Freak Factor Blog 10

      The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness By Flaunting Weakness

     

     In the article The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness written by David Rendall to be a pretty interesting article. In this article Rendall outlines 9 ways that someone can recognize their weaknesses and ways that the can use their weaknesses to their advantage. The nine tips that Rendall offers are as follows:

1. What’s your problem? This suggestion means to ask your family and friends what your weaknesses are.

            2. What’s My Problem? This suggestion ask what do you think your weaknesses are.

3. Flawless: There’s Nothing You: This suggestion states that for each strength there is a weakness that goes along that strength.

4. Forget It: Don’t Try to Fix Your Weaknesses: This suggestion states you shouldn’t fix your weaknesses because it is a slow, hard, difficult process that distracts you from other activities

5. Foundation: Build On Your Strengths: This suggestion states that you should build on your strengths rather than fixing your weaknesses.

6. Focus: You Can’t Do Both: This suggestion states that it is too hard to fix weaknesses and build on strengths.

7. Fit: Find the Right Spot: This suggestion states that instead of trying to fix something find a place where you fit in based on your strengths and weaknesses.

8. Freak: The Power of Uniqueness: This suggestion states that your weaknesses make you unique and you should embrace them.

9. Freak Factory: Putting Your Quirks to Work: This suggestion states ways to increase your “freak factor”

     In my opinion I thought that this article offered some good suggestions but overall I found most of the suggestions repetitive and contradictive to what I have been taught as a student. One suggestion that I thought was a very bad idea was the number 7 which was find the right spot. I understand where he is coming from but I think he didn’t explain it very well. I understand what he is trying to get out of the Rudolph analogy about how his flaw which he thought made him useless ended up saving Christmas. However what bugged me most about this article is the “Freak Fallacy” at the bottom of the page that stated “I need to adapt to fit the situation”. As a student I have been told that  adaptability is the number one quality that professionals want their employees to have, especially in the media business that changes so rapidly. I think that a person needs to know how to adapt to things, and waiting around for the right opportunity is just going to screw you over.

     Another suggestion of Rendall’s that I didn’t particularly care for was number 4, Forget It. He says that someone should not try to fix your weaknesses. Yes, I understand that reasons he gives for why not to because it’s slow, painful and distracting; yet building on your weaknesses is going to make you an all around stronger person. I don’t believe that you need to completely change your weaknesses into strengths but I do feel that you need to work on your weaknesses to get them to a point where they are not weaknesses that are going to bring you down as an individual. Take a look at the movie The King’s Speech, the king had a stuttering problem and could not give speeches. However he worked on it and fixed his problem. If he did not work on his weaknesses it would not have made him the person that he was.

     There was a suggestion that I did find useful though. His third suggestion “Flawless” helped to show me that to every strength there is a weakness that goes along with this. I feel I can use this to help me in both ways. I can take a weakness that I have and find a strength that comes out of it. I can also find a strength that I have to notice a weakness that I can build on.

Trans - Media Blog 9B

Collapsus Video Game

Above is a link to a different and interesting video game. I recommend you check it out. And below are my thoughts on this game.

My Thoughts on Collapsus

Video Game Critique Blog 9A

This past week in class, we had to create an idea for a video game. In my opinion I think my groups game The Morning After: The Game was a good idea for a game and I think that the presentation came across pretty effectively. However, one part of our presentation that did not come across very well was the Mechanics of the game. For our game we had came up with all of the mechanics that we thought were necessary and went over them many times as a group, but reflecting on our presentation I don’t think they came across as well as they could have. The main reason for this would be that without creating some of the game for people to see visually or play with, makes understanding the mechanics of the game difficult. As a group we tried to relate many of the mechanics to games that other people may have played so they have an idea of what is going on. However since we’re creating a brand new game, our mechanics are different and will be hard to grasp without seeing them at work.

What Superpower Would I Want Blog 8

This American Life - Superpowers

If I had to pick any superpower I would definitely choose to have the power to fly. Here's some little bit of audio of why I would want to fly.

Why I'd want to Fly

Superheroes and Villains Blog 8A

Here are mine and Ryan's Superheroes, Magnet man and Zoom.

For this assignment I have to critique 3 of my other classmates superheroes. The first one I am going to critique is Daniel's. The hero he created is called the Janitor. The first thing I notice about the Janitor are the colors. He has very neutral warm colors by the olive type green that his work smock. To me this warm hue of green that is used makes him seem like a very normal everyday type person. His smock is not very bright however he does have a bright yellow undershirt that sticks out. There is not an image of the villain on his page but I'm going to assume that the yellow will stick out against the colors of the villain. Going along with the brightness the saturation of the hero's colors are very saturated. They have a nice rich color.

The next classmate's characters I'm critiquing is Jenny's. For Jenny's critique I am going to focus on the shape of their characters because that is the first thing that sticks out to me. The hero is tall and lanky while the villain is short and stocky. Right off the bat it makes the two characters stand out from each other.Their shape symbolizes their strength as well as which one is more important. In this case the hero is more important and you can tell by their height. The next thing I noticed are the shapes of the characters. The villain has a triangle head and a big rectangle body that gives the viewer the mood that he is a thick headed dominant individual. On the other hand the hero has a very rounded head that makes him relate able to the viewer and gives the viewer a mood of feeling safe and happy. The way the characters are shaped adds a lot of contrast between the two of them, further distinguishing them.

Joke Video Project Blog 7

 

     For this project we had to take a joke and make two different movies out of this one joke. For our first movie our group decided to turn it into a horror movie and for our second movie our group made it into a slapstick humor. In this post I’m first going to compare line and space between the two movies.

Because our group decided to do the movie in the form of a horror movie, a lot of the lines that were used were by the Billy’s eyes. He has lines from his eye to the toy in the beginning, to his mother and then at the end the knife made a line pointing to the Billy’s head. In the second movie however I feel that the use of lines and framing was used more effectively. The mother is framed in the doorway with the kid in the right third of the screen. When the kid goes into his room the lines are everywhere. The railing of the stairway creates a line and the brick wall create lines that all point directly to the man. The two movies also used space very differently. In the horror movie we used a little of limited and ambiguous space to create tension. The best example is when the kid is looking out from the closet at his mother. In our second movie we mostly used deep and limited space. In this movie the best example is the opening shot where the kid is in the foreground and the mother is framed within the doorway in the background. 

     In both films I think that Tension and Release were used to a very effective level. In both jokes the tension builds up with the boy using bad language and being sent to his room. When he gets out the viewer feels that something else is going to happen to the kid and in both videos the kid ends up getting beat in one and killed in the other. Another binary term that I feel the videos both encompassed would be contrast and affinity. In the horror movie there was a good amount of contrast and affinity because it was in black and white. In the second movie we used a lot of bright colors to draw objects out. However the best example of contrast and affinity would be the movies themselves. Both movies are the same joke but very different stories.