Final Video Essay

Reading Response #10

1. Context collapse is an endless amount of contexts that fall onto one another in the span of moments in recording. Anything captured by a camera can be sent anywhere in the world and preserved for all time, something Michael Welsh refers to as “a black hole sucking all of time and space – virtually all possible contexts – in on itself” (Welsh 23). This is extremely prevalent in YouTube’s world of vlogging, where users create video messages directed at no one in particular; the videos encompass an audience possibly as wide as the internet itself or as narrow as a family circle. According to Welsh, vlogging leads to a lack of ability of the individual to understand context and situation. The unlimited amount of contexts that now run through a vlogger’s imagination when creating these videos aimed at anyone and everyone leave behind many separate parts and as a result, make for an extremely cluttered and nonspecific subconscious contextually.

2. Based upon the video reading responses and blog posts I’ve created for this class, I believe that I am most definitely participating in forms of community and self-expression. For me, community is not defined by literal physical contact, but rather any form of mental and possibly emotional connection and contact. If you like a persons status on Facebook, it is akin to nodding your head and smiling in agreement to a statement made in a conversation. The experience of community in new technologies may feel very different and likely effects us all very differently than if it all took place in person, but that does not make it any less a community. Likewise, my definitely of self-expression is even looser. Any form of creative output by a human being is self-expression to me, as what one creates comes from somewhere within the self and expresses something, whether it be intentional or not. Therefore, all of this vlogging and blogging falls very much under the categories of community and self-expression because it is being sent out to and experienced by others as something created from one’s inner self.

Reading Response #9

1. There are a couple of key factors that go into the amount of money Coca-Cola spends to sponsor American Idol. It is widely believed that when people are watching a show they care about, they are more likely to watch the commercials. American Idol brings this to the table and then some. Forbes ranks them as “the most profitable of all reality series,” causing FOX to devote huge amounts of their prime-time schedule to it (Jenkins 60). Not only is Coca-Cola guaranteed an audience that cares in American Idol, but they are also guaranteed one that perfectly fits their demographics. Coca-Cola’s target audience is aged 12-24 years old, which also represents an overwhelming portion of American Idol’s audience. So in American Idol, Coca-Cola has a show that gives them a good chance of getting the attention they want from exactly who they want.

2. In advertising, impression is the standard audience measurement scale in the entertainment industry. It represents the number of people watching a certain show or media piece at a specific time. Expression, on the other hand, is a measurement of the amount of audience participation and interaction with certain media. This is the newer of the two methodologies and was brought about in an effort to better understand how audiences react to different content and why. While which one is actually ideal for the advertisers themselves could possibly vary, in this day and age expression is becoming a must. With new technologies constantly limiting the ways in which advertisers can rely on mere impression to get to the consumer, a greater knowledge of what specifically will draw their attention is needed. For example, with the invention of DVR and TiVo television recording devices, people can now fast forward through commercials thus not seeing them at all; they make no impression. In cases like this, advertisers need to “learn what kinds of advertising content customers will actually be willing to seek out and receive,” as the control of what the consumer sees is now in their own hands more than ever (Jenkins 67).

3. In my opinion, online advertising is effective, but there is much more work that can be done to improve it. It is effective in its specificity. There have been ads bordering my Facebook homepage that are simply for an item I recently looked up and in certain instances, they remind me of something I had forgotten about and upon seeing the ad, I revisit the item. They are also, however, ineffective in that same specificity. The instance I just described is extremely specific, and may not always be the case. As a result, many people find the ads more annoying (and in some cases, creepy) than helpful. Some even seek out software that rids your web browser of advertisements. Much like the case of DVR overshadowing traditional television commercials, the internet age is expanding rapidly and will cause advertisers to have to constantly expand and update their tactics as well. I believe that the more expression in online advertising, the better. Specificity aside positives and negatives aside, it is all about catching the consumer’s interest and at the moment, getting them involved may be the most effective way of doing that.

As far as privacy goes, I am not concerned. To this point, the only invasion of privacy has been in my interests, which I readily advertise on social media sites like Facebook anyway. I see no harm in advertisers knowing what I am into. If it were to get to the point of sensitive personal information being used, the line would be crossed and advertisers would likely be opening up a storm of legal issues. However, as far as my experience goes, I do not feel as though my privacy has actually been invaded.

Reading Response #8

1. From Roger Ebert’s perspective, video games are not art. To him, art is able to teach more about the experiences, thoughts and feelings of other people. He states of the forms of art he has been most effected by, “They could instruct me about life, love, disease and death, principles and morality, humor and tragedy. They might make my life more deep, full and rewarding” (Ebert). Although he did not play video games at the time of the blog entry, he felt that he could not personally experience his definition of art through video games. He also however, could not define the artistic experience that makes something like music compelling, so he did leave a little room for the “to each his own” argument.

