Oh and...

Dr. R,
Don't get down about the crazy people in this state.  You know if you ever need anything, you have a whole group of TCF kids who will stand behind you.  We have a lot of pride and don't like people messing with people we respect!

Looking back on a semester

Reflecting back on this semester, I’ve learned a lot about myself, storytelling, and sharing my “gift”.

We started with our self-portraits.  It gave me instant insight into my classmates and it gave me something to remember them by.  I thought it was a really cool way to start the semester, and I’d suggest you did it in other classes.

We then moved into audio stories.  I, admittedly, was not excited about these and was wondering what class I had gotten myself into.  I wanted to film and get the ‘money shots’ we had talked constantly about all last semester.  Even after listening to a bunch of pod casts I was still not very excited. It wasn’t until after I interviewed my parents and edited them together in “A Love Story” when I understood what the assignment was all about.  I was excited and proud to give my classmates my gift, my family history.  It relefected my parents point of view, and that’s part of what makes a good story. 

We also did a media diet during that time.  Mine was a little inaccurate because it fell on a week when I was super busy and my Internet was out.  I watch more TV and check my email way more then it says.  If I had a smart phone, I’m sure it would be out of control!  But, it was interesting to see because it made me conscious of all the media I was constantly around and seeking out on a daily basis. 

Next we went to digital storytelling.  Kind of like the audio story but with some pictures or visual enhancement.  I was a more ready to jump into this one, but I didn’t have a story..  we spent a long time working on getting a picture, describing it, sharing it, storyboarding, and of course our story circle.  While some people liked it more than others, I think the storyboard is very beneficial.  It gives you the chance to bounce ideas off each other in a safe environment. 

`            We also talked about what makes a good story.  This includes Lamberts 7 elements and some we added on our own.  The seven elements we talked about all semester were: point (of view), dramatic question, emotional content, the gift of your voice, the power of the soundtrack, economy and pacing.  I think the most important are pacing, emotional content, your voice, and your point of view.  It is impossible to tell a story that people want to listen to and can relate to if it doesn’t have you in it.  It is lacking a layer when the author has stepped back from the story. 

            We then talked and watched a lot of mashups.  We learned about copyright criminals and talked about the grey area.  It is hard to find the balance of moving forward and using the past to create something new and keeping copyright.  I created a mashup called “easier than <3” which is still not up on my blog since I cannot get it to export right.  It is on vimeo however, if you care to rewatch it.  I was very frustrated doing this project at first.  I couldn’t find what I wanted to do, couldn’t get it work right when I did, and I was frustrated that I had to sample and rip stuff that I already owned!  But in the end, I chose to take some artistic and educational liberties and allow myself to learn from the past. 

            Lastly came the final project.  I was really excited when Jordan and I decided to work together.  I wanted to do something different, something I hadn’t done before.  I also wanted to work with someone since we hadn’t at all this semester.  Jordan and I got the opportunity to try a stopmotion film.  It was very tedious, but I am so proud of us.  We probably put about 20 hours of work into this small 2-minute video, but I feel that it is more than worth it.  It is something I’ll keep forever and that I know I can use in my portfolio.

            Overall, I had a great semester.  I learned a lot and hope to continue learning and developing my storytelling skills!  I hope you all have had as good of time as I have! 

Final Project

Hello!! Jordan and I have just completed our final project.  We made a stopmotion film titled The Chaos of College.  We spent about 5 or so hours in pre-production - talking, writing our narrative, creating our storyboard, and playing at walmart.  We then spent about 9 and 1/2 or so hours filming over the course of 4 afternoons.  We filmed outside, which proved to be problematic since we cannot control the color of the sun.  It was very tedious but it was still a really awesome experience.  We then spent probably another 5 -7 hours in post production, cutting everything together, playing with the timeline, finding music and special effects, and especially color correcting.  It took a long time, but i'm very proud of it and happy I got the opportunity to do a project like this!  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!


The Chaos of College from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.

Mash Up

Hey friends,

So this week we created a mashup.  I still haven't quite figured out how to export it so it looks good, but it is made up of 8 music videos and "easier than love" by switchfoot.  the 8 videos were Lady Gaga - "paparazzi", Taylor Swift - "Love Story" / "You belong with me",  Juvenile - "back that azz up", Miley Cyrus - "Party in the USA", Pussycat dolls - "When I Grow Up", Jessie James - "Wanted", and Beyonce - "Halo".  I think it turned out pretty well.  I tried to comment on how sex is the way of our industry, it is what sells and what people seem to want.  it is also easier than working towards something harder, like actual love.

But why do we sample?  It's pretty easy, and sometimes its easier than doing it honestly.  I own switchfoot's song, but I had to rip it to use it.  I also couldn't use any of the music videos that I had in my itunes, it's dumb!

