Reflections

Brooke McGarr
Media Arts
Reflective Essay
12/15/17
     While reflecting on this course, I thought of a few things that I learned and one major thing that I would have done differently. The things I learned where that not all group projects are bad experiences, and how to create sound compositions. The thing I would have done differently would have been my whole final project, which I will explain what I would have done instead of what I went with and why.
     Going into the group project, I was a bit apprehensive as I have had bad experiences before with groups, and wasn’t sure how well the group would work due to the online environment. I was glad that I was assigned the director role, because I have always felt a bit better when I have a sense of control over things. In the director position I controlled communication and got things started with my group right away and then gave my assistance wherever it was needed. I ended up enjoying working with my group, which consisted of Brian, Regan, and myself. I feel that we worked incredibly well with each other, and was pleased that we were able to produce a professional looking video on time.
     The sound composition would have to be my favorite project that we did in this course. I enjoyed learning how to mix different sounds in order to create one cohesive soundscape. I did mine based on sounds in my backyard at a certain time and I think it is the best work that I have produced in this class. The sounds I chose went extremely well together and I blended them in a way that made the final piece relaxing and enjoyable to listen to. I also added in a photograph of my backyard just so that the listeners could also visualize what my yard looks like.
     The one thing that I would do differently in this course would be my final project as a whole. While I do like the piece I created, I wish I had done something different and had planned it better. I feel like when it comes to courses where we have to choose what we are doing with our final at the beginning, that I tend to jump into my decisions full force without fully thinking them through – and this is something I need to work on in the future. I should have done a list of final ideas and then chose what one I wanted to do, instead of just rolling with the first idea that popped into my head. Thinking about it now, I would still go along the same route with showcasing my photography, but I would have done something like a photograph story video on a place I have visited that has left a lasting impact. For example, I could have done a video showcasing photographs that I took on my trip to Southwick’s Zoo and focused on my favorite part – which was when I got to walk through the deer forest and feed/interact with all of the deer in there. This was special to me because it was something I had never done before and I got to get up close and personal with animals that people normally can’t get close to. I would have put photographs of the other animals I saw there as well, but the deer would have been the majority. I would have done a voiceover explaining the photographs and the experience. Also, I could have used my newfound sound composition knowledge to put the sounds that certain animals make over their photographs. I feel like this would have been an interesting and meaningful video, and it would have been a fun project to create. I could have gotten creative with it in a different way as well by possibly doing a Steve Irwin accent while talking about the animals, and talking about them in a way that he would have. This would have made the video more entertaining.
     Reflecting on the final piece I did end up creating – I do think I did a good job on it, I just lost interest in what I was creating towards the end. I liked how I told my story, I just wish I had put more thought into it. I didn’t like the beginning clip of myself standing looking out over the yard because it just seemed off to me. I wasn’t sure what I could have placed there though instead so I ended up leaving it in. My favorite part of my final project was showcasing some of my photographs in the video. I chose the photographs that I liked the most that I have taken throughout my photography journey so far.
     I certainly learned to have patience and not rush the creative process throughout the weeks in this course. I never really thought about how much time and planning goes into creating certain projects, but after spending so much time working on certain aspects of our finals, I can see how it can be a taxing (but rewarding) process. There were certain steps I didn’t even think about at first, like doing a storyboard, but I can see how that helps the overall process.
     Moving forward, I most likely will use some of the knowledge I have gained in this class in the future. For one, I will try not to rush into projects anymore – and will really think through my ideas before I put them into motion. I will also most likely end up using my newfound sound skills in the future as well, especially if I create more photo videos. This would come in handy if I decide to focus on wedding photography – I will be able to create photo videos to go along with the photographic hard copies. All in all, I enjoyed this course and getting to see everyone’s creativity shining through throughout the weeks we spent working with each other.

Ethics and Artist's Statement

Ethics Statement (same as previous submission)- 
The main purpose of this blog is to share work I have created for a media arts class I am taking, as well as to share any thoughts I have while we work through the modules.

When it comes to what is shown on this blog, I intend to use mainly my own work. However, if I do end up having to use someone else's work (like music, for example) I will make sure that I give the appropriate credit for it. I will also make sure to give the appropriate credit if I share ideas or quotes from our text, or other research I have done for the class. I would like to ask that no one takes my work from the site or work I have shared from someone else unless they have my permission and that of the original creator if the work is not mine, and to give credit where it is due.

Lastly, I would like to ask that if comments are made on this blog, they are done so appropriately (kindly, and in response to what is written) - or I will take the appropriate action to make sure the comments are removed.

Artist's Statement-

I have been interested in the arts since I was a child, and in 2012 I found my artistic calling with photography. A few years ago, after entering college with the intentions of becoming a teacher - I decided that wasn't where my passion was and ended up switching my major so that I could focus on making a career out of my passion with a Bachelor's in the Arts with a focus on the Visual Arts. Since switching majors, I am happier now that I am following my dreams.

