Before I start, allow me to get one thing out of the way: reflections have never, ever been easy for me. Honestly. If you had the ability to look at my life twelve or so years ago, you would see an eight year-old version of me. In any given car ride, a twelve year younger version of my mother would ask me what I learned in school that day. My response?
“I dunno.”
“You don’t know? Really? I know you did not spend your entire day looking at a blank chalk board. What do you mean you don’t know?”
The proceeding conversation is paraphrased, but something like this happened to me several times throughout my childhood. Why did I do this? I have no idea. Maybe I didn’t like to talk. Maybe I had difficulty articulating exactly what I learned at school that day. Maybe I really didn’t remember, something that I feel was especially possible. I mean, come on: I had television and video games to go home to. You’ll excuse my eight year-old self for being apathetic towards everything else.
I think the real issue here (and this is just a theory, mind you) is the fact that I can easily retain information, but regurgitating it in a timely matter is not so easy. When I first look at something, it appears that I have not learned anything. In fact, some of what I learned kind of seems like it was common sense. Either way, I actually think about what first appeared as common sense, so that is a good thing. On top of that, I feel that I have learned a few more things that were not necessarily part of the lesson plan but are still fairly important in the grand scope of things.
I’ve learned things here that will apply to other classes. Not so much the lesson plan, but general things about working. For instance, things may not always turn out how I envision them. In a perfect world (defined as a world where everyone listens to my ideas because my ideas are pure gold) the show would have been titled Dynamite Squadron, there would have been a firefight, and my script would have been followed verbatim. None of this happened. The show was titled Future Gun, there were wicked karate chops instead of wicked gun fights, and the script was loosely followed. The lesson here? Everything is not always going to turn out how I want it. I knew this before, but the finished product I have here is a far cry of what happened inside my head. Not a huge problem by any means. Just something to deal with.
I also learned how good it is to be hard on myself. Now, I feel it’s important not to be so hard on myself about several things because it can eventually lead to me having problems. But I found while working on this project, being hard on myself was necessary to make a good project. When I am hard on myself, the harder I work on the project and the closer I get to perfection. Obviously, the closer I get to perfection, the better the project is and the better the grade I receive. Though I actually felt that the end result of our work kind of sucked, it seems that a lot of the people in the class actually enjoyed it, so I guess we did well.
I also learned to adapt. As previously stated, there were several things about the final version of Future Gun that were not intended to be there in the first place. Though I might have made a “big” deal out of it, the title was actually kind of insignificant. The costume and prop problems were probably more important to the entire project, since taking them out meant making some sizable changes to the scenes. But a few unfortunate events came along and we were not able to do everything as we intended to. This is quite different from writing a paper. When writing a paper, if there is a word I need, dictionaries and thesauruses are there to help me. If I need another view on the subject, there are a number of sources I can cite. If I do not like the way a certain sentence sounds, I can just get change it or get rid of it. And Multimodal pieces? Yes, that is an entirely different beast. Let us take a film as an example. What if I need a certain piece of music or scenery? I cannot make either of those appear out of thin air and I do not have the power to compose music or travel. What if I do not like the way a certain way a scene turned out? There is not always time to film it again. When dealing with film, I sometimes just have to take what I have and move on. Though everything does not always go the way I want it to when I am writing papers, I still have the power to change it whenever I want. When it comes to films and other multimodal pieces, I have to make do with what I have.
This class has taught me that having to deal with problems in multimodal media forces creativity. I mean that in the best way possible. When you cannot have something work just how you want it to, you have to get creative to make sure it is good. Papers are not like this at all. I do not ever think I remember having to write a paper with limitations. Sure, I would have to change subjects because I could not find enough sources or a teacher would reject my proposal, but all this is in the preemptive stage. None of these problems came along during the writing of the paper, like many of the problems we ran into after filming the piece.
I no longer look at anything without thinking of what message it might be trying to get across. Everything from the choice of words to the images and colors used tell me something about any given piece. Before this, the idea of someone communicating “without actually communicating” was something that was a bit foreign to me. I understood that a person could say a number of things without speaking or writing, but I never gave it much thought.
