The Great Train Advertisement – Daily Create Week 10

I am so excited for the new downtown to DIA train that is opening in Denver CO, on April 22nd. The Daily Create assessment tdc1530 ask to make a gif, with a caption, from the classic silent movie “The Great Train Robbery”, here is my response:

I had to make some difficult decisions for this gif. I had originally imagined that the gif would involve a short video of the train running down the track, with a caption sharing the opening date for the airport train. I decided to switch to the shot of the robbers jumping onto the train because of the great arm signal by the first bandit telling his compatriots to “come on”, which tied in nicely with an “all aboard” in the caption. I also had to choose if I wanted to lengthen the clip to include the train pulling away from the station, but the train takes five or six seconds to get moving and that created a lot of dead space in the gif and I decided to focus on the robbers getting on the train. I hope you like my piece and are excited about the new airport train as I am.

My Digital Response to Storytelling Text – Week 9

*THIS POST IS PART OF A CONTINUING SERIES OF RESPONSES TO ASSIGNED READINGS FOR LEARNING WITH DIGITAL STORIES, A MASTER LEVEL COURSE I AM ENROLLED IN AT UC DENVER.

I decided to try something new this week and created a digital response to the assigned readings from my Digital Storytelling class at UC Denver. I hope you enjoy:

The Infinite Canvas on Your Phone – ILT5340 Digital Story Critique week 9

*I HAVE BEEN READING AND CRITIQUING DIGITAL COMICS, FOR MY MASTER LEVEL STUDIES, IN A CONTINUING SERIES TO DEVELOP MY EXPOSURE TO AND UNDERSTANDING OF THIS
NEW LITERACY

I have been following my favorite comic book creators on Twitter hoping to expand my exposure to what is happening with comics, especially what is happening with digital comics. This week I was rewarded for my efforts. I had been following Scott McCloud sense I critiqued his TED talk The Visual Magic of Comics. Over the weekend McCloud tweeted about a
digital comic that was employing the concept of the infinite canvas – were the static images of comics are freed form the boundaries of physical paper in the virtual world (read more about the infinite canvas in my blog post here).  The comic that was given McCloud endorsed was The Firelight Isle, by Paul Duffield, and the McCloud seal of approval is enough for me to check it out. I will be using three criteria to critique this comic:

• Story
• Media Application
• Originality, Voice, Creativity (OVC)

Story

The story of a of the digital comic is what make it worth reading, without a compelling narrative a digital comic is just a showcase for a flashy new technology. Duffield does a phenomenal job of creating the mystical world his comic is set in, while simultaneously developing his characters and building the plot. None of these elements are explained outright but as the story develops the reader is giving a greater glimpse into the Firelight Isle world. This approach to the story adds to the mysterious mood of the comic and grabs the reader’s attention.

Media Application 

As I mentioned Duffield employs the infinite canvas to display this comic, his particular canvas spreads infinitely  down, or until the end of a chapter. This downward limitation of the infinite caves limits the options for the flow of the comic in some ways but enables Duffield to use panels and boarders following conventions of print comics because there is ambiguity about the direction the comic is flowing in. Also the downward flow of the comic makes it awesome to view on you phone or tablet because you just scroll down with out any interruptions in your viewing.

OVC

What I liked best about The Firelight Isla is the way that Duffield was able to creatively weave his story, static images and the digital canvas itself together into one beautiful piece.  Duffield calls his digital canvases ribbons and decorates each as if they were tapestries, with striking blue colors. This ties into the story because a central plot point is the creation of a religious tapestry, died using the same bold blue color from the ribbons. I the Firelight Isle world this blue is a sacred color, only to be touched by the imposing religious figures. The attention to the details, in the story and in its rendering in the virtual world, are what make Duffield’s comic an amazing work of art and a must read.

 

Oasis Farms – Find Refuge from the Food Desert – Daily Create week 9

This week I decided to tackle Daily Create #1522: Make a Sign For Your Randomly Generated Ranch Name. I think using name generators then having to create something form the name is an awesome idea, I could see doing this exact activity with my students and extending the activity to having the farm be a setting in a short story.

The name generator gave me Oasis Farms, which I was drawn too because it provides the perfect counter part to the term food desert – which describes a neighborhood with limited or no access to fresh produce or other non-packaged foods. I used familiar imagery form both an oasis and farm for the Oasis Farms sign. I wanted create a sign that not only invoked nostalgia of farm fresh foods but also the relief from suffering provided by an oasis.

