"i'd like my main course with a side salad, please."

As for my main project, I have joined with Andrew to make a movie. As I posted before, we drifted away from a music video, mostly because of me, but he willingly agreed to make some other sort of film.
The idea we constructed is basically a student gets bullied and loses it on everyone around him. He's thought to be crazy, and then he starts to believe it, but a girl convinces him that he's not crazy. It's underdeveloped, but that's what we have right now. We're writing the script currently, so I will update you on what goes on.
*****IF ANYONE WANTS TO ACT, LET ANDREW OR I KNOW! THANK YOU!*****

As for my side salad, with the end of the year approaching, we are in need of a STAC Montage. I decided that this would be a great thing to occupy my time. I actually love making slideshows, so this is perfect.

I'm going to take on two side salads (if I have the time). My idea is to take photographs and paint parts of the actual photo white. Then I will use my abstract designs to cover the photo. I love photography and I love dabbling in abstract designs, so I decided to mix the two together.

That's all for now. That's all for my senior year.

-ashleycoppolino

Independent (although not really) Project

Senior year is coming to an end. It's hitting me that every decision I make is final. No decision goes unheard right now in my life.

I was planning to make a music video to Remembering Sunday by All Time Low (no hate please), but I'm not going to. My reason for that is Remembering Sunday has been my go-to song for all rough situations in my life for the past five years. Making a music video whether I'm proud of it or not, would completely throw out the songs meaning to me. I don't want to change what is already perfect.

I decided that I'm going to tackle making a movie. I won't be doing it alone. Andrew and I are going to try to complete this together. Right now, all we know is that it is a movie. The rest will be written.

-ashleycoppolino

Enneagram Test - 2012 Version

Well, despite what I believe in myself, the survey that I answered honestly does not lie. Therefore, I am bound to believe that I am Type 6. With consideration of the wings, I would be a 6w5.

Being a 6 pretty much focuses on the fact that my anxiety is high. This I know. What I do not know is why now? Two years ago, when my anxiety was worse than it is now, I scored Type 8. Type 8 is like what I am now: the "take charge because they don't want to be controlled" type. I believe most of you will agree with me. If anyone agrees on my Type 6 title, let me know. I'm pretty eager to know why.

My guess is that it's my mental state at the moment. There's too much going on in my life right now that has me on edge, which definitely kicked up my anxiety.

Have a good night. Hopefully I see you all tomorrow.

-ashleycoppolino

Q3 Individual Written

I’ve been in the photography workshop for the past couple of weeks now. I didn’t want to be in it, but then again, I didn’t know what other intensive I’d belong to. So, I took on the photography with as much passion as possible.

Elisa, Michelle, Matt, Anika, and I were given the necessities to work. The necessities consisted of: flash unit (three lights, the power pack, a grid, a soft box, and two umbrellas), two stands, remote flash triggers, a backdrop, and Luke’s Canon 20D. I’ve never actually done studio work, so this was new to me too. I did know the techniques we used. Below is a photo of Jei where half his face is lit and the other half is in shadow. To set up this shot, the camera is placed in front of Jei with the light directly to his left. This style is called split/hatchet lighting. It’s more commonly shot on males, but it happens to be my favorite for anyone.

The first few days with the set-up, we focused mainly on lighting, but as we were getting used to it, we lost it along the way. We started to become preoccupied with personality. There’s a huge difference between a good photo and a bad photo. A good photo has good lighting and personality as two major components, as a bad photo lacks those two qualities. Below (photo on top), you could see how the lighting was off and basically how the photographer kept clicking the button without any thought of positioning the lights or making the background and subject look good. To the right you can see how the background is perfectly black, the light was positioned specifically for this shot, and you are still able to get a personality for the subject. For the shot shown on the bottom below, we placed the grid over the light, which is used to diffuse the light so it’s not as harsh. The diffuser gives the photograph a softer feel and reduces the chance of “washing/blowing out” the subject. We use the term “washing/blowing out” for when the light is too harsh and eliminates the skin tone making the photo white washed.

