What do we do?

In short, we do anything and everything deemed “creative.” Our team is comprised of areas that focus on: Design and Art, Communications/Marketing, Video Production, Social Media, Photography and Audio Production. We assist with many of the projects/initiatives in the college such as international and domestic recruitment, LLP marketing, ASB promotion/development, alumni communications, event promotions and supporting materials, getting the word out about faculty, staff and student accomplishments, podcast series, building and digital signage, and much, much more. 

Who are we?

Our team currently consists of three full-time staff and 13 student staff. Jennifer Allen heads up the creative side of Hive as Director of Communications & Creative Services, Shaan Azeem is our Art Director, and John Buckman is Director of Video Production and Photography. Since most of you have worked with us before, we wanted to introduce you to our student staff - where a lot of the magic and talent you see comes from.

Each student was asked: If you were an animal, which would you be and why?

Highlights

• Podcast: Long Story Short - The Power of the Vote with Mark Summers

• Podcast: Office Hours with Mathew Godbey and Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby

• Writing: Ampersand Winter 2015

• Writing: Ampersand Fall 2014

• Video: Jeff Babbitt, Scientific Glassblower

• Video: Mathskeller: Math Resource Center

• Video: Thank You from the College of Arts & Sciences

• Design: 

Behind the Scenes

A look at just a couple of the processes we go through to make our content look as great as possible.

Work Work Work!

Click this blog post, unplug your headphones, spread the sunshine.

Clive Tanaka y su orquesta "Neu Chicago" Rockmaster Rus B Vocal Edit by rockmasterrusb

A truly amazing, and inspiring lecture by reknown education reformist and creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson. The first clip is an abbreviated version complete with some equally amazing hand drawn animation! Robinson speaks of public school's dated, factory-like, model of processing children like products, and makes a very humorus, but also scary look at the increasing use of medication to numb our children into conformity. Also look out for his TED talks. Have a great weekend!

You can also watch the full, hour-long version of this speech below:

Currently, embedded Vimeo content isn't viewable so click the link below to watch this amazing video. Its a combination of graffiti and found objects used to create a stop-motion depiction of the history of the universe that sprawls over an enitre urban landscape. The foresight, patience, and talent behind this video is truly inspiring, so enjoy!

BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

Will I ever have this much time and this many friends?

So I have been working on some audio tutorials for my fellow Media Mafia members, here at A&S Online Education. I thought I would share one that I think ANYONE can use. Feel free to watch the video to see Levelator in action, or read the instructions below and download it for yourself!

VIDEO:    If the video embed isn't visable, click the link to watch on Vimeo
 

Levelator Makes Your Voice Recordings Sound Great, for Free! from John Buckman on Vimeo.

Leveling Audio with Levelator (aka, performing Black Magic)

The Problem:

Often times when recording multiple speakers you will find that some speak louder than others, have a deeper voice, or were standing closer to the microphone. This can result in inconsistent audio levels (sometimes dramatic). In other cases, someone may hit the microphone, cough or slam a door, causing a sharp increase in audio levels. Properly microphone placement and selection, as well as real-time input level adjustments can lessen the extent to which the audio levels differ. You should always aim for the best sound during recording, as it is far easier and more effective to correct problems at this stage than in postproduction mixing.

However, even with proper attention paid during the recording stage, there are certain factors you cannot control. Examples include the sound of doors slamming, very loud, quiet or dynamic speakers, distance from microphones, coughing into lapel microphones, and microphones being bumped. Variations in sound that don’t appear drastic in real life often become amplified in recordings.

The Solution:

Download Levelator:

http://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator

It's donation-ware, so if you find you like it, throw them some $$.

Drag and drop your Wave or AIFF onto Levelator. Don’t look directly at the program, as it uses black magic.

- kthnxbai!

Wait, for real?

Pretty much, yeah, Levelator will automate the time consuming process of compression, normalization, limiting and volume envelope adjustments.

So I should always use this?

Levelator is not human, only magic. There are times when it over does it’s job and with particularly noisy environments you may find that smaller background noises have been beefed up along with the speaker and sound is just a little too “bloated”. Levelator WILL raise the volume of the track so that it is as loud as can be, so don’t let volume differences confuse you. Turn up your volume when comparing what you put in with what you get out. Use your judgment, if Levelator went overboard maybe you should just add a limiter and pull up the gain of your track to raise it’s volume without it clipping.

- That's all for now! Thanks!