Remix a Guinness Book of World records web page. Pick any record you want and somehow remix it. Try and connect it to a story, and add some background inspiration into your idea for inspiration. Maybe it was the record you always wanted to set, or break. Or maybe it fits perfectly into a story…
Read more
Hey there everyone! Thanks for clicking into another one of my blog posts discussing my work so far for this class. This week, we have been tasked with acquiring 8 stars worth of activities. Yesterday, I tried to do the BuzzFeed personality quiz assignment, but ran into some difficulties getting the quiz to display properly. I’m still working on squaring that away, but as it is ready I will post it and make it available for you all to take for yourselves.
This post below is the work that I came up with when I attempted the ‘Remix Guinness Book Of World Records’ assignment, which can be found here. I started with this record, and remixed it for a comical twist.
The backstory to this record was that a soccer mom was late for her Pilates class. This class is her only highlight in a week filled with errands and chores, Susan Smith was NOT about to miss her class. She was clocked at 99999.91 mph because the police radar that pulled her over could not go any higher. The officers impounded the vehicle, and they were super surprised to find that the van was powered by Rolls-Royce jet engines. To this day, it is not known if Susan made it to her Pilates class that day.
Thanks for reading! I hope I was able to make you laugh somewhere on this post. Leave a comment!
Hey guys and gals!
This week we had to work with the web and all the cool tools that it offers. Our requirement included completing two web based assignments worth a total of 6 points.
The Assignment
This assignment is worth 2.5 stars and the requirement for it is: “Remix a Guinness Book of World records web page. Pick any record you want and somehow remix it. Try and connect it to a story, and add some background inspiration into your idea for inspiration. Maybe it was the record you always wanted to set, or break. Or maybe it fits perfectly into a story you are creating. How ever it fits be creativ and have fun with it.”
The Result
I chose the Worlds Oldest Gymnast record. Here is the original and here is the result.
The Story
I am not unhealthy but I am also not “fit”. If somebody could just give me a pill that would make my body capable of amazing physical feats and flexibility I would gladly take it, I mean, who WOULDN’T? Anyway, I truly look up to the people who have trained so hard and learned to use their bodies to the full potential. It’s like seeing somebody who went to school and became a neurosurgeon or a great writer. We have all the tools but unfortunately, most people never reach their full potential or don’t even think they can. At this point in my life, I’m fairly certain I will never become a gymnast and I probably won’t be able to do a squat by the time i’m 70. It’s a little fantasy of myself that I like to entertain. What if I could do the splits and pull myself up effortlessly? All of this ties into the fact that if we truly want something, we must expect to work very hard for it. A gymnast did not just wake up one morning and become a gymnast. Also, reading about the real woman who holds the record is very inspiring and at the least, maybe she can inspire me to become a little better and work out more.
The Process
I downloaded the X-Ray Goggles and then went to the Guinness World Records site. Since I knew that I wanted some physical feat, I immediately looked in that section and found the World’s Oldest Gymnast record. Next, I activated my goggles and made my changes by clicking on the areas that I wanted to alter. I didn’t change the picture because i’m not 86 years old and therefore don’t have a picture of myself as an older lady. I figure I could very well look like her when i’m 86… When I was done with the changes I clicked “Publish” on the menu to the right and copied my new URL. That was it!
Telling Stories Within the Web
Reading the description for storytelling on the web is daunting to say the least. Manipulating photos or audio is one thing, but actually digging into a web site and manipulating code (or somehow messing with the guts of the site) seems to me to be something altogether different. I agree with the article that says the concept of using websites to tell a story other than the one that was intended “pushes our consideration of ‘story’”.  In practice I wonder what the actual value is in being able to alter a web page. I understand that the goal here is to learn the process, get a better understanding of how web pages work (and in this case, if i learn anything at all, it will be new) and mess with code, but I will have to experiment with this to see if I can discover any instances in which I feel this would be the best way to tell a story as opposed to simply another way to do it. I continue to ask this question even after seeing the examples (like the google site that includes ingredients to cook children) – is this a situation in which these are the best ways to tell a story?  I think there are certainly arguments to be made that certain stories can be told best through still images, or just audio – I’m not sure there’s a similar argument to be made in this case.
OK – I’ve figured out how to install XRay Goggles – pretty easy so far….. Â Ok, I finished manipulating the website and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I’m not sure that I learned a ton about how code is used, but it was incredibly simple to change the website. I learned, however, that you have to hover over the lines to get X-Ray to do its thing. Clicking on links before the X-Ray kicks in takes you to a new page and essentially wipes out all the progress you’ve made. Lesson learned.
One more down side – I didn’t alter the whole article – just the part that’s visible when you first bring it up. When I went to try and alter the rest of it, I couldn’t see how to do it without starting all over.
Creating a fictional character
I want to create a character named “Archie, the guy smoking outside when you come into work”. Archie is the kind of guy that typically doesn’t want to be bothered with cultural issues or anything else going on beyond the smoking area, but he’s finding himself increasingly lonely because everyone is quitting smoking and therefore he’s using the internet as a way to reach out, albeit awkwardly, to new people in cyberspace.
Note: I’m still not entirely comfortable with this and always feel as though I am stepping into someone else’s private conversation. I guess i’m not used to the fact that it’s really open to everyone. Not sure if I’m linking these comments correctly. I think they still have to be approved, so I’m not sure if they are on the real site yet.
