Graduation and beyond

So today I walk across the stage at the University of Denver in the commencement ceremony for my Master's of Arts degree in Digital Media. It's been a quick two years and at times difficult, but a pretty rewarding experience. I'm not really sure what the future holds in store yet. It's been so busy finishing my schoolwork and degree that I've had little time to focus on job searching. I feel pretty confident about my skill set and the possibilities, it's just a matter of finding an employer that understands what I can offer and they have a position. It'll all work out, soon.

So now with a bit more free time and living in a playground called Colorado, I think I'll be doing some fun stuff for a change...for a few weeks anyway. Fun stuff like this!!

The Thesis Project

Well, it has been a difficult last few months.

But now I can say my thesis project is nearly complete and been launched on the web. http://cyclorado.us/
 

Weeks of collecting content, be it video, audio, photos or information, to editing said content to then constructing a complete interactive multiple-media website – all of it very time consuming and stressful. But I feel like I have learned a great deal about how to go about the process of building a unique project. One of the greatest lessons being that doing this as a one-man-band is not ideal. It takes a village. Thankfully I was able to benefit from the help of several very kind folks to complete this proof of concept.

That has been a rather difficult notion to get a grip on as well. Knowing that I intended to build a very interactive portal that was complete enough to support my argument yet maintain a manageable level of expectation. There were so many potential distractions or tangents pulling the project away from the main theme of siloed presentations of content impairs the storytelling, I was struggling to keep the train on the tracks. When a publication or organization proposes to generate a similar concept, there would be much more planning and many more resources implemented over a longer period of time to create a polished piece. I had no such luxury. I knew of several issues going into the development of the portal that would be better served using a few different technologies, but I had already invested hundreds of dollars and dozens of hours into understanding Flash and ActionScript 3 more effectively. I know that if I were to run with the idea and continue with the project I would have to learn some new tools and invest an enormous amount of time creating a much more sustainable portal.

After using several weeks up trying to focus on an entirely different topic for my project and then resetting on the topic of cycling, there was very little room for error or fine tuning, regrettably. Having to learn on the fly with my hair on fire was a challenge in and of itself. Doing constant searches for tutorials online on how to fix or do something while peppering people willing to help with emails at all hours of the day just to squish one little bug - only to inflict another bug in another area of the project. All of this while attempting to maintain classwork in a full class load and adapting to a challenging schedule in my personal life as well as fiance's long distance work schedule. The entire project and process has been a big learning experience...but a very difficult one.

I'm nearly done with my program at DU. Assuming my thesis is approved and I pass my last two classes, graduation is June 4. It's kind of odd to think it's been nearly two years since I started and left the newspaper. I left the paper to learn how to be a better storyteller using new ways of storytelling. I won't say I got exactly what I intended to get out of my program. But I will not say that I have not benefited from it either.

I feel that my video editing skills have truly grown and developed more in the last year. Shooting has always been fairly easy, be it stills or video. Assembling them in a structure or sequence of effectiveness has taken some time. I can develop standard to simple websites and design, but some of the higher level syntax still is very challenging. I will admit that I wish I had learned much more through my classes on a technical front, but I am also realizing that the technology changes so rapidly I wouldn't necessarily benefit from being an expert at one programming language. My perception and understanding of media literacy is vastly different from when I entered the program. That is a fact. In many ways it makes me worry about the future of media-for-profit. How technology is developed and how we adopt new technology has a great impact on what the future of media holds.

As for what my future holds, I honestly haven't the slightest idea. My background and skill set is so wide and varied, there have been but three job postings that really match up with what I can do and what I would like to do as a media creator. I may have to just go out there and make people aware of my abilities in an effort to basically create a position for me. But first I think I should see what I can do about finishing the written component of my thesis. Considering it's due tomorrow.

So have a look at the site and feel free to let me know what you think about it. Be sure to read the About page to get a better understanding of what the general argument is, as I'm sure I haven't been very clear here.

Until next time - which hopefully will be something visual rather than a ramble on the random thoughts of a post thesis stress fest.

