Schedule | Fall 2018

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August

     
WEEK 1
T 8/28

Welcome to
WRIT 4260 / 5260 !

This course explores how images become evidence, drama, history, or alternative realities.

"Visual Rhetoric and Culture" offers you the skills needed to conceive, produce, interpret, and write about eloquent visual texts. In addition to teaching hands-on techniques of graphic production, the course draws widely on the disciplines of analytical design, cultural criticism, digital design, graphic narrative theory, creative writing, New Media theory, and technical writing.

For more, see the syllabus (^1).

Day 1. Visual Culture and Analytical Design


Josef Koudelka, “The Urge to See," Prague, August 22, 1968

How do images become evidence, drama, history, or alternative realities?

Resources

Major Assignments and Starting Points

  1. Confection Project: someone's written analysis or theory of a complex topic or situation which you might visualize

  2. Visualized Data Project: a set of quantitative data about a topic you'd like to analyze which you might visualize (at least 20 data points)

  3. Motion Graphic Title Sequence Project: an idea for a fictitious television series (may be adapted from an existing book, song, etc.)

  4. Essay: The Cultural Work of an Image: an image that you can analyze culturally

 

R 8/30

Homework

Read the Tufte Handout

Read the handout "Edward Tufte" and mark at least three words, phrases, facts, ideas, etc. that you find (for whatever reason) interesting.

Read in Visual Explanations

Read Edward Tufte's Chapter 1, "Images and Quantities," pages 13-25.

Identify and Be Ready

At the beginning of this first chapter of the book, Tufte asks, "What makes images quantitatively eloquent?" (13).

To understand this question and to begin to answer it, I ask you to come to class with some brief notes that point to the following:

  1. a sentence that helped you understand or appreciate what Tufte means by "quantitatively eloquent."
  2. a passage from the chapter that helps to answer Tufte's question
  3. one of the chapter's visual examples that speaks to Tufte's question,
  4. either a passage or visual example that suggests the problem or challenge of making images "quantitatively eloquent."

Be prepared to share and explain your choices, and to say how your three passages/illustrations are important to Tufte's purposes in the chapter overall.

Bring to class 4 pages numbers for your 4 choices from the chapter.

Annotate Your Tufte Handout

In the margins of your Tufte handout, make at least three annotations (notes in the margins linked to particular phrases, ideas, facts, etc. on the handout) which record ways that the handout helps you understand the book, or the book the handout.

Your annotations are notes to yourself and so you need not write in complete sentences. Do include a page number from the book in each annotation.

Bring your handout to class. ~1

Day 2. Tufte's Chapter 1

Resources

"Humankind lingers unregenerately in Plato's cave, still reveling, its age-old habit, in mere images of the truth" (3)

- Susan Sontag, "In Plato's Cave," On Photography

 

September

     
WEEK 2
T 9/4

Homework

Read

Read Susan Sontag's "In Plato's Cave," pages 1-24 in On Photography

Read Tufte's Chapter 2, "Visual and Statistical Thinking"

Write

1. For Tufte, complete and print the discussion guide.

Bring to class prepared to share and explain our answers, and to turn in your printout. ~2A

2. In the margins of your Sontag handout, make at least three annotations (notes in the margins linked to particular phrases, ideas, facts, etc. on the handout) which record ways that the handout helps you understand the book, or the book the handout.

Your annotations are notes to yourself and so you need not write in complete sentences. Do include a page number from the book in each annotation.

Bring your handout to class.

3. In some blank space on the Tufte printout, write "Sontag" as a heading and then underneath a list of at least five words or phrases that identify key concerns, ideas, terms, methods, etc. in Sontag's essay.

Include page numbers for where you found these words or phrases. ~2B

Day 3. Songtag C1 "In Plato's Cave" and Tufte C2

Resources

“ Many of her essays consist of webs of passive verbs. (Creative-writing teachers commonly instruct their students to stay away from passive verbs, but Sontag demonstrates how wrong that is, how far you can fly on their wings.) Like a prophetess with closed eyes, seeing deep into the nature of things, she declaims one “is/are/seems” verb-sentence after another: the impersonal, the oracular, the anonymous, the present tense and indeed the overbearing are evident, but so is something else from the start—the wish to be wise.”

