Congratulations on completing your semester on YouTube! Below is a list of the components that will make up your final English 379 portfolio:

I.  Video

See this post for description of final project and grade break-down.

II.  Introduction and Q&A (for our day of viewing Tuesday, May 10th)

In a five-minute introduction, prepare a context for your audience.  What do they need to know to be informed and engaged viewers?  Possible approaches: what brings you to this topic; the narrative about the changes your project underwent; your challenges as a filmmaker; why you think people should be interested in what you’ve discovered.  Expect to answer a few questions after we view your film.

III.  Annotated Bibliography (post to blog by noon on Tuesday, May 10th )

5-7 sources that help you think about your project from an informed perspective.  A minimum of two scholarly sources; consider also newspapers, other media (blogs, podcasts, etc.).  Remember that Blog Post #20 asked you to do two of these, so you’re almost halfway done.

For each source, please include the following:

• MLA citation for the source
• a link to the source, if available
• the central argument of each source
• How does this source add to your understanding of your project? How did you use it?  How did it inform your thinking about your inquiry, your audience, etc.?

IV.  Production/Post-Production Reflection

Where did you start this project, where did you end up, and what did you find out along the way? How did your project change your initial inquiry question? What were the most interesting and important discoveries? What surprised you in doing this project? How would you describe your composing process (consider your camera work, video editing, and thought process along the way). If you had more time, what would you change or do differently? Finally,  reflect on what it means to be a video maker in the age of YouTube (return to work from symposium.  In what ways does your video, or the making of it, reflect the influence of participatory culture, social networks, and/or digital literacies?  Are there other aspects of YouTube that we studied–e.g., genre, aesthetics, response, local and global cultures–that played a role in your work?). (500-1000 words)

Fresh from the registrar’s desk, here are the times you can get into the CCIM 121 lab to work on your projects. Get cracking, and we’ll see you on Thursday!

Monday and Wednesday – 10:30-4PM
Tuesdays and Thursdays before 10:15AM
Friday All Day
Thursdays from 2:30 – on.

379 blog porfolio you’ll find the grid for your final blog portfolio.  Please note your posts and comments, and submit the grid via email to BOTH of us by Friday 4/29 @ 5 p.m.

• Storyboard:  Revisit, revise, and address the way that your problem is shifting.  Make sure that you have a clear question, purpose, and sense of audience for your project and the purpose for each scene.  How are you addressing your audience(s)?  What do you want them to walk away thinking/feeling/re-examining/learning?
• identify and articulate a problem that the class can help you solve: scene, question, visual representation, sequencing, audience, etc.
• continue collecting footage for Thursday’s lab work.  (Think not only about capturing live footage, but also think broadly about existing/stock footage, audio, still images, etc.—-see resources below!)

Footage and Image Resources

• The Library of Congress (for iconic photographs from American history  that are now in the public domain)
• Online free source of stock footage here
• Sources for moving images, film, etc.: Internet Movie Archive and thePrelinger Archive

Surveys and Interview Resources

1.  Colorado State University’s site on survey design, testing, and analysis of surveys.  Click through, in particular, to the pages on closed-ended and open-ended questions.
2.  Tips from a documentary filmmaker:

• technology: if you’re not using a external mike (which you should if you can), then you have to get CLOSE to be able to hear your interviewee.  EXPERIMENT with your camera ahead of time.  Be aware of ambient noise, as it will all be in the footage.
• figure out if you intend to include yourself asking the question in your video.  If you choose not to, you’ll need to devise a way for your audience to know what the interviewees are responding to.
• Will you script your questions and ask everyone the same ones?  Will you ask open-ended questions or closed questions?  Do you intend to ask follow-up questions?  Sometimes the most interesting information is there.
• Where do you want your interviewee to be looking?  Straight into the camera?  Off to the side?  consider having someone else film the footage while you ask the question and stand where you want the subject to be looking.
• Remember to frame your subject.  Be aware of what’s in the background, and whether the subject will blend into it, or stand out.  Lighting?  Things growing out of their heads?

Inspiration

Todd Haynes’s Superstar

Fight Club Chemical Burn

LCD Soundystem’s Dance Yourself Clean video—with Muppets

Work with Storyboard:r

Read your feedback carefully.  How can you integrate the suggestions?  Do they indicate the need to revise your images?  The purpose of your scene?  Your inquiry question?  Your perceived audience?

