Final Soundslide

Rationale: Here it is, my electronic communications final project! This project encompassed many of the skills that we have been learning all semester. We had to pick a topic we were passionate about, collect pictures relating to the topic and then write a two minute narrative explaining our passion. We had to use Audacity to edit our voice over, ambient sounds and song all into one file. We then used Soundslide to combine the pictures with the mp3 voice over. My goal for the final was to be able to show off everything I have learned this semester with a Soundslide I am proud of.

One of the things I found most challenging about this project was choosing a topic. The day that we met in groups and discussed it as a class, I had no idea what to do. My group members had some suggestions, but nothing I actually wanted to do a whole project on. Then it came to me one day when I was on the phone with my mom, I was begging her to pull some strings and get me tickets to Taylor Swift's concert this summer and it hit me; I LOVE going to concerts. I have been going to shows since I was very young, and since I started going, every artist that I remotely like that comes to town I want to see. Once I got over choosing my topic, I was able to collect the necessary aspects for my project. Another challenge I faced was working with the programs again. I kind of forgot how to work audacity and it took me a few tries to make get my narrative to flow with my song and my ambient sound of crowd cheering. It then took some refreshing of my memory to figure out how to export my "publish to web folder" in Soundslide.

What I enjoyed most about this project was how personable it was. I love how it was on a topic that I got to choose and there was a lot of creativity involved. It was fun to reminisce and go back looking for pictures I had taken at shows I went to. I also liked searching for a good ambient sound and then choosing a song that had a fun feel to go along with my slide show. Though this project was a little complicated because of all the different aspects involved, it encompassed much of what we learned this semester in a way where I could show off what I learned.

What I am most proud of is having a final project that I can show people. Sometimes in school, you have no way of showing off what you learned. With this class, having a blog that can show off all my work all the programs that I learned. I will definitely show my mom my new skills with this blog and project =)

With more time, I would have perfected my audio. There are certain things about my narrative that I do not love, but there are only so many times I can record it. I would have worked harder to perfect my Audacity work.

Thank you for a great semester!


Narrative:

I remember my first concert, it was the Spice Girls and I was in second grade. I was obsessed with them; I used to carry my tape player around with me constantly blasting their music. When one of my classmates told me their mother had just gotten them tickets to the Spice Girls concert, I knew I had to go. I went running home from school, screaming about how my life would not go on if I did not go to their concert. Luckily for me, my mom decided she would have fun at the show too and got the two of us tickets. Since then, I have developed a love for concerts and live music.

I have gone to probably over 50 concerts since then. The amazing feeling of being around live music and the connection I feel with the artist while I am there is what keeps me buying tickets to shows.

There are many other things I love about concerts; one of the best parts for me is the anticipation. My friends and I always play a game where we guess what songs will be performed. I also love listening to that artist the whole car ride to the show to get excited. The whole concert scene and ambience is what brings me back for more. I love the mass amounts of people who can come together to support one artist. I always end up meeting really great people at shows and run into old friends or people who I do not expect to see. Concerts have the best atmosphere and everybody is always in an amazing mood just looking for a good time.

Making concerts all day affairs is just another fun aspect. I love going to summer shows early and barbequing in the parking lot until the show opens up. Sometimes, if I go to a show with a large amount of people, we get a limo or party bus to take us. This extends the event even further, allowing for more fun and excitement.

The pictures in this slide show were taken at Britney Spears, Kanye West, Monster Jam, Dave Matthews, Sam Adams, The Fray, OAR, Spice Girls, Jay- Z, Bob Dylan and Lil’ Wayne. Clearly, there is variety among the shows I go to, but I’m not one to turn down a good concert, I know I’ll always have a good time.

In Design Bibi Card

My design rationale for the bibi card assignment is in my entry entitled Quark bibi card. I posted this for comparison reasons. It is very obvious that my Quark bibi card is better, but I am impressed that my final InDesign one is as good as it is considering the major frustration I experienced while creating it.

Quark Bibi Card

Here is my Bibi card that I made using QuarkXpress. What I was hoping to achieve in this project was a near identical copy of my US News bibi card. When doing this I had to consider: the placement of my words and graphics, along with the size of the fonts, the colors and the typefaces used.

To be perfectly honest, I found this whole project to be very challenging. Though I struggled more with InDesign, doing this assignment in Quark was no breeze. It was very frustrating to not be able to find the EXACT same fonts and colors. It bothered me that I was trying to make a perfect replica because there was no way to find exactly the same fonts. Some of the hardest parts of this project were finding what matched up the best, and how to measure out the spacing on the card. The hardest part of this project was doing it in InDesign. I had never used the program and learning a whole new program to repeat a project I already did was very hard. To resolve my problems and frustrations I would have to take a break and ask my classmates how they did things, and that reassured me I could do it. Another big frustration was finally finishing it in Quark, and then having to do it all over again in InDesign.

Again to be perfectly honest, there wasn't much I enjoyed about this project. I don't mind using Quark, so in the process of creating my bibi card I acquired new Quark skills - which I guess I enjoyed. I enjoyed finishing this project and being able to say that I did it, because when it was first assigned it seemed near impossible.

I am most proud of actually completing the project in InDesign, there were times I was going crazy because I could not figure out how to change the colors of my font. InDesign was much more complicated than Quark, and I had to mostly teach myself to use it. It was a trial and error with figuring out how to make things.

With more time, I wish we had been able to go over InDesign in class. What I had the most trouble with in this project was learning a whole new program just to do the same assignment over again. Also, given more time I would have perfected my InDesign card much more. Some things I had to give up on perfecting so I could finish it in time.

Though I do seem bitter about this project, I am glad it was assigned. I know that the skills I learned will help me sometime in the long run. I am proud of finishing this project and glad that I am done with it forever!!

Website

DairyJoyWebsite

Here is my webpage!
Since I have never worked with a website program before I was a little hesitant when it came to working with Dream Weaver. Though the site ended up being somewhat self explanatory, I was still a little uneasy about using it. What I wanted to achieve was a basic understanding of an HTML program. I know that sometime in my PR future I am going to have to know how to create (or at least have knowledge about) a website. Learning the basics of Dream Weaver will help me along with this.

What I found most challenging was again just the new program. I don't think I ever would have figured out to how separate the pages if we hadn't gone over it in class! Another challenging aspect of this project was going back into my notes and figuring out how to load my webpage using FileZilla. Once I overcame these challenges, with the help of classmates and my notes, this project became a fun new learning experience!

The aspect I enjoyed most about this project was just the concept or working with a program that makes websites. I never thought I would actually be able to load my own things on the web and now I can. It is a fun exciting feeling and hopefully I will keep the notes I took forever so I can figure out how to do it again. I hope that someday I can learn more complex website creating, using color and pictures to spice it up.

I am most proud of figuring out how to have my images load directly on the page. I know that this was not a requirement but after messing around with the program a little I came to find the "Insert" tab, and was able to put up some pictures of Dairy Joy. Though my website was still very basic and plain, this made it more fun for me and it is something I was proud of.

Since we missed a day of class, with more time I would have liked to use color and pictures. If there was more time in the semester, I would probably get myself more familiar with the program. I enjoyed this project a lot because I feel fortunate enough to know how to put something online now!! Yay!