Without sampling, our society can't and won't move forward.  Our society is built on it, bloggers do it, rappers/hip hop do it, intellectuals, poets, and regular people like me and you.  Do we really need to track down every DJ who ever used a 'beep' that someone somewhere created and owned?  Some people say we do, which i can understand, but i don't think we need to.  We are the consumers, but we are also the creators, we need to express ourselves and we have the tools to do so.

I liked the Remixers Manifesto: 1. culture always builds on the past 2. the past always tries to control the future 3. our future is becoming less free 4. to build free societies you must limit the control of the past.  


Basically, we have to let ourselves move forward and learn and create from the past.  

LunaFest

On March 9, I attended the LUNAFEST film festival.  It had films made "by, for, about women".  There were a lot of films that were inspiring to me or that i could connect with in some way.

One I found humorous but almost painfully true, especially in today's world was "Plastic" directed by Sandy Widvanata.  She is from Australia and created this film while completing her masters.

This film was about a normal young girl who makes changes to herself right before a date.   she finds that she can alter her image and she starts with her skin, then nose, and neck, and face, and body, trying to match the model on a magazine and by the end she looks so ridiculous.  She ends up going back to what she really looks like before answering the door but the story makes a good point.  We try so hard to reach perfection and match the pictures in the magazines but in the end, it's much better to just be yourself.

Another favorite was called "The McCombie Way" directed by Kristina and Nick Higgins from Los Angeles, CA.  It's about this 80 year old woman who is just living life her way in the Mojave Dessert.  She built a road, upkeeps her many acres of land, as well as houses that have been ransacked.  She is very frank about whats happening in her life.  She had cancer once, and she says 'I got sick and then I got better' like it's nothing.  She makes a good point though - she says you only die once, so you there is no reason to be afraid of it and you've gotta get everything done that you want and live life thoroughly cause you don't know when it'll happen.

Digital Story

Well, it's been an adventure...but here is my digital story!!

It's about my journey to Obama's inauguration last year.  A long, cold, and quite eventful adventure that I took with my boyfriend, Josh.  Hope you enjoy!


Inauguration Digital Story from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.

Lambert's Seven Elements

1. Point (of view)
There has to be a reason behind telling your story.  Just giving a list of what happening is boring and useless.  A point can be a need, desire, or problem that you want to address.  The point of view can be the audience's connection with the story and can be the reason that they understand the premise of the story.  
2. Dramatic Question
Making a point won't hold your audience's attention, you have to have something bigger and broader.  A question runs throughout the story and is in the opening and closing lines.  It's the beginning and the end - Will the girl get the guy? (beginning) the pursuit (middle) and the getting/not getting of the guy (ending).  
3. Emotional Content
Stories need emotion - without emotion fueling a story, it is nothing.  It is boring and useless.  An emotional story connects with an audience like nothing else.  It is a way to involve your audience. Different emotions drive different stories, and a different emotion behind the same story can change it entirely.  
4. The Gift of Your Voice 
Having a voice over can add so much to a story.  We all talk a little differently, and having a conversation with you audience can make your audience more engaged.  We naturally listen more to a voice then to anything else.  We listen for inflections and pauses to help us understand the proper reaction to the story being told.  
5. The Power of the Soundtrack
We are at a time where people walk with soundtracks constantly playing in their heads.  We think to music, we are exposed to a lot of different kinds of music and can connect certain music to certain emotions and situations.  If your soundtrack is off - a sweet, soft song playing while something bad is happening won't connect and will confuse your audience.  Also, the opposite of if fast music is playing and something slow is happening an audience will get lost and lose focus.  We, as audience members, know what music is supposed to go with what, so you have to go with what you know.  
6. Economy 


7. Pacing 
The rhythm of the story determines if the audience will stay interested and entertained.  If the story is too fast, it will create urgency, and could lose the audience if there is no chance to catch their breath.  If the story is slow it could be romantic or relaxed - but if it's too slow the audience will stray.  Changing pace in your story could be very effective - it can help move the story along and keep the audience engaged. You have to be sure to give your audience a chance to stop and process - move at an even pace, but every so often stop or slow down - you know the story but they don't.  

Digital Storytelling

Digital stories.  A new thing to me, sort of.  I like stories with video, but this is stories with pictures.  Kind of like our audio stories but with pictures to help illustrate the story being told.

The first digital story was from the Center for Digital Storytelling, I like was called: Ironing by Ryan Trauman.  He's from North Dakota and has a masters in Creative Writing.  The story has pictures from his life, as well as other pictures like shirts in a closet, but i like the ones of his family and himself better because it gives the story more personal depth.  He talks about how ironing is something that is very important in his life.  He talks about how he remembers his mom calling him and his brother to come and talk to her while she ironed, and how he irons alone in his basement now.  He finds the repetition calming and soothing, kind of how he believes his mom felt with two boys chattering away while she ironed in her housecoat.  While I don't particularly like ironing myself, I can't tell you how many times I've sat and chatted with my mom while she was ironing.  It is a regular house chore that we've all done or seen done, and will always be with us throughout our life.  

