Extra Credit Assignment...

This is my own personal manifesto, which was inspired and influenced by Karim Rashid's Creative Manifesto. Though the full manifesto is not yet available, some of it can be found at karimrashid.com.

Below is my creative manifesto. Each point, though subjective opinion, I view objectively as I work toward my own creative dreams...

THE CREATIVE MANIFESTO OF JAC COOPER.

1. Never create for the sake of another. Whether you're trying to meet a deadline, or finish a project, you should always be creating with your own creative integrity in mind.
2. Creating should not be looked at as work, or treated as play. It is of its own category as far as time management is concerned (work, eat, play, sleep, create, etc.).
3. Leave a legacy. Everything that you create is a reflection of yourself, whether it is a part of your progression towards greatness, or created at the perceived pinnacle of your creative career.
4. Think long-term. Both in general and in terms of what the audience/yourself want, or need.
5. Save your drafts. Though looking back a draft might not seem important, drafts can spawn more than one single avenue.
6. Set goals for yourself. Whether you are the type of person who works well on a strict schedule or not, give yourself creative tasks to be completed by certain times. These could be looked at as personal deadlines.
7. Collaborate. You may think your ideas are great, but every idea can only be greater. Great works of art throughout history may be renowned, but it is undeniable that each could be objectively better.
8. Use your resources. Focus on what you do have at your fingertips rather than on what you do not have. Making a list of resources can help to realize the best/quickest way to get a project completed.
9. Do your research. Anything that you are truly passionate about should be engaging enough to research what is already known about it.
10. Believe. So many people stop creating when they are young because they do not believe that they can be the best at anything artistic. No one who is in fact the best in there field gets to that position by not believe in themselves.

If you want it, you got it. It's all about the passion.

JAC...

Assignment 10A...

This is a written response to "FREAK FACTOR", an article by David Rendall that be found on Change This. (To go to Change This, simply click on the words "freak factor"above).

In David Rendall's "Freak Factor" he details nine suggestions for creative individuals. In general, I believe that Rendall has good suggestions, but his attempts at being quirky with his logic and wording get in the way of the main message behind each point.

Below, I have detailed the three of Rendall's suggestions which I believe were the strongest/best for creative individuals.

1. "Whats Your Problem"...

I believe the tagline for this idea, written by George Eliot, is almost stronger than the idea itself. The tagline reads: "It's never too late to be who you might have been." I think that even creative individuals some times believe that they have put so many of their artistic eggs in one basket, and therefore tend not to explore other realms of creativity. That's not to say that a singer might not try out acting, or an actor might not try out drawing. I just think people need to realize that there is always time and room to improve.

5. "Foundation: Build On Your Strengths"...

It probably seems odd that I chose this as one of my favorite of Rendall's points, as it seems to directly contradict the last point that both Rendall and I made. Despite this, I believe that honing ones true, inherent talents is extremely important. I'm just saying while someone hones a skill they know they have, they should keep an open mind to other creative outlets. This is especially true for the creative industry, in that there is much trans-media such that talents in one field can aid an artist in another field.

6. "Freak: The Power Of Uniqueness"...

I think many people starting in the creative industry focus too much on what has worked in the past, and not enough on what they truly want to say/create. If what they want to say/create is unique, then that is all the more reason to test the waters. Vampires weren't popular three years ago. Now they are because of one book, not because of all of the books that came after it. No one will remember the knock-ooff "Teenage Vampire Diary" type of stuff; they will remember the forerunner, Twilight itself. Though this may seem like a goofy example, it is clear evidence that a mix of the past and one's own unique ideas can be successful.

QUESTION:

"What have you found your strengths and weaknesses to be (as far as "the creative process" is concerned)?"

ANSWER:

As far as strengths, I think that my determination, will, and natural talent are some of my greatest assets. These go hand in hand with an ability to communicate with others and get the ideas that I have across. As far as weaknesses, I believe that I often spend too much time on the logistics of a project, rather than purely on what I am trying to create. I hope that as I continue on this path I get better at finding ways to manifest my original ideas, while being willing to see them change along the way.

JAC...

Assignment 9B...

An audio response to Collapsus, a trans-media piece that can be watched by clicking the word...

JAC..

Assignment 9A...

Reflections on the Gaming Presentation...

The video game that my group created is a role playing game called "The Adventures of Ralph". Though I thought our presentation was good overall, there were two points that really didn't come off during our presentation...

MECHANICS.

The mechanics of the game that my group created did not exactly get through to the class. I believe that this is because we as a group kept re-establishing the game concepts as we went through the creative process. Our mechanics were also almost too wide-ranging, even for a role-playing game. Though we did describe our battle engine, as well as the way in which our character would interact with the world, I don't think that the class really got the big picture. I believe that more cohesiveness and understanding among the group members would have allowed the audience to understand the concept better. We had all of the information assimilated to get the message across through words, but verbally I believe that the mechanics were the weakest point.

OBJECTIVES.

I also believe that the objectives within "The Adventures of Ralph" were not presented well. This goes hand in hand with the flaws in our demonstration of the mechanics. Though there are clear objectives within the game, there are too many to really know what the real point or bottom line is. A list of bulleted objectives could have really helped out our presentation, almost like a level-map on simple platform games. A possible representation of this is below:

____________________________________________________________________

The Adventures of Ralph.

Level 1: Ralph's House.

Objectives:

Find a clue to your father's disappearance.

Re-wire the phone to make a distress call.

Level 2: Avenue of Answers.

Objectives:

Defeat ten mutants in combat.

Befriend at least one mutant.

Side-Quests:

Win a "Treasure Bag" in the "Lots of Baggage" min-game.