– Phillip Lopate, The Aphoristic Essay, 2009

 

1. ...our relationship to the world
2. ...the nature of meaning, knowledge, reality

 

R 9/6

Homework

Before Reading

Before you read Sontag, do a web search for two images:

  1. the image of a painting, photograph, a shot from a movie, etc. which is an example of "surrealism" (that is, a "surrealist" image)

  2. the image of a photograph, or a shot from a film/video or from a news source which presumes to show an alternative, retrograde, or alien social reality, culture, or mode of life. How the human subjects and lifestyles differ from the intended audience may be economic, ethnic, national, political, geographical, cultural, etc.

Using the directions below (if you need them), copy and paste screen shots into a printable page (Microsoft Word page or equivalent) and then print the page out and bring it to class.

In Chapter 3, Sontag will be attempting to make connections between surrealism and the documentary purposes of photographers who intend to show us human life in hidden, alien, or "vanishing" conditions.

How to Take a Screen Shot

To save an online chart like this, take a screen shot: on a Mac,

  1. click "Command+Control+Shift+4" at the same time
  2. drag the cursor diagonally across the area of your screen you want to include in your screen-shot image (the image will be saved on your computer's clipboard)
  3. In Photoshop or other software, paste the image into an open or new document.

Read

Susan Sontag, Chapters 3 and 4.

Annotate Your Handout

Continue annotating your Sontag handout with brief "word tags" and page numbers from Chapter 3 and 4.

You might annotate your previous annotations.

Also consider taping or stapling a blank sheet of paper to either side of your handout (or both sides!) to give you more room for your annotations.

 

Day 4. Sontag C3 "Melancholy Objects" and C4 "Heroism of Vision"

Resources

Hero: a figure whose actions exemplify the social or personal values of a culture or group.

 

Chapter 4 Questions:

-- Are there heroes in this history and what values are they exemplifying? 
-- Heroes to whom? 
-- Does Sontag share in these values, critique them--or something in between? 


WEEK 3
T 9/11

Homework

Read

Read Tufte's Chapter 7 ("Visual Confections"), pages 121 - 151

Complete Reading Guide

Complete the Reading Guide for Tufte's Chapter 7 that was given out on the first day.

Bring the completed reading guide to class to refer to in class discussion. I may pick up your reading guides at the end of class. ~3

Acquaint Yourself with Assignment

Read the assignment page for the Confection Project and come in with questions

Two Possible Topics for the Confection

Find and come to class with at least two possible topics--that is, at least two complex ideas, concepts, or theories that have been elaborated in writing--each brought to class on paper in the form of a book, magazine artcile, journal essay, a printout from a web page, etc.

 

Day 5. Tufte C7 and the Confection Project

Group Work
1. explain the "complex" idea being visualized,
2. identify the problem(s) the visualization solves,
3. do a close reading of the visualization (how it works, how it means). 
4. in doing all the above, use 3 terms or phrases from Tufte to explain it (note page numbers of these)

Resources

 

R 9/13

Homework

Affinity Photo

We are going to try out Affinity Photo by putting together a composite image of the kind that you will use to create your Confection Project.

Using Affinity Photo (or an image-editing app of your own choosing), use this image of a Cadillac Mountain Post Card as your background.

Standing along the sides of the mountain road in this postcard, compose three big-headed figures of the style used in this sample Confection Project, "Romanticism: Don't Get in Over Your Head." (Don't be afraid to make the heads even disproprotinately big--exaggreation is a key part of how confections work.)

Select and use heads and bodies of your own choosing from images you find online and download.

The workflow document refers to specific directions, instructions, and explanations on the Affinity Photo Help site.

