Curtain Call!!

December 22, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , ,

These projects are so impressive! I really just sat at my computer and watched almost all of them. It is so great not only to see our progression with these tools as a class, but to see that our final projects will be able to help kids learn a wholee bunch of things about libraries. ALL of the videos were great, there really was any that I didn’t enjoy watching. I really thought it was neat to see how we could help other kids while working on something that really highlighted everything that we learned this year. Even though it was hard to narrow my list down here are my top three and why I chose them…

One: Team Dark Chatter (Ray C, Amir Z and Kelvin S.)

I absolutely loved this project. I loved the message that the group chose to work with. Going to the library and being distracted in the worst, especially if your too chicken to say something like me. I really enjoyed the way the group use repetition. I think that the kids will definitely pick up on the “don’t do this you are in a library” and hopefully that will really drill the message into their head. I also really liked the comedic aspect the group had. I can honestly say that I was laughing out loud when I saw that the problem the guy was trying to solve was one plus one, that for sure will get a laugh or two (or a hundred). I think that this group really was able to showcase their understanding of iMovie. I think that my group was at a disadvantage because none of us were familiar with Macs, but I certainly thought that this group had it down pat. I thought that all of the voice overs and transitions were done extremely smoothly!! A+!!

Two: Team Scarlet Girls (Gina D, Deanne D, Rose S and Gabrielle Y)

I loved this video so much! I thought the skit was really original and obviously I loved the music because I love Harry Potter! They used such a cool little dubstep remix! I also thought that the quality of the video was really impressive. I think that all the transitions were done perfectly and I really enjoyed the way that they incorporated the interviews into the skit. I think that this project has the prefect amount of actual information within the little skit. I really believe that this video will entertain the kids as well as teach them a thing or two about the benefits of reading something that you love (like Harry Potter)!!
Three: Team College Ave Kidz
Team College Ave Kidz (because the video is unlisted it wouldn’t let me embed it )
Even  though you guys can’t view the video I promise you its amazing. The whole skit follows SuperGirl and her trip to the library. After doing basically everything wrong SuperGirl is really upset and wonders if she will ever be able to do anything right. Then SuperGirl finds out that the librarian is a super hero as well! I thought that this was so funny, the librarian saved the day! I loved the skit and I think it did a great job of showing that the librarians are there to help. The video also did a great job of highlighting a couple of rules about the library!

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MEMES!!!!!

December 8, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , ,

actually love memes so this weeks assignment really isn’t at all work for me. One of my favorites is a variation of Scumbag Steve. I love animals so much I really am a sucker for anything with them in it. So, naturally I gravitated to a Meme with an animal in it. I just really think that this is hilarious. OBVIOUSLY THE DOG TORE UP THE CARPET! I really just can’t express how much I enjoy these. I honestly can spend countless hours paging through these.

the dog version of Scumbag Steve

Image courtesy of knowyourmeme.com

Another meme that I love is the Exhibit one that becomes popular not that long ago. I really don’t think that this meme, or any memes, are part of fan-culture. Most of them really don’t require any prior knowledge that would cause the people to be fans of something. This Exhibit one is actually hilarious.

Image courtesy of knowyourmeme.com

These memes really do allow me to express myself. There are so many different kinds that I feel as though the memes people like the most say something about them (not that I really have any clue what my memes say about me). I think that these memes are really a great way for friends to just relax and share something fun that they found on the internet. Here is another meme I just can’t get over…

Image courtesy of knowyourmeme.com

Like this is actually soooo funny. Could you imagine?? My roommate believes that she is awkward 100% of the time so she loved this choice. I think that I would have to search more to find memes that we could fit into our project, but I do believe that it is possible. I think that there certainly are memes about doing what you want and not caring what other people think, which is basically our topic. Another thing that I enjoyed looking at this week was the charts of all the different memes. Watching the line graph skyrocket so quickly really is amazing. Getting the word out really is nuts!

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“We the Wizards” Reaction

December 4, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

I absolutely loved the “We the Wizards” film. I actually showed all of my roommates, who are all also HUGE Harry Potter fans. I’ve heard stories about events such as the ones mentioned before, but I never saw a film that covered the whole thing! Even as I am writing this response, I have Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire playing in the background. We seriously eat and breathe Harry Potter over here on Somerset! Being part of the “Wizarding World” I really can connect to the movement that was mentioned in the film. It frightens me to think how easy it is to publicize revolts and responses. Simply by blogging and using social media sites, users are able to share their messages and opinions with millions of others. Sharing ideas and plans on these social media sites is easier than ever now a days – we can even send these messages on our phones!

