New Inspiration

i think i got another inspriation/motiviation to work/focus on my project more, this video gave me a connection, of what kind of tone I want to project:

http://morethanastance.com/features/mf/2009/10/breakumentary-this-is-how-we-chill/

^ check it

however… I want to do this in a different approach because my documentary/project isn’t about the dancing, its about the indivduals in college backdrop, struggling the ups and downs of life. Sure I will have show breaks u, but that’s just a little portion on what the message I need to project.

Well, props for the people who made this, I would love to work with bboys, bgurls, and dancers alike down the road.

Peace

Pave Your Own Way

Hey everyone, I was venting lately about a lot stuff but what I realized is that I'm just doing my things my way and how i network comes in different to what people do. So someone taunted me saying my event is fake and its not getting promoted on bboyworld and getting the credit the wrong way.

I think there are more ways to promote things other than bboyworld. There is twitter, youtube , facebook, tumblr, blogspot and more.

All you gotta do is use those to its full potential and I feel like thats what i'm doing.

Breakin Institutes Part 3

Been awhile since I post something up about my project.

So where should I start?

Alright, I'm going to talk about one of the topics that will featured in the documentary.

Breaks U.

As Jason quoted in the interview "Breaks U is the best college battle event I've ever been to"

I shall agree on that. i've been to the both Breaks U events and sure were fun. I became more into it when Breaks U Year 2 came along and as I posted before, training with the School Of Visual Arts group to prepare for this event.

I can't really tell you how much fun, unique this event is. It is teams of schools/college battling each other for school supremacy! Like being/working as a team and to worry about the people battling because you're just battling other schools/colleges. (Maybe some known bboys/bgurls repping certain schools/colleges here and there) And good vibes and energy are displayed.

Music wise, first Breaks U had DP One, he pulls of the dope beats/classical breaks and his signature sirens and horns intros, pretty good NY DJ, big ups. I haven't stayed for the event long because i was upset with the cornell smokage that SVA had taken in. But, good event experience.

The second Breaks U was Franco De Leon. Oh boy, in my opinion that's when some sheit goes bananas. To me, I think Franco's music can be very accessible for everyone to listen to, even if you're not a b-boy or b-gurl.

With Franco's music and Breaks U Year 2, it felt like it was the most accessible event to introduce people to the b-boy culture. Which is a good thing, I mean everyone gotta start somewhere making events and taking a different direction. And props to the person who made the event.... AND... featured in this documentary:

Susanna/Queen N.V.


PROPS PROPS PROPS

Editor's Point of View On Creating Dance Trailers

First of all,

I want to say props to all the film-makers and editors alike with creating videos/reels for dancers alike.

Now, I’ll make this short and brief.

I notice lately especially the areas i’m around, that dance trailers or events that include dancing are slacking something. It lacks the connectivity, at times the dub music doesn’t match the movements or the feelings of the event. The other thing its also length of the videos is too long.

-Just make short and to the point
-Find songs that fits the format of the event
-Find the strongest moments of the events/dancer

As an editor, in general you are suppose to make the movie/actor/dancer/moments great. As for dancing, I think people tend to forget that people are just editing moves. To me, you are editing dancers, dancers move to the music. Sometimes the trailers are using dubbed music, so the music and dancing should harmonize. And it does not hurt to throw some effects in there but usually in artistic way.

So, if I’m editing a trailer, I would look at the footage and think of some songs that would fit the trailer. And test them out, some would be a hit or miss.

I don’t see much dance trailers that music and dancing harmonizes.

I might be going out of a loop but I hope people out there understands what I’m trying to say.

A letter from the Prez

I regret to say..

All things must come to an end.

I have to say that the club has reached its peak in a matter of months of the fall semester of 08 and changed up in 09. i started it the club from the ground up and I guess.. I created into a community like the other break clubs in the tri-state area.

And as you read the notes before about the mini jams, that it became successful events.

Before I get to the real meat of the matter

Shout Outs to the current members:
-G-Spin
-Raze
-Journey
-Smoothdust
-Sonicbum
-Cel
-Brian
-Day-One
-Omar

and xzoob for coming in and out. haha

and to our former members
-RGB
-Bossmeem
-John
-Eko
-Tom
-Eddie
-Adam

I would hate to say it but, the number 6 is the number of the last SVA Mini Jam.

Will there be more? I have no idea. I have to find someone who is worthy enough to be in charge of the club.

Why is it the last one? As some people may know, its my last year at School of Visual Arts. I’m also working on my thesis project for my final year: Breakin Institutes. And that will take up of my time at SVA this year.

So what can we expect from the next ones? I have no idea to be honest. I asked around over the summer to people how they feel about the jams lately.. usually in NJ/NY. Got some few responses and inputs. So I listen to them and try to fix those flaws in the next two jams. I’m sure the last two will be the best ever.

