ksu7741 – Assignment Bank

Remix #4: Video

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For my final remix project, I used a music video to a song I use when I teach Hamlet by William Shakespeare. In the past I have brought in the songs “Lithium” by Nirvana and “Psycho” by Puddle of Mudd to use as possible connections to Hamlet’s precarious mental state. Both of these song lyrics have been useful in helping students grasp the complex mental processes, and possible mental illness, of this complex character. In addition, I allow students to cite song lyrics along with critical articles and movie scenes from a number of different versions of the play to achieve a thorough synthesis of secondary sources for the research paper they write at the conclusion of the unit. Starting with the songs is a fun and low stress way to introduce the skill of multi-textual synthesis used when writing a literary analysis research paper.

The reason I opted for the Puddle of Mudd song is because I like the video better and it is more recent and therefore more identifiable for the students. Also, I am a horror movie buff, and I love how the director integrates the classic horror movie allusions with a tongue-in-cheek tone. Once I decided on the video, I simply copied it over to Google Popcorn Maker, and then poked around with it a bit. Here are the steps I followed in creating my remix:

I located the video on YouTube doing a simple search for the song title.
After reading up on several possible video editing programs, I decided I liked Google Popcorn Maker (http://popcorn.maker.org) best after watching a TED video demonstrating the program. I cut and pasted the URL for the YouTube video onto the site and created a project.
Using the “pop-up” function, I dropped in leading questions, prompts, facts about the play, and other Hamlet-related content at appropriate points in the video, following vocal cues from the lyrics whenever possible. By double-clicking on the proper “event” tag, I was able to enter any text I wanted in the pop-up bubble and then by hitting the “enter” button, the text was dropped into the video file.
In addition to occasional pop-ups, I also entered several images (also retrieved from Google Images) by saving the image to my desktop and then dragging it into the image box provided under the “image” event tab. Once the image was imported, I experimented with the size and placement of the image over the video. Again, I attempted to choose images that reflected either the lyric content or the pop-up messages I had inserted.
Next, I experimented with the Wikipedia event tab by inserting links to definitions of terms used in the song that relate to Hamlet’s mental state at various stages throughout the play. By inserting the link, the Wikipedia entry is displayed as a layer on top of the video. Once again, I did some strategic movement, resizing, and placement of the display.
Finally, I inserted a text box over the fade out of the video at the very end, quoting Hamlet’s last words on earth. After one final posing of the ultimate question of the play – Is Hamlet insane? – I liked the idea of ending with “The rest is silence” because it implies that no answer is forthcoming in this lifetime.

I really enjoyed creating this video project and I will be using it in the next week as I start Hamlet with my AP Literature class. Although I have used the song lyrics alone in the past, I look forward to incorporating a multi-modal approach to make the text-to-text connection. Students will be more engaged through the combination of visual and aural mediums, and the depth of analysis will be greater as students grapple with the questions pertaining to the relationship between Hamlet and Ophelia prior to the death of King Hamlet. I anticipate a great deal of discussion to be generated by the video.

As much as I enjoyed making the video, I did struggle with making the images overlay cleanly on the video. The edges bothered me because they made the images seem to contrived and detached. Looking back, I could have taken the extra steps of importing the images into http://pixlr.com and rounding the edges of the images to make them blend more cleanly into the video. This is something I will definitely experiment with in the future. Also, I am not a very visually creative person, so it is difficult for me to make artistic decisions about where the overlay images should be placed over the video. This is not something I anticipate mastering over the course of a semester, but I will continue experimenting with all of the video editing programs I have learned about.

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Movie Scenes That Changed Your Life

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For my fourth and final Remix project I decided to select the assignment Movie Scenes That Changed Your Life. We were to select 3-5 Movie scenes that had a significant impact on your life. I decided to select a scene from Antwone Fisher, a scene from Love and Basketball and finally a scene from the movie Save the Last Dance. These three scenes have changed my life in their own personal way and I discussed them in the short film. At first I thought that this project was going to be very simple; however, I was sadly mistaken. This fourth project was by far the hardest Remix assignment for me to complete and I am very satisfied with the way in which it turned out.

