Showing posts with label Media Arts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Media Arts. Show all posts
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Wave goodbye
This week our class ended. I've read and commented on all the papers turned in Wednesday night. Congratulations, they were really wonderful! Keep in touch! Hope to see you in the Valley Writing Group this February!
x-Professor Liz
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Cameras under $1000
Here are three great options for Media Arts students to investigate for purchase.
The Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera
Canon Rebel T5
Canon Rebel T3i
On the lowest price end, you can get a great Go Pro HD camera for $400-$500. Go Pro 4
If you can come up with $1200, my expert at Canon recommends the 70D. It has autofocus, which is a pretty big deal and will save you a lot of bad takes.
Personally, I still have a Canon 5D. But I've been eyeing the Sony A7s, which is more of an aspirational camera in the $2500 range without a lens. Bummer, I know. The Black Magic 4K camera is even $500 more.
Here are all of of Canon's cameras for a quick comparison.
Be sure to check out reviews and read articles to make up your own mind. Philip Bloom's site is great.
And make sure you find the best price. There are sales at least twice a year (apparently the Black Magic was 50% off not long ago...)
Good luck, happy shooting!
The Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera
Canon Rebel T5
Canon Rebel T3i
On the lowest price end, you can get a great Go Pro HD camera for $400-$500. Go Pro 4
If you can come up with $1200, my expert at Canon recommends the 70D. It has autofocus, which is a pretty big deal and will save you a lot of bad takes.
Personally, I still have a Canon 5D. But I've been eyeing the Sony A7s, which is more of an aspirational camera in the $2500 range without a lens. Bummer, I know. The Black Magic 4K camera is even $500 more.
Here are all of of Canon's cameras for a quick comparison.
Be sure to check out reviews and read articles to make up your own mind. Philip Bloom's site is great.
And make sure you find the best price. There are sales at least twice a year (apparently the Black Magic was 50% off not long ago...)
Good luck, happy shooting!
Monday, October 13, 2014
Storytelling through photos
Many media experts are predicting a bleak future for theatrical film and TV now that an entire generation has turned away to short YouTube amateur videos and the pleasures of being the hero in video games.
But storytelling itself and our primitive desire to devour great stories will always remain, no matter what the platform or length.
When you think about the projects you want to accomplish, does it have to be a 300 page novel, or could it be a 50 page Amazon singlet? A 120 minute movie, or just a photo with a paragraph caption that makes people laugh, weep, and change their prejudices?
I'm talking of course about Facebook sensation HONY - Humans of New York. (If you aren't on Facebook, here is the less interactive website).
If you haven't heard about HONY yet, you will. The phenomena has 10.2 million viewers today. That's more than beloved icon and King of the Internet Uncle George Takei's 7.8 million!
There's a new King of the Internet, and his name is Brandon Stanton. He's a goofy white guy with a high voice, and a lanky 6 foot plus frame he slouches to be less threatening to the strangers he approaches, often in the roughest areas of New York burroughs.
You might assume Brandon studied photojournalism, and a star college student. But in fact he'd barely picked up a camera before his daily three-mile walks began to include photographs so powerful that Facebook users are demanding he win the Nobel Peace Prize.
And his undergraduate career was so bad his alma mater now proudly bears a plaque commemorating his achievement as their only student to get five F's in one semester! So yes, there is hope for you and your projects. In less than four years of walking around NYC talking to the six strangers a day he photographs, this 29-year-old has become a big NYT best-selling-author (Authors on average get a $1 a book, so do the math on how "comfortable" he is now!) who does special projects for the UN, has speaking engagements at colleges that wouldn't admit him, and is stopped on the streets as an icon and hero.
The lessons here are to follow your passion, do what other people aren't, brand yourself by your differences, and above all TELL US A STORY.
++++++++++++++
Here is another beautiful example of outside-the-box photographic storytelling done for the cost of a camera by photographer Nicholas Nixon.
The Brown Sisters at Forty Years
This is another deceptively simple but powerful idea (40 portraits in 40 years) that has viewers openly weeping at museum exhibits.
Both of these artists have told incredibly powerful stories simply, and changed the world for the better.
So stop worrying about the future of the film and television industry, and focus on story.
What will your story be?
But storytelling itself and our primitive desire to devour great stories will always remain, no matter what the platform or length.
When you think about the projects you want to accomplish, does it have to be a 300 page novel, or could it be a 50 page Amazon singlet? A 120 minute movie, or just a photo with a paragraph caption that makes people laugh, weep, and change their prejudices?
I'm talking of course about Facebook sensation HONY - Humans of New York. (If you aren't on Facebook, here is the less interactive website).
If you haven't heard about HONY yet, you will. The phenomena has 10.2 million viewers today. That's more than beloved icon and King of the Internet Uncle George Takei's 7.8 million!
There's a new King of the Internet, and his name is Brandon Stanton. He's a goofy white guy with a high voice, and a lanky 6 foot plus frame he slouches to be less threatening to the strangers he approaches, often in the roughest areas of New York burroughs.
You might assume Brandon studied photojournalism, and a star college student. But in fact he'd barely picked up a camera before his daily three-mile walks began to include photographs so powerful that Facebook users are demanding he win the Nobel Peace Prize.
And his undergraduate career was so bad his alma mater now proudly bears a plaque commemorating his achievement as their only student to get five F's in one semester! So yes, there is hope for you and your projects. In less than four years of walking around NYC talking to the six strangers a day he photographs, this 29-year-old has become a big NYT best-selling-author (Authors on average get a $1 a book, so do the math on how "comfortable" he is now!) who does special projects for the UN, has speaking engagements at colleges that wouldn't admit him, and is stopped on the streets as an icon and hero.
The lessons here are to follow your passion, do what other people aren't, brand yourself by your differences, and above all TELL US A STORY.
++++++++++++++
Here is another beautiful example of outside-the-box photographic storytelling done for the cost of a camera by photographer Nicholas Nixon.
The Brown Sisters at Forty Years
This is another deceptively simple but powerful idea (40 portraits in 40 years) that has viewers openly weeping at museum exhibits.
Both of these artists have told incredibly powerful stories simply, and changed the world for the better.
So stop worrying about the future of the film and television industry, and focus on story.
What will your story be?
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