Third Runner-Up - Goodbye, Hello, by Tatiana Meneses
View Multimodal Remediation:
Goodbye, Hello - Assignment
Per usual, let’s start by reviewing our progress up to this point in the semester. We began by writing a personal narrative using crots; in doing so, we worked extensively, both in and outside of class, on detail, dialogue, scope, character development, and narration. Next, we moved into a more formal academic genre, familiarizing ourselves with Bolter and Grusin’s theory of remediation and then conducting our own case studies on an instance of remediation. More recently, we engaged in an actual process of remediation: though very meta, we remediated our case studies on remediation into five minute presentations. Now, for this final assignment, we’ll once again be remediating our prior work, though on a larger scale and over a longer period of time.
In short, we’re going to compose a multimodal remediation of our first assignment, the crot paper. First, however, we need to understand what I mean by multimodal.
The easiest way to understand the term multimodal is to break it down into separate parts. We have multi, meaning more than one, and then modal. In this context, modal is referring to a mode: a means of expression; for example, spoken word, written word, sound, visual, music, etc. For us, therefore, multimodal refers to a text that contains more than one mode. If this is still confusing, worry not, as we’ll analyze and discuss different examples of multimodal texts in class.
With this definition at hand, we now need to consider three primary questions: (1) what content from your crot paper will you remediate, (2) what modes will you use in creating this remediation, and (3) what medium will you use to deliver this remediation? Let’s speak to each of these questions in more detail.
(1) What content from your crot paper will you remediate?
This is entirely up to you. You can remediate your entire paper, you can remediate one crot, you can remediate a couple crots—just don’t make the decision capriciously. In other words, there should be a reason behind the content you decide to remediate. Perhaps you want to highlight a particular theme in your crot paper. Perhaps a certain crot is more appropriate for the modes and medium you want to utilize. Regardless, the decision is up to you; I just want you to put some thought into the decision.
(2) What modes will you use in creating this remediation?
Being that this is a multimodal remediation, you need to include at least two modes. The two most popular modes are the visual and the written word. Since we’ve spent a majority of the semester focusing on writerly issues, let’s briefly consider some of the issues involved in composing with visuals.
First, make sure the visuals are rhetorically appropriate and effective. As I’ve continually emphasized throughout the semester, visuals are intended to enhance, not undermine, a specific point or moment in a text. In other words, you should not select nor insert your visuals randomly. In addition, upon selecting your visuals, you must decide whether you want to alter them in any way (e.g., cropping, coloring, effects, etc.), and you need to think about how the arrangement and the delivery of these visuals will affect the message you’re trying convey and/or the scene you’re trying to illustrate. In order to understand better the finer nuances to composing with visuals, we’ll spend an entire class analyzing a visual argument, and afterward, you’ll create a visual argument of your own. From here, we’ll also look at how the visual and the written word can work in unison, how together they can make meaning that neither could make individually.
(3) What medium will you use to deliver this remediation?
Another way to think about this is the rhetorical canon of delivery: that is, how, exactly, will you present this multimodal remediation? Only two mediums will be off limits: Microsoft Word (and variations of it, such as Pages, Notepad, etc.) and PowerPoint. We’ve composed in Microsoft Word all semester, and many of you composed in PowerPoint for your Case Study Presentations. In this assignment, I want you to explore new (or at least different) media. I want you to push yourselves creatively, to take chances and experiment with other media. Some examples include, but are not limited to, MovieMaker or iMovie films, an interactive webpage, a Vuvox collage or slideshow, a Prezi presentation, a comic book, or a computer game. While these are digital examples of media, do realize that this assignment does not need to be digital; for instance, you could create a coloring book, a quilt, a scrapbook—practically any tangible object that can act as a medium and would have a perfomative aspect. Think summer camp arts and crafts with a witty, intellectual, and scholarly edge.
Just remember that deciding on a medium is inextricably linked to deciding what content from your crot paper you want to remediate. In other words, certain media will be better at conveying the content you select than others will. This, of course, brings us back to our prior discussions on the affordances of the medium and the way these affordances alter the content that is poured into a given medium.
During the last week of the semester, everyone will present his/her multimodal remediation to the class.
Lastly, in addition to composing your multimodal remediation, you’ll need to compose a substantive process memo—written in full paragraphs, about 2-3 double spaced pages—detailing your rhetorical choices. This process memo will allow you to articulate the decisions you made throughout the composing process and why. More so than the prior memos, how well you can speak to your choices will greatly influence the grade of your composition.
Logistics:
• Similar to the first and second assignments, we’ll have two in-class workshops.
