Creative Mastermind for Week 9/23: Amy Grant's "Helping Hand"

Good Day to you wonderful Creative Cabana readers!

It's Wednesday, which means we're halfway through the week already and even more so can you believe September is almost over? Geesh! Where does the time go? Speaking of timing I'd like to share with you a message regarding this week's Creative Mastermind post. I had the original intent of posting the Creative Mastermind on Monday evening, but hit what's known as "Writer's Block." If you're not familiar with this concept, it's a case of where your mind draws a blank and doesn't really know what to write down. So I figured I'd think about it overnight with the intention of having a great idea to post on Tuesday. Plans changed and they changed my way of thinking quite a bit.

Yesterday I witnessed something that I had never seen with my own eyes before. I actually saw a car crash in action in front of me. No, I was not the one involved, but I witnessed it first hand. In Columbus, we have these structures called Roundabouts which are circle-shaped intersections for traffic usage. In theory they are supposed to make traffic quicker and safer for drivers. I disagree, but that's just me. Anyway while I waited my turn to enter the roundabout an SUV coming around the curve hit a smaller car that was entering the roundabout on my left side. It happened so fast I couldn't believe what I just saw. Granted it didn't take long for me snap back to reality as the driver behind me started to honk at me for not continuing on with traffic. At first I started to continue down my usual route, but my conscious got the best of me and I quickly turned around to go back. I pulled my car off to the side away from traffic and ran to the victims to make sure they were ok. One was younger girl, I'd say early 20s driving the smaller car, but the other lady was in her 30s or possibly 40s who was in the SUV. The younger girl was clearly scared, but appreciative that I came back to make sure no one was hurt. I can't say the same for the older lady who was quick to blame the other girl for the accident. I'm not exactly sure who was at fault, but I assured them that I only came back to make sure they were alright. Once I realized both ladies were ok, I gracefully made my exit and proceeded on home. During my drive back a song came on that reassured me what I did was the right thing. It was called "Helping Hand" by Amy Grant. Click Here to listen to this amazing song!

Amy Grant is one of my favorite artists hands down from her contemporary christian music to her upbeat 90s hits like "Baby Baby" or "Every Heartbeat". This song was purely ironic and inspiring! One of things I find creative about "Helping Hand" is that it's very interpersonal. She sounds as if she is singing her thoughts- "Take a look at your fellow man, and tell me what can I do today?". The music is very simple, no fancy orchestra, or complex music composition, just a basic beat with some drums and keyboarding. Towards the end you get a chorus background singing with Amy Grant which I think symbolizes people coming together to offer that "Helping Hand". She starts out alone and as the song progress more music and singing is involved with the message.

I deem Amy Grant as this week's Creative Mastermind for her song "Helping Hand" because this is one of the few songs I know that doesn't so much focus on themselves in a relationship, or cheating on someone, etc. Instead it asks "What can you do to help someone?". Instead of making the song about "me" or "you", it focuses on "everybody" and coming together to build friendships and make the world a better place. It's creative as to how the song is portrayed as well. Every time I hear "Helping Hand" I feel as though I'm actually having a conversation with Amy Grant herself. In many songs the idea is behind a story, or a specific emotion the artist is battling with. In this particular song, it's more of a message and conversation piece where someone is saying here's what wrong and here's what you should do to help. I know other songs similar to "Helping Hand" that also portray these kinds of messages, but this song just strikes me instantly. It's especially ironic to me how this came on in my car after I gave a "helping hand" to the victims of the car accident. So congrats to Amy Grant and her wonderful song "Helping Hand".

If you'd like to lend a helping hand to The Creative Cabana then make sure you follow the cabana on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Just search "Creative Cabana" or check out the Connect With Me page for instant access!

* Image of musician Amy Grant was pulled from a search in Google Images. The songs "Helping Hand", "Baby Baby" and "Every Heartbeat" are the sole property of Amy Grant and respective songwriters. Usage of video links through YouTube are credited to respective account holders and content is property of Amy Grant. Article linked regarding the term "Roundabout" is credited to Wikipedia and was used only for educational purposes. No copyright infringement intended! 

What to do when Life gets a little TOO crazy...

