I started my Fall 2010 semester at UTD today. I’m excited to take 2 courses, but I am feeling a little bit freaked out about the required readings.

Course – EMAC Readings Course

We Live in Public (Film)
Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives
You Are not a Gadget: A Manifesto
Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music
Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do
The Chaos Scenario
The Book of MPub
The Medium is the Massage
The YouTube Reader
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age
Hamlet’s Blackberry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us

Course – Aesthetics: Beauty

The Republic
On the Aesthetic Education of Man
Time, the Familiar Stranger
Biopoetics
On Aggression
The Language Instinct
Chaos: Making a New Science
Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny
The Fractal Geometry of Nature
On Aesthetics in Science
The Power of Limits

Whew. That’s a lot of books for a slow-reader to read in one semester!

My friend Willie Baronet organized a second flash mob event to raise awareness for the homeless. I had a lot of fun shooting this event. For more information, visit We Are All Homeless.

I will be live streaming (along with my mobile lab video group) the “We Are All Homeless” flash mob event on Saturday, April 17, 2010. Here’s our video feeds so you can either watch live or view replays of the event.

Kyle Kondas

Mike Stephens

Mary Skinner

Ben Smithson

Chelsea Conway

On a whim (and on a nudge from MobileLab) I downloaded the VoiceBand for iPhone app. I think this will be fun as soon as I can actually get some time to play with it. Here is a quick sample I made while sitting in my car. This is the sound of my car on idle, as played by the bass guitar simulated instrument in VoiceBand.

I wonder what it would be like to record random city noises and assemble them in to some sort of hodge podge song. Perhaps something like what Mona Kasra has done with Daily Tones.

Dr. Parry’s class is starting up. As usual, it will be a major amount of reading. It should be a challenge (a good one).

Here is the course description. Source

For roughly 400 years, a period we might refer to as the Gutenberg Parentheses, analog print has served as the primary substrate for knowledge creation, archivization, and dissemination. This, to state the obvious is no longer the case, a vast majority of the information produced this year will never see an analog format, instead existing only in the digital network. This class will focus on understanding what happens as we move from a culture whose primary means of knowledge organization is analog print to one which is digitally networked. The class will be divided into three sections. In the first we will look at the broad theoretical questions which inform this change. In the second we will look at how specific knowledge and cultural institutions (libraries, journalism, higher education, entertainment) have been affected and examine the approaches/experiments that have already been taken. In the final portion of the class students will work in groups to produce projects and propose alternative approaches and solutions. Recommended for all EMAC students.

Note to self: Wealth of Networks is a Free Download.

Neel Ryan Tucker discusses photography, inspiration, Michael Urie, Pat Thomas, and challenges of trying to make it as a photographer.

This video is my final assignment for a grad class in video production at the University of Texas at Dallas. Shot with Canon Vixia HF10. Edited with Final Cut Express.

http://www.neelryantucker.com
http://emac.utdallas.edu/

Here’s the same rough edit with a little bit more footage thrown in. Still kickin’ the tires on this footage… trying to make it better. I’d appreciate any and all advice!

Here’s a rough edit I made last week. I’m planning on changing a few shots and adding in some more footage later on to polish it more.

Here’s Assignment #2 for the Digital Video Production class I’m attending this semester. I am LOVING this class. Special thanks to Linda Ehrle for letting me use her for my subject. And to Bill Sinclair for letting me take sample video and chop it up in to a usable audio track.

- Video and Audio shot/recorded on a Canon Vixia HF10 HD Camcorder.
- Edited in Final Cut Express

Tip: Stuck on how to get videos exported from Final Cut Express to look nice on YouTube? Hope this helps!

Assignment Details:
I suggest finding an activity where there is some variety, where your subject moves and changes position, even location. Cover the activity from a variety of angles and using the different shot types, mostly Wide, medium, and Close-up. Remember close-ups can be of objects, details, etc. like a hand grabbing something, for example. Look for opportunities to “follow” a movement (walking, picking something up, etc). Try some combination shots if you get the chance (we’ll do more of these in coming assignments).

Required Shots:
• Establishing Shot
• Wide Shot
• Medium Shot
• Closeup
• POV
• follow

These may also be used, possibly in combination with the above shots, but for now are lower priority:
• Pan
• Tilt
• Zoom
• Zoom + Pan / Tilt

I [finally] got my screenplay to a stopping point. After hearing surprisingly positive feedback from my professor, I may polish up some of the plot and character development. Overall, I feel good about the script, and I think it’s a good first project. Yay!!!

So 20 more pages and a bit a fleshing out in a couple spots, and I’ll have a genuine first screenplay done!