flemingmb – Spring 2015 Class Blogs

Cat in the Hat Remix- Presentation

flemingmb — Mon, 04 May 2015 03:29:12 +0000

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=3ba00eb22b940fe7!118&authkey=!AP_yJ5FoBgmXyf4&ithint=file%2cpptx

What I Did & Why–Last Post?!

flemingmb — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 14:59:03 +0000

What I Did:
Today I continued with my editing my pictures for my project. I have a lot of the images I want from the PDF of The Cat in the Hat separated from the background like I wanted, and I continued to work on that today. With the images I have already separated from the background that I want to use, I also went back and added some details like I discussed in an earlier post, such as adding the ‘frat’ letters KAT to the cats hat.

Why I Did It:
The work I did today was the bulk of what I have been working on and will still need to continue on to finish my project. I first separate the part of the pictures I want from the PDF from the background, and will layer them on top of realistic pictures I want in order to make a full Instagram photo.

What I Did & Why–Picture Editing

flemingmb — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 15:01:48 +0000

What I Did:
Today was a success! Thanks to the help of a classmate I actually figured out how to successfully cut the parts of the pictures from The Cat in the Hat pdf I wanted out of the screenshots I took. I edited a few pictures and took the cat or kids or other things separated from the background so I can place them into my own settings for my Instagrams.

Why I Did It:
I worked on editing pictures all class because this is really the bulk of my project. I already have a good feel of what I want the captions to say for each Instagram and once I get the pictures edited how I want, I feel that the full captions will just come to me since I am usually pretty quick with things like that, so today was a very productive day!

Revision Plan- Project 4

flemingmb — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 14:35:05 +0000

Before the project is due, the main thing I want to do is add more details to the images I am using if possible. Since I plan to title it “College Cat in His Frat Letters Hat” I would like to add the letters KAT to the cats hat, standing for Kappa Alpha Tau, the (hopefully fake) frat I am creating for him. Because that detail is included in the title, I feel like it is necessary to include in the actual images. I also want to draw chunky ‘hipster’ glasses on the children since that is how I am trying to portray them.
I think both of these details shouldn’t be too hard to add to the pictures using Photoshop, so I plan to edit them this way before the due date.

PowerPoint Storyboard

flemingmb — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 20:59:26 +0000

Here is my storyboard and the link to my storyboard for my Cat in the Hat remix using PowerPoint

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=3ba00eb22b940fe7!114&authkey=!ADQSUpcRVwnip-8&ithint=file%2cpptx

What I Did & Why–4/20/15

flemingmb — Tue, 21 Apr 2015 16:59:07 +0000

What I Did:
– Downloaded Photoshop
– Watched the “Getting Started” video and Tips & Techniques
– Started cropping the images I want out of the Cat in the Hat PDF to place into my own photos

Why I Did It:
I began by downloading the free 30 day trial of Photoshop because that is the tool I decided I want to learn to use through working on this project. I watched the overviews to help me figure out how to work it since I have no experience with this tool. In the “Getting Started” section of the overview, there was specifically a section titled “Remove objects from a photo,” which is what I am mainly looking to use Photoshop to do. I then put what I learned in the tutorial to use by beginning to crop my images to remove the specific parts of the image I want from the PDF of the story book, for example, the cat and children in their different positions.

Next…
Next I need to decide if I want to edit my real-life taken photos using Instagram and then place the characters into the pictures, or edit them once the picture is fully together. The reason I would edit the setting of the photo without the characters, would be to draw more attention to them by creating contrast. However, I’m thinking that might also be super awkward, so I will need to experiment and test out both to determine what I prefer.

**Documentation Plan**:
I have decided to include my documentation in the Instagram bio of my characters. I am excited for this because I wanted to be able to include an Instagram bio but I wasn’t sure how that could be tied into my project. Because I only am taking pictures from a very few sources, I think it will be easy to include in the bio following a short ‘blurb’ by the character. I think this will be a fun way to include it and also effective since it is the first thing anyone sees before they begin scrolling

What I Did & Why

flemingmb — Sat, 18 Apr 2015 17:55:00 +0000

What I Did:
The first thing I did today was create the two Instagram accounts I need to remix my story–one for the cat, and one for the brother and sister of the story. I also wrote down the page number for each page of the pdf I want to take pictures of the cat and the hat or the kids from to include in my insta, and I put them in order so that when I get photoshop I will be able to go through and just take them out.

