Nic Cage As Everyone

*Modified Photo

I have several thoughts on the acting caliber of Mr. Nic Cage...but won't go into them. I was bored and happened to do one of my favorite activities: face-swapping. Nic Cage as a (female) body builder. This one took a record 8-minutes!

Click Here for more info on the meme.
Click Here to see the original picture.

Offerbug.com

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, but that doesn't mean I haven't been busy - the folks over at PulseTV.com asked me to design and develop their latest deal of the day website - Offerbug.com. I was part of the creative process from the beginning, forming the logo and solidifying a suitable tagline "We take the "bite" out of retail!"

The logo went through several changes, and that cute little bug initially started out as a bee - but it turns out there was already a similar mascot for a different deal of the day site. So I created this hybrid-beetle-thing and selected the color scheme of black and green.

I eventually created a Photoshop mockup of the page layout, playing off the established color scheme and strove for a minimalist site, since there really is not too much going on besides product description. The mockup was then sent to the developers and coders over at PulseTV, and they reproduced the look as faithfully as possible while we collaborated on updates, and necessary graphic work.

Check out the site here http://offerbug.com

Wes Anderson Desktop Wallpaper

I remember the first time I watched Bottle Rocket. My roommate said it was one of his favorite movies, and even though I had things to work on, I figured I'd at least sit down and do things on my laptop. Within a half hour, I had shut my laptop and focused solely on this movie - it was just too funny, quirky, and engrossing. I wasn't a huge fan of Owen Wilson at the time (Shanghai Noon?) and I had only seen Luke Wilson in Old School. But the movie was awesome, and introduced me to the world of Wes Anderson.

In this world, there are often stupid, yet life-affirming characters who desperately combat all kinds of psychology-fueled defense mechanisms and depression. In this world, comedy comes from normal people doing slightly abnormal things, and being gosh-darned proud of it. In this world, people wear shorts. After watching one, I had to finish, and watched the rest - Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and The Darjeeling Limited. I decided to make a sweet desktop wallpaper with a collage of his films just for fun. They're all there - Bill Murray, the Wilsons, Gene Hackman, Adrian Brody, and the rest of the bunch. I made this before Fantastic Mr. Fox came out, but I probably wouldn't have included the puppetry anyway.

I really tried playing with the flow of the images, and even made Jeff Goldblum wrap his arm around Owen Wilson just for the heck of it.

Trigun/Hellsing Guitar

Before I get too carried away here, it should be said that the guitars below are NOT actually real guitars, they are merely Photoshopped mockups that I did for fun one day. I snapped a picture of my sweet red/black electro-acoustic (3/4 scale) and thought about what I would do to modify it. I made these in 2009.

That first picture is of the original guitar (strings

removed of course) And next is the Trigun version I did. The black and red scheme made me think of the overall imagery of the series, so I thought it was a natural choice. The Trigun guitar was made with various images grabbed from the web, and the "bullet holes" were also just grabbed online, probably from those window decals for your car. I also decided if I were to do this, I would spray paint the inside black to make it extra cool.

After making the Trigun one, I instantly thought of making a Hellsing guitar, since I just got into the series around this time, and thought Alucard (it's Dracula backwards!) was pretty badass, and deserved his own guitar. I used mostly the Multiply layer effect, though some were Darken. I also Colorized a few, to make sure that it was completely monochromatic with red and black. I thought about adding bullet holes as well, but it would have been too busy. I also added the magic pentagram thingy from the show in the sound hole.

I'm not exactly sure how I would go about doing this in real life...perhaps create some transparent .pngs onto sticker paper and then apply some kind of gloss to the whole thing.

The White Stripes Break Up

The White Stripes have won Grammys, made six studio albums, and sold millions of those records. And today, on February 2, 2011, they announced their breakup.

I found out when a Myspace(yeah, I still have a page, mostly to follow a handful of bands) email notification told me the White Stripes had a new blog posting. In it, there was a short, but well-thought out message to the world’s fans that the band had indeed “officially ended and will make no further new recordings or perform live.” With an elephant-heavy heart, I checked and rechecked the internet for confirmation, and wondered if this wasn’t some hoax.

I know in my heart I saw it coming earlier, but pushed it further and further away from my analytic brain, for fear of the truth. The band’s been on hiatus for a few years now, with their last album Icky Thump coming out in 2007. The album itself was a bit of a stretch for the band and Jack White’s maturation as an artist clashed with earlier aesthetics of the band. Put all six album covers in a row, and pick out the one that doesn’t quite belong – it’s the pearly king and queen of Icky Thump that have a slight air of weariness to them.

Album art aside, the band seemed to understand their position, and in a way to ease the transition they released the 2009 concert tour/documentary Under Great White Northern Lights. It is a beautiful tribute to the band as a whole, and a touching parting gift for fans. If only we realized it at the time.

The band’s farewell message seems all at once too vague and profound, as they wish to “preserve what is beautiful and special about the band and have it stay that way.” What exactly was so beautiful and special about that band in the first place? Everything. The childlike duo’s air of curiosity and innocence fueled their creative process and visual dynamics. What was great was that the band was growing up in the prime of its pre-conceived childhood. What they didn’t count on was the maturation beyond those years.

Jack White’s collaborations within the Raconteurs, and Dead Weather have given him the musical equivalent of studying abroad as a teenager – he’s grown up amongst different cultures and changed. It may not be better or worse; but it is different. He’s no longer the wide-eyed kid with a plastic guitar in a garage.

When I said the White’s had an air of weariness to them, it wasn’t as if they were weary of playing music, of being together. They were weary of pretending and keeping up the act and suppressing the creative maturation they know they have gained over the years.

The farewell letter states that Jack and Meg hope the fans see it as “a positive move done out of respect for the art and music that the band has created.” You have to appreciate the dedication of the band, to forcibly get back into their old mindset, and when they can no longer do it, they call it a day. A lesser band would continue using their name as only a vehicle for music no longer relevant to their original intent.

It should be said that I am relieved the band hadn’t waited til they put out a bad record to announce the breakup. They had six amazing records. I still wouldn’t rule out musical collaborations between the two (I suspect that they would simply say that it was done by Jack and Meg White, as opposed to the band name). Jack is of course always working on the next great project – he’s collaborating with Norah Jones and Danger Mouse for a March 2011 album.

Even though I fully understand it, and even applaud the decision, I’m still slightly heartbroken. I remember watching the electrifying Grammy performance of “Seven Nation Army” in 2004, before I even knew about the band. I remember listening to Elephant on a burned CD-R over and over on a portable CD player during a family trip. I heard the “Icky Thump” single on the day of my senior prom. I have grown up with this band and eagerly awaited each release.

The closing of the letter sums it up nicely. “The White Stripes do not belong to Meg and Jack anymore. The White Stripes belong to you know and you can do with it whatever you want. The beauty of art and music is that it can last forever if people want it to.”

I agree.

(Read the breakup letter here)

Published in the BU Scout

Kurt Cobain Tribute Poem

It's been a while since I last posted, I chalk that up to enjoying my last winter break. Can ya believe adults with careers don't have winter breaks!? I didn't quite grasp that til now...but I felt like I haven't been as creative (outside a few freelance posters and banner ads) as I usually am without professorial encouragement - so I decided to make a little art piece out of one of my poems.

I never would have thought it would work out as well as it did, but I took a creative writing course last semester just for fun, and it specialized in poetry (I found out a week before class started). I wasn't disappointed or anything, I figured I could get by. The class was taught by Illinois Poet Laureate, Kevin Stein, and was one of the best courses I've taken at Bradley. We were constantly creating and critiquing, and the class fostered a community of poets eager to help each other improve.

The poem itself is my personal favorite that I have written in my beginning life as a poet. I was almost afraid to write a poem about Kurt Cobain, since I didn't want to let myself down in failing to convey the right mood. I also just wanted it to be good - Nirvana changed my life in many ways, and I wanted to do both Kurt and the band the artistic justice they deserve.

I hunted around morguefile.com to find some photos with a Creative Commons license, and simply typed in "seattle." I sifted through dozens and on one of the last pages was this bench that I used. If I'm not mistaken there are a few benches in Seattle that serve as tribute locations for Cobain, and this one had a perfect close up that demonstrated the reverence, hero worship, sadness, and celebration of one person. Thanks to Kristine Kisky for the photo and making it available!

I lowered the saturation of the whole thing, to make it mostly black and white, til the flower colors were the only bits of color. I shrunk it a bit and added a black Inner Glow to the whole frame, as well as added some gradient layer masking to make the image fade on the sides a bit more. I toyed with the idea of adding all kinds of images of cardigans, torn jeans, and maybe a Fender Jagstang - but I thought it was better with this simple display. I chose a Courier-type font (American Typewriter) because it, presents the poem in a straight-forward way (thanks for articulating that for me Lauren!) Cursive-fonts made it seem too girly/sentimental, and that's not what I was going for.

I plan on submitting this poem, among others, to some journals and things eventually. A few of them are begging for artistic accompaniments, so I may do that!

Standoff: Editing Exercise

For the final project in Nonlinear Post Production, the class had to collectively edit an entire episode of the cancelled FOX show, Standoff, starring Ron Livingston. The show is about FBI hostage negotiators, and has a few familiar TV faces on it besides Livingston. (I was happy to see Firefly's Gina Torres having a small part as well.) It only aired 6 episodes, and we got allllllll the footage they shot for the episode entitled "Heroine". After this project, I got to say "Look Ma! I edited a whole TV show!"

The class was divided in teams of two, for each team to edit one of the four acts. One team volunteered to also tackle the trailer for extra credit. I was appointed Supervising Editor (a decision made based on the quality of my previous work in the class, such as the shoe commercials and an edited scene from the TV series Angel.

This was the first time I have edited with a partner or collaborated with anyone really. My partner, Andrew Darling was also appointed Supervising Audio Engineer for displaying his own proficiencies at soundscaping and audio selections on other projects. He is a skilled and easy-going partner who also wanted a professional end result. Sometimes we edited together, getting and giving input on editing decisions, and other times we worked alone. Both methods worked out fine, and the end result speaks for itself.

After our act was finished I also had to edit the others for continuity, content, and time. The final cut had to be 44 minutes, and ours was 49 all together. As Supervising Editor, I had to cut scenes that were not necessary, trim dialogue, and cut long segments (instead of a continuous shot of someone walking to get a door - I just showed the door opening). I had to color correct certain segments, and seek footage that was not included for our project. I searched for HD footage of Los Angeles to use for scene transitions, and grabbed some footage off of the Hulu video of the same episode (such as opening/closing credits). It was an intense project that required many hours of work, but was a blast and I'm very proud of the show and the work my fellow classmates put in.

The clip below is the climax of the show, and the act Andrew and I edited together. Sorry it isn't in YouTube format, they claimed I violated come copyright stuff, and some morons didn't understand the refute I sent them.

*Update: Here's the embedded video courtesy of Vimeo!