Agilmore21's Blog

Showing our rough cut

agilmore21 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 06:15:54 +0000

Today we showed our rough cut of our remix afghanistan project. I’m really pleased and proud of how its come along. I’m especially proud of Mike, becuase he’s been our editor because he’s the only one who really knows what hes doing. This project was a great way for me to see the lengthy process that goes into editing and producing a film. Right now our film is only about three minutes of footage, but it took countless hours of planning, scripting, finding clips and editing. I used to think film was a soft major because they didnt really have tests or papers, but I see how much work goes into it and I certainly don’t envy them. As far as Afghanistan goes I’ve learned so much about the war, both the good and bad. Our film stayed sort of neutral and didnt take an overall position, and I’m kind of glad we did. I think its easy to turn on the TV and see analysts either being for or against the war, but its harder to just see the facts presented the way we did it. We still have some work to be done putting the final touches on our film but I am pleased with the progress as of right now.

Visit to Brave New films

agilmore21 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:28:08 +0000

This was a post that was supposed to go up a couple weeks ago, I was able to jot some thoughts down but unable to finsish, and then got so busy with midterms I almost forgot to finish. But back to the subject, visiting brave new films was not what I had expected. The “offices,” if you could even call them that, since they were more like former apartment houses, seemed very homely and intimate. The people were very nice and seemed glad we were there. But the biggest suprise was us being put on a screening stage to watch an interview. The studio itself was very professional with fancy looking equipment, and it was a trip just to be in there and witness them at work. Not only did we learn what they thought of their film and what they hope to achieve, but we also got some insight to some of the grueling process they had to go through to get this footage. Personally, I’m curious to see what they do with the footage of us!

Remixing Afghanistan, first day brainstorm

agilmore21 — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 06:00:28 +0000

Today we started brainstorming for our project of remixing Afghanistan. My group is focusing on mainly a timeline of events of the war since 9/11. Overall we want to show how while there has been some improvement, the overarching theme is how military action hasn’t really made the country better, and has cost the US lives and money. Also something I’m really interested in is the topic we discussed in class about how this war couldnt be won even under the best circumstances because we declared war on an ideaology, which cannot be killed or captured. The idea of a “cosmic war” seems fascinating to me and I think that will be a large part of our video.

twitter and sports

agilmore21 — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:48:52 +0000

I am a sports fan, so to see new media taking over in realms that I follow is rediculous

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4508595

Apparently twitter has become so prevalent in the NBA in somewhat harmful ways, that the leauge has imposed new policies to be able to deal with it, possibly imposing fines. If you had told Michael Jordan 10 years ago he could be fined for “tweeting” he probably just would have an incredulous look on his face.

But the article barely mentioned one of the points I thought was most important and relevant to New Media. At the end of last season, Minnesota Timberwolves coach Kevin Mchale decided he wasnt coming back to coach the team. Timberwolves forward Kevin Love broke the news on his twitter account. He completely circumvented the old standby of press conferences and sports writers that has been in use for decades. Basically, twitter allowed him to change the platform thats sports news is released. This is part of the reason why newspapers are dying out, because new media has allowed the newsmakers to break news themselves online.

red vs blue: Why are we here?

agilmore21 — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:42:24 +0000

Why are we here? A valid question, but not one posed by me. This is the subject of the machinima red vs blue, about the lives of halo characters. In the game, the object is to kill the other players and take over their base, ignoring the question why and to what point. The only reason the opposing base is there is because you’re there. And even if you “win” and take over the base, well, in the words of red vs blue “whoop de fucking doo,” you win a base in the middle of a desert. Lowood writes about ho getting killed in a video game is “frusturating but temporary setback…there is no way out of this barren wasteland or meaningless war.” The red vs blue brings to light the idea of blindly following orders, as many soldiers do in real life, yet it questions the justification for that decision. That is why this machinima is important, and proves that new media, while being comical and satirical, can also be groundbreaking and thought-provoking

mcdonalds video game

agilmore21 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:29:57 +0000

The mcdonalds video game really stood out to me for several reasons. First, the application of games as an educational tool. Games have always been used as a way to make learning fun, and even when I was growing up I played games such as Oregon Trail and Number munchers to learn all sorts of skills. So the concept is nothing new, but the new media we have in this day and age makes the platform, or interface, different. The web and its tools open up the possiblities for games, and in turn learning possibilities for kids.

The second idea was just a response to the question that came up in class: Would these games just work for children, or college students as well? From a simple entertainment standpoint, our class proved that it would work for us, as we were thouroughly enchanted by the game. But me personally, being an Econ major I saw definite parallels, Decision making as related to supply and demand and also prioritizing ethics or profit margins. The real world applications were there, proving that learning can be fun for adults too. And new media is a huge reaason for that

Tron movie

agilmore21 — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 22:48:16 +0000

I just watched Tron for the first time and was blown away by the film. The entire premise of the film with the world inside of the computer and the users being Gods, believed in by their programs was really fascinating. There were some things I didnt quite understand, like why didn’t master control just kill flynn as soon as he got in the computer, what possible reason was there to put him through the games, when there was the probability of him escaping, which he actually did with the help of Tron and RAM.

In terms of New Media, what really stuck out to me was the whole idea of videogames and how much theyve changed. On a simple interface level, the games of that early 80s era were much more futuristic in style and development. Even though they were made back then, the worlds were made to look like the future. But games today, whether they are sports or adventure games, are made to look like today. They pride themselves on their realism and realisticness. The point of a football video game is to play like your actually playing a football game. The point of cops game is to play like you are actually a cop in real life. Its just fascinating to see the shift in videogames in the media, ironically as time has gone on the games themselves become much less stylish.

Hello world!

agilmore21 — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:42:42 +0000

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!