Media technology
Are there days when you don’t use media in any form? -Not really. The range of media on offer extends from ancient Super 8 films to ultra-modern animated films, on the video side, sound development using digital sound processors (DSP) with floating point technology, on the audio side, to elaborate posters for advertising. The art lies in the clever dosage and choice of the appropriate medium.
Adobe Creative Suite 3 Workshop
Sometimes you put the fox in charge of the henhouse, or a student in charge of the teacher. This happened in July 2007 at the IKS project days. Our teacher Mr. Aussenhof had the idea of giving interested students an introduction to professional layout. He commissioned Schreiber to organize everything necessary and then hold the course. Licenses were obtained and finally the workshop could be held. The course participants started with personal business cards and then finally produced sophisticated posters and a flyer. There are 9 of them in total, spread out around the main building. I was pleasantly surprised by the good ideas and hope that we can expand on them one day, according to the motto:
“It doesn’t always have to be Power Point!”
At the end, the course participants handed out a nice card:
Animated film
Have you ever played with Lego? During the summer holidays in 2006, I made a slightly different film with a very good friend. A film without real actors. The holidays were long and boring.
The technique behind it is called stop motion. For this, figures are formed, made from wax or clay by professionals, and photographed. By changing the shape of the figures and taking another photo, you have a film, albeit a very short one.
People perceive movement at around 18 changing images per second, i.e. photographs. The higher this frequency, the smoother it is. Stop motion films, however, are shot at 5 images per second. On the one hand, to save work, and on the other, the jerking of the images is characteristic of stop motion films and is what makes them so appealing.
Stop motion was the first film trick in history.
In total, my friend Jens (DJ Masterchef) and I managed 3 images per second. The result was not bad. It is easy to create dialogues with spoken comments.
The content of the 15-minute film reflects the fun we had. It is a comedy through and through. - However, FSK 18.
Poster design
Kant Vokal “Revue”
As a high school with a focus on music, the IKS Rüsselsheim needs to present its young musicians to the public. Bands, choirs and soloists present themselves to the audience, of course in the suitable setting of the city theater.
First of all, the advertising had to be drummed up, posters were produced and hung up, and the corresponding flyers were placed in prominent places. Due to a lack of experience, the artists had to get used to using microphones and professional concert sound. With Shure automixers, feedback reducers and SLX wireless microphones, this was no big deal.
The theater equipment was used during the performance and it was a considerable success!
Swing Kids concert
The Swing Kids and their junior band Junior Swing Kids are the musical flagships of our school. Tickets for the concerts are selling like hotcakes, but posters are still needed for public display. Schreiber was able to contribute one. The low budget had to be taken into account!
Lecture on quantum mechanics
“Is the moon still there when you’re not looking at it?” For “normal” people this is obvious, but not for quantum mechanics. Dr. Aspelmeyer from IQOQI, an expert on the subject, gave a very interesting lecture at the IKS-Rüsselsheim. Of course, a poster was produced to inform and mobilize interested physics fans. Schreiber had an idea…
IKS Big Band
“Big Swing is back in town!”
Exactly, the motto of the IKS Big Band, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2006. The highlight: the “Jazz meets Classic” concert in the Rüsselsheim City Theater.
To publicize the event, effective posters were needed. After exhausting artistic outbursts from everyone involved, the result shown below was created. Set in a professional typesetting program and printed by an offset printing company.
The concert was a great success, the city theater was sold out.
Sound Reinforcement
The main focus here in the studio is electronic sound optimization. High-quality devices and applications are used to achieve the best possible results, primarily those from Shure, Yamaha, Tascam, Edirol and Steinberg. The latter brings the Cubase software into the ring, which enables digital sound processing in the highest quality. Similar to tape, sound tracks are recorded and linked together to form a carpet. It does not matter whether the sequences are processed analogously - as real sound - or as a MIDI control file. MIDI is nothing more than a control protocol that uses the sound banks or sound memory of a synthesizer, sound blaster, drum computer, etc. Good end devices (= professional sounds) are therefore very important. Without good ingredients, even the best cook cannot prepare a tasty soup. As always, this comparison is flawed, but it is not entirely wrong. It is always astonishing what you can do with this new technology. Modern music genres such as techno or rap would not be possible without it. The unfortunate thing about this is that the musician’s manual dexterity, i.e. the ability to hit the right note at the right time, takes a back seat. Music has become permanently reproducible.
