Here's one more I found interesting with my explaination.
Okay, what I think's going on is there are animatronic feet, and that the girls face is actually a mirror image from under the stage. When David shows the feet in the box as he holds them up, you can see some sort of wire holding them in place and maybe making them move. Also, at 2:30 and 2:54, you can possibly see a trap door. Check it out!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Illusions
Lianna posted optical illusions. I'm fascinated by that type of thing - I used to be obsessed with Stage Illusions. Check out David Copperfield
Impressive huh?
Now here's a kid doing the same thing.
Not as spectacular without all the millions of dollars behind him like copperfield, but it's still a great effect. What I think is he's kneeling and he's only half in his pants. Any suggestions?
Impressive huh?
Now here's a kid doing the same thing.
Not as spectacular without all the millions of dollars behind him like copperfield, but it's still a great effect. What I think is he's kneeling and he's only half in his pants. Any suggestions?
Funny Commercial
After the two serious 'conspiracy' style blogs, I want to lighten the mood of the blog. I found this funny spoof commercial on YouTube about energy drinks. This would really come in handy for finals ;)
BrainGate
Wow, this is pretty ridiculous. So I posted that Orwellian blog below because of Jen's Facebook speech and found that interesting. Anyway, there's a keyword in that report, "BrainGate implant." Wanting to see what it was all about, I did a quick google search and found this out.
It's this microchip they implant into the physically handicapped's brain. If they have problems with their limbs, what it does is it allows them to control lights, doors, etc, with their BRAINS! The computer chip reads brain activity, waves, and electricity, and converts the waves into INTENTIONS which are converted into Computer Commands! Then the computer is attached to something that turns on lights or opens up mechanical doors. That's pretty crazy.
Useful for parapelegics, but what if the normal person got something like that? We'd be super human. Good in theory, but potentially dangerous in practice. We'd all be super human computer people. Are we really that lazy and do we really want that?
It's this microchip they implant into the physically handicapped's brain. If they have problems with their limbs, what it does is it allows them to control lights, doors, etc, with their BRAINS! The computer chip reads brain activity, waves, and electricity, and converts the waves into INTENTIONS which are converted into Computer Commands! Then the computer is attached to something that turns on lights or opens up mechanical doors. That's pretty crazy.
Useful for parapelegics, but what if the normal person got something like that? We'd be super human. Good in theory, but potentially dangerous in practice. We'd all be super human computer people. Are we really that lazy and do we really want that?
Facebook & Privacy.
I'm going to get Orwellian on you on this blog. After the presentation about Facebook & Privacy settings, I found this article I wanted to share with you that compared Facebook to Big Brother. Enjoy.
The Following is from InfoWars.com and in no way reflect my views. Please, Big Brother, don't kill me ;)
"Imagine a computer database which catalogued your entire social network: the email, home address, and sensitive details of all your friends, and consequently, all of their friends in a massive interlinked web. What if this service also archived all of your personal preferences on everything from books to movies to music? And if it also categorized your political views, club associations, previous jobs, educational background, and who you are dating?
How about if this information was available not only to government spooks but the general public free of charge?
Sounds like a hellish vision of the future, right? But this program is not the devilish spawn of DARPA’s Total Information Awareness program, nor the secret plans of “private” data miners like Choicepoint or Axciom.
The Beast system is here right now. And worst of all, people are voluntarily giving up this information, with some updating their profile every day with their latest personal details.
Welcome to TheFaceBook.com. Founded in February 2004, it currently operates on 800 college campuses cataloging the details of its 2.8 million users. According to the Boston Globe, “the free network…boasts that on average it attracts 80 percent of a school’s undergraduate population as well as a smattering of graduate students, faculty members, and recent alumni.”
For example at Boston University, 14,007 of the school’s 15,846 undergraduates have joined and volunteered their most intimate details. According to the statistics, approximately 60 percent of users log in daily, with 85 percent logging in weekly.
And just to make sure you can join the fun, TheFaceBook.com is busy adding more than 50 campuses a month as well as expanding to high schools and international institutions.
Call it Big Brother with a consumer-friendly smile.
So who do we have to thank for this? According to the official story, TheFaceBook was founded by 3 students from the CIA’s favorite breeding ground of Harvard University. Their first $500,000 in funding came from Peter Thiel, founder and former CEO of Paypal.
Thiel is also a former columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a graduate of 2Stanford University, the home of NSA computer research and CIA mind control projects like MK ULTRA. He is an avowed neocon and globalist whose book “The Diversity Myth” received praises from William Kristol, Christopher Cox, Edward Meese, and Linda Chavez. Thiel sits on the board of the radical right-wing VanguardPAC and he personally donated $21,200 to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign for governor.
At a June 24, 2004 conference, Thiel remarked “I think the only way that the world can become unified in some sense is through technology. Technology is driving us towards a single, seamless humanity.” Surely John Poindexter and the architects of the cashless society control grid would agree.
Yet TheFaceBook.com’s connections to the shadowy world of black ops don’t stop there. They recently received $13 million in venture capital backing from Accel Partners. James Breyer, the manager of Accel, sits on the board of National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) alongside Gilman Louie, head of In-Q-Tel.
The CIA set up In-Q-Tel in 1999, with the goal of fostering companies that provide “data warehousing and mining” in a “secure community of interest.” Further goals include “profiling search agents” which are “self-sustaining, to reduce its reliance on CIA funding.” Sounds like an exact description of TheFaceBook.
After all, what better way to spy on potential radicals and student activists than with a program so seemingly innocuous? TheFaceBook already categorizes users on a scale from “Very Liberal” to “Very Conservative” allowing for easy government profiling. Additionally they can search for anyone who lists the wrong keywords, like “anarchist,” “protest” “New World Order,” or any other thought crime. And with the click of a button, they have your picture, address, and the names and information of all your friends.
TheFaceBook is the devil in sheep’s clothing. It is leading the vanguard of the “consumer friendly” Big Brother targeting young people, specifically college and high school students. While pretending to be a harmless and fun service, TheFaceBook is a dark foray into psychological profiling, where the cryptocracy wants to know every detail of your life and track your location at every moment.
Unfortunately, this is part of a larger plan to spy on students. In March, AOL, a company that has admittedly handed over emails and web logs to the FBI and NSA, announced a new privacy policy for their popular AIM instant messenger program used predominately by students. It said “You waive any right to privacy." Civil liberties advocates immediately warned users that all their conversations could be tapped by AOL, which uses an Illuminati all-seeing eye as their logo. But with so much MTV to watch and so many Britney Spears songs to memorize, it seems few of them are listening.
Last week the CIA announced they would be hiring students to spy on campus activists and report the information back to headquarters. In actuality this has probably been going on far before the official announcement.
Eventually all of this information will be stored in pentabyte databases and linked to our microchipped National ID card. But before they can implant Verichips into our hands and solder BrainGate chips into our brains, they must weed out the “student troublemakers” with the help of programs like TheFaceBook and AIM.
Civil liberties advocates are so busy protesting the PATRIOT Act that they have ignored the insidious spy networks right under our noses. The same college students who list themselves in the ACLU club on TheFaceBook are blind to the danger of announcing their affiliation to the world.
TheFaceBook.com is nothing more than COINTELPRO with slick packaging. It is part of a new breed of spy networks designed to profile students for the next phase of martial law. The Bush regime is a megalomaniacal cabal of mass murderers who want to crush all internal dissent, and like all dictatorial regimes, the first place they will look is students.
Of course with the ECHELON network already spying on all phone calls and emails, there is really nowhere to hide. So in the meantime I am using TheFaceBook to my advantage. I have listed myself as a “Very Conservative” intern at the Dan Quayle Library with a penchant for books by Oliver North.
