Final Project Ideas

Okay, so I have been thinking about what I want to do for my final project. I am leaning towards either an interactive piece of fiction, which I have some ideas for....or else an online portfolio from more than one genre of my work. However, I am still thinking about which one I would like to do more and which would be more beneficial to me in the future. I'll let you guys know when I figure it out!

Group Presentation Response

Okay, so I thought that EVERYBODY'S group projects were great and very creative...but I have to say that the one that I thought were very very interesting--that was the group who did the "My Space" pages. I thought it was incredibly imaginative and something that I don't think many people would have thought of. And it wasn't only interesting, but also very thorough. I loved that they put up pictures, became friends, wrote on each other's walls, and created great profiles. It was like a whole story that went in many different directions and I loved it. However, I also really liked the music site. I thought it was really cool that they compiled all of that information and put it on one site. I thought if they added some other genres of music it would make it more user friendly to a larger group of people. But I thought everybody did a great job!

Group Members and Project

Okay, so our group is me, Kerri, Lita, and I think Adeela.....we are doing a sort of "choose your own adventure" story....based on one character's choices and life...I think its going to be really cool...and it is a lot of fun! :)

Group Project

Okay, so honestlyI do not know what to do for my group project. I am pretty open to working on anything and working with anybody. My concentration is creative writing, so obviously I like to write...but I also do enjoy playing around with websites and such--but it is not my strongest area......Any ideas, let me know. See you all in class tonight. :)

What is Narrative?

A narrative is a story that is progressing through a path of decisions on the part of the author. However, when the story is interactive and more decisions are left to the readers, it is no longer a narrative...it is more of a community piece, at that point. Some of the multimedia stories that we have looked at could be considered narratives as there are very few choices, as in a written text. If you can only click on one thing, the author really isn't giving you any choices, although it may seem that way. So when you are following the progression of the story through clicks of the mouse, you are really walking down the path of the author. Thus this can be considered a narrative. However, when the author leaves allows for more choices then it is not so much a narrative. You are not going from one beginning to a middle to one end....you now have options and it is no longer that writer's story, but one that is more individualized. I think one thing that is amazing about most true narratives is the concept that you can get lost in it, and at times forget that you are actually reading a book. However, with some of the stories we have looked at from ELC, it is very interactive. Some of the creators only gave one choice, or maybe a couple....but some, such as "Blue" by Michael Joyce, you can't help but realize that you are no longer on the path of the creator, but on your own path, where you can get lost and very mixed up. While these stories are very interesting, I don't think it works as well as, lets say, a book. You are constantly jumping around and many times you have to try to piece the story together the best you can, even when it doesn't seem to fit!

Oops...Side Note...

Oops! Sorry guys, I just realized that I never posted the URL to my website....I know you can get it through the class website, but here it is, just in case:

http://geocities.com/ecounter08

Reponse to Remix Projects

Wow, so in class while watching the remix presentations, I had NO idea whose project I wanted to comment on, as they were all so good and for different reasons. I decided I wanted to comment on a couple of them. I thought our class did an amazing job and I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised at what some people were able to do....(I'm not that good at this kind of stuff.)
First I wanted to comment on Daniel Cinalli's project. He did an amazing remix of the poem, "The Hours" by Robert Frost. When I was watching, I was so surprised to find out that he had taken individual voice recordings and put them together to make it one work...it was a very creative and interesting way to look at the poem. He did a great job and had a great concept.
Another project that I was amazed at was Owen Ito's project. He took clips from the 1935 version of Scrooge and in the first edit he did, he changed the voices to an animated computer voice. In the second one, which was sooo funny, he took out the old dialogue and put in somebody speaking in Chinese. However, he put subtitles and he didn't translate it to what it actually meant, but instead put in his own dialogue. It was so funny and a completely different way to watch the movie! I thought it was amazing that he was able to do this.
There was one more as well, but I don't remember who's it was and I can't seem to find it on the student sites. However it was the one about Aesop's Fables. He translated the fables from English to french to Spanish and then back to English again. And of course this made the text all jumbled up and completely hilarious to read. I thought that this was great because it was so creative, I would have never thought to do that.
I thought everybody did a great job with their projects and I am blown away by all of the ways we can present information to others. :)