3/15/12 Last day of Lectures

Its finally here. The day everybody leaves class with a sense of relief, satisfaction, and the biggest thing a smile on everybody's face. In class the whole time I was zoned out thinking about my film and wondering how everybody else is doing. Moss came with a different attitude as well. He usually comes in with a smile or some sort of game, but not today. Since it is the last day of lectures it was understandable because I'm sure he wanted to set it straight on what we should have learned through out the time that we have had with him. A serious question came up in class that was. What is the difference between design and art. A class mate took a shot at the question and was not able to answer it clearly. So i thought to myself and I came up with this. Art is a for of expression, the creativity, the message, everything that makes the piece worth looking at. As for design I believe that is the process in what you do when you make piece of work. The process behind your project. For example, design would be like a sketch of a house plan and Art would be the house itself when completed. I think my thought behind this question is clear and the answer is there. Whether I am right I dont know, but I believe I am. This question took up a lot of time, but well worth the discussion because not a lot of people were able to answer clearly, so that meant some where along the line there was a confusion or just was not explained right to us. Since we are all mostly Graphic Designer we should be able to answer that question like nothing.

Towards the end Professor Moss gave us time to work on our videos again and gave us exact directions on what he wants and what should not be included. I took that time to put in work. So hopefully when Tuesday comes my video explains my message clearly.

1. hopeless- a feeling of no success
2. considerate- be thoughtful
3. self-assure- in other words confident, secure

Tue 3/13/12

Tuesdays class was very informative regarding our final project, or better choice of words our last assignment.  Professor Moss helped us ask ourselves questions such as; what's the idea behind your movie, or if you don't think its good what makes you think others will. What's the message you are trying to deliver and make sure that we capture the main points of our message on the film. We did not have much time to work on our projects in class this day, but I was able to gain information that made my approach to my movie so much easier. As class went on we jumped in to a talk about Robynne Raye. I wished I could of attended her portfolio day, but I wasnt able to make it. One good thing about this class day as well was when our professor got in to the talk about Modern dog. I enjoyed the fact of how what they do for fun projects and artistic is all free, but when it involves business then it gets to the money side of it. Once again the point in doing what you love instead of what your good at always has a major I'm pact on ones work. Last week of lectures and I must say this experience so far has been amazing. Cant wait till I am able to use all my skills and apply them to what we all know as the "real world"




Adjectives:
1. Plausible- reasonable solution
2. Intense- something not easy or severe
3. Rude- not polite, no respect

Movie Brief 2/28/2012

This whole idea on a one minute video has been one of the hardest projects I've had to do just yet. When your limited to a certain amount of time things can get very overwhelming. I have so many ideas that I want to include, so what I've done is narrow them down to the strongest ones. My video them is to promote C.S.U.L.A. Graphic Design program by saying "One Will Become a Better Problem Solver." The people I am targeting are high school students who are interested in the design program that is uprising in Cal Sate L.A. As classed settled to its usual discussion we got into groups and presented our ideas. I noticed not everybody was prepared for this project yet. I didn't think everyone was on the same level I was in. It wasn't very long before we started to chat in see what every student had to say. I heard quiet a few good ideas. For example, a student not sure her name told me she wanted to create a similar movie like Kali Nikitas. When I explained what my movie was about surprisingly I got good feed back on the way I wanted to do it, which is a silent film style from back in the days. Students thought that the type of examples I was going to show were as well as good, the only thing that troubled them really was the fact if I would have enough time for all those examples. I'm guessing that I will just because i am eliminating a script type of movie were sometimes sound can take up to much time. If I have the actors talking they might not deliver the message quick enough. I yet to really finalize my film but overall I think in class today I was able to catch many different ideas that might help me out. Hopefully mine did as well.

Adjectives:

1) sensible- an action that is good, smart, wise
2) impatient- someone who cannot wait, can become irritated quickly
3) Insensitive- no care for others feelings

Discussion Time 2/23/12

I would call this back this backwards day. Professor Moss comes in and tells the whole class to move on the other side of the table and instead of facing the white board he made us face the windows. He starts writing on the windows with washable markers and begins his lesson. I don't think there was much of a point to doing so, but I think he did it to start off the day differently and capture our attention and as always make class enjoyable. Class went on and we had a group activity. Each one of us had a turn to speak which allowed everyone to participate in class which is one main thing professor Moss wants us to do. When we were discussing Moss asked me a question. "What is it that holds you back or what do you need or do in order to start on a project?" I answered by saying that I like to see others past work and their solutions to their problem and why it didn't work. I like seen what has been done, so I can fix it. His response to me was have you ever thought that by seeing others work limits you to do beyond what you think you can do. That response made me think very hard in long. I never really thought like that. I always thought to myself by seeing others work it would only benefit me, but now that he mentions that I second guess myself. What if by me not seen others work and just starting everything up from scratch would take me further. Since I don't have a clue to what my solution is suppose to look at I can think outside the box and actually go beyond my own expectations. I could easily create a whole new solution to a problem and even a better one that has already been created. I could approach my project from many different angles instead of sticking to some that have already been done before. Its not a bad thing to look at what solutions have been created already, but its also not the best way to do things. As a designer one must have their own techniques to approaching a problem and coming up with a solution, seen others work is a good back up resource if one is lost, but always try to do your own work first and see if that way works better. Finally towards the end of class he mentioned our last project. Now that is gan a have me thinking long and hard on what I present on my one minute video.

