After workshopping our choose your own adventure short film, we have collected some suggestions to enhance our video. The major suggestion for our film was to make the jazzercise scene better by dressing up in a leotard or by having an exercise video that helps illustrate the action of the story. Since Mike wearing jeans is critical to the humor of the scene, we decided to discard the suggestion of wearing a leotard, but we think having video of Richard Simmons would help make the video funnier. Some of the other suggestion were to insert music, which was already our plan but some of the suggestion for placement were helpful.

Also, our classmates gave some very helpful suggestions for the ending of our video. Some of the suggestions included Mike arriving successfully to class and Stephanie canceling the presentations saving Mike from impending doom. Another suggestion included Mike showing up to the wrong class. We like the first suggestion and may include some kind of Bollywood dance scene at the end.

Since workshopping, we also ran into another problem. IT FINALLY SNOWED. Luckily, we only shot one of our outside scenes, and we are currently brainstorming for either reshooting or somehow figuring the scene into Mike's drug induced adventure.

Interactive Media Blog #8

I'm at the point where I won't be able to discuss the reading, but I will post a video of a mashup that I find interesting, and then I will discuss the reading at a later date. The video mashup that I decided to post was one of Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams and the Oasis' Wonder wall. I put these together because when Green Day produced the album American Idiot, there was much controversy over whether they had stolen guitar riffs from the band, Oasis. This song mashes the two together and lets the listener decide for themselves.

And for the hell of it, here's Kermit the Frog singing Johnny Cash's version of "Hurt"

Interactive Media Blog #6

I have never had a podcast before this class, as my thought can be condensed to a blog/probably should never be shown to the public. But after going over these two readings, I could see myself getting into this whole fad. The one soucre of media that I am most interested in is film, but the structure of setting up a podcast is much like preparing a film, except for the fact that I can be as ugly as I want and still have people interested in my podcast as long as I can act well. "Seek out podcasts that capitalize on the audio feature by providing dynamic dialog, intereing sound effects, and musical elements that will engage learners. They should hold the attention of listeners and motive them to ask questions, practice, or take action," (Pg. 2). As an amatuer film maker these are the things I hope to accomplish with my films. At Fort Lewis, these podcasts could have both constructive and destructive potential. If there was a website where students could host their own podcasts, it could open up a whole new way for us to share information about school and campus locations. On the other hand, it could be used as a gossip corner, or students who think they know about a subject and actually hav no idea what they're talking about could put up incorrect facts. I think there are little to no differences between a podcast and a radio show, they both have advertisements, they must have intriguing dialog, good music and sound effects, and they both either tell a story or try to infrom through audio.

Interactive Media Blog #5

Ray Bradbury could beat L. Ron Hubbard in a fight any day of the week. Now that we got that out of the way, Mars is Heaven would be a very interesting piece to turn into a radio show. First of all, the narrative structure would need to be drastically altered in order to bring in an audience that doesn't need as discriptive of a story as Bradbury has set up. The story itself would have to remain intact, but the detailed description of the houses and church would have to be shorter. The way I would construct the narrative would be by turning most of the dialogue into sililoquies, the inner thoughts of Captain John Black as he encountered the beings of Mars. There would be some parts that would need to be cut so the show would not drag on longer than it should, parts such as “In the living room of the old house it was cool and a grandfather clock ticked high and long and bronzed in one corner. There were soft pillows on large couches and walls filled with books and a rug cut in a thick rose pattern…” (page 331). I think the funnest part about turning this into a radio show would be choosing the right sound effects to stick in when necessary. There are many possibilities for sould when turning a Sci-Fi story into an audio file.

Merry Meringues

INGREDIENTS

• 4 egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 pkg. (4 serving size) JELL-O Brand Lime Flavor Gelatin
• 1 pkg. (4 serving size) JELL-O Brand Gelatin, any red flavor

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 225 degrees F. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed 5 minutes or until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, beating on high speed until stiff peaks form.
2. Drop tablespoonfuls of the egg white mixture onto baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Sprinkle each meringue lightly with dry gelatin powders.
3. Bake 50 minutes. Turn oven off. Prop oven door open slightly; let meringues stand in oven for 1 hour or until completely cooled.

