Blog 6 10/6

1. This author used a lot of different video transitions. I felt this was a good choice as it gave the video a more professional feel. It also makes me think that a lot of thought and effort was put into this video. I liked how she used interviews to tell her story. It gave the video a more rounded opinion than just herself bragging about her accomplishments. I did not like how the parents’ footage was not synced with their voices. I don’t think the Skype techniques worked very well. I also felt the video was too long for the subject matter. I felt myself tuning out about the middle of the video.

2. I enjoyed how she used the film reel animation. It gave her video a style and a bit of a spark. I also liked her transitions between book covers. I did not like how she did not redo her narrative to make sure there were limited mistakes. She stops and starts too many times and it becomes a distraction to the audience. It also feels like she did not put in a lot of effort and threw this together quickly. I also felt she should have found better pictures for the book covers. They were extremely blurry and there were times I could not decipher what I was supposed to be looking at.

3. I liked the idea that this video felt off the cuff and spontaneous. The story he told and the way he was animated in his body language was successful in keeping my attention. However, it felt almost too rough. It didn’t feel like there was a whole lot of effort behind this video. Perhaps if the author had added some video effects or some kind of text to highlight the important or significant parts of the man’s story.

4. I liked how he included scenes of his bad texting behavior. I especially liked how he included his D paper which was marked down for all the bad grammar. It gave the story a more personal touch. I felt the close ups of the phone did not work. It was too blurry and shaking to really be beneficial to the rest of the video. You couldn’t read what he was typing and so I felt there was no point to the clip. I liked the idea of the music but I felt it was the wrong tone of music. It ended up having this hard guitar rift that I felt didn’t follow the theme of the video.

5. I rather liked the simplistic style of this video. It was easy to follow and I felt the music added a bit of flavor to the narrative. Personally I usually like voiceovers to go with subtitles, but for this video it worked without a voice. He kept with the simple theme and it worked well. The main thing I didn’t like about this video was that the font he used was extremely bland. He puts a lot of personality and humor into his photos with his facial expressions and I felt that should have carried over into his font as it is a point of interest.  

I think we should be graded on keeping a theme. Since we are supposed to use video editing techniques I feel it is important to make sure these techniques are in line with our topic. For example with video 4, he uses music would is a good technique, however it did not fit the tone/theme of the subject matter. I think some effort should factor in as well. Some of these videos made me wonder if they threw this together quickly. In the second video, her voiceover needed to be redone because she has a lot of mistakes. I felt she just put the video together in a hurry without putting much thought or effort into the final product.

Blog 5 Due 10/6

Part 1

1. Haley Elder: For her project she chose to study knitting. She looked at the different methods of teachings, which ones worked which ones different and compared how each source used a different method. One of the main points she consistently makes is that information should be simple to understand. In order to be an effective text, your audience needs to be able to understand the situation. If the audience becomes lost or confused, it is a complete failure of text. I found it interesting how she used different forms of media from books to instructional videos. Another element that she stresses is emphasis. Authors must keep in mind what is their main focus in order to appeal to their audience. Emphasis can be conducted in various ways including color scheme, banners, headers, contrast and so on and so forth. From Haley's site, I learned that emphasis is key to teaching an audience. Without the emphasis the student can become easily lost and will not be able to fully grasp the material. 

2. Tai Gong: For his project, he chose to examine skateboarding. He looked at different websites teaching methods and focused on which ones helped and which ones did specifically looking at the different tactics that were used. From this site I learned that a visual component was a very important learning tool. Without some kind of video or photos, it was hard to visualize exactly what the person is supposed to do in order to successful ride a skateboard. Wording was another important component. If the wording was unclear, it could have disastrous results for the boarder. Authors need to be really careful when providing instructing material as it can be easy to misunderstand. He mostly looked at web sites or this project as his form of media. Having a concise layout was another large factor. When describing the methods for ehow.com he brings up the point that the page is missing a main title. This is a a huge error on the part of the web authors. You want your audience to know where they are and what they are looking at otherwise it appears unprofessional and confusing. 

3. Nick Gourlie: For his project, he chose to look at photography tutorials. He uses different form of media from video to charts. He makes a good point in explaining that an author needs to be aware of what kind of audience they are reaching out to in their tutorials. Some people have more experience in this field than others and it needs to be clear and upfront otherwise you can severely confuse your audience. Another issue he focused on was whether things looked aesthetically pleasing. If a media is disorganized or sloppy, people will not spend the time to study the source. It can be real distracting to an audience which is a failure on the part of the authors. As an author you do not want your audience to be distracted from the main purpose of your site, video, chart etc. As Nick explains with his first web site, sites that look good to the eye draw in an audience's attention and make them want to stay and browse. 

Part 2

My favorite web text was Ariel Popp's. I liked hers the most because it was real different and the site was laid out like her topic, comics. She uses a comic strip to explain what makes certain web based comics successful. I liked her cute, simple figures. It was rather lighthearted and fun and a please to scroll through. Not only is it different, it is also aesthetically pleasing to my eyes. It flows rather easily and is not hard to navigate. I liked how I did not have to work hard to figure out how to use the site. Overall, I found the site to be fun and enjoyable to browse.