Good for Great

Because Good for Great is over 15 mins, full screen has been disabled. If you view it on YouTube, it can be viewed in a larger screen format.


I have just found out that copyright laws are blocking the viewing of Good for Great so I am going to have to cut out the scenes that are violating the laws and post that version. So the version posted will be abridged (it is missing the District Sleeps Alone Tonight). Unabridged copies are available in DVD format as mentioned below.

After 9 months of work, it is complete. I started making Good for Great (GfG) in March 2011 and now after over 150+ manhours, I have put the finishing touches on the half hour short movie.

GfG is the journey of a man trying to find out who he is and what is his place. Good for Great is similar in structure to the book Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson. Good for Great is a series of music videos. Each video could viewed separately to give greater meaning to the song it is set to, or the videos could be video together to create a story. GfG is a short film that combines stop motion, photography, video and animation.

I know that 30 mins is a big time commitment, but please give it view. If you want to read more about Good for Great you can below or at itbmac.com

Copies of the Good for Great DVD can be purchased for $10 + shipping. Send an email to itbmac@yahoo.com if your interested.

As I think about how Good for Great is constructed it becomes apparent that its architecture is equivalent to that of a humans’ life. Every day of a human’s life could be taken and viewed as a story in itself. A large number of movies do this very thing.

When each day is pieced together in sequence, a timeline of a person’s existence is made. This bird’s eye view of all of the days in life creates a greater and more profound meaning. Was this the life of a “good” person? Was she or he kind? Did society benefit from this person? All of these questions can be answered when a human’s life is analyzed in its entirety.

Both ways of viewing a life have been done by humans for thousands of years. What has always been less obvious is how the two views fit together. How does a single day influence a life? The monumental days (birth, graduation, marriage, parenthood, death, etc.) are easier to fit into the timeline. But what does an average Monday do to a person’s life course? Is it insignificant? Or is this average Monday more important than the date of a wedding because it provides contrast and clarity? There are a few dozen monumental days in an average life of 30,000 days. While most focus on those milestones, the other days have a much greater effect on life.

Every “normal day” builds a monumental day. The long, mundane days of work cause a person to quit and find a new profession. Each date slowly strengthens the bonds of a relationship that culminates in a marriage.

"The materials used and the end product are important, but both would be meaningless if not put together correctly."

 

Song List

All of the Lights Intro - Kanye West

All of the Lights - Kanye West

Lost in the World - Kanye West & Bon Iver

Bad News - Kanye West

Solo Dolo - Kid Cudi

Street Lights - Kanye West

The District Sleeps Alone Tonight - The Postal Service

Deference for Darkness - Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori

Turn this Boat Around - Matt & Kim

Don't Slow Down - Matt & Kim

I'll Take Us Home - Matt & Kim

Lessons Learned - Matt & Kim
Good for Great - Matt & Kim

A MacKenzie Bates Original (C) 2011                          itbmac international inc. (C) 2011


Holiday Card Design

It's that time of the year, Christmas Time (the Holiday season if you want to be politically correct). I was given the task of designing this year's Christmas card by my mom.

I took drawing lessons this summer and I learned how to draw with pen & ink. My mom was expecting a pen & ink drawing of a snow covered tree with our pets sitting under it. I just didn't feel passionate about this design. For one thing, a quality pen & ink drawing would take 10+ hours. The major problem for me was the fact that it has been done before; it is a bit cliched.

So I first started experimenting with Photoshoping pictures of the Avon Lake Metro Parks trail I took last winter. At first I was thinking of making the card a black and white winter scene, give it a classic, yet unconventinal feel.

My first idea was to have three stacked woods photographs; The bottom photo would be the snow covered ground, the middle photo would be the trunks of trees and the top photo would be the tops of trees and the grey sky.

I had started experimenting with ways of adding depth to the photographs. What I landed upon was that turning the contrast all the way up had a nice effect on the black and white photography. Then the image should be duplicated. One of the copies had its brightness turned all the down and the other had it turned all the way up. 

