Final Reflection

Be the Change

Planting seeds and building bridges and that my friends is exactly what we have been doing all semester long. Through use of audio and video programs Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Audition, and Premiere I have been able to create some amazing tools to help spread the message for Drag Kings and Drag Shows. I have to admit at first I did not know how my peers we going to process my topic, and honestly, I am forever grateful for all of the great attitudes towards it, and the open minds and open hearts. I appreciated everyone’s willingness to approach this topic in such a mature and respectful manner. I thank you all and appreciate you.

Now, my favorite project throughout the semester was the Audio story hands down. I enjoyed the technical aspect of it and editing it together but I also enjoyed reaching out to my community and allowing them an opportunity to shine. After this project had long been turned in and graded I had heard from my youngest participant and they told me that the person that they were referring too who didn’t like Drag shows for kids to be are part of had changed their mind after they heard this recording. I knew at that very moment how much more valuable audio is to video because if someone had been seeing they would be judging but if they are just hearing they are allowed to just listen without judging and that is key to reaching people. Maybe the greats like Ed Murrow knew that was a way to reach people.

I think this question should read what skills didn’t I learn in this course that I will use in the future? In all seriousness, I would use all the skills we learned which I currently do already with and for my Drag Shows that I produce and host. Photoshop, and Illustrator have already helped me in ways I can’t even begin to count. Once we got to Premiere Pro it was over! Now all I want to do is figure out a way to start my own online Drag King Contest since now I have the skills to be able to edit and create audio and video and avoid copyright issues. During this semester alone I have used the programs and skills I had just learned to create some items for my shows. Here are a few examples:

Honestly, I am thinking of myself as a ring master of a sort, but would like to focus on either social media manager or public relations working in the social justice LGBTQ area specifically and by all means at some point out allies. The skills that I have acquired through this course has allowed me the potential to create anything I would need to assist nonprofit or profit companies that I work for be successful. I had the pleasure of running into my Art teacher at my last college and told him about this class and how we were learning Adobe illustrator because of the vectors and he agreed, it was pretty cool to be able to know what you are talking about.

I am sure that Google and YouTube are my friend and I could probably spend a lot of time looking it up but there were times I would accidentally click something in the program and wouldn’t know how to get myself back to the screen we were used to seeing on a regular basis. I guess if there was a way to a quick mini video listed maybe even outside of the lectures for each program showing you, should you reach this screen click this or that to get back; would have saved me some extra time. Other than that I feel like all material covered gives me the basic skills required to be successful with all of these programs and be able to sharpen my skills as I use it.

Out of the free music and sound bites websites were useful because it is nice to be able to include audio but copyright is such a huge deal. Red tape is everywhere so it is very nice to have those web sites available.

Freesound https://freesound.org/

Out of all the classes I have taken throughout my career this is the saddest I’ve been to see its ending. Yes it was hard work and sometimes very detailed but it was so much fun in the end. I look back on my first day of class now and think you want me to turn in all my work on my own blog? Ok this should be interesting. Now I have an entire web page full of awesome stuff I worked my butt off all semester long on. This entire thing is genius! Now this just confirms why it’s so sad to be seeing it be over. All I know is I was going to cancel my Abode membership, but ask me why it’s Tuesday and it should have been canceled on this past Friday? Someone might just be keeping it! Thank you so much for a great class!

 

 

Video Story:Road to a Drag King, Ceasar Hart

 

Road to a Drag King, Ceasar Hart

For my final video story I decided to give a little taste of what my drag career has looked like over the last couple of years. A little background for Ceasar Hart, my drag persona, which began almost ten years ago; I have been tearing up stages all over the Pacific Northwest raising awareness and money for many, many, different causes. Using my platform for my activism and  for my LGBTQIA community all over, it has been an honor doing what I do and be able to give back to my communities as well. The various video clips that were included in this video story were from the only show I have ever decided to host throughout my career in Grays Harbor, Hoquiam to be exact at The Simpson Avenue Bar and Grill called Small Town, Big Hart’s Drag Revue! The video shot I included is one of the very first shows I held out on the Harbor filled with many straight allies in the community joining us for their very first drag shows, which we like to call our Virgins!

