RESPONSE: Quentin Tarantino’s Star Wars: Grassroots Creativity meets the Media Industry

 What other “scenes” have this sort of bottom-up momentum? What, in this movie, is important to you?

The internet is a place of sharing and a place where information is hard to regulate. The term intellectual property comes into play when we talk about media and sharing. Everything is so easily accessible to anyone now so a lot of problems arise proving ownership of intellectual property. The balance of power between fans and Warner Brothers is equal. The fans create fan-culture and generate revenue for Warner Brothers, while the fans rely on Warner Brothers for content. The internet is a new tool for fans to create content on their favorite movies, TV shows, singers, actors, etc… More and more videos and interactive content is being made by fans and followings have been created by the fans. This makes things complicated for Warner Brothers, who has rights to the used material and should be collecting money from the fans making content. However, there’s too much fan made content and taking money from them will create less fans and more problems. The bottom-up momentum has built up most of the present day movies. Movies that have a big following in a series have seen this type of momentum, including Harry Potter. The important part of this movie is the ability to put what I read into the movie. Harry Potter is an iconic character and the fan base is a really important part of the culture behind the series. The owners of the series needs to please the fans as well as maintain their rights and make money. This balance has been the center of controversy in recent times. 

 

The three images above are called “memes”. The three popular memes are the Forever Alone Guy, Doge, and Y U NO Guy. I chose these 3 memes because I thought the origins were the most interesting and least known. The forever alone meme is from a comic strip called RAGE comics and was featured on the message boards of the popular 4chan. Doge was used after some trolls on the internet got ahold of a photo shoot for a Shiba Inu. They zoomed in on the face and put comic sans phrases with the words “wow” and “much” and it became an internet sensation. The Y U NO guy is actually a simplified version of a character in a Japanese manga turned into a meme. All of these memes got popular because of blogs and message boards on the internet. These can be used to express myself in many different ways. For example, the Y U NO can be used to express frustration in something in the news or to make fun of something. Doge can be used to make a boring event very interesting. Forever alone can be used to sarcastically describe a friend who has never dated or when you have one of those moments where you feel like your by yourself and want to make the situation slightly humorous. In today’s society, memes have a multitude of purposes. They are used to sarcastically and wittingly make comments on the internet and also satirically make political statements. I think it shows the re-branding of products that have outgrown their advertising cycle because all memes are usually parodies and we can see that a lot in older examples of memes. They are almost nostalgic in a sense.

The These Memes are an important part of fan culture because they help fans express their opinions about certain topics in either a sarcastic, entertaining, or humorous way.  Memes have become more and more popular and widespread, with new memes being made every day. For example, after a marathon, a very handsome guy finished looking like he just started. His picture became famous through the internet universe as a meme. Ang’s Paradigm of “Media in Everyday Life” and “response theory” are present in memes because it shows the power of the people and audience. You can’t avoid seeing memes nowadays because of the power of media and how it has made them so popular on the internet. Whether its Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Blogspot, and other forms of social media, Memes are everywhere. As for the “response theory”, memes are show in different ways, unique to the maker; however, the original intention or message stays the same. For example, the Doge meme is used in several different variations and parodies but the format is still the same and its sarcastic undertones are the same regardless of what it’s making fun of.

We’re going to incorporate Memes in our final project when we give our statistics, by adding memes to show the statistics it draws attention, adds humor when necessary, and shows our self expression in a creative way.

Organized Chaos

So this week’s assignment was the hardest by far. In 3 days we were suppose to write a 2 page single space paper on the Intersect Fund and what our plan was to help it. That in itself wasn’t the hard part but rather it was the inability to efficiently contact our team members and the fact that we didn’t really go too much in detail with our project. We started a Google Doc Document and divided the work evenly. Google Doc is a wonderful platform to collaborate in a group setting on one document. For this specific assignment, Google Doc worked great! It helped overcome our biggest conflict, which was not being able to communicate and meet outside of class. Once we got the emails from all our members, we were able to share a document. With the ability for everyone to edit the same document, I was able to split up the writing task into 5 different sections and collectively we wrote out paper. The most difficult part about this was the group members didn’t check their emails, they wouldn’t be able to know that they had work to do. In such, one of the members wasn’t able to do her part until later than expected. I see myself using the platform for more group projects like this. The ability to work on a single project at any time you want with multiple people is such a useful tool in group projects and in the workplace. I can also see myself using Google docs to make sign up sheets for clubs, activities, and sports. It’s such a versatile tool and definitely an asset to my studies as well.

