Documentary!

When I started this project, I didn’t really know where I was going with my idea. All I knew was that I wanted to do my documentary on what happened to Myspace. The project turned into a sort of memoir of the old Myspace mixed with an introduction to the new Myspace. I had not planned about putting anything about the new Myspace in my documentary because I had no idea they were even relaunching, but I thought that it added to my project. It sort of gave it a direction.

There are some things that I wish I could have done with the video if I had had more time to work on it. I had initially planned on putting in some screen shots of Myspace and Facebook but I decided it would be too complicated. I could not even imagine the time it would have taken me if I had to take the audio from the video, add the background music all on Audacity, find a way to convert it to an mp3 file, and then try to get the video to sync up with audio. And to do that with multiple videos would have been too much of a hassle. I think Windows Movie Maker is very flawed in that you can only have one audio track playing at a time. If Movie Maker had the option to put multiple audio tracks then it would have been way easier to add the screen shots and I definitely would have done them.

One other thing I wish I could have done is to film in quieter areas. Filming my interviews in my dorm lobby may not have been my best idea but it honestly did not occur to me that people would be walking in and out and making a lot of noise. Usually our lobby is totally dead but it just happened that that night it was bumpin’. One thing I thought about doing was putting the louder videos into Audacity and trying to make the background noise quieter. I did fool around with it for one video but the effects in Audacity are really confusing for someone who has never used them before. It ended up that the audio I created in Audacity didn’t match up with the video well enough. Instead I tried to hide some of the background noise by putting a quiet instrumental song behind all the videos.

I thought my interviews went really well. I did very few interviews because I really liked what they had to say and most of their footage was usable. It made it really easy to transition from question to question. I also thought that the facts that I added in about Myspace in its prime helped my argument. One thing I did not like too much was the long text at the end describing the new Myspace. Unfortunately I ran out of time to think of a different ending and I didn’t know another way to show all the cool new features that the new Myspace has. In the end I was pretty happy with how my documentary turned out.

Shooting Schedule

This weekend I will be visiting my friend in Louisville. I will interview her there and also some other people there. Hopefully I can get about half of my filming done this weekend. I have an exam on Tuesday and I work on Tuesday through Thursday so my filming will have to be done on the weekends. Next week I will probably try to do some filming in the break before and after our WRD class. I may also try to interview some people that I work with. Over Thanksgiving break I will try to film more of the younger and older aged people. I know several people who I know that are avid Myspace and Facebook users so I think that they will have an opinion of my subject.  I hope to try to kind of edit as I go. I’ll probably try to do most of the editing over Thanksgiving break.

Documentary Proposal

Whatever happened to Myspace? For my documentary, I’m going to revisit the world of Myspace. I’m curious as to why it has almost completely disappeared. It used to be the main social media website several years ago and now few, if any, use it. Facebook has dominated the world of social media ever since Myspace died. It basically has replaced Myspace. But why? Myspace offered so many more ways to personalize your profile. You could have a background on your page, add pictures and playlists, and also have a “top friends” list. I believe that Myspace disappeared because all of these different aspects over complicated things. But I want to see what others think because I think we often forget that Myspace ever existed.  So I think my audience will be interested to find out what happened to Myspace.

 For my interviews, I plan to interview mostly other college students because we may be the only people who remember Myspace. When Myspace was popular we would have been the age that dominated the site. College students will also be my main audience because of these same reasons. I will try to ask several random people I don’t know, and also some friends. However, I will also interview some younger high school students from my high school and some older people. I think that Myspace was mostly used among teenagers when it was in its prime. Now though, Facebook seems to be used by all ages. So why has Facebook reached so many more ages than Myspace ever did? I plan to investigate this.

