Halloween Threat Down

10/21 reflection

Aaron wrote: When interviewing a subject, when do you think it's better to have previously crafted questions? What about asking questions when 'shooting from the hip?'

In an interview, having at least a guideline of questions to ask is better. It gives your questions direction, avoids lulls, and generally makes the interview flow better. Shooting from the hip can give a more authentic conversation, but can also fizzle out if you don't have good questions ready

MSPaint Mitsubishi

This is the video Shipka's article made me think of. The sketch is cool because it's drawn in MSpaint, typically not used for image manipulation of this scale.

Youtube link

Responding to Glen

Have you ever had to do a project that included sound, such as a movie or song. If so, were you conscious of the sound being used or was it simply that it was there?

In high school speech class, we simulated a radio broadcast by turning the desks around so they couldn't see us. Our whole project was sound, but we had a stereo with some pre-recorded audio clips, songs, and 'commercials'. The project could have done without this, but the sound effects were consciously chosen and made a huge impact.

Plus it was an excuse to play Eiffel 65, always a good choice

Sound Engineering: Need a Dispenser Here

Shipka states that in her courses, students may compose their projects out of anything (instead of just digitally). What are some ways in which the production of media can change how it is viewed? For example, a sketch of a car might be uninteresting, but the same sketch made in mspaint is a challenge.

In this class, the professor does not assign a structure to projects (Five hundred word paper, board game, powerpoint, etc). This is the same way things are done in our Writing Across Media class. Why is it important for students to determine the context of their own work?

Using multi modal concepts such as background music during a spoken presentation can impact the audience, sure. What are some ways going overboard can detract from your point?

Blue Man Group - Audio

Seth wrote: 2. All people with hearing generally relate to these background music and sounds the same. Do you think people who are deaf could some how react the same? I tend to notice the suspenseful music during films. Do you think that people with hearing loss do not key into these moments with out certain sounds?

Missing a spooky audio cue is a problem, partially addressed by <> in the subtitles. This isn't the only cue for a suspenseful moment though - in a typical horror movie the lights are dimmed, the characters are tensed up, and the general atmosphere is darker when something is about to happen. Unless the music is the only indication that a suspenseful moment is happening, people with hearing loss don't necessarily miss out.

The idea is a previously held belief, and then an important discovery that changed it. Going in project (but non-chronological order), we have:

Four elements comprising matter - Discovery of the atom
Geocentric model - Copernicus' theory
Heliocentric model - Galileo's Telescope
Discworld model - Columbus's Santa maria
Moon is made of cheese - Neil Armstrong and the Moon Landing
Little green men from mars - Mars Landing
Abiogenesis/Spontaneous Generation - Louis Pasteur
Lightning cannot be harnessed - Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment
Phlogiston theory - Discovery of oxygen
Tomatoes are poisonous - Modern salad

This project was originally going to just be a slide show of major discoveries and how that changed the perception of the world. That was suggested to be a bit boring, and changed to showing people's reactions and responses to the discovery. That was found to be extremely difficult to convey with an image or two alone. The before and after pairs worked well enough for my initial premise (the earth is flat), so I went with that. It shows "what they were up against" in a way, the assumptions each explorer needed to change. Even something as harmless as eating a tomato was thought to be deadly, so no one did.

The hardest part of this project was finding appropriate images. Have you ever tried finding a picture of the discovery of oxygen? And who knows what Louis Pasteur looks like anymore. I erred on the side of diagrams for the geocentric, heliocentric, and four elements slides for clarity. Some of these are good if you get it already, like mice spontaneously arising from grain, but make no sense out of context. And some of the images just did not work at all, and I had to end up using a Magic card for before lightning was discovered to be electricity.