This project could have been pretty simple for me had I taken the easy way out. I could have easily popped in the DVD’s that I had and filmed my TV from my phone, uploaded those films and put them into my iMovie application in my MacBook, but I really wanted to try to use the technology to the best of my ability. I wanted to be able to get the scenes from the computer. I first tried to find my favorite, and probably one of the most poignant scenes in Antone Fisher, but I could not find it online anywhere. After talking to many coworkers and friends I decided to download the app, iSkysoft DVD Ripper. I had all the DVD’s that I needed but I needed to find a way to get clips from these films. When I first uploaded the movie in the system it took 94 minutes and I was very frustrated. I put it away and came back to it later. I opened it in a chapter format, found the chapter I needed, declined to upload the rest of the film and put the chapters into iMovie. I then trimmed two of the films in iMovie before I finally discovered how to trim them in iSkysoft. I trimmed them in iSkysoft, converted them into my computer and was able to take the exact parts I needed from the movie and import them into iMovie. Once they were in iMovie I put them all together. Next I selected the microphone, this allows you to implement a voiceover into your movie. After I tweeked and fine tuned the voiceover to be exactly how I wanted it, I finalized the movie and it was complete!

I really enjoyed doing this Remix project. It helped me to learn more about software and tools that I can use to get movie clips for presentations. I also learned how to implement a voiceover into my iMovie projects, something that I had never been able to do before!

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Movie Scenes That Changed Your Life

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Remix #4 – Video

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As a teacher, I realize the value of a well-crafted video. Taking the written word and making the themes, images, and ideas explode in a cacophony of color for the learner. What many of those learners do not realize is the sheer amount of time it takes to make each minute of those short videos come to life.

This project was the same. Days were spent going through all of the different options for this video remix project. Finally, I settled on looking at movie that influenced or left a lasting impact on my life.

The task for this assignment was to find three to five movie clips and discuss through my narration how the movies changed me, influenced me into the person that I am today. On the surface, this seems easy. But in reality, I had a difficult time deciding which movies to include and why. Limiting the choices to just 5 made this assignment even more challenging. Should I have a theme (best firsts, best teachers, most memorable)? Should I just say I “like” this film? I struggled with narrowing down a focused theme so that what I was creating had a specific intention that would be obvious to a viewer. I finally decided to look at notable films – my firsts, my favorite, and my influencers. Now I was ready to begin the creation of the video.

Step One – Collection

I located specific clips for each of the five films that I wanted to use. In order to accomplish this, I used Youtube.com and a Download program to capture the exact clips that I wanted. I convert the videos to .wmv for use in the video creation program. The five clips that I chose were:

It’s a Wonderful Life (my first movie memory);

Star Wars: A New Hope (my first drive-in movie – influenced me to learn to play the trumpet);

Elf (the movie I watch at least twice a year);

and of course the teacher movies that have influenced me to be the teacher that I am – I leave those choices a mystery for you to discover!

Step Two – The Script

I wrote a script to explain how each of the clips have left a lasting impact on my life. Then, I recorded the script using Audacity. This free program is easy to use and save the files into the extension that I needed. I split the narration into parts so that each file would be small. In part, this makes it easier to insert the narration after. However, the true reason I split the narration into chunks is that it takes me forever to get the text correct and I often have to re-record the section over and over and over. Eventually I have the script recorded just the way I want, and then I export them as .wav files for the video.

Step Three – Create the Introduction

Any good video has a great introduction that captures the eye of the viewer. I wanted mine to include elements of a visual, music, and text. After several attempts, I decided to go with a typewriting-esque entry of letters. This effect looks cool but is actually a lot of work. Using PowerPoint, I typed out the way I wanted the final text slide to look. I then duplicated each slide, removing one letter on each new slide until I started with only the visual image without any letters. Twenty-eight slides later, I saved the PowerPoint slides as individual .jpg files.

Step Four – Choose the Background Music

Music is one the most essential parts of a well-crafted video. I wanted something that was fitting as a movie score, upbeat, and majestic. I decided on a song from Pirates of the Caribbean Sound track. This song would support the title entry, the credits, and the narration between the music clips.

