Chocolate Milk: Media Meditation #3

Somethings don't age well. Chocolate milk, for example.


My roommate and her boyfriend were watching the first "High School Musical" movie last night and man, that thing hasn't aged well at all.

Time to make you feel a little old: this movie came out in 2006. It's already four years old.

The songs already sound electronic and cheesey, just like most Disney Channel Original Movie soundtracks. I was appalled. They were supposed to be timeless! We were supposed to be singing "getcha head in the game" while reading our monthly AARP newsletters!

I guess the main point I'm trying to make here is that media moves FAST. Something that was absolutely the definition of cool years ago is suddenly....this:


A dated song that most of the population doesn't really remember, left to sit and age on youtube like a carton of chocolate milk on a countertop. This stereotype-ridden jingle is representative of the internet at large, I think. The coolest, hottest new way to communicate can be left in the dust in a heartbeat.

It also makes me think of the overall cultural shift that America faces, the change from living completely private lives, even a few years ago, to now risking giving away too much. What happens when no one wants to read it anymore?

There's also the economic shift, the way the media totally owns us. When was the last time you had to find something out and didn't go to either google or wikipedia? Google owns pretty much the whole internet these days and is only expanding more.

This also kind of brings in the question of ownership. Google owns the rights to a lot of stuff on the internet. A lot a lot. We sign up to use websites, but that doesn't give us 100% ownership of everything we create there. A long time ago, I used a blogging website called greatestjournal. When I was about a junior in high school, I went back to read the stupid entries I had made as a middle schooler and was shocked to see that the entire website was gone, the victim of bad server hosting and lack of interest by the creators. My childhood internet experience was lost forever.

We're constantly being pushed to sign up for new and exciting websites. Stay in touch with your friends with facebook! Twitter is the simple solution to your life! Install this app, it'll help organize your ordinary, plain life! The persuasive techniques we see in television and radio advertising are a little more subtle when it comes to sites like facebook and twitter, but they still exist. But what happens when these things fall out of fashion? We're just left with huge amounts of information that no one wants to access anymore.

Who do you know that still has a myspace page? Technological trends move at a rapid pace. The hottest new social network site ever now will start to show its cracks and bruises in a few years and will soon be replaced by something new and exciting.

Life moves pretty fast. Social networking moves as fast a hummingbird's wings.

We love to find the next new application that will make our lives so much easier and more fulfilling, and when we find it we leave the old ones to sit and age and rot, just like forgotten chocolate milk in the back of a fridge.

A Little Too Connected? Media Meditation #2

A few days ago, I was writing a paper.

Well actually, if I'm being completely honest, I was writing a paper, texting one friend of mine, on AIM with another, checking facebook, and updating my brand-new twitter account. As I stared at my slowly developing homework, I wondered if I was living a life where now I was just too connected to the people around me.

If I needed someone's help, I now had about seven ways of reaching them:
facebook, twitter, AIM, facebook chat, email, texting, and if it came down to it, calling them on the telephone (but how stone-age is that?). With the vast size of the internet, there is now far too much stimulation given to the neocortex and limbic brain (brand new information at any second! Cool pictures at every turn!) and it really can get to be overwhelming. It's certainly not helping my homework habits or overall attention span.

A lot of media culture shifts come into play when it comes to these connections. The way we communicate with our friends, families, and now the world are forever changing to keep up with our need for connection.

The technological shift is a big one, of course. In elementary school, for example, my friends and I would write in a series of hideous diaries and notebooks to preserve our secrets. Around seventh grade, we all got livejournal accounts and were free to customize (and communicate through) our e-diaries. It was a strange way of going from things being totally internal to sharing with potentially the world at large.

The personal shift is another big one here. Information sharing has gone from "I'll call my mom and tell her about my weekend" to "I'll blog about my weekend so that everyone can know what I did!" Twitter is a big part of this. A while ago I saw a video that describes the purpose twitter in a really positive way, which I liked:



At first, all I did was mock the way people shared the minutia of their day via twitter, but that doesn't mean it isn't useful.

The seven basic principles of media also come into play here. We end up creating our own realities on the web; I talk differently online than I do in real life.

There's also the question of ownership. Do I own what I make on the web? I know I basically signed away my independent thought when I agreed to facebook's terms of service, but I still consider all of the pictures and wall posts to be mine. It's strange to think of someone else actually owning something I've been using for four years. At any time it could shut down.


Though that might not be a bad thing.

