Schlack Attack

On Tuesday, the Bitter Tour met to finalize our voice over actors and actresses. We hosted our table read and had five people show up. After designating roles for each person, we were able to successfully go through the script in its entirety. One issue that came up during the table read was that some sections of the tour seemed too short, so we are currently working on extending those parts of the tour. One great thing my group found out during the table read was that the actors and actresses were able to really add some pizazz to make the tour both funny and exciting. Overall both my group and the voice over artists had a lot of fun and are looking forward to next week when we will finally be recording for the actual tour. I will be hosting two sessions next week on Monday and Wednesday from 9-10am to record two segments of the tour. It is required that I not only bring in a release form for each actress and actor to sign, giving my group the consent to use their voices, but also bring in food since we cannot afford to pay them. All in all next week will be a busy week for the Bitter Tour but I finally feel like the project is really coming to life!

Table read with the voice over artists

This week our class continued working on the Kickstarter campaign video. After previously watching the original version of the Kickstarter video, we wanted to make the next draft simpler. To do this we took out all group work and decided to use mostly muted B role, with just one person reading a script for the audio. The video also contained more direct cuts that made the viewer more engaged. After the video group spent tireless nights filming and editing, the final Kickstarter video was ready to be posted online. Currently the Kickstarter page is waiting to be previewed before it can officially be posted and finalized. Once the page is confirmed, I will be posting a link for anyone interested in the PinTour project to make donations.

Students outside the classroom waiting to be filmed

Even with all the chaos of creating a Kickstarter video was going on, each committee was still working hard within their own department. My team (Press and Media) has been coming up with various marketing strategies in order to exploit the PinTour project. We have not only written a press release for the Kickstarter, but we already have a list of organizations ready to email out the release once the Kickstarter link is finalized. I personally, will be in charge of any phone calls that have to deal with the PinTour project, and I can’t wait for the project to final get posted online for donations!

Last week, the Digital Art students continued to work on the Kickstarter video to help fundraise money for PinTours. We watched the original video, and after a long discussion we came to the conclusion that we would need to rework the video. We came up with a long list of information that needed to be included in the clip, and what stuff could be deleted. Our main goal is to answer the questions of:

• Who are the creators?
• What is PinTour?
• Why do we need funds?

By sticking with the basic information and not going into too much depth on project groups and genres of tours, we will be able to reduce the length of the film and capture the audience’s attention more. So while we were hoping to get our Kickstarter campaign started this week, we will be shooting more footage next week to create a new and improved campaign video.

After a well needed week off from school, the Digital Arts UCI students are back at the grind. We kicked off the beginning of the quarter by planning out our schedule for the rest of the year. While our class will be learning programs like MAX MSP, the main goal for the quarter will be to focus on the completion of the PinTour project. During the first week of Spring, we auditioned around 15 voice-over artists for the tours. In addition, we began to start the filming for the PinTour Kickstarter video. As you can see in the image below, the setup and process was very involved.

Filming for PinTour Kickstarter Campaign Video

While I do not have a strong background in video, some of my classmates do. The director of the video is Lana, with Maria as DP, and the Co-Editor roles being filled by Kenneth, Jenifer, Don, and Steven. I also learned, that during a shoot, there are certain articles of clothes you are and are not suppose to wear. For example, the colors white and black to no show up well for the camera. In addition, stripes and small patters create issues for focusing a camera. We were recommended to wear UCI gear in order to reinforce the idea that we are a group of University students looking for funds for a school project. Filming will continue into week two of the quarter so I will keep you updated on how the video progresses.

For our last Digital Arts meeting for Winter Quarter, our class had three stakeholders come in and listen to us talk about our project. It started off with Sculpture, followed by Fundraising and Site, and finally my group, Press and Media. Each group explicitly explained what the goal was of their team, and each member was able to provide a little insight as to what was currently being worked on, as well as what was going to be done in the future. In addition, we also had the time to bring up a representative from each tour group to give the audience a little synopsis of what each tour was about.

While the presentations only lasted about ten to fifteen minutes, the overall response from the stakeholders was that they were very excited on what we were trying to accomplish, and they were more than willing to help us get connected with the right people to complete our project.

Final Presentation Display

After the stakeholders had left, the class discussed how the presentations did. One of the main issues we talked about was that in the future, if our class were to do this presentation again, would be to have Press and Media present first. We would also like to formalize our visuals as well, by keeping all the information and posters black and white. By having the only form of colors on the presentation being the pinheads, we feel that this aesthetic approach would be both more effective and professional. At the end of the day overall each group felt confident on the progress they had made for each quarter, but know that there is a lot of work to be done next quarter in order to complete the PinTour project.

