenge. I feel like I did an okay job of telling a story and I hope you get a kick out of it. So, enjoy.



...On another note, my good friends The Hypsys won the Wakarusa Classic lastnight in ttown at the Jupiter and have earned a spot at the Wakarusa Festival in Arakansas. Here a music video I did for them last semester, boom. So, go check em out or your gonna cry.

For your listening pleasure...

The Ricky Gervais podcast.

I heard about this one as I watched Conan's farewell tour this past week from the Tonight Show. He had Ricky Gervais, creator of the BBC's "The Office", on the show and he was plugging his new show and the premise caught my attention. So, I decided to add this to my audio blog. The new show is an annimated cartoon called the Ricky Gervais Show debuting on HBO soon. What started this was Gervais and two of his friends would sit in a room and record themselves talking about popular culture and trends and then releasing them as podcasts for your ears to hear. The podcast was such a success that they developed them into a cartoon, so technically its not strictly audio anymore but the video your seeing is created from the topics they dicussed originally and recorded on the audio track.

This next one, The Deadpod, is a podcast/blog that a man called The Professor runs. He goes through and finds great live, and often rare, recordings of The Grateful Dead and shares them with the masses for our enjoyment. I really like this one because as a big Dead fan, I can go here and find music that I have never heard before and get to enjoy them almost as if I was there. It is not the most common podcast format since there isnt much talking but, to me, that is the beauty because its all about the music and it will always set you free!

Thanks for stopping by, come back soon for more class/personal blog posts. Peace!

Media Diet

So, after tracking my media diet over the last few days I have realized I use a good bit of different media's throughout my everyday meandering. What was most striking is the almost habitual routine I followed during the course of a day... it seemed I would listen to my IPOD, go to class, IPOD, class, IPOD, computer, sleep-- or something like that.

This exercise has shown me that in today's age, media usage is done constantly thoughout a day both conciously and subconsciously. We has humans have come to the point that we literally cannot function normally without a phone or computer right next to us at all times. Media is the new frontier of the human lifestlyle and we can either fight it or go with the flow and embrace our advances in the field and use them to our advantage both career-wise and liesually.

Here is an excerpt from one of my days:
10:45-11AM: Walked to class listening to my IPOD (Frank Zappa)
11AM-12:15PM: Sat in class as the teacher used powerpoint to lecture us.
12:15-12:30PM: Walked to class with IPOd (MMW and the White Stripes)
12:30-1:45PM: Sat in class as the teacher used powerpoint, teacher played Celine Dion and Elliot Smith in class for us to break down the song, and I updated my fbook status to promote the film "Moon" which played at the Bama Theater last week.
1:45-2PM: Walked to work listening to IPOD (Radiohead this time)
2-4:45PM: At work, where I am a computer technician so I am constantly using a computer. Also checked email, fbook, and blog. Also read out of different books for class. Enjoyed some youtube time and then I went home.

So, as you can see, media was a constant character in my daily life. Without it, I would be seemingly completely lost in the world. I believe this new media wave is just the beginning and the future is so bright, that well, you better wear some shades.

Assignment: Self Portrait

My Long Portrait