The second story I liked was from the Center for Digital Storytelling also, and was called: Home...in Past Tense by Bix Gabriel.  She tells about her past home in Hyderbad, India and how it has changed so much since she left for New York.  She talks about how she doesn't recognize a lot of places because everything around them has changed so much, until you find your way to this market, that is exactly the same.  How does that one market, or shop, or stand define your home?  I know my past home was defined by the ballet studio and the hot dog man's stand down the road.  How do our surroundings affect our definition of home?  I relate to this story a lot because of how many times I've moved, and returning to a place you left always seems to be different than the place you knew and remember. 

Listen and Hear

Hello my dears,

Here is a little story about how my parents met.  It's pretty cute, kinda funny, and very much my parents.


A Love Story from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.



Since then, they are still going strong after 27, almost 28 years now.  They've traveled the world, had two lovely (if i do say so myself) children, and are looking forward to growing old (no mom, i don't think you'll ever be old) together.  They have a great relationship - one to be admired.  After all is said and done, they are partners for life, one incomplete without the other.

 

Radio Diaries

annnd we're back! Hello Friends.

So, I went back and listened to a few of the radio diaries from NPR.  I especially liked the teenage diaries, cause they were just honest and I felt I was walking along side them as they went through their lives. 

First I listened to Jeff in Boston.  He is talking about what he is in terms of race.  But, it's kind of funny because he's talking as he is getting ready for school, and is sort of talking about how people come up to him assuming he speaks Spanish, but he does back and forth between that and talking about music.  He calls himself 'halfrican', which i thought was hilarious, but it makes sense, he didn't know any different - he expected races to mix.  He says, it would make sense to me if two Asian people had a black baby.  It's true though, kids see things differently until you reach that age of redefinition.  Big scary would gets bigger and scarier and more confusing.  He asks the white kids why white kids sit together, and he says he wouldn't fit in at a table of white folks because he wouldn't fit in - they think it's a whole different culture.  He also talks about rap as a race war, and that he didn't have to pick a side or hear about it because he was half and half, and how he is never really fully in on the joke or the conversation or the music.  Both sides look at him as a traitor, so where does he fit in? Does it matter?  He can't fit in, so he might as well stand out, right?

Then I listened to Melissa in CT.  She's pretty funny.  She's 18, pregnant and just trying to make it in this world.  I really like listening to these radio diaries because they are just so casual -it's like going through life with your best friend, who's just chatting about her day and her life and her problems and such.  Her boyfriend calls her, and she asks us "should we answer?".  It's just fun, but it's also honest. She addresses the issues of abortion and adoption and why she didn't want to do either.  She doesn't want to kill her child, and she went through the foster care/group living/etc/etc/etc system.  Her life has shaped her choices, which is pretty normal.  She has her baby in the middle of it - and we see her through a stressful period in her life.  She sees him peeing on her as him 'marking her territory' haha, it's great.  But it's also sad when she calls her mom and the number is disconnected - she just says oh well, she probably wouldn't care anyhow.  She recognizes that she should've waited until later to have a kid, but she says she isn't sad, she knows she can't change what has already happened.  In the end, she is just a regular teenager who has made some mistakes but is trying to survive. 

I really like all the stories where people are just talking, honestly telling their life from their point of view.  We are all so different and it's interesting to get a peek into the daily life of someone else. 

Media Diet

So while I'm generally not a big believer in diets, I gave in - partially because I was assigned to and partially because I thought it might be interesting.  However, just as side note, my internet at my house is very spastic and was not working this past week. I know that I spend much more time on facebook and checking my e-mail when my internet works, but here is what i did this week!

1/19 - Tuesday
9:30-10:45 - TCF 444 - internet, computer, blogs, vopods, youtube - it was pretty interesting, it made me think about everything we do that can and will be judged by strangers, pretty scary!
11 - e-mailed with my mom
12-12:15 - watched the Singing Bee
12:26 - listened to kid listening to loud scream metal on his ipod - pretty annoying! and bad for your ear drums!
12:30-1:45 - watched powerpoints in my TCF 215 class - i think this counts as media
2-2:05 - facebooked, watched a video, clicked a link to a political website, linked to cosmo (guy running for senate in Massachusetts naked spread like 20 years ago)
2:45-3/5-5:15 - listened to the radio, mostly music
7-9 - Barns and Nobel - email, facebook, homework
9-11 - tv

1/20 - Wednesday
8:30 - checked e-mail/facebook, chatted with my friend in Florence, Italy - love technology, can be so far away from each other but talk to people like they are right there!
11 - read the Crimson White
Then my internet went out! So basically, I didn't do much on the computer today but I watched TV

1/21- Thursday
8 - tried to check my email, but internet still wasn't working
9:30 - TCF 444 - youtube, elearning, google, self-portrait
5pm - filmed Rock the Runway, pretty awesome!