Print

Please print a hard copy of your image and bring it to class (black and white is fine).

Bring Tufte

Also bring your Tufte book to class for talking more about the Confection Project.

Day 6. Confection Project and Affinity Photo

Resources

WEEK 4
T 9/18

Homework

Publish Your Image

Using Google Sites (available through your UMD Google account), insert the image you created in the "Confection Skills Workflow" Exercise on a page titled "Contection Skills, [Your Name]."

See this sample and these directions for getting started with Google Sites.

After you publish the page, test it in another brower tab and then copy the URL from the location bar at the top of the browser window.

Submit the URL for Credit

In a reply to the Moodle forum, "Confection Skills Workflow," paste the URL into the message window and click "Post to forum." (You don't need to say anthing in the message.) ~4

Note: We will use the same process as above to publish and turn in your final Confection Project image.

Confection Project

The Confection Project will be due next Monday at noon.

Continue to work on this project, sketching a plan, collecting images, working in Affinity Photo, etc.

Bring to class all materials and, if possible, a laptop with Affinity Photo installed.

Two Questions, Choices, or Challenges

Write down and come to class with at least 2 questions, potential choices, or challenges regarding your particular Confection Project.

These questions might concern issues like the following:

  • your project's conceptual topic,
  • the hands-on techniques for composing and compositing the confection,
  • the genre of image you're producing
  • your visual plans for the 1) overall design, 2) the component parts, or 3) the details by which these parts are elaborated.

Bring Tufte

Also bring your Tufte book to class for talking more about the Confection Project.

 

Day 7. Confection Brainstorming

Resources

 

R 9/20

Homework

Bring Confection Project at Least 90% Complete

 

Note that the Commentary will not be due till the meeting after the project itself.

  • Bring in all materials for the studio session
  • Bring your draft of a commentary

Day 8. Studio Session: Confection Project

WEEK 5
M 9/24

Confection Due by Noon

Publish Your Confection Image

Using Google Sites (available through your UMD Google account), insert the image containing your Confection Project on a page titled "Confection Project, [Your Name]."

See this sample and these directions for getting started with Google Sites.

After you publish the page, test it in another brower tab and then copy the URL from the location bar at the top of the browser window.

Submit the URL for Credit

In a reply to the Moodle forum, "Confection URLs" paste the URL into the message window and click "Post to forum." (You don't need to say anthing in the message.)

 

 
T 9/25

Homework

Write, Print, and Bring

Write, print, and bring in the commentary of your Confection Project to turn in at the beginning of class today.

Final Assignment Preview

We are reading Sontag in this course because she represents a way of explainng the effects of images which we will be practicing in the final assignment-- The Essay: The Cultural Work of an Image.

Before we return to Sontag, then, please

  1. read over the assignment
  2. think about some images that you might choose among for the one image needed for this assignment (though you don't have to choose right now)
  3. consider how Sontag's style and method gives you ideas for developing a cultural analysis of such an image
  4. list (with page numbers) some critical terms and phrases that Sontag employs that demonstrate her intellectual style and cultural method of talking about the meaning of images.

Read

Read Susuan Sontag's Chapter 5, "Photographic Evangels."

Make at least three additional annotations (with page numbers) on your Sontag handout indicating connections with today's reading.

Review Sontag C4

Look back over Sontag's Chapter 4, "Heroism of Vision," the notes you made in the book, and the annotations you made from it on the Sontag handout.

Day 9. Sontag C5 (and C4)

Resources

Hero

"Hero is a figure whose actions exemplify positive social or personal values for a particular culture or group.

-- Are there heroes in this history and what values are they exemplifying? 
-- Heroes to whom? 
-- Does Sontag share in these values, critique them--or something in between? 

 

Sontag Chapter Titles

"In Plato's Cave" (Chapter 1, page 3)

"Melancholy Objects" (Chapter 3, page 51)

"The Heroism of Vision" (Chapter 4, page 85)

"Photographic Evangels" (Chapter 5, page 115)

"The Image-World" (Chapter 6, page 153)

 

R 9/27

Homework

Read

Read Susan Sontag's Chapter 6, "The Image-World."

