The biggest challenge was no ink pads or easy way to make a finger print in a time restricted way….so I pulled out 53 Paper on my iPad and made digital finger prints – not as much detail as I would like – but it worked.
This is something that could go on and on just as doodling can. So many little things a fingerprint can turn into – especially with Spring in mind.
a good daily create – keeps the mind creating – but is simple to make. A great relief in a week of editing video and sound.
Working on audio and video as the #noir106 cohort is working on video as/for their characters. Watching the interviews coming up and they are absolutely on target and so fun to watch! I can’t wait to see the videos from the groups as well as cruise through some of the assignments created. There is a part of me that watches and the waterfall of awe in thinking “how can I learn to do that!”.
The strength I see is in the character alignment. I am on board with the comments of the instructors that this might be the best cohort so far in creating. I have to believe it is because they “own” their character and create the stories and that started on day one. Many of the assignments are the same as they have been for other cohorts – the difference it seems is in starting with character and developing them thru the use of learning techniques, tools, and effective digital communication. It isn’t left to chance that a certain direction of an assignment clicked. In busy schedules and life, there is a constant and frame that is owned by each person to develop.
I didn’t start with a character – I can see the difference. Especially when getting to the more complex tools of video. Video also requires content and story to be strong to be good. The format of noir106 has really enabled having some heavy lifting done to add to new challenges.
So – I am struggling trying to own an idea or direction to create within the assignments. The open course seems to be practice exercises – which are well designed – but without others doing them at the same time for some connection I haven’t found myself wanting to attempt. I am seeing my family content and things I want to do. There is a lot of prep and building to go on to be able to create. I opted for the Soft Puppy (Soft Kitty) Parody instead of the Charlie Chaplin Foley assignment. It started as an audio of trying to merge 3 layers of me singing and then put it to video. My husband decided to join in and then it took another turn. It needed music – so I used an iPad keyboard and played soft kitty. Audacity was the tool for the audio. I couldn’t get it to be the same tempos and line up – so I went with it being a little off – especially since we were both off key anyways. A few effects and then imported into iMovie.
I used iMovie bulletin board template. FinalCut Pro was going to be too much for this experience. I did move some of the key frames, changed transitions and tried to get under the hood of iMovie to see how it can be maxed out. I wasn’t going for an academy award – just some outcome for working with the applications.
Hope you at least get a chuckle out of it – we had fun and it stars our favorite boys!
What a week! I should have stuck to some of the building block assignments. #noir106 was doing character assignments, so I decided maybe I should use Jerry and learn some Final Cut Pro and video editing. Early in the week it sounded sensible to do an overview video for future expansion of his story.
First – when you can start from scratch on a story and have all the artistic license I think it is easier. I struggled with using the facts, but not trying to over sell. I also found out how much isn’t collected or saved like you thought. It really makes me appreciate those who take a photo a day for 10 years or document over time effectively. So how does one apply those thoughts to new projects? Story telling needs planning, thought, direction, and collecting and creating. Or – making do with what you have and filling in or in some ways leaving parts of the story out.
The next challenge was in trying to condense 76 years into a short time period. As I worked – I realized there needs to be chapters and this would be more of an overview and have gaps. I was dependent on photos that were already scanned (not all in good quality) and many years of gaps. Jerry was not one who was friends with the camera and the little video there was has him in the background or non-existent aside from the pieces I used. I was very pleased that I did have the video – it actually is a very insightful piece of footage and genuine to who he was.
Uploading was another issue. The Share feature clocked at 4+ hours and timed out and failed. It was using something called the compression app. Second time I exported as a Quicktime movie – but quality dropped and frames dropped as well. It only took 10 minutes to export and 20 minutes to upload to YouTube. It looks great on my iMac, so-so on my laptop. Now I have to read about configuration settings on exports.
Here is my draft video. It is not a finished product at this point. IGNORE THE TIMEstamp– it has 8 minutes of black space when it is finished for some reason – another tweak to be done! It is long in internet terms- but comes in at about 6 minutes with credits.
PROCESS:
I skipped the template based software to learn more about manipulating the content. I used Final Cut Pro 7. While my project was large for my skill level it was not huge. But the sheer quantity of photos and pieces got overwhelming. And just when you think you are about done – you hit a key and all goes out of whack or something disappears!
I set up 3 folders: Photos; Audio;Video; and imported them to the tool. I chose songs by the Ventures for the music from YouTube – it was one of his favorites. I had done some voiceover, but it seemed like too much and did not help the story – so that time was practice. I separated the video audio and had to make sure it stayed in sync so linked the video and audio for that part only so that it would not move or alter. I had to extract some photos from other sources and they became of lesser quality. Photos were organized and named for easier placement and moving around. As chapters go on, one solution may be to make the older ones have an older theme overall to look intentional.
