After an initial obligatory self-searching, I noted that part of what makes the installation so intriguing is the flow of crawled text as it builds into a final representation. The installation displays partial stories before pushing the information derived into a category.

Here’s Nelson Mandela:

Nelson Mandela Persona

And here’s Nelson Mandela being built by Personas (to get a good look, you might want to watch the video full-screen):

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.865893&w=425&h=350&fv=i%3D8079]

Okay, so we have one interesting public figure who became the President of post-Apartheid South Africa and who arguably was a positive force for change in the world. So what about the baddest of the bad?

Charles Manson:

Charles Manson Persona

It’s reassuring to see that “Illegal” is the largest category for Manson, but “social” is among the second largest category, and prominent categories like Sports and Management are downright confusing. Furthermore, it is strange to see the name Manson afforded categories like “art” and “professional” at all.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.865895&w=425&h=350&fv=i%3D8086]

Okay, we’ve done good man and bad man now. I decided to try out my current favorite comic (and person to follow on Twitter), Russell Brand. Here he is:

Russell Brand Persona

Here his largest categories make sense; online, movies and social. But Sports and Military make less sense.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.865897&w=425&h=350&fv=i%3D8089]

And finally, I didn’t have any girls. Jezebel did a nice piece a little while back about prominent women in the Media (What Do People’s Online Personas Say About Them?), which offers more visualizations if you don’t want to DIY. But I decided to try out Gwen Stefani, general rad chick and lead singer of No Doubt since as long as I can remember.

Here’s Gwen:

Gwen Stefani Persona

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.865898&w=425&h=350&fv=i%3D8096]

Conclusions

After watching the growth of these fine (well, 3/4ths of them) folks, as well as observing the construction of my own persona, I recognized that the project might show just as much, if not more, about the body of data from which the personas are derived. For example, all of these personas, none of whom are athletes, include substantial sports sections. Maybe this has to do with the way that language is constructed to organize information about sports. For example, many sites have sports pages or sections, and there are many opportunities for vocabulary that falls within the umbrella of sports.

I’m actually not trying to go into deep analysis mode, so I guess I’ll leave it at that. It’s hard not to draw some conclusions. But if you found this post in the least bit interesting, you’ll want to read up on Personas. The explanation of the installation notes that the project was “not supposed to be utilitarian. Instead, it was meant to expose a process that often happens behind the scenes.”

Having acquired an iPhone not two days before I headed up north last week, I was able to catch the beautiful thunderstorm that passed over us on US23-I75 North near Flint with the phone’s video camera.

One of the things I always loved about taking film production classes as an undergrad was scoring the films. I felt like you could give me anything, and adding the music would allow the footage to zing off the screen. I never played the role of a DP, but I managed to win Best Soundtrack (or maybe it was Best Score– I don’t know; it was a few years back now) for a digital animation I made my senior year in our department’s student festival (I used the sounds of Mogwai). However, it bothered me at the time and still bothers me today that while using the music of known or semi-known bands for student projects is usually some degree of acceptable (one might plead “Fair Use”), using music from the CD you bought/ripped/acquired magically from the man in the moon isn’t fair play.

So almost as soon as the thunderstorm was over I decided to conduct an experiment. I would cut out the car chatter I recorded and replace it with Creative Commons-licensed music.

In case you want a little refresher on the Creative Commons, it’s “a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright (About – Creative Commons, http://creativecommons.org/about/, retrieved August 18, 2009).” You can use the Creative Commons website to define your own creative work, and the CC folks make it really easy to embed the license you choose in your own work.

I figured there must be a whole galaxy of musicians out there who publish using a Creative Commons license that allows me to understand exactly the kind of permission I have as a random creative type, wanting to rip, scratch and work other people’s work on a whim.

First I stumbled across Magnatune, a music distribution site with the tagline “we are not evil” that more or less allows users to set the price of the music. I came across the artist C. Layne, whose album Shark Week I liked a lot, possibly for my movie. According to Magnatune’s website, they have a liberal policy toward non-commercial uses of the music. However, my budget for this teeny-tiny project is a staggering $0, so I decided to keep looking.

Next, I found my way to Jamendo. Jamendo lets you download music for free and all music is available under a Creative Commons license of some kind. There was plenty of music to explore here, and finally I settled on a nice little folk harmonica tune by a Japanese band called Secret Ocean.

I learned that there are other similar services to Jamendo. I could have kept looking for days, but one of my goals was to keep it simple. There’s the Free Music Archive (which a really nice looking logo, design friends), ccMixter, BeatPick, and Sutros.

The license associated with the music I chose is Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported. In other words, I have permission to share and remix the work as long as I attribute and share alike– in other words, as long as I let you share and remix too. So here you go, if you want to.

1. What’s it like being on the set of Matt’s horror movie?

It’s awesome. I wear flip-flops when I’m not in costume and we eat a lot of Cap n Crunch and drink a lot of coffee. We use the non-dairy creamer left over from the blood recipe in our coffee.

2. What are you using for blood?

A mix of Caro syrup, red food coloring (we cleaned out the local Kroger’s last weekend) and non-dairy creamer. It’s the recipe they used in Evil Dead.

3. What kind of a budget do you have?

Let’s put it this way: almost half the budget was spent on ingredients for fake blood.

4. How long will it take to shoot?

This weekend will be the second of two weekends of shooting. We shoot from about 9 AM ’til nighttime, which means we have a really wonderful crew of dedicated individuals. I have been in Ann Arbor during the week for work, but I believe that additional shooting took place over the week.

