You can download the template for the storyboards here.

Storyboards

The storyboard is due either as a physical copy on Monday, April 19, 2010 or as a digital copy via email on Wednesday, April 21, 2010. You will need to scan and resize your scanned image using PhotoShop. If you are handing in your storyboard digitally, it must be saved as a .jpg with the longer side (the width for most) set to 1000 pixels across. Name your storyboard: username-storyboard.jpg. If your storyboard is multiple pages long, name each file in the following manner: username-storyboard1.jpg, username-storyboard2.jpg, username-storyboard3.jpg, etc.

Place all storyboard files in a folder called “username-storyboard,” zip the folder attach to an email with the subject “com125-s10-storyboard” sent to helbc@etown.edu by 2:30 pm, Wednesday, April 21, 2010.

If you want to hand in a physical copy, please bring completed storyboards to class on Monday, April 19, 2010. We will scan them during class.

Scripts

You must use the script format provided in class on Wednesday, April 7, 2010. Save your script as a .doc, .docx, or .pdf file called one of the following (with .doc, .docx, or .pdf):

• liquidconfidence-script
• procrastina-script
• behindthemusic-script
• extrememakeover-script
• solesofetown-script
• freshman15-script
• ghostadventures-script

Attach the file to an email with the subject line “com125-sp10-script” and sign the email on behalf of your entire group. The email must be sent to helbc@etown.edu by 2:30 pm on Wednesday, April 21, 2010.

Any questions? Asking is better when done sooner than later.

The votes are in for the “Best of the Web” project as voted by the students of Com 125, Spring 2010. As we’ve mentioned in class, self- and peer-assessment is extremely important in media production. Please look at the “winners” of the three categories. What is it about them that makes them “the best?” Why did you vote as you did?

Best Poster Image:

4 votes: Teanna Ziegler

2 votes: Kelly Frace

2 votes: Morganrae Sherick

Additional votes: Tom O’connell, Micah Aumen, Katie Sheurich, Johanna Goslin, Jordyn Howe, Tyler Ehelman, Billy Paulshock, Lauren Busse, Samantha Peters, AJ Discianni (1 vote each)

Best Title Image:

5 votes: Alexis Morris

4 votes: Katie Sheurich

4 votes: Johanna Goslin

Additional votes: Billy Paulshock (1 vote)

Best Photos:

8 votes: Teanna Ziegler

4 votes: A.J. Discianni

3 votes: Samantha Peters

Additional votes: Micha Aumen (2 vote) and Tom Oconnell (1 vote)

Information on Negin for class on Monday, March 15th, 2010.

In class we will watch a short mini-docuemtary created by comedienne/filmmaker Negin Farsad during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Columbia University in New York City. Though unscripted, the short video shows the importance of preparation and postproduction especially when the production period is extremely limited.

Negin is also a shameless self-promoter who is able to talk about and present her work with enthusiasm, intelligence, and humor.

According to her website: “Making her parents’ plea for immigration all the easier, Negin Farsad was born in the United States, growing up in the desert of Southern California. [...] Negin recently wrote and developed the MTV series, Detox but even more recently, the upcoming PBS animated series 1001 Nights. She also completed her first feature film Nerdcore Rising, a ragingly hilarious comedy about nerdcore hip-hop, for which she was director, producer, writer, PA, and golf caddie.”

Negin’s website: http://www.neginfarsad.com/

Negin’s Twitter: http://twitter.com/neginfarsad

Negin’s Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/neginfarsad

Negin’s YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/neginfarsad

Nerdcore Rising website: http://www.nerdcorerisingmovie.com/

You will conceive of a stylistic representation and overall aesthetic design for your group’s iMovie project. This site will act as an informative representation, point of contact, and promotional site. All elements must be created by you (not as a group effort) and do not necessarily need to be aesthetically related to pages created by the other members of group.

All sites will be linked from here.

Download materials here.

Sample site is located at: http://users.etown.edu/h/helbc/com125/username.html

You will be adding elements to a promotional site built from a template. The use of a template provides aesthetic consistency between several sites, but requires precision. You will be completing this page in steps. You may complete the steps in any order you see fit (but your work will not be visible until you complete the “Website content” portion and the completion of images does not mean you will be able to embed the images “locally” prior to completion).

