Monday, December 24, 2012

My First Wedding Video

My first* wedding video. My partner in this venture is Ryan Sherwood of Sure Would Films and Blue Lobster Productions (along with his partner Max). We're looking forward to two more weddings we have lined up (so far).  I'm guessing we can only get better as time goes on.  Ryan did all of the editing of this trailer, and only consulted with me after an original rough draft which is nearly indistinguishable from the final result (that's how good his original was).  I do notice a little bit of a lull at a particular point, but other than that it came out rather nicely, especially for a first try. Most of the footage is admittedly Ryans, as my camera was used mainly for the constant during the ceremony.  Ryan and Max shot with Canon T3i's and I with a Canon XA10. It was edited with Adobe Premier Pro.
Grace & Anthony Wedding Highlights from Ryan Sherwood on Vimeo.

[Please view this video larger by clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

The bride and groom Grace and Anthony were fabulous! And the venue, Linden Place, Bristol, Rhode Island was very nice. The Lord provided a lovely day.

The music is "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane.

*Technically it's my second, as I recorded my stepdaughter's wedding, but I did so only with a Kodak Playsport mini-cam, and it was done before I had any formal training in video and editing.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Studio Production Final Project


Final project for Studio Production class at NEIT. The assignment is a television show with 3-4 segments, with commercial breaks, intro, outro, lower thirds, etc.

[Please view this video larger by clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

It's a bit of a mess, but I'm grateful to everyone who contributed.

Features: Interview with Brian Bouyea, filmmaker, producer-director of "Famous"; some live music from The Ragtag Band (formed five minutes before shooting); voice over comedy skit using a 1940's PSA.

The music from the Ragtag Band is original, and was basically created on the spot, and the host had seen the script only five minutes before the shoot.

The voiceover segment (for which I wrote the script) is from a 1940's PSA, and is in the Public Domain.

Special thanks to our guest, filmmaker Brian Bouyea, and to our instructor Mark Foley, who stood in as host for the interview when we were short a student.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

Mighty W.O.R.R.M. advertisement

This is a video I created, as an afterthought, from an assignment in my Oral Communications class at New England Institute of Technology.

The assignment was a 4-5 minute commercial, of an imaginary product or service, following two sets of rules which make up an effective advertisement:  Monroe's Motivated Sequence (attention, need, satisfaction, visualization, action); and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (physical, safety, belonging, esteem, self-actualization).

We were to deliver this fake ad in front of the classroom.  The original lasted a full 5 minutes, but for the sake of the short-attention-span folks who typically roam the internet, I've reduced it to 4 minutes.

The script, the placards with the images of the people, the sock puppet, and the flashing pen were all used in the live presentation. The music is public domain from Muse Open.



[Please view this video larger by clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Thursday, November 15, 2012

My First Live Studio Production


Please forgive the scripts on table and lap.  The guest was not able to make it for the interview, so my instructor Mark Foley sat in for her and called himself "Jerry".  Basically he and the host (Mario Lima) had to learn everything on the spot.

But like the title says, this is my first attempt at a live studio production.  It's an assignment in my Studio Production class at New England Institute of Technology (NEIT).  For this one we tried to get ahold of a lady named Cheryl Vargas, a missionary and co-founder (with husband Carlos Vargas) of Hope Of Life International, for the sake of orphans in Guatemala.

I wrote the script -- both questions and answers, I was the director and technical director, and I created the lower third graphic.  The rest of the credits are listed at the end of the short.  All of the action is live.  The only thing I did in post was to add the lower third (there was a problem in the control room and we couldn't get it to work that day) and I made a little trim on the commercial break, so that everything fit into precisely 5 minutes.

The idea was that all four (there are only four of us left!) of us would have a 5 minute segment in a 30 minute show.  The five minutes includes time for one full minute of commercial break, which is substituted for some HD footage.

I can definitely see where I lingered too long on a shot or two.  But I hope to learn from that mistake.  There were also some color differences in the cameras, which we tried to get corrected in the control room but, like the lower third, it just wasn't happening that day.

The music is an excerpt from the track "Heard Them Stirring" by Fleet Foxes.
The footage taking place of a commercial ad is from Mammoth HD.