Photography is important to me because it allows me to be creative and to capture certain memories for myself, and for others. I mostly enjoy capturing animals, landscapes, and occasionally portraits. 

I hope to someday make a difference with my art, whether it be on a small scale or a large scale. 

Final Project - Journey to Becoming a Photographer

Here is my final project video - appropriately titled Journey to being a Photographer. A few changes I made were changing the script a bit, adding more photographs, and adding wind chime music - which came from findsounds.com - a free use sound website. All the photographs I used and the video are my own work. I am fairly pleased with the final piece and would love to hear everyone's thoughts and opinions! 

Project Rough Draft

This is what I have so far - I can see now that it definitely still needs a lot of work. One question I have is how long is this supposed to be if we are creating a video? I might need to cut some clips (like the first one) but I don't want to cut too much because the video is already really short as it is. I am also most likely going to add some type of music or background sound to it so it's not so quiet when I am not speaking. I might do sound as I think that would be a nice addition and not distract like music could end up doing. Also, for the photographs I used, do I need to get location permission to use those (even though I took them)? One of them was taken at my old house, and the others were taken at touristy locations.

Production Handbook?

I don't think I need an in depth production schedule at this point, as we are already supposed to be nearly done with our projects and posting a first draft by the end of the week. I don't have anyone else participating in the video except for myself, and I am filming at my own house so I don't need specific contracts for those areas. I actually filmed my video a few weeks ago when it was still warm outside, and just need to add in some photographs, do a voiceover, and then decide if I want to use music or not (which I will make sure to use free use music if I decide to add it in). I plan to keep the budget down to a minimum, I will only need to probably spend a few dollars on music if I use any. Below is my final shooting script that is the same from when I posted it previously.

My Journey to Being a Photographer

Written by

Brooke C. McGarr

2017                                                                                                          mcgarrbrooke13@gmail.com

My Journey to Being a Photographer

Scene 1 – Brooke (myself) standing in the yard looking out over the trees. Shot is in black and white. Voiceover starts: "When I was younger I always knew that when I grew up, I wanted to be an artist. I just hadn't found my artistic calling yet".
Scene 2 – Video scrolls through each artistic phase. Shot now switches to color.

Voiceover Starts: "I went through phases with drawing...painting...crafting...pottery". 

Scene 3 – Shows myself bending to pick up camera.

Voiceover starts: "Then one day, I picked up a camera and started experimenting with photography".

Scene 4 – Video shows some of the photographs I have taken.

Voiceover starts: "I ended up really loving photography and deciding to refocus my education on getting my Bachelor's in the Arts with a focus on photography. My favorite form is landscape photography and creative shoots where I can really let my imagination shine through." 

Scene 5 – Again shows me standing in the yard, now with a camera in my hands.

Voiceover starts: "Now that I have realized my passion, I am working to make it my career. I have always believed in following my dreams, and am incredibly happy that I am able to do that with my photography". I turn to face the filming camera with the prop camera up to my eye – scene cuts to black and video fades out.

Group Project - Adoption PSA

My group (myself, Brian Karas, and Regan McDannold) decided to do an adoption PSA for our collaborative project. Animals are really important to each of us, so this idea was the perfect one for us to work with. Below is a link to the video we created.

The images we used came from free image use websites, and the information that was shared had links to the websites they come from at the end. I was the director/producer and also offered my help with finding photographs and offered my opinion on the script, Brian was the audio guy and also found some photographs, and Regan was the script writer/editor, and he narrated the video. Brian and Regan, thank you guys so much for the hard work you put into this video! I think we worked really well together and were able to accomplish getting a great video done and submitted on time!

Final Shooting Script

Here is the link to my final shooting script, which I really tried to put into a more "professional" format, though it still doesn't really look like the one that was linked in the discussion forum. I originally had this in a word document, but couldn't figure out how to put the document in my blog, so I just ended up copy and pasting it over.

 My Journey to Being a Photographer

Written by

Brooke C. McGarr

2017                                                                                                          mcgarrbrooke13@gmail.com

My Journey to Being a Photographer

Scene 1 – Brooke (myself) standing in the yard looking out over the trees. Shot is in black and white. Voiceover starts: "When I was younger I always knew that when I grew up, I wanted to be an artist. I just hadn't found my artistic calling yet". 

Scene 2 – Video scrolls through each artistic phase. Shot now switches to color.

Voiceover Starts: "I went through phases with drawing...painting...crafting...pottery". 

Scene 3 – Shows myself bending to pick up camera.

Voiceover starts: "Then one day, I picked up a camera and started experimenting with photography".

Scene 4 – Video shows some of the photographs I have taken.