5. Will it be scary?

If last weekend’s dailys have anything to say about it, yes.

5a. Will it be violent?

Oh, definitely.

5b. Will it be bloody?

Oh, heavens yes.

6. What will it be rated?

While this movie will most likely never be submitted to the MPAA, I’d give it a PG-13 or an R.

7. What’s it about?

It’s about two cousins, going to fix up the old family home for resale. Horrifying events ensue.

8. Who do you play?

I play the bossy girl cousin.

9. Wait, I didn’t know you could act!

Oh, I can’t. I was often an extra in high school drama productions, which I did for fun, and I’m doing this for fun, too. That being said, I’m having a good time and apparently screaming bloody murder comes naturally.

10. What’s it like being on crew for Matt’s horror movie?

It’s an awful lot of fun, actually. I get to work on crew as much as I get to be Girl Cousin. We have 2 cameras, so we have gotten multiple angles of most scenes, and so there’s plenty of room for crew to be camera ops. You’ll get to work with a great DP, or perhaps get to exert a little creative control yourself.

11. What’s the movie called?

The current working title is “Blood Relatives.” But there’s a few more days of shooting to go, and brainstorming titles is all part of the process.

12. Who’s the director?

Matt is the director. It’s his directorial debut, and he’s doing grand. And I’ve been on enough student film sets to know.

13. Who’s the producer?

Well, that’s kinda sorta me. I’ve stepped in to help with the organizational needs.

14. Who wrote the screenplay?

The screenplay is entirely Matt’s creation. Matt’s a big fan of the Evil Dead series, which is one good reason why we’re doing this in the first place.

15. How long is the movie going to be?

We’re projecting about 45 minutes right now.

16. Wait! I want to help!

Contact me or Matt asap, and we’ll get you suited up to be a scary ghost, or get you gaffing or behind the boom mic/camera.

17. If I help, what should I bring?

Bring clothes that you never want to see or wear again. The vague theme is civil-war era ghosts, and Matt has the sense that by removing the buttons on your pantaloons, you’ll get a more realistic effect. So prepare to have your buttons snipped. A visit to Goodwill might be in order.

18. I want to learn more about this movie. What do I do?

You can visit the movie’s blog at http://bachelorblood.wordpress.com/ . We’ll put up stills, clips, teasers and trailers up as they become available.

Witty Comedies Featuring a Strong Female Lead (a la Baby Mama and Juno)

Ballet & Modern Dance

Dysfunctional-Family TV Dramas (a la Dexter, Six Feet Under and I imagine Arrested Development)

However, when I browse on demand movies, I often begin watching as a form of browsing. If I don’t like a movie, I stop it and look for something else, usually within the first 5 minutes or so. However, my recommender system thinks I watched the entire movie, and provides recommendations based on movies I flat-out didn’t like. Usually I end up disliking them for reasons that can’t be described with text– for example, I don’t like the lighting, the acting is bad or it isn’t what I thought it would be based on the description. Furthermore, upon login, Netflix tells me:

“You watched: [title of the movie I didn't actually watch]”

This is both inaccurate and annoying. Netflix should keep track of whether or not people finish on demand movies, perhaps by finding a sweet spot at which most people continue or navigate away.

But that’s just my two cents. Netflix can, of course, do what they want.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cA2ngjW0YQ&hl=en&fs=1&]

Looks like it’ll be another one of those outsider-becomes-hero movies, hopefully (and probably) with a battle/dance-off/skate-off scene. Dodai at Jezebel did a good analysis of the kind of movie Whip It will be based on this trailer, but the post made only a brief mention of the kinds of movies that include rebel/outsiders engaged in some kind of competition.

Some more Outsider Becomes Hero Through Physical Ability Or Mental Prowess movies, a few of which include one or more sequels:

8-Mile (2003) the famous sorta-autobiographical movie starring Eminem as white rapper Rabbit trying to win a local Detroit underground rap battle.
Bring it On (2000) Kirsten Dunst’s character is considered “cursed” after last year at cheerleading camp, and this movie follows her misadventures as the new captain of the Cheerleading squad. Super cheesy, and that’s why I love it.
Center Stage (2000) A rebel choreographer engages in a relationship with a member of the newest class of the American Ballet Academy, and other ballet-related hijinx ensue. I love that the choreographer is a rebel because his character wears a leather jacket and rides a motorcycle in a dance scene.
Drumline (2002) “A band director recruits a Harlem street drummer to play at a Southern university.”
Feel the Noise (2007) “A young man from the South Bronx dreams of making it as a rapper,” but when forced to move to Puerto Rico with his father and stepfamily, he learns about the reggaeton genre.
Save The Last Dance (2001) “A white midwestern girl moves to Chicago, where her new boyfriend is a black teen from the South Side with a rough, semi-criminal past.”
Step Up (2006) In Baltimore, the troublemaker and street dancer Tyler Gage lives with his foster parents in an Afro-American lower class neighborhood.
Stick It (2006) A young woman is offered a spot on a gymnastics squad coached by Jeff Bridges (yes, the dude himself) as an alternative to going to jail after she destroys private property while riding her BMX bike. Extreme!

The genre offers Extra Bonus Points if there’s a dance, rap or other sequence in a school cafeteria or at the factory lunch truck. In many ways, Whip It seems like it will be more variation than theme to the kinds of movies listed above, but if it contains the core elements of what makes those movies great (showcasing gifted performers in their element, dancing, singing and drumming, outsider status, a competition with high stakes, hard-nosed experts, a romance in spite of it all, ultimate triumph), it’ll be a good time.