Interesting Failures

My Experimental Curriculum

2010-04-05T17:58:00.000-07:00

For a class project I created this curriculum for a class on new media.

Pre-emptive Musical Self Defense

2010-03-31T08:49:00.000-07:00

I recently bought Phantom Planet's 2008 disc Raise the Dead. I have listened to it about 10 times now and I still enjoy all of it, and I feel like I have to defend myself.
Phantom Planet is most known for the song California which served as the theme song for the epitome of teenage angst, pop-punk/emo, rich-white-kids-with-problems television series The OC. So Phantom Planet got pegged into this genre/culture (The lead singer Alex Greenwald being a former Gap model might have also helped this). Their concerts were and still are full of teenage girls trying to be older than they are using daddy's credit card to buy table merch. And for the most part, Phantom Planet has accepted this role. They know their audience and they embrace them. Switching to the Fueled by Ramen label instantly connected them with others firmly established in the teenage bracket such as Paramore, The Academy Is..., Cute Is What We Aim For, and emo kings Jimmy Eat World.
But my point with all this is that even though the brand persona of Phantom Planet fits easily into all this neo-yuppiness, their music is bold, subversive, intricate, and solidly crafted.
Borrowing from rock and roll legends like Elvis Costello, Greenwald's songs work as stripped down acoustic songs, or layered and intricate as in the albums (produced by Tony Berg).
The lyrics are dark, frustrated and dirty, yet subversively refer to having a good time. In "Do The Panic" Greenwald shouts for the dancers to "Put your left foot in. Now put your other left in" and then audibly chuckles. You'd think it no more than a cute pun until Greenwald comes back with the condescending observation, "Are you having trouble getting it down?" What seems an unrealistic and joking expectation becomes an real expectation that you as the dancer are failing at. "Quarantine" is a commentary on safe sex. And Greenwald deals with postmodern fragmentation of identity in "Leave Yourself For Somebody Else." "Leader" is a first person narrative from a cult follower with a disturbingly cute chorus of oohs sang by a choir of children.
No matter that Phantom Planet was and is seen as part of the teeny-bopping myspace culture, when it comes right down to it, they aren't. And that's why I feel justified in totally digging this album.

A video of my kids

2010-03-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry It's Been So Long

2009-10-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

I have not posted, but that does not mean I have not been creating. In case there is anyone out there who reads this who doesn't know (and I doubt that), I have been the director of photography and editor for a music interview/performance program called "on." with the Daily O'Collegian. Click here to check it out.

If you already knew about "on." You can expect more posts about other creations I've been working on. I've actually been sewing a lot lately, so I'll write about that. I'll talk about editing and videography somewhat too.

Until then, check out this picture of my new son, Malcolm.

on. Episode One

2009-08-21T11:49:00.001-07:00

Andrew Arterbery

Interview

on. Music Program Episode One - Andrew Arterbery from Steven Hopkins on Vimeo.

Cloud

on. Episode One Andrew Arterbery - Cloud from Steven Hopkins on Vimeo.

Blind Willy

on. Episode One Andrew Arterbery - Blind Willy from Nathan Poppe on Vimeo.

on. Episode Two

2009-08-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

Brotherbear

Interview

On. Episode Two Brotherbear Interview from Steven Hopkins on Vimeo.

Wolves

on. Episode Two Brotherbear - Wolves from Steven Hopkins on Vimeo.

Dream State

on. Episode Two Brotherbear - Dreamstate from Steven Hopkins on Vimeo.

Re Edit

2009-08-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

I wanted to see what would happen if I edited the same footage twice. This is what I came up with the second time.

You might remember the first. Here it is to compare.

Reynolds Building Tour Video

2009-07-31T17:21:00.001-07:00

I finally finished a project I've been working on for about a month and a half now. My boss at work asked me to take video as we were given a tour of the new Reynolds Architecture building on the OSU campus.

The password is REYNOLDS in all caps.

Failures (AKA things I learned):

Always rename your files
After I shot the whole tour, I made an inventory of all the footage, then I lost it. So I was stuck with files like MOV041.

Bridge Jump cuts

You will have at least 50 final versions.

PC's can't read h.264 files.

Always render to Quicktime files.

Rendering takes a long time.