Voiceover starts: "I ended up really loving photography and deciding to refocus my education on getting my Bachelor's in the Arts with a focus on photography. My favorite form is landscape photography and creative shoots where I can really let my imagination shine through." 

Scene 5 – Again shows me standing in the yard, now with a camera in my hands.

Voiceover starts: "Now that I have realized my passion, I am working to make it my career. I have always believed in following my dreams, and am incredibly happy that I am able to do that with my photography". I turn to face the filming camera with the prop camera up to my eye – scene cuts to black and video fades out.

Thoughts on Contracts

I think that it is incredibly important to have a contract in a lot of situations. If you are buying something expensive (a car, house, etc.) or if you are entering into a new business with someone else, you definitely want to have a contract so that you essentially don't get screwed over on anything. It is also important to have a contract when you are collaborating on something like a film or TV show, just so that everyone knows what their duty is and how they will be reimbursed for their work. However, I think with a project like the one we are working on in class, a contract is not needed as long as everyone is pulling their weight with the project. If someone is not, then a contract should be formed in order to hold them to their word, and if that fails then that person would not receive credit for their part of the project. With my group, I think we are working quite well together and have been in constant communication. I believe that we are all pulling our weight fairly equally and that we are each willing to help each other if need be. I don't think the work that we are using necessarily requires a contract, we are using photographs that are not our own but they are from free image sites. We also are using information from adoption sites, but we are citing that information. Brian and Regan, if you guys feel that we need a contract, like I mentioned - I will find one for us to sign, but I honestly don't think we really need one.

Drafted Script

For my final media arts project, I plan to do the work by myself, so this will not be a collaborative project. However, I have and will take my peers comments into consideration when it comes to what can be improved with each element of my project. The equipment I need for this project are my filming camera, my tripod, Movie Maker (to edit the video and do the voiceover) and the props I plan to use. My intended props are another camera to use to symbolize photography, as well as a few pieces of art I have done (a drawing, a painting, a wreath, and a piece of pottery). I plan to shoot the video in my back yard so that I don't have to face any location issues. I will also be the only "character" in my video - as it is a story about me. Here is what I have so far for my script, opinions and critiques are certainly welcome!

Scene 1 - Brooke (myself) standing in yard looking out at the trees. Voiceover Starts:

"When I was younger I always knew that when I grew up, I wanted to be an artist. I just hadn't found my artistic calling yet". 

Scene 2 - video scrolling through each artistic phase I went through. Voiceover Starts:

"I went through phases with drawing...painting...crafting...pottery" 

Scene 3 - shows myself bending to pick up a camera. Voiceover Starts:

"Then one day, I picked up a camera and started experimenting with photography". (turns to point the prop camera in the direction of the filming camera, as if I am taking a photograph).

Scene 4 - shows some of the photographs I have taken. Voiceover Starts:

"I ended up really loving photography and deciding to refocus my education on getting my Bachelor's in the Arts with a focus on photography. My favorite form is landscape photography and creative shoots where I can really let my imagination shine through." 

Scene 5 - Again shows me standing looking out at the yard, now with the camera in my hands. Voiceover Starts: 

"Now that I have realized my passion, I am working to make it my career. I have always believed in following my dreams, and am incredibly happy that I am able to do that with my photography". (scene cuts to black as the video ends).

Added notes - I think I might switch the one scene a bit where I point the prop camera towards the filming camera to be the end scene instead, I think the video would have a better ending if I did it that way. I also kind of want to have the start scene be in black and white and then have it transition to color when I am going through the phases - to show that I was at an unsteady part of my journey, and then the color started to come back in. 

The Process of Making Media Arts

I believe that the most important part of the process when creating media arts is the story idea/plot. In my opinion, if the story you have is not good - then the media you create for that story will most likely not be good either. In the text, it is mentioned that "stories with powerful themes, expressed properly, are not only more highly regarded but more popular as well" (Truby 108). Essentially, the idea behind the story, and the story itself needs to be powerful in order to draw people in. Other important parts of the process include the performance of the actors/actresses (if they are used) and how the media is created and edited. Personally, I don't really think there is anything I would add or change with the process. My one piece of main advice would be to just make sure you double and triple check your work before you submit it.
What I have done so far to create my final project -
- When I first found out we had to create a final project, I started brainstorming what I wanted to do.
- Then when I had my idea and knew I wanted to create a short film, I started thinking about what I needed to do to make this video come to life.
- I thought about if I wanted to use actors or not, and decided that I wouldn't and would just feature myself in the video - as it is a more personal video.
- Then I thought about how I wanted the video to look, and I now have a good idea about how I want each shot to look.
- Currently, I am thinking about my script and what I want to say in the video.
- After I have written my script, I plan to film out my video and then do a voiceover on it.
- Lastly, when everything is complete, I plan to share the video here for all of you to see.

