What's up with project 2's draft

What I have posted on my blog today is the draft of my draft. I know what I want to do, and I've written out some of the material. My project is going to be a story about a camping trip I took this past summer. I have a lot of pictures of this trip, so that will be helpful. I want it to be really random, so I'm going to start the narrative talking about Morgantown summers. There's going to be multiple links so people can choose which direction in the story they are interested in. I'm working on some video for a fictional part of the trip where we get attacked by something.
So, I have a lot of questions about how to do things. My main question is about links within blogs since we have to post everything on blogger.

How about project 2.

So I'm not really sure what I think about project 2 and don't really have any ideas. We've talked about a few possibilities in class, but not many of these seem like something I want to do. Google maps seems like a good tool to tell a narrative while forcing the reader to interact by clicking on different stuff. This seems like a really simple idea though. The Audacity sound program definitely seems like the tool I'll be working with, but I'm concerned about finding material to work with and time constraints. Creating a sound file that I like will take a long time. Today in class, we looked at using Windows Movie Maker. If I can figure out a sound file I like and fix it up, then finding images for animation won't be difficult. So, I'm kind of waiting until Tuesday when we learn how to create animation with the movie maker.

Project 2

Check out project 2 links!

McCloud's Amplification through Simplification

The concept of amplification through simplification in McCloud's second chapter of The Vocabulary of Comics explains how viewers relate to simplified drawings versus complex drawings. If a character is drawn simply with basic shapes and lines, then this character can look like anyone. A viewer can relate to a simplified face because they can associate simplified features with someone they know or possibly themselves. An artist can amplify this association by contrasting the simple character with a detailed background.
The recommended website for Ninjai displays amplification through simplification. The demons are simply drawn, with a face that has simple features. The colors of all the characters are plain with little shadowing or detail. In chapter one, Ninjai never shows his face, further simplifying his character so that anyone can compare themselves to him. Similarly, in the link to Landscapes, the creator uses simple shapes that create the image of a landscape. The background colors could possibly come from the Microsoft Powerpoint color schemes. Real life pictures that depict random images (or not?) are positioned somewhere in the landscape. My eyes are first drawn to the pictures, which I keep in mind as I study the landscape. Through simplification, I can place my associated thoughts to the pictures in any landscape I choose.

Project 1: "This is Just to Say"

My first project is a concrete poem/notated version of William Carlos Williams poem This is Just to Say. I often have a hard time understanding why some things are considered literature or art. When I first read this poem, I definitely did not understand why it's so famous. The more I read the it, the more I enjoyed its simplicity and I found myself digging deep to figure out its meaning. I began to study the placement of the text and the grammar used throughout. I wanted to incorporate these thoughts in my adaptation of the poem. In order to do so, some components of my project are font type, font color, word placement, and the background image.
I chose different font types for different words. For example the words "so sweet" are in segoe script, which is a very curvy text that reminds me of something sweet. For different words that I felt like were key words, I searched through the font types and chose one that suited the mood of the word.
I did the same thing for the font color. To stick with the same example, I chose pink for the words "so sweet" because I think of something sweet as being pink. And an obvious example is
the word "plums" in the color purple.
Although I'm not sure you can tell or not, there are three plums created by the placement of the text. The layout of the words in the three plums are identical. I wanted to create the visual of the plums and force the reader to reread the words in order to figure out what words are really there. Can you tell? Would you be able to make sense of this poem even if you could read it line by line? These are questions I want the viewer to ask themselves. The words are a part of the overall visual, but complicate Carlos's original meaning (whatever that might be). Also, I realize that some of the words are hard to see, but that was an issue with the background. I wanted an image of ice and plums so the viewer will wonder why such random things appear (in the same way that I wonder why someone would write about plums in an icebox). Hopefully this component will make the viewer study the project harder.

My thoughts on Project 1 so far

The activities and examples displayed in class today really eased my anticipations for project 1. The powerpoint example showed me a way to create movement with a powerpoint presenatation, which I was unsure if we could do before today. Sandy also explained that we can draw the project and download a picture of it onto our blog. The ideas everyone else came up with were along the lines of my own ideas: just a concrete poem of some sort. I now imagine the project to include a simple poem or other text that has been recreated with different color, layout, and etc. I'm really interested in rearranging the words or even the letters to create some kind of motion for the poem. I'd also like to vary the font size and type to emphasize the meaning of words. Lastly, every color has a connotation; the different connotation to every individual could make a concrete poem more meaning specific to each person.
The poem I worked with today is This is Just to Say by William Carlos Williams. I chose this poem because it is short and is often manipulated for various interpretations. I'm not sure I want to use this poem because it is so popular and I typically choose more outlandish texts. However, for the sake of making the goals of my first multimedia project obtainable, I should use a simple text and focus on expanding my ideas. I might write my own version of the poem in order to incorporate more open ideas than simply taking a plum out of an icebox. Maybe I'll apologize for stealing my friend's boyfriend and use crazy text in angry patterns. A more abstract idea sounds interesting, but I can't think of anything abstract to steal and from who I would steal from at the moment. In the meantime, I'm going to search for other short poems (although I don't think I'll find many shorter than This is Just to Say) and experiment with my ideas. I usually process too many ideas at once for projects like these, so I'm going to try to set some goals before I start on anything permanent.

Project 1 Ideas & ?s

Since this is the first project, I have a lot of open ended questions. My main concern is my lack of experience with functions of computer programs. I'm experienced with Microsoft Word and Notepad and programs of that sort, but I don't feel like I can create my project the way I want to with these programs. The examples of multimedia writing that we have reviewed in class so far have somewhat intimidated me. Many of these examples are videos or some other complex project that I definitely don't have the skills to create yet.
I'm also struggling with whether to write my own text or choose one I like. To write my own text would require a lot of thought, but it would also be hard for me to choose one text that I like and transform the words.
To wrap up this blog, my questions include:

• Are your expectations for the first project really high? Or do most students improve throughout the semester?
• Is this project really as open ended as the syllabus suggests?

Below is an idea for the first project: