hhutch1 – Spring 2015 Class Blogs

Finishing and Presenting Plans

hhutch1 — Mon, 27 Apr 2015 15:55:21 +0000

What I Did: Today I finished up my website and finalized the texts, reordering them a bit and organizing them in the way that I wanted. I fixed some of the text/writings, and went through everything to make sure it appeared as cohesive as I wanted. I also had to photoshop some of the texts with images in them because the website formatter wanted to be difficult, so I spent some time working on that. I then began working on my presentation, and figured out how I wanted to present this website.

Why I Did It: I had to finish my website today to the best of my ability so that I could start properly working on my presentation, which will need to be done by next Monday. As I have a very busy next couple weeks, I wanted to get everything done as soon as possible in order to keep everything on track. Ideally I will have everything perfect with the website by Wednesday, and the entire presentation done by Saturday, so I can be fully prepared by Monday. Though I know there is more I could do with the website, it has come down to a matter of time, so some of my extra ideas may not end up happening.

Working on Revision plan!

hhutch1 — Fri, 24 Apr 2015 16:02:22 +0000

What I Did: Today I worked on my revision plan. I wrote up a plot synopsis, and my goals of exonerating Mrs. Driver through the use of her text messages. I also Worked a bit more on the website itself, making it a bit more interesting with various titles. I almost finished writing up the texts themselves as the main part of the project, and have worked on putting it all together. I then spent some time organizing the photos and their credits.

Why I Did it: I worked on adding the plot synopsis so anyone (who wasn’t clear on who Mrs. May was, what the Borrowers is about, and how the story concludes) can read and understand what is going on in the website. I spent a lot of time working to alter the texts I created to make them the way I needed, using lots of editing. I also added the more interesting title to help make the website look similar to others that have the text messages images. I also worked on finishing up the text messages, as they are part of the main aspect of the website. If I have time and finish everything by Monday, then I may be able to continue adding to the website, making some of the fake articles real, and making it more interesting and dynamic.

Revision Plan

hhutch1 — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 15:54:58 +0000

Strengths of draft: Overall the strengths were that the website looked similar to a news website with flashy texts and it was visually dynamic for the audience. They liked how it looked, and the overall theme of the website. They liked the text layout, and they thought the texts all made sense, and thought that it was generally a creative remix.

Problematic design choices: The design of the website is a bit plain, and may need to be spiced up a bit to add more interesting elements, making it more website-like. Similarly, underneath the texts, I may want to add a more clear explanation. Adding more linguistic elements may help the audience understand the context better.

How to better attend to audience, purpose, context, and genre: I need to remember that not everyone knows this book, so as part of the website I am going to include a written summary of the book, writing how the author got it wrong, and that Mrs. Driver wasn’t actually the bad guy, it was just her husband (as the book paints her in a very negative light, and only makes it seem like her husband is just doing what she says). This will help the audience understand what I’m doing better, and it will clarify the purpose.

Multimodal elements to add/revise: Overall my modes were well placed and well used. There were no suggestions as to what to add mode-wise. I have visual, linguistic, gestural, and spatial.

What can I reasonably revise before the due date?

Add summary section of book and how author labeled her wrong (most important element to do)
Revise the header for the Text section to correspond with theme of website
Add a few more elements to the overall website itself to make it visually dynamic
Add some pictures into the texts
Finish the texts (possibly using real texts instead as the fake-text website is a challenging interface)
Work on ‘Site Information Page’ some more to make sure citations are correctly labeled.

Progress and Websites

hhutch1 — Mon, 20 Apr 2015 16:04:06 +0000

What I Did: Today I wrote more of my texts, deciding that I wanted a total of 15. I am about half way done, and in need of some images to put into the texts in order to add some more elements to the story. I also then looked at website layouts and how a website format would work with this project, and created one that I liked.

Why I Did It: I need to finish up all the texts as soon as possible so that I can start putting them into a layout. I picked the 15 texts because then I can put a website with the title “15 texts from the real main character of the borrowers’ or some other title similar to that of BuzzFeed or other online websites with stories like that. I created a website similar to BuzzFeed with the same bright colors and splashy layout. Now is just a matter of finishing up the rest of the project!

Documentation Planning and Project Work

hhutch1 — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 01:53:16 +0000

What I Did: I worked more on texts between the characters, following my storyboard, and tried to figure out how I am going to compile all the different texts into one cohesive website or presentation. I worked a lot on organizing and figuring out the best way to do this, investigating a lot of different presentation tools. I then created a documentation plan.

Why I Did It: I worked a lot on trying to condense the texts so that there would not be too many. I also investigated ways to present this information, and eventually decided that the best way to do so was to create a new WordPress blog/website.

Documentation Plan: Since my project is mostly text based with pictures embedded, I plan to probably number each text, and format it in the similar to Buzzfeed or those online websites that showcase funny texts. I would create a false website to help create this concept, and then have each text labeled with a text or number. If i chose to label it with text (like the Buzzfeed ones) then I would include the citation for the pictures in there. If not, then at the end i would correspond the numbers and citations at the end of the website. That way I would include all my citations easily within the website, and they would not be in the way of the main texts. I think this is the best option for my Borrowers Text remix.

