Remix Your Own Music Video

link to video: here

You're the Teacher

Link to the video: here

LLLLLLLLLLLET'S PLAY!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3CV_2lyGi0

“Let’s Plays”, at least to me, are some of the funniest videos I watch on the internet. Why are these types of videos so successful? It is really because you just have a really funny person or group of really funny people playing a game in a way that is very entertaining.  In the end, it really is not so much about the gameplay; it is more about the commentary. Some Let’s Plays have such great commentary that you may not even really need the visual aspect. Most of the time, the visual aspect of the gameplay itself helps a lot, though. Whatever these people are doing, they have me hooked. I have been watching Achievement Hunter videos since before they even did Let’s Plays and I have been watching Yogscast for about a year now. My greatest hope is that this continues to be a popular type of video.

Peace it Together

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK4g2In88sw

In this mood, I am trying to create a mood of peaceful nature and isolation. This is attempted by showing marine animals in an aquatic setting. The isolation is accomplished by the absence of any animals in the final shot.

So Wait, What Changed?

For this project, I played Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 4 from the Halo franchise of games. There is a huge time gap between these two games. Halo: Combat Evolved was released in 2001, while Halo 4 was released in 2012. While these games are two in the same series, they are actually very different. Not just in terms of graphics, but in terms of gameplay as well.

            To start, one key difference between these two games is that Halo 4 has the added armor ability feature. Armor abilities are essentially power-ups to your character that can be activated for a certain period of time before needing to recharge. These abilities include a jetpack, an energy shield, and a holographic decoy. Halo: Combat Evolved does not have armor abilities, but does have “overshield” and invisibility power-ups that can be found in some places in the game. These power-ups, though, must be found during gameplay and activate only once, which is as soon as the player walks through the physical power-up. These differences really affect the dynamics of the games.

            Also, one of the largest differences between the two games is the ability to sprint. Halo 4 allows for sprinting, while the other game does not. This truly has a great impact on overall gameplay. Movement is much slower when not sprinting, therefore making Halo: Combat Evolved somewhat slower-paced than Halo 4. Sprinting was not really a popular gameplay mechanic at the time of Halo: Combat Evolved’s release, so it makes sense for it not to be featured. Transitioning from playing shooters where sprinting is a given to one where you no longer can sprint is a bit of a shock, and it definitely takes some getting used to.

            While those differences are somewhat prevalent, it is time to break into what makes this series great.  What is the main thing going on in either game? The player is shooting aliens. That does not seem like the most original concept in the world. What really grips the player is the story behind why they are shooting at these aliens. At the beginning of Halo: Combat Evolved, it is not really known what is going on. The player later learns that these aliens are trying to essentially destroy the human race. The reason for this is unclear until the next game in the series, Halo 2, in which much of the story of the aliens is revealed. There are just plot twists and turns everywhere, and they keep the games interesting.

            Another thing that draws players back to Halo series time and time again is definitely the protagonist in the main series. Master Chief, John-117, Reclaimer, whatever one may refer to him as, is one of the most iconic characters in all of gaming culture. Why do people seem to like the Chief so much? It has a lot to do with the fact that he is a rather silent character. He has little of his own dialogue in most games in the series, giving the player the opportunity to sort of build their own narrative and increase their immersion in the game. This makes for a unique gameplay experience that is completely linear, yet still allows the player to have some of their own unique experiences.

            Some may disagree with me on this, but the series that is probably the most similar to Halo in terms of the self-narrative aspect is Call of Duty. In many of the games, the player plays a character that is silent the majority of the time. While the player is not necessarily the big hero in Call of Duty, the narrative aspect is similar. The character played does not speak much, so there is a lot of opportunity for players to build up their own narrative.

            With all of that being said, the Halo series is my favorite franchise of all time. It may be something that has lost its luster over the years for some, but it still shines brightly in my mind. The unique storytelling aspect of the game is something that all can appreciate. All of the players out there should be waiting on their next opportunity to go behind the mask of Master Chief. 

Hey! It's a Podcast!

Link to the podcast:

https://soundcloud.com/ln1020/hey-its-a-podcast-mdia-1020

Review Mania

So here are a few movie reviews. The most difficult part of this was making accounts for all of these things.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/1068183/reviews/

http://www.metacritic.com/user/luken1020

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1276104/reviews-668

http://www.moviefone.com/movie/fast--and--furious-6/54333/reviews#main-column (I should be the first review on this one as of 4/11/14)

http://www.amazon.com/review/R25XQD5GLEBO6B/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=630529142X

Shootout Workout

Prison Escape Scene

PRISON HALLWAY – NIGHT 

JEROME closes a door, but leaves it slightly open as he slips into the closet. He looks around at the objects in the room. It is difficult for him to see, due to the low light. Jerome rummages through the junk to eventually find a broom and an external hard drive with a rough exterior. 

JEROME 

(whispers) 

Perfect. 

Jerome slowly sneaks over to the door and quietly closes it. He sits on the floor with his back against the door. Jerome sands the end of the broom stick. He does this as quietly as possible. Jerome hesitates. 

JEROME 

(inside his head) 

Have to be careful. Don’t want the guards hearing what I’m doing in here. 

Jerome more gingerly sands the broom stick. No noise can be heard other than the faint sound of the sanding.  

Some time passes, and Jerome hears footsteps outside of the closet. Outside, GUARD 1 is 

sauntering by. Jerome slouches near the hinge of the doorway. The guard appears to hear the shuffling and more quickly dashes toward the closet. The guard slowly opens the door. 

GUARD 1 

Randy? You in here? 

Guard 1 looks left and right. All he sees is some janitorial junk. 

GUARD 1 

(questioningly) 

Huh. 

Guard 1 slowly closes the door. Jerome more quietly slides back to the middle of the door.  

JEROME 

(inside his head) 

That was too god damn close. 

Jerome continues sanding the broom stick. 

More time passes. The broom stick is now pointed. He snaps off the bristled end with relative ease and with virtually no noise. Jerome hesitantly places the hard drive back in the pile of junk. He listens intently for any footsteps. Nothing is heard. Jerome props the door open and peers out the small gap. He looks left and right. No one is in sight. 

Jerome slowly opens the door and quickly stands up against the wall to the right outside of the closet. He tiptoes his way down the hallway. He thinks he hears a guard and stops to listen. Nothing is heard, so he continues to tiptoe.  

Jerome eventually arrives at the open door of the warden’s office. It is completely dark on the inside. Jerome looks left and right, then slips into the office.  

Jerome flops onto the floor. He crawls behind the warden’s desk. 

JEROME 

(inside his head) 

Have to find that security override device. If I ever want to get out of this hell hole, I will             definitely need it.  

From behind the desk, Jerome uses the little bit of light coming from outside of the room the pick out silhouettes of objects on the desk. He gingerly picks up small box-shaped object. Jerome examines the object with his hand. 

JEROME 

(inside his head) 

Just another hard drive. Why is everyone in this place just leaving their hard drives                     around everywhere? Guess I know where to go if I’m looking for some data storage. 

Jerome feels around for objects on the desk. He feels that he is knocking something off, so he dexterously reaches around the corner of the desk to catch the falling object. 

JEROME 

(inside his head) 

God damn it. I need to be more careful. 

Jerome reaches onto the table again. This time, his hand passes over a small circular object. He attempts to pick up the object with his thumb and index finger, but the objects presses downward instead. 

Suddenly, all of the lights in the prison are on. A loud ALARM sound is heard. 

In another room down the hallway and past the janitor’s closet, GUARD 2 is standing straight up in the middle of the room as the lights come on and the alarm goes off. 

GUARD 2 

What the hell? 

Jerome is on the floor of the warden’s office. 

JEROME 

Shit. 

Jerome bolts back up into a standing position. He hurriedly rummages through all of the junk in the office. 

Guard 2 sprints toward the central hallway. 

Jerome continues tossing objects aside in the warden’s office. 

JEROME 

(quickly) 

Come on come on come on! 