It's hard to keep up with all of these forms of communication. At a certain point on that paper-writing evening, I had a jarring thought: I wanted to do my homework. I shut down twitter, told my friends I'd talk to them later, used the program self control to block facebook (this will change your life), and got to work. In the media-centric world, it seems a little stone-age, but it felt fantastic.


(I didn't turn off my phone, though. I guess I'll forever be on the grid.)

BREAKING NEWS: Brand New Information on News Scripting

As I've said before, I don't watch sports. I don't read sports. I don't listen to sports. The most I have been exposed to sports this year was listening to my roommate scream about the Jets during football season. It's not that I don't like them, I just can't get that involved in them.

I figured it would be interesting to try to script a news story about updates in sports since it's a world I almost never look into. And really, who doesn't love the Olympics?
(I stopped scripting at about the 50-second mark)



MS OF REPORTER ALEX THOMAS IN FRONT OF BACKDROP OF VANCOUVER AT NIGHT
Thomas: For more than a decade, he's been one of the most gifted skiers in the world. But now Bode Miller finally has the reward that many would argue his talent deserves.

ZOOM ON IMAGE FROM MILLER'S DOWNHILL RUN
Thomas: He went into Sunday's super combined race with two Olympic medals already in the bag. Bode's downhill run was disappointing...

ZOOM ON IMAGE FROM MILLER'S SLALOM RUN
Thomas:...But the American flew down Whistler Mountain in the slalom leg...

ZOOM ON IMAGE OF MILLER POST-RACE
Thomas:...posting the third fastest time to be top overall and then waiting to see if he'd be beaten.

ZOOM ON IMAGE FROM SVINDAL'S RACE
Thomas: His biggest threat looked to be Aksel Lund Svindal, but the Norwegian crashed out of the slalom...

ZOOM ON IMAGE OF MEDALISTS MILLER, KOSTELIC, AND ZURBRIGGEN
Thomas:...to hand victory to Miller. Croatian Ivica Kostelić claimed the silver ahead of Switzerland's Silvan Zurbriggen...

CUT TO VANCOUVER OLYMPICS GRAPHIC: TIMES OF MEDALISTS
Thomas:...but Miller's gold was a historic one. It's his fifth Olympic medal and his third of these games in stark contrast to 2006 when he came away empty handed.

BODE MILLER PRESS CONFERENCE FOOTAGE

Observations-

My first observation is about the writing itself; even though I didn't really understand Alpine skiing or what the difference between combined and super combined were until researching them, I understood most of what the reporter was talking about. Hilliard talked about how sports writers have to cater to every demographic, the casual sports fan and the diehard, and I think it really showed in this video.

My second observation is about the speed of the broadcast. It seemed pretty long because I had to watch it a million times to script it, but it was really just a 50-second look at an entire day of skiing. It's amazing how they can condense such a large event as the Olympics into just a few minutes a day.

My final observation is about objectivity. News reporting is supposed to be objective and impartial, but this whole story had such a "WOOOOOH, AMERICA!" vibe to it. The whole story focuses on American Bode Miller's win at the Olympics, and I know that every country is focused on their own successes, but the fact that the other skiers got a two second mention and the rest of the video ends up being about more American success and little else just strikes me as a little odd.

One-Column Scripting Strikes Back

Now for a second practice attempt (woodshedding, as Dr. W would say) at the web 2.0 "mash method" for scripting, this time using one of my favorite commercials ever. Weird to think about, isn't it? Favorite commercials?

At the time, I didn't realize that this would end up being the longest commercial script ever. So many different shots! Craziness.



SCENE #1: ESTABLISHING SHOT - AN ELEPHANT'S SECTION IN A ZOO - ZOOKEEPER, ELEPHANT, AND MONKEY. MASTERCARD LOGO IN BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER
Uplifting music starts

SCENE #2: MS OF ZOOKEEPER AS HE SNEEZES
Uplifting music cont.
Zookeeper: Achoo!

SCENE #3: MS OF MONKEY LOOKING CONCERNED
Uplifting music cont.

SCENE #4: MS OF ZOOKEEPER
Uplifting music cont.

SCENE #5: FS OF ZOOKEEPER AND MONKEY LEAVING ZOO
Uplifting music cont.

SCENE #6: MS OF ELEPHANT, CUT TO CU OF ELEPHANT'S TRUCK PICKING UP MASTERCARD
Uplifting music cont.

