Freak Factor

http://changethis.com/manifesto/45.02.FreakFactor/pdf/45.02.FreakFactor.pdf

When you click that link, you will be taken to a manifesto that will help you discover your weaknesses, and instead of trying to help rid you of them, will help you to embrace them.

Essentially, the entire article describes 9 ways to harness your weaknesses, your disabilities and your addictions. Your “freak factor”. Not only to harness them, but to make them into strengths, and help you become a more successful individual. 

Of these 9 ways, I have found three different pieces of advice that I think are actually very helpful, and meaningful to me. 

#3: Flawless: There’s Nothing Wrong With You

Here, author David Rendall makes the claim that “each of us has unique characteristics. These characteristics have both positive and negative features.” He says that the strengths and weaknesses cannot be separated, they come only in pairs. He also makes a chart showcasing some of the most common.

Some of my “Strength and Weakness” pairs are here:

Creative/Unorganized, Dedicated/Stubborn, Reflective/Shy, and Passionate/Impatient

He goes on to describe the idea of messiness being a weakness, and why this shouldn’t be so. Many of the greatest minds of our century have been messy. Alexander Fleming, for example, found the cure for penicillin in his mess of a lab after returning from vacation. Albert Enstein has said “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what is an empty desk a sign of?”

This makes me feel so much better about myself.

#5: Foundation: Build on your Strengths

In #4, Rendall says that you should not try to fix your weaknesses. That it is a painful and slow process that is actually more of a hindrance to us than a benefit. But in this section, he does say that we should work on building our strengths. He makes the claim that if you don’t use it, you lose it, so we should never think that our strengths will always be there. 

He also says three things:

“

1)It feels good. It is enjoyable and energizing to work on your strengths.

2)You have the greatest potential in your areas of strength. These are your natural gifts and provide you with your best chances for success.

3)Your strengths make up for your weaknesses. Well-developed strenths often make your weaknesses irrelevant.

”

This is refreshing and a relief to hear. I love the idea that our strengths make up for our weaknesses. 

#8: Freak: The Power of Uniqueness

In this section, Rendall describes how the Leaning Tower of Pisa was built. How they made every attempt to stop the tower from leaning, and for years afterwards, would even try to correct the “problem”. However, people, including this blogger and her family, have flocked by the millions to see this tower lean. (And strangely, all of the buildings in the same plaza seem to lean as well...) 

It is the thing that made it’s builders view it as a mistake that has made it such an impossibly huge tourist attraction today. 

In some ways I am reminded of Lady Gaga. Seriously, what a freak. But in all honesty, look at her. There can be only one Lady Gaga. No matter what she does now, now matter how crazy she gets or how many steaks she decides to wear to the Grammy’s, she will always be a unique and totally irreplaceable individual. It’s why she has such an incredibly strong following. She prides herself on being a freak, and that is what has made her famous. Although I don’t want to be Lady Gaga necessarily, I do want to be the only Maddie you’ll ever know.

Collapsus

www.Collapsus.com

Heroes and Villains

I looked at a few different Heroes and Villains assignments and I think I have come up with some that are pretty well-executed!

The first I would like to take a look at is hero and villain designed by Yingqi and her partner. Here's the link: http://yingqi203mdia.blogspot.com/2011/05/hero-villian.html I think that this pair of characters created had a great use of lighting. The villain, for example, was shrouded in shadow. his cape covers his face, he has a large hat that casts a shadow over him, and he even wears an eyepatch, which hides his face even further. Even his background is dark and shadowy. Dark and angular, he is clearly the villain. The hero here, however, is exceedingly bright and well lit. Although he wear a similar large hat, he keeps his head held high, and light covers his face. His face is also much rounder. There is such good contrast between these two characters. Both the colors used and the lighting differences really make them seem like they fight for opposite morals. However, the artist responsible also did a good job of making these characters seem like they come from the same universe or storyline. I like the obvious use of a point in time, sometime in the past, to give them a clear universe, and they were clearly done by the same artist, which always helps when looking for affinity between characters. All in all, I thought that this piece was very well done.

