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Indeterminacy (Chance) Project

Mad-Lib Celebrity Look-Alike Mash-Up Multimedia Movie

Concept by Lucas Marsh

Directions

1.)    Compiling celebrity look-alike image mash:

a.       Go to http://home.picitup.com/Joomla/ and upload a face picture to site. 

b.      After receiving all 5 celebrities open each individually and copy each photo above a black background layer in Adobe Photoshop

c.       Adjust the transparencies using the opacity toggle in the layer window for each layer so that at least one aspect of every celebrity’s image shows throughout the whole image

d.      Adjust the size of every celebrity image so that they are all relatively the same head size

e.      Match the heads of the figures using the chin as a reference anchor.

f.        Flatten all of the celebrity layers onto one layer using the applicable options within the Layer Window

g.       Copy the new flattened background layer using the layer window.

a.       Select the old background layer in the layer window and delete everything to create a transparent background layer beneath the new “copy of background layer”

h.      Using a black paintbrush (size 40, 0 hardness) create a feathered frame around the image and center the image using the rulers and/or grids found in view>show>grid and view>rulers.

i.         Use an eraser on paintbrush setting with zero hardness at the appropriate size (about 20-30) to just erase out the mouth region on the face area of the compiled figures – save image (celebmashtrans.psd file)

2.)    Mad-Lib – Open Microsoft Word Madlib file

a.       Fill in any words that fit with the type of word needed in the text boxes.

b.      Upon completion select all white text (don’t select the text boxes!)

c.       Turn the text color from white to black

d.      The Mad-Lib is complete and ready to read

3.)    Webcam – open “Live Central” video capturing program

a.       Make sure webcam framing is level – use shoulders to gauge.

b.      Make sure mouth is level and fully visible in frame

c.       Press the record button in Live Central.

d.      Use the back of a chair to prop up and stabilize chin while shooting.

e.      Without moving head, read the altered madlib as clearly as possible.  This may take a couple takes to get right.

4.)    Editing – Open Adobe Premiere

a.       Import celebmashtrans.psd and final video file into Adobe premiere

b.      Put black video at beginning of video 3 channel (file >new > black video)

                                                               i.      Insert a keyframe 1 second before the end of the image clip (the I/O keyframe toggle just under the VIDEO CHANNEL TITLE at the left side of the editing window

1.        press the little circle in between the two outward facing arrows to insert a keyframe  into the specified clip

                                                             ii.      put a keyframe at the very end of the clip

c.       Bring the last keyframe on the black video down to the bottom of the image clip to create a “fade” transition.

d.      Bring the video file into video 1 channel at the 1 second keyframe point on the black video

e.      Bring the .psd file into the video 2 channel at same place as the beginning of the video file

                                                               i.      Extend the image’s duration to the same duration as the video clip file on video 1.

f.        Select the video clip in the video 1 channel

g.       In the video effects window, expand the motion tab by clicking the arrow on the left of the motion box to change the position of mouth in the video clip to sync its position with the transparent hole in the mash up image.

                                                               i.      Toggle the position of the video 1 frame by selecting the clip by toggling the horizontal and vertical positioning options (move the mouse left or right) to center the mouth within the transparent hole in the mash up image.

                                                             ii.      Also within the motion tab decrease or increase the size of the mouth by toggling the scale arrow.

5.)    Audio Effects: in the effects window, expand the stereo effects tab in the same window as video effects

a.       Apply the pitch shifter effect to video 1 channel’s audio

                                                               i.      Make the pitch:  -7t

                                                             ii.      Make the fine tune:  -35 cents

b.      Apply the Parametric EQ effect and toggle the following effects:

                                                               i.      Center: 22243.8H

                                                             ii.      Q: 3.9

                                                            iii.      Boost: -20.4dB

c.       Apply the Bandpass effect and toggle the following effects:

                                                               i.      “check” the bypass button

                                                             ii.      Center: 498.2 Hz

                                                            iii.      Q:  .6

d.      Apply the Volume effect:

                                                               i.      Level: 1dB

6.)    Drag another black video starting at the last second of video channels 1 and 2 placing a keyframe at the beginning and one directly at the end of video channels 1 and 2’s clip duration

a.       Drag the first keyframe in the black video down to the bottom of the clip vertically to create the “fade out” transition.

7.)    Render the whole movie by pressing ENTER on the keyboard.

8.)    File >Export>Movie (name the file)>Save

9.)    Open WinAVI All in One Converter

a.       Convert the exported .avi file as an mp4

10.) Upload to YouTube

Custom Mad Lib Documents: Highlight starting at the end of this sentence to reveal the "Untold Biography of [Insert Celebrity Here]".