After all, maybe I have entered the right keywords and the CIA will come recruit me as one of those new student spies. "
The Following is from InfoWars.com and in no way reflect my views. Please, Big Brother, don't kill me ;)
"Imagine a computer database which catalogued your entire social network: the email, home address, and sensitive details of all your friends, and consequently, all of their friends in a massive interlinked web. What if this service also archived all of your personal preferences on everything from books to movies to music? And if it also categorized your political views, club associations, previous jobs, educational background, and who you are dating?
How about if this information was available not only to government spooks but the general public free of charge?
Sounds like a hellish vision of the future, right? But this program is not the devilish spawn of DARPA’s Total Information Awareness program, nor the secret plans of “private” data miners like Choicepoint or Axciom.
The Beast system is here right now. And worst of all, people are voluntarily giving up this information, with some updating their profile every day with their latest personal details.
Welcome to TheFaceBook.com. Founded in February 2004, it currently operates on 800 college campuses cataloging the details of its 2.8 million users. According to the Boston Globe, “the free network…boasts that on average it attracts 80 percent of a school’s undergraduate population as well as a smattering of graduate students, faculty members, and recent alumni.”
For example at Boston University, 14,007 of the school’s 15,846 undergraduates have joined and volunteered their most intimate details. According to the statistics, approximately 60 percent of users log in daily, with 85 percent logging in weekly.
And just to make sure you can join the fun, TheFaceBook.com is busy adding more than 50 campuses a month as well as expanding to high schools and international institutions.
Call it Big Brother with a consumer-friendly smile.
So who do we have to thank for this? According to the official story, TheFaceBook was founded by 3 students from the CIA’s favorite breeding ground of Harvard University. Their first $500,000 in funding came from Peter Thiel, founder and former CEO of Paypal.
Thiel is also a former columnist for the Wall Street Journal and a graduate of 2Stanford University, the home of NSA computer research and CIA mind control projects like MK ULTRA. He is an avowed neocon and globalist whose book “The Diversity Myth” received praises from William Kristol, Christopher Cox, Edward Meese, and Linda Chavez. Thiel sits on the board of the radical right-wing VanguardPAC and he personally donated $21,200 to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s campaign for governor.
At a June 24, 2004 conference, Thiel remarked “I think the only way that the world can become unified in some sense is through technology. Technology is driving us towards a single, seamless humanity.” Surely John Poindexter and the architects of the cashless society control grid would agree.
Yet TheFaceBook.com’s connections to the shadowy world of black ops don’t stop there. They recently received $13 million in venture capital backing from Accel Partners. James Breyer, the manager of Accel, sits on the board of National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) alongside Gilman Louie, head of In-Q-Tel.
The CIA set up In-Q-Tel in 1999, with the goal of fostering companies that provide “data warehousing and mining” in a “secure community of interest.” Further goals include “profiling search agents” which are “self-sustaining, to reduce its reliance on CIA funding.” Sounds like an exact description of TheFaceBook.
After all, what better way to spy on potential radicals and student activists than with a program so seemingly innocuous? TheFaceBook already categorizes users on a scale from “Very Liberal” to “Very Conservative” allowing for easy government profiling. Additionally they can search for anyone who lists the wrong keywords, like “anarchist,” “protest” “New World Order,” or any other thought crime. And with the click of a button, they have your picture, address, and the names and information of all your friends.
TheFaceBook is the devil in sheep’s clothing. It is leading the vanguard of the “consumer friendly” Big Brother targeting young people, specifically college and high school students. While pretending to be a harmless and fun service, TheFaceBook is a dark foray into psychological profiling, where the cryptocracy wants to know every detail of your life and track your location at every moment.
Unfortunately, this is part of a larger plan to spy on students. In March, AOL, a company that has admittedly handed over emails and web logs to the FBI and NSA, announced a new privacy policy for their popular AIM instant messenger program used predominately by students. It said “You waive any right to privacy." Civil liberties advocates immediately warned users that all their conversations could be tapped by AOL, which uses an Illuminati all-seeing eye as their logo. But with so much MTV to watch and so many Britney Spears songs to memorize, it seems few of them are listening.
Last week the CIA announced they would be hiring students to spy on campus activists and report the information back to headquarters. In actuality this has probably been going on far before the official announcement.