Thanks to everyone who came though, enjoyed, and support the School Of Visual Arts Mini Jams. I really appreciate it.

So…
Big Thanks to:

-Chem
-Steve Stylez
-Richie
-Xzist
-Helen
-Erich
-Glyde
-Samo
-Ekcite
-Ill Phil
-Wingz
for judging the events

-Queen N.V.
-Propz
-Diego
-Joe Rock
and a few others.
You were my upper peers!

-David
-Ankit
-Marielle
for being there photographing the event up.

Alexis, Kenia, Christine
for the Ads from the 4th Jam

Adam
for the flyers/ads/motion graphics ad for club

And what I also didn’t realized but… I manage to create it with no sponsors. You know… its sort of under the radar.

I’m still shocked to think of that.
thanks again to everyone for the support and i guess… i can add… love.

-Josh/Xpertise

Summer gone too soon...

Yet, It was very productive:

-Summer Job
-Thesis work
-Networking with bboys/bgurls/dancers
-Planning what i'm doing for the fall semester on my thesis year.

I'm ready for you sept.

let's go

Dragon Ball Evo: Fail...

If I didn't know what Dragon Ball was i would like it, If I did know what it is. I will hate it and pretend it was good.

One thing for sure, the story is very messed up and totally out of the context of the manga/anime. The script was really really bad, action was stiff, FX was meh.

The only thing I give props is to, is the cast who were troopers on doing this movie and also A for effort to the film makers who tried to make Dragon Ball into film form.

Unfortnately... it failed

I had to watch the anime over and over and read the manga to refresh myself my childhood memories.
And watching Dragon Ball Kai, the revamped DBZ which is an extra plus made me happy that something good happen after the movies... not to mention the box sets were on sale... yippie.

So.. what they do is.. let the people watch the movie, hate it, go to the nearest entertainment outlet, comic book store. And buy the Dragon Ball and DragonBall Z stuff and get profit. Yup, what a scheme.

Breakin Institutes (Thesis Blog Part 2)

Hi everyone,

I haven't blogged in awhile, I've been quite busy with a lot of things. My thesis is going well and ahead of schedule.
The title Breakin' Institutes title came up when Susanna (Queen N.V.) and I, were talking about a title. It was very tough to find the right one, until I said it with out knowing what Institutes really was. Thanks Susanna for helping out and telling me what institutes really is. =D

I shot at least 30 mins of interviews and there were really interesting things I've learned from the interviews. I shot at my college, School of Visual Arts. I have to say I was quite nervous and excited at the same time to shooting the interview.
Finding a production/film crew was tough but I manage to find some. (Thank You May from the Film Library) There was at least 4 people as a film crew on set including me. And then there was another day where it came to just two people. There was no problem with that.
Finding the participants to interview was a bit tough to get hold of. I asked a lot of people and it goes 50/50. Some do and don't respond. Some do respond but doesn't show up. But I knew that I had to move on.
I had 5 people interviewed in all and I felt satisfied after each shoot.

So here is the teaser on who is in the project so far. Enjoy!

Gamerz Review: B-Boy (PSP/PS2)

So.. I played this game like 2 years ago on PSP, I awaited for this forever before it imported to USA. One thing that reviewers don't understand that it was made by b-boys and it was made for b-boys. That is the interesting part but then again people who aren't into bboyin might not like the game at all. There is a beat wheel that goes under your person and you have to hit the circle (beats) with L and R buttons while performing move sets with the face buttons along with the D-pad. The beat hitting and moves are hard to control at the same time. Well yes, at first it looks funky and horrible but when you get use to the controls you will like the concept. Like tony hawk games, you need to remember button combos while you are hitting beats, not only that you need to figure what moves go to what moves. The performing the moves is a bit real to the real life counter part, like you need to top rock then do a 2000. You can't automatically do a 2000.
There are quite of number of pro bboys/bgurls: Sonic, Hong 10, Ivan, Kmel, Crumbs, Benny, Physicx, Darkness, Lilou, Mouse, Crazy Legs, Rosa Roc, Kazuhiro, Ronnie Ruen makes the game interesting to play. What is very note worthy is that everyone has been motion captured so most your fav bboys/bgurls moves are captured and if you got your geek mode you can actually create movesets just like in their battles such as Hong 10's smoking set on Moy on Red Bull Bc One or Kmel's sets on Who Can Roast The Most against Reveal.

Music in the game are quite good, some of them fit well for battles while some songs sounds like more of a session music. But again most of these beats are classics: The Mexican, Life of the Party, Rated X, Yellow Sunshine, Apache, GIve It Up or Turn It Loose, and lots more. Great fun.

