Explore how video games such as Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas popularized violence in video games despite its controversial nature .

When I was in the planning process, I thought it would be best to show footage of various video games throughout the entire video. I soon realized that images are in fact the better option due to how much control you have over them. Images can be edited at any time during the production process and include animations, transition effects, borders, varying lengths, and so on. Videos on the other hand, can only have so much done to them because they are already complete (mostly). Editing a videos length, for example, will likely cause the context to be lost and create confusion within viewers.

Because this project is a video, I decided to take advantage of the medium by being as visual as possible and include various images and videos to help viewers understand what is going on. This level of understanding is especially important for those who don’t know what Mortal Kombat or Grand Theft Auto is; Without the aid of these elements, those viewers may be lost. As a result, the inclusion of images and videos broadens my audience, unlike the podcast, which makes it difficult to let others who don’t know anything about the topic to join in.

Because I have a decent amount of experience in editing videos and using Camtasia (the software I used to create this video), the creation process took about four to five hours (so far). I found this project to be fun and I hope to do something similar in the future.

This video goes over the issue of content ID and fair use plaguing content creators on YouTube currently.

For the purposes of this project not much had to done in terms of audio aside from redoing the outro to fit to the resources available on YouTube. The main purpose of this, just like the think piece and podcast, was to bring awareness to this issue. However, because this is on the very website where the situation is currently happening, there are a plethora of videos covering this topic and I feel like the video has less of an effect because of it. It could work as a supplement to the podcast on the other hand.

The actual creation of the video was rather simple, reworking the script was not too hard and the story boarding helped visualize my ideas for actual use. Video is a medium that needs much more work done to it than a podcast.

I omitted an intro because this video can get straight to the point through visuals and is not needed when the topic is stated in the title unlike a podcast which has a theme that would need to be explained and what the episode would cover.

I have made videos in the past, none like these as they mostly mashup videos however, so I knew the process of making and editing a video. Even with this knowledge, I still had to learn how to use the new software I used and that took up various hours and then the actual editing for the video was time consuming. It made me understand when YouTubers say they can only make 1 video a week. I spent about 10-12 hours working on this video and it’s only 6 minutes long, I can only imagine videos that are over 30 minutes or more, especially when heavy editing is involved.

For today’s class, you read Jones and Hafner’s Understanding Digital Literacies, Chapter Seven, “Critical Literacies.” Spend the beginning of class posting a comment below summarizing your reading. Remember to save your work some place safe before copy-and-pasting your response into a comment below. We will discuss the chapter after you have posted your summaries.

During class today, we will transform your think piece essay podcast scripts into your YouTube video scripts and develop your video shoot/editing storyboards. When you have completed your script changes, copy-and-paste a copy of it into a comment made to this blog entry. Save your storyboard as a PDF for submission later.

During class today, write your planning memo that describes two video concepts for your YouTube video and which concept you have decided to pursue. After you have completed the document, copy-and-paste it into a comment made to this blog entry. Details about this phase of the assignment is included below:

Planning: Write a 250 memo describing two general types of videos that you might produce to accompany your spoken script. For example, you can use video software to animate photographs (e.g., using the Ken Burns effect) with a voiceover, record scenes around the city with voiceover, record yourself reading your script, record interviews that are intercut with video of you reading the script, etc. Imagine the kind of video that you would like to make with the limited time that we have to make it. After you describe your two options, explain why you have decided to go with one of the two options. (in-class on Mar. 17)

Updated Flickr album for Final Portfolio: Smashing the Stereotype Final

https://flic.kr/s/aHskwBJKTs

The five images created show women of color making a statement on their views if cultural appropriation.

I was excited to begin this photography project because there were endless possibilities in the way I could display cultural appropriation, however the time restrictions did not allow for that creativity.

The direction I chose to go in was one that highlighted the response that many women have when it comes to the underlying attacks that come with cultural appropriation. That response is “My hair does not define me.” The focus of my photographs were to catch people that I interacted with daily and get their uncensored opinion, which will help in Project 4. I used my phone to edit these photos, but the goal was to do minimal editing.

I will be adding more to this for the final portfolio, but this is the groundwork for why I did my piece. Women are more than their hair because it is a part of their culture.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/139154204@N05/albums

these photos reflect certain parts of what my think piece is about. They mostly feature the video game Mortal Kombat and it’s controversial violence.

Deciding what images to create was a difficult process for me at first because we couldn’t use images outside of what we created. I was also stumped on how I could reflect what I wrote to an audience via images. However, after much thought, ideas on how I could reshape and retell my think piece with photos came about.

I created these photos in a way that allows the user to understand what is going on without much thought. I used Photoshop to do exactly this and edited most of the pictures to make the message more clear; such as adding text and splicing images together. As for the picture that was not edited, I believe the angle was enough to make it appear “edgy,” mimicking what photographers did to video games years ago.

These images are designed for an audience that know what Mortal Kombat is about and the controversies that surround it. It also enables them to ask questions and create discussions among themselves. Perhaps it may encourage them to read the think piece as well.

Overall, this was an interesting project that made me retell and reshape my think piece via images. Though I believe it would have been easier if the weather was more cooperative and if I had a phone to take high quality pictures with.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/139370553@N07/albums/with/72157665861661762

These are the 7 images that I believe capture what the original think piece was about. Each have their own title and description directly from the think piece.

For the images, I had to think of ways to showcase an issue that is entirely digital which brought about a set of issues. However, I believe that I was able to bring together a mixture of literal and some metaphorical photographs. Thankfully, the ability to include segments from our think piece will allow for some of these images to be better understood from the audience I am aiming for. Instead of having to rely solely on my ability to create a photograph that encapsulates the whole issue, I was able to explain it with the think piece I created.

For the most part, the photographs taken were done with idea of not having to edit much, it would be much simpler to have photos that, ideally, capture the message without the need for additional tampering. The software available to us to edit photographs is extensive and powerful, but it also comes with price of being something a bit more complicated to learn or master.

Translating a written piece into something that is entirely compromised of photographs, which is something I do not have much experience with, proved to be challenging. Many ideas, mostly the metaphorical ones, had to be scrapped due to limitations of weather, time, people, or environment.  In the end, I am not too sure if this venture was successful, but I aimed to do the best i could do with time and equipment available.

For today’s class, we read “Attention Structures,” the sixth chapter from Understanding Digital Literacies. This is a very important chapter–not only for understanding our own practices as new media consumers and participants, but also for our considering the needs and attentional demands of our audiences. Leave a summary of your reading in a comment to this blog post below and we will discuss this chapter during class today.