Like her first chapter, "The Image-World" is concerned with how our culture conceives the relationship of the image and real things.

At Least Six Quotations (Three Pairings)

How are chapters 1 and 6 different in their considerations and conclusions of the photograph/reality relationships and their significance?

On paper, bring to class at least three pairings of quotations (at least six quotations total) contrasting the chapters on this topic.

Review Sontag C4

Look back over Sontag's Chapter 4, "Heroism of Vision," the notes you made in the book, and the annotations you made from it on the Sontag handout.

 

Day 10. Sontag C6

Resources

 

Hero

"Hero is a figure whose actions exemplify positive social or personal values for a particular culture or group.

-- Are there heroes in this history and what values are they exemplifying? 
-- Heroes to whom? 
-- Does Sontag share in these values, critique them--or something in between? 

 

Sontag Chapter Titles

"In Plato's Cave" (Chapter 1, page 3)

"Melancholy Objects" (Chapter 3, page 51)

"The Heroism of Vision" (Chapter 4, page 85)

"Photographic Evangels" (Chapter 5, page 115)

"The Image-World" (Chapter 6, page 153)

 


October

     
WEEK 6
T 10/2

Homework

New Assignment

Read the page for the next assignment, "The Visualized Data Project," which is due in about two weeks.

Look at the sample (though not necessarily model) projects and choose two or three to praise, critique, or ask questions about.

Obtain Microsoft Office (Excel)

To create aspects of "The Visualized Data Project," we'll need to use software that automates the process of translating tables of numbers to graphics that we can then bring into Affinity Photo to combine with other visual elements.

If you don't already have a means to produce graphics from numerical data, I will suggest that you use Microsoft Excel, which is available free to UMD students as part of the Microsoft Office Suite.

To download Office,

  1. type "portal.office.com" into the location bar of a web browser and hit "Enter" or "Return"
  2. enter your UM email address WITHOUT the "d.": that is "[youruserid]@umn.edu"
  3. at the UM login page, enter your userid and password
  4. follow the links to download the Office Suite of software, including Excel

Read Tufte's Chapter 5

Read Tufte's Chapter 5 on parallelism.

Do Before Reading: Read Aloud

Before you read Tufte's first paragraph, however, I'll ask you to read aloud the text on the facing page 78. It's imporant that you hear with your ears the rhythm and sway of parallelism that Tufte will then demonstrate and recommend in vision.

Do After Reading: Choose and Analyze

After you've read the chapter, go back and choose one of his visual examples as emblematic of an idea, technique, problem, etc. that you think is worth underscoring as we approach the "The Visualized Data Project."

On a piece of paper, make a list of at least five details and principles from the example that help you explain why the example is instructive.

In front of each detail or principle, write a + or - to distinguish positive aspects from negative (Tufte will often critique elements of his own examples to point out how they could have been better achieved.

Feel free to apply ideas, techniques, and principles from elsewhere in the chapter or the Tufte book to your chosen example

Day 11. Tufte C5 and Software for Visualized Data

Resources

R 10/4

Homework

Excel Chart

You will try out visualizing some data using Excel. (If you have some other means that you prefer to create charts from tables of numbers, please use the numbers below to produce a trial graphic.)

Download and open the Excel (.xslx file) worksheet "Cell Phone App Usage and Loyalty."

I will give you a copy of the exercise "Excel Charts"

I will ask you to

  1. save the resulting .png file into a folder, www/4260/exercises/chart,
  2. upload it to your web space
  3. visit the image with a web brower
  4. copy the URL as a clickable link into a reply to the Moodle forum, "Excel Chart"

Publish Your Chart

Using Google Sites (available through your UMD Google account), insert the image containing your final product on a page titled "Excel Exercise, [Your Name]."

See this sample and these directions for getting started with Google Sites.

