MP3 Experiment 10 : My Experience

So, this year was the 10 year anniversary of the MP3 Experiment by Improv Everywhere, and for the first time I was able to go. Improv Everywhere was created by Charlie Todd in August 2001 which is a NYC based prank collective that causes scenes of chaos and joy in public places. Kinda like doing pranks to other people without hurting them (physically/mentally/emotionally/etc.) while rather just acting goofy and weird when interacting with them, either direct or indirect. The MP3 Experiment itself is in the form of a flash mob where everybody listens to an MP3 track together at the same time, synchronized.

When I first found out about the MP3 Experiment 10 I was ecstatic. I knew that I was gonna go because I've always seen the MP3 Experiment videos on YouTube and I've always wanted to try it but never knew how. But this year I heard the announcement of the MP3 Experiment 10, and I immediately jumped on the bandwagon! I didn't care what I needed or how I got there but I knew for sure, I was gonna do it. I even brought my cousin along so we can do the experiment and for us to spend time and have fun together. Plus, it would be more fun to be with someone rather than go alone, by yourself. I mean, I would have gone regardless whether I was with someone or not. But I'm glad I wasn't alone and it was more fun.


When we first arrive I was nervous and excited. I don't know why, but I was getting paranoid thinking, what if we were the only two people here who were doing it? We were looking around trying to spot other people who were in on the experiment.It wasn't that easy considering there is no obvious way of knowing who's in on the experiment and the fact that you were supposed to dress up like a tourist. (see picture to below)

But we did notice that there were some people doing the experiment because they were getting their props ready and talking about it and stuff like that. Upon finding this out I was more excited and more comfortable, ready to do this experiment!

So without anything else being said, here is the actual video. Enjoy. I know I did. And so let the MP3 Experiment 10 begin!!! ⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩⇩



To see the full story with photos click 'here'.
To see the photo of me and my cousin doing the experiment click 'here'. (p.s. nothing special)

Discover NYC Personal Tour: Dubos point

So a while back, earlier this year, I realized that I barely travel anywhere. In general, I barely travel at all. I also been living in New York City my entire life and I haven't seen my this cities own landmarks. (I really need to get out more) So thats when I came up with the idea of going to random places in the city in each of the 5 boroughs. My original plan was to take each train and try to go to a random stop. But then I thought that would take forever, so I wanted to go to special stops that had something to offer me instead of a regular boring normal neighborhood, like the WTC site, City Hall, the Brooklyn bridge, Roosevelt Island and many more places! But mainly, I want to go to the abandoned locations. I wanted to go to abandoned places when I simply typed in the word "abandoned" in Google and since I'm in New York the search results came up New York related and the first link was a website of the abandoned places in New York. I wanted to learn more and then visit these locations. (http://abandonednyc.com/)

I call this my own personal tour because that's pretty much what it is and what I am doing. I call it my 'Discover NYC Personal Tour' because I will tour around New York City traveling and finding out new things, to have new, young, fresh experiences because I want to and it'll be fun. This will be my plans for this summer so that way I won't get bored.

The first and easiest place that I wanted to go to was Dubos Point Wildlife Sanctuary, which in my opinion isn't even a sanctuary. Although, there is plenty of wildlife. This place is nothing but sand, grass, mud and marsh. My best advice is to stay on the sand and out of the grass. The grass is where most the marsh is, got stuck a few times when trying to cut through them. Plus, they're very tall and thick, not easy when you can't see where you're stepping let alone what direction you're going, and you don't know what plants or animals are in there. This place is technically not open to the public, but at the same time there is no one there to tell you not to be there. For more information, click 'here' or 'here'. Now without anymore reading, (assuming you did read) here are the photos I took while at Dubos Point Wildlife Sanctuary. Please read the caption for they tell my story.

As soon as I get there, not even in the sanctuary yet, there is a pile of trash such as a mattress and an old TV.

A broken wooden fence with more trash.

An abandoned naked doll in the pile.

Rotting old wooden pilings of an old dock.

More pilings.

More pilings.

I don't even know what this thing once was...

But whatever this thing was, It had some big chains.

Marsh Pond.

Another marsh Pond.

A baby doll, without a head. That's creepy & disturbing.