Eventually all of this information will be stored in pentabyte databases and linked to our microchipped National ID card. But before they can implant Verichips into our hands and solder BrainGate chips into our brains, they must weed out the “student troublemakers” with the help of programs like TheFaceBook and AIM.
Civil liberties advocates are so busy protesting the PATRIOT Act that they have ignored the insidious spy networks right under our noses. The same college students who list themselves in the ACLU club on TheFaceBook are blind to the danger of announcing their affiliation to the world.
TheFaceBook.com is nothing more than COINTELPRO with slick packaging. It is part of a new breed of spy networks designed to profile students for the next phase of martial law. The Bush regime is a megalomaniacal cabal of mass murderers who want to crush all internal dissent, and like all dictatorial regimes, the first place they will look is students.
Of course with the ECHELON network already spying on all phone calls and emails, there is really nowhere to hide. So in the meantime I am using TheFaceBook to my advantage. I have listed myself as a “Very Conservative” intern at the Dan Quayle Library with a penchant for books by Oliver North.
After all, maybe I have entered the right keywords and the CIA will come recruit me as one of those new student spies. "
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
How I "Worked" My Documentary
I just wrote a blog about how reality TV show's a 'work.' I also explained that a 'work' is something contrived. To make my point about reality TV a little clearer, I want to talk about a 'reality' documentary I did in Video Editing class a year or so ago. Here's the video itself.
Okay, now the editing came out great and the story flowed congruently. But the truth is, I filmed a bunch of random footage and had NO story to tell until I actually sat down and figured one out. Basically what I did was get Brito's general story, filmed some wrestling interviews, and figured it all out as I was editing.
Everything about Mike Brito was true. He's a college student at BSC, he wants to wrestle part time, his class scheduel, etc. But the first shot of him coming out the door? "Hey Mike, that sucked. Do it again." He must have walked in and out of that door 20 times, because I'm anal retentive and have OCD with this type of stuff.
His dream isn't to become an 'EPW Wrestler.' That'd be stupid, and that was greatly exaggerated to make the story flow. Dreaming to become an 'EPW Wrestler' is legitimatly equal to dreaming to be a thankless weekend wrestler who gets paid maybe $20 or less and a stale bag of popcorn. Oh yeah, and he'd have to set up the ring and get yelled at by a crappy promoter. So no, his dream isn't to be an EPW wrestler. A better thing to say would be, "I dream of being a WWE superstar," but I called Vince... he could't make it to Bridgewater that day. But like I said, it was a 'goal' i could have him set so he could accomplish it by the end. The Pay-off!
So next we're in the car with him. I probably should have cut this up with some stock footage, but I didn't. Hindsight's 20/20. This story was completely true.
Next shot we're 'interviewing' the Head Trainer. The head trainer's really an assistant trainer who me & Mike are good friends with. Oh yeah, and the interview? Never happened. Sean's just looking out into space somewhere and talking to himself. I go, "Give me 10 minutes of bullshit about how great Mike is." And he did. The great thing is, he actually stops and reacts to the invisible man he's talking to to add realism. And who said wrestler's can't act?
Okay, next up is the dramatic sequence where we reveal there's this huge wrestle-off to be in a Battle Royal match. If Mike wins the match, he gets to be in it. Truth is, WRESTLING's FAKE! The outcome's pre-determined! Nothing was determined in a Wrestle-Off. That was just filmed so I could have something to throw into the story. And the Battle Royal already happened 3 months before the filming of this documentary. The original plan was to show footage of Mike in the match itself at the end of the documentary, but the promoter refused to give me the footage.
My favorite part of the editing came from splicing Kyle O'Riley's interview with Sean & Mikes as they all go back and fourth. I think it was great for effect. Truth is, Kyle's a sweetheart. He's soft spoken, respectul, all that. I go, "Kyle, I need an asshole for this documentary. You're, um... you're the Star Student, you have a bad attitude, and you don't like Mike. Go!" and I turned the camera on, and he spouted off a whole bunch of ad-libbed lines.
In editing, I discovered that just about everything Kyle said, Sean said something to counter act, or I could find a sound-bite of Mike that would fit. For example, Kyle: I'm definately the star student, Sean: A lot of people think he has an attitude problem. OR Kyle: I got the chance to be in this Battle Royal Mike: I think I want to be a part of that. This was pure luck and I capitalized on it in editing.
The "Trainer giving last minute instructions" was really after Kyle wrestled someone ELSE, not Mike, and Sean was giving feedback. I just got a good shot of Mike sitting off in the distance so I made it seem like they were in 'opposite corners of the room.'
The match itself had heavy editing. The moves didn't really connect and they exposed a lot of the 'magic' behind wrestling. (They're both relatively new at the time of the filming.) So I cut and pasted and made it all flow and fit short. The match was probably 10 minutes, I cut it down to about 15-30 seconds.
And finally, Mike Brito's post-match interview? We filmed all the stuff with Mike in the black shirt, then I go, "Hey Mike... uh.... take your shirt off. You just had a match... you're tired, you won..... Go." And just like that, it's edited in to look like he just had a match.
Figured I'd shed some light on how Editing completely shapes a 'true' story. Maybe you guys wont look at VH1 the same way after this. Sorry for spoiling it ;)
Okay, now the editing came out great and the story flowed congruently. But the truth is, I filmed a bunch of random footage and had NO story to tell until I actually sat down and figured one out. Basically what I did was get Brito's general story, filmed some wrestling interviews, and figured it all out as I was editing.
Everything about Mike Brito was true. He's a college student at BSC, he wants to wrestle part time, his class scheduel, etc. But the first shot of him coming out the door? "Hey Mike, that sucked. Do it again." He must have walked in and out of that door 20 times, because I'm anal retentive and have OCD with this type of stuff.
His dream isn't to become an 'EPW Wrestler.' That'd be stupid, and that was greatly exaggerated to make the story flow. Dreaming to become an 'EPW Wrestler' is legitimatly equal to dreaming to be a thankless weekend wrestler who gets paid maybe $20 or less and a stale bag of popcorn. Oh yeah, and he'd have to set up the ring and get yelled at by a crappy promoter. So no, his dream isn't to be an EPW wrestler. A better thing to say would be, "I dream of being a WWE superstar," but I called Vince... he could't make it to Bridgewater that day. But like I said, it was a 'goal' i could have him set so he could accomplish it by the end. The Pay-off!
So next we're in the car with him. I probably should have cut this up with some stock footage, but I didn't. Hindsight's 20/20. This story was completely true.
Next shot we're 'interviewing' the Head Trainer. The head trainer's really an assistant trainer who me & Mike are good friends with. Oh yeah, and the interview? Never happened. Sean's just looking out into space somewhere and talking to himself. I go, "Give me 10 minutes of bullshit about how great Mike is." And he did. The great thing is, he actually stops and reacts to the invisible man he's talking to to add realism. And who said wrestler's can't act?
Okay, next up is the dramatic sequence where we reveal there's this huge wrestle-off to be in a Battle Royal match. If Mike wins the match, he gets to be in it. Truth is, WRESTLING's FAKE! The outcome's pre-determined! Nothing was determined in a Wrestle-Off. That was just filmed so I could have something to throw into the story. And the Battle Royal already happened 3 months before the filming of this documentary. The original plan was to show footage of Mike in the match itself at the end of the documentary, but the promoter refused to give me the footage.
My favorite part of the editing came from splicing Kyle O'Riley's interview with Sean & Mikes as they all go back and fourth. I think it was great for effect. Truth is, Kyle's a sweetheart. He's soft spoken, respectul, all that. I go, "Kyle, I need an asshole for this documentary. You're, um... you're the Star Student, you have a bad attitude, and you don't like Mike. Go!" and I turned the camera on, and he spouted off a whole bunch of ad-libbed lines.