Identify other key scenes that your video will need to include.  What visual resources will you need to identify and capture?  Audio?  Text?

Consider sequence and structure.  What scene opens your video?  Where do you end?  What do you want your audience to leave thinking/feeling/questioning?  Which scene works as the climax or turning point of your video?  Which scenes build up to that climax, and which work toward the resolution?  [If your video does not follow this structure in some way, think about what you need to revise or add in order to give it some kind of propulsion toward a resolution.  You may also need to revise/revisit your question to see if it signals authentic inquiry as opposed to an assumed answer.]

FOOTAGE:

Choose 1-2 scenes that are integral to your storyboard, and be prepared to bring all of the resources you need for those scenes to the lab on Thursday.  Imagine what footage you need to shoot; what still images you need to capture; any stock footage or video you need to download; audio resources you need to capture or download; text you need to compose or locate. Load up your flash drive and bring it to class along with your revised storyboard!

Distill your freewriting: what’s your question now?  what’s the most interesting thing that you found out and that you intend to use?  who will be your audience?

The answers to these questions should guide the decisions that you make below.

Beginning a Storyboard

Identify 4-5 scenes in your video—the indelible moments that you need to include to make your inquiry and argument clear to your audience.  What is the purpose of this scene?  What do effect do you intend for it to have on your viewer?

what important visual possibilities make up these moments (think of multiple ways of representing each of these and include one of each of the following: e.g., literal, synecdochal, metaphorical)

What additional text and audio resources can you include (text overlay, slide, diagetic or non-diagetic sound; voice over; music; effect).  Where would they come?  What would they add to the overall effect?

Responding to a Storyboard:

• What are the main ideas you see this film working with? (Is there an obvious and not-so-obvious subject?)
• Which images are most important/interesting and why?
• Look carefully at the purpose of the scenes and the scenes themselves.  Is there a strong connection between the purpose and the scene described?  Make at least one suggestion for a different way to achieve the purpose.
• Where do you have questions or need more information?  Is there something missing (gaps or holes that the filmmaker might want to think about)? Locate a place (or places) where additional images/language/text would clarify the subjects of the film.
• Make one or two specific suggestions about how the filmmaker might make her film more: meaningful/visually interesting/suspenseful/attentive to her audience/personal/universal.

Congratulations on a terrific presentation yesterday! As Kim said, you “rawked” the house. Nice work. And here we go into the final stretch of the semester–so take a look at our schedule to get a sense of where we need to go in the next three weeks. From here on out, you’re done with the blog posts (you finished with #20) and we’re done with the collective reading. Your job now is to turn your focus, energy, and time to your own final video project. To this end, we’d like you to do the following in preparation for Tuesday’s class (plan to share your findings with us):

1. Research, research, research:  Locate, read, and take careful notes on at least two new sources on your topic. Be sure one of these comes from a scholarly source (use the library databases to see what you can come up with). You might also want to scour local newspapers or major news sources like The New York Times for pertinent articles. We’ll want to know what you’re discovering, what’s most interesting, and how your research is adding to (or perhaps even changing) your ideas about your topic.

2. Consider your audience for this final video project. Who do you imagine watching your video? What will they know, believe, and assume about your topic? How will you teach them something they didn’t already know? How will you invite them to consider this topic from a different angle? How will you make your topic matter to them? Connected to this question of audience is one of purpose. Do some writing about what you think your purpose is in making this video about the topic you’ve chosen. What are you attempting to do and why is it important?

3. Brainstorm potential visual resources. What kinds of footage are you planning on getting? How and where? What can you locate on the internet to re-purpose, remix, and work with? We’ll bring cameras to class on Tuesday for those who need them.

Bring this freewriting with you to class on Tuesday (along with your sources and notes).

