For this assignment, I videoed myself reading a short letter to 16 year old me. I used windows movie maker to create this video. I extremely enjoyed this assignment even though I hate recording myself. I have always wished I could go back and tell myself a few things. The original assignment can be found here and it is worth 4 stars.
So for my final video assignment this week I chose to write a letter to my 16 year old self then make a video about it. I chose to do this assignment because there is so much I would tell myself to do and what not to do if I could go back to when I was 16. Also because so much has happened these last 4 years I just thought it would be polite to warn my 16 year old self for what is coming…if I could of course. This letter is really personal and kinda focuses around a relationship that I had that was off and on for four years and started when I was 16 so that’s why a major portion of the letter is dedicated to that. To do this video, I first wrote the letter in my “notes” on my mac and then used Photo Booth to record myself reading it. I’m trying to come out of my shell with my feelings and this is the first step to that. Keeping my feelings bottled up is just slowly killing me and this blog is one way to get those toxic feelings out. So here is my letter…
Oh the things we wish we knew then that we know now! To be able to go back and do things differently!
I chose this assignment (4 Stars) because I liked the idea of being of to look back and tell myself what I wish someone would have told me then! I originally thought this couldn’t be an assignment I could come up with but then once I started it went on and on. I was very surprised.
It clearly said this could be done via video or audio either one so I chose the audio because I hate seeing myself in video’s and pictures!
I pretty much covered the things I would try a different way if I had it all to do over again! Thanks for the opportunity to reflect back!
For another one of my video assignments I decided to Letter to the 16 year old me (4 stars). This was a very interesting assignment for me and it brought up so many old emotions. I had a really fun time putting together what I would say. A lot of times people always say they think back on what they did in the past but it’s different when you actually do it write it down and say it out loud. The majority of the time I was recording I had the chills. I really enjoyed this assignment and I hope you do too.
Original Assignment (4 Stars)
The next video assignment I decided to do was the “Dear 16 Year Old Me” one. This assignment had me thinking quite a bit, because I was trying to figure out what to say that would be significant towards my sixteen year old self. Then I thought, hey, there was a good amount of things I could say that would be important.
The way I did this assignment was I wrote myself a script beforehand so that I wouldn’t have awkward pauses or breaks when I talked throughout the video. I then proceeded to record myself on the “Photo Booth” app that was already installed on my macbook. It looks like I’m not looking into the camera, which I’m not, but that’s just because I was reading the script off of microsoft word, which I had on the side of my laptop screen. I simply then just saved my video on my desktop and uploaded it on YouTube.
I decided to do the assignment Dear Sixteen Year Old Me worth 4 stars. I don’t think that I made a ton of mistakes but I wanted to warn myself of a few things and also prepare myself for the future a little bit. Overall I wouldn’t want to change my life drastically so I decided that I would just recommend a few minor adjustments to myself. I felt like I was a good kid for the most part but a bit of a trouble maker in school.
Making the video was not very difficult at all. I just recorded it with the webcam on my computer into Windows live Movie Maker. Then all I had to after that was upload it to YouTube. I did not have to do any editing or anything like that for this assignment.
It felt nice to think back on my past and reflect on some things that I could have done differently. That is not something I do regularly or at least thinking that far back. I still hate recording myself though because it feels weird listening to my own voice but I will get used to it eventually I suppose. Hopefully you guys get a chuckle out of the message to my past self and maybe can relate to a little bit of what you said. I’m sure I am not the only one who had a lame relationship the lasted a little too long in high school.
This was really self reflective for me. I really liked this assignment.
For my next video assignment this week I did “Dear 16 Year Old Me” (4 stars). At first I was like eh, I don’t really know about this one. It seems interesting but I don’t know how much I would have to say. Then I realized that I actually would have a lot to say. That was the beginning of the two hardest years of school for me (college included). I was envious (I guess) of my friends because they had all the guys and no one seemed to want me except one guy that I didn’t want (funny how that works, isn’t it). Anyway I figured I would have plenty to talk about and it turns out I did.
How I did it:
I wrote the letter to myself and did no editing on it so it was exactly what I was feeling. I then opened up my webcam (CyberLink YouCam) and hit record. I pulled up the letter on Microsoft Word and read it while recording the video (which is why I’m not looking at the camera, sorry). Then I had to convert it to MP4 using Zamzar which for some reason took FOREVER to download but eventually it did. Then I uploaded it to YouTube and here it is:
If only this could really happen. Things would be a bit different for me. I would still have enlisted in the Marine Corps though. I could have made this video funny, and made jokes, but I decided to take it a bit seriously just in case some damn cosmic phenomena takes place and this actually works.
All in all, there’s not much that I would change about my life. I’m a happy guy. I would like to have a large pile of cash to play with though. So knowing who wins the super bowl is a big plus. Maybe I’ll send another message and tell myself who wins the horse races too.
Money doesn’t make you happy, but it allows you to do things that make you happy. Plus it would give me an opportunity to help my loved ones too.
this video is kind of like the lottery dream, people buy the ticket and already have it spent before they walk out of the door of 7-11. The only downside is that you and I will NEVER win, but there is hope, and sometimes hope is enough too.
http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/dear-sixteen-year-old-me/
Today I decided to leave some advice for myself, if I could send something to the past. Anyways, this video was made using the video recorder on my laptop (I’ve been experimenting with what works better for recording today). After I recorded, I used Window’s Media player to tweak the brightness and the saturation of the video to try to make it look slightly better.
I decided to give some advice on college as I recall having some thoughts about my major. I remember not knowing what I wanted to do prior to college, and I had doubts in case I did not like the major I chose. The information in the video came to mind as I now sit back and reflect over my past years and approach the end (senioritis is beginning to set in). With that in mind, I made a shorty 46 second video.
If you watch it, let me know what you think! I’m still trying to find the best way to record decent looking videos.