Guard 2 runs into a central corridor with about ten other guards, including the HEAD GUARD. He stops. 

GUARD 2 

What the hell is going on out here? 

HEAD GUARD 

Someone set off the alarm in the warden’s office. Get there now! 

All of the guards start to rush down the hallway toward the warden’s office. 

Jerome rummages through the junk a bit more, and finally finds a device with a TNT-style plunger.  

JEROME 

Finally! 

The guards are still rushing toward the warden’s office. 

Jerome pushes the plunger down on the device. A pulse that knocks him back a bit is released. 

All of the lights in the prison shut off. The alarm stops. In the darkness, the guards all manage to trip and fall all over each other. 

Jerome is in the dark again. Only the distant moans on the fallen guards can be heard. 

JEROME 

Now to get the hell outta dodge. 

Jerome, with his broom stick, charges out the doorway of the warden’s office. Just outside of the doorway in the hallway is RANDY, the janitor. Jerome stops and stares at Randy for a few seconds. Randy sees that his broom has been horribly disfigured. 

RANDY 

My broom! How dare you; my mother sent me that! 

JEROME 

Uh… Sorry… 

Jerome, with his broom stick at hand, sprints at the wooden door across the hall from the warden’s office. He forcefully jabs the broom spear at the door, effectively breaking it in half. A window with no bars on the outside is shown.  

JEROME 

I’m getting the hell out of here. 

Jerome runs toward the window and dives through it, landing on the ground outside. He slowly stands up, then runs off in the distance. 

Opening 4

This opening was a bit different than the past two. I really liked this, though. I had the opportunity to play an interesting game while listening to one of the best albums of all time. One of the greats of the movie industry spoke in one of the videos watched. In another video, I saw just how much preparation there can be in making a music video. Also, I could watched a video about the sound design of one of my favorite games of all time. This was truly some intriguing material.

To start, I played Machinarium while listening to Nirvana's Nevermind. Why did I choose Nevermind? Of the top 50 albums of all time, Nevermind was the closest to my preferred genre. I also already knew and liked a few songs from the album beforehand, though I had never listened to it in full previously. Anyway, the album was excellent company to playing Machinarium. It is a puzzle game, and it was moderately challenging. I really had to wrack my brain to figure out the last part of the demo. It was a rather short demo, as I ended up still having most of Nevermind to listen to once I finished Machinarium.

Later on, I watched the Walter Murch video on Hollywood sound design. Though I am not planning to go into anything specifically audio-related, what Murch had to say really left an impact on me. Breaking down the audio tracks in the scene from Apocolypse Now immensely opened my eyes to how complex sound can be in movies. When everything is put together in a perfect fashion, one will become involved with a film. With something that is near perfect, the audience may be great appreciators of a film, but not necessarily participants.

Another video I watched was the TED Talks on "How to Engineer a Viral Music Video". Hearing what Sadowsky had to say about making the video for "This Too Shall Pass" almost blew my mind. The people making this video spent weeks upon weeks trying to perfect this crazy Rube Goldberg machine that worked in sync with the music. I have never really thought of music videos as taking that long to make. A lot of music videos, though, do not take that long to produce, since not every music video involves some insane contraption. Regardless, I cannot even imagine what the preparation and shooting of that video was like.

I watched a few other videos that did not really have much of an impact on me, but finally I arrived at "Sound Design and Music of a Video Game: Halo: Reach". I have spent countless hours of my life playing Halo: Reach and I am always willing to see a little bit more behind the scenes stuff. Probably the most interesting thing that was said about the sound design was that they had to make the sounds "sound like Halo." This made total sense to me. Sure, not every game in the Halo franchise has the same sound effects for guns, grenades, and such, but I will admit that they all have a certain similar "feel" to them. That is probably a lot of the reason the Halo series remains so strong today.

Overall, this was a much different experience for an opening than I am used to.  So much of what I had the opportunity to do interested me deeply. Never have I thought that I would be watching a video about one of my favorite ever video games for educational purposes. I guess this just shows that I am on the right track.