For my documentary, I won’t be using the shaky cam style mostly because it gives me a headache. I think that I will use my own camera for filming because it has several features that I think will be good for filming such as zoom. It would be easier than renting one. But I will have to do some playing around with it to make sure it can do everything I need it to do. Especially record audio. I will probably film at my high school when interviewing the high school kids and maybe teachers too. I will try to do this when I go home one weekend. When interviewing other college students I will probably interview some of the people I work with at Subway, and some other people in the library. I will also probably try to get on either mine or a friend’s Myspace and do some shots of the website to allow my audience to familiarize themselves with the website again. I may also do the same with my Facebook so we can compare the two sites. I’m not sure I will be able to do all this in time but I will sure try.

Some of the questions I plan to ask in my interviews will be: Did you have a Myspace? Do you still get on your Myspace page? Do you have a Facebook? Which site do you prefer? (which I expect the answer to be Facebook) Myspace had so many more features so why do you think no one uses Myspace anymore? What makes Facebook better? What did you use Myspace for and what do you use Facebook for now? How often were you on Myspace and how often are you on Facebook? What makes Facebook so much more addicting? Do you think that Myspace will ever make a comeback? Do you think what happened to Myspace will ever happen to Facebook?

 

 

Remix Essay Final

Are Video Games Art?

I would consider video games to be a form of art. Kellee Santiago from the TED talk defines art as “the process of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions," a definition found on Wikipedia. By this definition, I think video games can be considered art.

In the article “Less Talk More Rock”, they show how much more we get from images than just written or spoken word. It says that written and spoken word only appeal to your intellect while an image, sound, music, etc. appeals to your whole mind. These are all components of video games so they must appeal to our whole mind. Therefore, they should be considered art.

 

 

When most people think of art, they think of paintings like the Mona Lisa by Da Vinci or Starry Night by Van Gogh. These are considered art because our culture tells us they are. But who is to say that video games aren’t art as well? Someone had to draw the characters and the backgrounds. I’m sure several teams of people spent years developing the concepts and rules and trying to animate these drawings. In the article “Less Talk More Rock”, this is the rock phase of creating a video game, the most important part of the process according to the Superbrothers.

Both Santiago and Roger Elbert compare video games to cave drawings. They call them “chicken scratch”. In other words they are saying that they are very primitive art. They think that they evolve into better art. I’m sure there is room to grow for video games but I think that most modern video games are really impressive. They are so complex in their graphics, and concepts. These two pictures are from the two most recently made video games, Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. The details in the background and on the characters are so remarkable and I think it is almost an insult to suggest that they are primitive.

 

 

 

Elbert considers filmmakers, painters, and composers as makers of art. But aren’t video games just a combination of all of these types of art? They use cinema to tell the story of the game and to create objectives and obstacles, they use graphics in the background, characters, etc., and they use music to get the emotions of the game across. And I also think that the way that they combine these things can be considered an art form as well. In my opinion it takes just as much creativity to create a video game as it takes to write a novel or a song.

Storyboard

Facebook is kind of like speed dating.

You won't learn everything about a person simple by visiting their Facebook page.

 

People's opinions of me often come from what they find on Facebook.



If someone were to look at my Facebook, they would only learn what I want them to know about me.

Facebook makes it all too easy to judge others.

Jake and his new girlfriend Chelsea.

The only way to truely get to know me is to tald to me.

for some reason it won't let me upload all my pictures. it took probably 2 hours to just get these up here.

Song Choices

I'm going to use the song "Real with me" by Cady Groves because the lyrics sort of go with what i talk about in my essay. And my second song will be the instrumental version of the song "Home" by Phillip Phillips because it is a very pretty acoustic guitar song that's not too fast or too slow to go with my essay and I think it will flow nicely with the other song.

Screen Captures

"You're on the phone with your girlfriend. She's upset. She's going off about something that you said"

Taylor and her neighbor communicate from their bedrooms using notebooks.

Taylor only shows the note saying "I love you" when his curtains are closed.

 

 She shows the page saying "I love you" only because his curtains are closed.

 

 

He finds out that his girlfriend is cheating on him.

 

He asks if she is going to the dance. She replies "no, studying" in which he replies "wish you were."

 

She shows up to the dance to suprise him.

 

 He turns down his girlfriend for Taylor.

 

She finally gets up the courage to tell him she loves him.

