Great Group!

                                  

                             

Summing Up the New Media Program

Only six weeks – I was incapacitated by both the velocity of the course and a serious personal situation.  I believe that I suffered from culture shock in this course.  It was as foreign to me as if I were living on another planet and as I recognized the brilliance of the information I was hearing  I could only wish that it had been longer…a full semester, maybe even a year.  Then I would have been able to experiment with confidence…maybe even do a solo project.  On the other hand I love my blog with its friendly, little widgets.  I have had fun with the blog – I think I’ll keep it.

Questions 1, 2 and 3

How do you have to organize and design your shooting to accommodate user driven narrative?

A story should be told in a linear manner – beginning, middle and end.  I mean isn’t that the way life works even it appears random?  Things otherwise known as life, a story, the narrative etc. happen in their own natural fashion.  So if I’m telling a story about the way it really happened I just let it flow, let it go.  I woke up, I had breakfast, I went to work, I came home, I ate, I watched t.v. and I went to bed.  Fairly linear, fairly seamless right?  That’s my life….but if it was, let’s say the life of Moses the prophet…he was found in a bunch of reeds, and then got older, grew a beard, climbed a mountain, had a discussion with God about ten commandments, hired somebody to carve them out on some tablets, told everybody to follow them to a Tee and that was his life….still linear, and therefore seamless.  I think that stories should follow the rules of nature…beginning, middle and end.  At least that’s my opinion.

How do you have to organize and design your shooting to accommodate distributed narrative?

This is a difficult question to answer because I don’t “shoot” video or film enough to consider myself a filmmaker.  Therefore I have never really had the opportunity to worry about this issue very much but one thing that I like to do is have a simplistic beginning with the ending being a surprise.  I believe that people like to be taken aback. It would still be a linear design, which emanates from my dislike of chaos and disorganization.

Discuss how the avatar changes the notion of media engagement.  Can this avatar become a documentary dissemination form?

I have, or I am, two avatars.  One is kind of boring and shy, and the other has the potential for adventure and taking chances.  These avatars aggravate me but….I admit I haven’t given them or Second Life a chance.   I have to admit that I find real people more interesting than avatars.  I would rather watch 3D movies – and Polar Express is one of my all time favourites…I can totally lose myself in that movie which I have not as yet been able to accomplish in Second Life.  That being said, I was more than impressed with Alex Bal’s avatar and her ability to travel to the most interesting places.  I’m not sure if I have answered this question but whether I like it or not, I believe that avatars can become a documentary dissemination form….without a doubt.