Interactive Media Blog #4

This reading has helped me further develop my understanding of intellectual property fro my Wiki project in a couple of different ways. First, i have come to understand how copyright laws have the ability to be changed and manipulated over the years. "For instance, Gutenberg’s moveable type printing press brought about changes in the way we consider the nature of writing as well as authorship, laying the ground for many of our current beliefs about plagiarism and copyright. The printing press made the creation and dissemination of printed material simpler and more streamlined; ideas and therefore authors could be more easily commodified and marketed," (Vie, deWinter). Over the years, new technologies have produced new ways in which a message can be sent and received, therefor new rules must be applied to how these messages are controlled while the rights of the sender are protected. A Wiki can be a good way in which multiple writers can collaborate and put their messages together to make one large argument. One problem I can forsee with this though is the fact that all writers may not agree with one says, so communication is important when composing Wiki. If one person posts a fact, or fact as they see it, then another has the authority to edit what the other said, which in turn can cause contreversy among the group. So in the end, I can imagine that it must have been difficult for the authors of this writing to peice together all of their information if one had dissagreed with another on a certain topic. It takes a lot of team work and communitcation for more than one person to put together a Wiki.


1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds
3 tablespoons grated orange zest
2 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
2/3 cup orange marmalade
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 cup sliced almonds for garnish (optional



Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and salt.
Beat the shortening and butter with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until combined. Mix in the chopped almonds and orange zest. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until combined.
Transfer the cookie dough to a lightly floured surface and roll it into a rectangle about 13 inches long. Cut the dough into 3 1/2-inch rectangles using a fluted pastry wheel or sharp paring knife. Place the cookies on an ungreased baking sheet.
Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool slightly on the baking sheets, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Combine the sifted confectioners' sugar, the orange marmalade, and the orange juice and stir well. Spread the glaze on the cookies and garnish with sliced almonds, if desired.

Interactive Blog #3

My knowledge of a wiki was more limited than I thought before I read this peice. Before, I just thought that wiki stood for "What I Know Is" and was a random fact posted by some body on Wikipedia. I now know that it is a fully costomisable web page or source of information that allows people to put in their knowledge on a subject through a quick and informal manner. One of the advantages as put by Cathlena Martin is, " ...a wiki solidifies and contains this process, archiving the students' projects online and making them available for the rest of the class to see." Instead of having a group of students present a topic in front of their class, a wiki will allow them to present said topic in a way that will enable the rest of the class to access that information at any given time, rather than having to soak up all the info. at once. One disadvantage would be the lack of authority on a wiki, when some one wants to change what's on the page there's nothing that can stop them aside from the next person who edits it, unless of course it's password protected. I guess in a wiki he who laughs last laughs best.


Cherry Dots

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
34 candied cherries
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)


Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Stir in milk and vanilla extract. Mix in the flour and salt.
Divide the dough into two equal pieces, and shape each half into a 12 inch roll on a sheet of waxed paper. Place 17 candied cherries side by side on top of each roll, and press into the roll until the cherries are centered. Mold dough around cherries. Sprinkle the outside evenly with chopped walnuts. Wrap the dough in the waxed paper, and refrigerate 4 hours to overnight.
Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Cut each roll into 1/4 inch slices, and place the slices onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake in the preheated oven until golden, 12 to 15 minutes

Wiki Response

There are two people working with me on the topic of copywright and music, film/visual media, and they are Josh and Jon. Jon is working on the music aspect, Josh is doing visual media, and I will be focusing my work on copywright and film. I do not know much going into this subject, but a few things I would like to find out is how does copywright apply to mainstream film compared to online videos, what exactly is the Statute of Limitations, and how is copywright for film different from other sources of media. Two links that I found so far are www.centerforsocialmedia.org, and www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-fairuse.html.

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 1/3 cups light brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
• 1/2 cup apple butter
• 1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease 2 baking sheets.
2. Stir the flour, oats, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, pumpkin pie spice, ginger, and salt in a bowl.
3. Beat the butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and allow it to blend into the mixture before adding the other along with the vanilla. Add the pumpkin and apple butter; continue beating. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the walnuts, mixing just enough to evenly combine. Drop spoonfuls of the dough 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets.
4. Bake in the preheated oven until the edges are golden, about 12 minutes. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.