ATEC / EMAC 4326

Robots!

2006-11-20T17:59:00.000-08:00

Elicia Brandon has made a series of videos about David Hanson's latest robot. Hanson is a UT Dallas Ph.D candidate and entrepreneur. Great stuff!

Elicia is graduating this semester and this is en excellent example of what EMAC is all about: integrating new media publishing into your creative, work, and play activities.

Release Form

2006-11-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

Here's a release for you can use for video. as discussed in class use it for everyone you interview / talk to.

UTD Metaverse Art Gallery Opening

2006-11-03T09:21:00.000-08:00

The opening is this Saturday @ 9PM CST. You can join us in world or come to the mac lab. We'll help you set up a Second Life account if need be.

Be there or be analog. More info here.

Vloggies

2006-10-24T14:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a whole set of contenders for the Vlog Awards - spend some time watching and use it for reference in your own work.

2 min idea pitch to class next tues! Have a rough prototype if possibe - but bring some material to class to work with. Feel free to us one of these shows as a model.

The Dark Side of Social Networks

2006-10-22T08:54:00.000-07:00

So you are in college and looking for a good gig. What do you do in the age of GooTube? You make a video of course. And you claim you can serve a tennis ball 140 mph and bench press 495 pounds. Wait, no, maybe you shouldn't do that.

Actually I don't think Yale student Aleksey Vayner knew he was living in the age of web 2.0 and GooTube - his video was part of a supposedly confidential application to UBS for an investment banking job. If your video is digital, you should assume everyone will see it, at least until we have better permission layers on Internet media.

Social networks can connect you and make you popular, but they can also bring you 15 minutes of shame.

ATEC Showcase This Saturday!

2006-10-20T19:58:00.000-07:00

Don't Miss the ATEC Showcase Saturday night @ 7. We'll have a sneak preview of our island in Second Life. Thanks to Russ, Christi, Steve, and Jeff for their tireless work! We'll have a full opening next month.

details here

homework

2006-10-20T01:14:00.000-07:00

for this week is to (1) fine tune your videos per the comments made in class. (2) start thinking very hard about a final project idea - I want to hear it!

New EMAC Site & YouTube Group

2006-10-20T01:13:00.000-07:00

Here's the new EMAC site - ugly right now but there will be lots of posts, updates, news, student content, etc.

And here's a YouTube Group - so be sure to join and add your videos here when you are ready to show off!

Rev3 is up and running

2006-10-08T10:57:00.000-07:00

if you are into geek video - this is the new network from the Digg guys:
http://revision3.com/

Game Dev Weekend

2006-10-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

from Tony Tyler, ATEC Visiting Assistant Professor and faculty sponsor for the Arts and Technology Student Association (ATSA):

Hi everyone.

As the faculty sponsor for the Arts and Technology Student Association (ATSA), I cordially invite you and your students to join our members to the first, ever, ATSA Game Development Weekend.

1. Labs will be open from 10/13/06 at 12:00 p.m. until 10/15/06 at 12:00 a.m. That's 60+ hours of open lab. So even if students don't want to participate, they have a lot of lab time open.

2. No experience is required. No set length of time is required. Everyone is welcome. Everyone is needed. Thursday night, 10/12/06, at 10:00 p.m., we will have a ramp-up session for everyone who is interested.

3. Every discipline is needed, IE., Sound, 3D, Design, Programming, Film, etc.

4. The weekend will end with the ATSA meeting on Sunday night with free BBQ, and a showing off of the level.

The Onyx Project

2006-10-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

...a small independent film made for computer viewing aspires to blend serious cinematic storytelling with the popular shuffle feature in iPods and other music players. The film, “The Onyx Project,” is meant to be an experiment in nonlinear storytelling for the digital age.

More from the NYT

Revision3

2006-09-26T23:19:00.000-07:00

Will it work? Saw a lot of these come and go in 1998-2000. Maybe the time, content, approach is right?

More on the new video network from the Digg guys.

Help with 3d, photoshop, etc

2006-09-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

From fellow student Doug Hines:

If you need help helping your students, I can try to be of assistance.
I have a site : http://3d-artists.net that I would like to use for UTD student help. It could be place for students to recieve help on projects from other students. I as well as other senior/more experienced students are more than willing to offer help to beginner maya, zbrush, photoshop, and game development students (or anyone that asks for help).

Open it Up and Let Go

2006-09-26T09:46:00.000-07:00

From an article in Business Week - some self reflection at the end of the piece:

What would this article look like if it were a real blog, and not just this glossy simulacrum?

Think of the way we produce stories here. It's a closed process. We come up with an idea. We read, we discuss in-house, and then we interview all sorts of experts and take their pictures. We urge them not to spill the beans about what we're working on. It's a secret. Finally, we write. Then the story goes through lots and lots of editing. And when the proofreaders have had their last look, someone presses the button and we launch a finished product on the world.

If this were a real blog, we probably would have posted our story pitch on Day One, before we did any reporting. In the blog world, a host of experts (including many of the same ones we called for this story) would weigh in, telling us what's wrong, what we're overlooking. In many ways, it's a similar editorial process. But it takes place in the open. It's a discussion.

Why draw this comparison? In a world chock-full of citizen publishers, we mainstream types control an ever-smaller chunk of human knowledge. Some of us will work to draw in more of what the bloggers know, vetting it, editing it, and packaging it into our closed productions. But here's betting that we also forge ahead in the open world. The measure of success in that world is not a finished product. The winners will be those who host the very best conversations.