The major flaw of the game is the career mode, you can't name your person... the name is only goes by custom. Kinda weak and the challenges are basically battle this person and win the medals. The A.I. doesn't change much honestly, sometimes they repeat a move or crash most of the time. Which makes it an easy win. Sessioning to upgrade you moves is quite tedious while you keep on training the same move over and over trying to prolong the beat wheel to get that upgrade of a toprock. It's very time consuming and a bit boring. While you can customize your outfit and movesets the challenges doesn't really change at all once again, you are still battling the same people and the A.I. doesn't change. So not much to do in career mode. The input commands are very simple to put in but it does take up time to punch in the combo buttons. People would get turn off with that.

Real fun is playing against friends in Jam/Arcade mode. Play as the pros and battle it out in some areas such as Red Bull, RSC Anni, or UK Champs. Of course it will be a lot fun when you play against someone who really knows how to play, that makes it fun. Among the pros in the game, each of them is very unqiue: Kmel, in my own opinion, is the best character to play because his links to moves are very fast and it looks great, plus he has a great amount of move sets, then there are some fun people to play as Ivan who uses flip combos and windmills into headspins into halos power sets. The key for Ivan is to link up a lotta moves as soon as possible, he is also very very fast. That's just to give some examples how play them.


So i guess in short B-Boy, is a intersting concept for people who can have an certain taste in games, not EVERYONE will like it. If you can look past the counfusing gameplay, you appericate it. I mean if you are a b-boy/b-gurl.

7.1/10

SVA Year 3 Project

To see the full version of this video, head over to http://www.youtube.com/user/xpertise

I shot this during March, in one day. It was a lot of fun. Its about.. video games and pwning.

Music Credit
King of Fighters 2000- Come Up Smiling

Thesis Layout part 1.

A few months ago I hit up the SVA Dusty Film/Animation festival. I enjoyed the animation more than the film thesis for some reason. Perhaps its what my 3rd year instructor told me there is nothing spectacular about it. I guess he means there's not much effort put in some of the thesis projects. I kinda agree, I didn't get much out of most of the films that were shown.

I'm now in my thesis year and I'm going to do my best to create a solid thesis film feature. I plan to create a documentary about bboyin' lifestyle meets college. I chose this because there is a good amount of bboys/bgurls who are in college, when I went to the Breaks U event at NYU. I discovered that they are many skilled people who went to college and are on the same level as a dropout/home schooled bboy/bgurl.
During my 3rd year, I try to make my college bboy club into a community to network with bboys/bgurls from colleges and maybe beyond (in the future).
I'm planning to pick 3 unique bboys/bgurls and tell their stories. Following the footsteps of Planet B-Boy and The Freshest Kids.
I hope this project will be successful out of all my years at SVA. More to come as i blog about the updates.

Btw, here was my first attempt to create a b-boy documentary in my first year at SVA. Its ok now, but back then.. it was the best video i created that year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwfJxeXbJAE

Jam Highlight Battle

Sorry I'm a bit bored and have no idea what to post up. So, I'll put an interesting battle from the 2nd mini jam.

This is an interesting battle that lead to a tie breaker: Chems (Floor Obsessions) Vs Joe Coolz (Skills De Ill)

Next time I put up a real blog. haha

Seeing Sounds: Hiroto Uyama-A Son of The Sun

Hello everyone.
Today I would like to share an album i've discovered last year called A Son Of The Sun by Hiroto Uyama from Nujabes' Record Label Hydeout Production. Now, I seriously fell in love with Nujabes ever since 2005?! When I first watched the anime Samurai Champloo (which I recently bought the newly released series boxset). The soundtrack of Samurai Champloo is very unqiue and I'm serious about that. The music has a mix of eastern fedual flavor mixed with your traditional hip-hop production.
Out of all the artists, Nujabes stands out the most and when I did my research and with a friend hooking me up with some burned copies of Nujabes' solo work years ago. I began to think, this is my type of music. period. Anywho, if you did listen to Nujabes, you might have a track of Uyama Hiroto featured of the track: The Final View in Metamorphical Music.
Well, from what I researched Hiroto and Nujabes usually teamed up, esp during a concert on youtube I came across.
Anywho, A Sun of The Sun is great album to listen to. People would say, ehh he SOUNDS like nujabes, however, I think that Hiroto is on his own field. The music gives off I think a spiritual feeling and scaling landscapes. It makes me feel like I wanna talk walk to a the beach with the track "Ribbon in the Sea". Or climbing a mountain as if i'm training for something or trying to reach a goal with "Climbed Mountain". Basically when you listen to these songs you always get a sense a theme with each track.
There are 2 rap songs in the album, not huge as Nujabes' Modal Soul and Metamorphical and other albums. But, it these 2 songs stands out on their own. Vision Eyes features Golden Boy from the Canadian rap group Specifics. All I can say his flow rides the chill beat like a beast. This my favorite track in the album, this song makes me wanna chill and lounge at a club. One thing also that I find interesting, that Japan hip-hop picks their rap artists very well. A lot of underground artists that SHOULD be noticed by today's standards.
The other track Fly Love Song features Pase Rock from the Ohio rap group Five Deez. Surely, if you are Nujabes fan, you've heard him in a lot of Nujabes work. Well, he is still doing the damn thing with this track about... LOVE. The song gives off a nice piano vibe, drum sounds, and turntable scratches, following a deep lyical material. This is my 3rd favorite track of the album.