Mad Lib
My name is  NAME
and I was born in a/an ADJECTITIVE
farming town called CITY
in  DIRECTION
ADJECTITIVE
called CITY
.  I started HOBBY/PASTTIME
when I was AGE
and  ADVERB
became a NOUN
.  The local TV Station began coming to my shows because they were so ADJECTITIVE
and ADJECTITIVE
.  Within that year, I landed a part on the TV show, NAME OF TV SHOW
, on the TV NETWORK
network.  After getting a talent agent, I had a supporting role in the MOVIE GENRE
movie from YEAR
called REVENGE OF THE PLURAL NOUN
.  I then took time off from my acting career and pursued ACTIVITY 1
, ACTIVITY 2
, and ACTIVITY 3
, which I excelled in and eventually started doing ACTIVITY 2
for the MAJOR CORPORATION
Corporation.  I began doing TYPE OF DRUG
with FAMOUS CELEBRITY 1
.  After a spiraling into a vortex of chaos and self destruction, my family intervened and I admitted myself into ADJECTITIVE
PLURAL NOUN
rehabilitation facility where I met FAMOUS CELEBRITY2
who I immediately fell  ADVERB
in love with one another.  We ran away to COUNTRY
to elope where we started ADJECTITIVE
PLURAL NOUN
Non Profit organization.   Through this organization I met the TYPE OF ROYALTY
FIRSTNAME1
of COUNTRY A
who was married to the head of the LAST NAME2
  Mafia,  FIRST2/LASTNAME2
which ran the black market in COUNTRY A
and specialized in PLURAL NOUN
.  Needless to say, the tabloids found out about our bizarre love quadrangle as well as FIRST2/LASTNAME2
and I was forced to leave the country and separate from FAMOUS CELEBRITY2
.  Also during this time I  starred in MOVIE 1
MOVIE 2
and costarred in MOVIE 3
which I also wrote and co FILM CREDIT VERB
.  I joined the ADJECTIVE
of RELIGIOUS ADJECTIVE
PLURAL NOUN
.  I eventually got arrested for TYPE OF CRIME
and was booted from that “cult” and received # of YEARS
in a white collar prison.  It was here that I began writing my memoirs and upon my release.    NOUN
Publishers printed my auto biography which ended up number Small Number
on the CITY
Times best seller list.  It ended up selling millions because of its promotion on the  DAYTIME TELEVISION HOST
show.  With the money I earned I started a nightclub called VERB
PLURAL NOUN
club and promoted NOUN
,  my own brand liquor.  I was arrested for tax evasion and was fined number
dollars.  I sold my club to ANOTHER FAMOUS CELEBRITY
and began working on my autobiographical film project which I’m currently starring , FILM CREDIT1
FILM CREDIT2
as well as FILM CREDIT 3
produced by MAJOR FILM PRODUCTION COMPANY
and costarring YET ANOTHER FAMOUS CELEBRITY
.  The release date is in YEAR
.

Random Wikipedia Art 

Concept by Guinevere Stauffer

Directions

Step 1: go to Wikipedia and get a random article

Step 2: flip a coin. Whatever you get for this first flip will be your go and the side of the coin that is facedown will be your stop

Step 3: count the number of sections in the article including references and external links

Step 4: take the number from step three and count that many links from the top

Step 5: click on the last link in your count

Step 6: you will continue on this first time and repeat steps 3-5. For the rest you will flip the coin to decide if you continue. If you get the same face as the fist time you flipped you continue. If you get the face that was down you stop

Step 7: once you have stopped you take the last link you landed on and create an image that represents the link using a set number of lines. The number comes from your last completed step 3

     * After flipping and clicking (4 rounds of steps 3-5), there were 10 sections from the article on Southeast Asia which ended up being a link to the article on Sambars.  Therefore I had to draw a Sambar (from an image off of Google Images) using only 10 lines.  There were no specifications on how the lines were to be made, so I just tried to keep my pen on the paper as long as I could for each line.  I labeled my line breaks with the circled numbers surrounding my drawing of the Sambar.  I used a black, extra fine Pilot Precise V5 rolling ball pen.

Here is the resulting image:

Reflections

While creating my mash-up movie, there was a great deal of systematic aesthetic arrangement involved to approach the indeterminacies of my final piece.   Although my project initially only had two variables (the celebrity lookalikes of the person participating and the words used in the mad lib), the final videos' results became essentially ambiguous in every sense, while an abstract social commentary emerged.  I did not realize that the slight movements of the mouth would interact with the semi-transparent celebrity images to mesh at random with the different facial structures in the image.  Unknowingly I had included 2 other major variables into the equation: the interaction between the subtle displacements of my mouth and the instantaneous interactions they have with the different celebrities' faces.  The second variable discovered were abstract connections and social commentary that becomes inherent  between the reading of the mad lib and the imagery surrounded by the amoebic celebrity. 

I feel slightly guilty that I created a project for Guin which involved a program which she didn't know how to use, so I helped her out a great deal to ensure that she could complete her half of this assignment.  Aside from the whole video editing aspect, Guin was an excellent partner and did an awesome job.

Guin's Wikipedia drawing creation system was a different approach to this assignment and extremely refreshing.  It was so great to only have to use technology (the internet; wikipedia) until the subject was set for me to draw.  I was lucky I landed upon an existing animal, a gorgeous creature called the Sambar.  I learned that "The Sambar (Rusa unicolor) is a large deer native to southern and southeast Asia" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambar_(deer)).

Guin's system of indeterminacy is applicable in providing inspiration and new subject matter which forces the artist to not only think about the marks that they make, but also creating drawings of subjects in which they may never have thought of approaching.  

With my video project I really didn't have any idea as to the final aesthetics until all of the pieces came together.  I had no idea of how weird it all would be....

H