THERE ARE THREE DELIVERABLES FOR THIS PROJECT
This project is pretty straight forward. We are attempting to combine knowledge you should have learned in the Digital Narrative Course with what was presented abut media ecology this semester.
Assignment for Part 1
The title of the project should say it all: Trans-Media Story: The Medium is the Message. As the title implies, you are to create a story using the basic story elements from EME 6646 (see spoiler below for a reminder) and ‘told’ using at least three different media. The expectation is that the first “media” you use is text but it is not required.
Write out a short meStory (3-4 pages max). It is optional as to whether the story is real or contrived/fake but it needs to about a person… their history, the chronology of events in their life, etc. that got them to a certain place (whether physical or virtual/mental) … recall John Lennon’s song Beautiful Boy in which one stanza states “life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans…”. I chose a personal story because I figure it is the easiest to create but I do not want to cause anybody any loss of a sense of privacy, so you can make up your story using fictional events. But remember, though, every story needs a point of view.
Due in the Subsequent Cycles Coming up (Cycle five and seven)- As The Other Two Media Types are Introduced
Next, you need to then (re)create the same story using two other media forms. This can be audio, still imagery, kinestasis, animation, video, immersive/virtual media… while a Web/blog is certainly a choice .. remember this: you are going to be asked to justify your media decisions and to analyze/compare/contrast the impact/techniques that are utilized on how reader/viewer/listener is communicated with/acquires knowledge from the story.
The project due dates are based on the timing of when we cover the three media types. So, you do not have to produce the story all at once. Follow the due dates below.
We will learn this semester how media affects not only in the message that is conveyed but how it is perceived and what characteristics are most often found in each to ensure understanding, as well as to immerse/motivate the receiver.
All of these concepts will become more clear as the the semester progresses.
You may have taken EME 6646: Digital Narrative and Cognition. If you who did not and for those who need a refresher, the following summary is offered:
Download Link: http://emeclasses.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Final_Gunter_Kenny_Junkin_Chapter_The-Narrative-Imperative.pdf
Just so you know that we are not going totally ‘off the reservation’ here. I have a another reading that equates narrative as a medium and how it integrates into media ecology studies. It is a bit long but you can scan most of it and highlight the major points. If you have recently taken the narrative course with me you might have already seen this but I place it here also as a reminder of how all these courses tie together. This comes from one of the universities that studies media ecology as a part of its communications studies (NYU) and has some interesting ideas for us to share.
Download Link: https://emeclasses.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/document.pdf
- Phase 1 First you need to identify the content/context of your meStory with a working title. Working titles should be expressive enough to give the receiver basic idea as to what the story is about. Write out your story. Around 3-5 pages should work. This will give you enough content to build your story in another two media. Three to five pages, for example, are enough content to be able to create a 1-2 minute, coherent video.
- Phase 2 Decide on a second media type. Most will go ahead and pick some sort of time based media.. it could be a video or told as a audio file. If you pick the audio it needs to be more than a simple reading out loud of the text file. Take advantage of the characteristics of the media type and demonstrate the differences between it and text (it could be inflection in your voice, a sidebar/soliloquy, or whatever creative idea you come up with.
- Phase 3 . Decide on a third media type. It does not have to be some sort of immersive media but based on your skill level and comfort with the media I am hoping some of you will try. If this was a digital media class we would expect everyone to increase his or her skill level in all media. Our intent her is for you to explore, stretch yourself while also understanding the differences in characteristics of the differing media types. Take advantage of the characteristics of the media type and demonstrate the differences between it and the other two.