After using the photo techniques we’ve learned with the lights for our photo intensive, a few of us decided to make our individual project based around natural light. I’ve battled with photography a lot recently, mostly because I feel my passion drifting away from me, but doing photography outside the studio reminded me why I love it so much. You’re given the ability to freely walk around with a camera, which opens possibilities rather than being stuck with an artificial light within four walls. We also used color, which changes the factors. I feel that when you use black and white, you have no choice but to capture the personality, as apposed to color where you capture fashion, location and a smaller percentage of personality.

I used my friend, Jaclyn, as the model for the “rebel out of school” theme. Don’t be fooled by the good photos we decided to display, because we did end up getting photos with harsh light such as the one on the top (shown below) and photos with not enough light on the face, like the one on the bottom (shown below).

Michelle did the photoshopping on the final four photos. I don’t have a copy of photoshop, so my skills were limited when it came to editing. Photoshop can take practically any photo and transform it into a masterpiece. The top (shown below) is the before and the bottom (shown below) is the after. Michelle photoshopped the strands of hair that were in the way, she dyed the roots of the hair back to red, she removed all blemishes to the skin, she reconstructed the corner of the eye to delete a red shape, added the effect to make her skin look like pearl, and saturated the photo to enhance the overall shot.

-ashleycoppolino

expressing the meaning of expressionism

Expressionism is definitely a dark form of art. It loses all the perfect beauty that is always wanted by artists, but it gives a new beauty. This beauty isn't made with perfect harmonies, in fact, expressionist music loses its melody and key, making notes into a background sound that is gorgeous in its own category.

What I love about expressionist art is that it's all raw emotions conveyed into all art disciplines. I never actually labeled what I like, but I can

definitely see a pattern that I do like expressionist art. I know that expressionist photography is just as brutal as all other forms of expressionist art.

The most famous and recognizable expressionist piece is "The Scream" by Edvard Munch.

The root of the word expressionism is expression. It is clear of the expression shown in "The Scream".

Although Dianne Arbus isn't categorized under expressionist, she was definitely an expressionist photographer. She took photos of people that are ugly or surreal. She was basically known as the "photographer of freaks". She photographed what people didn't want to see.. but that's what made her famous and in her own style. It's clear to see the emotion/expression in her photos.

new project: jei & i.

STAC Live is vastly approaching, which means all preparation must be getting done.

My big thing in STAC was photography. I don't like how I use the term was, but it seems to be the best way to explain this. I have been lacking on my photography. I barely carry my camera around. And by barely, I mean that I never do. I don't even bring it to parties. It basically has a permanent spot on my shelf.

But I do have my iPhone. Strange enough, I haven't lost touch with photography. Right now, over the last three months, i have about 1,500 photos on my phone. I edit a bunch of them, just as if i took photos on my camera and edited them on my computer. My phone is more accessible and faster. Ergo, here's where my iPhone photography kicked in.

Luke noticed it, since I posted it on Facebook, and I've been getting positive feedback on it. I was looking forward to making commercials, but Luke decided to give me a different assignment: a slideshow for STAC Live. This is where Jei comes in. Jei has the ability to play instruments and make amazing music. But Jei never composed/wrote his own pieces. Here's the assignment: a slideshow with my iPhone photography and Jei's own music.

I'm pretty excited and hope all goes well. It's cool that I can have my pictures displayed and Jei's music played. Can't wait!

-ashleycoppolino

Stressed

I'm stressed. I seem to be on edge with everything I put my hands on. I take on way too much and I act like it's ok, but sometimes it's not.
Lately, my mind has been jumping out of control. I could be holding a conversation and be thinking about something else. I could be working on a project and be sorting out another one in my head. My concentration is totally off lately, so I apologize.
I don't even have the time to be writing this, because schoolwork has consumed my life.
I've been trying to deal with my conflicts as best as possible, but it seems as one problem begins to clear, another problem bursts. I know I take on too much, but being busy keeps me out of trouble, which is what I like an need.
I've looked back on my blogs and it looks like I've talked about stress before. Just like I said in the past: breathe.. In, out, in, out.

-ashleycoppolino