All elements must be “handed in” by 11:59 pm, March 31st, 2010.

Website content:

1. In Dreamweaver, create a “New Site” with the following elements:
   1. Name: Com 125
   2. Address: http://users.etown.edu/h/helbc/com125
   3. No server technology
   4. File location is up to you, but should be located on your class-provided thumb drive.
      1. Copy contents of the materials folder into this folder (without the containing folder)
   5. Remote server: None.
2. Create a new Page From Template using the file in the provided Template folder. Fill in required content in editable regions (Description, Crew, Cast, Links, Name)
3. Save this file as “username.html” (of course, replacing username with your own username)
4. Email only the file “username.html” to helbc@etown.edu with the subject “com 125 sp10 page” by 11:59 pm, March 31st, 2010.

Images and Design

1. Create a title image to be used as a header for the site. The title should be aesthetically pleasing and “make sense” within the confines of the dimensions and web page. The file must be an 800 x 72 pixel PNG file with the filename “username-title.png”
2. Create a lobby poster-style image. This image’s design should not be unrelated to the title image created. You will need to save two versions of this file. The dimensions of “username-poster600.jpg” should be 600 x 800 pixels. The dimensions of “username-poster300.jpg” should be 300 x 400 pixels. Both images should be JPEGs.
3. Create a temporary placeholder image with the dimensions of 450 x 253. This image should be titled “username-temp.jpg” This image will eventually be replaced by the embedded video.
4. Shoot photos to be used as production stills and/or promotional material. These photos can be of locations, crew members, “recreations” of scenes, conceptual imagery, etc. No snapshots or Facebook photos! You will create two versions of each of these photos. You will create a 100 x 75 pixel version and a 400 x 300 pixel version of each photo (1 through 6) with the added “100″ or “400″ on the end of the file name. All images should be JPEGs. Therefore you will create 12 images called:
   1. “username-photo1-100.jpg” and “username-photo1-400.jpg” of photo 1
   2. “username-photo2-100.jpg” and “username-photo2-400.jpg”of photo 2
   3. “username-photo3-100.jpg” and “username-photo3-400.jpg”of photo 3
   4. “username-photo4-100.jpg” and “username-photo4-400.jpg”of photo 4
   5. “username-photo5-100.jpg” and “username-photo5-400.jpg”of photo 5
   6. “username-photo6-100.jpg” and “username-photo6-400.jpg”of photo 6
5. Place all files (a total of 16 images) into a folder called “username-webstuff,” compress it (create a .zip file) and mail it to helbc@etown.edu by 11:59pm, March 31, 2010. No image may be “taken” from the Internet, must be entirely of your own design (photography, titles, logo, etc.), and may not violate copyright.

Two elements of the promotional site will be added later:

1. Storyboard (added at the beginning of April)
2. Embedded Video (added at the end of class)

This guy’s comedy sketch is so similar to my own in-class presentation on how not to use PowerPoint that I am equally reinforced in the value of my lecture and questioning the intellectual property of his (or my) presentation.

Life After Death PowerPoint from EMT Media on Vimeo.

Here is a gallery of the individual slides from the lecture given at the end of class on February 22nd, 2010 and the beginning of class on February 24th, 2010. these are intended to supplement your class notes, not replace them. Please defer to what was discussed in class as the final authority.

This is part one of a two part lesson, after completing this part of the lesson, go on to part two.

The scenario:

We hired a student to design a logo for specific web usage. We gave the student a set of requirements but trusted him/her to use his/her own judgement in finalizing the design. We were pleased with the basic look of the logo, but the end result was less-than-desirable.

Simply put, the design consists of a basic frame with rounded corners surrounding a photograph. The frame is offset slightly towards the top. The offset allows for the second element, the “Elizabethtown College” title, to sit centered below the main image. In the top right corner of the central image is third element, the oval  “E” logo.

The above are all standards set by a governing committee. The previous student completed these tasks perfectly. We do not want to see any of those elements changed. You must replicate the above requirements, but you have a choice in choosing the best image to reside within the frame.

The photo within the frame is the central image of this logo.

We gave the previous student free-range to choose a good image, line it up well, and place it well in the frame. The student did a poor job on all accounts: the resolution of the picture is far below that of the surrounding frame; the layout of the photograph is awkward, centered, and cropped strangely; and finally the image seems to have been chosen with little-to-no-though of the contextual elements of the framing. What does this picture say about Elizabethtown College? It is difficult to see the “E” logo. the camera is far too prominent.