After you publish the page, test it in another brower tab and then copy the URL from the location bar at the top of the browser window and paste the URL in a reply to the Moodle forum "Excel Chart." ~6

Read Tufte's Chapter 4

Read Tufte's Chapter 5 on the "Smallest Effective Difference." 3 Passages, 2 Visuals

Come in class with page numbers and a few words of verbal notes for

  • 3 sentences or passages from the chapter that you think could be relevant to the The Visualized Data Project (or, in retrospect, the Confection Project),
  • 2 visual examples from the chapter that help you understand the verbal statements above as well as their relevance to the assignments.

Be able to explain what the "smallest effective difference" is and why it matters.

Day 12. Tufte C4: Smallest Effective Difference (SED)

Resources

 

 

 

WEEK 7
T 10/9

Homework

Bring to Class

  • a substantial paragraph written on paper to describe your Visualized Data Project idea as it stands now (a.k.a., a "prospectus paragraph"). You can change your mind later.

    Be sure you describe the data you'll use; what argument, understanding, or story you'll present with that data; and why that point is needed or interesting (and to whom).

  • your Tufte book

  • a set of numbers or a "quantifiable text" potentially to use for your The Visualized Data Project

  • any other materials you've collected for the assignment

  • a laptop with Excel installed on it (if possible).

    Alternativey, bring on a laptop software or access to an online service that will enable you to create graphs from data.

Day 13. Visualized Data (Due in 6 Days)

Resources

R 10/11

Homework

Revised Prospectus (2 Paragraphs)

Revise the paragraph you wrote for Tuesday to exactly describe the focus of your project in terms of its data, purpose, and point.

Write another paragraph in which you discuss your choices of layout, informational design, visual technique, etc. (Be sure you're using and referencing Tufte.)

Both these paragraphs can be used in your commentary, due next Tuesday.

~7

Bring to Class for a Studio Session;

  • Your printed two-paragraph prospectus for the Visualized Data Project

  • your data set of numbers for the projecct as well as any other materials you've collected for the assignment

  • a laptop running Excel and Affinity Photo (or your chosen alternatives) for working in class.

Day 14. Visualized Data Studio Session

WEEK 8
M 10/16

Visualed Data Due by Noon

Publish Your Visualized Data Image

Using Google Sites (available through your UMD Google account), insert the image containing your Visualized Data Project on a new page titled "Visualized Data Project, [Your Name]."

Be sure your project image is at least 700 pixels wide.

See this sample and these directions for getting started with Google Sites.

After you publish the page, test it in another brower tab and then copy the URL from the location bar at the top of the browser window.

Submit the URL for Credit

In a reply to the Moodle forum, "Visualized Data URLs" paste the URL into the message window and click "Post to forum." (You don't need to say anthing in the message.)

 

 
T 10/17

Homework

Write, Print, Bring

Write, print, and bring in the commentary for the Visualized Data Project.

The commentary should be at least one, complete, double-spaced page (250 words).

The commentary should explain:

  • how the data your chose enables you logically to advance an argument, tell a story, or make a point that matters to some audience,
  • what your strategic reasons were for making the choices you did regarding layout, design, and visual technique,
  • in what specific ways did Tufte's book and at least two of the examples of visualized data inform your thinking and process

Please attach to your commentary a printout (black and white is fine) of your Visualized Data Project.

Read McCloud Chapter 2

Read Chapter 2 of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, pages 24 - 59.

Three Contrasting Examples

While the pyramid diagram (a Confection!) on pages 52-53 makes no sense until you read the chapter, once you do it serves as a Rosetta Stone for seeing and talking about differences in visual style.

After reading the chapter and contemplating the diagram, find three images (from any source or genre) that illustrate contrasting choices of visual style.

Be prepared to use McCloud's terminology to define and describe these differences. Have page numbers for where that terminology is introduced and/or explained.

