So a video project requires that all-important ingredient for production — an idea. More specifically, it requires a story. That’s the non-technical, artistic side of any kind of production work. We have made some progress in this area. In fact, many of you have demonstrated a strong grasp of it with your digital stories (which I’m enjoying). You have one more chance in this class to hit on something solid.

Your blog assignment is to write a 1 – 3 paragraph concept summary of an idea you’re considering shooting for your video project. Be sure to use language to really sell the idea. Follow these instructions:

1) Write your piece so that it’s Third Person POV (no “my,” “I” sentences).

2) Start the piece with a high level, thematic statement (“One thing people all never seem to have enough of is time.” “Human beings are born with an innate fear of darkness.”)

3) Say how this will be a story told, and describe a little bit about the flow of the piece.

4) Give us a couple good details that really help the reader visualize some important scenes in the piece.

As always, contact me if you’re confused or want to try out some ideas. if you’re having trouble getting started, here are some suggestions for narrative (FICTION) stories:

1) Retell a myth, fairy tale, legend (even an urban legend) or joke. All of those things usually have built-in story shape.

2) Think of a story that uses these familiar themes/devices: fish out of water (the struggles of a person who is out of his/her element); the quest or journey;the odd couple (people who see the world differently suddenly thrown together); stranded (people reacting to being stuck somewhere); revenge (someone wronged looking for satisfaction); misunderstanding.

Here are some suggestions for a documentary-style (NON-FICTION) story:

–Story about someone important

–Story about an event in your life

–Story about a place

–Story about what you do

–Recovery stories

–Love stories

–Discovery stories

Good luck. I look forward to seeing your ideas.

1) Still photos as key visual element

2) A linear timeline (hit play and it goes)

3) Voice over narration

4) Interview audio (quotes and sound bites)

5) Music

6) Sound design

7) Transition effects, pans and zooms

Now I want you to find online stories that have these qualities (not full-motion video, but stills), and post their links here. I also want you to write whether you think the piece succeeds or falls short of its potential. Explain why you have arrived at either conclusion.

In your search, try the following sources:

http://mediastorm.org

http://www.storycenter.org/stories/

This American Life video podcasts on iTunes (just search in iTunes)

Magnum in Motion video podcasts on iTunes (just search in iTunes)

Some suggestions: Check out the multimedia section of newspaper sites. Try YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, or other video sites. Check other podcast offerings on iTunes. Try advertising agency sites; film festivals; movie or TV show sites.

Remember that to post a link you can cut-and-paste the link directly into your post. If it’s too long or you want to specifically label it, use the HTML tags:

<a href=”URLgoesHERE”>anytextyouwant</a>

I look forward to your discoveries.

To summarize what I said in class yesterday about this next project, there are three aspects of new media production involved:

1) The technical (being able to create these slides in Photoshop and use a digital camera).

2) The storytelling skills (creating a compelling story, with a narrative arc, using images and words).

3) The aesthetic (taking good, well-composed pictures and placing them in appealing slide layouts).

This exercise will address the latter item; specifically, it will look at composition. There are many compositional devices and principles used by photographers as they shoot: the Rule of Thirds, Symmetry, Balance, Diagonals, Disappearing Lines, Patterns, etc. The following links explore and define these devices. Please read these pages closely and study the examples. Then, find 2 pictures that are posted online which demonstrate one or more of the compositional approaches. Post those links with a brief description.

Basic Composition Guidelines

More Good Guidelines

Fill Your Frame!

Find Fresh Angles!

When looking for examples to post, DO NOT SIMPLY GOOGLE “LOWER THIRDS” OR SOME OTHER KEYWORD. Instead, let’s go to sites like Flickr (click on the EXPLORE tab) and find them.

Remember the tag code for posting links:

<a href=”http://blahblahblah.com”>Some Name for the Link Goes Here</a>
]]> http://classblog1.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/composed/feed/ 10 kcalhoun http://classblog1.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/learning-from-the-web/ http://classblog1.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/learning-from-the-web/#comments Fri, 20 Feb 2009 03:54:01 +0000 kcalhoun http://classblog1.wordpress.com/?p=41 ]]>

Here are a bunch of decent Photoshop tutorial links. I recommend that you use one or two of these tricks in your project to nab some “degree of difficulty” bonus points (see the rubric on the Project Sheet).

