Today’s Plan:
- Responding to your feedback from Project One
- Reviewing the Affective Object Assignment Free Writes
- Generating a Rubric for Project Two
- Homework
Project One Feedback
Why do I do postmortems? Insight into your creative process. Experience turning process into method. Developing more sophisticated ways to “market” your work.
Your suggestions:
- There are few qualms I have with the criteria and guidelines of the project. While the time limit to finish the project is limiting, it encouraged me to keep it simple and not undertake anything too complicated.
- What would happen if you asked the entire class to remediate the same text? Would this produce results that exemplify the different decisions that can be made in visually representing a text?
- I would probably like to make my video a bit longer than two minutes personally, so a bit longer of a time limit, like 3-4 minutes would be perfect. Along with that, it would behoove us to have two days to watch everyone’s videos in class.
- Maybe a little bit more experience with the editing programs available within the school. I come from previous experience in editing and finding a free editing software on Windows is difficult due to WMM no longer being included in newer computers. Shortcut is the third program I tried out and while it is better than the other two I tried out it is still strange and I’m not 100% sure if I like it (I would never use it to make a music video). I didn’t feel stressed about the editing process but if I didn’t have any prior knowledge I do not know how easy it would be to adjust.
- I think it would have been nice to have more time with Adobe before the start of the project. I felt rushed and panicked the entire time I was editing because I constantly had to turn to Google and Youtube for instructions on how to use the program for even the most basic tasks.
- I did have a lot of problems with the technology aspect of it. I’ve taken another class dealing with video editing before, so that wasn’t a problem for me. The main problem I have (which I really can’t fix) is how my videos are uploaded to YouTube. They seem so crisp and clear on my laptop or phone, and then it uploads a bit fuzzy. (this might help)
- I would have appreciated more examples, because I did have trouble for a while trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I liked that creativity was allowed, but I felt the project was left so open to interpretation that I was unsure what exactly was expected.
- Nothing much, I liked the openness of the prompt.
Project Two: Affective Objects
Most noted that the project should focus on something personal, something that triggers sentiment, nostalgia, or emotion. Brenna suggested selecting something that gives a sense of safety/security or something that you’ve earned and are proud of.
Holly phrased it as examining what an object subjectively means to me. I want to push back on that a little bit–because I’m a bit more interested in affect than semantics, meaning I’m more interested in how something feels that what it means (small difference, yes, but an important one). Holly also approached it in terms of looking for deeper meaning in daily mundane interactions and examining how an object might trigger unconscious emotions–and I think that gets at what I mean.
Austin came at it this way, too, writing that you want to have an audience see a thing, but then make them feel another way about it–such that something that might seem trivial, nondescript, or boring becomes interesting. Brittany offered something very similar, writing: “asking us to choose an object that might mean one thing to everyone else but something different to you.” I like that, but I’d revise the “everyone.” She suggested a focus on “how it relates to how we feel.. or how it makes us feel (emphasis original). Hayley also suggested finding a balance between letting the object speak for itself while concisely/descriptively showing its significance. There’s the trick.
Austin also suggested that we might not be strictly examining an object, but rather:
- A hobby
- A location
- A person
- A food
I want to cross one of those off the list. Can you guess which one? Answering why requires that I unpack a bit what I see as the two pedagogical objectives of this project–one very concrete, a matter of praxis, and one more nebulous, a matter of theory. Such is rhetoric.
It is with this distinction in mind that I turn to Patrick’s free write, which he approached a bit more philosophically. He suggested a possible project about his glasses. I had to think about this a bit, because while glasses *afford* something, I’m not sure they operate affectively as much as they operate materially. From this example he extrapolates a theory: “I could talk about the ways in which the things that aren’t said (paid attention to) usually mean the most.” Intriguing, if perhaps not affective.
Jared’s freewrite reads like a brainstorm for his specific project, as he plans about writing about how his investment in the Soul Caliber video game series has coincided with his retreat from playing sports. I think this could work. I would be curious about the objects involved in playing, the space in which one plays. I’m also interested in scientific research on how video games and fighting games affect the brain–it seems like you could interject some science into this discussion?
Hannah and Hayley both generated lists of questions that might guide the project:
- What is the object?
- Where/when/how was it acquired?
- What about the object makes us feel a certain way?
- What sensations do we notice when we are near or separated from the object?
- How do we feel when others treat the object negatively?
And:
- Find an object that has a personal connection and invokes an emotional response
- Find a background/location for this object as a setting for the video
- Narrate the story of the object, creating the video with the camera shots and angles as discussed in preparation for project 1
- Use visual creativity
- Be concise but innovative
And here’s my list of suggestions from the Jenkins essay:
- What is the object? How do most people think of the object? How do others “love” it? Why do they love it? Why do they really love it?
- What is your earliest memory of the object?
- Is there a specific powerful memory of the object?
- What is the object made of? Is there insight in pondering the object’s materiality (perhaps in juxtaposition to its purpose?)
- How do you treat the object?
- How has your relation to the object changed over time?
- How might your relation to the object have changed you?
Generating a Rubric for Project Two
As I indicated above, there’s two dimensions to this project–the practical and the theoretical. I don’t necessarily think it is fair for me to grade you on the theoretical dimension. I want to give you the freedom to make a video that explores affect, and I don’t want to have to tell you that your video is “wrong.”
So, as with project one, the assessment of this video will be based on exercising skills from the Schroeppel book. In preparation for today, I asked you to read chapters 6, 7, and 8 on Montages, Lighting, and Sound. So let’s see what we can extract from those chapters and add to our rubric.
Here’s what we had for project 1:
- No shaky camera
- Rule of thirds / Head room
- Background is not distracting
- Variety of Angles / 45% change between angles
- Variety between depth of shots
- Shot Length 5-10 seconds
I’ve got one thing to add–set up a shot in which the camera stays still, but something moves across the shot.
Homework
For homework, I want you to generate about 300-400 words for what you think you will do for project two. This is loose. You might respond to a few of the questions Hannah, Hayley, and I provided above. You might start scripting. Whatever. Just generate material and submit it to Canvas (Project 2 300-400 word brainstorm).
