Cultural Event: You Can't Take it With You at MHS

Musselman High School, where I myself graduated from, was hosting a play called "You Can't Take it With You." It was directed by Michael Stiles and well my younger brother Brett Miller was in it. I myself used to be in the theatre department there and it was great from a cultural aspect to see how things have changed around there since I was originally there. The play itself was rather poignant and showed great variety in the ensemble. The overall point of the play though really hit home as it showed how we all sort of come from different backgrounds and may be seen as strange by the common ideals of society but ultimately we are all great people in our own right when it comes to how we go through our daily life.

The interaction was very believable between each characters for being High School students and first years alike. Theatre and acting itself is like its own culture as it is. Being able to portray someone else and encompass their own thoughts and ideas as your own for a set amount of time is not something all people are capable of pulling off. When it comes down to the ideas and characters there is no real right way of portraying a character other than how the director shows you. When it comes to variation and small details being shifted in order to make it more relative in this day and age that is also a director's decision. All in all the director is ultimately responsible for making these decisions that will impact the show's reception. Audience is key when it comes to this sort of thing and knowing your audience is always an amazing skill to have,

Cultural Event: Wreck it Ralph

Typically I'm not one for children's films, but honestly when I had first seen the trailer for Wreck it Ralph I just felt this responsibility as an aspiring voice actor to go see it. My younger brother also kind of twisted my arm...  It was interesting to see many things I had known since childhood all put into a format together on the big screen. Various video game characters and archetypes being showcased on one movie together was just rather refreshing in the world of Pixar and the like. It honestly felt as if it could have been the next Toy Story of this generation if they had stuck more with the classic game characters for more than the first thirty minutes of the film. It was rather confusing to go from so many big names in video games to like the story's own little universe.

This may be by and large the video game companies and their willingness to lend their characters to such a film. These are people being asked to plop their intellectual properties into a sandbox with all sorts of characters that are similar in many ways and still sort of competing against one another.

This honestly was a cultural experience for me as it takes much of what is important to me and sort of jams it all together. The voice acting aspect and taking key ideas of how to do the voices shown and also how it must be so intensive to think of how to do the voice beforehand and not have an original to go off of. Truly that is the crux of being a voice actor though. Having directors must really help but having distinctive voices really creates a powerful narrative.

Cultural Event: Bidder 70 Film at ACFF

Civil disobedience was always something I glorified and thought of as truly humanity at its prime. With the film Bidder 70 I was in shock as nowadays you don't hear of cases of such things other than possibly the occupy wall street campaign. In Bidder 70 we see the case of one man's fight to protect many acres of lands that were being fought over by different oil and gas industries in Utah. By acting as a bidder he was able to invalidate the auction at the cost of possibly serving time in prison on federal charges.

Something like this is only stuff people joke or say someone else could do. When people actually act on their ideals and fight for what they believe it is magnificently spectacular to see in all its glory. To that end how many individuals do we know that would put their own livelihood at risk in order to protect something as precious as pieces of land? Few and far between I would say. I can't say I would either but at the same time if it truly was something I felt that fervently about it'd be a no brainer.

http://www.bidder70film.com/ is the official website of the film and has various means of showing how you can help out. The trailer itself was also good at encapsulating what the film really was about in a smaller span of time.

Cultural Event: Vegucated at the ACFF

Vegucated was a documentary about three individuals that are quite into meat and dairy products that go on a vegan diet for six weeks. As someone who also quite considers themselves a carnivore of the highest degree it was interesting to watch people's life change from just changing their diet. Some of the things shown were kind of graphic when it came to how animals are processed. Some of the people in the Byrd Center felt the need to walk out after witnessing some of the footage of the animals. Honestly do I think the film impacted me that much about my own diet? Not really but it was deeply insightful to see how the vegan lifestyle actually works as opposed to the stereotypes most people promote.

http://www.getvegucated.com/ is a great resource on how the film can also be put into action. Stimulating others to go towards a vegan diet by allowing the showcase of different styles of vegan diets and how to create them. Overal it was a nice experience regardless of if I felt I wasn't giving up cheeseburgers anytime soon.

Cultural Event: Watershed Film at ACFF

During the American Conservation Film Festival I went to go see Watershed, a film discussing issues about problems in the Colorado River Valley. Robert Redford narrates and executive produces this documentary. During the film it really helped me think about our own issues of watershed all over the country and how we have to really think about what we do to the environment. When it showcased all the effects the Colorado River Valley was facing I truly felt like it was something poignant and well worth the time sitting through and learning about what is happening over there.

That being the major issue with water is that it isn't really a renewable resource. It takes a good while to cleanse water of impurities or a great deal of chemicals. With all sorts of pollution popping up all over the world it truly makes it a difficult task without several thousands of people working simultaneously together in order to achieve a goal such as this. Walking away from the film after I truly wanted to learn more about what could be done and luckily they had great resources on their website that would help towards pointing others in the right direction.

http://www.watershedmovie.com

After Board Session

After having the session in the Ram's Den I truly feel good about my product and ideas. I do think I should rework the motion graphics a bit more as suggested and better understand what it means to represent myself as an After Effects user. With more motion graphics I might really wow my audience and potential employers. Beefing it all up and better working the visuals might keep the people into the video and not grow bored of the presentation of it all.

I felt really excited about my board. It really felt like it came together and looked professional. It will definitely be something I keep and hang up on my wall sometime. Using my portable gaming device was pretty interesting but I had failed to think to bring headphones for it. Honestly I feel if people had been able to hear my project better it might have been a little more interesting to them regardless of how well I was able to explain it.

Going to make some changes but overall just looking forward to enjoying the feeling of a job well done so far.

After Review Session

After having the review with the staff about my capstone project I have mixed feelings. On the one hand I'm trying to work to the industry and their standards while thinking of what the professors would rather see for the project. In terms of changes they'd like more motion graphics added in to make distinctions between voices. With this I feel for the every day average joe it'd be helpful but for those in the industry looking at it they might raise a brow. I suppose for now I'll keep it as is until I can come up with a better means of presenting the demo reel in such a way that works out for both. In the mean time I must work on getting the board together and the like in order to be ready for the presentations. If I get the feeling the changes should have been made I will definitely act on that it is just difficult making the choice of which way to go.

Some ways I do want to update it would be to change some of the voices around and rework the dialogue. The young boy voice would need some work and it's understandable that the flubbing of the lines is kind of noticeable. How this might be better suited is to cut out parts in order to better reevaluate the ideas of the context.