1/22 - Friday
Internet still not working...
5-midnight - Workplay in Birmingham, benefit concert for Haiti --> pretty awesome!

1/23 - Saturday
Internet still not working....
10:30 - saw Youth in Revolt, it was funny but definitely a Michael Cera movie...trying to be a teenage who wants to loose his virginity and is awkward.

1/24 - Sunday
12-2 - captured Rock the Runway tapes, facebook, read class blogs, listened to podcasts, updated my blog
5 - video skyped my friend in Florence again, got to celebrate her birthday with her and her roommates!!
6 - watched Grey's Anatomy on Hulu
6 - updated my blog!

So reflecting back on this week i've realized that i don't spend as much time on my computer as i thought, i get on a bunch of times a day to check my email or facebook but only for a few minutes.  I
sometimes will get on twitter or cosmo but i don't do a lot of blog reading, or youtube watching or anything else.  Gotta run, more later!

Personal Identity.

Hello bloggers.  I am sitting here in the sanford media lab capturing some footage from Rock the Runway on Thursday (which was pretty awesome, btw) and I figured I should be productive...so i decided to listen to some podcasts.

First I clicked around and found some weird links and things I didn't care to listen to but then I clicked on the guerrilla radio show.  I found this one show where they are talking about personal identity.  It wasn't really a story, it was more theory and technical - which, I admit, was kind of boring, but interesting at the same time.  They talked about who we are fundamentally - what can we survive, what can't we survive, are we persistent, how long will we be around?  How do you identify yourself and is it the same as others identify you?  Are we made up of our experiences or are we just who we are because we are biologically programed to be something.  Can someone in the future be exactly the same as you, or are you completely and utterly unique? Is anonymity important, or is it important to identify?  Are we persons, souls, animals or nothing at all?  Can we think - can we all think at the same time, or are we just animals surviving?  Does any of it really matter? 
The Guerrilla Radio Show - Personal Identity
I thought this talk show was pretty interesting - but i wish they had something more than just theory.  I like theory and I like to think about who we are, but i think theory is too stuck in itself to take into consideration how differently humans think.  We all like to think we have ourselves figured out - we spend 24/7/365 together - our mind with our body - but then why do we manage to surprise ourselves?  Or at least, I surprise myself sometimes - do you? Do you know who you are - or do you just look to who you'd like to be?  I am my best researched project, but yet I still see it as quite unfinished...I just hope I can figure it all out.

Hellllo.

So this week we've been talking about self-portraits, so here I go blogging about them :)

First: after looking through a bunch of self-portraits our lovely teacher provided for us, I found one that I thought was so cool.  It kind of reminded me of one of those 'don't do weed' commercials, but either way, I really liked it.  Here is the link for your viewing pleasure.

Second: we had to make our own self-portraits.  So, me being the over-achiever/nerd that I - for better or for worse - very much am, i made two.  But in my defense, it wasn't my original intention.  I wanted to make the "long portrait" of me looking into my webcam for 30 seconds, partially because it'd take me 30 seconds (sorry.) but also because I'd never done it.  I read Dr. R's blog about how exposing it was, and I didn't understand until I sat down and did it.  To be honest, I did it 3 times.  First time my hair was in my face, second the tv was on, and 3rd one was quite with my hair out-ish of my face.  I don't know why it mattered, I look the same in all of them, but watching them was really weird, it was like i was watching me watching myself.  or something. I liked it, but it was pretty exposing.  But after my 3 attempts, I walked down the hall to show one of my 26 roommates (yeah, i live in a madhouse/sorority house) and the only thing she has to say is, "why are you sitting still? i've never seen you do that before, why don't you dance or stretch or be a hippie, that's much more Kate".  So, I did - i danced.  I guess I could classify it as a little hippie, it was a Bowling for Soup song in the background called 'Shut-up and Smile', saying that 'all we need is some ice cream and a hug' which i think is funny.  And a much more accurate representation of me then sitting down staring, something i rarely do.

So here we are: the two self-portraits of Kate.

UNO (still, sedated, "normal" Kate): 
Self-Portrait from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.




DOS (obnoxious, dancing, happy, normal Kate): 
Self-Portrait from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.

Welcome

New semester, new year, same blog, same girl, different ideas.  Get excited, cause I am.

This is Brandon's blog, he usually has something interesting to say :)