The revision process was interesting. It was not so much of a process as it was something that just happened. Well, for my part of the film, anyway. I spent some time working on the script and passed it on to my teammates. Though they initially liked the script, when we started filming, a lot was changed around. Then general idea was still there, but we had to make some changes for various reasons. Maybe some lines were kind of stupid, maybe we had to take the script into another direction due to restraints, maybe the new lines were just easier to remember.
As I said earlier, I never look at anything again without trying to read the messages. That also means that I will never make anything without thinking about what message it will give. As far as the written word went, I always made sure to say things just right so that people would not misinterpret me. Now I am looking beyond the words. Something like picture choice and music choice can say just as much as actual words. This probably means that I will be looking out for music and anything else that does not fit in movies in the near future. Watch out, Hollywood! Some guy with nothing else to do is going to criticize you! Certainly something Hollywood has never dealt with.
Everything I learned in this class can be used in other areas of this course. I am not just talking about the programs, either. I believe I mentioned that I wanted to write television shows or comic books during a class period. One may think that this means I only have to worry about the writing portion, but this is not true. Words can mean one thing when on paper, but when you put visual elements with that, it adds yet another layer. I would have to pay close attention to what the artists/actors/whatever put with my words. Something that is supposed to have a gloomy tone can be ruined by bright colors and uplifting music. Even something as tiny as the deliverance of a single line can ruin the entire mood of a scene. No matter how good the writing is, everything can be ruined by the other parts of the scene. As someone who mainly works with words, this can be a big problem for me, especially considering the areas I want to work in.
I do not really know if there is anything else to say. I enjoyed the class and I felt I learned quite a bit about multimodal communication. I hate to end this so abruptly, but I really cannot think of anything else to say!
Oh, who am I kidding? No one was waiting for this! =P
Click here to view our “masterpiece”.
Hello there! I can’t really think of anything to say here, so I’m just going to list the changes that I (we?) plan to make.
-Add behind the scenes info for Ashley and Theo.
-Fix errors on the site (grammar and whatnot).
-Change the title to Dynamite Squadron
-Edit some of the sillier parts of the video (I am laughing at the end of one…oops).
-Possibly add a date and time to the video to give it a future feel.
-Enlarge the text size on some parts of the video/site.
-I guess a few other things.
Dear Gallery authors:
Thank you for you revised submission of Is MySpace Your Space? On March 3, 2008. Your webtext makes for an interesting take on multimodal composition.
I am not entirely sure what message you were attempting here. The film had much information about MySpace, but it seemed as if you were trying to convince instructors to use MySpace. Perhaps more of the content should be evened out. After watching the videos on the site, it felt like more of an instructional piece than a persuasive one. I think that the message would come across much better if less of the content was an instructional piece on how to use MySpace. Instructions are fine, especially when dealing with teachers who are not as web savvy as everyone else, but there needs to be some explanation as to why this method should be used.
I feel that this project was presented well. What better way to show the wonders of MySpace than actually making one. Being able to actually see the potential is much better than simply reading or hearing about it.
On the technical aspect:
-Well done, for the most part. All the visual content was relevant to the spoken word. Every single part of the process, from the registration to the uploading and updating, was shown. However, I would recommend that the video be enlarged so that it would be easier to see what was going on the screen. I could see it without much of a problem, but that might not be true for others, who would have to strain just to get an idea of what was going on.
On the content:
I could be wrong here, but I feel the point of this presentation and MySpace page was to convince instructors that it could be used as an important part of the classroom. I feel that this is an interesting topic, but it is not really touched upon in the video and MySpace. The majority of the time was spent showing the viewer how to work with MySpace while not necessarily explaining how these tools could help.
Was there much research involved here? I am referring to MySpace statistics here. Now, explaining how MySpace works does involve research, but if you are attempting to convince instructors to use it in their classes, perhaps it would be better if you explained just how many people used MySpace. I can’t see an instructor using a new method such as MySpace unless he or she realizes just how many people are using it. I know that it is something really popular, but providing actual numbers could not hurt.