An old, still inflated truck tire.

 An old rotten boat frame.

A decaying boat in the sand.

A mysterious pipe, wonder what it is.

So close to the people who live here yet they have no idea.

Some plants don't mind some of the trash. Just shows you how little this place is used.

An old ships iron frame broken in the sand. Such a beautiful scene!

The engines to the ship, now rusted and covered with sea growth.

More rotten piling in a beautiful scene.

A nice shot of waves hitting the shore.

Some grass growing in a rusted, paint chipped old boat.

Another not so old broken, paint chipped boat. Maybe left there from hurricane Sandy.

A sorta still standing old wooden dock.

A boat permanently docked.

A rusted fire hydrant. Was there once a side-walk here? If not, then what's gonna catch on fire, water? Just kidding there probably was a side-walk here that was eroded away by the salt water and left this!

A lonely abandoned road.

A tugboat sunk and no one got it out.

Any treasure aboard?

An abandoned metal shed.

And it's all right here!

Water Drop Photography (experiment)

I already knew that there were still photos of these water droplets hitting a puddle, but I never thought that I could do it myself! The pros taking these photos have bigger better equipment and looks amazing!

Water Drop example photos

But then I found out that my simple point and shoot digital camera (GE W1200) with high resolution (12.2 megapixels) can take still photos with great detail in a split second. So then I was bored again and decided to try an experiment to capture water droplets. And to my own surprise, I actually captured them. These are the photos I took.

Reflection Droplet

Clear Water Tower 1

Clear Water Tower 2

Clear Water Tower 3

Red Water Tower

Faucet Stream

6 Green Droplets Levitating

Green Water Tower 1

Green Water Tower 2

Green Water Tower 3

I had to get my camera very close to the water. One slip of the fingers and my camera would've been drowning! And I only did this in my bathroom sink! Now every time I look at these, I am breathless to know that I captured these photos! And I would like to believe that this would start my professional photography career! =)

Entering the Spongebob Squareshorts contest!

So my latest film project was creating a spongebob inspired short film for the Nickelodeon film making contest they are hosting, where you must create an original film short inspired by the little absorbent, yellow, porous Spongebob Squarepants. The actual title of this contest is "Spongebob Squareshorts"

Spongebob Squareshorts

When I first heard about this I thought it was perfect for me to enter. I thought since I already enjoy making videos and short films, I thought I could do the same for this. So as soon as I heard about this, I knew I had to look it up to find out more. When I went on the website (spongebobsquareshorts.com) and read the assignment, I thought I could do this easily, but in reality, it was really hard to create a whole original storyline script. But once I got it flowing, it grew into a beautiful script. And in my mind, seemed perfect, but know I had to actually film it.

This is really my first video where I needed other people to play the characters, because normally I would play as all of the characters myself. But for this one I didn't want that. So after struggling and having harshly tempered conversations, I finally convinced my two friends, Issac Mata & Jose Romero, to play the other two roles in my film script. But then they wouldn't stop asking me to pay them for acting, but really? I wasn't going to pay them, because they were my friends and I not going to give money away like that. But getting to work with my friends to be in the video was fun, even though they wasted a lot of time messing up, but makes for a few funny bloopers. And I'm glad they were able to help be a part of it because without them, I wouldn't have the characters I need and I wouldn't have such an awesomely funny video!

Best Actors Ever

The editing process was very easy for me because I already knew what I needed in the video and how the story goes, simply because I wrote the script! I would say more but I don't know what to say because that pretty much sums it up.

Editing Process working out smoothly as planned

So all together, I'm glad how the results with my video came out. Creativity mix with hard work can make anything, and I am satisfied with what I made. So all I need to do know is wait and see if my video entry gets accepted. If I win this contest, that will be the moment where my hopes and dreams become reality.

UPDATE (July 19, 2013): Unfortunately, my short film was not accepted as a finalist. I am sad and disappointed but that's ok, because you know what they say, 'Hope for the best, Expect the worst', well that basically how it happened. Even though it wasn't accepted, I enjoyed filming and making it, and although I hoped to make it in the end, I can't stay sad because life goes on and we need to keep working hard to achieve our goals and to just keep on living.