Step Five – Assemble the Video & Publish

The program I like to use for my video creations is Adobe Premiere Elements. Yes, there are free programs available, but I like the options that this program offers. When I get to this step, I find it easier to intentionally complete each section, perfecting it’s appearance before moving on to the next scene. I began with the introduction and the individual .jpg files. Then I add the music. Finally, I time each slide so that the .jpg files move swiftly as if the letters are rolling onto the screen, timed to the music. With the intro done, I quickly begin to add the rest of the narration, movie clips, and background music. The final touches included adding a Works Cited page and transitions (cross-dissolve) between each slide. With the video assembled, I save the creation as a .wmv file and upload it to my Youtube.com channel.

The one wrinkle that I encountered during the project occurred after I uploaded the file to Youtube.com. The video was blocked and flagged for violating copyright law. The file admittedly contains copyrighted creations of others. However, I protested the flagging by stating that the project was a remix project, one that adds values and changes the components from their original structure.

Overall, I am pleased with how the video bloomed. I enjoyed sharing it with my family and students. This is an activity that I would like to add to the beginning of the school year lessons next year. I often have the students do some sort of creative telling that introduces who they are. By adding this movie remix project, students could explore their sense of identity through movies.

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Final Design

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When I read over the description for “If Movie Posters Told the Truth,” I knew I wanted to do a scary movie because they are all so predictable. One of my favorite suspenseful movies is Final Destination 2. This may be due to the fact that a friend of mine took me to see this movie with her without having seen the first one. I thought it was amazing because I was enwrapped in the guessing of who was going to get away from death, because someone had to escape. Afterwards, I went back and viewed the first film and then watched the additional sequels that came out, and regardless of their repetitiveness, I still like these movies. However, I did tire of the third film and any that came out after that. I wanted to let the viewers know that this movie is exactly like the first.

First, I had to find an image of the movie poster that would show up large enough without being pixelated. Next, I pasted it into a PowerPoint slide. Since the background was already black, it made the next few steps much easier. I also set the background of the slide to solid black fill so that the original image would blend in with the rest of the slide. Next, I had to insert a text box and write my new title and caption, both of which were separate text boxes. After I had my text inserted, I had to make the text box show up over the top of the image. To do that, I had to right click within the text box and choose, “Bring to Front.” I played around with the fonts in PowerPoint in order to try to match the fonts on the original movie poster. I found the title to be most similar to the font DFKai-SB. I wanted the “Again” portion of my title to mirror the “2” in the original title by making it larger than the rest of it. I also capitalized the entire title to match the original. Next, I noticed that the original title had a blue glow behind it. I highlighted the text, right clicked, and clicked on “Format Text Effects.” The “Glow and Soft Edges” tab allowed me to pick a thickness and color to glow behind the text. I intentionally left the original text and my inserted text both visible up until this point so that I could use the original as a guide. After my text was how I wanted it to look, I right clicked inside the text box and chose to fill the box with solid black. This was much easier than it could have been because the background was already black. I repeated these steps for the caption at the top as well, except I made the thickness of the glow thinner and chose “Chiller” as the most appropriate font. I then saved the PowerPoint slide as a .jpeg file.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with the turnout of the image. It ended up being easier than I thought. It just took some time playing around in PowerPoint. I originally played around with the image in Paint. I even painted over the original text with black but then decided that it would be easier to match the text if it was still there. I also decided it would be better to have access to more fonts in PowerPoint, so I got rid of the Paint version of the poster and started over. My original intentions were to try to match my remix poster with the original poster as much as possible. I struggled when it came to getting the font to match the original poster. I wanted to have the glow behind it and had a hard time figuring out how to do that. I played around with the text a good bit. I even tried looking up glow letters on Google to insert over the image, but I knew there was an easier way to do it than that. I finally saw the “Format Text Effects” option when I right clicked and found the glow option. After that, I just played around with the glow color and thickness until it looked close to the same as the original.
I think an assignment like this would work great with any novel or play that was being read in the classroom. It could be used as a summarization activity at the end of the unit or lesson. It is first acting as a short, but sweet summary. Then they could go deeper into the text, providing textual evidence even, to support the reasons for the new truthful poster. They could demonstrate their learning by reflecting on the choices they made with the poster and for what reason. What were they trying to show about the novel or play through this poster image? It also lets the teacher know whether or not they enjoyed the reading/acting.
Another assignment that could incorporate this idea is a unit on persuasion. They could take a normal persuasive advertisement and write the truth over the persuasive verbiage. This would require the student to analyze the persuasive digital text and then alter it by writing their truth about the topic, which could incorporate research before they complete the image remix.

