So it was a good week below are the links to my Daily Creates and my video letter home. So I used an Anchorman theme with some clips of my work from this week which can be found on my youtube channel 4kevinmurphy or on this blog so take a look.
Links to My Daily Creates
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevin_murphy4/7626393084/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevin_murphy4/7626405414/
For this particular remix assignment the assignment was to remix a previous assignmentthat was done by another camper. The previous assignment was to remix classic bumper stickers to promote the cause(s) of ds106, ds106radio, and ds106tv. We then had to take the old assignement and then apply our remix card. My remix card ended up being:
I had to flip the mood of the assignment. If it’s light, make it dark. If it’s sad, make it happy. If it’s exhilarating, make it not so exhilarating. To do this assignmet I ended up taking CogDog’s original submission and made it negative.
by taking out the heart and adding a dog using the bathroom that I added in paint. I actually felt bad doing this assignment, because I really have been enjoying camp and the people at camp.
So for this assignment we had to find a sequence of movies and mash scenes from each movie to make into one trailer. It was easy for me to figure out which movies I wanted to do…..Twilight! Because like I have mentioned before I do love Twilight, yes I realize it is very corny. Anyways, I went on Youtube to find different scenes from each of the films. Once I did so I uploaded each Youtube clip onto MPEG Streamclip where I edited them down to size. Once that was accomplished I uploaded each edited clip onto Windows Movie Maker and edited it down to size a little more so that the movie would flow better. I then added a credits slide and uploaded it to Youtube and I was done!
For this particular Mashup Assingment (http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/mashup-those-movies/) we had to take elements from multiple movie posters and mash them up into one. You can change anything- the caption, the title, the main image, etc. Lastly, make it seem like it could be a real movie. To do this assignement I started off by looking threw netflix to get some ideas. I ended up coming across this movie called My Bestfriend’s Wedding, after watching the movie I had the best idea ever and that was to combine that movie with the movie title “He’s Just Not That into You.” The reason I choose that movie was because in the picture clip i got from My Bestfriend’s Wedding there’s a guy talking to a girl and another girl standing off to the back.
I really like this topic and was happy to see that we were covering it for a second straight week. First off if I was going to describe a remix I would say that it is a creation of work that uses previous works in its actual composition or the previous work has a strong influence on it. In my opinion the diffidence between a remix and copying is that a remix give artistic credit to the predecessor but also changes it in some way.
The first video I watched was a remix called “Cant Tase This” it uses the song “Cant Touch This” by MC Hammer and actual footage of a college student getting tasered. This video is a good example of a mash up because it meshes them together so you the two videos are completely different but with editing the “Don’t Tase Me” parts do not mess with the flow of the MC Hammer song so it makes the video watchable and extremely entertaing in my opinion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzkd_m4ivmc
The next video I looked at was “Star Wars Call Me Maybe”, first off I just have to wonder at the amount of time this must have take to put together. This is a a great example of a remix because it is using the music to “Call Me Maybe” and even the lyrics but instead of Carly Rae Jepson singing it the creator took a ton of little clips from star wars and arranged them to sound like the characters were singing the song. I Think that this is an example of how creative even a remix can be, I mean I cant think of many people who would have been creative enough to think of this idea never mind take the time to create it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBM7i84BThE
The final movie I looked at is possibly my favorite because I am a huge Monty Python fan. The video “Star Trek Meets Monty Python” is a classic example of redubing where they take the video from one scene and use the audio from another and they are usually very different types which is often what makes them entertaining. The creative part is choosing the scenes from Star Trek that in some way fit the audio from “Monty Pythons The Holy Grail” which could not have been easy considering the two could not be farther apart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luVjkTEIoJc
In conclusion I think that remixes can some times be as creative as originals, key word in some cases. For example in the videos above they used nothing that the created themselves but what they chose to combine and how they combined it was in its own right original and creative. Now in the video it seemed that Led Zeplin remixed old song but did not stray far from the original which in my opinion was very original or creative but yet still a fan. So finally its not that you re use other peoples work but what you do once you have it that makes the difference in my opinion of course.
For this particular assignment (http://assignments.ds106.us/assignments/trilogy-trailer-montage/) (4pts) we had to make a movie trailer by taking a trilogy, or any series of movies and combine scenes from all the trailers to make one trailer. I decided to do Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy. The reason I choose to do Batman, is because it was one of my favorite comics growing up as a kid. No matter how old I get, I still think that I can be a superhero, and honestly who doesn’t want to be Batman or Cat Woman? Also, because it was the latest trilogy released, and of course I had to see the midnight premier with all 3 Batman movies playing back to back. It was AWESOME! For this assignment I ended up downloading the movies to my computer. Then I edited them in Windows Live Movie Maker, saved it, then I uploaded it to YouTube. I hope you enjoy it.