For the last week of Winter Quarter, the Digital Arts students have been working within their committees to prepare for a presentation to the “shareholders.” The goal of the class is to sell the idea of PinTour to the investors or the administration personnels of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. My group is the Press and Media section of the class, and we have created five posters that are highlighting our main focus points of what we would like to achieve within the PinTour project. Here is the following order of how we have structured our presentations:

1. Message and the Who, What, When, Where, and Why of the Press Release
2. Target Audiences
3. Social Media Applications
4. Press Targets
5. Marketing Materials
6. Example of Documentation of Winter Quarter
7. Game Plan for Spring Quarter

Over the weekend the group met virtually over a Google Doc to discuss the content needed for the presentation. Tuesday during class we made the posters highlighting the key ideas, and met with Bryan to go through what was necessary to say during the presentation. Tomorrow morning before class, our group will be meeting one more time to rehearse the final script of the presentation before presenting to the shareholders later that morning. After the last class of the quarter tomorrow, I will post the feedback we received and what the next steps will be for the Digital Arts students.

The last few weeks or so, the students of the Digital Arts minor have been working in both their committee groups as well as their tour groups on revising and editing what they had up to this point. The BitTour group has been meeting every Tuesday and Thursday at 8am to revise the script. In addition to this, last Thursday in lab, Martim helped the class prepare a casting call for voice over actors. While it wont be posted until the beginning of Spring Quarter, each group has already begun to write a list of necessary characters for their tours. For example, in the BitTour group, we are requesting six actors and actresses. While we need a variety of voices from female to male, with and without accents, and even different tones, the class will be organizing audition times together so groups do not end up using the same voices in different tours. As we find out more about who will be the voice over artists, I will post up the information as it rolls in.

Group Presentations

Last week, each PinTour group made a presentation on what updates and progress they had made since the last time we presented. While many of the groups changed their whole scheme, including their working title and concept, the BitTour group (the group I am in) was one of the only groups to stay consistent. Due to the realization that users of the audio tours could potentially start at any pin, the groups were faced with the challenge of how to host an entertaining tour while keeping up with the random flow that Claire Trevor School of the Arts visitors could possible set. After a long meeting with my group, we decided that the best way to handle the issue was to no create a continuous tour. Rather, we wanted to think that the tour in-between two pins could be a tour all on its own. Since there will be five pins, that gives us the opportunity to have five mini tours. Within the tours, we will be having one bitter persona and one positive person to balance out the tour. While each coupling will have a specific relationship, for example one art major who loves CTSA and one person who is a bitter biology major at UCI, some of the characters from one segment of the BitTour will be recycled and used later on in another part of the tour. This way, if the listener of the tour would like to take a complete tour using just one genre of the tour, there is some flow within the BitTour. Later this week, the group will be meeting up to work on the revisions of our existing script.

During our Thursday morning group meeting, the “Bit-tour” group went out for a field trip around the Claire Trevor School of the Arts. We adventured into buildings we had never been into before, focusing mainly on the Dance, Drama, and Music buildings that we (Studio Art majors) were unfamiliar with. Personally, I had a blast trying to see what classrooms and auditoriums were open or occupied.

One of the buildings we went into was filled with practice rooms for music majors. Each student had their own room and available time to practice, and then there were other rooms such as the piano room that was filled with nothing but keyboards lined up for a large number of students to practice with!

When exploring the drama department, we climbed up a set of stairs only to find a hidden table with chairs gated off. We have no idea what or why it was there, but we are highly considering adding it to our audio tour because it looks so vintage and out of place compared to the rest of the school.

As we walked towards the Bren Events Center, we strutted past the production studio. While usually this building has its giant doors closed, on this particular day the garage doors were half way open. The space looked like a gigantic, high-tech sculpture studio, so we gave ourselves a mini tour of what was inside. With a large table saw, wood, metal, and various other supplies, we felt like we were in a personalized Home Depot!

After a fun day of getting a little more familiar with the CTSA, we now have a bunch more content that can be added to our audio tour script!

Last week in lab Martim began to show our class how to use the software program, “Logic Pro.” We learned a number of different things that you can do, such as how to create effects or inserts on selected tracks, as well as playing around with various settings in volume, panning, and adjusting parameters.

One of our assignments for the week was to create an audio file that lasted at least one minute. Since, most of the class had learned how to use the recording equipment in the previous quarter, Martim helped me out with the basics of what I needed to know during office hours. The first thing that Martim showed me was where the voice over studio was, and how to use it. Because I had never been in the studio, let alone that whole building before, I was a little overwhelmed with where I was and what I was looking at. As seen below, this was not your regular Skype or Microsoft type of recording session. With padded walls and a pop filter, I hoped the advanced technology would create wonders for my recordings. In addition to creating an audio track, we were also required to include a midi track. To do this, Martim hooked up a piano keyboard to the computer so I could play directly from the keyboard onto Logic, without having to playing music from the computer keys. Even though I have been playing the piano for over five years, trying to come up with a jingle that matched the recorded voice I created was quite the challenge.

While the whole process was a tad overwhelming as a first-timer to the process, I really enjoyed editing the audio and midi tracks on Logic. After completing and submitting my project, I can proudly say that I have a much better understanding of how to use both the voice over studio and Logic Pro. I might not be an expert yet, but I will be getting a lot more practice with everything when my group starts to work on our audio tour.