Cover Letter

Dear reader,

I would first like to thank you for taking the time to view this portfolio and explore the works I have created. My goal in these projects was to express myself and help everyone who viewed my work learn a little about myself. I also felt that by posting my works and ideas, I could inspire others and help them find new things that they might like as much as I do. I was unsure of what the class would even be on upon entering but after day one I was immediately excited that we would be working with technology and music. The assignments for this class proved to be more difficult and time consuming than I anticipated but were fun and worthwhile. While the projects proved to be time consuming, I didn’t even realize the work I was putting in on them until I was done. It is definitely not a daunting task to listen to music and describe it as well as describe myself. I was very interested in the topics I chose to do these projects on and became engrossed in them. Creating a playlist was not bad to do at all because the actual work of the assignment was listening to music and deciding on songs that described myself. Writing about music is fun and I was inspired to list songs for others to listen to and enjoy themselves. The podcast proved to be more difficult technologicly speaking, and was tougher to write for and decide information to include. Once I got started though, it turned out to be enjoyable and worthwhile. Creating a website has always been an ambition of mine and this class helped me to finally get focused on that goal and achieve it. With creativity and inspiration, I was able to create a website better than what I ever imagined I could do. The great things about the projects involved in this class is that they build and intertwine upon another. Creating the playlist let me include a song which inspired my choice for my podcast. Music inspired my website because of a big debate we had in high school over bands. These assignments were different than those in other courses because they promoted creativity while letting me write about the things that matter to me. I hope you enjoy the following material and maybe you will be inspired in creating your own projects.

Playlist

This assignment excited me at the start as I knew I would have no trouble choosing music that I loved. After I began to work on it I realized it was more difficult, not only deciding what songs you wanted everyone else to see but what to write about them. At first I was unsure of what to write or choose because I didn’t know if all the songs were supposed to represent me as a person or just the music I like. I decided to choose songs that supported ideals and morals I hold, as well as add a little insight to my life. The hardest part about this was to find songs that both represented me and my ideals, as well as being songs that I love to listen to. After some time I decided on eight songs and added a paragraph on each one to help people understand why I chose them.

Revisions

The more I looked at the playlist I created, the more unhappy I was with it. While I liked some of my choices, there were others I was still unsure why I chose. In the revision stage the most major change I made was removing a song and adding one that I not only liked more, but represented my personality much better and also adding more insight to ideals I hold in living my life. I also added more on some paragraphs that I had previously wrote lazily, to add more depth and insight for the reader on why I chose the song for my playlist. The revision stage helped my playlist a lot and with additional changes in the future it can ultimately become what I want it to be.

Podcast

The podcast assignment was the one I was worried about. While I had previous experience with website, I hadn’t with making a podcast. I also had no clue what I wanted to discuss. Finally this assignment was painful because I hate the sound of my voice on a recording. After deciding on one of my favorite artists growing up and researching the assignment became more fun and meaningful. I really enjoyed this assignment because it allowed me to listen to music while editing and reintroduced me to songs that I grew up loving but had forgot about with time. It also provided me with insight into Kenny Chesney and how he has evolved as an artist throughout his career. I really enjoyed listening to interviews he has done and his motivation of his music.

Revisions

My podcast was very rough and is still in need of much revising. The sound bits were a bit choppy and transitions were a little off. As far as the actual information in the podcast I’m still unsure of additional information to put in. My podcast is rather biographical which I’m trying to get away from. I added additional audio behind my voice to support my voice and help with the transitions. This made the podcast more upbeat, with better flow, while also allowing the listener to hear more of Chesney’s songs and give them more insight of him as an artist. Other than these additions at the midterm I struggled to achieve more success revising because after the original project I bonded all my tracks together. This made it tough to add in and edit things without messing up the whole thing. This podcast was tough for me to revise as could not really think of things to add or change. I had a bit of a “podcasters block” as I tried to edit this assignment. I smoothed some transitions but other than that I did not have much success revising my podcast.

