Final Project

Tags

dark chatter, final project video, group project, middle school, searchasaurus and the case of the bad web sources, Strategic Presentation, students, teachers, the functions of the library

• 1st – Searchasaurus and the Case of the Bad Web Sources

Looking at all the videos of the class, I feel like this was the best one. I thought this video was very well done and extremely creative! The comic book theme was very effective and I think it’s something that will stick with the kids once they watch it. I enjoyed this video as a college student and I know that a middle school would love it as well! I thought the video did a very good job of incorporating the message into a plot giving all the issues the video needed to address a role in the short film they created. Overall I thought the video was fun, interesting, and very well done.

• 2nd- Dark Chatter   

I thought this video was hilarious. I loved how all the scenes were exaggerated, especially the telephone and the math problem scene which I started laughing uncontrollably at. The scenes were over the top which I liked but they were also things that really do happen in the library which made it even funnier.  A middle school kid would find this very entertaining and the message definitely comes across through the humor. Some of the jokes were directed towards an older crowd but I enjoyed their presence in the video. The subtitles and the editing contributed a great deal to the overall quality of the video and made everything come together very smoothly.

• 3rd- The Functions of the Library

This video was organized very well and I could tell a lot of research and time went into it. It did a good job of covering all the bases on the topic they were given to address. The video was filled with a lot of relevant and useful information without being too boring. The production quality of the video is very thorough and has bits of humor here and there which help the video keep its entertainment value. Even though the video was long, I don’t think the length takes away anything from the video itself because the every minute of the video was used wisely and strategically.

This project was very in depth! We were working on this project for quite some time and there were so many things to be done, so many things to take into account. At times, it was overwhelming but I liked the project and all of the issues we had to address. The purpose of the project was very cool and it actually gave meaning to the assignments we were given. A lot of times, teachers give students work and I find myself asking, “Why?” But this project made sense because I remember when I was in middle school and I probably thought the library was boring too. It was really cool to be on the outside looking in for once. It was very challenging at times working in a group but I feel like a learned a lot going through this experience. There were several hurtles that our group had to overcome, as I’m sure there were with other groups, but we worked together to persevere and complete the video.

 

MEMES!!!

Tags

cinemagraphs, fail chemistry cat, internet, memes, o rly ya rly no wai!!!

Cinemagraphs

borrowed from knowyourmeme.com

The cinemagraphs meme is interesting because I find them very appealing and a bit disturbing. It really takes creativity to a new level but it takes a still photo but gives movement and life to one part of the photo. Every thing else remains still which but it’s a little scary how the photo has life based on moving that one element in the picture.

Chemistry Cat

borrowed from knowyourmeme.com

I thought the chemistry cat meme was very cute and corny. This meme caters to specific demographic and adds an element of humor into the mix. People who understand chemistry and don’t mind jokes would love the chemistry cat and series of jokes have been created just for this group of people.

 FAIL

borrowed from knowyourmeme.com

“Fail” was interesting to me because I have supported this meme and used this in everyday language. Fail says a lot without saying too much at all. It pretty much summarizes any situation that went wrong or according to plan. Someone says the word and everyone knows what it means and I think that is pretty awesome.

An internet meme wouldn’t be popular if a large group of people didn’t follow it and give it the support it needs to become a meme. When people do this, they become part of a fan culture. “Fail” for example, became an internet phenomenon and has been incorporated into many people’s everyday language which is similar to Ang’s paradigm “media in everyday life”. Memes have specified groups of fans for each individual one and make it popular by creating a culture that people soon catch on to. The beauty of memes is that they can have both negative and positive responses because all they need is publicity and attention. How the memes become popular is not important but how many people are putting them out there.

Memes cater to various types of people and it gives them them a culture to be a part of become a part of. Memes focus on things of the past and bring them to light in a new and improved way. Memes could be incorporated into our final by the use of humor. We could take universal or popular ways of making people laugh and create a mini phenomenon within the context of our movie. Then, once our video is done, we will have created a meme of our own!

borrowed from knowyourmeme.com

 

A Harry Potter World

Tags

documentary, fan culture, Harry Potter, Justin Bieber, trey songz, Twilight, Warner Brothers, We are Wizards

borrowed from crushable.com

The documentary “We are Wizards” dealt with the Harry Potter culture in society and how the media worked with and against that group. Prior to the establishment of the internet, people were not as concerned with media because there were only a few basic ways of receiving it. The internet, as shown through the documentary, has heightened people’s use of and need for the media because of the temporary escape from reality that it allows people to create. The internet offers many types of people the opportunity to become apart of something that they feel like they belong to. When people become involved in these groups, they feel like they have to fight to maintain their membership of their particular group or keep their identity. The Warner Brothers tried to reclaim ownership the Harry Potter name but the fans felt like, they were the ones who gave them that name and that they should have more freedom to use it however they see fit. In this case, at first, the Warner Brothers held the power but when the fans fought back, the power shifted to the fans because of their dedication to group and their need to belong. Over the years, fan culture has become the norm with new phenomenon’s entering the scene like Twilight, Justin Bieber, Trey songz and much more. People find something they like and they become almost obsessed with it, thus, present day fan culture.