Wow, ok, WOW! I cannot believe I went an entire week without posting something here at The Creative Cabana! I strongly suspect my reasoning for this is due to the one thing that constantly seems to plague my life: STRESS. Yeah, everyone gets stressed and we all go through things in our lives that just make us wanna scream. Personally, over the last few years I've been on sort of a quest to seek out different ideas that can help calm the senses. No matter what though, life still seems to get in the way of what we want to do. In short, I apologize to my readers for leaving you out in the dark over the last week due to my STRESS.

This does setup a nice platform though for my next idea to suggest here at The Creative Cabana. In the title of this post I asked "What to do when Life gets a little TOO crazy..."? Well there's really no right or wrong answer to this question. We all have our own unique strategies of how we handle life's hurls. For me I tend to shift in the things that help me to settle down. When I was younger before we had all these fancy Tablets, MP3 players, and well Netflix- I used to draw, ALL THE TIME! I literally had a stash at home where I kept a tablet, pencil, crayons, etc. and would just draw anything I could think of. Now a days I tend to just listen to music and trying to do something productive to take my mind off of problems. Still, for me I don't think anything really satisfies my senses more than drawing. I don't have pictures of my artwork yet to upload and show you, but rather than make this about me I'd like to focus on creative stress relievers for you!

Whether you feel you are artistically talented or not, I encourage you to embrace yourself and try to create some Art that reflects what you find happy, soothing, or any other encouraging emotions. You can draw, paint, color (that's right, go ahead and relive your childhood), or just doodle. It doesn't matter if it's good or not- Art is only in the eye of the beholder. Got a spouse or co-worker driving you crazy? Draw up a little cartoon on some scratch paper that will turn your frustration into humor- nothing cures stress like a smile and chocolate helps too. Is school letting you or your child down? Try making education fun by adding fun drawings to study sheets. It's good for memorization and helps to keep you positive while studying. So go ahead- get your creative thinking cap on!

Also, my friends, we are getting ready to head into the Holiday seasons (I know where did the time go?). So over the next few months I'm going to try centering some of my posts around different aspects of the holidays and give you some fun creative ideas to share with your friends, family, and other peers. This is only the beginning, get the stress out now because coming soon we're going to make some holiday magic! Have a wonderful creative day my friends! Check back soon for this week's Creative Mastermind!!!

Creative Mastermind for Week 9/16: Jamie Neal- "A Single Girl's Journey To A Life Of No Regrets"

Good day to you my wonderful Creative Cabana readers!!! It's Monday, new day, new week, which means a new Creative Mastermind has been crowned. In keeping with the ideals of trying to mix-up the background and occupations of the recent Creative Masterminds, this week I have done something a little different and I have chosen to profile my good friend, sorority sister, and fellow blogger- Jamie Neal.

Jamie and I met during our freshmen year of college and experienced all kinds of interesting things together. She was one of the first people I met on campus and instantly I was attracted to her kind personality and sense of wit. Together we served on our school's homecoming committee, became sorority sisters, and now here we are living the post-grad life.

Jamie has a blog of her own titled, "A Single Girl's Journey To A Life of No Regrets." In her blog she talks a lot about some of the things she's experienced in her post-grad journey, and discusses her steps into living the life she wants to live. She really gives a good insight into things that we might not always think carefully about. Her blog sort of articulates what a lot of younger adults go through as they try to transition into this thing called "adulthood".
Jamie really puts a lot of personal thought into her blog and organizes it into a chique-designed template.

So what it is about Jamie Neal that makes her a Creative Mastermind? It's just simply that. Jamie is truly one of the most creative and unique individuals I've ever met. She's artistic, thrifty, simple, and resourceful. She's not a celebrity in New York or Hollywood, you won't find her on TV, and you probably won't find her as a best-selling author anywhere- although I hope some day she achieves all of this! She's just a normal person who happens to be richly blessed with the gift of creativity and resourcefulness.