Comment 2:Â http://seeinggainz.com/assignments/my-number-one/#comment-227
Comment 3:Â https://angietemple.wordpress.com/2015/04/08/a-little-vision-and-determination/comment-page-1/#comment-85
Comment 4:Â http://zenas-suitcase.co.uk/2015/04/07/myfavouriteplace-10/#comment-45173
Comment 5:Â http://konarheim.com/daily-create/masters-golf-minimal-paper-poster/#comment-123
Assignments
I enjoyed the Google X-Ray assignment so much, I opted to use it for my first Web Assignment. Â I tried to link a story to it, as the assignment suggested. Â It’s WebAssignment 1541 and is worth four stars. ****
I also used Google X-Ray to design my own personal search engine….for the newly-deceased. I experimented with trying to alter the imagery as well as the text. It initially saved an image of heaven in the upper left, but it didn’t come out through the link below. This is WebAssignment 1438 and is worth 2 stars. **
And finally, I used the same program to alter a YouTube page about a cat that appears to be considering bringing his or her owner to a terrible end. Â At least I would be if they put me in that shirt. Â (I altered a link in this one as well). Unfortunately the video here does not translate – the link to the tutorial in the Assignment bank is broken. I’m not sure if I did this right or not. This was WebAssignment 730 and was worth four stars. ****
Daily Creates all in one Story
First one – Minimalist Paper Poster – I just wanted to do something relatively easy, but I loved the video included here. I opted for a colored piece of paper with some sugar that, once I pushed it around with my finger for a while, became a sugar flower. (tag: tdc1185)
Umbrella picture tdc1183
The story: The spring is the time of year where the clouds and sun mix in equal measure. The days that hint at sun end with gray, and the heat can break the back of winter at any time. The images here show the transition from day to night to day – the first bright with shiny flowers, then the return of the rain (or threat of rain) with the umbrella.
Summary
I loved this unit. I was excited to tell my family and friends about Google X-Ray. I am still not convinced that it is anything more than a novelty, but as a novelty, it is fascinating and holds a lot of possibilities. I also enjoyed having to link the imagery in the daily creates together to tell stories – after all, that’s what we’re trying to do. And I believe that all of these programs have opened up a world of possibilities when it comes to telling stories and I find myself considering new modes of art as I consider my own creativity. I am learning a lot about the possibilities the internet still holds and I’m sure I will learn even more when we move into the video portion of the class.
The first digital media to start off my Narrative is a VideoAssignment that I created and added to the assignment bank. The assignment was to create a short video about a minute thirty seconds to two minute’s long about a character. Give the viewer an idea about what this character is like using about 3-5 short video clips.
I decided to describe the Grinch. This is the first media source in my narrative and I used this project to introduce one of the two characters into the story.
I used a youtube to mp4 converter to download the videos I needed from youtube onto my computer.
Next I imported the video clips into iMovie where I could trim them and drag them into the order that I desired.
I then uploaded the video to Youtube and my video assignment was complete.
#VideoAssignments1542 #VideoAssignments
The next assignment introduced into my story is one that I created and added to the assignment bank. It is an audio assignment worth 3 stars. The idea was to create an audio assignment where you would take a famous line from a movie, and remix it, to tell an entirely new story. This can be kind of tricky though, you want to make sure you have a good balance between old material and new material. You don’t want to change it so much that you cannot even tell where it originated, but you want it to be changed enough so that it tells a completely new story.
I took the popular line from Elf “I passed through the seven levels of the Candy Cane forest, through the sea of swirly twirly gum drops, and then I walked through the Lincoln Tunnel.” I remixed it to a new location to introduce the story to a new adventure by saying “Buddy walked all the way from the North Pole, traveling through the seven layers of the candy cane forest, past the sea of swirly-twirly gum drops and then hiked up the mountain to the front door of the Grinch’s cave.”
This line leads up to the rest of the story by setting the location of the remainder and majority of the story at the Grinch’s cave on the top of the mountain.
I created this recording using sound cloud, and recorded myself telling the story directly.
To find quotes from Elf you can refer to About EducationÂ
#AudioAssignments1539 #AudioAssignments
The next assignment I also created. This assignment is a web assignment worth 4 stars, involving a very popular book The Guinness Book of World Records.  This assignment can be used for more than just a story about a character, but really anything, maybe its a story about a record you always wanted to break, or something that would be funny to find in the book. My hope with creating this assignment was that there would be no limitations to what could be done with it, just one guideline..you have to use the book.
I remixed the webpage using X-Ray Goggles, to create the longest snowball fight ever. It latest 6 hours and it was between Buddy the Elf and the Grinch, in Whoville.
Screen Shot of the webpage:
#WebAssignments #WebAssignments1541
Close out a story in a five second GIF. Another assignment that I created under animated GIF’s, worth 4 stars. This assignment has two big elements. Not only is it important to create a GIF, but to also tell a story. This assignment can be tricky, because it is hard to find a video clip that can also be universal and fit your story.
I used the video clip at the very end of the movie Santa Clause 2. I knew I wanted to use that scene because I remember doing a video assignment with it previous in the semester and that clip really stuck out to me as just a good way to end a story.
This assignment can be fairly simple if you can find a good GIF generator, I used Make A GIFÂ and I would recommend using this website or another one similar to it.
AnimatedGIFAssignments, AnimatedGIFAssignments1540
The final assignment is a design assignment worth 3 stars, that asks you to create a promotional poster for a movie or story. I created a promotional poster to promote my new story called Elf 2: Buddy Meets the Grinch. I added in what would be my favorite scene, a snowball fight between Buddy and the Grinch that actually made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
#DesignAssignment #DesignAssignment1543
Remix a Guinness Book of World records web page. Pick any record you want and somehow remix it. Try and connect it to a story, and add some background inspiration into your idea for inspiration. Maybe it was the record you always wanted to set, or break. Or maybe it fits perfectly into a story you are creating. How ever it fits be creativ and have fun with it.
I would recommend using X-Ray Goggles, to rewor the webpage, it is very simple and allows you to do a lot, and then publish the page.
