Author Archives: Rebecca’s Radiant Realm

College Move-In Day!!

This is video assignment 30 Second Memory and I chose to do this with my character Evelyn as we follow her into the memory of college move-in.

College move-in can be so stressful. You have to make sure you have all of your stuff, traffic can be an issue, you have to get all your college supplies and your dorm key, its hot and everyone is upset, and finally you have to say goodbye. Evelyns experience moving in was no different. Her dorm started off small, but the campus was beautiful. Follow her into her memories as she remembers what the first few hours of college move-in was like for her.

To do this assignment I found some clips that I liked of other people moving into college and importing that into iMovie. I added some filters like a cool tone to the airport and plane. And then a warmer tint in the dining hall to give it an “evening” look. I then used the “modern” theme music from iMovie and adjusted the volume accordingly.

Revisiting my Goals!

“My goals for this class is to learn more about digital media and learn how to be more proficient with technology. For example, Im still learning how to use WordPress and this blog post is still taking me a while to set up because I have no idea how to use this program, but I’m learning! My goal is also to stay on top of the weekly assignments and to not fall behind.”

Above were my goals from the first week of classes. I became so overwhelmed with the new programs we had to use but now that we are 6 weeks in I’m getting the hang of learning new programs and working with them.

With Design and photography week I used a lot of programs I was familiar with but used my creativity in ways I had not before, so that was a great thing to learn.

Audio Week is where I think I started learning how to use new programs and working with them creatively. I had a great time that week with the audio assignments and learned a lot.

In terms of time management, its still a work in progress. I have started getting into the thick of it for my other classes and senior projects so I have to re adjust my schedule from when we started and its taking more time than I want it to. I don’t think I will fall behind too much but Im keeping an eye on it. I would also like to continue with my commenting on three posts per week and hopefully more when I have the time.

Loved in the Unclaimed Land

This assignment to do a video essay was really fun! I enjoyed revisiting Black Mirror (as did a lot of student in the class).

The episode “Hated in the Nation” was freaky for sure. I did have to stop looking at some scenes for the sake of the intense builds, but I really loved how they did it. I think that Black Mirror does a great job creating a world that is distinctly not ours but could be.

Creating the video essay was tough at first because I wasn’t sure what scene to do. I liked the suggestion to do a scene that is, for lack of a better word, not important or something that doesn’t cover a big plot point. Because the point of this assignment was to focus on the film of it all not the plot. I also had a hard time getting audio due to Netflix’s strict privacy rules, so I wasn’t able to get audio for this assignment which really bummed me out.

To make this I filmed the scene I wanted on my laptop and put it into iMovie. I then recorded my script in Voice Memo all in one recording and spliced it in iMovie. I also went to YouTube and found a Black Mirror starting title and included that in the beginning and end of my video.

Overall, I had fun with this process. I don’t think I’d make video essays on my own time, but I do enjoy watching them so it was fun to be able to do one myself.

Radio Show Ideas

I had a tough time coming up with ideas for a radio show. I feel like I dont know my character well enough yet and I wasn’t sure how to include her into the project but after reading some other ideas I have a couple of fun thoughts

I really like the idea of a “true crime” podcast but with the “clue” tropes and comedy. Thank you Liv it up with Liv for suggesting this!

I also enjoy this podcast called Scared to Death and its two people just telling each other scary stories they see on reddit and other peoples paranormal experiences and try to scare each other. This, I think, would be really cool to do as well.

I think that having a thriller aspect to the radio show will be interesting and I think that the true crime or the scary stories would allow for more exploration in the tech noir theme.

Lunch with Evelyn

This assignment is the All the Relaxation assignment. Truth be told I had an idea for what I wanted to create with my character. I just needed to find an assignment that fit what I wanted to create!

For this much needed relaxing break from work you join Evelyn for lunch. So you sit in a park with a beautiful view and start to take our your lunch to enjoy. Its been a busy day at the office and you both just need some quiet time. Evelyn brings out her lunch and Stephen Kings You Like it Darker book as you both enjoy the sounds of the park and sit in peace. Even if it is only for an hour.

I once again used Audacity and Freesound for this assignment. I knew that I wanted to incorporate my character by doing a day in the life of the sounds around her. So I created just a simple lunch with her. I started with park sounds. I wanted to convey the steps of eating lunch at work. Taking your sandwich out of its ziploc bag, so thats exactly what I did. I found a ziploc bag opening and a soft crunch of food being eaten. I then wanted Lynn to be reading a book since that is something she enjoys doing when she needs a peace of mind so I had a sound of a bag being opened and closed for her to get her book and then flipping through pages to find where she left off. She finds her page with a final flip and starts to read. I then repeat the ziploc bag, the soft crunch, and another page flip and the rest of the park sounds.

I personally feel like these park sounds and the comfort of reading in the company of others is very relaxing. Especially the page turning!

Relax on the Beach

This is the Create a Place assignment. This is a Day on the Beach

In this place you are sitting on the beach listening to the seagulls and waves. There is a slight breeze in the air but you don’t mind. The air smells like salt. The sand is warm on your feet as you stand on the beach looking at the horizon. Eventually you take a calm breath and put on your earbuds and listen to you favorite orchestral track until you fall asleep.

I created this using Audacity and freesound.org. I started with the underlying sound of the beach and added the seagulls next. I wanted to take this assignment one level up rather than just describing a place so I added a relaxed inhale and exhale and found a beautiful orchestral sound to add the end of the story. I had a lot of fun making this and I feel relaxed after hearing it for a while. Im also a lot for comfortable with Audacity.

Another day at the office…

For the Sound Effect Short story I had a hard time picking out what story i wanted to tell. So I browsed around on Freesound to see if inspiration struck. And it in fact did! I chose to do a story about two men in an office job, one of them is asleep and is snoring very loud, and the other is extremely annoyed by this (He does this everyday!)

I started with background effects of office noises from BBC Sound Effects, then I looked for a man sighing on Freesound(this was the first part of my inspiration the rest came later, and the rest of my sounds are from Freesound). Next I found another man snoring and I copied and pasted this sound effect three times in the full story. The next step of annoyance is the attempt to wake the person up but discreetly, so I used a man clearing his throat. Once again the man snores so the next step is to get up and wake him up! To do this I used a metal bed frame creak, to implicate the man getting out of his office chair, some footsteps walking over to the man snoring and a blaring alarm clock! Finally the man wakes up with a gasp and the other man laughs and walks away, mission accomplished.