Below is a break down of the photos I was just explaining and it also happens to be my second design.

Original Photo

Max Contrast & Min Brightness 

Max Contrast & Max Brightness

Max & Min Brightness Photos Combined with 60% Opacity

Photograph of California Shore View

Zoomed in on a Group of Clouds

Tree Photograph with Clouds Color Burned In*

*Color Burn burns in the color of the upper layer with the lower layer. No part of the image will get lighter.

Solid Purple Color Layer put as top layer with 39% Opacity and Difference Effect Applied*

*Difference reacts to the differences between the upper and lower layer pixels. Large differences lighten the color, and small differences darken the color.

This final layer was added to give the photo a vintage/antique feel.

I really liked the end result of this photograph. The only problem is that it isn't Christmassy for the cards, so it was on to the next idea.

Next I thought about taking a Christmas light photo from last year and editing it. I didn't have any photos of  our house though, so I choose one of someone's house. The photo was a bit blurry though cause it was take as the car was moving so I knew I was going to have to deal with that.

I decided to make the photograph into a vector image (made out of shapes). This would disguise the blur and make it more like a gingerbread house. I came up with two different versions; one that was black & white (and more cutout) and one that was color (and showed more details).

I wasn't that happy with the result. It look amateurism and was unoriginal. So I went back to the drawing board. I was having difficult thinking of something and then Abby Leigh suggested "draw a snowflake." Boom! I had the idea. I would draw a snowflake in pen & ink. Take a picture of it, edit it in snowflake and put a picture of the snowy forest ground behind it.

Now it was just time to execute the plan. As I search google to see what different snowflakes looked like, I realized that drawing the entire flake would be insanely difficult, especially if it were to be symmetric. So I decided that I would draw one half of a flake tip and then use Photoshop to make it into an entire flake.

Part of snowflake draw in pen & ink

Whole snowflake made by duplicating pen & ink drawing in Photoshop

Next it was time to think about what would be behind the flake, so I looked through my pictures from last winter and found this photo of the snow and leaf covered forest floor.

After a little bit of Photoshopping I arrive upon the design below. At the time I really like it, but looking now it looks rather simplistic and one demensional. 

My mom once again didn't think it was Christmassy enough, but thought that a thin red border might do the trick. I came up with three different border ideas; a thin red one like Momma prescribed, a candy cane stripe that is reminiscent of Kanye's 808 & Heartbreak album artwork and a combination of the thin border and candy cane.

 

 

My mom insisted upon the thin red stripe so I gave in and thought I was finished. But a day later I was thinking about it and I though that it wasn't my best work. It didn't take nearly long (yes, if you actually stuck with me this long you're probably thinking, "Are you kidding me?!") The image lacked depth.

So I went to work thinking of ways to give it more life. Below are the steps I took.

Took snowflake and duplicated patterns throughout entire layer to add greater detail. I call this a psych level.

Psych layer with background layer.

Inverted colors of psych/background layers.

Add white snowflake, thin red border and a solid red layer (color burned with 11% opacity & 42% fill*)

*The difference is that opacity affects all of the layer including layer effects. Fill only affects the layer content, but not layer effects.

It was time to see what "the mom" thought once again. She agreed that it definitely had more depth but thought it was too dark. So .... time to make more changes!

Got rid of red layer and put in light blue layer (overlay* with 74% opacity)

*Overlay multiplies the light colors and screens the dark colors.

At least 15 more steps occurred in between this photo and then end product. The steps were often complex and acted as additive effects (on their own made little different, but worked together to create an effect). The snowflake was filled in and a thin dark border was placed around the flake. The end product is suppose to look like a snowflake sitting on top of a frozen lake that is starting to crack/thaw. 

It got my mom's approval, but does it get yours? What do you think about the end product?

itbmac.com

I have been working on it for the past few months and it is finally here. itbmac.com is making its grand unveil.

Along with my courses at ALHS, I take PSEO classes at a community college. One class I am taking is Web Development.  Web Dev has a semester project where we must create a website on any topic of our choice.