The Impossible

For the second half of the assignment, I was unable to comment with 100 words on the images of my group members cause they didn’t do it….I am only able to do what I can see so let it be known.

Creative Commons

Picture: https://flic.kr/p/6gtdqA

Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZwF6L8feNg

Song: https://soundcloud.com/dearryk/counting-star-alex-goot-chrissy-costanza

So for this week, This was actually a really hard assignment. I didn’t even know where to start but I did and I chose the picture of scissors. Our group is called “The Kuttery” because we cut and paste many different things and unify them into one product. It can also be used to make our point that u can “cut” your credit score in half by not paying on time or other such facts. The K is because we have Kathy on our team and her name begins with a K lol. Anyways I digress. I chose the shot of Chicago because I know that this video is going to need B-Roll shots and using royalty free b-roll is very time efficient and cost efficient. The song was definitely the hardest part. I chose counting stars because I like the song and because that it’s really good background music to any videos that we can make for the project. It’s a good closer piece to end out any video.

Now that I explained why I chose each of the media elements, I’d like to talk a little about how I overcame the obstacles of this assignment. With anything, knowing what your getting yourself into is very important. After finding out more about the Intersect Fund and brainstorming with my group, I realized what it is we’re doing and who our targeted audience is. With this said, I realized this assignment took a lot of consideration. I really had to think more and brainstorm individually and think of what our project really needed and what would complement it. After careful consideration and lots of indecisiveness, I accomplished that goal. If there is a better option for my group, I will gladly choose that, but I’m glad we have options from 6 different creative minds.

 

 

 

 

And Then There Were 5

1. Victor Lee’s Blog (http://thecuttery.wordpress.com/)

Victor’s blog was quite an interesting mix of things. Let’s start off with his aesthetics. His blog is very simple and straightforward but it’s not boring. From the clean fonts to the very ambient background, I thought his blog was pretty well put together. In terms of content, it was interesting to hear his story and see how he used to a blog to tell it. As with myself, I enjoy making videos so seeing a peer with the same interest was very refreshing. People should visit to hear this fascinating story and to see how much skill this guy has for his trade(s).

2. Stephanie Ohn’s Blog (http://digimemine.wordpress.com/)

The first thing that I noticed when I went on Stephanie’s blog was her header image. It kinda just hits you because it’s so big and loud, but that’s a good thing in this case. It was a very eccentric mix of images, which included a digital camera, some graffiti like typography, and a landscape photo of a lit up walkway. It definitely caught my attention. In terms of content, I enjoyed her posts, especially the one about the rule of thirds because it was both informational and fun. Overall, she her midterm blog is very solid and well put together.

3. Fatimah Foster’s Blog (http://vintageloveclub.wordpress.com/)

I think this was one of my favorite blogs. With the many limitation that WordPress.com has, Fatimah created a very professional looking blog. Her head banner was simple but caught attention and everything is very user friendly and accessible. Her posts really show her writing style and I really enjoyed reading her posts. I wish there were more! People should visit her for fashion tips and tricks as well as the latest news on gossip, fashion, and celebrities. I love how she incorporated her instagram account and the fact that you can see the pictures on the front of her blog.

4. Jaclyn Kelly’s Blog (http://phisigmasigma27.wordpress.com/)

Jackie’s blog was dedicated to her sorority. Knowing firsthand how hard it is to pick from the few free themes there, I think Jackie chose wonderfully to fit her blog. Although very pink and not my style, I applaud her for putting everything together and making it look professionally as well. I liked the direction she took with the blog, where it keeps the followers informed on what is going on in her frat and I enjoyed the slideshow, it really portrayed what the Sigmas are like and what they do in the community. Overall a very simple but purposeful blog.