Workshop 1: In class, I will provide a set of questions for you and your peers to answer. The questions will cover the modes and rhetorical strategies you intend to employ as well as areas where you are struggling or where you believe you need a second opinion. After workshop, you’ll respond individually to a set of questions that you’ll send to me via email. These questions will allow me to know what each of you accomplished during workshop and will affect your Revisions/Workshop grade.
Workshop 2: This workshop will transpire during the second to last class period before your presentations. Working in the same workshop groups as before, you will need to bring in a robust draft of your multimodal remediation. Here, you will present your project to your workshop group, all the while answering a predefined set of questions, most of which will explain your process, the decisions you made, and the overall intent of the remediation. During this time, you’ll note any last questions or concerns you have about your remeidation and seek advice from your peers on what went well and where it might have felt short of your desired expectations. As with the first workshop, you’ll again respond individually to a set of questions which you’ll email to me.
Grade Breakdown: 250 total points (25% of your overall grade)
• The Multimodal Remediation: 76% (190 pts.)
• The Process Memo: 12% (30 pts.)
• Revisions/Workshop: 12% (30 pts.)
Goodbye, Hello - Process Memo Prompt
Process Memo
Due to me via email (ral07e@fsu.edu) by midnight on Tuesday (12/8). Unlike the prior memos, write this one out in full paragraphs, totaling about 2-3 double spaced pages. This process memo will allow you to articulate the decisions you made throughout the composing process and why. More so than the prior memos, I will heavily consider and take into account what you write in this memo when assessing your multimodal remediation. In other words, I’m not grading these remediations on how fancy or pretty they may look; rather, I’m more concerned with the rhetorical effectiveness of the remediation. Thus, how well you can explain and justify your decisions, all of which should be rhetorically based, in this memo will be directly linked to the grade you earn overall. Lastly, remember that this memo counts for 12% (30 points) of your multimodal remediation grade.
1. How does this multimodal remediation of your crot paper create a “new reading experience,” one different from your all-text version?
2. Why did you choose these particular modes to make your remediation? How do the modes’ affordances enhance your remediation in comparison to the original text version?
3. What medium did you use to delivery your remediation? In what ways was your decision rhetorically based?
4. In what ways did the rhetorical cannon of arrangement affect your composition? How and why did you decide on this arrangement? How, if at all, did the other four canons (invention, style, delivery, memory) affect the composing of this remediation?
5. Explain your reasoning for your inclusion or exclusion of text. If you included text, how do you think it enhances, influences, and/or affects your multimodal remediation? Furthermore, how did typography (fonts, sizes, colors, effects) factor into the written text?
6. Explain your reasoning for your inclusion or exclusion of visuals. If you included visuals, why did you choose the ones you did? Did you edit (crop, enlarge, color, distort) them in any way? Why or why not?
7. Explain your reasoning for inclusion or exclusion of music and/or additional motion and/or timing. If you included any of them, what was your reasoning? How do these effects affect, enhance, or possible limit the remediation?
8. If you did not have as many constraints (e.g., time, money, lack of experience mixing modes or using certain mediums, etc.) how might this remediation look differently?
9. What part of the remediation are you most proud of? What did you work the hardest on? What part of this remediation are you least proud of? What needs more work?
10. How was this assignment similar and different from the traditional written assignment? Which do you prefer and why?
11. Is there anything else you want to say about your remediation, your process, or the assignment in general?
Goodbye, Hello - Process Memo
Multimodal Remediation Process Memo
The multimodal remediation of my crot paper presents the same story I wrote about, but in a more vivid way. Detailed descriptions and adjectives on a page can somewhat paint a picture in the reader’s mind about a person’s physical appearance. However, the project allows the audience to actually see the people I wrote about. The multimodal remediation also allowed me to set the mood of a certain crot not just by describing it but by adding music to set the tone. Background music can really bring about certain emotions in a person that simple words on a page can’t.
I chose the specific modes I did because it helped explain the theme in my paper more clearly. Written titles were necessary in order to introduce each crot. It is important to show where the title originated from by showing the “Goodbye..Hello” in each crot. Pictures and images were the most prominent aspect of my project. They help enhance my remediation in a way that written text could not by bringing the written story to life. I explain that my brother is leaving to Singapore, but in the paper, it is not convenient to start describing the physical aspect of the island. Using images of Singapore in the background while the dialogue between my brother and I is going on does twice the job; the audience gets a glimpse at the island while simultaneously understanding why my brother will be going over there.
