Movies by Numbers - Number 5

For my third video assignment this week, I chose Movies by Numbers. My task is to artistically present a single number through visuals and relevant music. There is to be no narration and only the visuals and the music should tell the story.

I used Compfight to search for CC licenced images that have the word "five" among their tags. The music I chose is Take Five by Dave Brubeck. I used Animoto once again, so I added Animoto's own videos to my story. Animoto lets you determine the beginning and/or the end of each video, so I stopped the countdown videos immediately after number 5 and I did the same with the clock.

Here is my video.

The most complicated thing in this assignment was creating a full list of images used so that I could give attribution where it is due. Here it is:


Creative Commons images used:
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Tabsinthe: http://flickr.com/photos/tabsinthe/4820084267/ cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by woodleywonderworks: http://flickr.com/photos/wwworks/3196112134/ cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Lst1984: http://flickr.com/photos/lst1984/493522912/ cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Pink Sherbet Photography: http://flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/2001899627/ cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Javier Volcan: http://flickr.com/photos/jdvolcan/5456792325/
http://flickr.com/photos/neychurluvr/3369607260/
cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo by Jon Matthies: http://flickr.com/photos/jmatthies/7181077141/
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by Michael | Ruiz: http://flickr.com/photos/simax/3390895249/
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Amrit...: http://flickr.com/photos/aksphotography/367363319/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by ncracker (Boyan Syarov): http://flickr.com/photos/syarov/4534118874/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by christing-O-: http://flickr.com/photos/christing/2457051794/
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by { pranav }: http://flickr.com/photos/neychurluvr/3369607260/
cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by ginnerobot: http://flickr.com/photos/ginnerobot/4552277923/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by flyzipper: http://flickr.com/photos/flyzipper/432622379/
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by Pandiyan: http://flickr.com/photos/pandiyan/75545427/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by Leo Reynolds: http://flickr.com/photos/lwr/101655312/
cc licensed ( BY ) flickr photo by jenny downing: http://flickr.com/photos/jenny-pics/2681981423/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by bara-koukoug: http://flickr.com/photos/bara-koukoug/6941685781/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by YanivG: http://flickr.com/photos/yanivg/96918791/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by gonzalo_ar: http://flickr.com/photos/gonzalo_ar/644154294/
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by bitzi ☂ ion-bogdan dumitrescu: http://flickr.com/photos/bitzi/230188091/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by bobbygreg: http://flickr.com/photos/bobbygreg/168206195/
cc licensed ( BY SA ) flickr photo by marfis75: http://flickr.com/photos/marfis75/5780056202/
cc licensed ( BY NC SA ) flickr photo by voyageAnatolia.blogspot.com: http://flickr.com/photos/fotogezi/3511876129/
cc licensed ( BY NC ) flickr photo by tochis: http://flickr.com/photos/tochis/3124403063/

My DS106 Compilation

cc licensed ( BY NC ND )  flickr photo shared by zachstern

For my second video assignment this week, I chose to make a video compilation of some of my digital stories. At this stage in the course, it is logical that I want to look back and reflect on what I have done so far. This  compilation consists of visual and design assignments and some of my Daily Creates.

I used Animoto to create the video, which is, I suppose, a shortcut. Animoto does the boring, repetitive part of the job for you and it even gives you a large choice of video styles and background music. It also lets you upload your videos to YouTube, which is what I did this time.

And here's the final result:

Technorati Tags: ds106, VideoAssignments, VideoAssignments113

"I Am No Man"

cc licensed ( BY NC SA )  flickr photo shared by Dunechaser

I am back at Camp Magic MacGuffin after I was absent last week. This is the second week of video and it took me a couple of days to go through last week's materials and pluck up the courage to use Windows Movie Maker for the very first time.

The assignment I chose is Return to the Silent Era. The goal is to take a scene from a modern movie and render it in the style of the silent era.


I chose one of my favourite scenes from LOTR - the one in which Eowyn kills the witch king. I had just watched Return of the King for the thousandth time and it struck me that this scene would look good in black and white. I was lucky enough to find a clip that already had subtitles, which made my task of turning it into a silent movie much easier.