Works Cited-
Truby, John. The Anatomy of Story. 1st ed., Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. 

Corn Maze - Script

Setting- Rural corn maze on Halloween night 2016 and then one year later (Halloween night 2017).
Characters- Beau - Tall with raven hair and icy blue eyes. Alice - short with honey hair and mossy green eyes. Jade - average height with ruby hair and bright blue eyes.
Script-
(Beau and Alice arrive at the corn maze around 10:30 pm on Halloween night 2016 no noise except that of crickets chirping in the distance).
Alice - Is this it? It seems abandoned.
Beau - This is the right place, I made sure to double check.
Alice - Maybe we should leave, I don't think we're supposed to be here.
Beau - Come on, Alice, don't be a chicken. Let's check it out.
Alice - Okay, fine. We better not get arrested for trespassing.
(They enter the maze and walk for a while before getting lost in the endless maze).
Alice - Great, now we're lost and are never going to find our way out. Maybe we should try to call for help.
Beau - You're not going anywhere Alice, and you are not calling anyone. There is no service out here.
Alice - What? (Turns towards Beau to see he has transformed into a grotesque vampire, she screams and tries to run but he advances on her).
(Scene cuts to a black screen)
(One year later - Halloween night 2017 - Beau brings a new victim to the corn maze at 10:30 pm).
Jade - Wow, this is cool. I bet we will have a lot of fun exploring this maze!
Beau - Yes, yes we will...
(Beau turns to look at the camera with a creepy smile and a close up to his mouth as his teeth turn into sharp fangs - screen cuts to black).
A little background information- I wanted to do something creepy with Halloween coming up, and this is what I thought of! I know it's only supposed to be one little scene from a video, however, I thought it would make a bit more sense to add in that end scene that is one year later. This is to show that Beau chooses a victim every year on Halloween to take into the corn maze at the same time for a little evening snack.

Sounds in my Back Yard

For my sound composition project, I decided to sit outside yesterday at 3pm and make a mental note of all the sounds I heard. The main sound I could hear was tree frogs (which is the constant foreground sound in the video). I also heard birds chirping in the foreground, however, this was in more of a pattern. Two sounds that I heard only one time while I was out there was my neighbors driving away, and then their dog barking a few seconds later. I incorporated these sounds as background noises, as they were heard in the distance. I also decided to add in a photograph I took of my backyard yesterday when I was out there, just so you guys could get a nice visual of it. The video ended up being only about 30 seconds long, as I didn't want to drag it out too much - but it definitely gives a good idea as to what I was hearing out there.

For this project, I used the free software download of MixPad - http://www.nch.com.au/mixpad/index.html. I found that this was really easy to use once I got the hang of it. The sounds I used were found with FindSounds - http://www.findsounds.com/mobile.html. After I had mixed all the sounds together with MixPad, I saved my work to my computer. Then I opened Movie Maker, inserted the picture I took, and then inserted the audio file I put together as well in order to combine sound and photograph. Lastly, I uploaded the video directly above. I am pretty pleased with the end result, and would love to hear what you all think about it! 

Tools, Teams, and Distribution

So far, the only real tools that I plan on using for my project are my camera and Movie Maker, both of which I obviously already have. However, I am open to buying/downloading other tools as needed. If I need to buy or download any other tools, I will definitely make sure to do my research beforehand in order to make sure that the tool I am choosing is acceptable.

For my final project, I will work by myself on that, so I have full control over what I produce. However, I know we will have to do a collaborative project as well. When it comes to my approach to collaboration - I always go in with a cautious mindset. I have had bad experiences with group projects in the past, so I am always wary now when I know I will have to work with a group - especially with online classes. It is hard because not a lot of us live in the same area where we can find a place to actually meet in person in order to collaborate effectively - this makes it so it is hard to set up a production location (as discussed in the Breslin text). In fall semester last year, I took digital storytelling - which was another collaborative course. My group accomplished our project by having a group email where we shared our ideas and our chunk of the work. What we did was we divided up tasks into the group leader, the script writer, and the video editor/creator. I was the leader, and was in charge of making sure everything was done by a specific day and approving of what we submitted. We did our project on how to prevent overpopulation in shelters. We each contributed a clip with a voiceover from the script and sent it to the one person who put all the clips together and then submitted it. We had to make sure that we each had the same software in order to complete the project. I am hoping that with this project, it will work much like that one and be somewhat easy to accomplish even though we can't meet in person.

There are a lot of ways to distribute a piece - whether it be film, video, or audio. My project will be a short video, and I will be distributing it via the internet. I plan to create my video using my camera, edit it in Movie Maker, and then upload it either to my YouTube account or just directly link it to my blog like I did with the photo sequence video.

Works Cited -
Roberts-Breslin, Jan. Making Media Foundations of Sound and Image Production. 3rd ed., Focal Press, 2012.