SCENE #7: MS OF ELEPHANT AND ZOO SIGN
Uplifting music cont.

SCENE #8: WS OF ELEPHANT WALKING ACROSS FIELD TO CITY
Uplifting music cont.

SCENE #9: FS OF ELEPHANT IN RESTAURANT - TEXT AT BOTTOM OF SCREEN - SOUP: $4
Uplifting music cont.
Voiceover: Soup - four dollars

SCENE #10: CUT TO CU OF ELEPHANT TRUNK USING MASTERCARD PAYPASS
Uplifting music cont., beep of Paypass

SCENE #11: FS OF ELEPHANT, PHARMACIST IN PHARMACY - TEXT AT BOTTOM OF SCREEN - MEDICINE: $11
Uplifting music cont.
Voiceover: Cold medicine - 11 dollars

SCENE #12: MS OF ELEPHANT USING MASTERCARD PAYPASS
Uplifting music cont., beep of Paypass
CUT TO FS OF ELEPHANT AND PHARMACIST

SCENE #13: MS OF ELEPHANT AND SALESWOMAN IN HOUSEWARES STORE - TEXT AT BOTTOM OF SCREEN - BLANKET: $24
Uplifting music cont.
Voiceover: Blanket - 24 dollars

SCENE #14: CU OF MASTERCARD PAYPASS
Uplifting music cont., beep of Paypass

SCENE #15: FS OF ELEPHANT WALKING TOWARDS COTTAGE
Uplifting music cont.

SCENE #16: MS OF ZOOKEEPER IN CHAIR - TEXT AT BOTTOM OF SCREEN - MAKING IT ALL BETTER: PRICELESS
Uplifting music cont.
Voiceover: Making it all better...

SCENE #17: FS OF ELEPHANT, ZOOKEEPER, AND MONKEY IN LIVING ROOM
Uplifting music cont.
Voiceover: Priceless.

SCENE #18: CUT TO BLACK, MASTERCARD END CREDIT
Uplifting music cont., beep of paypass
Voiceover: With Paypass on your Mastercard, just tap and go

SCENE #19: FS OF ELEPHANT, ZOOKEEPER, AND MONKEY IN LIVING ROOM
Uplifting music cont.

Not the Droids You're Looking For: Media Meditation #1

I'm a film major, so most of what I end up doing is watching movies or talking about movies or thinking about movies to watch and talk about. "Star Wars" is a big, epic franchise that is impossible to ignore. In fact, four of the six movies are on the list of top 50 highest-grossing films worldwide.

A few months ago, my friends Emily and Brian were talking about Star Wars. "I've never seen any of the prequels," Emily said. Brian was horrified. "We should watch all of them one night!" he exclaimed. His Star Wars Social Extravaganza was born.

Brian's roommate is a member of CHAMP and helped him run the event, a screening of all six Star Wars movies in order (starting with Episode I and ending with VI). I'd never seen the prequels either and decided to go.

"They aren't worth it," said Brian, "but you should watch them at least once."
I was treated to about four and a half ours of high caliber acting like this:


...before realizing I could blog about this. I considered the different ways my brain and our tool sets were interacting with this crazy experience.

My limbic brain and neocortex were stoked for all the visual stimulation they were getting. "Oh snap, I wonder what Anakin is going to do next!" my neocortex exclaimed excitedly. "Who knows," my limbic brain said, "but check out this animation! So 2001! What do you think, reptilian brain?"

Reptilian brain sighed. "Guys, this isn't doing anything for the instincts. None of it is settin' off any alarms. All I know is that Camille is hungry, sick of sitting, ready to flee the scene, and OH MY GOD WAS THAT AN EXPLOSION?!"

It totally was, reptilian brain.

There were a lot of media culture shifts throughout this event. The technological shift was a big one; in the 70's, you could only get the true experience of Star Wars in theaters. in 2010, we were watching them via laptop and projector (and there wasn't a person there without their computer. Six movies is a looooong time, let me tell you).

The only real principles of media that were used during this event were individual meaning and value messages, since people interpreted the movies in different ways and knew different facts. Pacing, different in film and television, is also at play here.

The only persuasive techniques Brian used to get me to go was asking nicely. There was some bandwagon (all of your friends are going!) and bribery (free food!) but I mostly went for my own enjoyment and to have a crazy media experience.

Americans spend a lot of time with screens. In class, we were told that Americans spend 12 hours a day with media. I knocked it out all in one sitting, and though I probably shouldn't be proud, I really enjoyed nerding out for an entire day, surrounded by my friends and a galaxy far, far away.