Learning about how the fans got together to make a statement to a corporation such as Warner Bros. really is impressive. The company is so large and powerful – it really is saying something that the fans were able to ban together and make a change.

Another thing that I think is important to bring up is that fact that these sites and the connected-ness of the web is only growing. With the pace that electronics and the different technologies are evolving now, I really don’t know where we will end up. Just a couple of years this class would have been completely different! There wasn’t any iMovie and screencasting a couple of years ago. The fan of Harry Potter prove that power is in the numbers, by effecting Warner Bros. as much as they did – I am sure that they inspired other fans of different movies and shows to do the same in future situations.

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Catching up on…

November 24, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

I really haven’t skipped any blog posts over the weeks this semester – something that I am proud of completing. I think that in order to make my blogs better I will go in and try to incorporate some sort of media aspect to the postings. I know that blogging is a big portion of our grade so I want to make sure that mine are up to par. Hopefully by adding this aspect all of my blogs will receive full credit. I believe that because our previous topics are so broad I shouldn’t have any trouble finding pictures and videos to go along with them. Moving forward this semester, I really would like to put a lot of work into my final project. Our rough draft is completed and I really like what we have so far. Our interviews really turned out well and I think that so far our editing has turned out better than we expected (none of my group members had a Macbook to practice on). The more we play with iMovie the more things we find and add to our project. I think that by spending some more time on our final draft we should have no problem getting full credit.

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Official Trailer

November 16, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , ,

The Shining re-edited trailer was really cool! It is interesting to see how editing can change something so much. I would love to see The Shining as a romantic comedy! I can see the benefits of having a trailer, obviously when it relates to an upcoming movie, but also for projects and events. I think adding an overall trailer to our group project would be extremely beneficial. As for our group project, I think our trailer would be inspirational. I think that we would have some sort of uplifting song and pair that song with picture and footage of kids  reading in libraries in schools and in parks.  Then our video would go into those kids, years later doing what they love. It would be important to catch the children’s books titles and have them relate to what they are doing when they grow up, as a way of saying that you should read what you enjoy. I think that by using examples we will be able to get the kids attention and keep it to see that reading what you love can turn into something that propels you into a job. We could also use voice overs like the do in the State Farm commercials (if we could use a famous person’s voice that would be super cool) but if we almost narrated the trailer I think we could forward our topic even further into the children. I think it is also important to keep our trailer short. The point of a trailer is to keep the audience guessing and wanting to see more. We probably shouldn’t directly mention the interviews but allude to that fact that we have real life examples. I think that as a group, we should certainly look into creating at least some sort of trailer to our project.

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Creative Commons

November 9, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , , , ,

Since I missed class this week, I was really surprised to learn about Creative Commons. It seems like one of the greatest media resources online! I can absolutely say that this will help out our project a lot because there really are so many pictures, songs, EVERYTHING on the site.

The picture that I chose I think its really cool. It shows a young Chinese boy reading. I like this picture because, I think, you can really see the joy on the boy’s face while he is reading. I think that this picture will help inspire kids to pick up a book that they are interested in, because it will make them happy like this boy.

Another picture that I really like and that I think we can use is this picture it shows an older kid and two little kids reading a book in a library. I think it is important to tell the kids that even though they may not think other kids will like books that they like – there is a good chance that some of them will. Feeling like you are going to be judged by the books that you chose to read is something that no child should have to deal with. This is something I think we can portray better by including this picture.

The song that I chose to incorporate is Open a Book I found it on YouTube via Creative Commons. It might be a little childish for the kids that we are aiming to effect, but I still think that it sends the right message. The song is very upfront it literally talks about opening a book and enjoying what you find.

The movie that I chose to list is my favorite finding! I think that this PSA is a great find for our project. It shows a famous talking about the importance of reading. I think that by using this video, we should be able to get the kids attention and inspire them to read about anything that they like.

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Brainstorming our creative progress

November 9, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , ,

I am really impressed with our groups direction so far. I think that by sitting down during class time and really brainstorming on the things that we want to do, and how we want to do it – gives us a solid order to complete our project. I think that dividing up the work evenly and allowing each of us individually to add our own creative aspects to the project will allow for a very collaborative and informative final.

