Crowdsourcing response

While I enjoyed being a part of a larger project like “And Then The World Stopped,” I also don’t know how satisfying it will be once the final product is made.  I spent hours creating these frames during the frame factory marathon, only to produce less than 2 seconds of film.  I know that this same thing happens during the shooting of an actual film, but I also know that my work will be more emphasized and individualized when it comes to another type of filmmaking. 

            I liked coloring, and I liked being able to bond with other members of the class, but I also did not feel as though each frame will be placed in the film for such a short amount of time that, though the individuality of the process was stressed during production, the community aspect of the whole thing will be much more evident, which makes me wonder whether this aspect should have been stressed more from the beginning.  Maybe that’s the point though: that even though we’ve all been working on these frames separately for so long, the end result will pull each of them together and create something completely new.  None of us can actually give ourselves credit for more than just a blink of an eye worth of footage.  It’s become anonymous. 

            It was really interesting to see how the whole process works.  I did not think that it would take so long to fulfill the requirements of the project, having first looked as it like a glorified arts and crafts assignment, but now I can see how different this is from they typical coloring book.  I like that about this assignment.

Acoustic Ecology Post

Reading this has made me want to start my own crowdsourcing project.  My father actually suggested it to me as a project about my mother that seemed nearly impossible given the time limit I had and the amount of traveling I would have to do.  This idea is a documentary about my mother’s sister, Mindy, who died some time ago from cancer.  I would get relatives from all across the country—from upstate New York, to Indiana, to Arizona—to interview with me about what Mindy meant to them and to tell me stories about her.  I would then send it to my mother and Mindy’s sons as a graduation gift for my cousin Tim.  Now that I’ve learned more about crowdsourcing, I find this project to be extremely possible, and that it will be even more exciting and interesting, given all the different personalities of those who would be participating. 

            In response to the readings/videos, it was the Wikipedia viewing that intrigued me the most.  Even though I’ve heard the basic story before, it’s incredible to me how successful the website has become, as well as how accurate the information on the online Encyclopedia is.  I never realized how much the website checked its facts, but it makes sense now.  It shows how far crowdsourcing can spread, and how affective it can be as a process of gaining information. 

            Though film crews are already broken up into such diverse categories, having many people do many things, it will be interesting to see how crowdsourcing, as it expands in interest, will affect the film community even more in the future.

Crowdsourcing Response

Reading this has made me want to start my own crowdsourcing project.  My father actually suggested it to me as a project about my mother that seemed nearly impossible given the time limit I had and the amount of traveling I would have to do.  This idea is a documentary about my mother’s sister, Mindy, who died some time ago from cancer.  I would get relatives from all across the country—from upstate New York, to Indiana, to Arizona—to interview with me about what Mindy meant to them and to tell me stories about her.  I would then send it to my mother and Mindy’s sons as a graduation gift for my cousin Tim.  Now that I’ve learned more about crowdsourcing, I find this project to be extremely possible, and that it will be even more exciting and interesting, given all the different personalities of those who would be participating. 

            In response to the readings/videos, it was the Wikipedia viewing that intrigued me the most.  Even though I’ve heard the basic story before, it’s incredible to me how successful the website has become, as well as how accurate the information on the online Encyclopedia is.  I never realized how much the website checked its facts, but it makes sense now.  It shows how far crowdsourcing can spread, and how affective it can be as a process of gaining information. 

            Though film crews are already broken up into such diverse categories, having many people do many things, it will be interesting to see how crowdsourcing, as it expands in interest, will affect the film community even more in the future.

Synesthesia/Cymantics

I was really excited about this reading because a friend of mine, Mike, has synesthesia.  I’ve never actually gone out of my way to research the idea, so this gave me a much-needed reason to actually figure out what it is.  Mike sees colors when he hears or plays music, which gave me sort of limited knowledge.  He is a brilliant musician because of it, and he can pick up practically any instrument and play it beautifully based on colors that he’s seen before while listening to or playing other music.  I have learned about it in psychology, but that was in high school, and who really remembers anything from high school.  I did not know that the phenomenon is so diverse in its expression; rather I always thought it was some kind of optical-auditory connection. 

            I was also interested to read about all these fine artists who have synesthesia, many of whom I have heard of before.  It really makes me look at their art, or listen to their music differently now that I know.  It’s incredible to think that some of the films I’ve seen, like the one we saw on the first day of class, could have been influenced and transcribed directly based on what the artist was seeing while he or she was listening to music, or interacting with some other sensory subject.  I find myself to be rather jealous of people with it.  I feel that my artistic creations would be so much more interesting if they were just a little more abnormal.