Upload to Moodle and Print

1. Insert the three images into a reply to the Moodle forum "McCloud's Visual Styles"

2. Bring to class the same three images in printed form along with notes to yourself in the margins about McCloud's terminology and where it can be found in the chapter. ~8A

 

 

 

Day 15. McCloud C2

McCloud image: simple, realistic contrastfrom Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics, page 43

Resources

McCloud

Photographs

 

 

R 10/1

Homework

Read

Read Scott McCloud's Chapter 3 from Understanding Comics, "Blood in the Gutter"

Analyze a Title Sequence or Music Video

1. Online, find a title sequence (from television or film) or a music video and watch it.

If you're completely stuck for a choice, here are some you could choose from:

2. Divide a piece of paper into eights so it looks like this:

3. Choose a contiguous series of 8 shots from your sequence or video to analyze. (Note that in traditional filmmaking a "shot" is an uncut piece of film. It can last a fraction of a second to 20 minutes or more.)

4. In the first of the eight spaces on your paper, roughly sketch in the major shapes and details from a moment in the first shot you've chosen.

Add only details that you think are important. Don't worry about how messy the sketch is. Think of it more as a diagram of elements rather than a drawing, done to help you notice the composition. For example,

5. In a blank corner of this square, label this shot "1."

6. Do the same for the other seven shots. Number those squares as well.

7. Using McCloud's 6 Kinds of Closure or Transitions (pages 70-74), label each break between squares with the relationship or gap between each set of shots: that is between shot 1 and 2, between shot 2 and 3, and so on.

Use abbreviations like "Mo2Mo," "Su2Su," or "Sc2Sc" to labels these transitions or edits.

8. Write a paragraph analyzing what you've diagrammed. Consider the following:

How is the viewer invited to "create closure" in the gap or gutter between one shot and the next?

How do these choices help the sequence or video achieve its effects and meaning?

Effects might include pacing (fast, slow, leisurely, frenetic), suspense, irony, uncertainty, tension, calm, distance, discomfort, surprise, etc.

Meaning might arise from judgments the viewer is invited to make, ideas implied but not stated explicitly, questions the viewer is led to wonder about, attitudes that seem to be expressed, etc.

9. Paste the URL of the title sequence or video to the Moodle forum, "Closure in Seven Transitions."

10. Bring your shot grid and paragraph to class on paper. ~8B

 

Day 16. McCloud C3: Transitions and Closure

Resources

 

WEEK 9
T 10/23

Homework

Read

Read Scott McCloud's Chapter 4 from Understanding Comics. Before you do, read the prompt below to help guide your reading.

Using the 2D/3D Dichotomy to Make Sense of the Chapter (Paragraph)

After reading the chapter, write a paragraph about how McCloud's discussion of "time and space" in the visual arts (e.g., comics) relates to the difference between 3D and 2D ways of looking at images.

That is, a 3D (three-dimensional) way of looking means to gaze at an image as if it were a window into a 3-dimensional world or scene that exists "through there."

On the other hand, a 2D (two-dimensional) way of looking at an image means being conscious of the image as a surface: lines, brush strokes, synbols, superimposed information or words, and the frame around the images that separates it from others.

Some visual works work hard to sell themselves as 3D realities, others call attention to (flaunt, play with) their status as 2D surfaces that only simulate a reality.

Write a paragraph in which you quote (for words) and describe (for images) particulars from McCloud's Chapter 4 to illustrate and explain how the relationships between 3D and 2D ways of looking/thinking can be used to explain at least two of the sometimes-complex ways that time and space treated in comics and other visual genres.

Print the paragraph for turning in during class.