 

To her suprise he pulls out a note saying "I love you" too.

 





Music Video Analysis

My favorite singer is Taylor Swift. And I think that everyone has to admit that she can make a mean music video. I chose to analyze her music video for the song “You Belong With Me”. I think that this video tells the cutest story. If you just listen to the song you think the song is simply about a girl who has fallen for her friend who already has a girlfriend but she still thinks that they should be together. But the music video adds so much to that. The music video tells a different story. In the video the two friends are neighbors. They talk to each other by writing notes and showing each other the notes from their bedrooms which face each other. It shows that the boy and his girlfriend fight a lot and she eventually cheats on him. On the night of a dance, the boy goes to the dance thinking that his friend is staying home to study. She surprises him at the dance and shows him a note that she had written earlier in the video that said “I love you” on it. Then he pulls out a card that says “I love you” on it too and they kiss. You can see how much the video adds to the story.

I think this shows how much visuals add to a story. It took an almost four minute song and created an entire storyline out of it. The video shows that the neighbor girl is a nerd because she is in the marching band and she wears periodic table t-shirts while the girlfriend is popular because she is a cheerleader and drives nice cars. The football player and the cheerleader seem like they should be perfect for each other because that is a stereotype. A football player would never end up with the band nerd. And yet the two break the stereotype and end up together at the end of the video. The video uses high school stereotypes to get the point across.

I think this video and song are so good because they can relate to a lot of girls. What girl hasn’t had that crush on a boy that she thinks is “out of her league”. We all like to think that that guy actually belongs with us and this video makes it seem like that is completely possible for us. Why can’t we break the stereotype ourselves?

I think that one of the super clever parts about the video is that Taylor Swift plays the neighbor of the boy, and also the boy’s girlfriend. She plays the “girl in the bleachers” and the “cheer captain”. It actually took me awhile to realize that the brunette was actually also Taylor because it looked nothing like herself. I think that also added something to the video. I love this song and even though Kanye West might not think so, I think this video is the best music video.

Facebook Is Like Speed Dating

Facebook is kind of like speed dating. If I went to a speed dating event, I would only be allowed to spend three to five minutes with each guy. They would tell me everything that they wanted me to know and leave out everything that they don’t want me to know. They might even lie to make me like them more. In the end I will find out very little about who they really are. Facebook is similar in the sense that you won’t learn everything about a person simply by visiting their Facebook page.

Just like with speed dating I choose what others can know and not know from my Facebook. I know that people’s opinions of me often come from what they find on Facebook. The things that you won’t find on my Facebook aren’t on there because I don’t want them on there and the things that you do find I chose to be there so that it would influence your opinion of me. From my profile picture to the things that I post, I use them all to create my digital identity.  Because I choose not to expose everything about myself on Facebook, it cannot be a true representation of myself.

If someone was to visit my Facebook, they would only find out what I want people to know about me. They would learn what movies I like, the TV shows I watch, and what kind of music I listen to. They would find out who I’m dating, when my birthday is, and where I work. It may not be a conscious decision to choose these things as the things that people will judge me by but people do base their opinions of me on the things they find on my Facebook.

This weekend I found out that my brother, Jake, now has a girlfriend which is a big deal for my brother because he has never really seemed interested in dating before. Her name is Chelsea Schack and instinctively, I wanted to know what she was like so I went straight to Facebook. Since I wasn’t her Facebook friend, it made it more difficult but I did find out some things about her. Searching through her pictures, all I really found out was what she looks like, where she goes to school, and that she runs track and does golf. These things hardly give me a sense of what she is like. The only way to truly get to know Chelsea is to talk to her and spend time with her. Just like the only way to decide if like someone enough to date them is not from a five minute talk with some strange guy I have never met, but from spending time with him and getting to know one another.

I believe that we should not use Facebook to judge others. What I find on Facebook should not completely define a person. My Facebook only gives bits and pieces of my personality so rather than only knowing those pieces, why not get to know the rest of my personality by talking to me or spending time with me.

