Final Project

This short clip is called "The One". Our original idea was about someone who is indecisive about what kind of candy he should buy. He compares the candies in his head, and when he finally decides, someone else buys it--the last of it! We shot it on the 3rd floor of Hunter North. I happen to know my friend who can lend his time to act for us that day. Unfortunately, after we uploaded the video, and the voiceovers that were recorded, everything did not match, and we only shot a very short footage. Therefore, we don't have any voice coming and it's not as long. I was thinking of putting a song, but unfortunately I didn't have time to go back to the lab again after the last class ended.

What I learned from this experience is that preparation is key! We did not have our idea until the night before the shooting. The actor wasn't prepared, we weren't prepared, therefore we did not get what we hoped for. I know that next time I will definitely think of every aspect of production and post-production as well, so that I will not encounter a problem like this anymore.

Thank you, Martyna, for helping me with Final Cut Express to edit this video.

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Field Trip to Museum of the Moving Image

It was the first time I ever visited the museum and I truly enjoyed it. At first I was wondering why such museum is located in Queens, not Manhattan, but one of the tour guides explained to us that there was a major movie studio in Queens before they moved to Hollywood. It all makes sense now.

Upon entering the museum, I noticed the cool design of the entrance. It's definitely eye catching and creates a different mood compared to the rest of the neighborhood. The feeling inside the museum is almost space-like, as if we're in a space ship.

I learned about dubbing on this field trip. The museum has a room with the equipment used to dub voiceovers in the movie, much like the real room used in Hollywood. We had a several options of scenes from many different films to choose to do the voiceover exercise. Our group ended up choosing a scene from The Wizard of Oz. One of the girls volunteered herself to play Dorothy. She first had to rehearse, and then record the real one. After that, we could all listen to it. It was a really cool experience.

After that exhibition, my friend and I walked around the museum, admiring the stuff the have there.  One of the things that interested me most was the costumes from these classic movies. I was stunned by how amazing they are; we could see the little details that we normally don't pay attention to while watching a film. Overall, I had a fantastic time there.

Blogs on Design: Movie Poster I like

Rudy is one of my favorite films, and I really like the design of the movie poster.  The story is about a man following his dream even though everybody doubts him.  The poster suits the story very well. First, there's the bright sun shining--a symbol of hope; then we have the main character, Rudy, in the center of the poster, making him primary element in the poster. The presence of a lot of empty spaces in the poster accentuates  Rudy's loneliness--nobody believes in him. I also really like the colors. It reminds me of crossed processed pictures.

Haiku Exercise

Traffic

Still Photos Assignment

For this assignment, we were required to take pictures around Hunter College with a specific theme. My partner, Tram, and I chose to take pictures of chewed gums around the school.  Going into this assignment, we thought it would be very easy to find chewed gums since we see it everyday. However, on that day, we had troubles finding them. We tried looking underneath chairs, on garbage cans, etc. but finding one turned out to be a little bit of a challenge; perhaps because it was Monday, and the janitors did a pretty thorough job cleaning the school the night before.

We chose chewed gums because it's something we hardly notice, yet it's there, and it's quite annoying once we step on it or accidentally touch it. It's gross, yet, interesting too look at. Here are some of the more interesting ones we found that day:

Founded on the 4th floor Hunter West escalator

Founded on the 8th floor balcony

Founded on a wall on 5th floor Hunter West

Founded on a garbage can on the 8th floor balcony

Stamp

Halloween Stamp.

Mr. Potatohead Photoshop exercise.

Artist Statement

Overprotected, shielded from the rest of the world, I misunderstood the reality growing up.  What's right or wrong in my head was purely based on what the elder told me.  They beautifully crafted the idea of reality, their vision of reality, and tried their best to protect me from the "wrong side of the world".

I fell in love with all based-on-a-true-story forms of art immediately; it opened my eyes to a bigger world where I wouldn't had known otherwise.  That art can be films, books, reality shows, music, or even paintings.  What interests me most about it is its power to influence people's perspective on things just by learning from others' experience. Instead of just knowing one side of the story, films for example, give us the opportunity to explore the other side of the story to grasp a better understanding of the situation.

My most recent work is a short film called "The Secret Within", where I was inspired by my friend's story. The film is a story about a boy who is confused and doubts his decision to hurt the love of his life to seek for his inner peace. While making this film, I discovered that this is something I aspire to do in the future. The whole process just fascinates me and I learned through making this film that it takes more than just desire, so much more than just an ability to create things; it takes passion. 

 Filming one of the scenes, freezing.

"The Secret Within':