One-Column Scripting

In class on Monday, we watched this "banned" commercial for the oft-controversial GoDaddy.com:



We had all previously scripted it in the traditional two-column method, but now used the wonderful world of blogging to dive into a new format: one-column scripting.

SCENE #1: ESTABLISHING SHOT - OUTSIDE OF LOLA'S MANSION
Cheesey keyboard music
Danica: Meet Lola.
Lola: Mmmhmmm!

SCENE #2: CLOSE-UP- FRAMED FOOTBALL PICTURE OF LOLA
Crowd Cheering and keyboard music continues
Danica: The day he retired from football...

SCENE #3: MEDIUM SHOT OF DANICA
keyboard music cont.
Danica: Lola started chasing his biggest dream:

SCENE #4: FS- DANICA WALKING. CAMERA PANS LEFT AS SHE WALKS TOWARD LOLA AND MODELS
keyboard music cont.
Danica: A business of his own. Lola's first step? He built his website with GoDaddy.com.

SCENE #5: CLOSEUP OF LOLA LOOKING AT MODELS
keyboard music cont.
Lola: *gasps*

SCENE #6: MS OF DANICA AND LOLA IN OFFICE
keyboard music cont.
Danica: And with GoDaddy's easy-to-use ecommerce tools, Lola...

SCENE #7: CLOSE-UP OF LOLA'S COMPUTER
keyboard music cont.
Danica: ...Was soon selling his own line to the world.

SCENE #8: MS OF LOLA IN OFFICE
keyboard music cont.
Lola: Oooohee!

SCENE #9: LONG SHOT- DANICA SITTING POOLSIDE, LOLA BEHIND HER IN THE POOL, MANSION IN FULL VIEW
keyboard music cont.
Danica: Lola dreams big
Lola: Uhhuhhh
Danica: And who's to argue?

SCENE #10: CUT TO BLACK, GODADDY END CREDIT
guitar music and GoDaddy theme
Voiceover: See more now at GoDaddy.com

History Calling: Thoughts on the State of the Union

And we're back, this time takin' on the wonderful world of politics. It already seems like it's been weeks since Obama's first State of the Union, but it was only a week ago. I'm going to take a look at how Obama's speech interacts with our four media tool sets.

First, the speech itself:


Triune brain:
Obama's speech engages all three parts of the brain. The neocortex allows us to processes the information he is giving and decide its accuracy and relevance for ourselves.

It engages the limbic brain because people are watching the speech rather than just hearing it. It also utilizes certain symbols.

Finally, the reptilian brain comes into play; Obama's words can incite fear for survival, as most of it regards the state of the economy and the war.


Eight Trends/Shifts
I think the biggest shift here is the technological shift. I didn't watch the State of the Union on television or hear it on the radio; I watched it on youtube at my own convenience. The new technology at play allows people to review Obama's speech in full, an interesting change from seeing clips on the news or reading a transcript.


Seven Principles
Two of the biggest principles I noticed were production techniques and individual meaning.

When the President would mention something like a specific bill, the camera would cut away from him and show a person in the audience that had a part in that bill. There were a lot of different types of shots and angles used to capture the speech.

Individual meaning comes into play in terms of the actual content of the speech; I might watch and feel hopeful and inspired. My grandmother might hear his words and wish there was a third term of Bush.


Obama uses so many persuasive techniques in his speech. Just a few:
-Symbols via the flag pins and Presidential seal
-Nostalgia when he talks about Bull Run, Omaha Beach the Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement. One of the earliest lines in his speech is "we must answer history's call".
-Humor when talking about the bank bailout: "It was about as popular as a root canal."
-"Maybe" as he avoids definite answers and polar responses
-Group Dynamics through phrases like "fellow Americans" and "we can deliver on that promise".


Thesis
I think that Obama's thesis in this speech is essentially "change takes time, but we're getting better." To support this idea, he uses facts like the following:

"We cut taxes for 95% of working families."
"Because of the steps we took, there are about two million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed."
"Economists on the left and the right say that the stimulus bill has helped saved jobs and avert disaster."

Obama is a smart cookie and very, very good at public speaking. I think he has used methods of engaging all parts of the brain and persuasive techniques to his advantage in order to reassure many Americans in a time where pretty much everyone is terrified about the state of the economy.

Not bad, Mr. President. Same time next year?