Project 1 Reflection

Composing the digital narrative was very interesting. I had never done anything like that before, so it was good to come in fresh. I chose the story of how my sister became a vegetarian after much deliberation. I think it ended up being a good choice because it is emotional and highly personal, yet there are hidden themes and messages I found when composing the narrative that apply to wide audience.  In that respect, I think it might gain traction and reach a fair number of people if I shared it. However, being as serious as it is, I am not sure how much people would enjoy it. I composed the video knowing that I wanted to keep things focused, yet relatable so that the viewers would have an emotional response and connection. The end result may be different than what I thought it would be, but I think the wider stance it has at the end makes it more appealing to a greater number of people. I also was able to incorporate more techniques that we explored in Designs of Meaning than I thought I would. I was happy with that outcome, but I hope it accomplished its goal.

Composition Summary

The narration of my narrative was thoughtful. I included many words that evoked pathos, or emotional responses in the audience. For example, I words such as cruel, inhumanely, slaughter, and sold were used and emphasized. After these words, pauses often occurred in order to invite the audience to focus on the narration. Additionally, there were wider perspectives taken at the beginning and end of the narration. These moments asked questions of the audience and then encouraged the audience members to take responsibility for their actions. The conventions of genre were adhered to in that the video was short and used key words or images to quickly grab the attention of the viewers. Additionally, not too much detail was included in descriptions in order to allow the audience members to relate to the experience my sister had. (My sister’s and mom’s drive was relayed in general, but not great detail).The audience may have expected some portions of the video, such as images of meat processing plants. However, other moments may have been surprising, such as the questions posed to the audience. I do maintain that the purpose of the project was fulfilled. My sister’s belief that animals deserve to be treated more humanely and should not be consumed if we as humans cannot ensure a certain amount of integrity in the meat processing system.

In terms of the compositional choices made during the making of this video project, I used all multimedia effects to enhance the story. For example, most slides were relatively plain and there were not a lot of animation techniques. This was so that the audience mainly focused on the narration. This was also brought about through the use of text. Many evocative words were purposely reiterated in text so as to draw the audience’s focus to these moments. This was a way to bring about emotional engagement. Furthermore, color was used to categorize these emotional words. For example, slaughter was in red, and take responsibility was in white. These choices helped the audience to gauge how my sister’s story would relate to those words. (Red is associated with anger or high energy and white is related to neutrality and purity). There were some breaks or paused between words or sentences in order to make the audience members think about the narration and reflect as the video is progressing. It would not be beneficial for viewers to watch passively as such a story was being conveyed. The balance was maintained in having all slides remain fairly simple. There were more transitions or alterations made to the slides that did not have text so as to differentiate between the important words and more fleeting images. The movement of the images that did take place was minimal, but did serve to keep the viewer engaged. Some moments were blank screen, which again served to slow the audience down and provoke attentive listening. This creative non-fiction genre fit the content of my video well. It portrayed something important in an engaging and relatable way. The publication of the video online (if in a more public site) would have been suitable for circulation to a wider audience. Everyone should have some reason to relate to my sister’s story of how she became vegetarian. Additionally, everyone has a reason to care about the planet and all creature living on it. If we see that something isn’t right, it takes awareness for real change to occur. The short story adheres to certain conventions that make it easy to circulate (a quick way to spread a specific message in a platform that can be shared between many people quickly). The platform requires that most content be broad, but that makes the message more general and therefore relatable for a wide audience.

Blog Entry 1

It would be important to have emotional appeal in this video in order to gain audience following. I will use the constraints of the media in order to make sure I have a precise and compact story that will grab audience member’s attention. Relating what happened to someone has a predictable form.  I will use audience expectations to determine how the video should progress (I think that perhaps a redemptive narrative will emerge). Specifically, I believe I want to tell the story about when my sister made the decision to become a vegetarian. I hope that this will be a compact enough story to be able to be relayed in a short video. It lends itself to the theme of belief. I am concerned I do not have enough for the audience to relate to in order to feel engaged and invested. I will hopefully find some ways to rectify this. I was thinking that it might be appropriate to add a digression about how a lot of people in the US have beloved family pets. This may work to add a personal, relatable aspect to a story that is pretty personal. I hope the end product will be well received.

Exericise 1

3 key terms/concepts:

1. Feel (Design category) Examples: The narrator uses the words excited, inspire, love, and admire towards the end of the piece in order to convey how Sam feels towards his new teacher. The effect of using these emotional terms is that the audience engages with the author and relates to the story on a personal level. Therefore, the audience does not feel as if they are communicating with a machine, or just being fed information. Instead, audience members feel a connection with another human being. This makes a story much more appealing as a viewer.
2. Define (Story category) Examples: The platform of this narrative was a short audio podcast. Some constraints of this medium were evident when only certain aspects of the story could be described vividly. For example, the audience was told that Sam spent $4.99 of his own money for a box of chocolates, but were not able to know anything about what his teacher looked like when she received the gift, what the classroom looked like, exactly how big the box was, etc. The effect of this constraint is that we get an overall emotional impression of the positive way Sam was impacted by Mrs. Hogan. The story is not visually cluttered and overstimulating. Instead, the message is clear and precise.
3. Perceive (Aesthetic Experience): The use of audio in the podcast allowed for audience members to gain meaning from the perceived tone and cadence of the narrator’s voice. For example, the author has a more positive, high-tone quality to her voice towards the end of the story. Therefore, the audience is left with the perception that Sam was able to enter into a more conducive and successful position in his schooling as a result of Ms. Hogan’s involvement in his academics. The meaning is clear based on the narrator’s tone: teachers can have a large impact on a student’s wellbeing, and success.

An explicitly stated belief conveyed in this story was that “every child should have a teacher he absolutely loves or admires”. This belief is expressed at the end of the short podcast. While this belief is not elaborated on after being stated, the story preceding this statement was clearly the experience which led the author to have this belief. Therefore, the reason for holding this belief was made clear at the beginning of the story.

One idea that I have taken away from the analysis of this podcast is that audience members respond very strongly to emotional appeal. I believe that my own project would benefit from a storyline that can resonate with viewers on an emotional level. Stating personal beliefs within a narration as discussed above is a very useful way of conveying to the audience a succinct and precise opinion or storyline. For my project, it would be beneficial to include personal experiences of the subject. Additionally, the podcast exemplified how important it is that the stories contain experiences that most audience members have gone through themselves, or at least can relate to. Anything that is too specific may not be as appealing in a platform that is so concise.