Mr. Wright's Video

The video is coming along great. I have my serious moments in it, but it also has the comical side as well. I believe that it is a perfect mix that won't offend anyone. One thing has changed about the video though; the audience has shifted from the general gamer to the general male gamer. I said it during my presentation that I wanted the audience to be teens that were like me when I was in middle/high school. I want to reach the ones that are just starting to see themselves as regular gamers that think nothing of their habit. It's these types of people that can cognitively think about the choices they are making, and if they think about it long enough, that have the time to change their habit before it becomes worse in their adult life. Like I stated before in previous blogs, this research topic is personal to me because I wanted to compare my findings to my own personal life. I wanted to see what things are common; I wanted to find out if I have a problem or not. I believe my video will be entertaining and informative, all in the same few minutes.

Thoughts and Advice

English 1060 has been pretty cool for me. I never had a blog site before, and the experience forced me to think about things before I post it. Also, this blog site made me think about things that I thought I didn't care about. Community health and wellness is something that is in the far corners of my brain, and with the assignments that were required, the issue was taken from the back of my brain to the front. As far as advice goes, do not procrastinate and really try to think things through. Plan the assignments out as soon as you get them. Starting on time will guarantee that the desired grade will be achieved. Another piece of advice would be to ask questions when this is need for it. It is never good to be alone in the dark, feeling like there is no help. Asking questions does not mean that someone is stupid or cannot comprehend; it only means that one is thinking about the issue, and he realizes there is something he is unclear on. Those are the main two pieces of advice I can think of right now.

Reflection Part 1 (cont.)

I am very passionate about my music. Like I said before, the excitement came when I thought to create my own music for the video. I call it a "soundtrack" in that I left the opportunity to make the snip its full-length songs for future use. I have never allowed anyone to listen to my music when I've created it in a short period of time, but the excitement and passion that I have for music and the excitement for this assignment came together to create the five songs that I have for the video. During my presentation, I said that I wanted to make a few more songs for the video, but I doubt that will happen due to the time that I have left to compile the video in the way that I want it to be presented. With the theme that I chose (Grand Theft Auto), my message will hit home with gamers of all ages because I want the viewer to analyze himself/herself in a way that they might not have done before. The video is an informative video in that I am not trying to persuade anyone to do anything. I just want the gamers to think about how they are investing their time. I want the gamer to think about how different their life could be if they were to dedicate the time spent playing video games to something else. This message is personal because I have often wondered the same thing. Maybe I would have gone to college sooner or would have married my girlfriend earlier in my life. Maybe I would have asked for a raise on my job instead of not being worried about it because I wanted to hurry home to play my new Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas game. Who knows? That's the question that I want the viewer (hopefully an excessive gamer) to ask of themselves.

Reflection Part 2

Being in this class as forced me to think when I didn't want to use my brain. All I wanted to do is come in the classroom, take down some notes, and leave with less than half of the information that was given to me. This class is different than any class that I have this semester in that we engage in conversation and we share opinions. As far as research goes, I haven't done so much research in my entire life, but it was only to help me in my future classes and assignments. My number one problem (something echoed in every reflection I've done) is that I do not start on time when I get these assignments. With this reflection, I'm sure to insert that into it because I waited a while to start on the video. The music was created in a timely manner, but the video is still a work in progress. I do have some pictures that I want to use, and I found some fonts and I decided on a theme for the video. Grand Theft Auto is the theme that I chose and this decision was carefully thought out. Moving forward, I plan on starting assignments on time and finishing them with great quality. I always try to do my best when it comes to working and creating things and classwork is no different. Like Part One, more will be added to this reflection to show that I've worked and thought about this assignment in detail.

Reflection Part 1

With the first part of the reflection being about what we've accomplished with this project, I wanted to take this time to share how I was inspired when we first got the assignment, and to show some of my work that I've done for this assignment. I am creating my own music for this video and that has given me ideas for the video. I don't know what kind of skill that is, but I saw my video as I was making the music for it. Making a storyboard wasn't necessary for me because I already had the vision in my head as far as what I wanted the video to look like. I chose to create the type of songs I created to allow the viewers to identify with the message that I want to present. Like I said during my presentation, I am targeting kids that were like me; kids that are in middle/high school who find themselves wrapped up in video games for long periods of time. I chose the pictures that I chose because I wanted people to know that this topic is not as serious as any social or ethical conflicts, but awareness is needed. I could put more into this reflection, but I'm still working on some details with my video and more is soon to come.

YouTube videos about NBA 2K12

This blog post might be a little off topic from community health, but I found it interesting that the videos found on YouTube when searching for NBA 2K12 (actual videos released by 2K Sports) use the same CRAP designs that we are using for this class. For example, the main video that I am speaking of is the video that has NBA Legend Michael Jordan and hip-hop superstar Drake in it. The video is a commercial for the game and uses Jordan to argue that his 1996 Chicago Bulls was the greatest team ever, while Drake (ignorantly) claims that the 2010 Miami Heat is the best team ever (how wrong can one man be?). They go back and forth with equal time to state their case (contrast and repetition) and the video ends with the classic, iconic image with Jordan wearing all six championship rings, proving that he and his teams were the best there ever will be.

Video that Inspired Me

The video that inspired me was the first video we watched in class about children playing violent video games. I liked everything about the video from the music to the video clips that were inserted into the movie. With my topic being what it is, I felt that whoever made that movie was showing me how it's done. I thought it was organized well and the entire movie made sense. I've already said it before that my movie will have a soundtrack produced by me and watching this movie inspired me to create different styles of music by rearranging chords in my music. Thanks to the movie we watched in class, my soundtrack is composed of things that I've never done before. The other movie that we watched about the girl was inspiring also. Both of these showed me how using the CRAP designs can make or break your movie. If you really want people to buy in to what you're saying, you need to be detailed and organized. Both movies were great examples of this and I plan on using those same CRAP designs in my movie.