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Remix #3 Reflection: Truthful Movie Posters

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For this remix project, I was inspired by both the Halloween season and the emergence of advertisements promoting the next, and thankfully last, installment of the Twilight films. Being a huge fan of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I have watched the evolution of his character and story through television, serialized novels, films, and even graphic novels over the years, and I believe that Stoker’s original vision has been clouded to say the least. I have always been fascinated with the metaphorical value of the vampire – blood as life, immortality, and the intimacy of his methods. All of these themes hold immense creative potential and room for development, but I have been disappointed with the direction the most popular treatment of the vampire myth has taken with Stephanie Myers’ Twilight Saga. As a result, I wanted to comment on the superficial commercialism and overall teeny-bopper appeal that Myers has created in her books and that has translated to the big screen as the most recent pop culture blockbuster. So, I had a go at the movie poster.

My remix project, Truthful Movie Poster,was relatively simple to achieve once I decided on the idea. I located a Google Image of one of the Breaking Dawn movie posters and cut and pasted the image into www.Pixlr.com (advanced level). Once I had the image uploaded, I made some minor tweaks on the image to make it appear a bit moodier. I adjusted the tint and cranked up the gray images a bit to enhance the spooky factor of the poster in hopes of making some connection back to the gothic roots of the original text. Once I had played around with the image itself, I went to work on changing the text on the poster. My plan was to take out the tag line in the center of the poster which read, “Will the truth alone be enough to protect them?” and replace it with the line, “Bram Stoker will spin in his grave one more time.” This line is my subtle commentary on how Stoker’s novel and character has been so drastically commercialized and sensationalized for profit, original vision be damned. I thought the “grave” image was a nice touch as well, considering the subject matter. At the top of the poster, I made the timing of the release relevant by overlaying, “This Halloween…” in a spooky “chiller’ font. I initially made the font orange in reference to the holiday, but the color splash detracted from the mood of the poster, so I reverted back to a flat off-white color similar to that of the original text color. I also tried to simulate the original font type and color with the internal blurb as well. My intention here was to make the poster as close to the original version as possible while making the subtle change in the text. Sometimes less is more.

In replacing the original text on the poster, I had to rasterize the image. This enabled me to “paint” over the text to hide it so that I could replace it with my own text. It took me a good deal of time to figure out how to do this. The “help” menu on the Pixlr site directed me on this process. There is most certainly a better way to eliminate the text from the image, but once I made this work, I stopped looking for solutions. It turned out fairly well, anyway. The only thing that I really wanted to do that I was not able to figure out how to do was to rewrite the title in the same font it was written in on the original poster. I wanted to change the title from Breaking Dawn to Breaking Wind to further denigrate the film, albeit in a childish way. Although I did search through a large number of fonts to find something similar to that used on the poster, I was not able to find anything close enough. Again, there is likely a way to simulate, or outright copy existing fonts, but I could not find a way to do that. I imagine there are some copyright restrictions protecting original artistic fonts, anyway.

