Thursday, March 12, 2009
final project
While I have mentioned aloud in class my plans for a final project, I will discuss the workings here in greater detail. The plan is to surprise my youngest son with a DVD of moments from his senior year in high school. Even though he was a major sports figure in his high school (earning recognition in four sports, he also had fun driving in his 5-speed, 4 X 4 Isuzu Trooper (I have decided a shot of this vehicle covered in snow is the way to end my project. I have already downloaded I think 38 pictures from my digital camera, and I believe I have them in an order that spans his year from beginning to end. For a different style of transition, I am intending to use newspaper articles from two separately owned newspapers that cover our region as far as sports events. My reasoning behind using the news articles is that the sports writers focused on my son quite a bit, placing his name in the headlines. I have been trying to download a particular song that I know he likes. I would like to be able to place this audio on top of the video. One problem with the audio part of my project is that I cannot seem to download my chosen song due to copyright issues, and I am also having trouble finding this as a single song to copy it onto my DVD that way. I have someone I work with helping with solving my audio problems now, so things may get under way once spring break is over. She is also going to work with me on scanning the news articles. Sometimes I have trouble getting going because I don't know how and I'm very hesitant about saying aloud that I need help, especially when I keep hearing how simple this technology is. Some of my questions are, "Are my 38 pictures too much video for the DVD?" "How does one find this answer?" "Which sounds better to have more than one song playing (I'm thinking that with this much video I could have two songs) or stretch out my one song?" At this point, I'm going for the easy way. When I say what my project is, it sounds to be a very quick process, but getting the things one needs isn't always easy. Like my challenges, I can't seem to get past the audio hold-ups. More later.
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The technology is both simple and bloody hard. I've never worked so hard to learn anything in my life, and I still have many more spills than I'd care to admit. As you move into your final project, let's see if we can't get you into a regular routine with one of our CLiC tutors. If the schedule there doesn't work with your work schedule, we'll figure something else.
ReplyDeleteOn the other questions:
Is 38 pictures too much? Nope! It's amazing how many photos it takes to make for an interesting video.
One song repeated or more than one song? That depends, I think. On the song and on how you will be using it. But I think it may be better to have more than one song instead of repeating a single song more than once. Especially if that song has lyrics. The listener may feel the repetition and respond to as "repetitive" without really even knowing that's the response emerging from a repeated song. It can work. I've seen it work. I've also seen it not work. May be safer to go with more than one, especially if there's another song that might serve the project well too.
Also: don't worry about the copyright challenges. For a video that's a present for your son to be played amongst family and friends (not published), you can use whatever music you want. If you can't get the version you need, simply open Audacity, press "Record," and PLAY the on your computer. Voila! You have the song you need in the format you can use. Well, as soon as you export it from Audacity as an mp3.
If you want any help with this, let me know. We'll figure it out. Also: there's a tutorial on exactly this method (recording to audacity) amongst the posts to the class blog. See "Audacity tutorial" or similar label. And I think there's some instructoins on this in a previous post to you as well.
It isn't easy. That's so very true. But the hard part was getting those images lined up for the video. I think once we get over the audio hump you'll be good to go. And amazed! And amazing, my friend!
Just one more thing:
ReplyDeleteAs per the Week 8 Agenda (see course blog), I was hoping to see some response to Griffin, Selfe, and/or Cooper's articles (see syllabus) posted to your blog. That, in addition to your update on your final project (from page 34 of MC). I see the latter but not the former. Looking forward to reading that once it is ready.
Thanks!
I love your idea of developing your poetry into an audio project (with music). If you run in any difficulties making that happen, please don't bang your head against the wall in an attempt to finish before we meet again. The deadlines are as flexible as they need to be. We can work together on that. What a great way to get to the know the audio editing software. And a meaningful project to boot.
ReplyDeleteAnd you are right: the final project you develop for this class can be your NCoW contribution. Absolutely!