Suggestions for all groups:

• check out the comments below, and edit accordingly.  Remember, you’ll only have about 7 minutes, so prioritize your ideas–what’s most important?  What does your audience most need to know?  We’ll give you a signal once you’ve hit 7 minutes, and you’ll know you need to wrap it up to give the other groups a chance.
• Make sure that your section contains a sentence or two that introduces or connects your piece to the others.  You don’t have to go into detail: just construct a way for the audience to understand how your section is related to the one that comes before and after it.
• for ease of you, we’d suggest putting your videos and any quotes you’d like people to see on one of your blogs.  Don’t forget that you can enlarge the font size on a blog post to make the quotes more visible.
• if you have other questions, don’t hesitate to email us. Otherwise, we’ll see you in Standish tomorrow at 2:30!

 

Read, Reply, Record: The Three “Yous” of YouTube

Intro: Kim and Megan

Group I: Digital Literacy

FRAMEWORK FOR THE ENTIRE PRESENTATION:

Question: What do you think of when you think of YouTube? (rhetorical – we would answer this question with the below video.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kfEzHdWKOoQ

We thought we should end it before he turns the computer around at the end scene.

** We plan on showing this video clip until 1:50**
 
We would agree with Chad Hurley for these charges of pointlessness that YouTube does deserve some recognition for the quality of material and the changes it is creating in our lives such as redefining participatory culture social networking, and digital literacy.

( Interesting video–and a great spoof on The Social Network. Making this brief is important I think. Also, after he turns the computer around and displays the image of the mama Panda the spoof seems to actually support (rather than challenge) people’s preconceived notions of YouTube as a pointless recreational waste of time. I think it’s important with this video introduction to then highlight the attributes the video shows–the cat videos, etc, for the audience. Maybe cut after the dancing cat video.)

Group II: Participatory Culture

Definition

The definition of Participatory Culture is “a link between accessible digital technologies, user created content, and some kind of shift in the power relations between media industries and their consumers…..fans and other consumers are invited to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new content”( Jenkins 10,  YouTube) (Bam! Great quote. Now link it to the first group’s framing, unpack it and explain it. So why is participatory culture a key concept to understand when thinking about how YouTube works? Is it a relatively new idea and how does it help us conceptualize what’s “new” with new media?)

In other words, it’s a cycle, shifting back and forth between production and consumption. In traditional media, consumers could passively watch productions made by companies and professional filmmakers (such as Warner Bros Studio). (Is watching then an example of consumption? How does that activity traditionally position viewers?) The invention of YouTube allows consumers to not only choose what they watch, but instantaneously reply to it in the public forum. Through commenting, favorite-ing and responding, users “actively participate in the creation and circulation of content”. (So this is an example of “production”? And you might want to give people an example of “circulation”—chances are this is something most of them participate in without ever thinking of it in this context.  Is this a pretty significant shift for the power and activities of viewers?)

Elements

As mentioned above, the use of open communication between producers and consumers (sharing, commenting, and replying both textually and through vlogging (is vlogging the only way to participate or produce?) is essential to the participatory culture of YouTube.

An element up for debate is the separation of production of videos and consumption of videos as separate entities.  (I’m not sure I follow you here. I’m with you about the production/consumption model….)These two sections are not separate in the culture, due to the fact that one can’t function without the other. Videos being produced in order to be reviewed, and the reviews have to be involved in the process of commenting or replying in order for the producer of content to continue making content relevant to its viewers. (Burgess and Greens Oprah no comments allowed section in chapter 5)(I’m a bit lost as an  audience member. Help me understand what you’re getting at. Can’t videos be produced for people to just watch (like traditional forms of TV)? What do B&G have to say about Oprah’s involvement? )

One issue that is discussed by YouTube users is the separation between consumption of videos and the production of other content. Many users believe that consumption and production cannot be separated within the participatory culture. Video content inspires other users to participate on the site through commenting, responding, and favorite-ing. This participation, in turn, provides immediate feedback to the videos maker. Through their participation in the various activities on YouTube, users indirectly create standards for what makes a video popular and desirable. These standards then shape new content that is produced. Without other members of the YouTube community to provide feedback, users would be less able to create new content that is relevant, entertaining, and interesting to their audience.(This paragraph seems to be saying the same thing as the preceding paragraph, but a bit more clearly. If I’m new to YouTube, I’m still not sure I’m grasping why participation is such a new or interesting or important facet of YouTube….)