The second video clip I had to include which again is historical footage was from this past summer when I was asked to join the cast at Washington State University for their Drag Show which helps raise money for Seattle Pride Foundation this particular year we raised $4000. I really wanted to include this for two reasons, one because GO COUGS! And second I wanted to show case just what exactly drag shows can do and that’s raise money! Lots of it when it comes to non-profit organizations! I have been lucky enough and fortunate enough to have built a platform for myself in the community to be able to hold Drag Shows for adults and all ages to raise money for numerous nonprofits in our area to help our local community. We have raised thousands of dollars and have given so much back to help it isn’t even funny! We are also teaching our younger generations to do the same and that is something you can’t just get anywhere. Over the years Drag Kings haven’t had as much light shined on them as Drag Queens, let’s face it Queens are pretty fantastic! But, Drag King’s rule too and that’s why I decided to include some highlights over my career that not every King gets the opportunity every day to do.

In regards to the technical aspect of the project I began going through my Facebook page to see what video footage I could use I began to run into issues with copyright laws with music. Then, I noticed that our video footage had to be horizontal, not vertical almost all my video footage shot over the history of my drag has been shot vertical. I was able to find two videos that were horizontal but weren’t very stable in the shooting of the filming since these were taken long before taking this class. With this being said, I decided to use more audio and pictures than video footage and will use more effects on the project. The photos that I used I either had myself or got from sgn.org, entrehermanos.org, or sosea.org.

For our assignment we have a time limit of two minutes, so I combined the two different footage I had previously created and shortened my video footage since it has shaky areas. We needed to include two video clips in this project, so I made sure to keep at least some footage. I had to remove some of the audio I had included originally to make sure I was within the time range, but overall I was able to get my point across. The effect of the video was to show what drag shows look like, what they can do for communities, and how influential they can be. The photos I was able to include, had to be adjusted using the video effects tools and the position and scale tabs. Each image needed to be adjusted to fit the screen properly and needed to be timed just right with the audio that was created with the second half of the video. It required a lot of razor tool to cut the audio and adjust the images to fit perfectly and remove the silent parts to make it all fit together nicely.

After I received feedback from my peers I decided to add some background music to the entire video but I also adjusted the volume throughout a well. I wanted to make sure you could hear the audio from the video well while it was playing as well as the narration done by me in the area with the pictures. I definitely used the razor tool a lot in this project, and the volume adjustment since the screams from the crowd was pretty loud. Overall I am very happy with the final product.

Timeline:

These are just a few Highlights from Seattles Premiere Drag King, Ceasar Harts career over the past decade.

Winning Mr. Neighbours title in 2011 & 2012 at Neighbours nightclub in Seattle.

Host Seattle University Triangle Club Drag Show and performed multiple years

Hosting Seattle Pride Parade L Corner Stage with drag queen, Shelita PotRoast!

Performing with Kings at Kremwerk Main Stage first time Drag Kings Ever took the Main stage

Multiple years performing at ICON with drag queen, Aleksa Manila in her largest yearly fundraising benefit for Seattle Counseling Service

Performed at Entre Hermano  the latino nonprofit Organization yearly gala

Performed for Social outreach Seattle LGBT nonprofit Org. yearly Gala

Performed at Washington State University Drag Show to help raise money for Pride Foundation $4k

Performed at Central Washington University Drag Show

 

 

Work cited

http://www.Sgn.org- Seattle Gay News

www. entrehermanos.org- Entre Hermanos

https://freesound.org/people/frankum/sounds/413140/

 

 

 

Road to a Drag King, Ceasar Hart

Road to a Drag King, Ceasar Hart

 

For this project I decided to do it on Ceasar Hart career highlights as Seattle’s Premiere Drag King. Generally, Drag Queens get the lime light so I thought I would shine the light on Drag Kings for a change. Throughout my career over the past ten years I have had many amazing opportunities to participate in many amazing events and this is just a few I thought I would include. As I began going through my Facebook page to see what video footage I could use I began to run into issues with copyright laws with music, so there went half the videos I could use for this project. Then, I noticed that our video footage had to be horizontal not vertical and almost all my video footage shot over the history of my drag has been shot vertical; so, that took the other half of my footage to use. I was able to find two videos that were horizontal but weren’t very stable in the shooting of the filming since these were taken long before taking this class. With this being said, I decided to use more audio and pictures than video footage and will use more effects to the project before the due date on Friday. Below you will see the timeline I used to create my audio recording and to place my photos on the project which made things flow lot easier for me. The photos that I used I either had myself or got from sgn.org, entrehermanos.org, or sosea.org.

