MOMI TRIP

Blog MOMI trip

I have been going to the MOMI since I was a kid and have seen how much it has changed over the past few years. I grew up a few blocks away and would go in and browse every once in a while for fun or to see specific exhibits that have to do with my favorite shows like "The Muppets."

            The most recent exhibit that sparked my interest was the “Mad Men” exhibit. I enjoy when the MOMI has large exhibits that focus on a specific aspect of a show. In this exhibit they gave great insight onto the amount of work that is required to gather the props and material for the set designs. Mad Men takes place in late 50's- 60’s New York, a time and place that has a very specific look. The people who designed the sets and gather the props went to great length to obtain and make items from this time period. The exhibit housed full rooms arranged perfectly as one would see them from this time period, right down to the half burnt cigarette butt in the ash tray. The furniture in the offices, bedrooms and kitchen where refurbished actual pieces from this time.

            This hard work from the set designers all made the show feel realistic and true to its time. I never realized how important it is to get this right and now that I do I have much more respect for this position in the field of film-making. 

Blog 3

MEDP/FILMP 160

SPRING 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EoQuVnKhxaM

         The Ex Machina film teaser is a very well put together media clip. The sound design, music and cuts work together meticulously. The editor made this clip induce a level of anxiety that matches the dark tone of the movie perfectly.

         The clip starts off with extreme long shots that establish the setting deep in the forest, the music during this section is ambient and suggesting tranquility. As it progresses a soft on the ear melody in the mid range frequencies is introduced giving the listener a sense of comfort, but the sound in the lower frequencies is dark in tone suggesting something negative is about to occur. This leads to the shot of a wooden door closing the protagonist of the film into a cabin in the woods where the music suggests there is going to be a tragic event. The clip then introduces the characters in the film in quick cuts while loosely suggesting the plot of the film. The music during this section gets darker (minor) in tone and the tempo picks up giving the watcher a sense of anxiety that correlates with the emotions of the protagonist who seems to become disturbed. The cuts become quicker as we are introduced to issues and antagonist the characters are associating with. The colors of the shots become red and suggest blood and  fear, which is seen as the protagonist slits his wrist towards the closing shot.

        

Union Square( ear training) MED 160

Union square is four avenues from my house. I sit across from whole foods on the regular to absorb some rays and get out of myself by being quiet . The sounds were I rest are about as Urban as they come. I sat in the park on the first warm day and heard numerous aggressive taxi drivers skidding out and honking their horns to alleviate stress. I could feel and hear the subway cars rumbling below me as they came and went. An angry girl was chasing a guy down the street yelling at him in Greek. A cop talks obnoxiously over his loud speaker asking a car to move as a skateboarder ollied over the short steps in the park and fell off his deck. Thousands of feet slowly and quickly walked down the busy street in this congested urban environment. The toxic ice that still remained on the streets gets crushed by large shovels that scrape against the pavement making ear cringing sounds. Hari Krishnas vocalize their repetitive chants hoping to draw people into their world. Two young men kick around a soccer ball that bounces and skids across the rough texture of the concrete. A man screams at the top of his lungs "Do I HAVE A CHESS PLAYAHHH?"I hear my breath drawing in and out, I feel my heartbeat.

MED 160 Artist Statement

Link For Final Project-

https://vimeo.com/127821378




Sound Project extra credit

Jerry and His Immigration

The topic for my sound project interview was in regards to Jerry’s immigration from China to the United States. The story goes through Jerry’s move to the USA and some of the hardships he faced as he assimilated to our culture and learned the language. Jerry also spoke about school in China and how brutal it is compared to here in the USA. The story is in a non-linear format, which was used to give a better comparative in the settings of the two countries in regards to each specific question I asked.

            The sound recording was done in a small relatively quiet room so I could manipulate the sound better in post-production. Jerry was a little nervous about being able to be understood because of his accent so he was shaking, which came through on the recordings as pops and clicks. I had to spend time Equalizing the pops and clicks out which was on-top of his voice so it couldn’t be cut out, this was tedious. I would have rather re-recorded him but I was running out of time.

            In post-production I added music and NYC crowd walla as a back drop to add some noise so it didn’t sound so clean. I started with a western guitar ( a stringed instrument) with a sad tone to set the tone and possible location, Jerry was talking about the USA during this time so a western instrument was fitting. When Jerry started to speak about China I Juxtaposed the sad tone of the guitar with a erhu and eliminated the guitar (Erhu is a sad sounding Chinese stringed instrument). The erhu sounds Asian in scale and tone giving the listener a possible sense of the location he was talking about, since he did not make reference to China as he was speaking I used this as a device to alert the listener to a change. When Jerry started to speak about how things improved for him in the USA I eliminated the Erhu and faded in a upbeat Jazz song (An American form of music) to change the mood and tone from depressing to positive and to give the listener a sense of hope as the recorded interview came to an end.  On the master channel I put compression and eq and I bused the vocals to a bit of small room reverb so they wouldn’t sound so lifeless.

            If I were to fix this I would have had to re-record the vocals from Jerry and have try to make him more relaxed. I would have puled the volume of the music down which needed to be louder to mask the pops and clicks in his vocal recordings.

Interview/ Soundcloud


Define A space Extra Credit

Project one, “Defining a Space” is a non-linear form of story telling told in a silent film medium. The video Defines the functions of a mundane everyday object that gets passed by every day with little if no thought unless someone is desperate for hydration and can’t afford to buy a drink. The story goes through a number of different close ups to get a insight on the functions of this object. We shot in multiple angles as two different people interact and drink from the fountain. I made a rhythmic sequence by quickly cutting shots and repeating them. I used this three times to set the pace of the film, to bring focus to the water fountains spout and drain and the actions surrounding them. The transitions I used for this film were basic cuts and for the first project I was happy just focusing on this.

            I would have improved a lot in this film. The first thing I would have done would be to get better footage. I wanted to get smoother transitions between cuts and could not achieve this with the footage I have. I would have also made the rhythmic sequences that I used three times tighter and synced to an actual beat or song, then pull the song out from the film. I would have also cut some of the interactions with the fountain down to shorter times, I feel that the information contained within those shots could be grasped in less time which in turn would give the viewer a more interesting film.

·       organization of the story

Define a space Video

Abstract Based off my Music

Street Art Style Collage

Work in Progress Oil Painting of My Father

Cover to one of my new Electronic Album with links to Itunes

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-uncanny-dirtbag/id941316279

Glitch Art

Older Style Abstract Based off My Music

First novel book cover

http://omenphaze.com/ 

My work is inspired by the ever-present subcultures that flourish within society. As a musician, visual artist and writer who works in many different subcultures, I am inspired by the situations that pull people together to create alternative ways of viewing and creating.

            Touring as an electronic musician has given me insight to the inner workings of music and art culture. My music has given me the chance to interact with many different types of people from all walks of life. Through my music art and writing I passionately explore the great cultural diversity that is a healthy part of any society.

 I am also inspired by the acquisition of skills, I have an endless desire to learn how things are created and to add these newly acquired skills into my toolbox. I enjoy challenging myself in many of art forms. I currently work as a composer writing and producing electronic music for a number of known and underground artists. I also compose commercial music for the company Elias Arts. This year I released two electronic albums through most worldwide digital distribution channels.

I am also an abstract and figurative painter. I am currently working on a new series of abstract paintings to be shown this upcoming year. My current visual artwork is mixed media on canvas and wood, graphite photo realistic portraits, and oil paint biomorphic abstracts, and digital glitch art. My Abstract paintings are based off my music.

I am also in the process of writing my second novel. The novels are, The Uncanny Dirtbag and Iguana Caccaitore.

My main goal for taking New-Media classes is to start to combine my art, music and writing to all in one interactive digital format. I believe investing time working on video editing will start me in the process. I plan on making digital interactive novels filled with art clips, sound design and music that can be installed into a gallery space on large touch screens. 

I also just got the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council grant and need to apply what I learn in this class to complete the funded video project.