~(9A)

Day 17. McCloud C4 (Time Frames, 2D/3D)

Resources

 

R 10/25  

Fall Break

WEEK 10
T 10/30

Homework

Read

McCloud's Chapter 6, "Show and Tell"

 

 

 

Day 18. McCloud C6: Show and Tell

Resources


November

     
R 11/1

Homework

Read From

From McCloud's Chapter 7, "The Six Steps," read pages 170-184

As You Read

Challenge yourself as you read to fully understand McCloud's distictions among the six steps of artistic creation. We will be using these terms to conceive and talk about our ideas for the Motion Graphic Title Sequence:

  1. Idea/Purpose
  2. Form
  3. Idiom
  4. Structure
  5. Craft
  6. Surface

Develop an Example (Six Ways of Looking)

Decide on a form of creative expression you know well and a particular work that is an example of it. For instance,

  • a song or album
  • a movie
  • a television show
  • a novel or short story
  • a poem
  • a painting
  • a title sequence
  • a music video
  • etc.

Looking at and thinking about that particular work closely, try to come up with a detail of that work which represents each of McCloud's six aspects or steps.

Write a short paragraph about each of the six details/aspects. The paragraphs don't need to flow from one another like an essay; think of them as six "takes" on the subject from different angles.

In those paragraphs, try to describe and talk about that detail/step in a way that gets to the essence of that creative work and what you like and understand about it.

Bring in the six paragraphs on paper. (~10)

Day 19. McCloud C7. The Six Steps

Resources

 

WEEK 11
T 11/6

Homework

1. Review the Next Assignment

Read the assignment page for the Motion Graphic Title Sequence. Come in with questions or concerns.

2. Download Open Shot Video Editing

Regardless of whether or not you will use this software for this assignment, download and then use Open Shot Video Editor to complete the tutorial below.

3. Complete the Open Shot Tutorial

A. Choose Photos
Choose 4 to 6 still images to use for this tutorial. They can be snapshots you took yourself, or images you've found elsewhere.

B. Modify Photos
If necessary, make all the images the same size and shape using Affinity Photo (or Photoshop, or equivalent).

A typical aspect ratio for images used in slideshows or for television is 4:3 (that is a ratio of width to height, regardless of the actual size or units of measure, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon).

Save all the image files together in a web compatible file format (.jpg, .png, .gif, etc.) in the same folder on your computer.

C. Quick Tutoral Through #4
Following the steps of Open Shot's Quick Tutorial, put the images together into a slideshow up through Step 4 (Preview). Try to vary the shot duration, transitions, and other options.

D. One More Technique
After you preview your slideshow in Step 4, browse through some of the other resources in the Open Shot User Guide (or at the links below) and decide on one more effect or technique to use as a finishing touch.

E. Save and Export
Save the project on your computer and then, following Step 5, export the slideshow as a web-compatible video file.

F. Upload to Google Drive (Open)
Upload the file to Google Drive with open permissions set so it is readily available for viewing by anyone (at least anyone in the class)

4. Submit Your URL

Copy the URL of your video file into a reply to the Moodle forum, "Open Shot Video" (~11A)

5. Bring Your McCloud Book

 

Day 20. OpenShot Video Editing

Resources

 

R 11/8

Homework

Sign Up for an Indvidual Conference

Using the Wiki "Conferences" on our Moodle site, sign up for one time slot either Thursday or Tuesday. Do not add times or change anyone else's appointment.

All conferences will be held in the usual classroom.

Brainstorming Before the Conference

1. Annotate the handout "Motion Graphic Title Sequence: Conference Brainstorming" with inspirations and ideas for both the premise of your television series and vision/plan for your title sequence.

For each of the steps/dimensions in McCloud's 6-point scheme, write down both inspirations drawn from creative works (they don't necessarily have to be television shows or title sequences) and ideas you have for your own series and sequence.

This is a brainstorming space, not a finished product, so put down as much as you can, and then highlight and connect together items that seem to cohere into an vision.

2. In the space provided, give your series a title

3. Beneath the panels for brainstorning the series premise, there is a space for an attenpt at writing a "log line."

4. Beneath the panels for brainstorming the title sequence, there is a space for a "plot phrase." See here on the assignment page for more on a plot phrase.

5. Bring your brainstorming handout, your ideas, and anything you've collected for this assignment (probaby on a laptop or device) to your conference.