The medium I used to deliver my remediation was through an iMovie project. This gave me a chance to include pictures, images, music, written text, transitions, and picture/ video effects. All of these modes were necessary in order to be able to convey the types of emotions that I wrote about in my crots. If I had perhaps used Prezi as I had intended to, perhaps the project would not have turned out as smoothly as it did with iMove. My crot paper was basically a general story about some important parts of my life. The fact that it included an epilogue made it seem like somewhat of a movie. That’s why I thought making an iMovie project would be appropriate.
The arrangement of my project was perhaps the most heavily thought out aspect of the entire remediation. First of all, the paper was written in chronological order, so the movie had to be done like this also. I decided to begin each crot with the title in front of what looked like stage curtains, in order to give the impression that this was a new stage in my life I was entering. The crot labeled “Goodbye Boyfriend, Hello Long-Distance Relationship” took the most planning. In the paper, I go into a flashback that explains how my boyfriend and I met and how we came to be best friends. So for the project, I had to arrange the video by adding a voice over during this crot in order to let the audience know that the images I was showing them were part of a flashback. In my paper, I show a change in time by adding the three asterisks. In the project, I show this change of time by changing the music and by using written text; I explain where the story is heading. For the epilogue, I decided it was best to use pictures to illustrate what the epilogue was explaining.
Text was important to include in my project because some things would be too difficult to explain through just pictures. For example, it was important to make sure that the title to each crot was written in order for the audience to know what each crot would be explaining and in order to see where the title came from. It would have been hard to remediate an entire paper without using text. For the crot labeled “Goodbye Bowman Foster, Hello Gilbert Porter,” I tried to use a somewhat childish looking font to try and portray the age I was at that time. For the crot labeled “Goodbye Brother, Hello High School,” it was a very significant event, so I tried to use a serious looking font.
My project relied heavily on visuals. Visuals were the best way to vividly demonstrate my story. For my brother’s crot, I thought it would be best to use pictures of Singapore in order to show the place that we were talking about. For the crot about my boyfriend, I edited all the pictures I used. For example, when I show pictures of the flashback, I used the vignette effect, which darkens the background, making it look more like a memory, which is exactly what the pictures were showing. For the pictures showing us saying goodbye to each other, I blurred the edges in order to make it seem more dreamlike. For the pictures of Ashley and I, I used an effect called “old age,” which makes it look like an old video. Since this crot was supposed to be taking place in elementary, I thought it would be more appropriate to make the pictures look like they took place long ago.
Music made the biggest impact on the project as a whole. It sets the mood for each crot. For the crot about my brother, I used a very somber and depressing sounding song in order to show how serious the situation seemed to me. For the crot where I am arriving to Florida State University, I used a song that talks about “beginnings” and “learning to breathe” which I thought seemed appropriate considering the new beginning I was about to embark on.
The main constraint I had was time. Many of the pictures I used for the project had to be taken specifically for the project itself, so I had to plan ahead and make sure I set out a time that my friends could work with in order to take the necessary pictures. There was a lot of editing involved so I had to work on the project a little bit everyday in order to finish on time. If I had had more time, the project would look only slightly differently because I would have redone some things. For example, I would have spent more time on taking the perfect pictures I needed. I was not very satisfied with some of the pictures I had taken, but because of the limited amount of time, I couldn’t retake them.
I am the most proud of the editing involved in this remediation. I am very thankful that I was able to use such a great program like iMovie in order to complete this project. I definitely spent the most time on the editing process, such as adding transitions, music, and video/picture effects, as well as giving each slide a specific amount of seconds to play. I also spent a lot of time choosing the most appropriate font for each crot and deciding on colors and sizes. The one part of this remediation I’m the least proud of and if I’d had more time I would probably change would be the large amount of text in the project. If I could change a few things, I would add a voice over to the epilogue and remove the text in order to reduce the amount of reading the audience would have to do.
This assignment was very different from the traditional written assignment in that more creativity was needed. It is easy to tell a story in words, but once this story needs to be depicted in a physical way, there are many different approaches in how to go about this and the more creative you are, the easier this becomes. It is similar in the sense that both a written paper and a project such as this one need to have some sort of organization and a layout in order for the story to play out smoothly. I prefer both for different reasons. I enjoy written assignments because of their practicality and because you can tell a story in as much detail as you need to. Multimodal remediations, however, are a lot more fun to produce and I really enjoy editing and making films.
I really enjoyed this remediation. It gave me a chance to produce my crot paper in a visual manner that I could share with my friends and family. I’m very glad I was able to put my “life story” into a great video and take advantage of the great software that is iMovie.