I look to Jamie as a Creative Mastermind because she shines in talent not just with her blog, but also her many hobbies of photography, writing, and crafting. In her blog she's addressed several of these features and how she has accomplished them. One of her more recent posts addressed the topic of photography and how one deems it as "professional". Very similar to the beliefs I have on this subject, she also displays examples of some her best photography work to date. These are just great examples of what qualities I try to look for in a Creative Mastermind- insight, inspiring, and a unique level of creativity.

If you do get a chance, please check out her blog  "A Single Girl's Journey To A Life of No Regrets" and I hope you will discover some of the unique aspects about her that I enjoy. She is my friend and sorority sister, but I also look to her as someone who inspires me to really "think outside of the box", not just with art, crafts, or anything like that. She has personally encouraged me and her peers to not be afraid to do what makes you happy. Being creative personally makes me happy, so find what makes you happy and you too can become a Creative Mastermind like Jamie Neal!

*If you know someone or something who would make an excellent candidate for Creative Mastermind, please leave a comment in this post.

Friday the 13th, What is the Deal?

Courtesy of Bitstrips via Facebook

It's not Halloween yet, but for some reason Friday the 13th seems to be connected to things like bad luck, superstitions, and creepy myths. Well, to be honest, I've never really understood the whole Friday the 13th superstition. Granted, I've never seen the movie (I know, I have problems). Still though for as long as I can remember people tend to get a little paranoid over the 13th when it lands on a Friday. As I was looking into the history of the "Friday the 13th" superstition, I started reading about it's origins and came across some interesting ideas. Apparently legend notes the number 13 as unlucky because in numerology 12 is designated as "completeness"- 12 months, 12 hours (24 if you count the whole day),  12 zodiac signs, etc. Friday is also an unlucky day of the week, which makes me laugh because if I had to choose any day during the week as unlucky it'd probably be Monday or Wednesday. I mean c'mon why are we hating on Friday? Seriously though who makes up this kind of stuff? Friday is just a day, well other than being an annoying Rebecca Black song. The number 13 is just that, a number. Do I believe in superstitions? Some yes, but Friday the 13th isn't something I can honestly say I take belief in. Do people act strange on Friday the 13th? Oh yes! Watching people's paranoia is a little entertaining actually!

If you do happen to have a fear or problem with Friday the 13th, I'm offering you some creative suggestions to help easy your mind and get you through this crazy day. I've listed 7 ideas here, why seven? Because it's lucky of course!

1. Indulge yourself by eating a big bowl of Lucky Charms: 

2. Find a four leave clover and keep it on your desk! Or cut one out with green construction paper and make a cute little pin out of it. This would be a really fun and cute crafts to do with kids!

3. Try listening to songs that mention Good Luck or being Lucky! Here's my suggestion- Madonna's "Lucky Star"

4. If you find a penny on the ground only pick it up if it's on heads 

5. Wear your lucky socks, necklace, tie, bracelet. Anything you have that will you give that extra positive spark! 

6. Go play a round of horseshoe! 

7. You made it to number 7 and guess what? 7 is a lucky number! Consider yourself just endowed with Good Luck!

So there you have it friends! Bet you didn't know that The Creative Cabana is lucky too! Lucky to have such wonderful readers like yourself. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, for more creative ideas. Enjoy your Friday everyone!

*Images used in this post were pulled from Google Images. The bitstrip photo was created using the Bitstrip App. located on Facebook. The song and video to "Lucky Star" is the property of Madonna. No Copyright Infringement intended.

Creative Mastermind for Week 9/9: Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg

Well this is embarrassing.... I wrote up the Creative Mastermind for this week last night and apparently never pressed the "Publish" button. Go ahead readers, laugh at my poor ability to forget to hit a button! I already did! But hey I have your post all ready for you and if you can see this, well then you'll know this time I did actually press the "Publish" button. Sorry for the delay, but I hope you enjoy the read.

Hello wonderful Creative Cabana readers!!! If you happen to be in my part of the world (aka Columbus, Ohio, United States) where it's currently humid and about 93 degrees outside, then I hope you're staying cool and refreshed. Besides what better way to relax that right here at the Cabana where you can read about everything creative! So who has been given the great honor of Creative Mastermind for this week? The answer is the creators of the multimedia application Audacity, Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg.

