Music Video Production

Image and Music Movie Project

Your assignment is to make a music video (which operates as entertainment, argument, and overview) of at least 3 minutes length, in a style of successive image collage.

Purpose: To use images and music and make a visual/aural argument that disputes or fights against a teenager stereotype of your choice. So think about how you believe your generation or age is often represented (perhaps in popular culture), talked about (by adults, teachers, or someone else), or in some way viewed pessimistically or poorly. Which stereotype or assumption pisses you off the most (anger can be a great, creative motivator). Focus in on something fairly specific and then work to prove the stereotype wrong, show the contrast, or at least, show how there is more complexity to the truth behind the assumption.

This is very general and broad, hence everyone’s will be different and perhaps also accomplish a much more specific purpose, which is, of course, entirely up to you.

Audience and Context: The audience in your mind should be people most likely to have that stereotype in mind. But who’s really going to see it? At the very least you must upload your video to your Purdue website where you are free to promote it as much or as little as you like. I’d also encourage you to upload the final video to Youtube (students have done this in the past to great effect). Finally, with your permissions, I’d like to upload all the videos to a page on my website. All these contexts will open up your video to a range of new audiences, and therefore, this must be considered rhetorically.

Video Requirements:

You will be using Windows Movie Maker, which allows you to make a slideshow like presentation of pictures with music playing in the background.

Your movie must be the entire duration of one song. The song choice is up to you, but the song’s lyrics, music, and mood must somehow inform and work with the argument you are trying to make. I’ve seen people mix multiple parts of songs, which is fine but a more tricky, technical proposition (and not always effective). The minimum length of the movie is 3 minutes, so choose your song accordingly. Warning, these things take a lot of time to make, so if you choose a song that is too long you are creating a lot more work for yourself!

The visuals will be a shifting slideshow of pictures. The pictures can be taken from Google Image, another photo websource, your own personal pictures that you take or have taken, or a mix of all of these. The pictures must be ordered, relevant, and taken together to form your argument (along with optional, text-based slides). Rhetorical consideration must also be given to effects put on the pictures and the transition effects between the pictures. Everything should be working together to accomplish your purpose.

The movie must contain some credits which give your name, credit to the author of the song and the song title, and some form of citation to where you got the images

Essay Requirements:

You will also write a 4-6 page paper to turn in to me with the video. The essay must (you know the drill) explain the range of your rhetorical decisions and how those decisions (the song, the pics, the cuts, the edits, the effects, etc.) work with your audience, purpose, and context. As with the photobook, you’re trying to show me in your essay that thought, consideration, and purpose went into every little decision throughout your entire movie.

Additional Concerns:

If you are not tech savy with making mp3 files of music, don’t worry. Lend me a CD, tell me the song, and I will make you a file. Additionally, if you know a song you want to use, but don’t have it, and don’t know how to obtain it online, ask me and I will attempt to get it for you. Finally, if you eventually draw a complete blank and can’t think of an appropriate song to use, I will make suggestions. Of course, I would rather not, because it really takes the movie away from being a personal statement by you.

Additional Notes:

1. Feel free to use your own photos. You can take photos of friends, or I even encourage you to star in your own video. The movie would likely not be all your own pics, but you can mix your own with found images.

2. Follow Windows Movie Maker instructions very carefully. It’s very easy to screw up and lose your whole assignment.

3. The best videos will take a lot of time to make, but I believe the outcome is well worth it.

Creating Avatars in the Business World

The following is a sample assignment that I wrote for my Business Writing class in Fall 2007. Some of the assignment content is date sensitive but can easily be replaced. You'll obviously want to change the due date, but you may also want to locate more recent publications depending on when you use this assignment.

Creating Avatars in the Business World

Many of you, I know, have accounts on Facebook and recently I've read quite a few articles about how folks are using Facebook. Of particular interest are the articles that discuss Facebook as a business networking tool. Not only are young professionals continuing the networking that they began when using Facebook in college, but many people in older age groups are also joining Facebook. A search on the Business Week website pulls up fifteen pages of content dating back to 2005. You can find the list of articles, sorted by date, here; and this is barely a drop in the bucket compared to all of the articles available in other publications. Just in the past two months I have read, in print publications, several articles concerning Facebook, including: Wired magazine, MIT's Technology Review, and Newsweek. These are just a few examples out of many and the number of articles found published on the web far outnumber these. Quite a few of these concern the negative repurcussions of some Facebook content. For example, the colleges who have used photos on Facebook to locate and then charge underage drinkers, like Brad Davis at Emory or students who are rejected for internships as a result of Facebook content. As business writing is very much concerned with ethos, I'd like for you to consider your Facebook entries in the context of both your present and future.