From there it was learning to use the viewer and canvas. I watched some tutorials from Lynda.com on the software which helped see the built ins and how to maximize time with keys – really a timesaver!
A key lesson was understanding that going forward the more organized and prepped the content is earlier to creating and editing the better. The feeling of wanting to get to the video and create has to be delayed. Making sure all the content is fixed, edited, logged and named correctly prior will make this easier and probably result in better outcomes.
I ended up creating a monster – 13 video tracks and 9 audio tracks in layers. They probably could have been condensed – but after losing some work, I began to lock layers so I didn’t alter them as I worked on other portions.
With so many still photos and looking at them for so long, it seemed necessary for transitions and not abrupt cuts. I WENT TRANSITION CRAZY!DON”T MAKE THAT SAME MISTAKE! In hindsight – this is one of the tweaks on the next iteration. Getting rid of transitions and equalizing the length of shots overall. The readings for the week were good – and transitions discussed – but once it was uploaded and watched outside of the tool – I don’t like so many of them. I had initially thought consistency would be better than too many ones – but again – that is not how it turned out.
Because of the content – the time was fun and meaningful. I will be remiss if I don’t go back and do this right or better. This being the first story of the family should not mean it is the roughest. I will continue to polish and improve in his detailed chapters.
While I was in the midst of all this – I did a short project in iMovie putting my audio assignment into visual format. The details are here. The video is below.
All in all – it is learning and video has a short shelf life in most cases – so on to the next one and making it better.
Noir106 student group collaboration radio shows premiered on ds106 radio at 9pmEST M-Th this week and will continue the week of March 16. Live tweet alongs were part of the airing of the shows.
I had listened to several of the shows on Soundcloud the previous week, but the act of listening with others really makes a difference. It brought visions of old photos and documentaries about radio programs and families sitting around the radio together to listen. I even had a Walton’s flash back to seeing John Boy and all the family in the living room listening to the radio!
Back to points – it was a roller coaster of stories, genres, strategies and approaches with each show. None were the same. Tweets came in from collaborators that they had anxious moments as their show was next and they didn’t think it could hold up to the one they were listening too. A sure sign that there was respect and admiration for the work being listened too. But each was so unique they stood on their own.
I failed to keep track of which group and time, and won’t be able to comment about each and everyone. And I do not have a requirement to do a specific review – which also allows me to just enjoy each one for what it is. I looked forward to the time each night.
Groups all had a struggle point – why wouldn’t they? This is a group collaboration of individuals who have not worked together and have about 8-12 days to come together and get something produced in media that is likely new to them. The plus was even if a group had a struggle point – i.e. difficulty in normalizing audio, or a story line that didn’t quite develop as fully as intended – another area would shine so brightly that the struggle point was not as clear. Every team seemed to bring the their best to the group and it showed.
A few groups came pretty damn close to nailing it all and were outstanding. This activity was a learning experience – so there is no ranking or contests in my mind. It is finding the shining moments and seeing that the struggles were acknowledged by the participants as what to do better next time. Pure gold to hear and read. Everyone moves forward.
I enjoyed each show and found moments of sheer genius in each and inspiration – but also those moments when – “oops – that is something to remember when putting something like this together”. Outstanding bumpers, commercials, sound effects, scripts. With audio weeks this great – video is going to blow the roof!
Great work UMW Noir106. Looking forward to next week.
This is a current Kohler commercial that reminds me of the show “Noir Not the Father”. #bthrmquickie
The #ds106 #noir106 back story is becoming more complicated as the weeks pass. It seems as covert assignments are undertaken by @jimgroom and @mburtis they are creating more questions and tangents. There also seems that another entity trying to cause commotion and break up the #ds106/#noir106 lead team. In the beginning of the semester, @mburtis had been portrayed as being unlikable and mean by an anonymous student.
During a #ds106radio tweet along the week of March 8, 2015, it was clear that the collaboration and banter between instructors is fuel for creativity and done with respect and in the spirit of pushing others out of their comfort zones for creative thinking. This camaraderie and connection must be seen as too strong and now the outsiders have seen it as a threat and are trying to create more cracks and a division by kidnapping @jimgroom. Challenging students to produce 5 published creations of @mburtis agreeing or complimenting @jimgroom to create the thoughts that all is not quite right.
…..and where does Black come into this? …..The mysterious location of Bond- is he next to go on assignment? Do all the assignments connect? Or are their teams within the team? Is someone else manipulating the leads and causing some doubt among them? Are they trying to find a weak link or create a weak link in a moment of chaos?
….interesting so hard to predict the next turn of events!