Essay Project

If there's time, we can also discuss your ideas for the The Essay: The Cultural Work of an Image

 

Day 21. Individual Conferences in the Classroom (No Class Meeting)

WEEK 12
T 11/13

Homework

See steps above for R 11/8

Day 22. Indivdual Conferences in the Classroom (No Class Meeting)

R 11/15

Homework

Bring a laptop and all resources for working on your Motion Graphic Title sequence, due next Tuesday.

There will also be opportunities for a second, follow-up conference if that's helpful to you.

 

Day 23. Studio Session

 

WEEK 13
T 11/20

Motion Graphic Title Sequence Due by 1:00 p.m.

Upload by 1:00

  1. Export/Save an .mp4 version of your title sequence and name the file with your last name and the phrase "title_sequence" (for example: stroupe_title_sequence.mp4).
  2. Upload that .mp4 file into our Google Drive Team Folder for the "Motion Graphic Title Sequence"
  3. With a web browser, open the file online (not from your hard drive) with your web browser to be sure it plays--or prompts you to download--from the server

 

No Class Meeting


From the New York Times article "Reimagining Norman Rockwell's America"

 

R 11/22  

Thanksgiving (No Class Meeting)

 

WEEK 14
T 11/27

Homework

Write and Bring

Complete and print the commentary for your Motion Graphic Title Sequence Assignment. I will collect these at the beginning of class.

Bring

Bring to class

  1. your Tufte, Sontag, and McCloud books

  2. a copy of the image you've chosen for your essay (digital copy on a laptop okay)

  3. a printed copy of your most current draft of the essay (have it as complete as you can)

  4. copies of your sources about the critical and historical context of your image (digital copies on a laptop are fine)

 

Day 24: The Essay


from a Washington Shirt Company brochure, 1902

Resources

W 11/28

 

Essay Due by 4:00

Please place a hard copy of your essay in my mailbox in Humanities 420 by 4:00 p.m. No electronic versions accepted.

 
R 11/29

Homework

Sign Up For a Presentation Time

In the course Moodle site, see the section "Presentation Sign Up and Resources."

Open the Wiki and enter your name beside one of the times on one of the days.

Please do not delete or move anyone else's name, or add times.

Giving a good presentation is part of your grade for the Essay assignment.

See the five expectations for the presentations at the right.

Prepare for Your Presentation

In a reply to the forum "Presentation Resources," post links to your image and to any other online resources you want to access during your presentation.

Plan to Attend All Presentations

Remember that you need to attend all three days of presentations to receive full credit for the Essay assignment.

Also, the conclusions presentations will introduce topics for discussion on the Final Exam.

Presentations

Resources

 

 

December

     
WEEK 15
T 12/4

See Homework Above

Presentations

R 12/6

See Homework Above

Presentations

WEEK 16
FINALS WEEK
Thursday 12/13 10 a.m.

Online Final Exam
Thursday, 12/13
10:00 - 12:00 a.m.

Timing

Because we have a dedicated time for the Final Exam, you will need to take the exam during the two-hour window indicated above.

You can spend up to 2 hours writing responses to two of the three questions.

Moodle

We will use the Moodle site to make the questions available, and to enable you to write and submit your responses online.

Directions for the Take-Home Portion

During the time window above, open the Moodle quiz "Final Exam."

Your will find three questions with text boxes under each.

Remember to answer only two of the three options.

Advice: Write Outside of Moodle and Paste

As a precaution, be sure to write each answer in text-editing software and save it in a file on your computer.

After you have completed each answer, copy the text into that question's text box in Moodle.

What If Moodle Goes Down?

If you have technical problems with Moodle during the exam time, please complete writing the exam, and then copy the text of your answers into an email and send the email to me no more than 90 minutes after the time you started the exam.

If you are using Firefox and have trouble typing into a text box, use the handle grip in the lower right of the text box to enlarge it slightly.

For technical questions about Moodle, call the ITSS Help Desk at 726-8847 during office hours.