Adjectives:
1) Sarcastic- to mock someone, or over exaggerating
2) Appealing- pleasant to look at
3) Flamboyant- attracting attention for a certain aspect of someone or something such as, confidence, style

Team work!! 2/21/12

Different! is what I would call this day. First off we handed our game briefs and a one to two page report on the Gauge speaker Kali Nikitas. Let start off by saying her presentation was very reading. I enjoyed everything she had to say about her choice in career and what let her to doing what she does now. Th greatest outcome I got from her was to do what I love and I'm good at. That will be a reward itself she said. Now back to class. So, in class today we had a group activity. Much different from the others, we were split into two groups. The game involved two objects being past around in the opposite directions of each other, but you couldn't pass the object till the name of that object was brought back to you saying yes that is so in so. This game was much harder than I expected it to be. As a group we ran into many problems. For example, once the object intersected one another, since it was sent in the opposite direction in a circle, students would get confused and we would have to start from the begging. We tried many solutions, such as changing the name of the objects from this is a "what" to this is a "who" to even calling them he and she. As well, as even changing the arrangements of the students so the object could intersect different people. That seemed to work for a bit, but yet for some reason we seemed to still mess up towards the middle. Professor Moss shows back into class and starts to tell us to pay attention more. Don't worry about what the name of the object is, but listen to when it is being passed to you. I didn't get what he meant, but he explained more. Moss mentioned to listen to the person who is next to you. Try not to remember what your suppose to say next, or when your turn is, but to listen when your spoken to. It took us a few more tries, but at the end we succeeded.

As always there is a catch to what professor Moss does to teach you something. He always seems to make it very fun for me. In the game exercise what I benefited off was learning how to listen and that making a something a habit can be bad. Each time we would pass around the object we would get use to the names and every time we would change the names we would get confused, so by us listening instead of making something a habit works much better. By us listening to each other when spoken to by your side partner we were able to get both objects all the way around in a complete circle. It can get confusing at times because to many things can be said at once, but I believe it is possible if one really pays attention to what is being said instead of thinking you already think you know what is going to be said then intact you will gather the information that was said.

Adjectives:
1) Capable- something or some one that can active a certain quality
2) Lacking- not having much, missing something
3) Mature- someone or something that has fully developed

Presentation Day 2- 2/16/2012

Todays class was a continuation on tuesday with game presentation. Today was not so much on learning something new, but reemphasizing on what I learned last class. That is, a group critique is a good form of learning what one should change to give a better presentation in the future. In fact, not only a presentation, but in general. Such as, art pieces, speeches, sculptures, etc... The rest of the student went up and did very well. I believe this happened because they were able to absorb the information from last class and use it for themselves. Students and myself were able to tell other students what they could do or should do when giving a presentation, but in a positive form. For example, last class most of our remarks were nice, such as, I like the way you presented, or good job, but this class was more different. This class I noticed students were more responsive and actually giving a good critique for other students to learn from. So you can say I did learn something and that is how to be a better critic to help other students, artist, or anyone in general get better, or do better with their presentations, or any type of art work. For those who don't understand the point of criticism here is my word of advice. Listen to what others have to say, but be optimistic and find good in what ever it is that is said bad about you or your work.

Adjectives:
1) Intriguing- something fascinating, captivating
2) Infatuating- to admire, passionate
3) Abstract- something that is not organized or not been able to figure out what it is

Presentation Day!! 2/14/2012

Today was Game Presentation Day. We all went, one by one and gave a brief description of our games that we had developed at home. Each student was given at least five minutes. I was the fifth to sixth person to go up and present. I thought by me waiting a bit would help me better presenting my idea because I would be able to not do the mistakes other student had done before me, but when I went up my presentation wasn't up to his standards or better said wasn't presented well. The game I presented was called Alphabetical Run. The game is about children playing a memorization using the letters from the alphabet in an order sequence, while been active and making it a race. I thought by me using volunteers it would better show and describe what my game was all about and how one plays it. When I went up to present I left one huge part out, the running section, which hurt my presentation a lot. Professor Moss gave me a quick critique, but very harsh in my own words. He said that my presentation was off, that he would of like to see me present it on the board I had created to show my project instead of having others play the role. In fact he mentioned that if I'm going to take a risk I must make sure my risk works. Most of the comments he said were negative and at first it kinda bothered me, but then he told us the reason for such remarks. He explained to us that the reason he is so hard is because he cares about us. If he was just to mention positive things about our presentations there would be no progress on bettering ourselves in the future. Moss mention that students will always be nice to one another and that is not what he's going to do, he was going to tell us all the negative things we do to be able to fix them. A student in class said "I believe there must be a balance of good things and bad things" I thought he was right. I myself believe if one is told nothing but negative remarks about his work it only lowers their self-esteem, but that is not case. Moss  was able to make me understand that in a group critique its good to hear the bad, but on a one on one a balance of good and bad is necessary. After hearing all the ideas and the criticisms from students and Professor Moss I was able to gain a better understanding on how I should absorb the information given to me. As an Artist we should be able to handle all types of criticism wether it is good or bad. It is not a bad thing to be told that your idea didn't work, or that it was missing key elements. Its actually a great form of progress. I learned more on how to listen to others, take in what they said, and later be able to not make the same mistakes and when taking a risk making sure it actually works. For example, if my tittle says "Run" my presentation should have running involved, or else change the name. Critique means to criticize and idea or any type of work, but it is up to the presenter on how they will use the feed back to their benefit. From now on when we have group critique day I won't be so close minded about negative remarks, but I will use them to my advantage and only progress from here on. I will correct all my mistakes as much as possible and hopefully get better feed backs from my audience.

Adjectives:

1) Dull- plain boring, lacking excitement 

2) Delightful- something that is soothing, pleasing

3) Plane- something that is flat, not much detail, boring