I emailed my instructor the package that I saved for this project.
Author: bradylink2014
Blog #8: Marketing & Branding
I was taking fieldnotes for my anthropology class near the library in the quad area of San Francisco State University on April 7th, 2014, when a young man approached me with a business card with a pink mustache printed on it. “Have you heard of Lyft?” he asked me. I had not heard of “Lyft”, per se, but the pink mustache looked familiar, as if I had seen it once or twice before on the city streets of SF. The young man went on to explain to me what this relatively new transportation network was, and why it is important.
Lyft is a transportation network company, marketed through its own mobile-phone application. Noted for its affordable pricing (being cheaper than taxicabs), the application is designed to promote “peer-to-peer ridesharing”, and markets itself as such with the tagline your friend with a car. What makes this application attractive to its audience is the simplicity of how it functions. If one does not own a smartphone, they are able to download the app onto their computer via the transparently named website lyft.com. The website then has a very simplified how page that gives audiences easily understandable instructions for how to use the app. In my opinion, the website succeeds mostly with its trademark pink mustache logo, giving it instant recognizability. Because the company is still relatively new, it is seems as though it is establishing its website. The website itself could improve the layout of its homepage. I particularly like how employees market this company and its application by going to places like the SFSU quad and handing out business cards to students. I think that if I wanted to promote my website, I would print out business cards and hand them out to people as well.
Blog #7: Ethical Issues in Media
Ethical issues are an omnipresent issue in the media. One ethical issue in particular is the presence of fake news stories in the media. These fake news stories take away credibility from reporters and other workers in the media industry. What is worse, they have the potential to excite media consumers, and then crush their hopes and dreams into oblivion once these news stories have been revealed as hoaxes. One such hoax was the reported existence of the 1969 classic rock album The Masked Marauders by an alleged supergroup featuring Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and George Harrison.
This particular false news story was part of an elaborate hoax conceived by Rolling Stone editor Greil Marcus in a satiric review of a phony double bootleg album, designed to poke fun at the supergroup trend that was taking place. Despite the obvious jokes written by Greil Marcus in the review, many readers took the parody review seriously. Under the pseudonym T.M. Christianson, Greil Marcus and other Rolling Stone editors decided to extend the joke further by hiring the enigmatic Cleanliness and Godliness Skiffle Band to record and actual album. After the Berkeley group was done recording the songs (and subsequently being played on SF and LA radio stations), the Rolling Stone Magazine editors sold the album’s production rights to Warner Brothers for distribution. The joke had not become apparent to rock fans until they bought the album, featuring tip-offs at the end of the album that the group’s entire conception had been a hoax.
An issue such as this is important to remember because it conveys the reliance that public audiences have on journalists. With the lack of internet and the amount of credibility that Rolling Stone Magazine had in the 1960s, there was absolutely no way for rock consumers to know, or even assume, that Greil Marcus was making the whole article up. Perhaps the man and his colleagues hoped or believed the superstars actually would create an album as a result of the parody article, but the fact of the matter here is that these editors knew that they had power, and they took advantage of it (the commie bastards). And while these editors, indeed, never had any hurtful intentions toward their readers, they may not have been aware of the sheer disappointment they inflicted on their readers after they learned that these five talented young men were not, in fact, producing a supergroup album.
Blog #6: Legal Issues in Media
Music sampling is the use of portions of other artists work, with or without their permission. Issues regarding music sampling are often the subject of copyright law in legal disputes, as their use applies greatly to musical compositions. The issue of music sampling stems from the profit that cover artists make when they distribute the work of the original composers, who often claim copyright infringement. In instances where these situations take place, the lawsuits are able to be settled between artists either in or outside of court. In situations where the disputes are ended peacefully, the cover artist can pay the original composers a sum of the gained profits in order to give appeasement. Other times, however, the cover artist will fight the copyright accusations and claim that his or her work does not, in fact, constitute as infringement. One example involving such a case, was the notorious incident of rapper Vanilla Ice’s baseline sampling for his single hit, Ice Ice Baby.