5. Victoria Tripsas’ Blog (http://simplephilosophiee.wordpress.com/)

Her banner consisted of what I could deduct as 3 instagram photos, but it was so well chosen that I thought it was one long picture. Victoria’s banner is very welcoming and wanted me to check out the blog. What I really liked was the type of posts she had. The wish list was cool because it wasn’t a long read and lots of images to attract your attention. It told the audience more about her and how she dresses, as well as establishes her image and intentions to her followers. People should follower he because it seems like she’ll have interesting posts and she enjoys the simple things in life. A good reminder in our busy media based lives nowadays.

The Aftermath

This week’s assignment is about the creative process that went into making my midterm blog. My first thought was that I wanted to make a style and fashion blog no matter what happened. That was the premise of my whole midterm. The hardest part was definitely making it unique and not like any other blogs. As I was at the drawing board, trying to come up with different ideas, I noticed something in particular. All of the different style blogs were good at what they were doing and each had their own unique sections; however, none of them had a wide variety of stuff. For example, shoe blogs had shoes, DIY blogs had DIY stuff, fashion had clothes and accessories. So putting it all together seemed like a smart thing to do. To take a step further, I decided to incorporate a more personal approach to the blog. I’ve always been aware of the fact that I have lots of creative ideas but lack the necessary ability and means to make them into fruition. I know that I’m not alone in this and I wanted to make a community where people like me could use other people who had the right skills/abilities to help each other with our individual endeavors. In that, I also decided to make the blog not only informational but instructional with online seminars and also other types of creative posts where it involved the community. What you see on my midterm blog represents what that embodies and I hope you enjoy!

Making Do With What You Have?

My storyboard from the in class assignment

My Screencast

So this week we had to make a virtual podcast using a website called http://www.screencast-o-matic.com. The interface was pretty annoying to set up to be honest, I had to update a bunch of plugins and it froze my computer in the beginning. But let’s talk about more of the positives of the assignment. It was very fun narrating what I was doing on a website. It’s putting pictures to words and I enjoyed it very much. I’ve seen people make tutorials with screen capturing software and I never imagined myself doing it. It took me a couple of tries and restarts because I honestly hate the sound of my voice. But after finishing it, I felt strangely accomplished. I had some awkward pauses in my video but that just made me realize how much planning and/or skill it takes to make these kind of videos. You either have to write down notes and plan exactly what you want to talk about and in what order or you have to be able to pull stuff off your ass and talk about whatever, whenever. I, however, am not either of those kinds of people so please excuse my awkwardness in the video. Also I realized that this is a skill and like all skills, they are developed. So I hope to be able to use this in the future and learn to be able to integrate it into my day to day blogging. I loved the experience and every experience in this class so far!

Garage Band? More like an instrument for amateur and professional artists and producers alike to make an album

The two songs I used for this weeks assignment was  “The Intro” by the XX and “The Language” by Drake.

I personally own a PC so this assignment was challenging in regards to getting used to Mac controls. Not only that, but also using Garageband in general. Once I got the hang of it, it was a piece of cake; however, I tried to hit the ground running and it didn’t work so well. So the challenges of this assignment was me getting used to Mac and it’s programs in general. On a more positive note, the assignment was really fun and the fact that we were able to choose our own songs and topics for our podcast was awesome. I was able to use my creativity and free will and along the way I randomly discovered that the two songs I chose could be mashed up together.  This brings up a great point about media projects and hands on learning. By doing assignments like these, students are able to learn more independently and gain skills they would never get by just listening to lectures or reading. Also, students are able to discover other things in the learning process. So be on the lookout for a mashup post soon!

I think I did a good job with the cross fading and song selection. The introduction song didn’t take away from the voice over and was an attention grabbing piece. The end song was to get people pumped up about my future podcast. Realistically, I can see myself using this type of program and WordPress to do podcasts. Of course, if I was more serious about podcasts, I would definitely get a better mic, instead of using my ear bud microphones. However,  Garageband is an excellent tool for podcasts. I’ve heard of big name artists and amateurs alike using Garageband to produce whole albums. It’s definitely a gateway to bigger and greater things, and offers all the tools you need in one convenient package.