Final Portfolio

Dear Reader,

My experience in this class is one that I am grateful to have, if for no other reason than the fact that it has opened my eyes to all of the possibilities for the future. In the process of creating each one of these projects, I have learned skills that I can and will use in the future. Knowing how to use programs such as Audacity and GIMP, as well as having the skills to edit and create videos and create content on the internet using HTML code, opens more opportunities than I ever imagined for my personal English endeavors. The main reason I am pleased to have learned these skills is because I now feel as though I will be able to get across a point more effectively than I have been able to in the past. I now have the tools to convey my messages in ways that certain people may be more responsive to than they would be to essays or books. I feel as though presenting our ideas in these more technologically advanced ways will allow everyone in this class to draw more attention to the English major once more.

Sincerely,
Amanda

Now for an in-depth look at the making and revising of each of my projects:

Play-list: Cosette

My first project, the playlist, was on the character Cosette in Les Miserables. I enjoyed choosing the songs for the progression of this character even though it took quite some time to do so. My first submission of the Cosette play-list lacked variety. While learning to use HTML codes, I fell into a pattern and simply alternated music video and writing. After some feedback in class and my own review, I decided to add a few changes to the project by making it seem as if there were less of a pattern to it. My first revision included deleting the videos that did not exactly fit with the idea I was trying to portray. I then replaced them with music players that went along with the color scheme I set. My final revision involved changing another video into a music player and rethinking the color scheme a little. By changing the way in which I used color, I think it made the playlist more inviting for the reader and I also feel as though my thoughts seem to flow better rather than having the color seem to separate them so much. I also added a more in-depth analysis of each song's actual musical properties and how they are presented in a way that fits with Cosette's character at the point of time in her life that each song is supposed to represent. I focused more on the tones and tempo of the songs which I think made the point of my playlist much stronger. I am pleased with this project and feel much more comfortable with HTML code after creating it.

Podcast: Regina Spektor's Conveyance of Emotion

My second project, the podcast, focused on one of my favorite and most certainly one of the most innovative musicians, Regina Spektor. Though I was not displeased with how my podcast turned out the first time, I knew from the beginning it could be better, but I struggled with what exactly needed to change. In an attempt to make it flow better I went back and added background music to certain portions. My second revision involved cutting out certain parts of the interviews that did not really work towards the main reason for the podcast. By condensing the interview portion, I was able to make the podcast a few minutes shorter, as mine was one of the longer ones. I now feel as though all of the content goes towards explaining the point I am trying to make about Spektor's ability to convey emotion through her music. I found that presenting an audio essay was slightly more difficult for me than the first project, mostly because I was not overly comfortable with my own voice at the start of working on my podcast. Fortunately, I was able to overcome this for the most part, and I feel as though not being hindered by anxiety about how I sound allowed me to create a better project. I initially thought I would need to rerecord some sections, but after condensing the interviews, I could not find anything that I thought needed to be changed. Overall, I am fairly pleased with my final revision to the podcast and I hope others in the class will find it more interesting. I would also like to add that this project in particular opened up many opportunities for me, as I am now more acquainted with Audacity and have been able to use it for other projects.

Collage: The Yellow Wallpaper

As we all know, the collage was our most recent assignment and I found that GIMP was the hardest program to learn how to use. After I added some random images to the program and began working with altering them in different ways, I learned most of the functions of GIMP and worked on using them to create an image that represented the short story The Yellow Wallpaper. Finding images to use for this project presented some difficulties for me in the beginning, but I soon was able to find the elements that allowed me to present the insane nature of the story. Looking back on my first try at the collage, I realize that the image was confusing, as it had an element that did not flow with the rest of the elements. The image also created a sense of movement that I was not necessarily trying to convey and I wanted to work on making certain elements stand out more instead. When I went back to revise my collage, I took my original elements and started from the beginning again with my new idea in mind. I made the image slightly darker, adding to the eerie element that the story presents. I removed the image of the baby, as that was the element that did not fit in with the others. I used the same silhouette that I used in my first attempt, but I changed the position and size slightly and also made the size slightly bigger. I created the same scraping effect with the hand that I had in the first collage to represent the image of the woman in the story scratching away at the wallpaper, trying to get out. I also made the eyes in the image smaller than in the first and made them look more ghostly by inverting them and putting the inverted version in the background of the original black image. This is the project I think I improved on the most and I am actually quite proud of the finished result. I think that since GIMP was the hardest program for me to figure out, I am pleased to have overcome these challenges and convey the message I intended from the beginning.

Video: Jumanji Mash-up

This project was the most entertaining for me to make. Once I learned how to use Windows Movie Maker, which was fairly straightforward, I was able to start taking the clips I ripped from the Jumanji DVD and rearrange them to fit with the song In the Jungle. I watched the entire movie in hopes that I could pick out the exact scenes that would match up well with certain parts of the song. I have not made any revisions to this project, but am pleased with the outcome despite this. I was able to match up the scenes I imagined, using the slow motion and speed up effects in certain places. At the end of the video, I added the text, "Aren't games fun?" in an attempt to convey my message that not all games or parts of life that we get involved in end up being the fun, easygoing time we expect. I tried to add a comedic element to the mash-up by syncing certain parts of the music with when the characters are screaming, or performing some other action. I am glad to have learned how to create videos using existing elements, rather than recording, because I now have the tools with which to convey a message in this way again, whether it is for comedic purposes or more serious ones. I had a really good time creating this video and I hope others enjoy watching it.

My comments and other projects:

http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/1#comments
http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/11#comments
http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/40#comments
http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/44#comments
http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/91#comments
http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/92#comments
http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/95#comments
http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/97#comments
Favorite photographer: http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/91
Saving English Studies: http://englishsos.org/?q=node/18