Speaking With Animation : Curtis Jackson edition

A constant theme in hip hop culture is the battle. The battle is when two MC's square off and engage in a lyrical confrontation. It has become a marketing tactic of sorts. You engage another rapper in an exchange of words it begins plenty of water cool talk. Arguments ensue between fan bases and each rappers material is talked about more. Earlier this year 50 cent engaged in a very viral beef with down south rapper Rick Ross. 50 cent utilized many types of media. Including animation. Instead of wasting more music on the over weight rapper. 50 cent put together a series of short cartoons aimed at Rick Ross. Rick Ross is a former corrections officer who has this mafia don persona in rap. In the cartoon Rick Ross is Officer Ricky. We track Officer Ricky who is coming up in a hyper real version of the rap world. Another large theme in hip hop is pop culture references. Hip Hop loves to discuss whats going on in pop culture. 50 did a great job at including this in his cartoons. Officer Ricky is seen arresting TI, DMX and even Chris Brown (after he is seen beating up Rihana on screen.) All these people are facing real life criminal charges. He also includes some more less popular hip hop subplots. Like the fight between Suge Knight and Akon's body guard. My favorite cartoon is the last cartoon he has Officer Ricky flip out because his album has been pushed back, 50 uses a monologue from the film Training Day to dub Officer Ricky's voice. The cartoon than goes into a minute long parody of Rick Ross's music. The parody music video features Kanye West, T Pain, and Lil Wayne all being portrayed as non nonsensical idiots. I chose these cartoons because while they didn't impress me visually or with an incredible story, I found them to be very clever. This type of entertainment is very popular and I think it is smart to push the boundaries of what an artist can do to fulfill its audiences needs. If doing cartoons like this cuts down on the amount of pointless diss tracks, name dropping and silly pop culture references its a plus and a change that I welcome. I don't turn to hip hop for these themes but its nice to see someone keep it off wax and try to find another avenue for this. Below is the Link with the cartoons!


THIS IS 50 Cartoons

Shooting Hungry @ Hunter

The planning, shooting and editing of my video project all was very instrumental in the shoot that we had during class time. Storyboarding the film made it much easier for me to move through the shoot. I would not have been able to shoot at all four locations I used if I had not gone to the locations and mapped out the shoot. Also pitching the film to the entire class was also very beneficial. It was good to practice explaining the concept behind a character. Since the process has you explain the film to your partner as well as answer questions from the whole class, I was prepared to quickly respond to my actress’s questions. One thing that I think would have been beneficial would have been more camera access. I think we could have benefited from using the cameras during the storyboarding process and possibly the writing process. When a storyboard is constructed based off how your eyes perceive a space it is different than when you look at the space with the camera you are using. Since we were shooting at such a specific time we could have been able to look at our possible settings through the lens of the cameras we would be using. This could have helped us brainstorm different ideas. If we realize that during our section, a certain area is deserted or even populated to our liking it could help us shape a story. It could help us think about new ways to utilize a space. While I think scouting time would have helped me get a better film, I m pleased with the product I received. I thought with such short time to shoot and edit, I might be unable to shoot a complete narrative. I was wrong.

Flight 187

In this music video the editing helps convey the moods of the song as well as highlight the lyrics with visuals. They use verbal drive structure for most of the editing in the video. The cuts are made on action words in the artist lyrics. Also some of the lyrics have matching videos on the tv in front of 50 cent. Curtis Jackson (50 Cent) is riding a plane that appears to be crashing. But it is all a dream of his. The plane is a metaphor for his state in the entertainment business. This notation is supported by the subject matter. He discusses the changes in his peers, his business relationships as well as his own family. So it is logically the editing helps convey this. The master shot is a close up on 50’s face. The camera circles around his head because that is the setting of the song. You’re swimming in his thoughts. That is the main purpose of the song.

The music video does a great job with the continuity shots. Every time they cut when 50 turns his head his eye level match up with his previous eye level. The editing also really interested me in this music video because of the way that they jumped from 50’s mental state which is when he is rapping and his physical state, which is asleep on a plane. They would sneak these images in-between images of him rapping. It allowed you to recognize he was sleeping once you see the ending, while remaining subtle so it’s not completely clear.

Also one of the coolest images is the plane flying sideways. It represents how he feels unbalanced and unsure of things. I really loved when they cut on the action of that little boy throwing a paper plane into the shot of the real plane flying sideways. It appears as if this little boy just threw this jet into the air.

Media in my life

Web 2.0 has greatly affected the media that I view on a daily basis. One of my favorite sites is fangraphs.com. Fangraphs is my home page. It is a stats community. Fangraphs contains a blog which functions as a normal baseball publication. Using advanced stats to discuss players in real life context. The site also has an in-depth stat section with a corresponding Glossary. Besides the ground breaking stats they create the site is advanced in its use of web 2.0. The stats section is interactive. You can compare up to three players at one time. The site will then generate graphs comparing the players. Below is a graph with the K/9 (strikeouts per 9 innings pitched) for Josh Becket, Aj Burnett, and C C Sabathia.

Besides graphics fangraphs also has a feature on the site were you can sign up and have an account with them. The site allows you to comment on fangraph articles, it allows you to post on their forum, it also allows you to add plays to a roster and track their production or compare them to their peers. For my fangraphs "team" I put together the best players from Scott Boras's client list. Scott Boras is a super agent that only handles baseball players. Im a huge fan of his work. Below are all the hitters for my team sorted by Highest OBP to lowest.


One feature on the stats page that I really find useful is the export to excel/csv button. This allows you to take what every chart you have put together and export the information for use in other programs. This allows you to do research on fangraphs and allows you to easily duplicate the work you have done.


Besides stats fangraphs also have a section on projections. Every offseason their are a bunch of different projections published all usually created based on different math formulas. While fangraphs post the four major projection systems they also have created a new system this offseason. It is called fan projections. It is odd for a stats community to advocate a system of evaluation that is based on the naked eye. It is even odder that they would use fans eyes. But it is an interesting concept non the less. I think they will take the fans projections and compare it the real results. Either way it is very indepth it allows you to view the players past four seasons and pick out a range where you think his numbers will fall. Here is an example of a ballot.

Fangraphs is such a large part of my life. Id be lost with out it.

Imma Be in Italy When They Pop Your Noodle...

WAR ANGEL YALL

Super fruity Breakfast

Conquistador

I attended the grad art show. One short that caught my eye was called Conquistador. The short was based on an interesting twist on the traditional meaning of the word. The short was based on a man who’s main hobby is love making. The film was short yet did a good job at giving you a taste of this man and how he viewed lovemaking. Also how his life style led to a career as a promoter. The filmmaker achieved this by one on one interviews with the Conquistador, his friends and family members. The film was filled with humor. He referred to woman as Chiquita bananas, and that woman’s love gardens are like mangos. They are said fruit because you “need to peel the skin back, and he just wants to eat and eat and eat.” While the director did a great job with including the family and getting a lot of quality of pictures and testimonials from his friends. He could have pried more into the positives of this life style and more of the negatives. He gave us a sense but not a full view. Their was a scene were the conquistador was bothered that a female broke off their 3 month sexual relationship. While this was interesting to see, I would have liked to see him dive further into the negatives. Possibly see what his views were on safe sex. It is an important subject in the swinging world. When asked about this. The director revealed that the subject was his roommate and he wasn’t comfortable with asking such questions. Either way the film was entertaining and well put together.