Abbey Heller's Blog

Since I was the makeup and special effects artist on set I looked up an article about practical effects to help during the making of my next film with special effects. This article included three videos that taught the reader how to perform the task. They were very informative and even gave examples about how I could use them other than the way they were using them. They will take some time to perfect, but I think these will add a new level to my videos that will impress future employers and colleagues. This will help me make my videos more interesting to watch and more believable.   Learn How to Create Practical Special Effects on a Budget with Shanks FX

My knowledge of technology has greatly improved during my four years in e-Comm. When I came into e-Comm I knew how to use the basics of Mac products and how to use computers, but now I know so much more. I have learned how to use most of the Adobe programs including Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator, and After Effects as well as Final Cut. But those aren't the only things that I learned about. I also learned how to use different types of cameras like panasonic and canon 60, 70, and 80D cameras. I also now know how to work with audio equipment like the Zoom and different types of mics. Most of this was self taught, but when I didn’t know how to do something I would go and look for a tutorial on youtube or ask a teacher. I got my most experience with the cameras specifically the DSLRs during my junior year because of the Behind the Season: Band Documentary that I made with Mallory MacDonald. I taught myself how to use the DSLRs because I had no experience with them and then all of a ...

This year I worked as the UPM and Makeup artist while on set. Both of those jobs kept me very busy during our time both on and off set. While in class I worked with Sarah to plan out filming dates and any other thing that she needed help with. That includes helping with schedule breakdowns, call sheets, and assigning jobs to everyone in class so they knew what to do to prepare for our next filming dates. Last year I was also UPM, but this year was very different and more difficult in planning out. I think both Skai and myself did a good job of helping Sarah and Keenan out when they needed us and for planning out filming dates. For Makeup artist I mostly did all my work on set and not very much that was needed outside of that. That includes putting on all the regular beauty makeup and special effects makeup that made the fight scenes really come alive. This year wasn’t as hard as last year when makeup was involved since everything I did this year is the same as what I did last year, bu...

This video was the PSA that I made with Mallory, Katie, Olive, Erin and Cyle. It was suppose to be very different from all other PSA's about depression. This project was the first one that I made this year, so it was a little different/hard to get back into the mindset of making a video again. I learned how to work with new people and how to get back to working with people that I haven't worked with in a while. The most challenging thing about making this video was the edit because there were so many ways that you could edit it and every way would make it different. This was my video for the 24 hour film festival that I made with Sarah and Armin. This video was very different from all the over videos that I have made because we were filming all night long and then editing all day. This was a huge challenge because I was working with people I had barely collaborated with before, I worked with actors I didn't know, and I was up most of the night filming it. But this vid...

MX4D is an immersion experience that make you feel like you are in the movie you are watching in that theater. Before going to see justice league in MX4D I was interested in it a little bit, but I knew that it would probably be something that I would only see once. The experience didn't meet my expectations just because I thought it was going to be more interesting and immerse me into the movie, but instead it just took my out of it ad made me more focused on the movements and staying in my seat than actually watching the movie.  At first my favorite part of it was the moving of the chairs, but after a while it got hard to stay comfortable i the seats while they were moving. It was also hard to balance yourself so you wouldn't fall out of the chairs. My least favorite part was the strobe lights when the gun shots went off and when the flash ran. I thought these were just too distracting and made it hard to watch the movie because from where I was sitting it looked lik...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GVljtgMx68 This short film was interesting to say the least from the beginning when Tanner stood up and read his treatment for it. I knew almost immediately that I wanted to make it into a short film, but there were a few hurdles that we had to get over before we could actually make it. The first thing was trying to find a location that would let us use it. It was particularly hard to find one because we needed a restaurant preferably after it was closed and we needed to pretty much pour blood all over the place. As you might imagine it didn't go so well with everyone we asked. So we started planning out how we could fix this major problem since our hole idea revolved around using a restaurant setting. The second obstacle that we faced was, naturally, actors. We needed two older people to play the parents, one kid, and about 3-4 other people to play the wait staff and extras to make the restaurant not look empty. So, again, you can see the problem...

The concept that was first pitched by Katie was a PSA about depression where someone off screen would ask the question "Can you laugh without smiling?" and the rest of the group loved the idea so much that we just went with it. The preproduction was fairly easy since Katie had a really in depth idea of what she wanted, so she naturally became director and led the rest of the project. Writing the script was the hardest part since we were mostly relying on the reactions of the people we asked and didn't know how they would at first. Thats were editing really came into play because all of us kind of had a different way we wanted to edit it so it was really put up to interpretation towards the end. I filmed some of the people, but since Olive and I started so late that day we didn't get as many people as Mallory or Katie did. Since this was the first project of the year I learned that I'm a little rusty with my camera skills since I haven't used a camera since l...

This year I have been given more experience and direction with technology specifically the DSLRs. I learned most of what I know about them from when we--Mallory and me--worked on Behind the Season: Band 2016. It was and still is important for me to know how to use the DSLRs because they are the cameras that I will use next year for the band documentary, our class short film, and any other projects I want to do or are assigned. With all technology, Mallory and I had many problems when doing the band documentary, but most of the problems and, challenges were because we didn’t know how to use the cameras at first. Since we were thrown into the deep end first semester with the band documentary we definitely had many weaknesses at first, but over the year it helped--for me at least--find out what I loved and helped me improve what I wasn’t very good at last year. I have improved exponentially in my technical skills from last year and have learned more about cameras, editing, and story th...