New Video #2 for today

2009-07-23T18:39:00.000-07:00

New Little Video

2009-07-23T12:54:00.001-07:00

How I Track My Spending

2009-07-22T09:58:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of provident living, I have tried many times to take care of the money I get. I have failed many many times at this.

I read the book Rich On Any Income, which has a great system for tracking and budgeting, and I highly recommend it. But me being the overthinker that I am, I took a somewhat complicated system and and complicated it even more (I called it personalizing).

After trying to establish a receipt bucket, and other seemingly failsafe concepts, I have stumbled on a way to keep track of the money I spend. (The receipt bucket didn't work because it had a lid that I had to open in order to put the receipts in. I am so lazy.)I call it Money Changes.

I use an excel spreadsheet divided into five columns, one for each of the areas that I keep money: checking account, savings account, my wallet, Natasha's wallet, and coin form (mostly for laundry, but also because David Hobby said that if you want to have a lot of zeros in front of the decimal, you have to count the numbers behind the decimal).

Each time I gain or spend money, I enter it as a "money change." This makes it easier to remember for me probably because it is less depressing than the words "spend" or "loss" or "tiny paycheck."

So every night, after we put the boy to bed and sit down to watch the next episode of The Chopping Block I ask the wife, "Hey, did you buy anything today?" and the answer is always, "No." Then I input all my receipts with a little label next to it and one by one keep a running total. Like This.

(I may have falsified some of the above information)

I make sure the computer know that I am entering currency. Any time money goes out, I just put it in parenthesis (so much better than a minus sign) to enter it as a negative value. I do a new worksheet for every week and at the end of the month I add up the values and do a pie chart to see where I spent my money.

All this does is tell me where I spend my money, so it helps with budgeting, but it is not a budget. Budgeting is way too depressing still. Maybe if I just put all my debt in a bright yellow font with an orange border it could help. Maybe not.

Photoshoot In Bricktown

2009-07-21T11:57:00.001-07:00

Before her boyfriend Byron left to serve his mission in Atlanta, GA, my sister-in-law Cassandra asked me to take some pictures of them together.

She planned a whole surprise day, and I was part of the surprise. My wife and son and I drove down from Stillwater to OKC (a drive that is way too far) to meet them in Bricktown and make some photographs. See the whole set here.

I wanted to treat it like a professional assignment. Cassandra even agreed to pay me (enough for gas), and so I wanted to go all the way and do it right.

I soon found out that taking pictures of people you know makes it difficult to be overly serious. Plus taking pictures is just a silly thing to be doing with anybody, so enjoy it.

The picture was shot on the river under the bridge of Oklahoma Street (I think). I shot my Nikon flash into a white shoot-thru umbrella that my wife (six months pregnant, what a trooper!) held to the right of them just above eye level. I triggered it with a pc sync cord.

The one below is natural light.

It was a fun trip and I learned a lot. First of all, with a 50mm lens, it's important to get your subjects to hold still. These kids were bouncing all over the place. Next time I'll try to explain that to the subject.

Also, I scouted the location and found six cool places to take pictures and figured out the best exposure before I even took the first picture with them. This helped me feel a lot more in control and relaxed as I shot.

I think I am about ready to start asking people to pay me to take their picture. We'll see how that goes.

95 Cent 35mm Adapter: Take Two

2009-07-20T11:25:00.000-07:00

After some more research I figured out how to make my adapter a little better.

The biggest problem before was that my camera couldn't focus close enough and the only macro function it had was for stills. I had to use another camera. So I borrowed my boss's JVC something or other and got this.

The plastic inside is too rough and the grain is pretty obvious. Also, it was bent so the image is distorted.

Next time I need to find a flat piece of translucent glass or plastic and polish it. Since I don't want to spend more than a dollar to do this, I'll just have to keep my eye on the trash.

Also, there is a hot spot in the middle that I have to figure out why it's happening.

At this point, some might ask, Why not just buy a premade DOF adapter like the Jag 35ST for $99?

To them I say, is that really the point?

P.S. the music is Fireflies by Owl City

Inspiration

2009-07-20T10:47:00.001-07:00

Next semester, I really want to do something like this one day at OSU. It's very possible that I never will, but at the same time, it would cost what ever a big roll of paper would be, the little time I'm there and in post, and the courage to approach people to take their picture. Not too bad.

