My DS106 choice assignment was to create a collogue on a sillouette of my head representing the things that went around in my head every day. This is what i came up with. All photos used with permission by creative commons. The background is made up of a montage of Harry Potter photos. I chose this because Harry Potter author, J.K. Rowling inspired me become an English major. Coming up from the bottom, the foreground images are all things that I work with daily. On my ponytail, I included the image of the International Gold Key society. The GK society is an international honor society which I am involved in and I am starting to become a more prominent member of. The next 2 things (although I am not exactly happy with how they look on the collogue) are pretty important to me. I put a wedding dress first because I am continuously planning my (hopefully soon to come) wedding. Above that I placed the biggest loser logo. While, this may seem like a strange, this becomes my inspiration as I struggle with my goal to get healthy again. Moving up the ladder, I put an image of the SMURFS. This kind of became an inside joke between my friends and myself. They call me a surf because I am so short….very funny I know. Also I placed this because I have a rally cool collection of both vintage and new smurf toys.  Above that I placed a bold, brightly colored word to catch attention: LOVE. Love is the basis of all and makes everything worth while. I had to put the Home Depot logo on here because I work here so much of my attention is focused on my job. Finally, on the top of the collogue, I place a graduation cap and a diploma. This is on the top because at this point in my life it is the most important thing to me. I cannot wait to graduate and see the benefits of all of the hard work I have asserted over the last few years.

I was able to compile the collogue using Photoshop. I used different textures and opacities in order to get the desired effects. I am trying to retweak the lower half of the collogue. I feel like the lower half of the picture is just kind of there. It doesn’t flow in with the other images as much as I was hoping. Obviously, I have hundreds of things that go through my head everyday, it was very hard for me to pin point exactly what I wanted to include in it.

Twinkle Twinkle Inner Child – This I believe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U3ShZxrjcY&feature=youtu.be

Below is my composing log for my journey creating this video. It’s kind of funny when you realize how many times I changed my mind not only when deciding WHAT to do my essay about, but also HOW to put it together. All in all though, I am very pleased with the way it turned out.

August 30,2012 2:00 p.m.
I have looked through many essays on various websites. I don’t have a definite topic yet. I am thinking about maybe a “I believe in the power of love…”

Maybe a you are beautiful just the way you are….

Format: Windows Movie Maker

Interview with married couples…. maybe…

Use Video clips and sound clips and music.

August 30, 2012 4:30 p.m.
Driving home today I decided to scrap all of my original ideas. I came up with the idea of a comic book called the Adventures of Imagination man (which I will make in photoshop.) I will upload pages from comic book to movie maker and have people perform voice overs for characters. I will tell my story in between scenes in the comic book. It will shift back and forth between real – time and comic book.

Open: Me sitting on a stool telling what I believe… I believe in the power of imagination…blah..blah…blah…

after 1 minute cut to comic book with narration and voice over

September 2, 2012 3:54p.m.
I’ve been toying with various ideas all weekend and I have a good start on where I would like to be with this. Set up: documentary style. Talk, video, talk, narration and stills, end, play video song.

*include clips from various cartoons during imagiantion speech

I found a really cool video dealing with this topic on youtube: Mr. Rogers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFzXaFbxDcM

Essay notes:
story about imagination:

Our imaginations are our most powerful tools and that allows each of us to be creative and unique individuals with varying tastes and personalities. without our imaginations, we might as well live in a world of no color.

[cartoons taught us that it was ok to believe in the make believe]

-dragon tales
– rug rats
– mr. rogers
– barney
– blues clues
– hannah montanna

September 4, 2012 12:46p.m.
obviously if you’ve been following this then you know i keep changing my mind.
more essay notes:

15 years ago i was five and ready for my first day in kindergarten
tell story before i tell what I believe

the mind is a garden

September 4, 2012 7:30p.m.