Ice Ice Baby is a hip-hop song performed by Vanilla Ice that was released in 1990. While prominent in popular culture, the song is infamous among music-listeners of various genres for the history of its conception. Noted for being one of the earliest examples of a caucasian man performing hip-hop, the song was recognizable from its debut with its familiar baseline. Under Pressure, a duet performed and written by David Bowie and the member of Queen, was already a popular song in its own right when Ice Ice Baby was released, albeit its simplistic base riff. According to Robert Van Winkle, aka “Vanilla Ice”, he had been a fan of rap music and believed rap and rock music made a good mix after being inspired by his older brother’s rock records. The lyrics for Ice Ice Baby had been written by Van Winkle when he was 16 years of age, and had sampled the bassline of Under Pressure without the consent, or even the notification, of David Bowie or any of the members of Queen. The song was released without songwriting credit being given to any of the official composers, despite making it to the top of the charts in Australia, The Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. In an interview after the initial release of the song, Van Winkle had asserted the differences in the basslines of the two songs, having added one filler note into the iterations of the sample. After the song’s critical and commercial success, the issue of copyright infringement had come to light. Robert Van Winkle subsequently gave Bowie and the members of Queen songwriting credits and a percentage of Ice Ice Baby’s profits.
This issue impacts the media field by enforcing the protection of artists work by composers and their agents. Because of issues such as the Ice Ice Baby/Under Pressure sampling, laws have been passed that allow for more litigious behaviors. Artists such as Prince and The Rolling Stones have lawyers who go around searching for people to sue because of people who may not comply as easily as Vanilla Ice. Hopefully one day, some middle ground can be established between artists and music samplers.
Blog #5: Short Film Project
This project was definitely a great experience for me. I was given the chance to work with some great people, and to resurrect my acting abilities that have not been displayed since around the age of 13 (I definitely do not still have it). As producer of this short film, I made it my goal to enforce my team working skills with my fellow filmmakers and to show up at a moment’s notice whenever I was needed by one of them. Because I had the privilege of working with somewhat experienced filmmakers, my presence was hardly ever requested in the pre or postproduction of this film, but I still made it my duty to be there for my classmates.
For better or for worse, I am genuinely satisfied with the outcome of our film. It felt good to act again, even if the acting was done by an obvious amateur. Because I was given the rare opportunity to act again, I felt no shame in “taking one for the team” and making a scene on campus in a dress in front of dozens of SFSU students during filming. But all in all, I felt the chemistry between everyone, as filmmakers and as actors, worked very well. We got into this project relatively well-prepared and it did not seem as stressful as it could have been. One thing I would change in this short film is the ending. I really enjoyed the original ending with Bryan looking at the camera and saying “It was my idea all along.” Unfortunately, the shots did not fit well together, so I guess it was all for the best.
Blog #4: Audio
Last week, I was having much difficulty figuring out how to work with Photoshop. This week, I made it my goal to try to understand and work with Audacity to the best of my ability. The following are the results.
Click here to listen to the greatest thing I have ever recorded on my own
I would not have been able to understand this assignment (or at least finish it within a day) without the assistance of the videos provided by the professor. Using the Voice Memo app on my iPhone 4, I recorded all three recordings separately before emailing them to myself. I recorded the background song first, from my computer speakers, and did my best to match the script to the characteristics of the music. I next recorded my friend, who decided to make a spontaneous visit just as I was finishing up the script, as the interviewer. Finally, I recorded myself as the interviewee.
I emailed all three voice memos to myself. The first two got saved to my iTunes, while the third got saved to my documents, for some reason. Nonetheless, I was able to upload all recordings to Audacity, free of frustration. The whole editing process took a couple of hours, but I always had fun working. Finally, I made a Soundcloud account (having never worked with it before) and uploaded my completed work to my profile. I really feel like this project is my own personal saving grace after my horrendous experience with Photoshop.
Blog #3: Photo
Oh boy, where to begin with this assignment *laughs*. I learned lots in the lecture before we began the actual assignment; lots of basic knowledge that I know will come of use to me in the future. My favorite part of the assignment was getting into groups and meeting some new, very friendly people in the class to take pictures with. After we had finished, countless difficulties for completing this assignment ensued for me.
I had first gotten behind at the very beginning, when we were instructed to remove the background from our headshot photo. As you can see from my headshot photo below, this task proved to be very difficult. I spent most of my time removing background while the rest of the class was successfully moving on. After my body was isolated, I then had trouble figuring out how to open another picture in a different tab in photoshop. I sat dumbfounded, while other students were finishing their assignments for the week right there in class. I would have asked for help from the professor, but I was afraid that I was so far behind that helping me would have only resulted in delaying the class.
