Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Editing Within Digital Filmmaking Essay Example for Free

Editing Within Digital Filmmaking Essay Lori Landay elucidates that in the present age of digital transformations, communications and storytelling, the saying of McLuhan that the medium is the message can be further said that the media is the mix. Digital forms of narrative are not only characterized by their mixed, hybrid forms and content, but by their recombinations. It is used to draw the spectator into the mix in many different ways. It is through the mixing of the different degrees of non-linearity and interactivity that digital narratives are able to form different kinds of digital spectatorship. She looks at three films and states that in different yet interconnected ways, these ways can tend to divert the spectator from the traditional ways of finding meaning to one’s narrative. Different modes are able to elicit different ways of storytelling and fresh ways of looking, thereby, editing scenes in the process. Source 2: Tsai, Tabitha and Czarnecki, Kelly . Digital filmmaking for the 21st century. Library Journal, 2/1/2008. Machinima Goes Mainstream. Article Retrieved June 9, 2008 http://journal. media-culture. org. au/0104/trans. php Machinima is a filmmaking genre that is used in order to shape video for the 21st century. It is a new term that is coined from the words machine and cinema and is a genre of filmmaking that was originally conceived by gamers in the 1990s. During the past years, machinima has gone more mainstream and creativity has been maximized to the limits. Machinima is filmmaking that is done within a real-time, 3-D kind of environment. Basically, machinima uses real-world filmmaking techniques within an interactive virtual environment where characters and events are controlled by humans, scripts, or artificial intelligence. The video games are the ones that provide the settings, props, costumes, and characters which are needed to be able to tell an original story. Filmmakers are able to capture actual footage as MTV Central and video games like Sims 2 have in-game recording options which help the filmmakers to capture footage. For this to be accessed, there is a need for a screen capture software program in order to import game environments where there are no built-in machinima tools. Remixing audio and video content is also among the newer gadgets available among budding machinimists. Source 3: Theodosakis, Nikos. How Digital Filmmaking Develops Higher-Order Thinking Skills. Article Retrieved June 9, 2008 at: http://www. vste. org/publications/journal/attach/vj_1602/vj_1602_08. pdf This article posits that in the classroom, the process of filmmaking entails that students must be able to imagine what they will need in order to come up with a movie. They need to develop a strategy that involves managerial skills such as planning, production and editing where they will start gathering a logical series of events. The author logical lays out what is entailed in the planning stage emphasizing that feature films are rarely shot in a sequential order in order to save time, money and effort. As part of editing, the scenes are grouped according to location or actors or even according to equipment availability. Analytical skills must also be present to a large measure so that during the editing process, one can see multiple takes of the same shots and multiple shots of the same scene and then decide which information best illustrates the message being set forth (Theodosakis). The author wants to point out that the goal of filmmaking in the classroom must be executed so that students will be able to experience these skills in preparation for the future use in their own worlds beyond the classroom.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

History and Future of Music Storage Methods :: Audio Technology Essays

History and Future of Music Storage Methods Music is all around us. It is interesting to see the progress of technology in music and how it has shaped our culture. Wax Cylinders Wax cylinders (vinyl) have a mechanical method of recording and playing music. The data on the cylinder is stored linearly. It senses the transducer signal (vibrations) of the record and transmits it to a diaphragm. Sound was recorded onto a tin foil cylinder when the idea of a phonograph was first conceived. This was done by a diaphragm. The diaphragm captures the vibration of the soundwaves, which makes the needle (or stylus) imprint a mechanical form of the soundwave in an analog form onto the tin foil. When playback is desired, the impressions left on the tin foil from the original sound would then cause the needle to move, causing the diaphragm to vibrate, displacing the air and replicating the original sound. Before the phonograph, invented by Thomas Edison in 1877, was the phonautograph by Leon Scott. I could record sound, however, not reproduce it. Audiocassettes Howstuffworks.com Audiocassettes are a magnetic form of storing music. They proceeded vinyl records due to their compact design and lowered risk of being damaged. Cassettes are recorded linearly. Unlike the vinyl record, it uses a ferromagnetic substance to create a magnetized medium on the tape. It was popular because of its’ simplicity, one could record over the tape and it would retain it’s data. The transmitter is an electromagnet, which is used to record the tape. There are two sides to a tape, each side containing memory for 2 channels (stereo). The audiocassette is an easier and flexible method of storing data than that of the phonograph. A phonograph is easier to damage than the cassette because it is not protected against the elements of everyday wear and tear. Scratches damage the phonograph’s ability to playback the recorded data on the phonograph. However, the audiocassette is prone to other types of damage than the phonograph. If left near a magnetic item, the fidelity of the data in the cassette may be at risk. â€Å"This electromagnet is tiny - perhaps the size of a flattened pea. The electromagnet consists of an iron core wrapped with wire, as shown in the figure. During recording, the audio signal is sent through the coil of wire to create a magnetic field in the core. At the gap, magnetic flux forms a fringe pattern to bridge the gap and this flux is what magnetizes the oxide on the tape.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Convocation Address Essay

As part of his attempts to survive the horrors of the camp, Faludy (a university professor) gave mini-lectures in the barracks at night on a variety of subjects. Some of the fellow prisoners eagerly joined in; others declined. Faludy notes, â€Å"Those who died . . . ere always the men who had been most determined to survive, those who had concentrated on nothing but food, sleep and warmth . . . I was reluctant to admit the obvious: that delighting in a good poem or discussing Plato’s Socratic dialogue could somehow arm the spirit to the point that it could prevent the body’s collapse. † He concludes his address with this realization: â€Å"Our whole fragile tradition of art and thought is neither an amusement nor a yoke. For those who steep themselves in it, it provides both a guide and a goal for surpassing all the half-baked ideologies that have blown up at our feet in this century like landmines . . All we have to guide us in this present is the accumulated thought and experience of those who have lived before us. † This convocation address has had a significant impact on my view of education. Most people agree that there is potentially something noble about teaching, yet Faludy proves it. I am reminded of film critic Roger Ebert’s assessment of the film Life is Beautiful in which Ebert argues that since Jewish prisoner Guido is a clown, comedy becomes his weapon. Faludy was an educator. Education was his weapon. As it is for us all.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Who Were the Parents of Hercules