For those of you who may not be familiar with this program, Audacity is a free application used for editing audio recordings and creating basic soundtracks for your media projects. It's not quite as advanced as other industry standard programs like ProTools or GarageBand. However, Audacity gives you the free and easy access to edit your audio recordings using basic edit tools and other options. I first learned about this awesome and unique program during my freshmen year of college. As you might recall from my Who Am I? page, I studied Electronic Media Production in school so often times I would be out with my recording device getting different sounds, interviews, and other audio clips for my radio show. I learned how to use Audacity in my early college classes and used it to do my basic edits from the comfort of my dorm room- Hey, studio access wasn't always available, so it was nice to me able to do some of the work remotely!

Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg are credited with the development of this program and since it's release back in 2000, Audacity has become a very popular educational tool throughout world. It offers the flexibility to do basic audio edits, while offering users the capability to learn about edit styles, features, and audio tricks that are common throughout the media production industry. I've used Audacity to help restore some of my music files. You know where you'll have song files like WAV or WMA that won't work on your Ipod or take up too much space? Audacity is perfect for converting those files into a simple MP3 file for easier playback and uses less space. You can also create multi-track mixing for ultimate DJ effects and create your own master mix.

I really enjoy the Audacity appliciation because it's easy-to-use, great flexibility for audio editing, and yes it's FREE! So hats off to Mr. Dominic Mazzoni and Mr. Roger Dannenberg for giving the world the ability to master the mixing of sound! Their talents and creative concepts for developing Audacity have given them the title of Creative Mastermind of the Week! Congratulations guys!

***Don't forget: If you have someone or something in mind that would make an excellent candidate for Creative Mastermind of the Week, please let me know in the comments.

*Images used are pulled from Google Images. Audacity is a free application tool open to the public, however the name and program design is credited to Dominic Mazzoni and Roger Dannenberg.

The Art of Storyboards

So you want to make a video but don't know where to start or better yet, you don't know what to make a video of? It's ok, most people have the common case of the "I Don't Know What to Do" syndrome. Relax! If you want to make a really good quality, professional looking video, it's always best to start at the beginning by jotting down some notes.

If this is for a school or company project, I highly suggest you really take the time to consider your production options before moving onto any kind of casting, shooting, etc. If you're set out to make a homemade video of your Cousin Skippy doing the world's fastest Frisbee toss while juggling your collection of shoes, then you probably won't be putting much thought into making a good quality video. When I say good quality or professional video, I'm talking about something that will officially represent you, your company, your idea, etc. In other words put as much effort into the production of your videos as if it where up for an Oscar nomination!

So first off, think to yourself what do I want to create? Music Video, Commercial, Documentary, Commentary, etc. Put yourself into a category of what TYPE of video you want to create and then you can start selecting the topics, songs, products, etc. While I was studying Broadcasting in college, I had the opportunity to create two music videos. The first one I created was a video featuring some of my closest college friends has we lip-synced to "I'll Remember You" by The Rembrandts (aka the theme from "Friends"). The concept of the video was pretty simple, each of us had specific lyrics to follow throughout the song as we acted different scenes that correspond to the message of the song. Now please keep in mind, this was a class assignment so there were certain steps that had to be followed throughout all aspects of production, which I'll get to in a minute. The second video I made was a custom song for my college written and sung by DJ $crilla (and yes there is a $ instead of S). The song was titled "Ashland University 2008" and highlighted some cool things about the school and also focused on our Greek Life. When I made the music video for this song, the production schedule was a little interesting because of different events that were going on at the time of production.

Regardless, something that helped my with both music video shoots, and in fact all of my video projects, was a simple tool called Story boarding. For those who are not familiar with this concept, I can assure you it is for your benefit and easy to do. Basically, story boarding is a set of drawings that illustrates your ideas for your video. Don't worry, although you have to be the one to draw them that doesn't mean you have to have draw well. All you're doing is sketching out ideas for your video shoot in order to keep track of scenes, props, cast, and other important factors. To illustrate my point, here are a few pages of my storyboard for the "I'll Remember You" music video:

This is a just sample of the storyboard I put together for this video shoot. All together it came to about 21 pages. The final product didn't turn out exactly how I had planned for it, but the project got done  and turned out really well. Having that storyboard to help guide the cast and visualize the ideas I wanted to portray really brought the video together. Sure stuff happened, bad weather, camera problems, etc.- storyboards can't fix that, but it helps organize your thoughts and plans. If you have to re-route your concepts from what you had originally planned, that's fine.

