The fifth instalment

So, there goes another week and even more lessons learnt in the limitless world of computing. First off, we were tasked to explore Google and the tools and programs that this immensely huge corporation has to offer on its website. There are indeed many interesting tools that can be found to make web browsing easier and more fun. Tools like Google Trend allows you to observe what other people are searching for and Google Doc lets you create, edit, save and share documents.

But the tool that genuinely interest me is Google Mars. It is as if Google Earth is not ground-breaking enough, Google brought its interface and technology to allow Earthlings to look at Mars. I have to state however, that if you expect the same interactivity and the cool zooming factor of Google Earth, then Google Mars may not be as exciting. BUT, I personally feel that Google Mars is a real potential. With human expeditions planned by 2020 and colonies to be created by 2050, it wouldn't be long before we can type an address or landmark on Mars and be able to view it here on Earth on Google Mars. For now though, we can only observe the surface of Mars via satellite photo and still be amazed by the colour of the different depths of Mars. Tags of spaceship landings like the Beagle 2 and the Mars Pathfinder can also be found and are marked on the map. All in all, I feel this webpage as serious potential in the future, till then, we can still gaze and admire at the craters and rocks that belongs to our planetary neighbour.

Another of the things that we were required to complete this week was to make our own movie and edit it on Windows Movie Maker. Honestly I could already foresee that this will be a fun and creative exercise to do simply because I have already been personally making and editing short videos of my own with my friends. I recently had an idea to film a kung fu video specifically a parody of the movie Ip Man and coincidently this week, we are required to make a movie for COM 125. Hence, I got help from two of my friends, one to act as an opponent and another to operate the camera.

We shot this scene at a small open field and it starts with a soldier (played by my friend) instigating a fight with a kung fu master (played by myself). Both characters face-off before the arrogant soldier demands the name of the kung fu master. I translated the dialogues into subtitles in the scene so as to make use of Windows Movie Maker’s ‘add title’ ability. Spelling errors and grammatical errors in the subtitles were made purposely so as to genuinely reflect old Chinese martial arts movies. Besides the use of the usual timeline editing, cropping of scenes and fade-in/fade-out transitions, I also used the movie maker’s ‘old film’ effect which gives the video a gritty and classic touch just like vintage Hong Kong movies.

Of course the kung fu master wins at the end and along with some props and fake blood; I had lots of fun making this video. Windows Movie Maker certainly made this project possible and what makes it interesting is that it is simple to use and its abilities are almost limitless. As with most software, it is through the constant practice and use of Windows Movie Maker that I learned its capabilities and this exercise certainly gave me another chance to further use and explore them. Having said all that, I present to you my video, Hip Man: