So, this is the weekly summary for the final project week. I’m putting the gimmicks up on the shelf for this one, here you get my process, and hang tight, it’s a long one.
Also, spoilers ahead, I’m talking in-depth about what I did for my final project, obviously.
To begin, I already had some content made for this project, though they were kind of spread out and sort of out of order.
I had a bit of writing,
A very impish outline,
Two characters,
An incomplete video explaining a magic system,
A strange event,
And a group of reactions to a strange event,
When I sat down to put it all together, I realized I not only had to organize it but also add in more connective tissue. The first thing I did was write a better-behaved outline, detailing not only what I had done but the things I needed to create to add to the story. Like most of my outlines, it changed a lot as I realized what I was actually capable of doing. For instance, I would have loved to do more videos, but I had no way to film them.
Then I wrote how Eric and Miller met. This was an interesting thing to do. I originally was lost. But once I thought of the setting, that they could meet in a library, it flowed from there. I like writing, so that was very fun. And that is where the marble imagery comes from, but I’ll discuss that later.
Then I made the audio of Eric talking with Hector. This was really fun actually. I wrote up the script, practiced my semi-New Zeland accent, and went at it. I edited it in iMovie and added in some applicable sounds from freesound. I actually recorded the sound of Hector’s chair moving back because I didn’t find any online that I liked. When I uploaded it, I kind of made the photo of the Miller’s hat. I couldn’t find a black hat with a good background so I edited that together.
Then it was time for another autopsy report. This one on paper. I found the template online and filled it in with what I wanted. Then the police report, which I also found a template for that online. Goshen is actually a real place in Indiana, and it came on the police report template so I just used it. I did have to edit some of the report because it was originally about vehicular accidents, but I made it work. Shout out to Photopea, my savior.
At this point, I started thinking about how it was all going to be displayed. I knew I wanted it on a subdomain, but I originally wanted to see if there was an application that would work better than a blog. I tried to use Omeka, I even downloaded it and everything but it wasn’t what I wanted. I decided to stick to what I know and use WordPress.
So I made the new blog and started customizing it. I took a photo of an old piece of paper for the background and used a photo of marble as the icon.
The picture that shows up in the corner of the tab is of the watch face from the last chapter and also my impish outline.
Then I started making all the new posts, each one being a different chapter, and thinking of titles. There was some trouble with getting them all in order and also making the first chapter come first but the prologue also being an option before it. I made the first chapter the landing page and linked to the prologue at the bottom of it. Not the most eloquent solution, but it worked.
Then all I needed was the ending. This also took some time. Again, I know that I love writing so I didn’t want to be biased and immediately do that. But after looking at the options, there weren’t any. I didn’t feel like I had the set/costume/acting to film it, and audio just wouldn’t work. Lord knows I don’t have the ability to do a visual drawing/photo thing. And it was nice to end it how it started, with a blog post of writing. So I did that. I know Eric as a character well enough that the last scene was pretty easy to write. Endings are difficult, but I don’t think this one is so bad.
Now, enough nitty-gritty-the-making-of, time for my thoughts on this final project overall.
I have never told a single story in a variety of mediums, so that was interesting. There is a part of me that views it as a first creation, a first try. There is so much I would go back and tweak, knowing what I do now, but because it is already filmed or edited, or photographed, I can’t.
I don’t often know what story I am telling until I finish it, so usually my first draft is going back and adding in all the details that make it all make more sense. I couldn’t really do that with this one. Also because I am so close to this work and no one else has seen it I don’t know how it reads if that makes sense. I don’t know where it is confusing or disjointed for the viewer. I tried to toe the fine line of mystery and lack of information, but still comprehensible and followable. I wanted it to be a kind of fill-in-the-blanks for the viewer, but because I am the author and I know everything that happens, I don’t know if I left the viewer too many blanks. For instance, there are time jumps. Some chapters immediately follow each other but some do not. I don’t know if that is obvious to the view or not.
But overall, I am very proud of my story, and I do want to show it off to people and see if they like it as well. I put a lot of work into it, and I have found myself thinking about it even after I finished assignments and shouldn’t be thinking about homework. I might write a longer story about Eric and Miller for myself, I have intrigued myself with their narrative. This is something I will be glad to look back on in a few years, and maybe laugh at, but also remember all the cool things I learned in this class.
