Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Chapter 4 Question (Murray) :

According to Murray and his views on Writing/Invention Theory, what is symbolization?

A.  It is based around discursive meaning
B.  Symbolization are examples given in the text to describe a meaning
C.  It defines imagination
D.  Symbolization is based in image; it constructs reality for individuals

Monday, February 7, 2011

EPIC BEARD MAN: knowyourmeme.com

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/episodes?page=4

EVALUATION OF EPIC BEARD MAN knowyourmeme VIDEO:
Meg Moore

PERSPECTIVE: 18points

     In this particular meme video, it tells the story of the EPIC BEARD MAN on a city bus, and the brawl he gets in with an African American man. The overall presentation of the 'scientist' and how he tells the story is told in a serious tone, although the story can be found comical. The camera angles are pretty basic throughout the entire video and its a straight forward shot on the speaker the whole time, but I think it fits for how they want to tell the story, and the tone in which they want to tell the story. The scientist stands a little towards the right of the screen and in the backround on the left is a man at a computer. Everytime the camera comes back on the narrator, the man at the computer is doing something different, or wearing a mask or something. Although it make you think, "What is going on....why is he doing that?" and it may make you laugh, it's distracting from the narrator. After I watched the video a few times, I found myself hearing new things that the narrator was saying, that I missed before because I was distracted by the man at the computer. This is why I took 2points off of the perspective piece.

JUXTAPOSTION: 20points

     The juxtapostion piece of this video was great, in my opinion. They first show the video, and then they take snapshots, or freeze frames, from the actual video and add a 'picture-taking' sound when they add it in. They also posted response videos and clipped them in and also related it to other videos that have been posted of similar situations. One part I thought was great actually related to the tenso video we saw in class. There was a girl on the bus who had on headphones and seemed un-phased by the whole fight happening in front of her. Someone took a freeze frame shot of her face and put it onto a video playing Plain White T's song, "Hey There Delilah," and other people have made parodies off it. This was a great commical add in, and also a great little sidenote that the average watcher wouldn't have even noticed if it wasn't pointed out. Furthermore, they had great backround music which also added a commical overall tone.

LAYERING: 20points

     The layering in this video was just enough. There wasn't too many extra videos, clips, or pictures. Furthermore, it all flowed together and there weren't random things popping up ... (minus the scientist at the computer). The music, extra videos that related, and even the clip of the girl who was unphased by the fight were all put together well and it was an easy video to watch and understand. Also when going back to watch again, there were things I found that I hadn't noticed before, like the girl who also was yelling racial comments in the original video, and who went on youtube to make a public apology for getting involved.

UNITY: 18points

     I would give unity an overall 18points. Everything definitely tied together and related back to the overall main point. The videos, music, pictures and parody videos that were posted in all related to the overall main point of the story. However, I would take away 2points because of the random guy at the computer throughout the video. As stated before, he kind of took the attention away from the narrator and he wasn't even doing anything that related to the bus video or what the narrator scientist was talking about. Maybe if the man at the computer, throughout the whole video, was trying to figure out how to grow AN EPIC BEARD, that would be funnier and make more sense as to why he was even in the shot...other then that, it was just random and unrelated.

SELF-ASSESSMENT: 19points

     All the written information for this video was good. It was easy to read, written correctly with no errors, and there was a lot to refer back too. Everything that was in the video was covered in the written part. The only part I didn't think was appropriate was the written dialogue. Foul language was exchanged between the two men in the video and it was written out on the website when it would have been starred off (A**), for example.