Another element is the difference between those passively viewing YouTube content and those actively contributing to the overall culture.  It can be said that those actively participating gain the most and give the most, as others sit by and “watch”.(B&G invite us to think about participation on a continuum, right? Are there different ways of participating?)

People who use YouTube to further themselves (? )are considered literate in the participatory culture and both consuming and producing video.

Implications (why does it matter?)

This type of “social networking”(Wait! This is the first time you’ve mentioned this concept. Aren’t you working with the term “participatory culture”?) seen throughout participatory culture is the main mode of communication which interconnects the world.  YouTube functions as a mini society where as in everyday culture; extroverts succeed, meaning they will be “seen” throughout the YouTube world, which leads to the overnight sensations of producers like Smosh, or Lonely Girl or even Rebecca Black.   Passive YouTube users will fade into the background, and be left behind while the culture evolves and advances.(You’re working with binaries here between “active” and “passive” users in the realm of YouTube…but I think B& G–plus Patricia Lange–might complicate that. Does everyone need to become a YouTube star or are there other uses and purposes to YouTube?  Consider levels of YT participation, each of which suggests a different level of literacy.)

Without digital literacy (the main understanding of how to “read” YouTube), one can’t use the knowledge to their advantage in a way to further their YouTube experience through generating and consuming content.  Basically, people who do not become digitally literate will not be able to use YouTube to its fullest potential.(If I’m playing devil’s advocate here, I might be skeptical that YouTube has any kind of “potential”–let alone “fullest” potential.  A handful/list of concrete examples that you could provide?)

Not participating in the YouTube culture is worse than making videos seen by some as “bad videos” (INSERT YOUTUBE READER QUOTE HERE)  [a strong statement!  be prepared to explain why, but this is a catchy place to leave your audience]

It would be helpful to show a video that illustrates what “participatory culture” looks like and how it works. Is making a video the only way of participating or are there a variety of ways one can participate?  In short, you can collapse some of the text that you have above (where it reiterates certain ideas), and make room for some of the important considerations, and an example).

Group III: Social Networking

The Social Networking faucet (facet?) of YouTube is impingent (word choice? incumbent? dependent?) upon a user’s digital literacy, however YouTube was not created to act as a social network.(Interesting fact! So how does this video-sharing site become a social networking tool?) With a basic knowledge of the host site and the potential outlets, a user can locate a community through “common interests” or what Patricia Lange likes to call “videos of affinity.” A user can easily find their specific interests and burrow deep into the rabbit hole of the Tubes. (This sounds rather pejorative. Do you intend this meaning?) Each step along the way only narrows down the search and focuses the user on specific subcultures. In other words, through the YouTube homepage users can choose specific Channels, then Catagories, then Subcatagories, genres, then subgenres, and cultures, then subcultures. The further one investigates, or the further one uses their digital literacy in these digital subcultures the more community-like the experience becomes. In these online communities, interaction is totally optional and voluntary. Through voluntary participation, the social networking via YouTube has exploded and can be responsible for many “YouTube Gatherings” or “conferences” or even plain ol’ picnics. The kicker, and the most important lynchpin in the whole Social Networking aspect is the final “contact” step. Contacting, or subscribing, or following certain users only adds to community aspect of social networking.(If YouTube never intended the site to be used for social networking, how have users adapted it to suit their needs? And is that adaption itself important for the “ethos” of what YouTube is and how it works?)

Why Does it matter?

YouTube has evolved from just a video hosting site to a social networking site that encourages users to instantly upload and post videos from nearly anywhere, especially via smartphones. This convention on YouTube shows how the users are molding it to fit their needs and desires. In a way it is a representative democracy. If you participate you will see a difference( This is an important claim, and one that will take most audience members by surprise—even the avid YT users.  More here about the link to “representative domocracy.” If I’m an audience member who thinks YouTube is just for cat videos, this is going to be a huge and illogical leap. Show me how you’re getting there!)

Examples:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ChateauOfADoubt

We were thinking of putting a link to Emily’s page and showing her experience through networking. Her location (Troy). Her subscribers (many). Her customized page (digital literacy). The Recent Activity section shows who she has recently subscribed to, her newest videos. The Channel Comments sections (participatory culture). (Nice way of working with a local YouTuber (who’s a Saint Rose alum–thus continuing the social networking at another level.)