Have You Seen This Stranger? – ds106 Design Assignment

I love The Big Lebowski and one question keeps drawing me back into the movie every time I see it is – What is The Stranger doing in L.A.? Is he on the run? Does he have family in town? Is this his vacation? But I never find a satisfying answer. The ds106 design assignment I chose gave me a chance to think about he people back home for The Stranger and to give them a hand in finding the lost cowboy. Design assignment 1888 asked to create a missing person poster and I made one for The Stranger

The process of making the poster was enjoyable. I did some research about Sam Eliot, the actor who played the stranger, to have actuate age (in 1998 the year The Big Lebowski came out), weight, and height. I also used a fake telephone number with an area code for Deadwood SD, because I wanted to connect with a real location that I view as having cowboy roots. This has been a fun activity and I am going to keep the template and let my students use it to make posters for characters from the books they are reading!

The Bee’s Knees – Response to Scholarly Text week 8

*THIS POST IS PART OF A CONTINUING SERIES OF RESPONSES TO SCHOLARLY TEXTS FOR LEARNING WITH DIGITAL STORIES, A MASTER LEVEL COURSE I AM ENROLLED IN AT UC DENVER.

Found my scholarly text for this week in the College Research Library News. I was looking for research about using comics for teaching in specific disciplines. I had been searching for comics applied to science instruction, in particular. I had originally not expected much from John Meier’s article Science Graphic Novels for Academic Libraries but I am glad that I decided to give it a try. Meier’s piece has an interesting introduction outlining the current state of university library collections of comics and graphic novels and reveals the better funded institutions have greater collections of comics then under funded institutions.

The heart of Meier’s article, however, is an interview with Jay Hosler. Who is a researcher at Juniata College, and a graphic novelist. I know his work from the amazing piece Clan Apis which is the story of a the two honey bees and their hive. This graphic novel full of facts about bees, life in the hive and photo realistic illustrations and diagrams. But it is science fiction and the story of the relationship between the main characters is heartwarming and full of depth, intrigue and character development. I love this graphic novel and have used it in my instruction with fifth graders.

Hosler has lots of great things about comics and using them for teaching science. There were three quotations that stood out to me as being the most influential ideas Hosler shares.

On the power of images in a comic Hosler said: “You get to see the other person’s thoughts, and I think that is the magic of a graphic novel.” This concept of seeing the thoughts of the artist in a comic lets the creator of the comic show the narrative to the reader and then use text to verify the meaning of images.

On the balance between text and images in a comic: “A balance must be struck between the two with word and pictures doing different things.” By having both text and images in a comic each can be used to accomplish the specific storytelling tasks that each is best suited for.

On why to use comics in science instruction: “I . . . write a comics story and embed a graph . . . it’s not disjointed, it’s there. There is no way you can just move on to the next panel. You can’t skip a panel any more than you can skip a paragraph. Because it’s right there. The characters are walking over, around, and on the graph.” Also incorporating an engaging narrative draws in the learners into the story and if the facts are embedded in that narrative then the students will be actively engaged in their learning.

Comics in Motion – A Critique of a Saga Motion Comic Week 8

*THIS POST BELONGS TO A COLLECTION OF CRITIQUES OF DIGITAL COMICS AND RELATED MATERIAL, CREATED FOR A MASTER LEVER COURSE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO DENVER.

I decided to go in a different direction this week for my digital story review. I was inspired by last week’s L&K chapter and the concept of remixing in digital sorties. While looking around for examples of remixes in comics I came across a movement called motion comics, these digital videos uploaded to YouTube are created by users by taking copies of individual panels from the graphic novel and displaying them on the screen then adding a soundtrack of voice actors reading the dialogue and cinematic sound effects and music, even more sophisticated motion comics will take static images from the panels and animate the to give the comic a more cinematic feel. I found many of these motion comics and chose to review a price by Nuff Said Fred – remixing the Image comic Saga by Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples. I will be using the critique criteria of story, presentation and performance, and Project planning for my review.

Story

Saga is a wonderful science fiction story and an awesome piece to remix as a motion comic. The plot centers around Alana and Marko, members of two different alien races that are locked in a bloody feud, after a chance encounter they fall in love and have a child. The comic follows Alana, Marko and their baby, Hazel, as they attempt to flee from both sides of the conflict. Saga was a great choice for source material because it already has a captivating story and the remix is able to use that plot as a foundation to present the narrative in a fundamentally different way.

