Testing, Testing, I’m Just Suggesting

[Haven’t Had Enough – Mariana’s Trench]

Even though this blog post is going to be about my CMWP class and tagged as such, it’s not up for assessment, so I wasn’t too fussed about using a song lyric for the title.

For the final digital project, I’ve decided to produce a small comic book – depending on how my scripting and production go, it should be no more than three regular-sized comic pages – based on…you guessed it…Meg! But because of the medium and form that I’ve chosen, I needed to start experimenting early with the technical requirements. One of the biggest asks was for me to re-acquaint myself with Photoshop, and even more importantly for me to learn the basic processes of using Illustrator for creating comics.

So, last night, I made up these two art tests:

Art test 1: no grain

Art test 2: with grain

I wasn’t very happy with the look of the overall image, so I Googled around for more techniques, especially to do with Illustrator. So, this morning, I achieved this:

Art test 3: better balloons

If you click on the links highlighted with “last night” and “this morning”, you’ll see some thoughts I had while creating these.

Obviously, my next step is to do a mock run for the entire project. I plan to script a short, 4-panel strip, storyboard it, then get that dumb little adorable mutt and (photo)shoot her, and producing the final product. It should serve as a trial run to find the kinks in my planning, as well as knowing how to deal with Meg when I need to do a much bigger shoot.

For those curious, I watched Scott McCloud’s Illustrator tutorial on how to do the dialogue boxes, which helped a lot. I also used a variety of blogs and sites which gave instructions on how to create a cartoon style using Photoshop.

Awesome sauce, now I think I have Carpal Tunnel.

Alex.

Hurry Annie!

So, having had 3 hours sleep, I met up with Mela at the Glen right after I wrote that previous post. We took the train up, and realized that we were both exhausted and a bit too hot – the day was shaping up to be a lot warmer than forecast.

We got to Melbourne Central and agreed on some ice-cold shots of caffeine. I got a Double Beef’n’Cheese so I wouldn’t be consuming caffeine on an empty stomach, and Mela gave me that exasperated “Aleeeeex” because I eat unhealthy.

I had the Voltage thing at Gloria Jeans, which sounded nice but they had little bits of I-don’t-even-know black things and they stuck to my teeth. And it tasted horrible.

Mela got me a matching teddy bear to the one I got her, and so Mela-bear is now sitting snugly in my bed waiting for me to join it tonight. We took many photos with Mela-bear with Mela-person’s new Nikon camera, but she hasn’t uploaded them yet.

We went into the uni for me to print off my essays and hand them in. 19 pages of blood, sweat and tears sat in my hand as I grouped them with their respective cover sheets and slipped them into the essay submission slot. It wasn’t until much later in the day that I realized I never signed the area of declaration against plagiarism.

We went to 7/11 for our free slurpee, and then went back to Melbourne Central for a bit of sitting down before lunch, because it was uncomfortably hot and I was suffering in my new, stiff skinny jeans. The “a bit of sitting down” turned into nearly an hour of the two of us sitting on those bamboo couches and generally being annoying. Or, at least, I was, because I was very tired and I felt like being a bitch. Mela put up with it nicely, patiently waiting for me to make my mind up what to eat. We were so tired and lazy that, sitting pretty much 5 steps away from the nearest food vendor, we called up Annie, Clare, Jen and Julia in case one of them would be in the city to buy our lunch for us.

In the end we went to QV to eat. Halfway through, Annie texted saying that she was still at Bentleigh. This was at past 3, and with under an hour until the deadline, we were getting worried. So Mela-person and I ate our food quickly and hurried down to the uni to meet Jen, Anna and Josh, and together we filled out Annie’s cover sheets ahead of time so that when she arrived all she had to do was staple them together and hand it in.

We sat there for over half an hour in stress waiting for Annie, whose train decided to stop running. As more and more people piled in, and the clock hand crept towards the 12 (with the little hand at the 4 and stuff), we got extremely worried.

Finally, at 5 past 4, with people still lining up so it seemed that Annie has escaped late submission, the girl rushes into the room. We greet her with showers of bulldog clips, staplers and papers, and quickly threw her essays into the submission box. And, with that flourish of barely concealed dread, Annie’s 2nd year of university was over.

