Instead of having class on Friday, I spent some time looking over the assignment for Project 4, Remix a Story, and looking at the examples that were provided so that I could get a better idea of what I might want to focus my project on.
What Makes a Good Remix
There are several different characteristics that make up a good remix, as can be seen in both the assignment and in the examples of remixes that other students have already completed. First and foremost, a remix has to use several different modes of communication all at once, rather than just the original linguistic like the original story. Second, it is important that the remix version is in a new format or genre than the original story. If most of the details of the story stay the same or the format doesn’t change, it is not a true remix. When a written story turns into a musical or a horror story turns into a comedy with the same basic plot, those are true remixes. Finally, I think that creativity is a huge part of what makes a good remix! If the remix is basically the same as the original story but just tweaked a little, people are not going to enjoy or appreciate the new version.
What Makes a Good Digital Story
Based on the 12 examples of past projects, I think that The Hunger Games, Time Magazine Edition and also Around the World in 80 Days both did the best jobs at digitizing their original stories into different genres. I think these two were my favorites because The Hunger Games remix looks so real, just like it could be an actual issue of Time magazine. The author used creativity to remix the original version of The Hunger Games into a new genre in the form of a magazine and transformed the story into a completely different version, which is the whole idea behind a remix. I also really liked the Around the World in 80 Days remix because the author incorporated several different versions of the story into her remix- the original novel, the original film version of the novel, and Disney’s remake of the story. The author told the story using historical pictures from the time the novel was written and then also used pictures from both movie versions of the story, so we are able to see how different actors have portrayed the story as well. Overall, I thought that the author’s remix was very well done from a creativity aspect as well as a multimodal aspect. I enjoyed looking at all the examples, but these two stuck especially stuck out to me.
Stories I Am Considering
When brainstorming possible stories that I could use as the basis for my remix, some movies and tv shows come to mind, but not many stories. I love the show Friends, so if I could use an episode or storyline within the show as a basis for my remix, that would be really cool! I also think it would be fun to do a remix of the movie Mean Girls in some way. As a kid, I read all of the American Girl Doll stories and many of those were made into movies, so a remix of one of those might be fun to do as well. Friends and Mean Girls would likely be the most appealing to people in my generation, as those are two big pop culture icons. It would be fun to choose one of the American Girl Dolls though because many of the girls in my generation grew up playing with the dolls, reading the books, and watching the movies just like I did.
Those are three of the “stories” that I am considering for this project, though I am still brainstorming before I make my final decision for what my remix will be based on.