Presentation and Performance

The choice of sound effects, music and voice actors for this motion comic were well done. The music conveys mood without being overbearing and the sound effects are minimalist, thus making them effective in times they are used.  The voice actors’ performances  were clear and well rehearsed and gave each static image of the characters a layer of personality. I feel that the emotions were occasionally flat and that the voice actors did not always convey the true nature of the character reactions or statements.

Project Planning

the preparation of this piece involved scanning or filming the pages or individual panels of the Saga comic. Most of the motion comics I have seen keep the dialogue bubbles as part of the images that viewers see, Nuff Said Fred decided to remove the bubbles, the work is done in a way to try to hide where the bubbles were but the cover up was not perfect and there are distorted sections were the dialogue bubbles have been photo-shopped out. These distorted sections do not detract from the story and is a style choice made by the author, which works because of the amazing installations that become the only focus for the viewer’s eyes. The author has also chosen to not animate the static images in this video. Other example of motion comics have varying degrees of animated images, I feel that not having animation makes the work of the voice actors more important because they become solely responsible to create a new perspective through which to view the source material, and that Nuff Said Fred’s actors were successful in creating that perspective in this remix.

I would suggest checking out this Saga motion comic because it is well done and a great introduction to the Saga narrative.

The Birth of Discow: The Man and Moovement – Daily Create week 8

I have been anticipating/dreading the creation of gifs as expand my experience in the creation of digital stories. I think gifs are great ways to express quick thoughts or stories but I also think the format seem imposing to create. I saw this gif daily create and thought it was a great opportunity to practice creating a gif before diving in on the ds106 gif assignment. I was surprised at how easy it was to create the gif. I used imgflip to make make the gif and all I had to do was upload images and then adjust settings. Imgflip provided a preview so I could see how I was adjusting the gif and could see the final product. I got images from freeimages, and was able to find almost everything I wanted for the gif. I originally envisioned Discow emerging from a magicians cloud but but could not find one, I then experimented with fireworks and color swirls, which I almost used a combination of both. Fortunately  I stumbled on the black and white hands when I searched ‘creation’, because they are so much creepier better. The only work I really had to do was use photo shop to crop the images so they were the same size and not distorted to fit together in the gif.

L&K A-OK! – Week 7 Response to Reading ILT 5340

*THIS POST IS PART OF A CONTINUING SERIES OF RESPONSES TO ASSIGNED READINGS FOR LEARNING WITH DIGITAL STORIES, A MASTER LEVEL COURSE I AM ENROLLED IN AT UC DENVER.

“Cultures have to be made – created – and they are made by mixing ‘new’ elements with ‘pre-existing elements’ in a manner of conversations” (Lankshear and Knobel, page 97)

This week I decided that I wanted to return to the Lankshear and Knobel text. I have enjoyed the pace, casual writing style, and ample real world examples from New Literacies: Everyday Practices and Social Learning. I did feel, however, that I was ready to move on from introducing the topic and wanted to dive deeper into the concepts, so I decided to skip over chapter 3 and read chapter 4: New Literacies and Social Practices of Digital Remixing. This chapter was fascinating and I think that is because the concept of remixing (outside of music) was brand new to me but so important to understand the development of human culture. I think the quotation I shared sums up how the exchange of ideas between cultures and the subsequent incorporation of new ideas is how cultures evolve through remixing.

After I read the chapter I was talking with my partner about the concept of remixing and how it related to fan fiction, and photoshopping. She casually mentioned that this is a perfect chapter for me because I always want to remix the movies and TV shows we watch. She was right, I always want a different ending to everything I see and will describe to in great detail how I would have done it. To this day I believe that Star Wars episode III could have been the best in the series and possibly the best movie ever if the final 20 minutes of the Revenge of the Sith were used as the first 20 minutes and that the remainder of the run time depicted an armor clad iconic Darth Vader lightsabering his way across the galaxy in pursuit of Obi-Wan Kenobi, who must hide and protect the Skywalker twins. BOOM – Just imagine the number of toys that movie would sell.