We started heading to Passionflower, but as we were leaving the campus I realized for the first time that my phone wasn’t in my pocket – a curious event, considering how large the phone is compared to how tight my jeans are. Josh found it in the library, after a blessed soul handed it in without stealing it. We went to Passionflower – but not after getting our 2nd free Slurpee – but Mela and I had to leave earlier because we’d been out way too late the night before.

And now I will finish my final Writing for Screen assessment, and be free like a candy wrapper caught in the up-drought.

Alex.

Oh crappity crap crap

2 blog posts this month, what a disgrace!

I suppose  I can do a meta-thing and have a look at why I haven’t been blogging.

It hasn’t been because I haven’t been online. I’m sure if you check out my Tumblr (link at the side), you’ll see I’ve been spending copious amounts of time tanning by my laptop light.

And it hasn’t been because I haven’t done shit all in the past month but tanning by my laptop light because a lot did happen, but I think…

For some reason I don’t deem my life interesting enough to document anymore. I mean, looking back, I used to write about getting coffee after school. But now I don’t even mention that I had an assessment performance for which I didn’t do so well.

Alright so here it is.

On Wednesday past, I had an assessment performance for Script for Performance. I dragged loads of uni friends along so basically on entire wall of the joint was occupied by my Asian friends – not many Asians doing that subject, as you can imagine.

My script, I admit, was shoddy, but I relied on my ability to project my voice to carry me through. I got laughs where I wanted laughs, but my tutor, the sneaky man, saw past my gimmicks and told me I needed to polish up my style and structure.

So I went home and reworked the entire script, starting from the style, going along the structure, the delivery, and even the overall tone.

Perhaps he’ll be proud of me.

Other events that happened was my oral presentation for Hollywood and Entertainment, where I had to give a presentation on the comic book aesthetic in film in regards to Scott Pilgrim. I used my Tumblr as a way to present my work which went better than normal.

I don’t think the essay that I wrote for it was very decent, though.

Apart from uni, I suppose I’m correct in saying not much has been exciting in ways of social life. Everyone’s bunkering down for end of Semester assessments and exams, and being 2nd years, people are actually caring (I am too, just not as obviously. I have a reputation of bad-assery to uphold). I’ve made more and more friends at work which is always a bonus…until they realize how strange I am and shifts become awkward.

Looking forward to the winter holidays, not only because I have my 20th birthday coming up (well this is just terrifying), but because I can sleep in and watch loads of TV basking in the glory of my laptop light.

Alex.

P.S. Next month marks the coming of winter, and so song name titles will make its appearance again.

P.P.S. I will try to find another 30 day writing challenge or whatnot to up my count and continue my writing.

P.P.P.S. After the assessment date of the script, I’ll post it up here for y’all to enjoy.

GAT 09 – George Clooney

Before I say anything else, please read this very short The Age article online:

George Clooney The Answer for VCE Pranksters

This way I don’t have to explain it all.

So, yes, in summary, I did include George Clooney into my GAT. I was tempted to include it into the informative piece, where I was writing about the lifespan and functions of the worker bee, and how in its “Golden Years” – much like George Clooney is now…but no I decided it would only be wise to include it in the opinion section.

The opinion section was about possessions. So:

“…to have possessions would make people happy. And happiness is an individual thing. Some people may be happy with what little they have, such as George Clooney and his Nespresso coffees…”

“…sure, possessions lessen our appreciation for traditional things, as was George Clooney’s appreciation of fine women for instant coffee shots…”

And I only thought about this one after I finished it:

“…possessions make us happy. Just like if one was to possess George Clooney.”

Now, as you may have read, VCAA did not say if they would mark down those who mention Clooney. But hey I think if they do, that’s just a reflection of their stupid conservative ways, and absolute rigidity. Here, we finally have all the students uniting to be CREATIVE in such a boring assessment, and actually looking FORWARD to sitting the GAT, and what do you do? You reward them by marking them down. Bad children, who taught you to be creative and find fun in life? You MUST do things as we tell you and be stuck in the mould we’ve set.