This I Believe (I didn't like)

I read the This I Believe essay called “A Duty to Family, Heritage and Country” by Ying Ying Yu. The essay is about how education is so important to her because it is important in her home country of China. She said that a grade of 85 was considered failing. If she was ever found not paying attention in class she was beat with a ruler. Now that she has moved to America, she cannot seem to shake the need to succeed. She says it is her duty to do well in school.

This is so unlike America. Here it is encouraged to do well and get good grades but it would never be considered a duty to our country. That sounds absolutely crazy to an American. Here education is a privilege. We use our education to follow our dreams which Ying Ying mentioned there is almost a pressure to do here. Her dream was to be a gardener. However, this would never be allowed. Not by her, not by her family, and not by her country. She is basically being forced to become a lawyer because it considered a suitable job to her family and country.

This essay is so hard to relate to for me. We both live in America and have the same opportunities here but Ying Ying can’t take advantage of them due to her duty to her country. I am hoping to use my education to follow my dreams of becoming a dentist but Ying Ying won’t be able to follow hers. Her personal story that are usually in the This I Believe essays was really confusing for me since I have no idea what “wearing the red scarf” means. It seems by the way she describes that it is a really big honor. But it means nothing to me, so I think it kind or took away from her essay. Overall it is a good essay. She uses imagery to paint a picture of what she was describing. This made it a more interesting essay to read.

 

This I Believe Response

I read the This I Believe article called “Do Talk to Strangers” by Sabrina Dubik. In the essay she says that she thinks that talking to strangers is a good thing. This revelation came to her when she was working as a waitress her sophomore year in college. She noticed that an older gentleman named Don would come in to the restaurant a lot and always sat in her section. The two began to talk often and not just small talk. They became friends. She even visited him when he was in the hospital after an open heart surgery.

I thought this article was really cute and also sad. She mentioned in the essay that Don and his wife had a tradition of going to dinner and to see a movie together every Saturday. When his wife died he continued the tradition on his own which is so sad. But it is cute that he became friends with someone. Sabrina said that meeting Don was life changing. It changed her view on talking to strangers. She mentions in the essay that she had more fun at her waitressing job when engaging in friendly conversations with her customers.

Sabrina’s essay was very personal, but I also think that it is very relatable. What person wasn’t taught as a kid not to talk to strangers? But I think Sabrina’s revelation that talking to strangers is one we should all have. Every person we have ever met started off as a stranger. How would we have gotten to know our friends if one of us hadn’t begun talking to the other? How would we ever fall in love if we never get to know our potential loves? Without talking to strangers, we would be very lonely in our lives. Our lives would never move forward.

As for the essay itself, I think it was well written. She doesn’t really create many visuals but I think she makes up for it with how relative it is. Everyone can relate to her original view on not talking to strangers. It is instinctive to us all. We don’t purposely not talk to others, we just don’t. It’s considered weird to just strike up a conversation with those we have never met. It’s out of our comfort zone. But everyone needs to step out of their comfort zone to make new relationships.

Speech Outline

Preparation Outline PREPARATION OUTLINE

NAME:  Grace Jennings

TITLE OF SPEECH: It Will Knock Your Socks Off
 

Introduction

  I.            Attention Catcher:  I bet a lot of you are beginning to get cold feet about giving your speeches. Well I have a cure for that! Wear socks.   

II.            Listener Relevance Link: We all wear socks.

III.            Speaker Credibility:    I wear socks almost every day.

IV.            Thesis Statement:    Socks are a great invention that we often take for granted.

V.            Preview:     I use socks for warmth, protection, and as a fashion statement.

Body

        I.            First Main Point:    I wear socks to keep my feet warm and comfortable.

      II.            Listener Relevance Link:    

a.       Subpoint:     Socks keep your feet warm and toasty       

                                                               i.      Sub-Subpoint: Ialways seem to have cold feet so I wear socks to warm    them.
                                                             ii.      Sub-Subpoint: In the winter, I wear thicker socks for more warmth.

Transition: Not only do socks keep your feet warm, they also protect them.