Changing Plans and Creating a Storyboard

hhutch1 — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 16:00:06 +0000

What I did: Today I completed my story board. I also changed some aspects of my project. I decided that I wanted to write the whole thing in entirely text messages. I also changed the main character to focus on Mrs. Driver, the cook and woman who is taking care of the boy. I went online and researched some iphone text generators and found some that I might be able to use. I then spent the rest of the time working on creating some of the texts that I wanted to do, and figuring out how to properly utilize those tools.

Why I did it: I changed my medium and tools to text messages because I thought this would give a more dynamic and modern outlook on the book, rather than just hearing a monologue from the character. I also changed main characters because, after rereading the story, I felt that there would be more I could do that was closer to the book by focusing on this character, rather than her husband. I have found that the text tools can be particularly finicky so I will be spending a lot of time working with that and hopefully capturing a good dynamic between the characters.

Storyboard design:

Schedule and Progress

hhutch1 — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 15:59:20 +0000

Schedule:

4/14: Write mock-up storyboard for my project. Include timeline of story that I’m writing, including various elements that I wish to include

4/15: Get most of writing section of project (storyboard due)

4/16-4/18: Get visual elements to include into project, including ‘evidence’ pictures and sticky notes to include in the ‘journal’

4/19-4/20: Go through writing section again, work on photoshopping (sign ups)

4/21-4/22: Begin putting everything together, work on photoshopping (peer reviews)

4/23-4/26: Get any other necessary visual elements, fact check, continue with finishing touches

4/26-4/29:put everything together, get flipbook done (presentations)

What I did: Today I learned how to download and use fonts, which was something very exciting and new for me. I also continue to learn how to set a background to word documents, as well as worked on playing with flipbook to see if that was a tool I wanted to use.

Why I did it: I wanted specific handwriting for the main character, so I had to go online and download a font specifically for him. I also wanted to add an older looking journal-like paper background to the text, and I effectively did this. Since I may be using flipbook for my tool, I had to do some research on it. It seems like it will be useful for my project.

Borrowers: Remix Project

hhutch1 — Wed, 08 Apr 2015 16:05:06 +0000

I have decided that I want to write my remix project on The Borrowers, a classic novel published in 1952 by Mary Norton. Growing us as a child, I greatly enjoyed this story. I loved the concept that there were little people hiding in the walls and ‘borrowing’ things from us. In this story, I would twist it around a bit and focus more on the point of view of the father, Mr Driver. In the books, he is the bad guy that tries to kill the borrowers. As The Borrowers is a long book series, I am mostly focusing on the specific end climax with the father trying to find the borrowers and kill them.

I want to look from his point of view and reflect his investigation into the disappearing items. I want to look at how he may think the boy that befriends the borrowers may be insane, and that the boy is just talking to himself and convinced that little people live in the walls. I think this would be an interesting idea.

I will likely use a medium that allows me to show the father’s online investigation as he documents all the missing things, what could be possible causes. It would be his more online diary reflecting a picture of a pin that was stolen, or a picture of a shoe he finds. It could start with him thinking the boy is crazy, and writing down his fears about that, and then expand on his future findings.

My main sources would be:

The Borrowers by Mary Norton (1953)

The Borrowers (1997) (movie) directed by Peter Hewitt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Borrowers

Starting the Remix Project

hhutch1 — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 17:01:18 +0000

What makes a good remix: I liked how a lot of the project brought in social networking, as that is very common in this day and age. I think that gives all the stories a good twist, and makes them relatable to our generation. I also liked the ones that were visually dynamic and unexpected. I liked the projects that surprised me or that created a good overall theme. Normally these themes implied a different take on the story, like looking at the story from a different character or groups’ perspective.

What makes a good digital story: I really enjoyed the little red riding wanted story, as well as the hunger games one and the beauty and the beast one. I thought they all did a good job to take a different perspective on a story, and to implement modern aspects of our society to them. I didn’t seem to like the prezi ones as I felt that they were not as creatively presented. That said, I liked the little red riding one because I felt that it didn’t do the typical prezi presentation; the person did it in a more creative way to make it look like a wanted board, and I liked that. They did have a lot of linguistic modes which could have been turned into visual instead. I liked how different the hunger games one was, because it used a different program and medium to create an extremely interesting tabloid, which was appropriate for the Hunger Games. Finally, I liked the beauty and the beast one because I liked how the author created their own world for the characters in the form of Facebook, and I think it turned out really well and interesting.

Stories I’m considering: I haven’t been able to think of many stories that I could consider, so brainstorming ideas took a long time for me. I like these stories but I am not sure how I will remix them yet. I came up with the following stories I might be able to remix:

The Little Mermaid
- Love letters, mixed tapes, videos, pictures
- Witch point of view diary
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
- Modern day classroom, without magic maybe
- Facebook
- Kreacher point of view
Lady and the Tramp
- Phone conversations about dogs from owners
- News Article written by dogs, discusses lady and tramp scandal
Peter Pan
- Captain Hook point of view
- Lost Boy News Article
- Other creative outlet

Day Three of Presentations

hhutch1 — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 17:05:46 +0000

I think I found the Inklewriter website interface the most interesting one. As it was one that I had previously wanted to do my presentation on, I was already drawn to the interface before I viewed the presentation. I don’t know when it would be applicable in my day to day life, but I thought the concept could be very useful. I can imagine myself using it in some of my writing classes for a project, or simple for fun with friends. I feel that it would be something my siblings would love me to create for them if given the opportunity. I really liked how it worked and the options it gave you, so I think that I would find a way to utilize it, even if not through an academic setting