One thing that is interesting is Nujabes helped out with the album arrangements which gives a nice flow with instruments and with its loops.

The whole playlist is great not really any tracks to skip. However, this album may not be for everyone, because depending on the taste of music the listener is used to. If you want to try something new or if you love Nujabes and wanna try to dig deeper. This album is for you.

If not, I suggest people listen to Metamorpical Music and Modal Soul first. Its a great introduction to the Jazz-Hip-Hop genre.


Tracks to check out
1. Vision Eyes Featuring Golden Boy
2. Waltz For Life Will Born
3. Fly Love Song Featuring Pase Rock
4. Ribbon in the Sea
5. 81Summer

Reason Behind MIni Jams

before I start blabbing, I want to thank everyone for coming to jams and making it a nice turn out. Mostly every time.

So I want to get something straight off my head, I know there are people who are asking, why don't you want your jams being posted or advertise in breakernyc or bboyworld?

The reason is I don't think the School of Visual Arts is ready to expose or blow up yet. After all, its a "mini jam" like... a baby/small jam. Yet, I know that a good amount of people, even people I don't know, knows about this jam.

I do think that SVA jams and the scene is building a rep, little by little. That's great and I hope it keeps growing as it is.

The idea behind the mini jam was around nov and dec. I heard that Breaks U is coming again and I know that we can do better compared to last year. Also the number of people joining the club was growing in a good rate and I thought that I need to put them to the test somehow. And most of the members never been to a jam before. I also thought a little prize will be awarded and its also a trigger for hunger for battles too.

So this came through my mind: How can they handle themselves in a battle? So, I try to emulate how would a jam be like or what could you expect in a real battle. The first one was set in a classroom, small and private, and also fun. However, there is a problem getting past security. Other than that itt was a success.

During Jan. I realized that Breaks U is coming in a good 2 months. I thought that maybe another could do it, to make the SVA members ready for breaks U. And better yet, maybe I could try to make the jam a bit bigger and more public. So I moved to the student lounge and that's where all the action took place. People coming in, new faces to meet and such. It was great. Prizes anted up to big video games, Ipods, and all that cool stuff. Then someone said we should do this each month. And so.. here we are.

A few things concern me about School of Visual Arts. Before I go venting out. I'm sorry to the SVA student body if you guys get offended.

I just wish more SVA students come down to watch it, I do invite them yet, I don't think they care at all. The event isn't just for the bboy scene, but for the school also. And I do go passing around flyers and invite people. And I have a feeling, they just don't give a F about it. Because... they will go if there is food, drinks, or something related to their taste of... whatever they like. Which is totally messed up, I know people don't care about the SVA events at all but this event is truly unique compared to other events happening in SVA.

SVA Jams had a big turn out.
SVA Mini Jam 1 had 10 entries to the roster. The judges were Air-rich (Part Time Models), Hox, and Richie Rich (Full Force/Super Cr3w)
SVA Mini Jam 2 had 26 people in the roster with Ill-Phil (SDI), Xzoob and Xzist (Ground Zero) as judges.
SVA Mini Jam 3 had 24 people in the roster with Samo (X-Fenz), Ekcite, and Xzist as judges.
SVA Mini Jam 4 had 25 entires with Kid Glyde (Dyanmic Rockers), Xzist, and Richie Rich as judges. Steve Stylez (2-K Tactics), Chem (Floor Obessions), and Wingz were sub-judges for the first half.

Unfornately, mini jam 4 had some bad turnouts.
-The school didn't do the food order, so i took on to myself to buy everything to make the jam popping.
-An unfortunate event for one of the judges to leave
-there was heated cypher towards the end, however ther was peace afterward, I know I can't control from things happening but yea that's how the bboy culture is and its healthy. But I understand that, my purpose is to have gatherings of bboyin coming together but just to have fun and respect. We should respect each other, we are human and there is no need to be fired up. And if you have too much heat I would kindly have to say take it outside. If anything did happen, I would be held responsible since we are in a school enviorment.

Everything is cool now and it was a learning experience.

I hope there will be more Mini Jams to come



This is the finals from the first jam, the jam was very small yet fun.