Finished final corrections on essay..included below in a seperate post
I  had a really hard time cutting it down to 500 words or less. Final word count: 508

→ began looking for footage for my video.
→ considering footage of nursery age children from church

September 5, 2012 10:29 p.m.
Last night I uploaded my essay to my wordpress blog. It was great to get some feedback from some people other than my immediate family. That helped because some people are brutally honest. lol
I am in the process of getting in touch with some of my friends with children. I would like to use pictures of their small children, but before I do, i want to have their consent.

I have chosen a song to use….Owl City – Fireflies.

I am having trouble figuring our how to put the music and my voice together. =(

September 6, 2012 1:58 p.m.
I am so frustrated with this project right now.
I cannot figure out how to do what I want to do…grrrrrrr
i feel so computer illiterate today. =(

September 8,2010
I was able to get in a few minutes of editing before work. SO I got my music picked out, my essay recorded, and picked out what pictures of my friends and their kids that I wanted to use

September 10, 2012 10:00a.m.
I FINISHED IT! Everything is in place. I am very happy with my video and will be uploading it tomorrow

September 11, 2012 1:15p.m.
After some very frustrating technical difficulties with both YouTube and WordPress and my file sizes, I finally got my project uploaded and ready to go.

September 18, 2012
It’s been a week since I completed my DMC. After going back and looking at my composing logs and my video again. I realize some things that I would have changed. 1) I should probably Actually pin point the things that I believe in.It was very hard to think of a topic for my video. 2) keeping a journa of my progress eliminated a lot of the stress of creating the project because I was able to look back at what I had accomplished and I was able to see what I needed to accomplish. I will add more details from now on though. 3) My video would have been much better (in my opion) if I would have had the time to go and take video of the children I used. 4) I procrastinated A LOT. By doing so, I stressed myslef the night before trying to get everything finished on time. Finally, I really enjoyed putting this project together and I plan to start using a composing process such as this to help me get my ideas on paper before composing them into a paper or video. Also I found that by keeping detailed notes, I was able to walk away from the project when I got stressed out by it, and then go back and start back like I had never stopped.

This I Believe Essay

15 years ago, I was 5 and I was walking into my first day of kindergarten.   I had on my shiny red cowgirl boots, my hair in pigtails, and my brand new Barbie backpack in my hands. I thought was so cool. Kindergarten, although I didn’t realize it at the time, taught me things that I still use today. Things like, always share your cookies because the person beside you probably has chocolate chip, don’t hit each other, afternoon naps are ok, and always hold hands and stick together with those closest to you. Thinking about the fact that the hardest part of my day was trying to sleep during naptime and coloring inside the lines makes me laugh sometimes.  I am also forced to reflect upon the most important aspect I learned in kindergarten: ALWAYS let your imagination soar. Let it help you to create games and stories and pictures, let the jungle gym be your castle and your best friend be prince charming rescuing you from the evil dragon that lives beneath the slide. Let the sea saw be a pirate ship rocking on the rough waters of the seas and let Dr. Suess offer you great philosophies.

Throughout elementary school and into middle school, I began to see myself grow and mature. I had many exciting new experiences and I began to see how much one summer could change your entire life. I remember my first day high school like it was yesterday. I remember being intimidated by the upperclassmen and overwhelmed by the loads of homework that were piling up. My years in high school had ups and downs but were fulfilling both socially and academically. At my high school graduation ceremony, my class was told “leave behind the things that are not important and bring forward with you the lessons that will be the working parts of your life.” For me I guess that would have been my Barbie backpack and my shiny red cowgirl boots but along with those simple objects came life lessons that are important 15 years later.

I believe that you should always embrace what you learned in kindergarten. Always remember your manners, share your cookies, stay within the lines and more than anything let your imagination soar!  I believe that as adults we sometimes forget how to live. We think we are too old to play on the playground and find dancing to the music within our own heads silly. I always try to remember the five year old girl that I once was. I wear my shiny red cowboy boots and put my hair in pigtails and although the Hot Pink Barbie backpack has long since been retired, I still believe that by embracing what we left behind all those years ago, our futures can be brighter, more fulfilling. I believe that finding my five year old self allows me to be a better thinker, a better creator, a better writer, and hopefully a better person.