borrowed from en.wikipedia.org

Watching the documentary, I didn’t realize how much of people really get into Harry Potter. I understood from prior knowledge that people loved the Harry Potter movies and books but I didn’t know that people had bands websites, etc. It seemed almost as though that Harry Potter was their lives. I just wonder what all these people do now that Harry Potter is over? I found it very interesting that the people eat sleep and breathe Harry Potter and somehow it became accepted in society. I have nothing against the movie or the culture, I just think that we have come a long way in society because, not too long ago, this culture didn’t exist and the media’s influence did not yet come into play.

Fusion Trailer

Tags

bad behavior, good behaviro, laughing, library experience, strategy, trailer

Since our video is supposed to be funny, our trailer would have to be match that of course. Our trailer would be very dramatic and over exaggerated with an intense narrator and excessive use of fade ins and outs. We have lots of clips that will show good and bad behavior and a strategic way to add that into the trailer would be to show a part of each clip and with the help of dramatic yet amusing sound effects. I don’t think the trailer should contain any songs. I think the focus should be the narrator’s tone, clips from the video of good and bad behavior, sound effects and special effects. I think with all these things, we would be able to get a good laugh from the trailer as well as the video. In the beginning of the trailer we will have text to go along with the narrator to add a more dramatic effect. In our case, extraneous humor works in our favor because that is the type of humor that we are leaning towards and the type of humor that we think will be the most effective.
The trailer would not be very long, it would have to be a maximum of 1:00 mins. Because our video does not really follow an actual story it would make more sense for our trailer to be shorter. Our video is going to teach a lesson but we don’t want our trailer to do that. We want our trailer to be fun and make our audience want to watch the video. The trailer is going to make the ideal library experience look like something that want to take part in. Kids at this age are not really watching movies yet so our trailer must appeal to this group in a way that they are able to receive want to acquire the info. The best way we know how to do this would be make them laugh. Laughing is a universal strategy used to get people of all demographics to receive a message.

A trailer that is kind of similar to how we are going to approach this video.

Creative Commons

Tags

Drake, good library behavior, Headlines, Middle school kids

I think this image will be very useful for our video somehow. I think this picture depicts perfectly the message that we don’t want the kids to receive. We want the kids to take away the idea that that they can go to the library and utilize all the resources instead of just coming to catch up on their zzz’s. We want our video to show the students how helpful the library can actually be. I think a funny way to include this in the video is to show all the good library behavior pictures/clips and tell the kids that if they don’t follow the rules they could end up like the guy in the picture.

Middle school kids are all about being cool and music and playing songs that they love will be a great way to get their attention. This song has some profanity in it and we don’t want the students to be completely distracted by the song and the lyrics. Because of this, I think it’s best to just stick with the instrumental version of Drake’s Headlines. I think this artist and song is very popular at this time and we should find a time in the video to incorporate it into the song. The song can be played at a time where we are just showing shots of the library. I think when the kids hear it, they will automatically know what song it is and pay closer attention to the video.

Last, a movie that we should consider including would have to be “The Librarian“. This video is a short Lego film that shows a librarian’s worst nightmare. I thought the video was put together very well and I think the middle schoolers will enjoy it. We may need to cut the last part of the video out because it’s not really relevant but clips of it would be great to use. By showing this video, we can show the students just how much simply following the rules can affect the librarian in any library.

Fusion’s Creative Process

Tags

boring, cool, critical, lame, middle school students, music, storyboard, useless, younger demographic

While going through the storyboard process, our group direction became more of a clear and vivid picture. Before we all had ideas of what we wanted to do with the video but the storyboard actually made us go through a step by step process of what would actually be in each scene. It caused us to really focus on what messages we want the kids to receive and how each scene will depict that.

nemsis.org

The storyboard process itself was interesting. I was a little disappointed that there was no way for us to chat. That did make things a bit difficult. We had to text each other individually when there was something we needed to talk about. Nonetheless, we managed and go it done.

An element our group should think about including would have to be an element of music. the video is already on a topic that middle school students would write off immediately and if we find a way to balance the music they like along with the content that we present, I think it will be a great partnership. My hope for this project is that the middle school kids think our video is “cool” and not “lame”.

tapity.com

It’s a great accomplishment to transmit a message effectively to a younger demographic at a time where most of them are extremely critical. My vision for group Fusion’s video is to create a visually appealing, entertaining and hilarious presentation on a subject that most middle school students would think is boring and useless.

Google Docs. ehh it’s ok.

