assignment 7-outline

Topic: Oral Storytelling

Origins
Storytelling
A. Wonder Book for Boys & Girls
Narrator: Eustace Bright
The Golden Touch
Three Golden Apples
Miraculous Pitcher

B. 1001 Arabian Nights
Narrator: Scheherazade
Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves
History or 7 Voyages of Sinbad
Aladdin and the Magic Lamp

I am going to try and note the history/purpose of oral storytelling-teaches a lesson/moral, develop imagination, preserve memories, and pure entertainment by trying to add images that will connect to this. That may sound a little far fetched, so I am open to suggestions on how I should go about this. Maybe, that part will just have to be narration. While researching 1001 Arabian Nights, I came upon many stories within stories. Additional stories may be included after I experiment with narration, music, and other effects. I will also work on a script this week.

Engines of Ingenuity-Frankenstein

Growing up, horror movies for me were these imaginative characters such as Dracula played by Bela Lugosi or Wolfman played by Lon Chaney. We did not have the special effects available as in today's movies. Sometimes, the movie presentations were serious or comedies such as "Abbot and Castello Meets Frankenstein," "Frankenstein" starring Gene Wilder and Madeline Kahn (very effective since the movie was in black and white) or one of Bob Hope's movies. Back then, these characters played on our creative minds. It was always a battle between good and evil. Books itself were read for enjoyment and fantasizing a little. Also, Halloween is almost here and just perusing the list of ingenuities made me select Frankenstein #1337.

The story was written by Mary Shelley whose parents were the writers, William Godwin and Mary Wollencraft. It is a mixture of Gothic and romanticism influence. The Industrial Revolution brought changes from a manual labor economy towards machine based. In an era of post Industrial Revolution, Victor Frankenstein is fascinated with creating a "man brought to life" by the use of electricity. He experiments and becomes obsessed with creating a man (or similar to one) through this use of science searching for the "elixer of life." His purpose was to make things better for humans; same as in "The Modern Prometheus."

annietsui-narration and music-assignment5

Working on the narration was quite a disaster for me. I used a microphone described as a "blackjack." After successful testing with the volume using the Sound Hardware Test Wizard, I thought it would be easy. I spoke into the microphone and saw the meter registering my recording. Unfortunately, I could not hear my voice during the preview so I redid the narration several times. Later, I discovered that the narration recorded, but could hear it very faintly on the laptop. Tried to go into the settings to correct the volume, but it did not change. If the picture did not move for quite a few seconds, those were the frames where I tried to add narration, but could not be heard during preview.

Also, I could not figure out how to use background color with the picture on it, but did eventually. It is reflected in my first frame only. Selecting the transition feature in customizing motion is a time consuming process if you select transitions for each picture. Good thing, I remembered the comment about overdoing the transition function. I chose just a few to begin with, adding or deleting as I went. Using transition on the frames caused the pictures to be slightly blurry during the viewing.

Another question I have is getting the complete frame to fit into the slide. I increased the pixels based on what was recommended, but it did not cover the whole frame during the preview. The music was louder than my narration, so I had to lower the volume and resave. I used music already in the program, but will try to find other music by downloading it (if I can).

Some of the six tales I used do not have a frame leading into it. Right now, one may tell one story and go into another one without a separation. I did not like the original introduction to those and am trying to find a different one for them. I plan to add a separate picture from the tales after the last frame. So, it may seem a little confusing.

My total time for the video was about three minutes after adding and deleting. Since this is really a rough, rough draft, I will have to go and revise my entire photostory/video as I practice using these features more. It is not the quality expected.

annie tsui-assignment 4-upload video

This is just a rough draft. I know it needs work on text colors and I am going to try to work on the motion...have some ideas, but will need to experiment. I found an old microphone in the house. Should work OK.

before and after

My first picture is the moon on September 14, our Mid-Autumn Festival. From Dr. Robin's suggestion, I cropped the picture and realized the effect presented is definitely much better. I changed the size from W326 H435 to W126 H113. After, I edited some of the other features, you also noticed the image being clearer and more distinctive than the original. The exposure was changed from 0% to 84%, the contrast from 0% to just 1% (this was best left alone), and the saturation from 100% to 140%. In saturation, less saturation (129%) led to a darker background with less clouds while more than 140% saturation led to a yellowish tint appearance of the moon. The hue at 50% showed the moon to be more distinctive as well. Sharpness varied; if the percent moved from 0 to 40, the picture has a grain or sand background effect to it. After 71%, the moon becomes blurry. I left it at the original setting of 4%.

My second picture is of a tree where I try to catch the sunlight shining through it. I went through each option and selected some and left some alone. The following features were used. Colors were enhanced greatly as you can see the difference from the before and after photo. Tilt was not used. The exposure was decreased from 4% to -29%, contrast increased from 1% to 44%, the saturation from 100% to 179%, and hue from 0% to 11%. The saturation effect brought out vivid colors compared to the dullness of my original. On the sharpness, I increased the percent from 0 to 49. From the range 0% to 49%, the picture looks fine, less than 0% or more than 49%, the picture becomes distorted or stifled. Overall, my concern about this photo is the sun peering through the tree. I not sure the image or reflection is what it should be. Any suggestions?

Question-I tried to add text to my picture (either on or around it) with the words "before" and "after," but could not figure it out. Do we do this before we upload our picture or is there a way you can edit it while in your blog? I tried doing it while in the blog, but was not successful. Also, what about the editing the location of your picture in the blog. I used the selection of none, right, center, or left offered initially when we begin to upload, but I actually uploaded the tree first and moon second. I thought the tree photos would be first, but when I uploaded the moon photos, those took precedence over the other. So, do I assume, you work from bottom up when uploading the order of your photos?