I was surprised at how intuitive Windows Movie Maker is. I had wanted to learn how to mash and edit videos for some time, but had always put it off. I was afraid it would be too hard. I have only made this one clip so far and the task was relatively simple. I just added two effects ("black and white" and "old film") and I added some Bach. I didn't remove the original audio, but I muted it instead. 


Here is my clip:



I Am No Man - Return To the Silent Era from Natasa Bozic Grojic on Vimeo.

Technorati Tags: ds106, VideoAssignments, VideoAssignments376

No Letter Home This Week I'm Afraid

The Daily Create 171 - An object that's hard to find or recognise

I am running out of time before I start packing my suitcases. I am afraid I haven't got time to record a weekly letter, so instead I will just share this week's Daily Create assignments.

Above you can see a toy car that is not really a toy car, but my favourite USB stick.

This creepy crawly critter is what I would be terrified of if I saw it in my bunkhouse:


The Daily Create 172 - Sketch the creepiest crawly critter you can imagine

By the way - to create the web-like lines I used Scribbler 2.

Finally, the sound of summer rain after a long period of very hot weather:


The Daily Create 169 - record 30 seconds of ambient sound in your environment

And now I will say goodbye to my friends from the camp and everyone else who is reading this. I am going to a spa and I promise I will come back with a lot of photos and stories to tell.

See you in a week's time.

Technorati Tags: DS106, weeklyletter

My Five Minutes of Fame

cc licensed ( BY NC ND )  flickr photo shared by ~FreeBirD®~

As I said in my previous post, we are expected to collaborate on a group radio show project within our bunkhouses. In Slaughterhouse 4 we chose travel as our main topic and the title of our show is A Tourist's World. I chose a story I often tell - the one about how I visited India and saw the Taj Mahal.


cc licensed ( BY NC )  flickr photo shared by betta design

I am not sure whether I am supposed to share my part of the show on my blog or not, but since I am travelling on Sunday and will not be here next week when the show is broadcast, here's my five minutes:



Looking forward to your feedback.

Technorati Tags: ds106, RadioShow

Your Magic Carpet Is Here

cc licensed ( BY NC )  flickr photo shared by Heart Industry

It is Week 6 in Camp Magic McGuffin and I am running out of time, since I am travelling on Sunday and will be away during Week 7. Still, I have managed to finish my main assignments. I have created a radio bumper for the show I am collaborating on with other members of Slaughterhouse 4. I have also finished my 5 minutes of the show. I wish I could have worked more on it, but there was no time.

At my bunkhouse we chose travel as our main topic and the title of the show is A Tourist's World. That's why I decided to play with the magic carpet metaphor. I recorded my voice in Audacity, then used sound effects to make my speech faster and my voice deeper. My idea was to sound a little like a British butler. Then I uploaded the Audacity files to Myna and continued editing the bumper. I chose the tracks from the Adventure section in Myna and I almost happy with it. At least, I like it much better than my last week's bumper, but then that means that I am learning. Here it is:



So, fasten your seat-belts and listen to Slaughterhouse 4.

Technorati Tags: ds106, RadioShowBumper

Week 5 - Stepping out of Comfort Zone

cc licensed ( BY NC )  flickr photo shared by LarimdaME

Since Week 5 in Camp MacGuffin is all about audio, we are sending audio messages home instead of letters:



This is not so different from leaving a message on an answering machine and I felt it was OK to improvise rather than read from a paper.

As I have said in the recording, Week 5 was about stepping out of comfort zone. For one of my Daily Creates I had to sing. I mean, I didn't have to do it, but I did. I don't want to repeat what I said in the recording, but the atmosphere in the Camp is such that singing felt quite OK. I will even go so far as to embed the recording right here:


The Daily Create 165 - Share a campfire song on audio. Sing of bang drums.

Two days later we had to draw. I am terrible at drawing and I said so:


The Daily Create 167 - Draw a person using only geometrical shapes

Today's Daily Create wasn't difficult. We took a closer look at where we spend a lot of free time and photographed something we had never noticed before.


The Daily Create 168

It is not that I don't notice Leonardo, it is just that I don't notice him enough. Placed behind my back while I work at my desktop, he has kept me company through all my web adventures.

So, that's all folks. See you in Week 6.

Technorati Tags: DS106, weeklyletter