The Final Class - A Reflection

Overall, I really enjoyed this class.  It wasn't what I expected at all, I thought we would be writing our own scripts from stories we created (as in, a movie or television show).  Now, that doesn't mean I didn't like the class, it just wasn't what I was expecting.  I did enjoy it for what it was though.
I liked the work flow of the class.  There was just enough homework to keep you on your toes, but not too much to drown you.  I learned a lot from this class, especially about AV scripts, behind the scenes at a news station (ABC7) tour, and the class made me want to pursue the minor.  The only thing I would really change is the class description on the catalogue to make it a little more clear about what this class was really about.  I did have a lot of fun though and made a lot of new friends.  Thank you Lisa for teaching us!

A Cool MOOrketing Video

Freund's Farm is actually located in my home town, and when I was looking up destination videos, I just happened to stumble upon it.  The Freuds' really are about going green and I thought this would be a cool video to share.  This video works because it has nicely composed shots, good audio and talks about what the farm and their store has to offer.  I personally would recommend you stop by if you ever happen to be in the area!

ABC7 Tour

All the wiring connecting everything.
So much wire!

On October 17th, 2016 our Intro to Story and Scriptwriting was able to take a behind the scenes tour at Sarasota, Florida's ABC 7 studio.  It was really amazing to see all the work that goes behind live television and it really makes you appreciate how much work goes into the nightly live news.  We got to see the robotic cameras and watch a section of the news broadcast while we were in the same room as the newscasters!  I also really enjoyed seeing the control room with all the different screens.  It really was a fantastic experience, thank you ABC 7!

Control Room (Everyone has to keep on their toes!)

Robo Cameras, GO GO GO!!!!

Server Room

How to Videos: How to and How NOT to

"How to" videos, both the saviors and the banes of the internet.  When trying to learn something new or make a project I myself often look to a "How to" video for guidance.  Nothing can be more frustrating than finding a video of your given subject, and then begining to watch it only to find to audio doesn't sync, the video is grainy or the 20 minute video is the video creator talking about a subject totally different from what your original intent for watching the video was, (for example, the video is titled "How to make a PB+J" and the video author spends the first half an hour of the video bragging about his new car and spends the last one minute rushing through the actual sandwich making).  While there is nothing wrong with promoting yourself or what you do in your video, or even show casing your sponsor in your video, it is draining and boring to your viewer to give them a false promise of sorts when your video is about nothing related to the subject.  

Then, there are those times when you find a "how to" video that goes above and beyond, good lighting, enthusiasm from the video creator, good tips that stick to the subject.  Two excellent examples of how to videos are "How to Draw Different Action Poses Easily" by My Mangagaka Life and "DIY Mermaid Blanket" by ThreadBanger. 

In the "How to Draw Different Action Poses Easily", Lizbeth goes in-depth to talk about how she does action poses for her manga and goes step by step to talk about different methods of drawing action poses.  The way she speaks is to not only instruct the viewer but also to engage them.  Check out her video here:

Another great "how to" video is ThreadBanger's "DIY Mermaid Blanket".  Although ThreadBanger isn't really a how to channel (they test DIY pinterest pins to see how legitimate they are), when a project works out, it can be used as a guide to making your own project.  ThreadBanger's videos are always entertaining and both Corinne and Rob do a fantastic job of keeping the videos entertaining and informative about what to do, what works and what doesn't work.  Check out one of their videos here:

What I've learned about concept, treatments and scriptwriting with the film formatted script. 

I learned a lot about concept during this class.  I had known about free write, mind mapping, and most of the ways to come up with an idea before we did them in class, but I hadn't used them to create a concept for a commercial before.  

Before this class, I didn't even know what a treatment for a script was.  I thought you just dove into the script writing.  I think it was very helpful to learn how to do this because it actually helped me outline my ideas before writing the script.  

I didn't learn too much about scriptwriting with the film formatted script because I took a Film class during my senior year of high school and we had to write a couple scripts.  

SunCoast Blood Bank Promo

For this assignment, we had to come up with some preliminary concept ideas for a 15-30 second runtime promo for the SunCoast Blood Bank using some Idea Generation Methods.

