The other day I was watching the CMT channel and these videos came on-back to back. I don't know how familiar any of you are with country music, but those of you who don't know- the woman singing in both videos is Trisha Yearwood. She has a country music star for a very long time (obviously). The very first thing I noticed about the videos is that the hairstyles and clothing the people are wearing are very different in each video. This makes sense because one video was from 1988 and the other video was from 2007. I thought it was very interesting how the song about falling in love was made into a video set in the summer, and the one about a breakup is set in the dead of winter. I have to wonder if this was coincidence or part of the cinematic language.

So as I was editing this morning I really began to realize the importance of spliting cuts where necessary and doing voiceovers when you need to. I realized the art of all this is to make it all sound as naturual as possible, and get the right flow to it. I thought this video did everything right except for the constant music in the background- it got really annoying really fast- especially when people were talking.

With all the talk I have been hearing about the Grand Canyon from Alan lately I had to refresh my memory a bit. The last time I was the Grand Canyon I was about 8 years old and I honestly don't remember a whole lot about the trip, except for the fact that my mom wouldn't let any of us get anywhere close to the edge. No they have built this skywalk, and I could just imagine what my mom would have to say about that! Lol! I think I might plan a trip out there sometime this summer to check it out again, and refresh my memory. It really is a beautiful place to be, and I can't wait to see it again.

CMA video

The other night I was watching the Country Music Awards and I saw Carrie Underwood sing this song. For those of you who remember Ms. Underwood won American Idol a few years back. This song is great and the intro to it is heartbreaking, but that is not what I was interested in. If you watch this video there are lights everywhere, and the reason we get so many angles of Carrie singing is because there are also cameras everywhere! After noticing all these technical details I realized that so many people are taken aback by the performance- hardly anyone really noticed the technical things that helped make this performance great. Kudos to Carrie Underwood for having such an awesome voice- but I think the techies on programs like this deserve an award as well!

Our documentary is about mountainbiking, so I figured I would look up some videos of some people crashing. The crashes these people take are nothing like the crash Thomas takes off of the Mushroom Drop. But watch these people falling- they are pretty intense.

Supersize Me

For my documentary I watched Supersize Me. I have watched it before, but I never really paid attention to the cinematic language they used in the movie. I liked the interviews with the doctors throiughout the movie. They all had different opinions, at first especially, and I think that is very important when we are talking about overall health. The McD pop-ups on the map were very effective, they put into perspectie exactly how many McDonalds there really are in any given area. I also thought considering other kinds of food that could make people unhealthy, like ice cream, was strong. The interviews of the kids on what they recognized was really interesting. There were some things I really had a problem with in the movie. For one, harrassing the school lunch ladies was uncalled for. They have a job to do and they do it- its really not their fault. I also didn't care for the vegan girlfriend. Vegans are very biased about meat in general, so she got really annoying really quickly. Also showing the gastric bypass surgery was gross. I don't do surgeries at all. In general, I think the movie had some really good points.

As the bad weather approaches, the concerns about snow seem to heighten. The amount of snow we experienced last year is not typical, nor is it to be expected this year. Thinking about all the snow I started considering avalanches, and peoples perception of them. The fact is avalanches are really cool to watch and obsere. But, not so much if you are part of the mountainside of snow crashing down. They are very dangerous, and anyone who would like to ski in the backcountry or out of bounds should learn more about survival if they are caught. As for me, I'm just gonna chill inbounds and watch avalanches from afar.

Importance of Musica

This weekend I was watching Coyote Ugly and realized a lot about movies. For one, the music that is used is really important to the overall feel of the movie. Music can be a somewhat subtle way to convey a feeling, without any dialog between the characters. Obviously this movie is about a rising song writer, so there is gonna be a lot of music, but there had to be that much music before I even started thinking about the amount of music that is in any given movie. I also started thinking about music videos and how different camera angles can totally alter the theme and feel of the movie.

I found this on You Tube directly after the last one on this song! CHeck out the different styles people use the same song on!