I have wanted to expand the blog into a website for a while, so this was perfect for it. With a website, all of my art can be displayed in one place at all times. A website also gives me complete control over layout and appearance.The project isn't due until 12/5, but I wanted to make my website the best it could be so I got a head start.

itbmac.com has all of my photography, videos, designs, writing and games. Everything on the website was made by me (except for the music in the videos and items under the recommendation section). I have a recommendation section where I suggest other artist's work (music, photos, videos, movies, etc.) and give their pieces reviews.

A few weeks ago I purchased the domain name itbmac.com and webhosting from GoDaddy.com. I have since then gotten my website up and running. My website can be found at itbmac.com. I am continuing to add features and content to the site.

Fratmore: Initiation is also on itbmac.com. It was a game I made for my brother's website when it was still up and running. It is a mocking of college frat stars. I made the game in the spring. I plan to add more features by the new year, including more levels and music.

Check out the website and the artwork on it. I have posted new videos and I have added reviews of two albums.

itbmac.com

The Promise Land

Last week I took a trip to New York City to visit New York University. Over the four days I was there, I toured NYU, explored the UN, went to the 9/11 memorial, saw Occupy Wall Street, visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island and was in NYC for the earliest snow fall in 40 years.

To say that my trip was well-documented is an understatement. The videos and pictures I took amount to over 100 gigabytes! With this large amount of media to work with, I planned to make at least two music videos and possibly a photography series.

Last year a picture I edited in Photoshop recieved Best in Show in Photography at the Avon Lake Reflections Art Contest. This year I am looking to expand into the Film/Video Production category. "Diversity means" is this year's Reflections theme. New York City is one of the most diverse cities in America, so it was the perfect place to get footage for my Reflection videos.

The first video I made focuses on Occupy Wall Street and the people of New York City. The video is set to a song that few people have heard. The song is off the double album G.O.O.D. Morning, G.O.O.D. Night by Malik Yusef. Yusef started out as a Chicago poet, who has taken the roles of a spoken word artist, musician, actor and most recently film producer.

G.O.O.D. Morning, G.O.O.D. Night was released in 2009, but never hit major music stores, iTunes or even Amazon. Currently the only place it can be found is Ebay and even then there are at most a handful of CDs listed for purchase.
 
Despite its limited release, the albums are in my opinion far superior to most current music. The music conveys a range of messages and is lyrically strong. After listening to a song or two, it will become obvious that the songs were wrote by a poet; every word is thought out and placed for a reason. G.O.O.D. Morning, G.O.O.D. Night  is a blend of several music genres and each album has a unique tone.

The concept of the reflective double CD displayed Protagonist vs. Antagonist/Lower Self vs. Higher Self, exhibiting the poet’s struggle between his internal dualities.

-Last FM

The Yusef song I chose for my first NYC video was "Promise Land". The song features Kanye West and Adam Levine (from Maroon 5). "Promise Land" was featured on Obama's 2008 Campaign CD Yes We Can: Voices of a Grassroots Movement. Levine sings the chorus which is a plea to government official to do what they said they would do and for them to make America the "promise land" that it has been hyped up to be.

I need you to
Take us to the promise land
Don’t just make us promises
It’s too late to let go of our hand

There has been confusion name-wise. Promise Land is the name of Yusef's song. The Promise Land is the name of my video.

The Promise Land was shot in first person. With the changing moods of the song, the video switches between black & white and color. Mixed media (video and photography) was used to create the feeling of flipping through a stack of photos.

I made use of my mom's DSLR camera on the trip. It has the ability to take panoramic photos. In this video and the next one, you will see numerous sweeping panoramic shots that really capture the scale of things and the whole New York atmosphere.

At the start of The Promise Land, the "viewer" travels to and arrives in New York City. The beginning of the music video focuses more on the atmosphere created in NYC by the existance of people rather than the people themselves.

As the video progresses, the siloutte of a person walking through New York is seen numerous times. This creates the feeling of following someone who is on a quest and allows for some mystery as to who the person is.