So this week I am partaking in the 7 day challenge!! I have to do 7 (or more) daily creates back to back… then eventually sync or mash them up together! Here are some of the ones I did this week…
This was a picture of the outdoors w/out any human artifacts… which is a challenge. As I took the picture I really contemplated the fact that it might be a true photo of old for future generations. :/
This video was fun to make and simple enough… but made me realize how nerdy I probably came off lol.
I will not even describe this! Just listen and enjoy, I really had a ton of fun with this. I took sound clips offline, mixed it w/ my good old fake accent, and created one of my favorite sound clips to date.
Chapter five in Choice Words is Flexibility and Transfer (or Generalizing). Dr. Derek Cabrera, about whom I have written before, refers to transfer as the Holy Grail of education. The idea is that if we can help students take skills, concepts, or ideas learned in one subject or one setting and transfer them to another independently we have significantly upped our impact.
On page 44 Johnston explains how the language from the earlier chapter on identity plays into transfer:
Once a child incorporates into his identity a sense that he is a writer doing writerly things (or a scientist, mathematician, and so forth), he can ask himself in a new situation (not necessary consciously) what he might do as a writer, since those roles do not stop at the border of a single activity setting.
Another piece that struck me was using the word like. Johnston says on page 46:
This means thinking beyond the literal to the metaphorical, and the word like is very good for invoking metaphors.
If I remember correctly, and I’m being lazy and just going with my memory rather than any research, metaphors were one of the, if not the most, powerful tool Marzano wrote about in Classroom Instruction that Works. Johnston goes on to talk about the power of metaphor because it allows one to take what is known and stretch to what is unknown. I have clearly not thought enough about how and why to use metaphor in my classroom.
Chapter six, Knowing, struck me as being essentially about creating an atmosphere and community in a classroom that makes taking risks doable for everyone. Johnston starts off with language that offers the students some control and ownership of the learning and conversation. He continues with language that clearly sets the teacher with the students, such as “Thanks for straightening me out.” Showing students that we make mistakes or that we don’t always know the answer sets up an environment in which they are willing to do the same.
I think my favorite bit is on page 60:
Never believe everything I say. Never believe everything any adult says.
I firmly believe that as a teacher and as a parent one of my jobs is to help my kids question things, not accept things at face value. Actually saying something as explicitly as this has never occurred to me however.
Building a community that allows students the opportunity to grow requires that they feel comfortable taking risks and making mistakes. It is no surprise to me that my language impacts that but Johnston’s ideas are helping me identify areas in which my language is weak in regards to this goal.
So from what I understand a remix and a mashup are the same thing. It is basically taking bites and pieces of different media, art, music, or ideas and creating something different with it. You could add in some of your own ideas to put a spin on a project that has aspects of other people’s work in it. I think there are different levels of sophistication to remixing as you will soon see. So I know this sounds kind of vague so look at some of the following examples. Don’t worry I learn best through examples too….like Kirby Ferguson said ” Nobody starts out original…copying is how we learn.”
So I am sure many people have seen this, especially if you are in DS106.
But I had to use this as an example of a remix, because yes as much as I would hate to admit I am a Twilight fanatic and I found this HILARIOUS! But yes this is a really good, and professionally done, example of what a remix is. The author is combing two different story lines, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Twilight, to create a new storyline. One in which Edward is stalking Buffy because he is infatuated with her and then she kills him because she isn’t interested. I most definitely think this is creative! It takes a level of skill to be able to combine two completely different pieces of media into a single storyline. Not to mention the end result is a comedy which anyone who has ever heard of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Twilight would enjoy.
My next example is news footage remixed into a MC Hammer music video to create, well a new music video.
Once again this is creative and funny. I also find it slightly ironic since MC Hammer went into serious debt over legal issues with copyright and “stealing” other people’s ideas. In regards to copyright I feel that out laws are too strict. But regardless if you give credit where credit is due for the inspiration of your remixed idea, there should be no legal issues. I also think that if anybody tries to copyright their remixed piece of work, they should not be allowed to do remixed work to begin with! I mean if you can get creative based on other peoples ideas, why can’t people get inspired off yours?
And you can’t talk about Remixing without mentioning Weird Al
This man has made his career out of remixing and I think he is one of the best examples. He takes the beats from famous songs and then adds his own lyrics to actually make fun of the real song. He is a creative genius!
I edited everything together into iMovie for this weekly letter home. I decided to again use the different filters that Photo Booth offers because it is fun. I then uploaded images into segments of the film that correlated with whatever I was talking about. For example while I was talking about the daily creates, I used the images for each create into my movie. The same concept goes for music. Any type of music that was related to what I was talking about I placed into the specific section of my movie.
Sorry, but camp is over! Head over to ds106
The Campfires have all been put out.
Camp is now over (see the final story. If you are craving an experience like this, head over to ds106 and see how to participate. For more on the Summer of Magic Macguffin, see.....