For our assignment we have a time limit of two minutes, so I combined the two different footage I had previously created and shortened my video footage since it has shaky areas. We needed to include two video clips in this project, so I made sure to keep at least some footage. I had to remove some of the audio I had included originally to make sure I was within the time range, but overall I was able to get my point across. The effect of the video was to show what drag shows look like, what they can do for communities, and how influential they can be. The photos I was able to include had to be adjusted the video effects tools and the position and scale tabs. Each image needed to be adjusted to fit the screen properly and needed to be timed just right with the audio that was created with the second half of the video. It required a lot of razor tool to cut the audio and adjust the images to fit perfectly and remove the silent parts to make it all fit together nicely.

These are just a few Highlights from Seattle’s Premiere Drag King, Ceasar Harts career over the past decade:

• Winning Mr. Neighbours title in 2011 & 2012 at Neighbours nightclub in Seattle.
• Host Seattle University Triangle Club Drag Show and performed multiple years
• Hosting Seattle Pride Parade L Corner Stage with drag queen, Shelita PotRoast!
• Performing with Kings at Kremwerk Main Stage first time Drag Kings Ever took the Main stage
• Multiple years performing at ICON with drag queen, Aleksa Manila in her largest yearly fundraising benefit for Seattle Counseling Service
• Performed at Entre Hermano  the latino nonprofit Organization yearly gala
• Performed for Social outreach Seattle LGBT nonprofit Org. yearly Gala
• Performed at Washington State University Drag Show to help raise money for Pride Foundation $4k
• Performed at Central Washington University Drag Show
• Perform at Capital City Pride in Olympia every year for the past 8 years
• Hosting Grays Harbor College Gay Straight Alliance Drag Shows for 4 years
• Hosting Grays Harbor Pride 4 years
• Performed at multiple colleges across Washington State multiple years

Work cited

http://www.Sgn.org- Seattle Gay News

www. entrehermanos.org- Entre Hermanos

 

Raw Footage: Road to a Drag King, Ceasar Hart

Raw footage take 1 Road to a Drag King, Ceasar Hart

 

Raw Footage take 2 Road to a Drag King, Ceasar Hart

 

For this project I decided to do it on Ceasar Hart career highlights as Seattle’s Premiere Drag King. Generally, Drag Queens get the lime light so I thought I would shine the light on Drag Kings for a change. Throughout my career over the past ten years I have had many amazing opportunities to participate in many amazing events and this is just a few I thought I would include. As I began going through my facebook page to see what video footage I could use I began to run into issues with copyright laws with music so there went half the videos I could use for this project. Then I noticed that our video footage had to be horizontal not vertical and almost all my video footage shot over the history of my drag has been shot vertical so that took the other half of my footage to use. I was able to find two videos that were horizontal but weren’t very stable in the shooting of the filming since these were taken long before taking this class. With this being said I decided to use more audio and pictures than video footage and will use more effects to the project before the due date on Friday. Below you will see the timeline I used to create my audio recording and to place my photos on the project which made things flow lot easier for me. The photos that I used I either had myself or got from sgn.org, entrehermanos.org, or sosea.org.

Overall I was able to use digital photos, audio recording, video footage, and will add effects to the final version of the project by Friday.

 

These are just a few Highlights from Seattles Premiere Drag King, Ceasar Harts career over the past decade.

Winning Mr. Neighbours title in 2011 & 2012 at Neighbours nightclub in Seattle.

Host Seattle University Triangle Club Drag Show and performed multiple years

Hosting Seattle Pride Parade L Corner Stage with drag queen, Shelita PotRoast!

Performing with Kings at Kremwerk Main Stage first time Drag Kings Ever took the Main stage

Multiple years performing at ICON with drag queen, Aleksa Manila in her largest yearly fundraising benefit for Seattle Counseling Service

Performed at Entre Hermano  the latino nonprofit Organization yearly gala

Performed for Social outreach Seattle LGBT nonprofit Org. yearly Gala

Performed at Washington State University Drag Show to help raise money for Pride Foundation $4k

Performed at Central Washington University Drag Show

Perform at Capital City Pride in Olympia every year for the past 8 years

Hosting Grays Harbor College Gay Straight Alliance Drag Shows for 4 years

Hosting Grays Harbor Pride 4 years

Performed at multiple colleges across Washington State multiple years

 