As soon as I heard the words "Blood Bank" I immediately thought of a vampire spoof.  I'm still working out the kinks in this one, but I was thinking the vampire could go in thinking that the blood bank is like a regular bank or something, or it can even be worked as a Vampire Romance spoof.  For this one, my idea generation method was to just write out anything in my head, kind of like the free write method except I felt like I was just throwing things on the wall to see what stuck.

I also had another for a commercial.  It isn't the most original, but the method has been proven effective.  You could have footage of the people who need the blood donations, with fade to blacks that delve into facts about those that need blood, like maybe "The people who need blood only have x-number of weeks to live" or something like that.  Over this footage you have a slow sad song playing over it.  The last frame is the SunCoast Blood Bank logo with the phone numbers for donation centers.  For this one, I thought to myself "What commercials have worked for non-profit organizations that make you want to donate?" and I immediately thought of Sara McLachlan's "Arms of the Angels" ASPCA commercial.  I then reworked it to fit the SunCoast Blood Bank.

Everyone Feels Voiceless

Dictionary.com defines a demographic as "the statistical data of a population, especially those showing average age, income, education, etc." and Google defines a target market as "a particular group of consumers at which a product or service is aimed.".  Why does this matter to you? As a member of society (or not, whatever floats your boat) YOU are part of a demographic.  Really, using the Dictionary.com definition, you don't even have to be specifically human to be part of a demographic.

Now, being a part of a demographic isn't a scary or bad thing really, it isn't like a stereotype where taking one or more traits (often negative traits) and sweeping across the board to apply to everyone of that religion, race, ethnicity or nationality.

Demographics are often made up of some of these elements:

• Age
• Gender
• Occupation
• Economic Background
• Cultural Background
• Likes/Dislikes
• Interests
• Ideals
• Values
• Political Opinion
• Religion
• Health
• Identity
• Relationship Status
• Personality
• Education
• Income
• Past Experiences
• Family/Children
• Land Holdings
• Car Ownership
• Nationality
• Pet Ownership
• Citizenship Status
• Diet

A demographic uses statical data to more often than not, sell a product or an idea to you.  One very popular "Product" being thrown at viewers today is the Presidential Candidate.

Let's first take a look at (carrot man) Trump's demographic.  Most of his support comes from the uneducated (high school diploma or lower) whites of the South, who have been disillusioned with the promise of a manufacturing job who blame Mexican's for stealing said job, when the job was already outsourced to China by business people like Trump.  These people are Trump's target audience.  Why? Because they feel voiceless. They feel like there is a definitive line between them and the suits in the White House.  If you would like to read more about it, here is a link to an article from the Atlantic the goes more into detail:
Trump's Demographic and Target Market

Next, let's look at Hillary Clinton's demographic.  Most of her support comes from women, minorities, and LGBTQA.  Much like Trump, she seems to be reaching her target audience.  Clinton is reaching out to these people because they also feel voiceless.  They feel like there is a definitive line between them and the white men they see in Congress and the Senate.  Here is a wonderful table with the percentages based on demographics showing the difference between Trump's supporters and Clinton's supporters:
Look at this Graph

I HATE EVERYTHING

I don't hate everything, but one Youtuber does.  His name is I Hate Everything (IHE for short).  IHE's content is about pointing out the annoying or little things about a product or object and presenting them in a comical way.  What I like about IHE is although his content is about hating everything, he only does it as a joke and openly apologizes if he does upset anyone.  In previous post I put his video The (NOT DISNEY) Collection - The Search for the Worst as an example of good entertainment content and the reason why is that he thoroughly goes through why he feels that theses videos are "bad" in the 51 minute video he keeps it fresh and entertaining.  This review/comedy category of entertainment really resonates with me because I get exposed to new content in an entertaining way.

GOOD Content for Different Categories

Marketing: Dear Kitten

Corporate: Happy Birthday Apple

Entertainment: IHE The (NOT DISNEY) Collection

Advertising: Getting Sentimental with Scent

Informational/News:All You Can Trump Buffet

Tutorial: Violent Lips

How-to: Make a Cute Kitty

Promotional: We Will Run

Non-Profit:ASPCA

Retail: Amazon Prime

BAD CONTENT?????

An age old conflict between movie goers, book lovers, and story lovers in general has always been about what is good content and what is bad content.  Usually, it comes down to ones own opinion and an algorithm of qualities like plot, character, character development, conflict and a good resolution.

In my personal opinion, when one says "good content" I feel obligated to bring up one of my favorite television shows and one of my all time favorite movies.

Vikings premiered on History channel in March of 2013.  The show follows the famous historical figure Ragnar Lothbrok and his family.  It has been recently cleared for a fifth season premiering in March of 2017.  Although the show has been critiqued for some historical inaccuracy, the story telling itself is intriguing and the fight scenes are adrenaline inducing.  On Rotten Tomatoes, both season 3 and 4 have both received a 100% freshness rating.  Here is the trailer for the first half of season 4 which came out earlier this year:

Vikings Season 4 Official Trailer

The visuals, costume design, acting, music and script all draw you in for a fantastic "good content" ride.  Another point that I personally really love about this show, is the fact that none of the characters are ever sexualized, especially female characters.  Every character has dimension, and the female characters often are shown ruling, battling and living life just like the male characters.  If you want to watch a show with action, fantastic story telling and compelling visuals, Vikings may just be the show for you.



As for another great content piece, I must recommend Secret of Kells.  Secret of Kells follows a young monk as he comes into contact with the creation the legendary Book of Kells, an illuminated manuscript.  This animated movie is not only visually detailed, but also a neat tie into Celtic history.  It was released in 2009 and was directed by Tomm Moore at Cartoon Saloon.  It was nominated for and Oscar in 2009, but lost to Up.  Here is one of the trailers for Secret of Kells:

Secret of Kells-Promotional Trailer

Secret of Kells - Ending Page animation

Secret of Kells - Invasion





Usually, I am very hesitant to call anything "bad content".  Sometimes movies or television shows have not so great animation or visuals, but they do contain a lot of heart and it shows that the crew and director put a lot of effort into what they created giving the piece an endearing quality.  Other times, it is blatantly obvious a film is just there to trick unknowing parents into buying their five dollar DVD for their child.  Such a movie is Ratatoing.



Ratatoing was released in 2007 direct to video; the same year Pixar's Ratatouille was released.  Ratatoing has cheap, rushed, and careless animation and the story is un-engaging.  In fact, the movie is so uncared for by it's own studio, they published the whole thing to Youtube and make little to no revenue on the fact that it's published there.

I implore you to watch the first several minutes of this film, just to get a taste of this knock off of Ratatouille.  After that however, you may need to cleanse your eyes and your soul from this unholy abomination.  Here is the link to the full film on Youtube:

Ratatoing Full Film

Why am I so hard on this film? Simply because it's soul purpose for existing was to make money.  There is no heart to this film.  As an artist, it frustrates me to see a story brought to life in this way.  Stories are about expressing our inner dreams, desires and giving a window to others and a perspective they may have never experienced before.  Both Vikings and Secret of Kells have heart, sure they make money, but the crew works on these pieces because the LOVE working to bring these stories to life.  Ratatoing is an empty husk of a film, and when you watch it there is nothing there but the feeling of deception and pure human greed.

All videos and photos linked here are property of their respective owners, I had no part in their creation and am only using them here for educational purposes.  

Who am I?

My name is Natalie Allyn

What is my major and class level?

I am a Visual Studies major.  It's like the business world of art and the art-art world mashed together.  

As for what my class level, its kinda complicated.  I took my first year as an illustration major, started my sophomore year as an illustration major and had to leave two weeks before the end of it.  Then, I took a semester off and took a Creative Writing course at a local college.  Then I came back as a Visual Studies major.  

Why did I take this class and what do hope to gain?

I took this class because I thought it sounded fun and up my alley.  I hope to learn better storytelling skills and how to apply them to actual works.  

Why did I choose the name Burnt Spaghetti?

_               _

  \_(o-o)_/    I'm not really sure myself, it just came to me.