Tags

busy schedules, collaboration, convenient, Google, Google docs, miscommunication, misinterpretations, self explanatory

Google Docs is a great tool to use when working in groups. It allows members to access the same document when they can and make whatever changes they feel are necessary. There is also a chat box available for group members to discuss specific issues concerning the document. Google docs is great because you don’t have to physically meet up anymore and the process becomes a lot more convenient for people with busy schedules. People are able to access the document on their own time and contribute as much as they want. I found google docs to be very simple once my other group member signed on to it. The system was pretty much self-explanatory. I did have a couple issues with it. I feel like even though it is more convenient because you don’t have to meet up, it limits your actual interaction and discussion. When you meet up, you have the chance to talk about what you actually want to see for the document instead of just automatically writing things. Nonetheless, google docs collaboration is a great method to store into our tool kit. I think that there needs to be more emphasis on physically meeting up just because there are no miscommunications, misinterpretations, etc. But then again, I may old fashioned. Only one of my group members was available to collaborate on google docs and the way we worked together was really smooth. He would insert his text into the paragraph and we usually checked with each other to make sure we agreed on what would go on the document. I could clearly see what he was doing and he could see what I was doing. The chat box was a vital part to the collaboration because it served as the method of discussion and decision making for us. Google docs is great and I will definitely use this on future group assignments in addition to physical meet ups.

borrowed from ronedmondson.com

My Top 5 Blogs!

Romantically Rejected-I really enjoyed this blog. The header is cute and the title of the blog is catchy! Everyone has dealt with rejection at one point in their life and no one really wants to talk about it. I love that this blog gives you dating advice and self-confidence once that rejection does take place. The topic is very relevant and everything is laid out very nicely. The color scheme is just right for the topic and the site is easy to maneuver around. The images are a great addition to the post. The blog seems like it would be fun to read if it was continued. I would love to see where this blog would go!

RazzleBerry-The header for this blog immediately caught my attention! The picture is very clear, large and visually appealing! I love that this blog discusses tv shows ! I love tv and I would love to see what commentary the author would give for certain shows. I think this blog would do a great job of gaining an audience through the discussion of the tv shows and reactions of certain events that take place during the show. This blog has a simple yet awesome concept. The blog theme is simple and it works well because the information is right where you need it!

bldecoder-The topic for this blog is very unique and something that I think will catch many people’s attention. I think nonverbal communication is very interesting and there is definitely a lot to discuss about it. I love the images that you used in your posts. They all send the message of how significant nonverbal communication really is. The screencast that you included was a great way to deliver that message even further. People always want to know about celebrities and the fact that the author analyzed their communication behavior is very cool! This blog has a very good direction and will call more attention to an overlooked but very vital part of communication in society.

Millenials–Defining Ourselves-This blog looks very professional! The theme makes it look like it’s a blog for an established magazine. I love the fact that the first post is a question to the audience and later goes, discusses the answer with backup as to why the author feels this way. I think it’s a great idea to pose questions because it makes the reader want to come involved and see what the author believes. When this happens, feedback occurs and debates start to rise. The blog talks about music news and what’s currently happening, giving people more reason to come back and read more.

A Vanilla Daydream-This blog is very organized! The images jump right off the screen and all of the food looks so good! The title of the blog is unique enough for people to remember! All of the links are easily accessible on the side and the names of the links are cute and simple. I get the feeling that cooking is fun and this blog makes the reader want to take become part of the baking world. I thought the video was a great addition to the site because ties in perfectly with the goal of the site which is to discuss all things related to baking. Everything is cohesive with each section of the site serving its own purpose.

Midterm Blog Creative Process

Tags

corny jokes, corny picture, laugh, laughter, midterm blog, silly video, struggle

Creating my midterm blog was a little bit of a struggle for me. I couldn’t really think of anything in particular that I wanted to blog about. I knew I wanted to do something different but I just wasn’t sure what. I started thinking of things I liked to do like play tennis, sing, dance, etc. but none of those really stood out to me. I didn’t think that I would have much to say about each of the topics. Then, for some reason, I started to think about how I spend my time. I thought about times when my friends and I would tell each other corny jokes to just to make the best out of situations, times when I would turn on a funny movie to make myself feel better about a tough situation and times when a close friend and I were fighting and an old inside joke would make us forget about everything.

borrowed from google images

These are the times that I thought of and the times I thought were worth sharing. I then realized how of an impact laughter really has on my life. I wanted to find a way to convey that message and be able to share the laughs of my lifetime with people on my blog. All of the movies, shows, videos, people, etc. were stored in my laptop and in my noggin. The only thing I had to do was to assemble these items and create a theme. The theme of the blog kind of defined itself with my life as the background information and the content served as the guide of the site. When people visited the site, I wanted them to be able to leave with at least one slight chuckle if not an aggressive and obnoxious laugh. Creatively, I wanted my blog to be unusual, funny and tell a story showing how much a silly video, or corny picture can make someone’s day just a little better.

So here’s my masterpiece!

Pictogame Creation

Tags

Helga Pataki, Hey Arnold!, kick the bully, Pictogame

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