    III.            Second Main Point: Socks provide a protection from blisters and dirt.

    IV.            Listener Relevance Link:    Everyone has bought a new pair of shoes before. And I’m sure that the first time you wear them they can give you some blisters.

a.       Subpoint: Socks prevent blisters from your shoes

                                                               i.      Sub-Subpoint: Blisters are painful and socks can cushion the pain.

                                                             ii.      Sub-Subpoint: When I played soccer in grade school and high school my soccer socks helped to prevent blisters

b.      Subpoint: Socks protect your feet from whatever gross stuff is on your floors

                                                               i.      Sub-Subpoint: You never know what all could be lying on your floors.

Transition: socks are not just used for warmth and protection, they can also be used to enhance your style.

      V.            Third Main Point: I think socks are a great way to create your own style.

    VI.            Listener Relevance Link: Everyone has their own sense of style and what better way to spice up an outfit than with some snazzy socks?

a.        Subpoint: Socks definitely make fashion statement

                                                               i.      Sub-Subpoint: Socks come in different designs and different styles.

                                                             ii.      A recent style is mismatched socks.

b.      Subpoint: Different varieties of socks

                                                               i.      Sub-Subpoint: I used to be obsessed with toe socks

                                                             ii.      Sub-Subpoint: Now I am obsessed with thick fuzzy socks

c.       Subpoint: Socks with certain shoes

                                                               i.      Sub-Subpoint: Socks with sandals is a big no-no

                                                             ii.      Sub-Subpoint: Socks with sneakers is a must

Transition:

  VII.            Fourth Main Point: Why socks?

a.       Subpoint: I have a fear of feet.

b.      Subpoint: When bare feet are around my things or my body I freak out and socks make it so much more bearable.

c.       Subpoint: For some reason I always seem to have cold feet so I have a great need for socks.

Conclusion:

VIII.            Restatement of Thesis: Now you know all the ways that we use socks.

    IX.            Summary of Main Points: Socks keep our feet warm, protected, and stylish.

      X.            Clincher: so go grab yourself a pair socks and get ready to give your speech!

Speech Overview

Since cell phones were banned for the subject for the speeches I wanted to do something really different and maybe kind of funny. I wanted to do my speech on socks but I don’t know if it is too much of a joke or if I could talk for the required amount of time on that so I will also do an overview of a second topic which will be my laptop. If you could comment and tell me which would be better that would be much appreciated.

Socks

1)      Uses

a.       Socks keep your feet warm and toasty

b.      Socks provide comfort for your feet

 

2)      Protection

a.       Socks prevent blisters from your shoes

b.      Socks protect your feet from whatever gross stuff is on your floors

3)      Stylish

a.       Socks definitely make fashion statement

b.      Different varieties of socks

c.       Socks with certain shoes

4)      Why socks?

a.       I have a fear of feet

b.      When bare feet are around my things or my body I freak out and socks make it so much more bearable

c.       For some reason I always seem to have cold feet so I have a great need for socks

Laptop

1)      Uses

a.       Use it for homework

b.      Writing papers

c.       Can play games on it

d.      Skype friends from home

2)      Internet

a.       With the internet, knowledge is just one click away

b.      Can access Facebook and other sites

3)      Efficient

a.       Battery life is very good

b.      Can take it with you anywhere

4)      Me and my laptop

a.       When I got it

b.      What it would be like without it

Social Media Identity

What would you do with 3.7 billion dollars? Give it to charity? Buy a really nice car? Personally, I would probably go on the shopping spree of my life, pay off my college debts, and give most to charity. In 2011, Facebook’s revenue was at about 3.7 dollars (1). They get so much money just because so many people choose their website to waste their time with. Luckily, Facebook is not that bad of a site to waste our time with. At least it does give a good representation of our identity.

 



 Facebook's revenue over the last 5 years

I have chosen Facebook for this essay because I think that it best represents my social media identity. It is the only social networking site that I ever use. I have never really gotten the appeal of Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram, because Facebook has all the things that those websites have all in one website. On Facebook, you have the option to post statuses, upload photos, comment on others’ pictures of statuses, and many other things. Everything that I post on my Facebook becomes a part of my social media identity.