Ian Bogost, on the other hand argues that since the era of avant-garde, there has been no universal definition of art so trying to define video games as “art” or “not art” is a struggle no one will win. Instead, he believes that games should be seen for the specific type of modern art they represent, or as he puts it: “the developing conventions, styles, movements through which games are participating in a broader concept of art” (Bogost 12). An example of such categories are proceduralist games, which favor both immediate gratification and external action causing the player to reflect on the themes of the game without the need for resolution. While I find cinema to be a richer artistic experience than video games personally, I tend to agree with Bogost in this argument. I believe that Ebert is being a little stubborn and unfair in his views, especially considering he refuses to give video games a shot himself. What may not be a rich experience to one person may be incredibly compelling to another, so just because one person does not see something as artistically compelling does not make it any less “art” in general.

2. I believe that video games are absolutely a legitimate art form. Their settings, characters and storylines have evolved to the point that it takes an incredibly talented team of visual and computer artists to construct them, and just like the many other forms of art, from fine art to abstract to music, they offer the consumer an emotional and possibly informative experience through visual stimulation. For me, “Depression Quest” does not a powerful experience on the same level as cinema. Cinema is the ultimate emotionally compelling experience to me. Video games have always been something of a boredom hobby for me; something to do to pass time and find some entertainment but not much more. However, I believe that art is extremely subjective. For others, I can easily see video games being an experience as powerful or maybe even more so than cinema. Just like film critics will disagree on whether a certain film is “good,” it’s all a matter of preference.

3. “Depression Quest” is something like video games meet literature. Yes, you are guiding the main character throughout a created world and what happens depends upon your choices, but it does not come in the CGI heavy, 3-dimensionally created visual world of today’s most popular video games. Instead, you are relying on narrative prose to create the visuals of the story in your head and you chose among a series of written options for what to do next.

Empathy plays a big part in the way certain games are experiences. For example, in “Darfur is Dying,” we are forced to empathize with the characters due to their extreme humanity; we are able to put ourselves in their shoes much more easily than the often epic situations of characters in other video games. In the game, “weakness is all the player ever gets. There is no magic to invoke, no heroic lineage to appeal to; strength adequate to survive is simply inaccessible” (Bogost 19). As a result, the character’s situations are easily felt for and empathized with, creating a different, and possibly more evocative gaming experience.

Reading Response #7

1. The term “transmedia” refers to storytelling that uses many digital platforms to tell a single story. It is often used for promotional means, such as getting the audience involved to garner their attention and get them interested. They draw together a dedicated audience with cultural attractors and then give them something to do with cultural activators, such as games.

The term “origami unicorn” refers to any added element in a series of fiction that reopens up thought and debate about previous works in the series or franchise. It stems from a scene featured in the director’s cut of Blade Runner, in which character Deckard discovers an origami unicorn. This small detail caused viewers to question whether Deckard is a replicant, and thus the entire film could be seen in a different light. 

2. The website for the movie The Blair Witch Project can be seen as being very successful transmedia in terms of gathering audience attention through cultural attractors. The site gives every appearance of depicting real events while not explicitly addressing whether or not the story is real. It has a time line of events not featured in the movie that are relevant to the story, pictures of the filmmakers in the movie with captions such as “Heather and Josh editing a film class assignment a few weeks before embarking on the Blair Witch Project,” feeding into the fact that in the film and by all accounts of the website, they did not return from their trip. By giving the appearance of reality, the website captured the imagination of fans through the interest that is always paid to the unexplainable (UFO stories always gather attention, for example).

3. The Matrix franchise differs from those that use transmedia techniques purely for commercial means in that it defined a whole new type of synergy. Instead of forcing out endlessly simple and easily forgotten cross-promotion merchandise like plastic action figures and the like just to get attention quickly, The Matrix used licensing that mirrored what drew viewers to the original story in the first place. This was done through “co-creation,” which called for cooperation between the companies involved in the film’s creation and its distribution to ensure the creation of content that expands the points of the franchise and gives viewers new experiences. 

Remix Project and Reading Response #6

1. For my remix project, I have turned movie posters from some of my favorite films of last year into the now infamous “doge” memes. I chose this combination because I am a big film fan and enjoyed these films endlessly so poking fun at them becomes even funnier than it would otherwise be. I also enjoy the doge memes and see them in a light that many do not. Doge memes feature Shiba Inu dogs with some kind of sassy expression (the most popular of them use the same face from the picture that started this meme series) combined with short and comically incorrect phrases that represent an internal monologue of the dog (or “doge”). While these memes are meant to simplistically satirize the situation they are depicting, another layer that only those with firsthand experience recognize is the personality of the Shiba Inu. As an owner of a Shiba Inu, it did not take me long to realize the breed is known for being strong-willed and cat-like in nature; they will try their best to run their house and are convinced that they should get what they want when they want it. In that way, the doge meme is given a whole new comedic element in the eyes of Shiba Inu owners: the sassiness of the expression and the short incorrectly written internal monologue match the breed’s steadfast personality and thus create a hilariously bratty and blunt depiction of a situation that you almost feel could very well be going on inside your own Shiba Inu daily.