_____________________________________________________________________

I think our general goals were well-stated as our story structure was probably our strongest point. Despite this, the objective were still not exactly clear. I believe that this simple level-map could have really clued the audience in to the pace of the game overall.

This video demonstrates how I believe that the "goals" are the easiest of the concepts to describe, while the "mechanics" of the game are the hardest, at least in my opinion...

JAC..

Assignment 8B...

(A written reflection on the heroes/villains assignment.)

Below is an image that depicts both the hero (Dr. Foxy) and the villain (The Necerex):

Dr. Foxy/The Necerex

This is a video depicting the way in which these two characters move on screen:

REFLECTIONS...

Essay #1 (Harrison Cummins): I really liked Harrison's hero (he did not post a name for it). At first, I believed that it was a simple stick figure, but once it began to stretch the character became quite dynamic. It makes for quite a didactic view, in that Harrison is always throwing things at you before you have time to consider or process to be an active audience member. Though color and lighting are used very little in his animation, movement is used quite a bit. There is clear parallel movements between his character's arms. Harrison also utilized weight quite well, such as when his hero crushes a villain with his arm, which is clearly a heavy hammer based on the splatter. There is also some impressive utilization of overlapping movements, such as bad guys entering while both of the hero's arms are doing something separate yet simultaneous. Though color is not used much, as I stated before, I like the contrast that is created between the heroes and the villains in this piece based purely on their color. Though this might not seem important, imagine how different it would be if there was affinity among all of the characters instead (ie. if all of the people were light blue, or all of them were pitch black).

Essay #2 (Zack Eisenfeld): I wasn't sure which of the two videos that Zack posted was his, but the first video would not play, so this is a critique of the second video that he posted. Though this animation was quite simple, it did utilize color to define its elements. Though the innocent person is a black stick figure, he could almost be looked at as white, as that is his fill color. In contrast to this, the villain is clearly the villain of this project because his hue is purely red and black, both archaically sinister colors. Though the whole thing is quite 2-dimensional, brightness and saturation are utilized when the building explodes and the fire begins. The center of each flame is more saturated than its red extensions. The text and subtext align within this piece as well, making it clear through both what is seen and what is assumed that this is the villain of the project.

Essay #3 (Kent Engel): Kent's animation is only six seconds long, so it is a bit hard to analyze, but I will do my best. Since it is entirely black and white with no shadowing, the only thing that can be critiqued is its use of movement, which is definitely quite good. Despite this fact, there is absolutely no parallel movements or overlapping movements within this animation. This is partially because Kent sets up a 2-dimensional setting, and has his characters move one at a time within it. It could be argued that Kent used weight however, in that the ripples that are created when his blob moves seem to ebb and flow with each successive frame. This is definitely a didactic view rather than an active one, in that the audience has no time to begin figuring things out for themselves. It is entirely conscious rather than subconscious for this reason as well, in that the audience has no time to think as they are processing what they are viewing.

JAC...

Assignment 8A...

An audio response to the first twenty minutes of "This American Life", Episode 178...

This American Life, Episode 178.

Wolverine, from X-men.

This video is explanation of why Wolverine's powers appeal most to me.

JAC...

Assignment 7...

A Written Reflection on the "Video Joke" Assignment...

As the assignment called for, our group used the same joke, but different scripts, for our videos. The joke goes as follows:

The Joke (#3):

Person #1 got on an elevator in a building.

When Person #1 entered the elevator, there was Pererson #2 already inside and Person #2 greeted Person #1 by saying, "T-G-I-F" (letters only).



Person #1 smiled at Person #2 and replied, "S-H-I-T" (letters only).

"

Person 2 looked at Person #1, puzzled, and said, "T-G-I-F" again.



Person #1 acknowledged Person #1’s remark again by answering, "S-H-I-T."



Person #2 was trying to be friendly, so s/he smiled a big smile and said as nicely as possibly "T-G-I-F" another time.



Person #1 smiled back and once again replied with a quizzical expression, "S-H-I-T."



Person #2 finally decided to explain things, and this time s/he said, "T-G-I-F, Thank Goodness It's Friday, get it?"



The man answered, "Sorry, Honey, It's Thursday."

Below are the two final videos based on this joke. Each are from separate scripts that each attempt to interpret this same joke.

Joke/Video #1:

Joke/Video #2:

MY OPINION:

I believe that the Video #2 worked the best over all.

Both videos played with rhythm and line, but I believe the Joke #2 did this better.

This is interesting, because we intentionally used the elevator shaft in Joke #1, because we thought that it's vertical lines would create good spacial dimensions. It is true that the lines do cue depth of field within the movie, especially when the elevator door opens and we see the girl and the boy at the same time, the back wall's lines working with the frame of the elevator door to really show depth within the frame.

That being said, it is still my opinion that the horizontal lines created by the stone seats that the actors sit on in Joke #2 use line much better, creating a much more active depth of field. This more active depth of field begins from the beginning of the video, when the audience sees Nick further back in the background. Though Nick is ignored throughout the movie until the end, the lines creating this depth of field allow the audience to play with ideas as to how Nick might come into the story.

Joke #1 is much more didactic, in that there is not much room for the audience to guess at meaning, or what is to come in the video. We intentionally guide the audience into the elevator with restricted framing, and from there, through the rest of the remaining minute, or so of the scene, all that is seen is the two actors and their reactions to one another.

Both videos utilize text and subtext as well. This similarity, despite the aforementioned ways in which the two videos contrast, is probably because the two scripts that we wound up using were so similar.

The text itself within the video literally reads "tgif" and "shit". This is especially personified within Video #2, where the text is actually displayed for the audience to see. Despite this blunt use of text, however, the subtext goes much deeper, in that each letter of each original word stands for a word in and of itself. Each of these words has meaning alone, as well as a differing combined meaning when juxtaposed next to one another.

JAC..