The Bad Image:

Lastly, the student mistakenly saved the image as a .gif rather than a .jpg file making the image seem choppier.

Here is the image as he/she completed it:

Your Task (Finishing Someone Else’s Work):

The student quit soon after completing this project and we have had no contact with him/her. Luckily, he/she saved most of his/her work. Please follow the below steps to complete the task.

The Files:

You will need to download and unzip COM125-PhotoshopDay3.zip

Locate the following files:

• etown_logo-(bad_layout).gif (This should be used as a reference only)
• Basic Frame.psd
• etown_logo_1.jpg
• etown_logo_2.psd

There are a lot of extra files in the folder you will not need but we couldn’t be bothered to sift through it.

Initial Steps and Instructions:

1. Open “Basic Frame.psd” This is your primary file. All other elements will be added to this file.
2. Add “etown_logo_1.jpg” and “etown_logo_2.psd” to your primary file. You will need to drag these images to the “Basic Frame.psd” image as new layers, move these layers, may need to resize these layers (remember to lock ratios!) and may have to adjust layer arrangements.
3. Place a photo behind the frame. You will need to resize and/or adjust this image for best placement. (This photo should be a new photo unused for previous assignments and may require you to shoot new photos.) The photo should be a positive and accessible representation of Elizabethtown College and should appear ascetically pleasing within the frame.

Saving your files:

We need several sizes of this image for use on the web. Please save four versions of this image with a width of: 1600 pixels, 1000 pixels, 500 pixels, and 100 pixels. All files can be saved as maximum quality .jpgs.

The file names should be:

• 1600-etownframe-username.jpg
• 1000-etownframe-username.jpg
• 500-etownframe-username.jpg
• 100-etownframe-username.jpg

When finished, place in a folder titled “Com125-etownps-username” and move on to part two of this project.

GO TO PART TWO

This is part two of a two-part lesson, be sure you have completed part one prior to completing this part.

The Scenario:

We have a bit of a problem. We need a logo asap. The person who created the below logo quit soon after completing it. He/she did not save his/her work (the Photoshop file is gone). As you can see, he/she did not check spelling and improperly saved the file (we asked for a .gif file with a transparent background). Can you save us?

The Incorrect Logo:

All the information you should need should be included below. You will find the oval “E” logo in your COM125-Photoshop3.zip package (as well as a copy of the above image with the title “comm_logo_1-(misspelled).jpg”). You should already have this

Please create a new file in Photoshop. The image should be precisely 1600 x 178 pixels (you may set the Resolution to 300, but this doesn’t really matter for our current purposes, but make sure it is RGB color)

The font is Birch Std (if we don’t have this, you will be given a substitute) and the font size is 48 pts. You will need to adjust the vertical scale to 95%, but the horizontal scale can stay at 100%. The character tracking should be set to zero. The font color is #006699.

Please approximate all placement to the best of your ability relative to the incorrect logo above. Notice that the lower line of the “p” in Department rests against the edge of the image, but is entirely included within the image. Likewise, notice that the “E” logo lines up with the “D” in Department and not centered relative to the image’s edges. Please space all elements similarly.

Saving the File:

Be sure to turn off the Background layer’s visibility prior to saving and use Photoshop’s FILE->SAVE FOR WEB AND DEVICES function.

Save the file as a gif (use the 128 colors option): NewComLogo-username.gif

Place the file in your “Com125-etownps-username” folder, .zip this and send attached to an email to helbc@etown.edu with the subject “etown logos”

Both assignments are due by 11:59 pm, Tuesday February 16, 2010.

Here are the winners for the individual categories based on your votes.

“Blurred Motion” by Billy Paulshock

"Leading Lines" by Tyler Eshelman

“Stopped Time” by Billy Paulshock

“Building” by Alexis Morris

"High Angle" by Kelly Frace

“Rule of Thirds Portrait” by Samantha Peters

“Low Angle" by Kaitlin Scheurich

Winner: Best in Show!

"Etown" by Micah Aumen

"Natural Framing" by Kaitlin Scheurich

Which is your favorite? We will crown the “Best in Show” in class on Monday.