Overall, I am relatively pleased with the way the poster turned out, although I did not think this particular assignment provided many creative applications not offered by the Remix #1 assignment. I did enjoy being able to manipulate existing images to create a new perspective. This is the part of the assignment that I will definitely take into the classroom with me. I plan on using this remix design idea to create an assignment for students in which they rework existing book covers or movie posters for works we read in class. One idea I had was to reimagine a book cover or movie poster from the perspective of the antagonist rather than the protagonist. How would the different perspective impact the aspects of the story chosen to promote the work? What types of images or text may be used to represent the text if the “other side” had a voice in the promotion of the text? This assignment was helpful to me in that it challenged me to consider the decision-making processes at work when PR departments create promotional materials for various texts. This is the aspect of the assignment that I plan on using when teaching this project to my students.

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Remix #3 Postcards From Magical Places

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For this remix I decided to make a postcard. I was really hoping to go all out with this one and use the more advanced version of Pixlr. My original thought was to use the existing picture of Ireland (a shot that I took myself when I visited in 1999) and layer another picture with it to create a fanciful location. I was really hoping to insert a picture of the “wall” from the HBO series Game of Thrones and use it as a new horizon. Unfortunately, this was a LOT more difficult than I anticipated. So, after more than an hour of playing with the program, and reading a couple of tutorials to not avail, I abandoned the idea.

I decided instead to focus on an end product that I could potentially use in my classroom. I used the picture of Ireland as a picture of part of the journey that the creature from the novel Frankenstein takes in search of Dr. Frankenstein. This focus seemed fitting since the Halloween holiday just passed and after Thanksgiving break we will be reading Frankenstein in my British Literature class.
The picture includes a caption of “Still Searching…” to show that the creature is searching for his creator in hopes of finding companionship, guidance, or possibly redemption. On the back of the postcard I have included a short note from the creature pleading for Dr. Frankenstein to stop hiding and take responsibility for his actions.

Once I determined the course this remix would take, the steps were fairly simple:

1. I scanned in the picture from Ireland as I did not have a digital copy

2. I edited the Ireland picture on pixlr.com with an effect as well as a torn border. I also added the text “Still Searching…” Then I saved the picture as a separate file.

3. Then, I went to google images and found a postcard template that I liked. I picked one with an aged looked because Frankenstein is a novel from the Victorian era and I imagined the postcard to be aged and torn after traveling so far to reach the doctor.

4. I updated the postcard image to pixlr.com and added a sticker which became the stamp on the postcard. I chose the Celtic knot.

5. Next I added text to the back of the postcard. This took some playing around because I had a large amount of text and the program makes it difficult to edit and adjust the font style and size. Then I saved the picture as a separate file.

6. To complete the assignment I then created a collage with two pictures. I inserted the picture of Ireland on the top and the postcard back on the bottom. I adjusted the size and shape of the collage to fit the pictures. I then saved this as a separate file.

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Remix #2 (Audio): Jingle Jangle Tutorial

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Step 1: Write the Script

All projects start with a good script. This script, while not my best, was fun to write from the perspective of a dog. I was inspired, of course, by the cutest puppy in the world!

Step 2: Pick the Background Music

I believe that this step is just as important as the script. I wanted to make sure that the music not only fit the tone of the project, but that it had meaning to the subject as well. Jordan LOVES Adele, so her song “Someone Like You” was a natural fit. I chose an instrumental version of the song to enhance, but not detract, from the voice over.

Step 3: Choose the Program & Record

I used , an open-source program to create Jordan’s Audio Mix. I have used this program before to edit narration and audio for movies that I make for my classroom. This is the first time that I have actually played with the effect options within the program.

First, I need to disclose that I am a female and I have made several voice recordings for multimedia projects. The feedback I have received from my videos usually focuses on how the narrator’s voice (mine) is the part that makes the video. With that in my head, I decided to keep my voice normal with added inflections for excitement and emphasis within the text. I then went to effects and began to experiment. The first option I tried was GVerb – not a good I idea as I sounded like a Cyborg! I then experimented with pitch and bass boost. Nope, didn’t work, time to re-record.

Step 3: The Finished Product

So after all of the trial and error, I decided to try to imitate the pitch of a male voice and then lower the pitch. This worked. I played around with the levels, and soon realized that I needed to put an echo on the voice to make the track more exciting. Naturally, I tried the echo affect, but that sounded like I had put my voice into a blender and hit the crush button. Yuck! After playing for some time with the length of the echo, I finally, found the right length (as short as it could go) and got that booming, projecting voice that I was striving for – at least somewhat!