Sweeping panoramic videos and photos signal the arrival at Occupy Wall Street. The next minute or so is a beat-set slideshow of OWS. Photos range from tents and signs, to the shirts demonstators were screenprinting on the sidewalk.

Footage from walking on a crowded sidewalk was rewound to give the appearance of backing away from OWS.  The next video clip is a bit disjointed. When the Nor'easter hit NYC, it started as rain then changed to snow to rain to sleet to snow. We were down at Pier 17 in South Street Seaport when it got bad.

I was outside looking over the balconies at the snow-filled Brooklyn Bridge and New York skyline, and then I heard a "thud". I looked down to find out that a middle-aged man had slipped in the slush. Before I could go down the steps to help, people walking by stopped and assisted the man. So I quickly got out my video camera and taped the now 5-6 good Sumatrans  lifting the man up and guiding him indoors.

The video ends with a mix of photos and videos of New Yorkers.

How to Make it in America T-Shirt Contest

***Some How to Make it in America spoilers***

Since this week's blog post focuses on the designing of tee shirts for an HBO original series that some readers may not have seen, I am going to preface it with the show's synopsis. Synopsis from Wikipedia.

How to Make It in America follows two enterprising twenty-somethings hustling their way through New York City's fashion scene, determined to achieve their version of the American Dream. Trying to make a name for themselves in the city's competitive fashion scene, Ben Epstein and his friend and business partner Cam Calderon use their street knowledge and connections to make their way up. With the help of their well-connected friend Domingo and Cam's cousin Rene, who has ambitions of his own—a new energy drink called Rasta-Monsta—the burgeoning entrepreneurs set out to make it big.

By the end of the first season, Ben and Cam had decided that their clothing brand would be called Crisp NYC and had started making tee shirts.

The second season of How to Make it in America (HTMIIA) started on Oct. 2nd. Between the 1st and 2nd seasons a few months to a year past, Ben and Cam have gone to Japan to promote Crisp. On their way back to New York City they smuggled in a hundred or more blank shirts that they had purchased for cheap in Japan. 

The night the season premier ran HBO announced that a T-Shirt contest would be held to design the next Crisp NYC shirt. Fans could submit their designs to the HTMIIA Facebook page for two weeks and then voting on the designs would begin on Oct. 24th. 

"The Showdown" was what the voting process was called. Two shirt designs by random were put side-by-side and the voter choose which one they liked more.  After two weeks of voting, the top ten most voted for designs were put against each other in scaled down version of the "Showdown" to find the winner.

Five First Place Winners (Those ranked 2nd - 6th) received:

• How To Make It In America Season 1 on DVD and Blu-Ray
• A New York City Eats Its Young T-shirt
• A Wilfredo Gomez skateboard deck and hoodie
• A How to Make it in America Logo T-Shirt
• A How to Make it in America “It’s All About Respect” T-Shirt
• The How To Make It In America Mixtape (Volumes 1 & 2) on CD.

The Grand Prize winner received everything the First Place ones did and a $5000 check. The Grand Prize winner's shirt design also had the possibility of being made and sold by HBO.

After reading these rules on the HTMIIA Facebook page, I wanted to enter and win. The five thousand dollars would be nice, but I wanted to win for a different reason. Having a shirt with my design on it be made and sold to thousands of people is one dream I have. So I went to work brainstorming ideas.

Here is the first design I came up with. It is largely based on Season 2 Ep. 1. Half way through the episode, Ben started to freak out because he had smoked marijuana with one of their clothing brand rivals and thought he was too high.

Ben ends up running all over the city until a homeless guy tells Cam to have Ben put his head underwater for five seconds. They found a fountain and dunked their heads down together. Head dripping with water Cam exclaimed "This is what Crisp is all about, Loyalty. You think the Brooks Brothers had each others backs like this!?" 

I am not quite sure why, but there was a fake apple in my kitchen. So I took a few pictures of the apple under different lighting and then imported them into Photoshop. In the Summer of 2010, my family went to New York City for the PGA Open. I still had pictures from this trip on my computer so I chose the four best skyscraper pictures and imported those into Photoshop.

