So I am finally at the end of the road. It has been a semester full of creativity and good times. While I won’t lie and say its been an easy ride, I will say that I had a load of fun. From finally learning photoshop to filming videos in class, CT has challenged me in a way no other class has really done. Rather then trying to improve my skills as a writer or trying to remember material for future reference, CT required me to take what I learned and apply it to my own favorite things. Never had I felt such individuality in a class. There’s something to be said about that. Being able to go to someone’s blog and knowing who it belongs to solely based on the layout of their site.
Of all of the things we did, I have to say the most fun I had was with the Daily Creates. All of the Daily creates were fun. They kept you doing something that felt out of the ordinary and productive all at once. The variety was also a plus. One minute I would be writing a poem, the next i’m taking a taking a photo and telling a story. It’s one of those things I wish I had the time to keep doing.
But that’s not to say I had fun with everything. My biggest gripe of course being the use of software. When we would learn things in class using programs that we were not familiar with or didn’t own, sometimes we had to apply it to another free version or alternative of the same program and it would be a pain in the butt. Perfect example of this was Photoshop. It was fine when I had Photoshop for that first month. But when that free trial was up and I had to switch to something new and learn that, it was time consuming. Another example was going from iMovie to Windows Movie Maker. I eventually became more efficient with WMM with time, but it was pretty inconvenient at first.
Speaking of Windows Movie Maker, that’s what I ended up using for my Final Project. My Final project by the way way a continuation of the video assignment I did a while back. I had made a Supercut a while back, but Prof Smith actually told me it wasn’t cut together well enough. Well that video never actually got to see the light of day until now. I cleaned it up, added and intro and outro and added Europe’s “The Final Countdown” because it just felt right (I’m really excited for the new season of Arrested Development guys, aren’t you?). Then I wrote a quick companion piece because I like to write and why the hell not. Hoping you all enjoyed it as much as I did creating it.
Overall though, CT101 was a great time. I met great people, learned a few things that I actually didn’t know beforehand and got to flex my creativity muscle. So yeah, another one is in the bag. Thanks to everyone in my class and to Prof Smith and Prof Smolarski. Until next semester my friends! Have a great summer!
What the hell is it with everyone wanting to destroy New York? What the beans dude? I freaking live there guys! Like why can’t you go destroy Kansas (which is literally a square) or some place where it doesn’t matter and most people can get away and survive? Like seriously, why the New York obsession? And if it’s not just New York alone getting punched into the ground by God himself or something, it’s always New York that gets the worst of it. What am I talking about? Lets see…..
Armageddon (1998)
Mr. Bruckheimer loves to destroy my beloved city. I live a few train stops away from most of the destruction depicted. This movie isn’t subtle in the least. It freaking begins with New Yorkers getting rained on by big ass space rocks……that are on fire……in space…..COME ON! How the hell can you win against that? I never finished the movie on my own, Aerosmith be damned, but from what I can gather from the poster, Bruce Willis’s giant head ascends into space to finishes the job started in the first five minutes of the movie, destroying the Big Apple in a giant lens flare. While this is happening, a spaceship is taking off also leaving destruction in its wake and the sun crashes into Ben Affleck and some woman. I think that’s pretty accurate but whatever man, I’m not in journalism class.
Cloverfield (2008)
A modern day classic, and one of my personal favorites, Cloverfield is a fine film about Godzilla’s cousin on vacation in the city that never sleeps (brought to you by J.J. Abrams who rebooted Star Trek <3). But he doesn’t come alone; he brings his spider children to come have dinner as well. The film starts with Ms. Liberty getting her head ripped off, and then thrown into Manhattan. Like what? Why? Couldn’t just throw it at the miles of water surrounding the island? No, it had to be at New York City and its inhabitants. The rest of the film consists on Mr. Cloverfield dumping on all of New York and having a grand ol’ time using New Yorkers as toothpicks, baseballs and oh yeah lunch. Not even the rats are safe, as seen in the subway tunnel scene….those poor, poor rats.
Deep Impact (1998)
Not to be confused with that one porno you caught your cousin watching, Deep Impact is a film about a rock the hits none other the New York City. In a perfect world where Morgan Freeman is president (seriously, if he was president I think the world would be a better place) God decides New York City should get the buissness. So what happens? In the awesomeness that is Mr. Freeman, he sends a team of super handsome people to go into space and punch the rock until doesn’t exist anymore. And just when you think the movie is getting get a little brighter for us city loving hipsters, the jackasses in space that were supposed save us, end up making matters worse by splitting the asteroid in two. So there, by the end of the movie, our city is getting hit with two Bruce Willis heads.