I feel like this project is something that is relevant to just about any generation. Even if MySpace is completely forgotten sometime in the future, the project can still be used as an example of how instructors should always be open to suggestions on how to modernize their teaching methods. At any rate, it is undoubtedly something that will speak to people for the next 10 years at the very least.
This is something that has a very wide audience. It can be shown to students in hopes that they will pass it on to their teachers. It can be shown to teachers in hopes that they will adopt the new methods. It can even be shown to future teachers so that they may keep an open mind on the issue.
Thank you for the opportunity to read your submission.
Sincerely,
Theo Lowe
What if I told you about an endangered animal? An animal that somehow came into existence, grew to have a very large population, and almost became extinct, all in the last thirty years. An animal that could be found in just about any city that wasn’t behind the times by a decade. An animal that was cared about and known by people worldwide, but eventually was left behind in the advent of a new, more advanced creature. Now what if I told you said animal wasn’t really an animal and more of a place?
The age of the arcade is gone. These days it’s something that is quite ironically kept alive by new and improved technology. It is something that lives on today, but it is not as dominant as it once was. There was a time when you could find an arcade machine anywhere. I’m serious. My mall had an arcade. A Pizza Hut in my hometown had a cabinet for The Simpsons Arcade game. Even when I went to Universal Studios, there was a decent sized arcade to kill time in. And this isn’t just my experience. If you hit just about any forum dedicated to classic gaming, you’ll find people reminiscing about playing some random arcade game while waiting for pizza.
This whole situation with arcades is very similar to the situation with drive-in movie theaters. Yes, those still exist today, but they are fairly rare. In a way, I don’t think it’s hard to see why this happened. Between people sitting in comfortable movie theaters and people renting movies (both of these also being something people can do year-round), it becomes clear why the drive-in isn’t as popular as it once was. Why go out of your way to get the experience when you can get the same thing in your living room? People treated arcades the same way. Last year, I took a film class and a theater class. While both classes were pretty different as far as most things go, both classes essentially said something along the lines of “Where you experience it has a big effect on how you experience it,” in relation theater and film. Going to see a play and being distracted by the man sitting next to you is going to be different than seeing the same play without any distractions. Seeing a movie at home with the ability to rewind and pause while sitting on your couch is different from watching it in a movie theater where you don’t have control over anything and the floor is absurdly sticky. When playing games at an arcade, there’s a lot of noise, lines, and maybe even some questionable smells. At home, it’s quiet and without the lines and (hopefully) questionable smells.
There is also a social aspect here. When you can play these games in the comfort of your own home, a social element is removed. Chances are, when you go to an arcade, you aren’t going to be the only one there. Yes, the people there may not be playing the games you want to play, but they are still there. And if there were players that played the games you liked, there was some common ground that could honestly be the start of long-lasting friendships.
Several game genres suffered from the death of the arcade. While many of them did continue to live on after the arcade’s heyday, they became less and less popular. These genres include fighting games (examples include Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat series), light gun games (examples include Time Crisis and House of the Dead) and shoot-‘em-ups (examples include Galaga, Gradius, and R-Type). A lot of these series do live on today, but compare them to other game series that regularly get updates (The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, and Grand Theft Auto, just to name a few) and you’ll get the idea.
I want to show people how much things have really changed. I don’t think the average person stops to think about how different things are today. I’m not exactly sure how I would present this. I’m thinking something along the lines of a video that could show the differences between an arcade and a home setup. I could even do something with the drive-in movie theater idea in an attempt to reach some sort of common ground with the audience. With a video, I could actually bring my audience there to see exactly what I’m talking about. Though I’m planning for this to be an informational piece, I believe that it would be submitted to the Inventio section, as I would be willing to explain the entire process behind it.
Okay, I did last week’s assignment wrong, but I think I have it this time!
Well, my first idea is to promote an RSO that I happen to be part of.