Hercules, better known to classicists as Heracles, technically had three parents, two mortal and one divine. He was raised by Amphitryon and Alcmene, a human king and queen who were cousins and grandchildren of Zeus son Perseus. But, according to the legends, Heracles biological father was actually Zeus himself. The story of how this came about is known as The Amphitryon, a tale told many times over the centuries.   Key Takeaways: Hercules' Parents Hercules (or more properly Heracles) was the son of Alcmene, a beautiful and virtuous Theban woman, her husband Amphitryon, and the god Zeus.  Zeus seduced Alcmene by taking the form of her absent husband. Alcmene had twin sons, one credited to Amphitryon (Iphicles) and one credited to Zeus (Hercules).  The oldest version of the story was written by the Archaic Greek writer Hesiod in the Shield of Heracles in the 6th century BCE, but many others have followed.   Hercules Mother Hercules mother was Alcmene (or Alcmena), the daughter of Electryon, the king of Tiryns and Mycenae. Electryon was one of the sons of Perseus, who in turn was the son of Zeus and the human Danae, making Zeus, in this case, his own great-great-grandfather-in-law. Electryon had a nephew, Amphitryon, who was a Theban general betrothed to his cousin Alcmene. Amphitryon accidentally killed Electryon and was sent into exile with Alcmene to Thebes, where King Creon cleansed him of his guilt.   Alcmene was beautiful, stately, virtuous, and wise. She refused to marry Amphitryon until he avenged her eight brothers, who had fallen in battle against the Taphians and Teleboans. Amphitryon went off to battle, pledging to Zeus that he would not return until he had avenged Alcmenes brothers deaths and burned the villages of the Taphians and Teleboans to the ground. Zeus had other plans. He wanted a son who would defend gods and men against destruction, and he chose neat-ankled Alcmene as the mother of his son. While Amphitryon was away, Zeus disguised himself as Amphitryon and seduced Alcmene, in a night that was three nights long, conceiving Heracles. Amphitryon returned on the third night, and made love to his lady, conceiving a fully human child, Iphicles.   Hera and Heracles While Alcmene was pregnant, Hera, Zeus jealous wife and sister, found out about his child-to-be. When Zeus announced that his descendant born that day would be king over Mycenae, he had forgotten that Amphitryons uncle, Sthenelus (another son of Perseus), was also expecting a child with his wife. Wanting to deprive her husbands secret love child of the prestigious prize of the Mycenaean throne, Hera induced Sthenelus wife into labor and made the twins root deeper into Alcmenes womb. As a result, Sthenelus cowardly son, Eurystheus, wound up ruling Mycenae, rather than mighty Heracles. And Heracles mortal step-cousin was the one to whom he brought the fruits of his Twelve Labors. The Birth of Twins Alcmene gave birth to the twin boys, but it was soon made clear that one of the boys was superhuman and the child of her inadvertent liaison with Zeus. In Plautus version, Amphitryon learned of Zeus impersonation and seduction from the seer Tiresias and was outraged. Alcmene fled to an altar around which Amphitryon placed fire logs, which he proceeded to light. Zeus rescued her, preventing her death by extinguishing the flames. In fear of Heras wrath, Alcmene abandoned Zeus child in a field outside of the city walls of Thebes, where Athena found him and brought him to Hera. Hera suckled him but found him too powerful, and sent him back to his mother, who gave the child the name of Heracles, the Glory of Hera.  Ã‚   Versions of the Amphitryon   The earliest version of this tale has been attributed to Hesiod (ca. 750–650 BCE), as part of the Shield of Heracles. It was also the basis for a tragedy by Sophocles (5th century BCE), but nothing of that has survived.   In the second century BCE, the Roman playwright T. Maccius Plautus told the story as a five-act tragicomedy called Jupiter in Disguise (likely written between 190 and 185 BCE), recasting the story as an essay on the Roman notion of paterfamilias: it does end happily.   Be of good cheer, Amphitryon; I am come to thy aid: thou hast nothing to fear; all diviners and soothsayers let alone. What is to be, and what has past, I will tell thee; and so much better than they can, inasmuch as I am Jupiter. First of all, I have made loan of the person of Alcmena, and have caused her to be pregnant with a son. Thou, too, didst cause her to be pregnant, when thou didst set out upon the expedition; at one birth has she brought forth the two together. One of these, the one that is sprung from my parentage, shall bless thee with deathless glory by his deeds. Do thou return with Alcmena to your former affection; she merits not that thou shouldst impute it to her as her blame; by my power has she been compelled thus to act. I now return to the heavens.   More recent versions have been mostly comedies and satires. English poet John Drydens 1690 version focused on morality and the misuse of power. German playwright Heinrich von Kleists version was first staged in 1899; Frenchman Jean Giraudouxs Amphitryon 38 was staged in 1929, and another German version, Georg Kaisers Zwiemal Amphitryon (Double Amphitryon) in 1945. Giraudouxs 38 is itself a joke, referencing how many times the play had been adapted. Sources Burgess, Jonathan S. Coronis Aflame: The Gender of Mortality. Classical Philology 96.3 (2001): 214–27. Print.Hesiod. Shield of Heracles. Trans. Hugh G. Evelyn-White. In The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914. Print.Nagy, Gregory. The Ancient Greek Hero in 24 Hours. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press, 2013. Print.Neumarkt, Paul. The Amphitryon Legend in Plautus, Molià ¨re, Dryden, Kleist, Giraudoux. American Imago 34.4 (1977): 357–73. Print.Papadimitropoulos, Loukas. Heracles as Tragic Hero. The Classical World 101.2 (2008): 131–38. Print.