I then put the buildings inside the apple in a way that would make it look there were actually located there. The How to Make it props department has made shirts for the show with a Crisp NYC logo, so I modeled my own version after it.

The apple on the front has a few meanings. The obvious one being that the show is set in New York City which has held the nickname "The Big Apple" since the 1920's. Apples are crisp to the core, and Ben and Cam hope "the Big Apple" will become Crisp to the core. Crisp was made out of loyalty.  Lastly, Crisp hopes to become the fashion industry equivalent to Apple (iPhones, Macs, etc).

My second and favorite design was one that I had been considering making into a shirt over half a year ago. The base is a photograph of a NYC street that was vectorized (made into shapes).  I had always felt that the design was lacking something though.

HBO releases a mixtape made by Broke Mogul before the start of each season of How to Make it in America. Between the songs, there is either a sound clip from the show or one of the actors talking about the show.

When I heard Lake Bell say "The Hustle Never Ends" after Austere, I knew that it was the perfect saying for the shirt. A crowded NYC street, where the idea of the American Dream was born, behind the text was just the epitome of what I was going for. Ben and Cam work every day on those NYC streets trying to get their version of the American Dream.

The Crisp NYC shirts used in the show have a graphic and then below have the Crisp Logo. To make my shirts as authentic as possible, I placed my version of the logo below the crosswalk in the street. Then I used the HTMIIA title card text (how HBO prints the name anywhere) for the back.

I thought that a design that incorporated a map of New York City would look pretty cool. When brainstorming I had come up with the phrase "You gotta get down to go up" and I really liked it, but wasn't sure what graphic would go with it. I decided that close up of a skyscraper would work well with the saying and then I could overlay the map to combine the ideas.

The last design I came up with was a simple one. Just a large Crisp NYC logo on the front of a white and grey shirt. This shirt would be used for promotional purposes by Ben and Cam. 

I submitted all five of my designs on 10/22. I was able to vote on my designs when the "Showdown" began on 10/24, but by the next day all of my shirts had been deleted by HBO. No email or reason was given by HBO as to why my all of designs were deleted. 

I am going to make one of my shirts anyways. Which shirt do you like the most?

Streetlights

Just like The District Sleeps Alone Tonight (DSAT) this video is part of Good for Great (GFG). This video is set right before the DSAT; there is an additional transition between the videos, but I am saving that for the GFG release.

I have always enjoyed the night. After the sun sets, the outdoors have a different feel. There are bright lights and the rest is different shades of darkness; there is a greater contrast between everything. Unlike the day when things are clearly visible, at night you don't know what could be happening around you. The dark creates an air of mystery and freedom from judgement.

I have been an avid fan of Kanye West for a few years now and the song Streetlights from 808s & Heartbreak has been a favorite song of mine since it came out in 2008. The lyrics of the song fit the mood I was trying to create in GFG of a man who is on a journey and knows where he wants to go, but just isn't there yet. 

Streetlights' Chorus:

Seems like street lights glowing

Happen to be just like moments passing in front of me 

So I hopped in the cab and I paid my fare

See, I know my destination but I'm just not there 

The beat and sound of Streetlights fits the described ambiance created by the night. The song is just very emotional. It isn't lyric-filled though, its expresses its message by creating an overall feeling.

When I was working on Good for Great's woods stop motion sequence, I took pictures for so long that by the time I was walking to my car it was pitch black out. I was walking down a bike path and at the end of the path was a street lined with street lights.

When I saw the view created by the darkness, trees and lights (as in the above pictures), I immediately thought of Kanye's Streetlights. So I took some more pictures before my camera died and headed home.

I wasn't sure how I would make the rest of the Streetlights video. I thought of long exposure photos, but I wasn't sure if that fit the song. Up to this point in Good for Great production (it was late-March 2011) I had only been doing stop motion work; I had only been taking still pictures and then I would put them in order and time it to the beat of the song. 