The song currently being played (a plug-in may need to be installed later) was created together with Benjamin “Benny” Lossau, a good school friend, and was sampled and mixed here. MIDI control technology was used. The transposition of the themes based on the cadence principles provides the necessary variety.
Note: This song was created by two students for non-commercial purposes; any similarities or similarities with other songs were not intended and would be purely coincidental. Enjoy listening!
Super-8
“Action, action…” Nowadays we put a DVD or CD in the DVD player, press the play button and the film starts. A few decades ago, this was not so easy. To play a film, you needed a projector, long film reels and a screen. From a modern perspective, this is almost ancient.
The Immanuel Kant School has a large range of such tapes - Super 8 films. From Newtonian considerations, to osmosis and diffusion, to the function of a blast furnace, there are some that were created in 1975 and earlier.
Nowadays, no one wants to know anything about them, either at home or at school. Setting up a projector is far too complicated and the probability of errors, such as film tears or the like, is far too high. However, this is a great shame, as the quality of the content is often very high and, on the other hand, there are no funds for new purchases.
Starting with biology, a total of around 50 Super 8 films were digitized using a complex experimental setup. The projector projected the image onto an A2 sheet 2 meters away. It was then filmed with a special high-resolution video camera. There was a direct connection to the computer, so that digital recording could be made straight away. Filters used during editing and the camera’s shutter technology greatly reduced the so-called hot spot effect and flickering. A hot spot is when the corners of the screen are dark in contrast to the center. The flickering occurs when the film is played at 24 frames per second and recorded at 25 fps. This means that every 25th frame is blank, i.e. black.
Time has left its mark, many tapes were faded or torn. The intensive restoration of image and sound after digitization made it possible for these films - burned onto DVD - to be used again in class.
Some people love it when a plan works.
DJ - commercial
Exciting feature film, action at its peak… and then commercials. Channel surfing is the order of the day.
This is an attempt at a commercial with humor and action. Due to a lack of a big budget, the action was created by destroying old, no longer functioning computer hardware.
Content of the commercial: A young man wants to chat with his girlfriend, which doesn’t work because of viruses, Trojans and bugs. His inner voice advises him to “kindly” dispose of the old system and buy a “DJ computer” instead. This new computer is unique and completely immune to viruses. He does this and can then chat with his girlfriend from the comfort of a beach chair. “Yeah!”
Interestingly, the “DJ” computer is represented by an ancient portable PC (predecessor of a laptop).
The aim of this film was to extensively practice the blue screen or mask technique when editing films.
Rumors that the film was shot for the enjoyment of chilled drinks are expressly refuted. In reality, the chilled drinks were used to relax from the stress of filming.
Voile d’obscurité
“The following film is not suitable for viewers under 16 years of age!” is something you can often hear and read on late-night television. How do you shoot a horror film?
Don’t worry, the images shown are accessible to everyone without any danger. The project was supposed to produce a horror film, we shot a scary film and it turned out to be a comedy.
In the French elective “La France” class, we, 5 students, were given the task of making a French horror film. The background story was given.
After a well-thought-out story, we started writing dialogue for the script. The first day of shooting was approaching.
After two days, the final shot was taken. Even during shooting, it was clear that more than a horror film was not possible. We used spotlights to create large “scary” shadows. The tripod on a mobile table enabled primitive camera movements.
Finally, in the cut, after the “scary” background music had been composed and played, everything was put together and rendered.
We had to repeat the death scene many times because of the laughter. The take-outs were just as funny as the film and were included on a “making-of” DVD as a bonus. The rap composed especially for it fit in well with the atmosphere.
“… the funniest film I’ve ever made”; You have to have respect for real horror films!
