For my project, I’m not exactly trying to say “How many ways can we tell this story?” My concept is about how a text can come to life off of the printed page and become much more than just the physical book through different types of media. I’m wanting to include clips from the video games, as those are also interactive, as well as a short clip of the book itself.
I was thinking of using a song from a “wrock” group called Ministry of Magic, since almost all of their music is electronic and generated on the computer, except the vocals. It’s a really neat juxtaposition that would work, I think, with the video. I do like the idea of narrating it though; I’d have to work on my narrator voice!
For the video itself, I’m hoping to start with the printed book, then progress to the e-book, then Pottermore, then onto the fan-generated content, to hopefully show the evolution of the story through new media and the different ways that it can come to life outside of the book.
the great kazby 
This video is a great start. I’m not exactly sure where it’s headed, because we don’t have your commentary yet, but I think you are doing the “how many ways can you tell a story?” concept? I might be TOTALLY off on that! Just a guess because so far that’s what it looks like to me. What type of audio are you thinking? MY suggestion to someone else who is doing this concept would be to have someone narrate parts of the book during the video as yet another way to tell a story. BUT, that’s only if that is the concept you’re projecting.
I think it needs to be made clear that you aren’t trying to do “how many ways can you tell a story” but instead that you’re doing “how many ways can a text come to life.” But in a sense that’s the same thing. I think to make this different from what we’ve already seen would be to do some sort of voiceover or narration that makes it more clear that you’re talking about how stories come to life as a result of media. I like Sarah’s suggestion of reading parts of the story- adding real-time audio or video will make this different than what we’ve seen and it could also bring in another dimension of telling the story. Good start!
While the concept is cool, it also sounds very close to what we’ve already seen from that previous class example using Harry Potter themed content. Maybe you could steer towards focusing more on the fan-generated content instead, making that the focus. Still using what you have as a base, but centering the idea of the video around showing how technology and internet platforms help people create this whole world of new (media) content, in this case based around a book franchise. Everything from YouTube to fan-fiction would be fair game and give you a lot of potential content and directions to mess around with.
Actually, re-reading the post gives me a sense things will end up going the way I posited anyway so I feel all of the content of this comment is voided. But since I spent time writing it and don’t want it to go to waste, I’m going to leave it all here.
I’m with Kelly: It’s hard for me to give much ‘feedback’ without reading/hearing the script for the ‘narration’ … you say you want to specifically illustrate how “new media” kinda “enlivens” or “empowers” storytelling, and allows for a much more thorough exploration/expression than print by itself… that’s an interesting twist on the whole “how many ways to tell a story” thing, definitely… and I’m not sure how you convey that without WORDS… so maybe a narration is necessary here (which you’ve already suggested… maybe the confirmation helps?)
I will say, from personal experience: if you DO record a narrative, don’t do too much “processing” of the voice to “fix” the sound of it: repeated manipulations of digital audio distorts it terribly (oopsie: my ‘non-print presentation’ narration got destroyed through that process LOL)
Great Kazby, Somehow I knew your concept would include Harry Potter! Nice images! How did you get them to move so fast? I like your narration of what you intend to include and your reasoning behind each inclusion. Great start!
I like the video, though it brings to mind the previous Harry Potter project. The concept isn’t completely clear to me from what you currently have, because I don’t know if it’s about Harry Potter, evolving stories, or fan creations currently. But your narrative helps there. Good start, and I look forward to the finished project.
Great start to this! I’ve never heard of the band you’re referring to, but it sounds like it’d definitely fit for this video. Will you record yourself turning the pages of the book? I like the progression idea, and I’ll be interested to see where you place Pottermore in terms of new media inclusion.
I think you’ve got a good start. I think that if you keep to your concept closely it will be good, while also seeming too much like what we’ve already seen. I think that can be done by focusing in on the fan generated content as you carry your footage out toward the time limit. Narration or text might be the easy way to add something to it too, but I don’t think it’s necessary if you plan it right. Then you can let the song stand on it’s own. Keep up the good work. ^_^
I like this idea, but y’know the use of HP as a reference is gonna trip some people up. If your focus is the different ways text can be brought to life, I think you could use a variety of examples, and not just HP that way your project won’t be in comparison to something else, it would be it’s own thing.
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This looks good, although not being able to tell what Snape is saying after he shoots Voldy is driving me crazy. I agree with Rachel here; you might be falling into the trap of “Look at all of this Potter-media!” if you’re not going to hit the audience over the head with your concept. I’m hugely focused on the way a video works with its audio, so I’d be better at giving criticism if I could see how the audio is going to work with this; narrating’s not a bad idea with this project, I think, but if you are going to narrate I would suggest that you layer some music underneath your narration in order to keep the us from focusing too much on the narration and not experiencing the full project.
I like this idea and I’m excited that you’re using Harry Potter. I’m confident you’ll be able to set yours apart from the other Harry Potter video we’ve seen. I definitely agree with Sarah that a voice over reading of the book would be a good thing to incorporate, it can even symbolize books on tape (I’m 99% sure it was available in audio form) because that is an example of new media in my opinion.