Another post I looked at was by Anthony Aerni and his partner. This hero and villain pair were actually a can of Pepsi and a can of Orange Crush. Here’s the link to their animation: http://m2d0i3a.blogspot.com/2011/05/herovillain-assignment-8a.html I liked this idea, and the animation is funny, although I wish they had included the colored versions of their characters, at least the pictures, in their post. I know that these two characters employed a good use of color, the can of Pepsi in blues and reds, and the can of Orange Crush completely orange. But their animation also used a good deal of movements, and used it very well. I loved the way that they expressed the powers of the two characters. The characters had a clear weight, and seemed quite heavy, which I can imagine is hard to do when trying to design two cans of soda as “super”. They also used overlapping movements very well, when Pepsi envelopes the convenience store clerk (a banana?) in soda, for example. Another good example of this is during the “Mortal Kombat”-esque fighting scene. I think that the hero and villain in this case are very good examples of tension and release as well. The villain is so ANGRY looking. Furrowed brow, angry eyes, sharp teeth. He simply looks like a meany. But our hero is, while at times angular, a much happier looking character. An orange slice cements his smile at all times. It was a relief when he finally arrived. 

The final pair of supers I would like to take a closer look at were created by Nolan Alexander and his partner. Here are the links to the hero: http://soulbrotha91.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-super-hero.html and villain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36B1VsilJsM Unfortunately, the person in charge of the villain did not post a good picture of their villain in color. But as you can see, the hero, B-Girl, shows how well color was used in this set of individuals. B-Girl is meant to be a bionic ninja. Since she is a ninja, she has to be shrouded in darkness, and so her colors are darker shades of darker colors; Blues and purples. In spite of this, she still seems good to us because she is so whimsical. In this case, you almost have to suspend what you might know about colors and how they should be applied, because the hero isn’t always bright, is he? Batman, for example, runs around in black, but we still hold him above other people, even above public servants at times. I think that the colors they decided to use were extremely effective. 

Superpowers

Here’s a link to a podcast on “This American Life” about superpowers. It’s pretty interesting, take a look!

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/178/superpowers

Animation Time!

Here is the animation that I made, alongside my partner Katie Mack!

Video Jokes

This was, honestly, one of my favorite projects from this class. It was so much fun to take up the roles I am so interested in making a career out of.

And I was so excited to have my script chosen to be made into one of our videos. We actually chose two extraordinarily different videos made. One, a romantic comedy, the other a western.

Our first video, entitled "La Boite" (and written by me!) was a silent film and a romantic comedy. Written to be performed without any words spoken, it follows a day in the life of a not-so-talented mime. He ends up falling in love! It's very Charlie Chaplin-esque. The joke in this video, therefore, had to be conveyed by the movements and the emotions of the characters, as opposed to any dialogue.This means that the movie was largely focused on movement and rhythm, and that this movement was largely character-drawn. There is a clear link between the movements on screen and the music used in the movie, an example of this would be when the mim character walks into frame for the first time, and his footsteps match the beat of the music almost exactly. The colors in this movie were also very important, with the red of the suspenders and his cheeks contrasting with largely green backgrounds.

Our second video, "Hey There, Harry" was a traditional western. We also made this a silent film, but instead of leaving out all dialogue, we added in slides with the words on them. This movie was rendered to be in an old-timey sepia color. In this video, we largely tried to convey the joke by using movement, as in our other movie, but also by using space. As it was a silent movie, the characters had to use bold movements, but there is also a clear use of depth when looking at the scenes.

There is both contrast and affinity between both projects. For example, one could say that the use of movement is similar in both jokes, but that there is a clear difference in rhythm and space between the two. The coloring of the projects also adds to this contrast, quite literally. One is extremely bright and colorful, while the other is more monotone, dark, and even colorless.

It's hard to say which video portrayed the joke better. I think that, when looking at the joke itself, it is more clearly defined in "Hey There Harry", where it is said almost literally, while in "La Boite" it is implied as a plot device.

Videos!

Here are the links to the two videos my group did for MDIA 203. Hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rB2umBQ5O4&feature=channel_video_title

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc4TI9HvqKo