Of these links, I found the tricks offered in the first two especially useful (fade images together and extract filter). Remember, there are many ways to do any one thing with Photoshop. These are just suggested approaches that, in my experience, get pretty good results if done right. 

How to Fade Images Together
Cut Out Items Using the Extract Filter
Learn the Basics of Curves
Create a Zoom Effect
Easy Way to Straighten Images
Change Eye Color
Leave One Color in a Black and White Image
Type on a Curved Path

Whole Bunch of Photoshop Tutorials (some repeats)

35 More Basic Tutorials

There are many provocative ideas raised by writer Henry Jenkins (Founder and Director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at MIT) in the opening chapter of his book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. I hope by now you have had an opportunity to read it. Titled “Worship at the Altar of Convergence,” the introduction reminds us that convergence is more than just the notion of various media technologies evolving into a single apparatus. Jenkins states:

“I will argue here against the idea that convergence should be understood primarily as a technological process bringing together mulitple media functions within the same devices. Instead, convergence represents a cultural shift as consumers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among dispersed media content.”

Also:

“Convergence occurs within the brains of individual consumers and through their social interactions with others.”

To begin building his case, Jenkins discusses “participatory culture,” “buzz,” “expanding the storytelling experience,” “the Black Box Fallacy” and “fandom”. He says, ”I have watched fans move from the invisible margins of popular culture and into the center of current thinking about media production and consumption.”

How is this statement real for you? I suspect everyone in this class considers himself/herself a fan of something—a band, a movie, a series of books or writer, a TV show, a sports team, etc. Certainly, we are all the “individual consumers” mentioned above. For your post, tell us how your experience as a fan has changed. How have new media channels and formats allowed you to participate as a fan in a variety of contexts? How have you experienced participatory culture as a fan? Has this participation somehow changed/impacted/influenced the experience of other fans or the object of your fan affections? How does this demonstrate convergence of content even though there may be a divergence of hardware?

Okay. We now know that there are two kinds of digital images: bitmap and vector. We also know that Photoshop is the most popular tool for creating bitmap images. Some bitmap file formats are jpg, gif and, the Photoshop development file, psd (we’ll talk more about these on Tuesday). 

Let’s begin our journey into the realm of Photoshop. As you may already know, there are plenty of Photoshop tutorial materials online. Some are better than others. I think this one is useful, providing us with a high level look at Photoshop, particularly the tools in the toolbar, and helping us all start from the same place of knowledge. Of course, actually using the tools is a more effective way to build working knowledge, but this is a good way to quickly gain a basic understanding of the interface layout, the tools and their functions.

So the assignment is: Please watch the first 23 minutes of this video. Then write a post describing a toolor feature and its function. Make sure you don’t write about a tool that someone has already addressed in their post.

Blog, as I’m sure you know, is short for web log. The name reflects its common use as an online diary or journal. All posts are displayed in chronological order, with the most recent postings on top. Older posts gradually drop lower on the display list as new posts are added.

I’d like you to post to our blog regularly. This means we’ll have a blog assignment once a week. 

One thing that you should keep in mind is that a post must have some substance. It can’t just be a single word response. More specifically, I’d like all our posts to be a good, solid paragraph, least three sentences long. Use proper grammar and spelling; please, no textspeak or emoticons. Ours is what is sometimes called a “literates-only” blog. Posts will be given a score with a range of 1 – 5. For a 5, the post has to be thoughtful, relevant and generally outstanding. Most posts will probably receive 3′s or 4′s. Posts that are off-point, not well thought out, riddled with typos and other errors will earn a 1 or 2.

All right, let’s get started:

For your first post, simply tell us your level of experience with digital media tools. I know we went over this in class, but it’s good to have a written record so I can refer to it throughout the semester. In a paragraph, talk about the software you have used and how you used them. Be as specific as possible. To enter your response, click the “comments” link below.