Well, we’ll see what happens. I’m pretty sure if they (VCAA) marked this down the students would all revolt. After all, as long as it was relevant, it’s like marking someone down for using black pen instead of blue.

I finished the thing an hour early. Had time for a Maccas run.

Alex.

Actually useful?

So, to quickly explain to those invisible people who read my blogs, never commenting, and never leaving a visit-trail (I like to keep my fantasies…)

In school I have – as well as April, the only other person on my Blogroll – been given a writing folio task (DEATH TO A 3-PIECE FOLIO!) and one of the choices we had was to write a blog.

I thought, hell, why not? I have one here that isn’t…My(Pimp’dUpHo’dDown)Space or Fatbook/Facebox… (Even THOUGH, believe it or not, Facebook was another choice on which we can do our writing folio…)

Anyway…

So this writing task has a theme “Being Australian”. It goes hand-in-hand with “Being Bored In Class”, “Being Purposefully Dumb And Stereotypical Just To Get A Bloody A”…etc. Funny thing is, my teacher might actually be reading this…I still don’t know if I’ll give her a URL for this, or if I’ll print it off. Either way, chances are she’ll see that first post I made (you know, the one with the word “fuck” in it) and I’m not a big fan of editing things after I’ve posted them…so that f-bomb is a-stayin’. But I think I might refrain from swearing (too much) from now on.

The following few blogs will most likely be for the assignment. I know I don’t blog often, but who knows? I might feel the urge to blog suddenly over the course of my assessment, so, Miss E- (I don’t write your full name into my blogs unless a) it’s a common name like Jenny, or Julia, so forth, b) I’ve done it already accidentally before or c) you’re April…since April already has her name posted on the same blogging site) if you are reading this, please only assess me on the blogs titled “Being Australia” (then subsequently Part 1 Part 2 etc), and everything else…well just don’t read. Or if you do read it, ignore the fact that I swear freely when I write, and also ignore anything I might write about school, teachers, students etc…I mean, come on, this IS my personal blog.

To end this rant, I might clue in on my invisible buddies on what’s been going down so far in my life since I made this blog back in March (if you read that first post, Miss E-, then you’d know that I had a blog before this from this site, and on that one I swore a LOT more…).

So, Term  2 of my first year of VCE has started (and pretty much ended) and there haven’t been any maaajor dramas. Not for me anyway. For some other people in my life however, relationships have formed and crumbled, strengthened and..died..thus completing what is more commonly known as the circle of complaining. (Yeah, I ripped that one off HIMYM. Great show, really got into it.) So basically, when shit happens – we’ll use some examples – such as when Th- would complain to me. I would then complain to April, who complains to An-. An- then complains to Bo- who in turn starts laying it on So-. So- would relieve her frustration at Ti- who would bitch to me, thus completing the circle of complaining. Sure, I totally left out Th- but if you knew my group, then you’d know Th- would never link up.

I’ve been watching a LOT more shows online (soo dodgy…) one of my preferred sites is NOT YouTube, however, it is Acidito. It’s not bad and you can get most of the shows on there: Simpsons, House, Lost, Smallville etc. Except it loads as 1 whole episode so for those who can only watch it in sections ‘cos of crap internet…sorry dudes.

I’ve also very recently been CRAZY about VAMPIRES! AND NO, not because of TWILIGHT! Twilight, by my thoughts, actually disgraces vampires. I hope to GOD the movie is good because otherwise…[shudder]. No, I’ve fallen in LOVE with vampires because of the awesome anime/manga series called VAMPIRE KNIGHT! If you want to read the manga go here and if you want to watch the anime, it’s on Veoh (go put in search “Vampire Knight”, and if you want to download the vids, you have to download Veoh TV first). Of course, VK anime is also on Youtube.

Well that’s all for now, for now. Yes, I WILL be back soon, okay? This time I have to..dammit…

Not long until my 17th, and definitely not long until my beloved Bi-‘s. Ca- has done a freakishly awesome job of organising her pressies.

De Fluffe out.