Why I Did It:
The two accounts I created were DaRealCatInTheHat because just TheCatInTheHat was taken. I created a second one for the brother and sister called SallyandShaun because the children’s book only gives Sally’s name and not the brother who is the narrator, and Shaun was the only other available account with boy name starting with an S following “Sallyand.” I then added profile pictures and names to each account and followed people who would follow back so that the accounts would look legit when I screen shot them to put together for my project.

Next…
I plan to edit my pictures to include the elements of my story line, but I want to try to do that with photoshop so I need to find a way to get that first

What I Did & Why–Storyboard

flemingmb — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 20:17:07 +0000

What I Did:
The first thing I did today was create a list of what I wanted to include in my project/scenes I wanted to make sure made it into my storyboard. From there, I drew out my storyboard in boxes on a sheet of paper. I included little sketches of what I would like to make the scenes of the Instagram pictures into, as well as possible captions for the Instagram/key words of what I wanted to include, and jotted down any details for each box that I wanted to make sure I would remember to include/work in in the future. I also organized my WordPress blog by adding a “Project 4″ section to the menu for class notes that I could include all of these posts in.

Why I Did It:
I first wrote out everything I wanted to include in my project in a list so that I would have something to refer to while making my storyboard and so that I wouldn’t be able to forget anything. I laid out my storyboard on paper because I think best through writing and drawing by hand. I knew as I plotted out my story and drew out the boxes, more would come to mind and I would continue to think of things I would want to include and details to better my project. Lastly, I updated my WordPress organization because I want to make sure to maintain my blog as best I can, even though my Story Remix project is my main focus.

What I Did & Why

flemingmb — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 14:50:50 +0000

What I Did:
Today, I worked on gathering more sources I could use for my project, but did not find anything I felt necessary. Because I have the whole Cat in the Hat story book PDF saved to my computer, there is not much else I really feel I need. I then began my storyboard in an Evernote note and listed in order the events I want to be shown throughout the Instagram account I am using to remix the story. I brainstormed a little more as well and jotted down details and ideas I had throughout the process in a note too.

I also created a timeline for my project which I have included below.

Timeline:
4/13–Plan and write timeline, finish gathering sources, begin story board
4/15–Finish mock-up or Storyboard, start the Instagram, & decide how to create citations
4/17--Begin citations & work on instagram
4/20–Presentation Sign-up, finish up Instagram in order to be ready for peer review next class
4/22–Peer Feedback, finish citations
Prepare & practice presentation
In-class Presentations on 4/29 to 5/6
Project Due by 11:55 PM on 5/6

Why I Did It:
I attempted to gather more sources because although I have the story book PDF, I felt I should try to have several more sources to use. However, like I said in a previous post, most of the search results for the Cat in the Hat are for Cat in the Hat related merchandise. Once I begin actually putting my story together and using the pictures from the PDF to create the fake Instagram, I will probably need to find and use other sources to properly edit the pictures and create the remixed scene I am going for. For now though, I cannot know exactly what I will be needing until I start the pictures and will just wait until then to start finding more sources. I started my storyboard and brainstorm as the first step of actually creating my project. Lastly, I made a timeline for how I plan to work the rest of my project as a way to plan ahead and stay on track.

Hunting & Gathering–The Cat in the Hat

flemingmb — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 15:03:30 +0000

The story I have chosen to remix is The Cat in the Hat. I know this story well and I think there are a lot of fun remixing possibilities to be had with this story. I am still brainstorming exactly what parts of the story I plan to remix, but I think I will focus on the games the Cat in the Hat plays with the children and making them more modern and interesting.

The genre I am thinking I will use for my project is pictures through Instagram or possibly Tumblr.

Three sources I plan to use include The Cat in the Hat pdf I found and have downloaded to my computer (so no link), the video found at http://www.readstoriesforkids.com/Cat-In-The-Hat-Story.html and the wikipedia because it had the most actual information about the story and context than any other source I could find (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_in_the_Hat).

Finding sources to use for The Cat in the Hat has been incredibly difficult because my search results have mainly resulted in Cat in the Hat products for sale.