[Please view this video larger by clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Monday, October 29, 2012

Frightening Features Demo (minus some)

I'm a bit late in posting this, but ... This is a demo, which later became the first quarter of a project in the Film & Animation Club, at New England Institute of Technology.  It was produced in my second quarter at NEIT.  I participated on several levels in the creation of this feature: I composed the theme music at the beginning of the show; I made all but one of the headstone props; I was the Floor Director during the shoot; and I did a bit part, both in voice over (it was me, offscreen, saying "No, scream!"); and as a stand in (it was me holding the cue card that said "GR-E-EAT!" at the end of the clip).

[Please view this video larger by clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]


But what you'll notice is that the footage of the feature film is missing.  I attempted to post the clip as it was originally, a 15 minute piece, with a beginning, middle and ending skit, along with intermittent pop-ups, and the first 10 minutes or so of the film "The Night of the Living Dead."  The idea (from producer Frank Durant) was to create something like the old Creature Feature and Elvira, late-night, horror, schlock shows, and to (hopefully) show them on one of the RI Public Access channels.  Going on air was nixed by the NEIT staff, as they were not convinced that it was okay to use the footage without running into copyright problems.  We assured them, and showed from official documentation, that the film was in the Public Domain.  But the answer was No.

Well, I suppose it's a good thing we didn't as this odd little experience taught me: After I uploaded the video, I got a message from YouTube telling me that there is a copyright issue with some of my video, and it mentions two companies that have some sort of hold on the film being used.

So, even though "The Night of the Living Dead" is in the Public Domain, somehow The Weinstein Company and another media company have either purchased the licensing rights to this film, or some other strange thing is going on with what is supposed to be public material. What's next, companies buying the rights to Mozart and Beethoven?

I wrote to the Weinstein Company, asking them to permit me to show the clip of NOTLD since I'm using it in a parody fashion, and not for profit, etc. Until then, I guess this chopped up, and contextless little bit of footage at least shows off some of my talents in music creation and props.

Bill Gionis did all of the special FX, sound FX, graphics, keying (which was very time consuming, as we didn't quite have the green screen properly lit), and the editing of the footage.

I apologize for the low quality of this video.  I somehow only got an MP4 of it, but had to do some re-editing, as the theme music was way too low, and the sound was not properly synched to the talent.  And it's a sad reality that, every time you re-render media, the quality degrades.

There is also another episode of this show, the likes of which I've never seen a single inch of footage.  In this one I wrote the script for all the skits.  Hopefully I'll get that and will upload it as soon as possible.

Cheers!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Info Graphic - Viacom

This is a previous assignment that I forgot to post, an "infographic" for my Media Ethics class.
We were to choose one of the five media conglomerates, and in using several legitimate news sources, to display graphically the following information about the company:
The company's "ownership map".
Include the Board of Directors.
Describe any political bias.
Social responsibility; how "green" the company is; charitable donations.
How family friendly the company is.
Any FCC violations
The latest financial report
The controlling interests of the company, including non-media ownership.
I chose VIACOM.


To view larger, you'll probably need to right click and save it to your computer, then view with whatever default program you have.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

M&M's Radio Spot for Audio I class

This is my "Audio I" final project.  The rules were: a 30 second radio spot, for whatever product or service I wanted; with at least three sound effects; background music; and narration.  With all the other stuff going on, I was tired of thinking of new ideas plus worrying over the production itself, so I chose something I recently found and enjoyed, M&M's Dark Chocolate candies.  For purposes of presentation, the visual is kept simple, as it's a radio spot, and therefore there'd be no visual if it were really applied.  Both voices in the piece are done by me.  For the female, I just spoke as much like a woman as I could, and then with some software, kicked it up one full note.  I recorded, and did the one-note-boost in Audacity, at home, but mixed it all in Pro Tools at school.
Well, here's the spot.  I hope you enjoy it.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Homeschooling Video for Corporate Media Class

Kelly Dwyer worked with me on this quarter final project for Corporate Media class.  The assignment was to be a promotional video, for either a product (whether real or imagined), a person, service, etc.  The idea of homeschooling came to me, though I was educated in publick skoole. I got such a visceral reaction from my instructor that we had a little chat about it for a bit, as I explained that virtually all of the homeschooled kids I'd ever met were very intelligent, and more personable than most of the public school kids I knew, and/or grew up with.  After a while he said "You know what? I hope you make that video on homeschooling.  I'm willing to be wrong.  Convince me."  I said "Well, I'll do my best."  I don't know if I changed his mind but I got a 95 on it ;)



[Please view this video larger by clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Friday, September 7, 2012


After numerous searches, I finally located the copyright owner of the leaping rabbit image that I'd borrowed some time ago, for my logo. It turns out to be a tattoo company, and they did not want me to use their image in my logo, though they said "thank you for asking." So I've changed the design to a similar image, which I drew myself, basically copying the pose from their bunny, but an entirely new piece of art.  I didn't ask, but hopefully they won't object to my leaving the originals so that there's some context to all of this fuss.


