The Assignment

A short soundless (likely bold choice) video told in a series of still photographs.

Media Arts Skill Sets

Video tools I am proficient in:

• Windows Movie Maker
• I am a creature of habit, and so have not really changed my video editing software since middle school. Though to be honest, I haven’t done any projects that needed more advanced editing, so I suppose it’s fair to say I have only very basic video editing skills. 

Image Manipulation Tools:

• GIMP
• I have used GNU Image Manipulation Program (or GIMP) for several years for personal projects,  though mostly geared towards drawing. It is no longer my go-to, but I’m still pretty handy with it. 
• Procreate
• An image manipulation program available only for iPad that I have been using for about a year to create images, such as the one below I finished recently, shown here as a time-lapse video. (It's tilted sideways due to the way the program exports time-lapse videos.)

Word Processors:

• Open Office
• While I am also proficient in Word, I use Open Office at home. I know how to set up templates, page and paragraph formatting, etc; I have done so in the past to format my self-published books (shown below). 
• YouMeScript
• An online script formatted word processor I have used for a few personal projects and allows exports to PDF. 
• Google Docs
• I use mainly Google Documents for writing, since it allows me to write from anywhere I have access to the internet. It also makes for easier collaboration in real-time.

Acting:

• ASAP Acting
• I went through a two-month course by a nonprofit organization known as the Armed Services Arts Program (ASAP), which offers free classes to veterans and their dependents. I was also in a few musicals in high school, though only as ensemble.   

Since I would like to make an interactive video, I would love to collaborate with anyone more experienced with video editing or anyone with skills in music creation. My strongest skill is definitely my writing, and I plan to act as the “narrator”, so I suppose I will be relying on my acting skills.

I am creating an informational video about Celtic Druidism, but to make the project a little more fun, I plan to write the script in the style of Corey O’Brien’s Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes, which retells ancient mythology (of many cultures) using modern-day slang in a tongue-in-cheek manner.

Project Pitch and Proposal

Project Pitch

For my final media arts project, I intend to create a short interactive film. I plan to exhibition it on my blog and YouTube, for an audience of the internet. I plan to distribute it using social media. This will be a nonfiction documentary type film exploring how hearth cultures - specifically Celtic Druidism - function.

Project Proposal

Materials I will need for this project are:

• A camera
• Video editing software
• Scriptwriting software 
• Research materials (books, articles, etc)
• Miscellaneous paraphernalia
• A computer
• Internet access

As I continue to research into more media arts, I may discover more needed materials and software, but these are the most basic materials I will need.

I intend to create a series of short videos explaining various aspects of Celtic paganism, from the gods, religious practices, and holidays associated with it. I do not think I will need any collaborators, as I intend to narrate and speak in the videos myself. I would like to format these videos so that a viewer can easily choose which aspects they would like to learn about in no particular order. I intend to accomplish this by having them click on an image or inside of a video to trigger the selected informative video.

As a rough budget, I already own most of the required materials and many research articles can be found for free online, but I will set aside $100 for any incidentals I discover I need over the course of the project.

For a timeline, my process will be:

1. Gather and organize research materials
2. Create a rough outline/storyboard for each segment
3. Write a script for each segment
4. Gather any props needed for illustrative purposes
5. Film each segment
6. Edit segments individually and then assimilate them into one project

My target audience will be people who are new to Celtic druidism and looking for a basic introduction to the aspects of it.


References:

Roberts-Breslin, J. (2017). Making Media: Foundations of Sound and Image Production. Oxfordshire, England: Taylor & Francis.

Media Arts and Interactive Film

Media Arts is the collective term for using various media to create a “story” in a very broad sense. It can be linear or nonlinear, narrative or nonnarrative, but it usually has a message to tell - such as an advertisement for chewing gum or a video memoir of a relative.

The particular theory of media arts I am going to explore in this post is interactive film. A recent example of this would be the Netflix Black Mirror: Bandersnatch from 2018, in which the viewer controlled some of the actions of the main character.

The Pros of this form of media arts are:

• Can create a more immersive experience for the viewer
• Versatility - could be used to tell a variety of stories
• Engagement - the viewer is more engaged with the story than a traditional film
• Options for medium - it could be done live-action or animated for a different experience

The Cons of this form of media arts are:

• Takes longer to create - with multiple choices, more scenes need to be created to account for each choice/ending
• More expensive (due to the increase in scenes)
• Limited choices - if the choices are too few, viewers may feel less engaged by picking a choice they wouldn’t make 
• Requires more creative energy - essentially, one is creating multiple stories combined into one

Media Arts can also be used on a blog such as this one - as I progress more into this blog, I intend to include more forms of media. Videos, audio files, interactive pictures - various forms of combined media to make a more engaging experience for any of my readers.