Music Video Failure

2009-07-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

No pictures for this one, sorry.

I met a man on Craigslist who is trying to do music videos for free just for the experience. He had already done one and had another scheduled for last weekend. I emailed him and told him I'd drive out to Guthrie (about 45 minutes) to help him with lighting.

I make the drive and get there on time, and no one is there. I called Gary (the guy) and told him what was up. He said that he didn't have a way to get in contact with me, the talent was going to be an hour late, But he came and talked.

While I waited for him I walked around Guthrie, which is actually a pretty interesting place. It is basically where most of America began.

The video was to be shot in a bar. I had never been in a bar before. Chalk it up to experience.

We waited the hour and then another and the talent didn't come. So in the end there was no shoot. But it wasn't a complete bust. I learned some good lessons.

Coming up with ideas for a shoot is a lot easier when you are actually on location. As soon as I started walking around inside the bar I came up with four really good ideas. There was a back entrance to the bar which was way cooler than the front and I suggested filming the entrance there. There was a little mirrored hallway leading back to the women's bathroom that would have been great (but tricky) to shoot in. There was a pool table with really cool light fixture above it we could shoot at, and the different colors from the neon signs would have been great as a rear light.

I also learned how important it is to charge money. When things are free, it may be easier to get people interested, but it is also easy for them to back out, or leave you hanging. Like Stephen Covey says, "No involvement, no commitment." Money gets them involved.

I think I might try to make a music video. So out of the three people that read this, if you know a band that has a good song they want to make a video out of, have them contact me.

Fixies at OSU

2009-07-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

I first learned about fixed gear bikes from my Tacoma born and bred friend Evan. Then from a good friend Brent in Sac-town.

Then I moved to Oklahoma and hadn't heard anything about them until I walk out with my camera one day and run into this guy.

Cici's Pizza / Just the Boys

2009-07-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

Natasha had a meeting at church and I was left with the boy and a free buffet coupon to Cici's Pizza. So naturally I decided to walk the half mile to restaurant and shoot footage along the way.

We had a good time. Really, it was my first time out to eat with my son. He's such a cool kid.

Anyway, here's the video. Hope you like it.

Cici's Pizza Trip / Just the Boys from Steven Hopkins on Vimeo.

Rain Video

2009-07-08T13:08:00.000-07:00

At work I am supposed to be getting Adobe Premiere Pro so I can edit some videos I am doing for my job. But they've been having issues getting it onto my 5-year-old PC. While downloading Prism Video Converter I stumbled on VideoPad. It is a free video editing program and is quite useful.

I took advantage of the rainy day and tried to get some worthwhile shots to edit together.

The result is your average, cliche test video. But hey, it was free and it was fun.

Rain at OSU from Steven Hopkins on Vimeo.

Static 35mm Adapter Failure

2009-07-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Well, here is my first failure to share with the world.

I love the look that people get with 35mm adapters. To learn more about them, click here. So I decided to see how cheap I could make one. I've watched all kinds of tutorials and spent way too much time (at work, shhhh) researching how to build them.

The basic idea is simple. Use a camera lens to project an image onto a surface and then record the surface. That way you get a video that looks like it was shot on a camera.

I bought a PVC connector for $.95 with tax from Lowes and cut a piece of an old lamp shade as the projection surface. (I also tried a plastic bag, but it wasn't stiff enough.)

Here is the end result.

It worked, but the image is so bad that it doesn't really matter that I am shooting the projected image of a 35mm lens. Failure.

My camera only has autofocus and couldn't focus close enough to really see the image anyway.

But for 95 cents, it was fun to try.

Project List

2009-07-03T10:29:00.001-07:00

I am a procrastinator, and I have attention detriment disease. Which means that I have a lot of fingers in a lot of pies but never finish any.

I needed something to get me organized. So I made a list of everything that I consider a project. I used a cool program call OmniOutliner that came on my MacBook. Here's the list.

This program works great because I can use the arrows to open and close each project and keep all the information about that project organized.

I came up with some questions to ask about each project and made a template for each project.

Here is a project I am working on for my mother and sister-in-law with all the questions answered.

It is an easy way to keep all my ideas in one place.