[Please view this video larger by clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Instructional Video Exercise

Dylan Titus and I created this instructional video, for the class Corporate Media -- an instructional video, on the topic of "How to Entertain Guests in Your Home".
The cheesy green screen "glow" was done intentionally, for added comic effect, though we forgot to apply it properly to the final appearance of Mr Sock.


[Please view this video larger by clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Monday, July 23, 2012

Electronic Field Production (News Story)

I've no idea why I forgot to post this from the previous quarter, but this was my (and Sean Murphy's) final project for the classes Field Shooting/Lighting and Digital Editing. It's a news story, or rather a human interest story, classified as an Electronic Field Production.  The topic is the effect that differing types of venues have on local musicians, whether positively or negatively.  Production-wise, we got a bit all over the place with the lighting: from it being a bit too dark with the Maralie Armstrong segment, to it being like an Easy Bake Oven for Chrstian Staton. There are a few other issues as well, but overall, I think it came out well for our first attempt at such a thing.


[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Friday, July 13, 2012

Dancing Beer Bottles

An After Effects exercise.  I stole the general idea, and the music from the tutorial, from which I learned how to do it, but the final sound FX are mine, and of course I did all the animation, etc.  I'm only disappointed because I wasn't able to figure out how to make proper shadows cast upon the dance floor.

[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Monday, June 25, 2012

Castlerocket

Another silly exercise in After Effects. No real purpose to it, other than keeping myself busy with using it as much as possible on a regular basis.  The picture of the man, the background, and the car were all swiped from other people's websites. The sound effects are from my own mouth and breath.
(This is the third, and final, time I'll upload this video.  I just wasn't satisfied with a few things)


[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Revised Animated Logo

I created an improved and revised version of the animated logo. It's no longer "Hare in the Moon Productions" but "Shawn Hare Productions" as per the name of this blog, and the title image.  I made some changes to the animation.  Basically I started over, though using the same materials as in the first attempt.  This time though I angled the first two jumping bunnies, so that they leap toward the camera; the front (icon) bunny has been darkened; the moon glow has been intensified; and the sound effects have been slightly altered.



[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Dom DeDragonfly

Just a little After Effects exercise that I thought up and put together.


[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Quarter 2 Final Grades

   I got my final grades for the Spring Quarter of 2012.  While not the 4.0 that I achieved for the Winter Quarter, it's still a nice 3.87, resulting in a cumulative GPA of 3.93.

   I'm quite happy that Algebra is over and done with.  The only other math (that I know of) which I'll need to complete at some point is "Business Math", whatever precisely that is.

   What I intend to do in the meantime, is to use the available resources online, to exercise and further hone my skills in After Effects, and digital editing.  It's really too bad that NEIT offers no advanced courses available in these two subjects -- that, along with an advanced Photoshop course; all of which would be highly valuable in setting NEIT students even further ahead of the curve, for the job marketplace.

   Speaking of job marketplace, I might want to look into getting some part time work, to help supplement the very small amount I'm collection from unemployment.  I'm allowed a small amount without it affecting those payments, and that's about all I'm looking for anyhow, for gas money, and lunches at school.

   Thanks for your continued interest.  Any financial gifts specified to my tuition are greatly appreciated, as this is not a cheap education.

   On another note, I'm a bit annoyed at the reading of the information concerning the graduation commencement, for those receiving their diplomas, this coming June 8th.  Firstly, it's on a Sunday morning.  Are they unaware that many people attend worship on Sunday mornings?  I hardly think that's possible.  The commencement begins at 11:00, but the students are to be there at 9:45.

   To make matters worse, there's not only (at least) one road race going on in downtown Providence (the commencement is being held at the Providence Convention Center), but there's also a circus being set up at the "Dunk".  It should turn out to be a real traffic nightmare.