Godzilla (1998)
In a bizarre turn of events, Godzilla decides he’s finally done fucking with the Japanese for the past 60 years and that it’s time to mess with everyone else. While the film probably makes no sense (saw it in theaters when I was like 4), what I do remember was the lizard eating a lot of helicopters and stepping on a bunch of cars. I’m pretty sure he punches the empire state building a few times too, for being like in the way or something. Well at least Ferris Beuller survives right…..wait does he?
I Am Legend (2007)
The Fresh Prince himself is somehow the last man on “earf” as New York City finally gets taken over by the Bronx Zoo. I haven’t seen the movie myself so I don’t know what the deal is, but i’m pretty sure there zombies somewhere in this film too.
Independence Day (1996)
Don’t let that iconic poster fool you, New York City gets it the worst in ol’ ID4. The aliens are finally fed-up with the human race for having thumbs or something and decide it’s time that we met our match. They take they biggest in their arsenal ship, park that shit over the biggest phallus they could find (Empire State Building again. Godzilla gave them the heads up I guess) and fire away. Now not only do they blow up the iconic NYC building building, they send fiery waves across NYC, causing Will Smith’s family to run a whole lot. And they almost kill a dog too which is a big no-no. This later leads to the Fresh Prince punching a lot of E.T.’s in the face and saying “Welcome to Earf bitch” in one of the best blaccents Hollywood can buy. I’d say they almost make a convincing threat until Jeff Golblum and Fresh Prince defeat them with the internet. Shit you not! Almost as dumb an ending as…..
War of the Worlds (2005)
Tom Cruise, like his black brotha above has to save mankind with that one girl from Cat in the Hat. In this movie, New Yorkers and New Jersey-ites (what do you call a New Jersey person? Bori….) are dissolved into dust. Such a menacing threat for the human race. Just horrifying. It’s just too bad they were defeated by motherfucking water. Note to Aliens: If your biggest Achilles heel is H2O, try not to invade the planet that consists of 90% of it. Like seriously, you guys did no research whatsoever? Nice.
Planet of the Apes (1968)
They’re being inside of cages, and decide to blame the humans much like our thumbless aliens of ID4. What do they do? The knock over Lady Liberty. The very symbol of Freedom. Asshats. But not big an asshat as…..
King Kong (Eternally I guess)
……..this primate jerk. This particular freaking guy takes the cake. The whole cake. Not only does he make New York his bitch, he does it on 3 separate occasions. Once in 1933, again in 1976 (in which he jumps from one twin tower to another with ease) and again in 2005 with Peter Jackson recording the whole thing. But enough with the animals. It’s time for Mother Nature to get a piece of the action…….
The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
From the terrorists that brought you “Independence Day” comes one of the more popular of the New York bashing films. Not only does NY get the Atlantis treatment, Santa comes early and freezes that shit over with a quickness. Then the films’ director has the nerve to ask, “Where will you be?” Well if that poster has any say, scuba diving out with my boy Aquaman somewhere underneath all that tragedy.
Honorable Mentions
Category 7: The End of the World
Meteor
Gangs of New York
2012
Spider Man 1, 2 and 3
X-Men
Ghostbusters
A.I.
Live Free or Die Hard
Die Hard With A Vengence
Screw it, The Die Hard Franchise
The Incredible Hulk
Hellboy
Watchmen
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
My personal favorite,Disaster Zone: Volcanoes in New York(you know exactly what you’re getting into there)
This video features one of my favorite scenes in the Austin Powers trilogy. The minute I saw “gruesome death,” my mind quickly ran across that Nicolas Cage look alike who just couldn’t quite grasp the concept of navigating three dimensions. And adding a lagh track was as easy as typing it into google. I will say though that I thought laugh tracks were longer than 10 seconds. I ended up using two different ones to make it last throughout the death scene. Anyways, enjoy!
This video features the archetype of New York City being destroyed. Over the years, I’ve watched my home city get demolished by lizards, crushed by apes, rained on by water and celestial bodies, terrorized by Marshmallow men, used as targeting practice by aliens and even struck by a volcano. This is just a brief look at what film has done to the Empire State.
A brief text based drawing of what I would see in general. I’m really bad at images so I figured this little graphic would get my point across better. Note: this isn’t everything, I’d need a much bigger canvas for that.
I know it said daydream window, but if I had to be totally honest, nothing makes me daydream more than looking out an airplane window. It’s beautiful. You get to see things in a new light. In a way you won’t see anywhere else.
This before and after assignment originates from a two gif post (featuring popular Harlem Shake craze sweeping the internet) from my tumblr. I simply took a snapshot of each gif and put them side by side using Photoshop. It features a few of my favorite characters in lego form. Enjoy!