Work cited

http://www.Sgn.org- Seattle Gay News

www. entrehermanos.org- Entre Hermanos

 

Tutorial 1

Edited Version Final

 

Raw footage of all video clips

Tutorial 2

Murrow Hall at Washington State University

Audio Story Final

Audio Story Final

For my audio project I decided to interview performers to ask them why they participate in drag shows. To gather materials for this project I initially used my social media account Facebook and posted a post asking if any performers would like to participate in my class project. I had several different people want to participate, which was awesome because it added to the variety of the audio I would be able to use. I had each performer use their cell phones audio recording app to record their answers and email them to me. I had specifically emailed the parents of Aurea Sunshine and Johanna Funn as they are under age and they gave me permission to use their recordings. Thanks to Ryannah Doll, Christian Mingle for participating in this project. At first, I had used several different questions like what is their drag name, how long have they performed, what type of drag do they perform in my first audio version. We received a feedback email in regards to project and I realized that I was trying to have way too much in the story than my initial question, which was why they participate in drag shows. I record an introduction for Ceasar Hart and discuss Drag Shows and a little background on them and ask the question for the interview.

I decided to try and find some recordings of my actual shows that I produce and host; which I had posted to Facebook, so I downloaded that audio and then used this website https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/convert-mp4-to-mp3 to convert the mp4 to an mp3 for me to use in Audition. Once I was able to upload each recording that each performer sent to me I was able to use the razor tool to splice the recordings to what I wanted to use out of them. Adjusting the volume and some of the fading in and out as well for certain sections to make it blend together better. I wanted some ambient noise from one of my shows to be added to the story which was not there before and was suggested from my peer feedback. I think it adds a little something extra to the recording and gives people a little bird’s eye view per say.  Two minutes definitely is not long enough to fit in everything I wanted to fit in. I had to cut out one of the responses I had included in my first audio story I originally turned in. Other suggestions were to have more Ceasar in the story line so this time that’s what I did more Ceasar and about Drag shows and a little less of the other perform response. I wanted to add a chime at the end just to spice it up a little and I also adjusted the fade in and out on the beginning and end of that sound bite as well. My peers feedback were very impressed with how much I had packed in the two minute time framed and liked my story line topic. I hope this new version is just as impressive!

 

https://www.onlinevideoconverter.com/convert-mp4-to-mp3

Audio Story Final

 

Design Process for my audio story project I decided to interview drag performers that I have worked with throughout the years and ask them why they participate in drag shows. This relates directly to my course topic because it’s about drag shows and what they do for the LGBT communities and beyond.

Doing the required readings for this week’s assignment gave me my influence and well let’s face it anything Edward Murrow does is influential. For most drag performers we really don’t get to speak out since we lip sync our music, so I thought it would be fun to let them have the mic to the world and see what they have to say, as to why they do drag shows. As an entertainer for almost ten years now, I feel like it would be nice to leave an electronic voice stamp in the world of what we have been doing with Drag. Drag is an art form, not just some fun thing people do; it takes skill and lots of money to do and years to perfect.

My design process for this audio story was fairly simply. I started with a facebook post on social media asking if any performers would like to participate and then asked them to go to a quiet room and asked them specific questions. They used their cell phones to record and send me the audio via email in which I was able to download and upload in to Audition. I recorded myself with the introduction of the recording with a few very brief questions to put at the beginning of each response. I knew at the beginning of this project I wanted to include the youngest drag queen I have ever had the pleasure of working with Aurea Sunshine, so I began with her answers first. Once I dropped all voice files in to Audition I began to use the razor tool to splice the areas of my recording to take the questions and drop them before responses. I also took each individual recording and adjusted the bad parts I didn’t want in their responses and edited it prior to using the clips. This took a long period of time but editing is where all the magic happens and getting rid of noises you don’t want is key. Some of Aurea voice recording had some background noise I tried to use the noise reduction effects to remove it but it doesn’t seem as though I was very successful. Before the final project is due I will try and fine tune that some more.

Audio Story Raw

The following audio clips are of Ceasar Hart, Seattle Premier Drag King interviewing a variety of performers about why they participate in Drag shows. The second audio clip is from the youngest Drag performer that performs with Ceasar, Aurea Sunshine (as a Drag Queen) or Stormy Sky (Bio Drag King) started performing at just 5 years old.

Audition Tutorials