Before you begin any kind of shooting or pre-production work, I strongly recommend you take the time to create a storyboard illustrating your visual concept of how you want the video to be portrayed. If you have cast or other crew members, allow them to look over your storyboard and get their input as well. If you need scripts and/or song lyrics for the video, provide them a copy of the materials so they can follow along with the lines and your pictures. Story boarding is easy, efficient, and a great organizing tool to help you keep tracking with your production. If you're someone who is also looking to do any kind of graphics or animation work in your videos, storyboards allow you the ability to plan those ideas out as well. Below is a video I found on YouTube where animators from The Walt Disney Studios discussing how storyboards work and how they can be useful for you upcoming video projects.

Enjoy the video and Happy Storyboarding!!! 

Creative Mastermind Week 9/2 (Sorry it's late!): Trading Spaces

Greetings once again to my readers!
I want to sincerely apologize for not having any new posts for you over the last several days. Between the holiday weekend and technical problems, I've just been running into all kinds of trouble. But finally, everything appears to be working and I'm back on track with The Creative Cabana.

Now then, even though it may be a little late this week, I still have found a new Creative Mastermind for the first week of September! Hooray! Last week, I found a unique artist who is taking her talents and using it to help hospital patients. This week, I'm looking at not so much a single person, but more like a "concept", to be exact, a television show. The Creative Mastermind for this is TLC's Trading Spaces.

This is one of the shows I can honestly say I was religiously dedicated to once I saw it. I don't remember exactly how I came across this show, but I can tell you when I saw it I was hooked! Now for those you who aren't familiar with the show, let me fill you in. Trading Spaces allowed 2 neighbors to decorate each other's rooms in their home with the help of a designer, carpenter, and a $1,000 budget. This show was funny, creative, smart, and dare I say... a little bit educational. Hosted by Paige Davis, this show was on from 2000 to 2008 and was actually a really big hit for TLC. Ty Pennington from Extreme Home Makeover was on this show as well as several interior designers such as Vern Yip, Frank Bielec, and Genevieve Gorder.

So you might be thinking, "Ok Trading Spaces is an interior design show. What does this have to do with things The Creative Cabana looks at?" Well, there's actually a lot of things I finding unique about the show. The main thing of course is the idea of the show. Trading Spaces taught people how to decorate their homes under a budget and in a fairly simple matter. A lot of the projects were made for the average-joe, and didn't cost an arm and leg to do. But something else that strikes me is that, this is one of the few reality shows that doesn't seem "fake". It's not like Survivor or Big Brother where you know (or assume) everything is rigged. Trading Spaces was more in touch with the viewers in making them feel that the people, projects, and work was real!

Finally, I not only thought the content was good and creative- the video production and graphics are really good too. Watch this YouTube clip and you can get a feel of the opening and how the show worked.

Did you see the animated graphic opening? It always reminds me of those fun design programs where you can virtually create a room and rearrange furniture, paint the walls, etc. If that's the look the producers were going for, then well done! The way each episode is produced reminds me a little bit of that "On-Location/Documentary" feel because they want you to feel as though you're a part of the project. The designers and carpenters are also good about breaking down the design steps to you so you can follow along at home with your ideas.

It's really sad that Trading Spaces isn't on any more because especially now with the advancement of Social Media I think they could have really been interactive with viewers and even former participants on the show. Never the less, this show was just a bundle of fun and creativity. I wish there was a place were you can watch full episodes. Some clips (like the one above) are on YouTube but I haven't seen any full episodes floating around.

Hard work, amazing cast, talented production crew, great concepts, and creative design ideas are why I am crowning TLC's Trading Spaces, The Creative Mastermind of the Week!

*All images used for this post were pulled from Google Images. Video clip found on YouTube- not intended for copyright distribution. Trading Spaces is owned by TLC.