I first joined Facebook in December of 2009. This was halfway through my sophomore year. The only reason I even joined Facebook was because my friends wanted me to. I didn’t really want one because I didn’t see the need for one. I was busy all the time and I talked to my friends every day, so why did I need to network with them? However, I ended up liking Facebook. I, like most people, got on it nearly every day. I would sit in front of my computer screen for hours and read status after status. Look at picture after picture. Until I got bored and probably switched to a different site or went to find some food since everyone likes to eat when they’re bored. I was surprised that I didn’t use Facebook the way I thought I would. Most of the time I never posed anything. Usually all I ever did on Facebook was “Facebook creep”. Facebook creeping is when you visit your friends’ profiles to see what they are up to. It allowed me to be up to date on everything. I always knew what couples broke up and when it happened, the new couples who just got together, who’s birthday it was, or any other drama that went on. The things that I found on the profiles of whomever I was creeping would shape my impressions of them.

Although we like to judge others by their Facebook profiles, there is only so much that they can tell about a person from their Facebook. After a minute or two on my Facebook, you can learn that my name is Grace Jennings, my boyfriend is Austin Hinkel, I like the shows House and Glee, my birthday is September 7^th, and I work at subway. If you look a little longer, you can learn from my pictures that I went to Europe last summer, I am pretty close with my brother Jake, and who my close high school friends were. Now after looking at my Facebook, you might think you know me pretty well. But there are so many things that you won’t find out. Like the fact that I like to watch soccer games, or that I want to be a dentist, or that I have a fear of feet. So Facebook does not represent my full identity but it does show some areas of it.

 

 My current profile picture

With Facebook, there are many ways to show areas of your identity. I want my Facebook profile to best represent me. To do this, you can “like” pages of your favorite TV shows, movies, or music. You can show your political views, your religious views, your sexuality, and so many things. You can also write in an “about me” section to tell a little about yourself. But I think the best way to show your identity is through what you post and the pictures you upload. Posting funny statuses makes you funny. Posting photos of you and your friends having fun makes you look fun.  We base our opinions of people off of these posts so you want them to best represent you.

 

One annoying thing about Facebook is that some people not only use it to represent themselves, but they use it to document every second of your life. They post stuff that no one really cares about like: “just made some popcorn” or “put new batteries in my calculator”. These things are bad representations of a person’s identity. Another annoying aspect of Facebook is that everyone knows your business. If you post something, then seconds later everyone knows it. But I guess that’s the entire reason we post stuff isn’t it. The goal is to get as many “likes” you can get. To get as many comments as possible. For as many people to see what we post as we can. But it does get annoying sometimes. For example, if someone has a bad breakup, and everyone sees it on Facebook, then the next day at school everyone will be talking about it. It would be awful to be the subject of everyone’s conversations just because of a Facebook status.

 

 With Facebook, everyone knows everyone's business

The article “Is Facebook making us lonely?” by Atlantic magazine, expresses a fear that Facebook is making us lonelier because it causes us to distance ourselves from everyone else (2).  There are over five hundred million Facebook users. So how could it be making us lonelier when there are so many people to talk to on the site? In my opinion, I think Facebook makes people lonelier because they stay online too long rather than going outside to talk to people. This is also why Facebook is making people more anti-social. We are so used to talking to people from the safety of behind our computer. It’s so much easier to say something over the internet rather than to someone’s face. Because of this it is easier to say things we normally wouldn’t. But when in person, because we’re so used to hiding behind our technology, it’s harder to communicate.

So maybe we should start to think about how much time we waste on Facebook. Think about how much money Facebook Inc. makes just because of this wasted time. There is so many better ways to spend our time. Why use technology to represent our identity when our physical self is a much better representation.


1.

http://gigaom.com/2012/05/18/infographic-a-look-back-at-facebooks-revenue-and-valuations/

2.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/

3. http://www.facebook.com