Once most everyone was finished and began leaving the lab, I had finally figured out how to include a new tab in photoshop. It is here where I submitted my background photo. This photo is the second photo below, and shows my classmate, Alejandro, standing on a rock. Apparently I had not completely eliminated the background to my headshot because I was not able to paste my isolated body to my background photo. It was then when I used the lasso technique (with the help of the professor and a classmate) to paste my headshot.
By the time I got to this point, it was 5:00 and class was over. I had accomplished very little and felt lost as to what I should do next. I figured that emailing my photoshop picture to myself was the wisest thing to do, and finish the assignment on a software that is more amateur-friendly, like Pic Monkey. A few days later, I opened up my email and found nothing but the lengthiest HTML code I have ever seen attached to it. I was distraught, and could not figure out how to make the picture reappear (I tried pasting the code to the “Text” tab when creating this post, but to no avail). Had I received an actual photo in the email, I would have completed my editing on Pic Monkey. It was the most frustrated I had ever felt since class registration at freshmen orientation. Henceforth, I am left with nothing to offer except the two original photos I started out with.
I believe that, with some more personal time, I would have understood how to work with Photoshop a little bit better. As I have said before, I am a little bit technologically challenged – especially for a BECA major. The only thing I can do at this point is not get discouraged, offer up everything I have regarding this assignment, thank the professor for this opportunity and hope for the best.
Blog #2: HTML
Community Summary
Community is a critically acclaimed NBC comedy created by Dan Harmon that first aired in 2009. The show is about a group of misfits of different ages and ethnicities who all become friends upon their arrival at Greendale Community College, located in the fictional town of Greendale, Colorado. The show stars The Soup’s Joel McHale as former lawyer Jeff Winger who, after losing his job for degree fraud, must attend Greendale to earn back his degree. Community online is a great site to watch Jeff Winger and to see all the adventures he and his gang get into.
NBC Studios
Characters I like
- Troy
- Pierce
- Annie
Characters in the show
- Jeff
- Britta
- Shirley
| First | Last | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Craig | Pelton | 100 |
| Star | Burns | 75 |
| Ben | Chang | 60 |
Blog #1: Text, Image, Hyperlinks
Boogie Nights
by Brady Link
What classifies certain films as “good” can usually be agreed upon when a film does well among both critics and audiences. Most of the time, audiences do not need to see what the critics see in order to know that what they are watching is entertaining. Likewise, critics typically try to ignore the extravagant displays filmmakers showcase in their work, and tend to focus more on the themes and style of the film itself. Rarely is a film able to balance the entertainment value and the deep thematic elements quite as evenly as Boogie Nights does.
Boogie Nights is a 1997 dramedy, loosely based on the life of John Holmes, about a young man by the alias of Dirk Diggler and the wild experiences he goes through after enlisting in the porn industry in the 1970s. Right off the bat, the film sounds like an immediate audience-pleaser; I mean, look at the photo. Chances are, if you were born after 1985 and do not have an exceptional knowledge in the film field, you probably think this film is just another wacky teen comedy filled to the brim with vulgar images and possibly hilarious misadventures. Containing “strong sex scenes with explicit dialogue, nudity, drug use, language and violence”, the MPAA rating system gave this movie an R-rating for all of the best reasons to go see it with your friends opening night. But looking passed all of the humor, violence, and sex this movie has to offer, the movie does not hesitate to move back and forth, from entertaining to thematic, throughout its two and a half hour length.
The film’s director and screenwriter Paul Thomas Anderson, then only 27 upon the film’s release, takes the integrity of his [second] film very seriously. With a charismatic ensemble cast, the authentic soundtrack, and energetic opening tracking shot, the film has absolutely no issue with drawing in audiences and critics from the get-go. But when the entertainment is over and it is time for the film to focus on its own true qualities, Paul Thomas Anderson does not hesitate to throw in themes such as dysfunctional familial relationships and alienation; characteristics that would eventually become trademarks in his later films.
I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone who considers them self a “movie buff”, or really just anyone who wants to reinforce their opinion that the ’70s were so much better than the ’80s. I also suggest watching the movie to the very end. With all the quality entertainment the viewer is exposed to throughout the movie’s running time, there is no doubt in my mind when I say that the best scene in the film is the climax in the second to last scene. It is one of the greatest displays I have witnessed in cinematic history; I would rank it right up there with the climax to Se7en.
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