   I'm thinking of speaking to whomever it is that plans these things, and seeing if next year's event can be held on a Saturday, elsewhere (why not Twin River Casino?), and not when there's a bloody road race (et al) going on.  Is that not a more reasonable way to go about it?

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Poem

This is not posted because it's a professionally done video, as it's quite obviously not.  I simply shot it with my Kodak Playsport, for the explicit purpose of making a visual for assisting a poem I wrote for my final portfolio, in the course "Rap, Rock, and Poetry" (a humanities class) at NEIT.  It does the job necessary for the project.  Beside that, my wife likes it. So there.



[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]


The Royal Patience of Knick-Knacks and Curiosities
by Shawn Hare


She's flat and black, with a red pagoda.
She has Pepsi® in her eyes.
He's large and gold, holding tablets of stone,
Two elephants by his side.

Visions of glass, blue ceramic, and brass,
Stone, wood, ink and shell as well.
The soft, giant eye looks out from on high,
'Fore pineapple on the shelf.

Silent Napoleon awaits the button,
Venus is trapped in a can.
Four alien pods stand vigil beside,
Robot with human in hand.

They sit and wait; they wait for the princess,
They wait for when she comes 'round.
She tickles them all with feather duster,
And then puts them all back down.

Lighting Exercises

Part of my quarter final exam in the course FIELD SHOOTING/LIGHTING; exhibiting four types of lighting: 3D Modeling Lighting, Dramatic Lighting, Flat Lighting, Silhouette Lighting.

The actors are Sean Murphy, and a basket of ivy.

I chose to add a little interest to it by including the solo portion of the song "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" by Pink Floyd, but rather than simply posting it, I chose to attempt to do it Bobby McFerrin style, though this is nowhere near what such a master as Bobby can do.  If I had more time to work on it, and finesse it a bit, and if I actually knew how to read music (this is simply done by memory and guessing at how it might go -- you can tell I'm way off on parts with the "organ" parts) it might be be a bit more listenable.  But anyway ...


[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Friday, May 25, 2012

Corporate Logo Project


[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

This is not anything official for The Discovery Channel.  It's the logo I chose to animate and perform the listed requirements for my Motion Graphics (After Effects) class.  I had to look for a flat globe of the Earth, make it spherical, add clouds (3 layers), rotate the planet to the left; rotate the clouds at different intervals, to the right; place the (hypothetical) names in a particular sequence; show a graph; and roll some credits -- all of these at specified times, making sure not to encroach upon the rights of the logo.

Kinetic Type Project

This is a Kinetic Type project that I did in my Motion Graphics (After Effects) class a few weeks ago, and simply forgot to post, as I was just so busy with other stuff.  It's my first attempt at it, but I did spend a bit of time on it.  The comments my instructor posted to it were "Awesome. Simply awesome!"


[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Animated Logo

My new animated logo for "Hare in the Moon Productions".  I created this in After Effects.  The images of the bunny and the moon are not my own.  I'm in the midst of working it out with the copyright owners to use them.


[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

I keep vacillating between "Hare in the Moon" or "Shawn Hare" Productions, for the name of my (potential) production company.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Continuity Project



[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]

This is my submission for an exercise in Digital Non-Linear Editing -- a Continuity Project.  Continuity being, keeping a flow of action, in the form of a Match Frame Continuity, where there are many angles of an action or series of actions, along with appropriately arranged sound effects, to create the illusion that it's all happening in real time (I came up with the idea, I am also the actor, and Rachel Rodriguez does the camera work); and in the form of a Compressed Time Continuity, whereas events that would normally take place over a longer period of time, basically have all the steps in between removed so that the main point of the story moves along quicker (I, Eddy Alvarez, and Mishitaashen Conley came up with the idea, Eddy is the actor, and I did the camera work).

New Logo

I created a new logo (at top of the blog). The rabbit drawing isn't mine, but I'm trying to find the artist and perhaps buy the rights to it from him/her.  It was on an Etsy website but I can't find it anymore, for some reason.  But anyway, I can always make my own bunny drawing to fit into the scene.  This is actually an animated logo, and I'll post it as soon as it's finished and passed into my Motion Graphics (After Effects) class at NEIT.  The name of the company, "Hare in the Moon Productions", I'm going to register pronto!

Finals for the second quarter are next week. So after that, I'll be posting my final projects, which will include the animated logo, along with an EFP (Electronic Field Production) news story that I and my partner (for this project) Sean Murphy worked on together.