Letting go of control is proving to be very difficult for mainstream media organizations...

Digg This

2006-09-25T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Digg guys go after the web video market - at least for the geek set. NYT Story here.

Web Video Biz Model Gets Clearer

2006-09-17T10:43:00.000-07:00

A video Business Model Emerging... thanks Steve! (Jobs that is)

Now let's make something worth watching...

Links for today

2006-09-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

Nonlinear Fiction Series:
review

Drive Time - Interviews

AmyVille - diary
another one

MicroDocs

Pouring Down - Visual Podcast

DIY!

2006-09-04T19:52:00.000-07:00

Interesting little blip on self marketing using social networks. excerpt:

If so-called "MySpace phenomena" such as the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen (bands) continue to emerge through self-promotion and are given unprecedented direct selling access to their MySpace-addicted audience, where do the big guys fit in exactly?

The big guys in this case being the record labels..

and this:

YouTube makes a guitar hero

7+ million views - check out the article. The power of internet video in all its glory.

"Like a celebrity sex tape or a Virgin Mary sighting, the video drew hordes of seekers with diverse interests and attitudes. Guitar sites, MySpace pages and a Polish video site called Smog linked to it, and viewers thundered to YouTube to watch it. If individual viewings were shipped records, “guitar” would have gone gold almost instantly. Now, with nearly 7.35 million views — and a spot in the site’s 10 most-viewed videos of all time — funtwo’s performance would be platinum many times over."

Course Syllabus

2006-08-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

is here.

Basic Shots Assignment

2006-08-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

Three or Four Shots Each of a particular event or environment:

Long / Wide Shot - environment dominates, establishes the scene.
Medium Shot - emphasizes subject in their environment, more or less equal importance of subject & context.
Close Up - face details, personal
Pan / Follow - Follow a person or object, keeping them in frame for the duration of the shot 3-15 seconds, more or less.

And here's a (pretty bad) site with some reference info and images. And here's another page with shot types and framing 101 info. May be slightly useful.

Books

2006-08-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

Required:

Final Cut Pro 5 for Mac OS X: Visual QuickPro Guide (Visual Quickpro Guide)

Making Documentary Films and Reality Videos: A Practical Guide to Planning, Filming, and Editing Documentaries of Real Events

Recommended:
Film Directing Shot by Shot: Visualizing from Concept to Screen

Some Practical Course Info

2006-08-22T09:31:00.000-07:00

Supplies
- Blank DVD-R disks for backup and presentation. Do not rely on Lab drives to store your work – it may be deleted at any time.
- Access to a digital video camera. If you don’t own one, expect to borrow one over the course of the semester for short periods of time. There are several mini DV cameras available for limited on campus use. See lab attendant to check out equipment.
- 5-10 Mini-DV tapes. Sony or Panasonic.
- Highly recommended but not required: 20-60+ GB Firewire Drive.

Learning Environment
This is a studio course for artists, filmmakers, writers, designers and those interested in serious study of video, film, and emerging media. It encourages flexible, experimental, self-motivated thinking and participation. You should be prepared to do substantial work outside of class and readily participate in discussions and critiques.

Lab Issues

Storage space: There is a good deal of storage space on the Lab machines – but no guaranteed storage. Project files are often deleted by other students or lab assistants. To make sure your files are secure, back them up and take them with you either on CDR, DVD-R, or a firewire drive (recommended). Late or missing projects related to missing, deleted, or damaged files will not be accepted.

Regarding the Mac & OSX: This course requires an intensive use of the Macintosh platform. If you are unfamiliar with Mac OSX it is highly suggested you spend time early in the semester to familiarize yourself with the OSX environment. Unfamiliarity with the platform will not be accepted as an excuse for any problem.

Equipment Checkout

Video Cameras, Microphones, Tripods, and learning materials such as DVD’s and books are available from the lab attendants.

Checkout Rules:
- Take care of the equipment. If you are unsure how to use something, ask Professor Terry or the lab attendant.
- Return the equipment on time personally to a lab attendant or your check out privileges may be revoked for up to 2 weeks.
- Return cameras with batteries fully charged.
- You may not take equipment off campus without prior permission of the professor.
- See lab attendants for other requirements.

Contact Information

Fastest & preferred: dean.terry@utd.edu
Office: Art Building (972) 883-6285
Hours: 10 – 11 AM Tuesdays or by appointment
Note: The best time for a quick meeting is immediately before class at 12:15 in the Mac lab.

Assignment for 8/29

2006-08-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

Shooting Assignment I: Basic Visual Aspects

Keep camera in wide or slightly zoomed mode. try not to be fully zoomed in.

II. Still / Tripod shots – 3 of each, 5-10 seconds each:
1 High Contrast
2 Low Contrast
3 Perspective
4 Flat Space
5 Deep Space
6 Ambiguous/Abstraction.
7 Framing/Segmenting

Work on solid compositions, Consistency. Focus on VALUE (B&W) only.

Additional Requirements: 3-4 Person Team Project, 3 shots each. 10 seconds each minimum.

Each person will shoot their own images and later edit them together. Use your own tape and switch as needed.

If you have your own camera with firewire then bring it to class.

_________________________________

Links to view (look at everything... think... study)

A Guide to the Online Video Explosion

The New Networks

Online Video Selections 1

Online Video Selections 2

vodcast 101

Google Video Exec Interview

PouringDown

Welcome

2006-08-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

This is the class Blog. Check here for updates, readings, links, and other info.