The University Gaming Association has been around since before I was a student. It’s not one of the older groups on campus, yeah, but it has its history. My idea is to use video to promote the group. Since I joined early last year, one of the main concerns of the execs has been getting more members to join. Personally, I think the group is big enough (about 10-20 people…I honestly don’t keep track), but I’ll help out with whatever they want. For the greater good and such, you understand. I was thinking of compiling a bunch of footage of us doing…whatever. We don’t do a lot of “official” events, but we do a bit of just hanging out. I was thinking we could film some of these events, maybe even throw in some interviews or something. I’m sure there’s some kid on campus who would be interested after seeing this. And if not…well, it’s an idea for my project!
My third idea involves me spoofing that trailer/commercial that I posted about in my last entry. It doesn’t even have to be about sports or video games. Bleh. I’m having a horrible time thinking of something!
I’m honestly not sure if this will fit. The audience for this could be just about anyone, really. It seems that it does not matter what is submitted to Kairos, as long as it is well done. If I had to guess which category my ideas fall into…I’d say something about being social…or something.
Somehow I feel like I screwed this up again or something. I should really learn to work earlier in the day.
I also had a really hard time finding something for this, so I just picked something random. Hopefully I can get something going with this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HydqdyHY9I
Evo 2008 Highlights Trailer
This is a highlight real from the Evolution series, an annual fighting game tournament held in Las Vegas. This particular trailer is actually inspired by a Nike commercial. I think the editor actually did a really good job of emulating it. The original video can be seen here:
-Was its quality consistent?
Yes.
-Is it credible?
I suppose? I’m not entirely sure how I question the credibility of something like this.
-Does it use appropriate multimodal strategies?
I actually feel that it does. There’s a lot of audio and visual working here. The text on the screen serves to inform the viewer which area that particular player was skilled in. The video footage used after each part showed that particular skill in action. I suppose this would actually be pretty helpful for those not familiar with the terminology.
-Does it fulfill its purpose?
The purpose of the video was to showcase the competition, and by using some of the more exciting highlights, I feel this was accomplished.
-Do I appreciate it?
Yes. As someone who enjoys fighting games, I enjoyed the showcase. I also liked the fact that the commercial was emulated so well.
This is very weird. Before going to class, my biggest concern was the fact that the class was almost three hours long. That’s a pretty long time for me (or anyone else for that matter) to keep focused on something. Just to put things in perspective, I rarely even play video games for that long, and playing video games is something that I *love*. After going to the first class, I do not feel intimidated by the class itself. Instead, I feel intimidated *because* I’m not intimidated, if that makes any sense. You see, I’m not sure if I’m approaching this with the right attitude. I’m not really worried about the class at all, and somehow I think that will have a negative effect on my performance. Perhaps I’m just thinking about this far too much? I tend to do that.
I’m actually really interested in what we’re going to be doing this semester. I have a creative side, but I haven’t really gotten to use it so far in college. I mean, I did some fun stuff in my theater class last year, but it wasn’t that often. Maybe this just has something to do with me recently changing my major. Yeah, probably so. I’m interested in the multimedia aspect of the class, because most of the classes I’ve worked in so far were just writing, and nothing more. Now, there’s nothing wrong with writing (I’m actually curious to see the English major who thinks this), but it’s nice to do something different for a change. I’ve done non-traditional stuff before, but never for a class, so I feel that I’m going to enjoy this quite a bit.
Goals for this semester? I obviously want to do well in the class, but I’m hoping for more than just that. I’m hoping I get something from this class that I can keep with me for a long time. What will I be receiving that will last with me for that long? As of right now, I have absolutely no idea. It seems as though this class will be one of the more interesting classes I will experience in college, so if anything, I get to keep that.
The title of this entry says it all. I suppose the only reason I really have for picking this template is because it looks nice. Well, I guess there is actually more behind my template choice…not too much, though. I really like sunsets, and as you can see, that’s what’s on my page. I also really like city outlines, be it an actual photo or a painting. I’ve actually drawn city outlines and sunsets as well. Don’t ask to see any of them, because they weren’t very good and I have no idea if I even have them anymore.