The only thing that's really killing me is Algebra.  I want to learn it simply because it's learnable, and a challenge, but I don't really need a whole heck of a lot of it.  I do tend to ask myself questions such as "I wonder how many people can fit into Rhode Island, in a 3-foot x 3-foot square" and that sort of thing, which I could reach in a roundabout way, using regular math, but there's probably a much shorter way of doing it with Algebra.  Be that as it may, I'll be glad when that class is over and done with, and I hope I don't need to do any other kind of math class ... other than the "Business Math" which is required. But I've got a feeling that's going to be basic stuff, just with greater principles, for the business world.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Project Final - Visual Design

My final project for Visual Design -- a movie poster.
The topics were our choice, but had to be done with our own photos, with the possible use of some public domain images.  There were a number of specific things that needed to be included in the poster, including layer styles, masks, etc.


There are nine separate photos in this final image.  The little girl is my grand daughter.  The turtle was from a shot I took at Roger Williams Park Zoo.  The turtle cannot really fly.

Project Final - Video Techniques / Studio 1

This is my project final for the class Video Techniques / Studio 1.  I worked on this with classmate Rachel Rodrigues.  We scripted it together, and I storyboarded it.  We took turns setting up the camera for the shots.


[Please view this video larger, clicking Play, then pointing to the upper, left corner of the video, where the title appears; Click on that title, and it'll take you to the YouTube site on which it was uploaded. There you can also enlarge it even more]


Rachel is the actor.  She arrives in the parking lot, steps out onto the running board of her car, and enters the building.  She takes the elevator to the second floor.  Alternately, she takes the stairs to the second floor.  Lo, and behold! As she crests the staircase, she sees herself coming from the elevator.  She waves at herself ... and she waves back at her other self.  The two Rachels meld into one at the entrance to a corridor.  Rachel walks down the hall to classroom 205, Video & Audio Production.

A note:
Since Rachel was a fellow student, and not a hired actor, I couldn't be as coercive as I might've wanted, in insisting that she make sure to land the same foot on the same spot, in order for the "meld" to take place.  Once it was all said and done, she was able to see what I was talking about.  But for a first attempt, I think it came out okay anyhow.  However, the part where the two Rachels are waving to one another, I must admit, was flawless.

I created the logo from a photo I'd taken a few years ago, and added the lettering via Photoshop.
The sound effects came from a SFX generator http://naturesoundsfor.me/

For this presentation, I removed the slate (as well as bars and tones) from the beginning.  The video quality is terrible, as I basically lost everything on my hard drive.  I only had a very low resolution version of this video that I made as an experiment.  I hopefully waiting for Rachel to send me her high quality copy of the file, so that I can replace the current one with a more pleasing version.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Script Writing

My first script writing assignment was to be a 30 second commercial on "The Wheel".
I got 100% on this, and many nice comments written upon it by my instructor John Cormier.
I got wind a few days after passing it in, that Mr Cormier was showing it off to his fellow teachers.
I got a mighty fine feeling from that.

Above is the Story Board format.

Below, I also include the other format that this same commercial was to appear in the Two Column format.



The Story Begins

Every story has a beginning.
This is the beginning, the Lord willing, of my new career in television and film production.
My story begins in being laid off from a dead-end, under paid, under appreciated 12-year (plus) job situation in which I was in, and from which, through God's kind providence, in the midst of recession, I was laid off.  There I was, looking for a new job in newspapers, Internet, friends, etc., when it struck me.  Am I going to just look for another job, which I might very well find myself hating (though that never stopped me from doing my best), even feeling nauseous about going to each and every morning?  What would I do if I could do anything I wanted?  Well, treasure hunting, as fascinating as that might seem, would not be agreeable to the wife, and I can't say it'd very well fit into my own life for numerous reasons. But the second thing I thought of was that which I've always had an interest, which is motion pictures and television -- really all aspects of it, from acting in front of the camera to being involved in one or more of the many and diverse positions which exist behind the camera.

So I did my research, found New England Institute of Technology had an Associate and a Bachelor degree program in Video & Audio Production / Digital Recording Arts.  I checked with my unemployment insurance, and the course was approved for me to attend, and collect at the same time.  So I became a full time student, beginning on January 3rd, 2012.

This is where the story begins.