David Rendall’s article regarding weaknesses is a very interesting read which I highly recommend to anyone looking to better themselves. The main idea is that any perceived weakness has an associated strength, and that weaknesses can not just be destroyed from a person’s personality. By trying to destroy that weakness, a person could in turn destroy an associated strength. So instead of destroying the weakness, you should look to improve the strength, which will help you grow as a person. The first of his nine suggestions that I would like to discuss is the third one titled, “Flawless: There is Nothing Wrong With You.” This topic deals directly with associating strengths to a given weakness. He offers a chart which lists some corresponding strengths and weaknesses. One of these pairs that stuck out to me, because I can apply it to my own life is passionate vs. impatient. When it comes to music I am very passionate, I am almost always the first one to band practice and feel that I look to perfect things much more than other band mates. Many people have told me I’m impatient, which may be true, but my impatience comes from my passion to make the best music possible, which is certainly no weakness. The next suggestion of his I’d like to discuss is the sixth one, “Focus: You Can’t Do Both.” In this one he discusses how many people simultaneously try and fix their weaknesses while improving their strengths. By trying to do much at once you only become mediocre at many things, which doesn’t help you in the long run. In the professional world people look to hire people due to their strengths, such as someone whose really strong in post audio production. If that person spent less time on post audio production and allocated their time to something else then they would merely be mediocre in both areas, which may not help them in the long run. One point that I think is worth noting though is that it is good to be versatile. I myself am trying to make myself as versatile as possible so when I go to enter the workforce I have better prospects to find a job, but I don’t want to sacrifice any of my strengths in order to achieve this. The last point I’d like to discuss ties in with the last one I mentioned, its Rendall’s fifth point, “Build on Your Strengths.” The main point he makes in this one is that strengths are most likely your greatest area of natural skill or talent, so you have a much better chance to be successful through these strengths than you do through other areas. Also it feels fulfilling to work on these areas more so than others, because you will get a better sense of satisfaction through improving these areas. I personally like to work on my areas of natural talent, such as golf, when I was younger. I had a natural talent in golf and so that was where I spent most of my time, and its likely I became far more successful in golf than I would have in another sport in which I didn’t already have some sort of natural talent. Now I’d like to briefly discuss some of my strengths and weaknesses regarding creativity. Some strengths I would say would be the ability to lead and persuade people to get work done, where as weaknesses may be having a more open mind, and being too stubborn when it comes to my own ideas. Like many creative minds, I think my ideas are almost always the best, which is likely not true. My opening my mind to other peoples ideas we can combine thoughts, and often times come up with a solution that is better than either of us would have been able to come up with on our own.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Blog 9A
I think our video game presentation went pretty well, but there were two areas in which we could have done better. I felt we didn’t go into enough detail regarding how important the online aspect to the video game was. Our game was intended to be tailored towards “community” type play, rather than immersing yourself into a single player campaign mode which isolates you from other gamers. This was done to make the game more convenient if you wanted to play for just short amounts of time, rather than being emotionally invested in a video game for hours on end. Another aspect in which we could have done a better job was our console design. We wanted to focus on the functionality of the controller for our game and make it as simple as possible for the user. While our controller would indeed be simple to use, I feel we didn’t convey this simplicity enough in our presentation. It was most likely tough for any audience members to understand why we designed it the way we did, because we did not spend enough time going into the detail of why we designed it the way we did. I think a very tough concept to explain regarding gaming is delimiters. The reason I say this is because in order for a listener to understand the effect of a delimiter they have to have a pretty good grasp of games and be a somewhat experienced gamer. If someone has never previously played a first person shooter they may not understand just how big of an effect using a primary weapon and secondary weapon delimiter has on a game, versus allowing someone to carry two primary weapon. For those who have taken part in first person shooters before they understand just how big of an impact this can have on a gaming experience, but those who haven’t may overlook it as a miniscule detail.
Week 7 Blog
The joke we chose to manipulate began with a kid playing with a train set, and then cursing out loud, to the dismay of his mother. Our takes on this joke consisted of the kid turning angry towards his mother and threatening her with a knife, and another in which the joke is displayed from the toys point of view. We used space to create an emotion of fear and shock from the toys. This was done through the use of close-up and akward-like shots. In the video in which you see the toys point of view, the use of lines diminishes the scale of the toys, through using a higher horizon line. Also all the toys create an actual line themselves, by pointing up to the sky, where the dominant voice is intended to be coming from. In video two we used light to set the mood. We wanted to create contrast between the two films, so shooting the first one during the daylight and the second one at night, in a house, did just that. Also many times during the second “horror” movie there were very dimly lit scenes, which helped aid to the tension and release we were trying to create. The rhythm we were trying to create in the second movie was done through having multiple slow, drawn out shots, in which the kid is seen contemplating his thoughts, many times with an evil smile on his face. This also helped aid our tension and release and create a sense of fear within the clip. I felt the two videos contrasted nicely. The one which was shot from the toys point of view worked better I thought, just because the emotion was conveyed in a more direct way, through the use of lines which I previously mentioned.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Blog 6A!
So I was struggling with adding additional video to my (to augment all the face time, such as inserting a clip of a live Led Zeppelin show, but with just the video and no audio) so I left it as is for now and plan on coming back later to try again, so you don't have to watch my face talk for 5 minutes!
Ways to Be Creative!
Ways to Be Creative!
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