I've recently become better accquainted with Facebook and now understand how easy it can be to post information that those outside of your circles of friends might find questionable. I have a fairly bizarre sense of humor and find myself continually censoring that information because of audience awareness. Some of my friends are also my professors and most are colleagues, making me hesitant to post information that might cast me in a negative light. Interestingly enough, my F2F interactions are frequently uncensored. In other words, I'm more likely to divulge private information in person. Much of this is because of the permanence of writing. While I can delete an entry, it's almost impossible to completely destroy online content. Tools like browser caching, the Internet Archive and the Wayback Machine, not to mention the ability to save sites and take screenshots, all make online content difficult to destroy.

Given all of this information, I have an assignment that I'd like you to complete for our next two class meetings. This assignment has two parts:

1. Examine your current Facebook profile. What image does your profile convey? Is it an accurate reflection of how you see yourself? Try looking at it as someone who didn't know you might look at it. How would they construct an understanding of your identity based on the information included there? Is there content that might create a negative impression for your audience? You should answer these questions by posting a blog entry of at least 500 words. (You will need at least that much content to answer the questions.) Your blog entry should use specific examples and should include a link to your Facebook profile. Your analysis should be completed prior to class on Thursday, October 4th. Late submissions will not be accepted. This blog entry counts as two entries. [If you would rather not post it on a publicly accessible site, you may email the link to the class list, which you should have from previous emails that I have sent. If not, you can get that information from me.]
2. Choose at least two articles from the above and write an annotation for each. (The Business Week list has quite a few and you are also free to locate articles from other sources and annotate them.) Be sure to summarize, evaluate and create a bibliographic citation for each. You should include a working hyperlink to your articles. Your articles should be clearly relevant to the business world. This entry is due prior to class on Thursday, October 11th. It will count as a single blog entry.
3. Create an avatar that you think best reflects your identity. You should create two: one for your personal identity and one for your professional identity. Post both of these before class on Thursday, October 11th. (Early submissions will be looked upon favorably.) You can insert an image into a blog entry using the small picture icon on the far right of your rich text toolbar (this is a small picture of a tree and you must have rich text enabled in order to see it.) Along with your picture you should include 300 words or more discussing the choices that you made in constructing each avatar. Why did you choose these images to represent you? What qualities of your personality do they reflect? What are the differences between the two avatars and why are they different? (If you choose to create the same avatar for both, you should provide detailed reasons for that choice.) As with the above assignment, late submissions will not be accepted. This counts as one blog entry.

*If you do not have a Facebook profile, please speak with me after class to discuss your options.

Explaining Second Life

Explaining Second Life: Many Second Life citizens get offended when the environment is described as a game. Why do you think the term "game" might be troubling to SL participants? How would you describe Second Life?

Write a letter to a parent or relative, someone you know who is not technically inclined, and describe Second Life.

Create a similar description of Second Life using another media (podcast, Power Point, music video)

Find a newspaper or magazine article that introduces Second Life to its audience. Compose an essay/podcast/photo essay analyzing the article’s targeted audience, the effectiveness of the article’s introduction, the opinion of the author, and how accurate you feel the article is.

-- Karen Kaiser Lee

Name Choosing and Initial Avatar Creation

Names: Look at the current last names available to new Second Life accounts. What sort of names do you see there? What sort of non-English names are available? What categories of names are available? Describe how you selected your Second Life name. What options did you consider before making your final decision? What do you feel your Second Life name tells other people about you?

Look at the list of current last names available on Second Life
(https://secure-web0.secondlife.com/join/). Choose a Second Life last name different from the one you selected, and write a description / create a visual representation of the sort of person you think would choose this name.

 

Avatar: As you are setting up your Second Life account, examine the default avatars that are available. What choices are available? Which one did you choose, and why?

Create an avatar that is the complete opposite of how you feel you are in your first life – in terms of personality and / or physicality. What sort of changes do you make? Create a photo essay documenting the creation of this alter ego avatar. Take this avatar out and visit a few places – what sorts of reactions do you get? In terms of social interaction, what sort of opportunities does a male avatar have that a female avatar may not – and vice versa? What about non-human avatars?

Do some window shopping for AV skins. What sort of races and ethnicities are available? Erika Thereian spent three months in Second Life wearing an African American skin. Some of the reactions she received were surprising:

http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2006/02/the_skin_youre_.html

Discuss Erika’s story. How many darker skinned avatars do you see in Second Life? Wear an African American avatar in Second Life for a day or more; document the reactions you receive and present them to the class.

-- Karen Kaiser Lee