It's Hip to be Square

Just been trying to make at least one photo a day considering I stare at a computer nearly 10 hours a day. So I've been using my phone to capture aspects of creative freedom. The phone is limiting but it is also great being forced to make the best of the situation. Don't know why, but the square crop has really been a new way of thinking. Shooting and editing so much 16x9 video, it takes a minute to compose in a different aspect. Besides, it's fun.

Trying to get all of the content done for my thesis project. It's close, then I have to start building the portal. It may just wear me out. T-minus three weeks and counting....

Pup and a pivot

Pup's Glide Shop from Joshua Lawton on Vimeo.

In my hunting for storylines for my thesis project I found this small shop in Breckenridge after roaming around for a few days. Pup and his circle of ski bums from the late 1970s and early 80s figured out a way to find work and ski as many days as possible every season all while trying not to get posted on the police blotter having as much fun as they can. I wish the richness of these characters was more evident in the video, but every time I pulled out the mic, the vibe wasn't as strong. I also did not get nearly enough photos. This was nearly a daily assignment approach. Go in and collect content for a few hours and produce it. Would have been much better had I had the opportunity to go back a few more times. But those are all typical excuses, and we all know about excuses.

The topic of skiing lifestyle for the thesis project has ultimately, been temporarily been abandoned in favor of another unique and rather fun sport lifestyle. I was struggling to find stories of interest and themes for the piece and burning up precious time. I still have to learn to build the interface and interactive aspect of the project, all while producing the content for the portal. With time passing me by faster than Pup skis the Horseshoe Bowl, I had to make a pivot. The new project will fundamentally be the same in my argument that a true interwoven multiple-media piece is better storytelling than the siloed approach of most traditional media portals. The topic of lifestyles is about the only change, other than collaborating with another photographer, with an excellent personal visio, who has lots of ground work already done to get everything going. It will be pretty fun and hopefully really good when the time comes for the launch sometime in late April. Until then, enjoy Pup and his crew.

VJ trip

Had to put together three VJ sets for a class prject in my Digital Cinema class for the end of the quarter. The only limitation was that the audio was to be a single element. That was stipulated because we will be projecting three different sets at the same time on three "screens" (a wall projection on a DU building outside) and funnel all the audio into one output. The result...don't know yet. It happens on Monday, June 1 after 8pm next to the Schwader Art Building on the DU campus at 2121 E. Asbury Ave. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and something to sip on for the show.



Here's what I think is the best of the three that I put together. Trying to get better about driving the audio and the video at the same time. It's difficult to mix audio while not letting the visuals get stale. I think once I learn how to use the program a bit more effectively I'll make some better compositions. I tend to get too wrapped up in making music and sound and leave the visuals unattended.

I'm working to develop a better library of video clips to use in the productions and get away from using other VJ's clips. The theme was dreams and space, but I didn't really have a developed idea and I think it comes through in the composition. It isn't as cohesive without a backbone or storyline to drive the piece. Let me know what you really think. It's a bit outside of what I've been normally sharing, so let it fly.




Here's links to Dreamspace 1 and Dreamspace 2.

Trance trip

Had to build a VJ performance for my Digital Cinema class. By VJ I mean video jockey, but not the MTV VJ when they actually played music videos. Meaning mixing and mashing video clips in an artistic fashion using a computer program. I decided to use Resolume Avenue 3 instead of Max5. Just a bit more flexibility in Ave3, but since it is a demo version a text watermark and audio watermark are included in your output file.

After a bit of practicing and lots of video codec converting I happened to be reading a blog post about turning off a particular setting to make the program work faster. For some stupid reason I changed the setting right before I was to perform my set live in class, which was part of the assignment. I changed the setting back after seeing a few things change that I didn't like but it did not "undo" the change. As I was doing my performance everything was acting funny and several clips wouldn't play or work as designed. It was turning into an Amtrak route with the engineer texting while not driving. Despite all that, the class thought it was a pretty cool sequence of images and all. Luckily.

I actually spent too much of my time working on creating an audio track than I did on the video clipping and setup. I mixed together a handful of tracks from a couple trance artists to play outside of Ave3 as I didn't really get the sense I could play an entire audio track with the way I was running clips through the program. This was a recorded practice session before I screwed up the settings. So have a look and listen.



The concept was, just as the title of this blog, a Visual Journey based on the reflection of travel and transport in our bodies as much as our world.