RECAP

1. Write Your Script

2. Choose Your Background Music

3. Choose Your Audio Software – I recommend Audacity

4. Record your Script

5. Play with Effects

6. Play with Effects

7. Play with Effects

8. Play with Effects

9. Realize you sound like a Cyborg

10. Re-record

11. Play with Effects

12. Finally Figure Out the Right Mix

13. Add music and export as a .wav file!

That’s it! Hope you have as much fun as I did!

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My Romantic Ringtone:)

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For this assignment, I was inspired by a romantic proposal video that my husband and I found in a moving box that had yet to be unpacked. I’ve been in reminiscent, little-girl-crush mode all week. I decided I wanted to remix a ringtone to assign to Nathan when he calls me.
Music has always been an important part of my life (I still have a secret desire to be a famous Reba some day). I find meanings and connections in music in which I can relate. Therefore, I decided to compile some of the songs that make me think of Nathan and remix those for his ringtone. The first two chunks of the remix are two different chunks of the song “Springstein” by Eric Church (particularly focusing on the lines “Funny how a melody sounds like a memory”), the next portion is from “Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not?” by Thompson Square, and the last two sections are from “Goodnight” by Gloriana.

My Romantic Ringtone:)

Okay so I’m starting to annoy myself with all this MUSHY-GUSHY talk…so I’m done now! Go Dawgs! Sick ‘em! Woof, woof, woof!!

***Note: All music clips were taken from purchased itunes songs.

How to re-create this awesomeness:)
1) Decide which songs you would like to include in your remix and the portion of the song you want. You need to keep in mind the time length of the portions that you want to use.
2) I didn’t know how to download songs from my itunes account and place them into Audacity, so I recorded them in Audacity while they were playing in my itunes. To do this, press the record button in Audacity and then press play in itunes.
However, now that I’m done with this, the best way to download from itunes is to set your itunes to download files as .wav files.
3) After the song you want has been recorded, use the trim option tool to highlight the sections you want to remove. After highlighting them, press the delete key on your keyboard. It’s better to trim too little than too much. Continue to listen to the clip to make sure it is the way you want it.
4) When your music clip is perfect, go to File and choose Export. Save the file.
5) Repeat for all music clips that you want to include in your remix ringtone.

6) When you are ready to compile the clips together, bring up a new , empty Audacity window. Go to File and choose Import. Find the files and upload the clip you want to go first. Repeat for all clips uploading them in the order you wish them to play. Each new clip will upload under the previous file.
7) Choose the time shift tool to drag the second sound clip to the end of the previous sound clip. Repeat.
8) You can choose the selection tool to highlight the music clip portions that you want to add special effects to, such as fade in and out.
9) When you are finished, go to File, choose Export and save your finished Romantic (or not) Ringtone!

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Audio Assignment #2 Otis Remix Tutorial

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So I decided to make my own rap song to one of my favorite songs Otis by Jay-Z and Kanye West. I thought that this task would be extremely difficult to complete; however, it was quite simple. The fact that I had a MacBook made this task even more simple because I was able to use the Garage Band application.

I started my journey to music production by going to YouTube and getting the instrumental to Otis. I converted it to an mp3 song and put it into my iTunes library. I am not sure if this is entirely legal and I still try to purchase all of my music, but for the sake of this assignment I took the easy way out! Don’t worry I have the original song Purchased from the Watch the Throne Album, and I also attended the concert!

I finally had my music I sent it to my home screen and once I was in Garage Band I entered that I would be using vocals as my instrument. I placed the song into garage band and then recorded my vocal along side of it! I did some major “tweeking,” to edit the song and even went as far as using two separate versions of the song to cut it down exactly how I wanted it. Once I had my vocals the way that I felt I wanted them and the music went somewhat flawlessly I copied the song as an iTunes file. I shared it on Drop Box and Presto I am the next up and coming Diddy!

All in all this was a very fun experience and I am really pleased with how the song turned out!