In editing, I discovered that just about everything Kyle said, Sean said something to counter act, or I could find a sound-bite of Mike that would fit. For example, Kyle: I'm definately the star student, Sean: A lot of people think he has an attitude problem. OR Kyle: I got the chance to be in this Battle Royal Mike: I think I want to be a part of that. This was pure luck and I capitalized on it in editing.
The "Trainer giving last minute instructions" was really after Kyle wrestled someone ELSE, not Mike, and Sean was giving feedback. I just got a good shot of Mike sitting off in the distance so I made it seem like they were in 'opposite corners of the room.'
The match itself had heavy editing. The moves didn't really connect and they exposed a lot of the 'magic' behind wrestling. (They're both relatively new at the time of the filming.) So I cut and pasted and made it all flow and fit short. The match was probably 10 minutes, I cut it down to about 15-30 seconds.
And finally, Mike Brito's post-match interview? We filmed all the stuff with Mike in the black shirt, then I go, "Hey Mike... uh.... take your shirt off. You just had a match... you're tired, you won..... Go." And just like that, it's edited in to look like he just had a match.
Figured I'd shed some light on how Editing completely shapes a 'true' story. Maybe you guys wont look at VH1 the same way after this. Sorry for spoiling it ;)
Reality Shows are Crap... Kinda
I think reality shows are a total work. "Work" is carny talk for "set-up" or "staged." I think a lot of the stuff that happens might be real, considering the situations are contrived, but the emotions coming out of those situations are probably real. But the "worked" part comes from video editing.
Every TV show, movie, etc, needs a PLOT. It's essential. The generic make up for a movie is 1) The Good Guy Shines a little bit in his everyday life, 2) The protagonist messes up the good guys life in some way by distrupting something. 3) The Good and Bad guy face off, and 4)The Conclusion happens.
Let's take the VH1 show Rock of Love for example. My take on what happened is that the show was filmed, everything happened, and Brett Michaels picked his winner. Now, typically everyone wants a) the underdog and b) the good guy to win. So, why not take all the flattering shots of Jes, the winner, and make her look like a) the underdog and b) the biggest sweet heart? Why not manipulate the shots to make the "reality show," in reality, have a Storyboard Arc?
Now, lets make a protagonist. Lets find the girl that's kind of edgy, dig up all the shots that make her look as manipulative as possible, and splice it all together to make it seem like this stuff was a well written drama?
So now, we painted one of the runner-ups to look like a Villain, we painted the actual winner to look like the Hero. When we run the TV show, people will NATURALLY prefer that one who's painted to be the hero, and the one chosen as the villain will get the people wanting to see what happens week after week. And finally, when the hero wins, everyone feels like they're justified, and it's a huge pay-off.
Televisions all psychology. It's manipulating people's emotions to get them to tune in week after week. Reality TV's a work.
Every TV show, movie, etc, needs a PLOT. It's essential. The generic make up for a movie is 1) The Good Guy Shines a little bit in his everyday life, 2) The protagonist messes up the good guys life in some way by distrupting something. 3) The Good and Bad guy face off, and 4)The Conclusion happens.
Let's take the VH1 show Rock of Love for example. My take on what happened is that the show was filmed, everything happened, and Brett Michaels picked his winner. Now, typically everyone wants a) the underdog and b) the good guy to win. So, why not take all the flattering shots of Jes, the winner, and make her look like a) the underdog and b) the biggest sweet heart? Why not manipulate the shots to make the "reality show," in reality, have a Storyboard Arc?
Now, lets make a protagonist. Lets find the girl that's kind of edgy, dig up all the shots that make her look as manipulative as possible, and splice it all together to make it seem like this stuff was a well written drama?
So now, we painted one of the runner-ups to look like a Villain, we painted the actual winner to look like the Hero. When we run the TV show, people will NATURALLY prefer that one who's painted to be the hero, and the one chosen as the villain will get the people wanting to see what happens week after week. And finally, when the hero wins, everyone feels like they're justified, and it's a huge pay-off.
Televisions all psychology. It's manipulating people's emotions to get them to tune in week after week. Reality TV's a work.
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