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Storyboarding

November 4, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

This weeks assignment allowed us to use a different aspect of Google Docs, the spreadsheet. This part of Google Docs highly resembles Microsoft PowerPoint. This system is set up the same way, I would just note that their aren’t  as many options for adding color to your presentation. I was a little confused with how story boarding would work because our iMovie was just going to be set up like an interview. I really didn’t think there were going to be that many options for shots (filming shots) during an interview. However, after we discussed all of our options I realized there was a lot more to it than I had originally expected. After discussing we decided that having an establishing shot to begin with would not only make the video more ascetically pleasing, but it would give the kids better context to what our interviewees actually are doing in the world. After the establishing shot we decided to a variety of shots to create enough uniform for the interviews, but still show a little bit of creativity. The end of our interview will show kids reading and having fun, something that will hopefully encourage the kids to choose what they like and read.

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Google Docs

October 30, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , , ,

This week in class we went over how to collaborate using Google Docs. I was already familiar with this tool because I refuse to pay two hundred bucks to install Microsoft Word on my computer. I think that Google has set up a great set of tools which no longer makes Microsoft as much of a necessity as it used to be. I think it is extremely helpful that Google makes it possible to share documents with other users. It also helps a lot that we can watch as others add and make changes to our work. I think that using Google Docs will make it easier to work as a group for our project. Working with my group was a bit of a struggle simply because I was unable to make class Monday and wasn’t really sure what we had to accomplish.  It took me a while to figure out exactly what the project was all about and what my group had chosen to work on. However, we were able to pull together and create the document and share it with our professor in order to get credit. It was cool to watch as our paper came together and turned into something that was basically a lay out for what our project would be. I think that this was defiantly an appropriate first step into starting our final group projects. This project will be exciting, especially after I find out a little more about it, because we will be responsible for finding and figuring out which technologies fit best in our presentation. I think that through this project we will be able to navigate ourselves though a presentation, something that will absolutely come in handy while working in the real world. I really can not wait to see what our final project will look like.

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Top 5 Blogs!

October 18, 2011 · Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged , , , ,

Heres a list of my top 5 blogs and an explanation for why I love them so much!

Connie Zhen’s Blog (for link clickhere)

This is a beauty blog that I really enjoyed looking at. I think if she kept up with this blog it really could turn into something cool! I love the header and the posts she incorporated into the blog. I think that her posts were very interesting and I can’t wait to see more of them. I also enjoyed her podcast and her welcome post. The blog seemed very inviting and really captured my attention. I would assume that I would be a target audience for her, so I think she did a good job of bringing my attention to her blog!

Sofia Pitt’s Blog (for link clickhere)

This blog is about cooking healthy while in college! How smart! I think this is a great idea and really haven’t heard of anything like it, what a great idea! I really enjoyed looking at the background, I thought it was funny to see the mac and cheese with the X over it. I think that the YouTube video was absolutely the best method for her to incorporate in order to show her followers how to cook. I think her audience will be able to understand the video and hopefully learn to cook something healthier than just eating mac and cheese every night like so many of us have become accustomed to doing.

Ana’s Blog (clickhere)

This blog is actually my absolute favorite. I may be biased because of my shared love for Harry Potter, but I do think this is a great idea. Harry Potter has so many, loyal, fans I am sure that there is a market for Harry Potter blogs. She did a great job of thinking about a topic that has a following. Since the books have ended I think many Harry Potter fans have resulted to blogging about the books. The background is actually adorable and I love this first post. I think Ana did a very good job of creating the “personality” that was spoken about in the Dunn article.

Jamie Cann’s Blog (clickhere)

Dressing for college is something I think every girl struggles with. Regulating the temperature and trying to figure out the forecast can be difficult at times, especially when you have to plan to be out for six to seven hours at a time. I really enjoyed the post about rain boots, I didn’t come to school with rain boots my freshmen year (big mistake) so I can relate to her audience there. I think she did a good job of creating a unique topic and really established a good pages section of her blog. This really is a great idea!

Marissa Wheaton’s Blog (clickhere)

I think this is the only blog that really took two ideas and put them together. I think it was a great idea to make a cooking blog but incorporate an Alice and Wonderland theme. I think this blog has the best personality out of all the blogs I’ve read. It really is such an unique idea and for that reason I think that she did the best job of finding a specific audience for her blog. Creating a blog about something that many people and benefit from (cooking) and putting your own twist on it (Alice and Wonderland) can really make a hit!

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