2. Consistent with doge memes, each poster in my project takes the overarching message or point of the film and comically depicts it in the most simplistic light possible. For example, my poster for the film “12 Years a Slave” (titled “12 Years a Doge” in my version) has a quotation mimicking the short excerpts from reviews of films put on posters to entice the viewer that reads “Much injustice… wow.” The “wow” and “much” are common terms in the doge meme series and the message is simply that this movie was about the historically shocking injustice of slavery. Many people were very enthusiastic about the historic relevance of the topic without much critique of the film’s cinematic elements (which in my opinion were flawless regardless), but overwhelming politically-correct response from critics that culminated in an Academy Award win for Best Picture (which is normally not given to such a dark film) is nonetheless comical. Its satirization mostly comes in the sarcastic “wow” of the dog(e).

3. One of the major harms of copyright laws that Lawrence Lessig discusses in chapter 12 of his book “Free Culture” is the element of sharing and the effect it has on constraining innovation in media. Lessig notes that the capturing and sharing of information has always been important to our culture, but that in the new age of technology, digital creation and sharing “will enable a broad range of citizens to use technology and criticize and contribute to culture all around” (Lessig 184). When copyright laws prevent us from being able to create and share content without a steep price, the creating and sharing will inevitably stop or at least become severely impacted. Consequentially, the discussion and contributions to our culture that result from the sharing of content end and we become a much more segmented and less informed society.

4. I participate in “unlawful” use of media in about everyway possible. Some of the more innocent uses come when I post a picture I do not have the rights to on Instagram or Facebook; that has become such common place on social networks that we hardly even notice it. However, I also participate in more outright “unlawful” use of media such as ripping of mp3 files off of YouTube and downloading torrents of movies and television shows. While this is more notably “unlawful,” it is of the same principles as using a photograph you do not own: you are taking the work of an artist without his or her consent (or without compensating them). Despite this, I do not consider myself a criminal in anyway. The new age of media is so sharing-heavy that copyright laws are no longer a possibility in a traditional sense. The internet would not be what it is without sharing of such content, lawfully or not, and as a result, the artists responsible for creating the content would not receive anything near the amount of attention or recognition without it. “Unlawful” use of media is a part of what is helping media evolve with the times and without it, media itself would suffer greatly; what was once “criminal” is now “contribution.”

Reading Response #5

1. Going by Sandra Gaudenzi’s description of interactive documentary, Out My Window encompasses the “fluid, layered and changeable” nature of the medium that leads to a possibly infinite amount of forms through “a dialogue between the user and the possibilities that the interactive documentary system offers” (Gaudenzi 2). Through a series of algorithms, the user can pick and chose their way through the virtual world of Out My Window ensuring each who participates in the interface their own, unique experience of it.

2. The first mode of documentary that Bill Nichols describes in “What Kind of Documentaries Are There?” is the Poetic Mode, which seeks to explore connections of “temporal rhythms and spatial juxtapositions” rather than conventional here-and-now conventions driven by continuity editing (Nichols 102). This mode focuses more on mood and tone of the piece rather than the direct transfer of information to the audience. 

The next mode Nichols discusses is the Expository Mode, which takes historical bits and from them forms an argument and a specific perspective. This mode relies heavily on the spoken word. 

The Observational Mode of documentary throws meditated construction out the window, instead focusing strictly on what happens in front of the camera and nothing more. Through this, we see life at the pace we live it, leaving the viewer to form opinions of the matter at hand simply through their observations. 

The Participatory Mode requires the filmmaker to actually be with and participate in the lives and/or cultures of his subjects in order to gain a first hand understanding of what he is filming. As a result, the viewer is given a feel of what this experience was like for the filmmaker and in turn, they can form their opinion on the matter. 

In the Reflexive Mode of documentary, the viewer is tasked with not simply seeing through the world of the documentary, but seeing the documentary as the constructed piece that it is. This relies on the viewer looking at the events shown as needing interpretation rather than the film itself. Needless to say, reflexive documentaries rely heavily on content. 

Finally, the Performative Mode of documentary highlights the subjective nature of each individual’s understanding of the world and uses it as gateway to general understanding. Actual facts and the imagined are often intertwined in this mode. 

3. Since Nichols descriptions in “What Kind of Documentaries Are There?,” the main changes in the format have largely been those described by Gaudenzi in her description of interactive documentary. The many types of documentary Nichols describes are all what Gaudenzi describes as the linear form and cut of documentary, which though still relevant, now have competition in the form of fluid, interactive documentaries that let the viewer pick-and-choose their experience rather than it being forced upon them in the form of a concrete piece.  

4. Out My Window is very much a representation of the world as we neglect to see it. We become so caught up in our own private lives that we rarely look beyond into the lives of those around us as well as simply what is going on around us. Out My Window lets the viewer explore the world as though they were a fly on the wall in any room or space of their choosing (although with the ability to pick-and-choose what information they take in and experience).