It wasn't until mid-June that I returned to Streetlights. I had shot  Zombies 8 Feet Below (explanation to this video will come soon) and had begun to experiment with videography. At this point in Good for Great, the boy who was "Lost in the World" now knows where he wants to go. But he's just not there, so he begins to travel in hope that he will find his place.

The HBO series How to Make it in America uses a mix of still images and video in its episodes, which I really like. So I decided that I would use the same method in my videos. I began by taking more photos at night, this time focusing on entering my car and driving it.

Next I videotaped myself driving. Yes, I know highly dangerous. When I showed my family members this video the first thing they all had to say was "Were you driving the car as you used the camera ?!?!" 

Just playing the video of me driving would be rather boring. To fit the lyrics "Seems like streetlights happen to be just like moments passing in front of me", I sped up the film by 20x. I took the footage of me driving and I played it forwards & backwards and experimented with sounds.

Finally, I took pictures and videotaped the highway at night to provide the illusion that I was getting on the highway, which leads into the transition between Streetlights and The District Sleeps Alone Tonight.

Senior Powder Puff T-Shirts 2011

"If you are creative and would like to help with designing the powder puff t-shirt.  Please bring your design drawn out to Mrs. Kozar, Mrs. Bottini, or Lauren Fouts. 

The senior class t-shirts for the powder puff will be purple background with white writing (keep this color scheme in mind when making your design)."

After reading this email from my class advisor, I thought that I would give designing the shirts a shot. I knew the shirts should have a clever design and make clear that the senior class of 2012 dominates. I just wasn't sure of what this design should be though and what the witty saying should be on the shirt. 

So I started with the obvious, a football. I drew it with a sharpie and then scanned it in. I made 2012's instead of laces on the football. I had two ideas for sayings initially; "Straight up #Winning" which is a play of Charlie Sheen's tweets and "Bigger, Faster, Stronger" which is from Kanye's "Stronger".

After messing around here for a little, I came up with these designs:

I felt like these designs were rather bland though. In my opinion, the designs lacked character. So I went to work trying to come up with another shirt design. At our spirit assembly that happened on Friday, there was a chant that stood out to me. It was "This is Our House", which was yelled by the senior class.

At first, I was thinking maybe I should draw out a house with a sharpie marker, much in the same fashion as the football was. But I couldn't get past not using "#Winning" or "Bigger, Faster, Stronger", I felt that these were winning lines (pardon the pun).

Before I went to the Homecoming football game on Friday night, the idea came to me; I could use these lines and others to make the house. When I got home from the game, I went to work making the design.

None of the fonts that come pre-installed on my Mac or in Photoshop suited my fancy, so I went online and found a Marker font that I quite like. It provides that sketchy feel I wanted without my terrible handwriting.

The hardest part was coming up with more sayings. I have another Kanye related reference with "Watch the Throne Juniors", which is relating to 'Ye and Jay-Z's recent collaboration. The saying that people so far have had the most difficult time understanding is "Twenty One Two is gonna' own you"; Which should be read as "20 1 2 is gonna' own you".

One somewhat hidden aspect of my design is my placement of "#Winning". If you recall, I originally had it as "Straight Up #Winning" and now "#Winning" is oriented straight up and down.

Here is the design I made:

I was quite pleased with the design. I made the "Juniors vs. Seniors PowderPuff Game 2011" larger and more prominent after receiving some feedback. 

My mom thinks that this design is not feminine enough, so I made a second design. The second design is a play off of the "Life is Good" shirts and tweets.

I drew the lady football player and scanned it in. 

Then I edited it with Photoshop to add the football, text and proper coloring.

What do you think? Would you vote for either design? If so, which one?

If you would, there will be a quick vote after school on Friday Oct. 7th in Mrs. Kozar's room 265.

"If you are interested in purchasing a powder puff t-shirt, they will be available to the entire senior class.  Shirts will go on sale 10/10-10/17 for $15.  Please bring cash OR check made out to ALHS Student Council."