The table in the appendix that provides examples of digital remix communities was interesting because it gave a snapshot of what people are doing and the technologies used to share. The diversity in the technical ways to remix and soruce material reminded me of the Cybercultural Matrix discussed in The New Digital Storytelling text. I was disappointed because the table was hard to read on my tablet and made it difficult to comfortably access the information. I did follow some links to view the remix examples. I watched a lot of videos on YouTube and most of it was interesting and respectable. I would not have the ability to create 30 minute long fan fiction videos or realistic faux movie trailers. I was also inspired by my inquiry to find fan fiction comics. I again found many well done and interesting work people have shared. One particular fan comic was awesome(warning comic has scenes of graphic violence): The Deal  by Gerardo Preciado and Daniel Bayliss . This comic was set in what L&K described as an alternate universe style of fan fiction and gives Batman the opportunity to try a new approach to dealing with the Joker, who has yet again attacked The Batman by hurting someone close to Bruce Wayne. The art is also very nice and reminds me of Paul Pope’s work for Batman: Year 100. I love the freedom the authors used to solve the Joker problem by approaching it from a different perspective.

The Dark World of a Tech-Noir – ILT 5340 Digital Story Critique Week 7

*I have been reading and critiquing digital comics, for my Master level studies, in a continuing series to develop my exposure to and understanding of this New Literacy

Last week I reviewed Mark Waid’s talk at the 2013 O’Reilly Media’s Tools of Change for Publishing Conference, in his talk Waid discuses and presents some examples of the digital comics that he and his collaborators are sharing, FOR FREE, on the site Thrillbent.com . The examples from the talk were amazing and I have been anxiously awaiting the opportunity to critique a Thrillbent comic. To maintain consistency in my critiques of digital comics I will use the same evaluation traits as previous critiques:

• Story
• Flow, Organization, and Pacing (FOP)
• Media Application

These traits seem to me to be the most important factors in determining if a digital comic is, not only an engaging and worthwhile read, but also if the comic is truly a digital story or merely an analog comic book rendered in a digital space.  

The comic I chose for my critique this week is Pax Arena (link) – written by Mast with art by Geoffo. I was initially drawn to this comic because it fits my favorite niche comic genre, science fiction noir also known as tech-noir – movie buffs think Blade Runner. I thought if there was one comic on Thirllbent, and there are dozens, that could grab my attention it would be Pax Arena and this comic did not disappoint.

Story

The Pax Arena story revolves around a police investigator who takes the law into her own hands, when an innocent accountant is placed in a gladiatorial match on the Pax Arena satellite.  Pax Arena serves as a prison and provider of the most popular form of entertainment in this dystopian future – pitting inmates against each other in death matches and broadcasting the events back to earth; reality TV style. The establishment tries to sweep the accountant’s murder under the rug as a regrettable mistake but our hero, Agent Zoë, knows better and will not rest until guilty parties are made to pay. The story checks all the important boxes for a tech-noir. A dystopian future, gritty black and white art, a hero that is both futuristic and invokes old school sensibilities of the film noir detectives. Zoë takes no nonsense, will not let the guilty go unpunished and blackens the eyes (figuratively and literally) of any bureaucrats or yes men that stand in her way.  

FOP

I loved this story, I do think, however that the story run may have been shortened after the plot had already been developed, because of some idiosyncratic scenes that seemed dropped in to set up the action packed climax, these build up scenes seemed out of place and jarring in the lead up to the awesome conclusion. Overall, however, FOP in Pax Arena was great. The action starts off right away in the gladiatorial match on the satellite, and rarely lets off the gas for the rest of the, relatively short, eight chapter run of the story. The author and artist do a beautiful job of introducing rich characters and developing a scary future world, while keeping the viewer on the edge of the seat wanting to see what happens next.

Media Application

Thrillbent employs digital pages to showcase their comics. These pages are closer to a PowerPoint slides than a traditional paper page. Static images can be layered on top of each other to create the feelings of movement or depth.  Parts or panels on the page can disappear and appear in order to move the readers eyes to important images or text. Or old backgrounds and images can fade away to reveal completely new scenes. Pax Arena uses all of these digital comic storytelling devices very well and is a great introduction to the Thrillbent approach to digital comics. I even realized that Waid used sections from Pax Arena during talk to demonstrate how he envisions the future of digital comics and the digital page.

Pax Arena is definitely a digital comic, the story would be funimnetaly changed in a print format and is a fun, but not groundbreaking, tech-noir story. This comic is a great introduction into the digital comics of Thrillbent Comics and their concept of the digital page. Which I feel does a better job of facilitating action than do the digital comics that employ the infinite canvas concept.