The band DVDs are here!  The DVDs for the 2016 Behind the Season: Band are officially here! If you want one and you haven't ordered one yet it is not too late. Just print out the order form down below, fill out all the information, deliver it to the main office and tell them it is for e-Comm, and we will get it to you as soon as possible.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwPKsd2yEAg8dy1yamNuSmEyd1U/view?usp=sharing

Phoenix Beat Sheet Opening Image: The movie starts with showing a woman, who we later come to know as Lene Winter, driving a car. She is stopped at a road block and a male officer comes up and asks where she's coming from and then to see her passport. It is then that we see that she is not alone in the car. Sitting next to her is another person with bloody bandages wrapped around their face. The officer asks to see the person's face. Lene then gets out of the car and tells the man she has come from the camps and asks him to leave her be. The officer doesn't let up until the woman unwraps her face which the audience does not see. He steps back from the car seeming a little unsettled and tells the rest of the officers to let them pass. Then the title slide is shown. Theme stated: The main theme is never clearly stated but one is the darkness to light or vice versa. This theme is first hinted at the title screen when the headlights of Lene's car fills the scre...

 These pictures are from my new responsive photo composition site. This site it includes 12 photo composition rules with pictures showing them and definitions of the rule. The responsive part of this is that you will be able to use it on any device and not have to zoom in or out to see important features on my site. To make this site you need to put code in that makes the widths change on different devices.

This is my original picture before I made it up into the ONW website  This is my ONW mock up

On this project we had to make most of the website in Photoshop which was very hard for me because I am not in graphic design and I'm not good in Photoshop so I ran into some problems when making the past, present, and future graphic. Some of the problems I had was with the animation and cutting it into different parts. Then when I went it put it all together in dreamweaver it moved everything but eventually I got it to work and then didn't have any major problems after that. In Photoshop I learned how to make animations and have each part fade out at different times. Here is a link to my website.

Over this semester we had five videos, which were the procedure video where we were showing where to find a place or what to do in a certain place for incoming freshmen. The second video we did this semester was the sound project where we did our first interview over a topic we did this summer. The third video we made was the hobby video where we interviewed a person in the class over something they do in their free time and then did b-roll for the first time. The last video we did was making our first ONW NOW with a group in the class. In this project we put everything we have learned throughout video both years and made a 6 news segments and 2 sport segments. Some key events where on the second project, the sound project, where I had interviewed Whitney the day before using her SD card and then coming into class the next day finding out that she was not here. So I had to use footage from Alyssa that she did the day before also and had to edit a story about Emily. The second proble...

Evan- Constructive- turn up song on some interview and turn down/detach audio from b-roll clips Positive- good voice overs, tell story very well Nick- Constructive- turn up sound on voice overs, and show interviewee more Positive- good variety of shots Allison- Constructive- leave room in between voice overs and interviews, some jump cuts Positive- interview shots set up nicely  Courtney- Constructive- turn down background noise in first clip, more b-roll and J edits Positive- voice overs tell great story Dema- Constructive- turn interview sound up, turn down nat noise no some shots Positive- great variety of shots Rosie- Constructive- shots shaky, turn sound up for voice overs and interview shots Positive- good shots Kierstyn- Constructive- turn up voice overs Positive- good b-roll Rylee- Constructive- some sound issues on interview Positive- really good J and L edits Catherine- Constructive- too short of voice overs,...

  YAHOO! The layout of the YAHOO! website has changed drastically. The YAHOO! website used to not have any pictures and the logo was red instead of purple. The links on the 1998 version of YAHOO! are all blue and nothing really stand out compared to the website now. The coding to the YHOO! website back in 1998 had lots of vars in it but now the coding is mostly divs with some vars.   CLUB PENGUIN Club Penguin's website has transformed drastically since it started in 2005. The website has gone from mostly white space to space taken up by a picture advertising stuff you can do with your characters in the game. Another thing that has changed is the look in the penguins. The color scheme hasn't changed a whole lot over the years, it is still lots of blue, white, and gold. The coding back from when they first launched the website had a lot of tables but now all of those tables have been replaced with divs.  Tumblr When Tumblr first started o...

Commercial  Graphic Design and Website  Animation What was the scope of your project? The scope of my product is fun, entertaining, and informational because our goal is to show what the owners pet is feeling at all times when wearing our collar. Our product is also not only for dog owners it can be used for any pet, even fish! What was your process? Pre-production- When we started this project our group wanted to make something that is fun and can be used everyday by pet owners. our original thought was to make a dog collar that could track your dog in case it ran away but it didm't seem original enough or fun enough for this project, so we changed our idea to something more fun.  Production- We started in the animation strand and while we were in there I worked on the package seen above. We wanted to go for something colorful and fun, just like our product. When we went to the Graphic Design strand I took on the role of making ...

my video is about Pup-E-Motion which is a mainly a dog collar that shows your dogs emotion. Once you put the dog collar on it changes color to show what mood your dog is in. In the video we show that the dog is showing the emotions happy, sad, mad, and loving towards the owner. Our product doesn't just come in sizes for dog it can come in sizes for cats too! The different colors include red as mad, blue as sad, yellow as happy, pink as loving. Our scope is directed at pet owners but mostly dog owners. We used testimonial to sell our product. We tried for a very funny video but also at the same time an informational video to show how amazing our product really is! Dogs everywhere will absolutely love this product and so will you!