Website

I was excited about this project from the start as I’ve had previous experience in creating websites and experimenting. While I’ve messed around with websites I’ve never truly created a legitimate website with it’s own domain support until now. It was hard to think of what I wanted out of my website until one night I was laying in my bed and it just hit me. Throughout growing up, my friends, brothers, and I have always had stupid arguments and debates over the dumbest things. The more I thought about it, I was like, I think everyone does this. From there I began to think of all the college students who sit in class and daydream about random topics and argue over them sitting in a dorm or at a party. From there, My Urban Debate was created. I’m very proud of this website and the potential it holds to be a small online community of people debating random topics which are fun and unheated. When arguing politics people can become so personal and angry which is why I wanted a place to debate things that can be friendly and fun. My Urban Debate has ten current debates and about fifteen members. I’m proud of what it is and what is can become. With word of mouth and revisions for more debates, I hope it can grow in the future and become an online community.

Mashup Video

The Mashup Video was one I was excited for after watching other projects. I was totally a “deer in headlights” on this project, having never before used any type of movie editing software. I was unsure what was harder with this project, selecting my movies, or the actual work of it. It turned out both were difficult as it was tough to find video clips and audio that I really liked together. After a long time I finally found a combonation that worked with a trailer from the new move “She’s out of My League.” I found the audio for this mashup in the most unlikely place as my girlfriend had said something about watching Beauty and the Beast, and I had the lightbulb above the head feeling. After working on Windows Movie Maker I was finally able to create a mashup that I approved of. It was a little choppy but everytime I attempted to fix it I wound up making it worse, so I decided to leave it as it was. The Windows Movie Maker software is either not user friendly or I’m just not movie making savvy. I’d like to think the first but it was probably a combonation of both, mostly the latter. Regardless, I’m still happy with the final outcome of this and like the concept and the way they sync together with a comedic “big ending.”

Collage/Flickr

The Flickr and Collage assignments were difficult for me to be inspired for. I’m not really a serious or deep person and also am not the type to be really into photography. For the flickr assignment I decided to create an album for one of my passions, fishing. My initial idea for a collage dealt with fishing also but I struggled to gain an idea of an actual collage. It was then along with the start of baseball season that I decided to make a collage for something that has been a passion for me my entire life, the Chicago Cubs. This was very fun for me to learn how to use the gimp program, having no previous experience with photoshopping programs. My motivation for this was that of any Cubs fan, winning a World Series. My theme here was predicting the Cubs winning a World Series title in 2010 and I included images from the past generations of Cubs players. I then included the trophy along with the current team celebrating and fans holding up the famous “W” flag. This assignment was fun for me and I’ve found myself using the gimp program more than any other we’ve used this year for everyday activities.

Final Project

For the final project I decided to do a collage because the gimp program was probably the most user friendly for me. For this project I wanted to do something deeper that could actually make you think or strike an emotion. I was inspired as I watched my best friends nephew play with legos pretending they were trees and we talked of how we wish we still had that imagination. This inspired my project with the theme of “The World Through Children’s Eyes.” I remember my youth when I could turn anything into an adventure with pirates, dragons, and every type of fantastic thing I could imagine. I used the gimp program to portray children seeing the Earth filled with magical things they imagined. I then created a subtle message to create wonderment in the viewer and making them really think about the image. This collage is better than my first in my opinion for the deeper meaning and also the image in itself. I enjoyed the projects this year greatly and this project was the perfect ending to wrap up my portfolio of work.

Blog Posts and Comments

Commented on Emma Gali’s compliments Hakuna Matata

Joked on Tyler Bagwell’s playlist about Party in the USA

Compliments Carolyn Fagan’s music tastes

Let Zane Goodwin know that Zac Brown Band was awesome

Gave Tyler Bagwell some advice on how to improve his podcast

Loved the George Strait podcast by Carolyn Fagan

Told Corey Shelton he had great taste for his playlist

Told everyone how I could contribute to the class at the beginning of the year

Gave everyone the link to My Urban Debate: my website

Wrote my Final Portfolio to include everything I’ve accomplished this semester (you’re reading it)

Well thanks for viewing my projects and all the feedback everyone has submitted to help me better them. The projects were fun and very educational while being fun, I've enjoyed all the time in class and getting to know everyone through their projects on here. I hope everyone enjoys mine as much as I've enjoyed theirs, thanks for your time!

Sincerely,

Tyler Morgan