Okay–here, after showing the vid clip, is where I would expect for you to tell me how it’s an example of social networking (as you’re beginning to do), what’s noteworthy about this example, and why the social networking aspect of YouTube matters. If it’s just about connecting cat-lovers with fellow cat-lovers, why should I care?

Part IV: RETURN To Group 1: Digital Literacy

By becoming digitally literate with the platform of YouTube we have discovered there is more to it than what many believe.

OUR PRESENTATION:

1. DEFINE: We currently understand literacy as how to read, write, listen, and speak eloquently about specific content. Literacy encompasses an understanding and interpretation of visual data, symbols and spoken words. However, digital literacy then takes us to another level; Digital literacy the knowledge people have of digital media’ including their prior knowledge and or their ability to find, create, or participate with digital media. It is also the language of social networking and participatory culture without the language you cannot progress with the world of the digital realm.

*Specifically, Burgess and Green believe that “being ‘literate’ in the context of YouTube, then, means not only being able to create and consume video content, but also being able to comprehend the way YouTube works as a set of technologies and as a social network” (72). In addition, having a strong background in digital literacy allows us to understand YouTube as a social-experience or as a way of understanding our society. We now have the ability to look at videos critically and understand how this is representative of our particular culture or cultures throughout the world.

According to Burgess and Green, we understand that “literacies, rather are produced by and practiced in, particular social and historical contexts” (71). Which also suggest that literacy is not just a static “skill” that one acquires. 

Digital literacy is not something we are born with but instead it is something we obtain through interaction and experience. Burgess and Green continue on to explain, “literacy is not a self-evident thing individuals can possess” (71) By being exposed passively to digital domain individuals will not necessarily gain the digital literacy they need. However, by interacting with the participatory culture of YouTube, they will gain the language need for understanding of digital literacy.

QUESTION: How does being digitally literate directly affect or empower your life? OR In what ways can YouTube make us digitally literate?

EXAMPLE(S): Web 2.0, Letter to Educators video, comments and responses, Vlogging, Rebecca Black (?) – Working on a video montage, to send to you by tomorrow afternoon.okay–and here, I think, it’s about providing a quick visual example for your audience that shows them that YouTube is more than cat videos. A quick montage could work…

IMPLICATIONS:

A.      Participation is needed in order to gain an understanding of digital literacy.

By expanding ones literacy into digital literacy you open up more opportunities for communication with specific content and people. Look at Burgess and Green:

 

“An effective user is one who understands the way the system works and can mobilize their own skills and capacities in ways that make sense within that system” (71)

 

B.      Critical of media messages

“The active and creative participation might also be used to help young people learn to be more critical of media messages”(71)

By being digitally literate you’re able to critically digest media through the participation in YouTube’s content

 

C.     Define: new media literacy and how it is an implication

“New media literacy is the ability to access, understand and create communications in a variety of contexts” (71)

New media literacy is not something individuals can possess or lack but instead something that enables them and shapes their participation within the YouTube realm.

 

As you’re finishing up Blog Post #20, don’t forget that we need to make some quick decisions and preparations for the Symposium during class.  Your job is to come to class prepared with ideas and examples with which we’ll shape the presentation for Thursday.

The title we’ve agreed on is “Read, Reply, Record: The Three Yous of YouTube,”

We’ve created subgroups for the above presentation: one focusing on the social network element of YT; one on the participatory culture element of YT; and one focusing on the digital literacy aspects of YT.

Regardless of which group you’re in, please come to class with the following:

subgroup goals: what do you want your audience to know about each of the three aspects of YouTube above?  what do you think they know already, and which of those ideas do you want to challenge or add to? What are the most important tenets of each of the elements above, and what ideas do you want the audience to walk away with?

subgroup examples: as you look over the goals you’ve listed above, identify a video or two that you think exemplifies the ideas you want to discuss, or that challenges pre-conceived notions of YouTube’s functions, aesthetics, interactions, etc.

presentation ideas: on Thursday, we discussed a number of methods of making the presentation interactive.  If this is a format you’d like to pursue, describe how an interactive component might work to sensitize the audience to the subgroup-defined aspects of YouTube.  How might a presentation or activity ask the audience to engage with the elements of YouTube that are most important to us?