Investigating Nature

This idea came to me in remembrance of a Netflix piece I watched over the summer about some of the world's cutest animals. Red pandas stuck out in my mind and I have been interested in knowing more bout them. Their scientific name being Ailurus Fulgens, which I would have no clue where to begin in pronouncing that name. Kinda like how when you think of sunflowers, you don't imediately think of their other, less common name: Helianthus.

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The red panda species are endangered. They usually have a life span of 8 years when living in the wild and usually weigh 12-20 pounds. The pandas use their tails as wraparound blankets in the cold mountains they live in.

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Red pandas unlike most carnivores, are not actually carnivores. They are mostly herbivores. They eat bamboo and leaves, like the well-known black and white pandas. Unlike them, they also eat things like fruit, acorns, roots, and eggs. They are also a fan of fake sugar.

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This adorable species can be found in Nepal, northeastern India (West Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh), Bhutan, and parts of China.

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Red pandas are generally solitary, yet there are a couple of exceptions to that. Young red pandas grow rather slowly and develop extended associations with their mothers. This can last for over a year in time. The red pandas also have short relationships during annual breeding seasons.

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Video Story Tell-All

My video story was inspired by a real event that took place in my life regarding one of my close friends. I had written a poem about this event for my high school English class. At the time, I did not reveal the actual meaning behind this poem, with respect for my friend, being that my friend went to that high school. I just let people believe that it was just concerned with an overall world view of one's purpose in life. Then in college, I was enrolled in a class called Creative Non-Fiction. For this class, I had an assignment to come up with a segmented piece of writing. This assignment gave me the idea to find that poem I had written in high school and to break it down with the written story of my thoughts during this time, in between each stanza of the poem. So that is what I did. Then for this Digital Storytelling class that I am currently enrolled in, I turned this new piece of writing into a visual, a video story to be exact. The words of the pieces of the poem, broken down by stanza, scroll on the screen in silence scattered throughout the video. In between stanzas I used my voice-over of reading the descriptive parts of my thoughts during this event. Occasionally throughout the narration, I added sound effects under my voice that went with what I was talking about at the moment. For example, I used hallway ambience noise, laughter, thundering rolling, and a brief part of a song. This added an extra element for the audience to relate to my feelings at the time. I also used some slow motion video shots. Overall, I was happy with the result of my video story, though there are a couple parts of it that I feel like I could've improved, had I had more access to certain places or people to film.

Video Story Reviews

Classmate's Reviews:

Lauren F.- "UPJ Campus Tour":

My favorite part of Lauren's video was the view out of the window from high up in a building looking down on our campus. It was a beautiful shot! Lauren also had fun music playing in the background. She had many panning shots and walking video shots that really captured the greatness our campus has to offer.

Jacey- "Story for Noone":

I really enjoyed how Jacey had some of the same clips spread out throughout the video and came back to them to finish capturing the memory. I wish I would have thought of something like that, it was really effective! I also liked the narration scene, how she used her shadow as she walked while introducing her story.

Brandon- "One Last Time":

Brandon used a lot of ground scenes made to be eye level by placing the camera on the ground. He also had a close up smoking scene and an upside down scene. I really like that Brandon expressed some suspense and darkness in his voice as the narrator. I also thought the blank screen was really effectively used in moments of description or thought.

Lauren- "A Place to Call Home":

Lauren had a lot of panning of the gym in her video. I thought that was an effective way to get a glimpse of the gym she saw many times in her coaching career. The close up scan of the gymnastics girls on the wall was also well done in helping the viewer get a sense of what a place she calls home is like. My favorite part was the closing line of narration when she stated the address and explained it is a place she considers home.

Jeff- "O Negative"

Jeff used pictures in black and white and also pictures from older times which showed the time period. I like how he used clips from the film and used narration to get his analysis of the film across to the viewers.

Melanie- "New Romantics"

This was a music video put together using a Taylor Swift song. She used different camera angles as following the girl around in her room. She included clips of texting and scrolling through Instagram. My favorite was the clip that was filmed through the side of the mirror during makeup.

Sean- "Alone and Thankful":

This video began with a clip following a person and dog walking on railroad tracks. I liked the time lapse and sped up parts through the nature trails. I also liked how in the video, the audience could hear the leaves crunching as the people walked over them. My favorite part was the clip at the end with the dark tunnel looking scene. It looked so cool with the light coming in around the person's body.

Video Story Practice

Click here to watch!

To gain some experience for our upcoming video story assignment, we worked in groups to conduct a brief story. We each picked a page out of the pocket scavenger to use as a guide. I picked a page that dealt with ticket stubs. I gathered a bunch of ticket stubs from my bedroom that I have saved from various events. We each practiced by being the director for our sections of the story. I filmed the very last part of our story using my ticket stubs. Once we had all of our videos done and viewed them next to each other, we discovered a themes in that we all had hands appearing among them.

Six Blue Things

Location Found: My bedroom

Time: 10AM

Date: 10/28/16

Story: Anyone who knows me, knows that I am obsessed with blue. Finding six blue things in my bedroom is definitely not a difficult task. Meaning... pretty much everything is blue. It's all about the shades of blue here!

 

            

Next, I flipped to a page that asks to switch things up or alter the objects in some way. 

I've never been able to explain why but I do not like the color yellow. Just something about it doesn't appeal to me. So here is a yellow highlighter on my bed comforter. A yellow highlighter is about the only thing yellow that I could find in my entire room.

Audio Story Tell-All

I have completed my audio story and received comments from my classmates. I received these comments also in the form of audio, through a voice recording. The comments were overall good ones and my classmates expressed their curiosity for how I put together this piece. Their guess was that the clips were short clips from home videos or recorded Skype calls. I enjoyed getting to listen to the feedback they provided me with!

When creating my audio story, I wanted to create a portrayal of distance between loved ones, yet ending on a positive note. As I stated in my narration, I have family members who live in California. It is not fun missing them all the time or wishing there were more holidays or life milestones you got to experience with them. This is especially hard when it comes to the two young kids growing up. I added one short video clip that my cousins wife sent me of their son in the middle of the story. I wanted it to be clear that the beginning and the end of just a blank/dark picture stood for the times that we do not get to see them. The short video clip representing the short amounts of time here and there that we do get to see them and experience things with them. After that though, it's back to blank & strictly Facetime calls to keep in touch. I used some layering and clock ticking sound effects to represent the passage of time. The layering came in with the beginning and end of sound clips in which the sound effects were added to. I actually used some of my ideas from my audio brainstorm post. I had baby giggles, loved ones voices, firetruck sirens, and my baby cousins voice. I also added the real baby heartbeat and clips of the FaceTime call of the baby announcement to myself, my mom, and my brother as well.

Pocket Scavenger- Something That was Part of a Tree- Practice Audio Story

In Digital Storytelling, we were assigned any page out of the pocket scavenger and to create a sound story out of it. I chose the 48th objective entitled "Something That was Part of a Tree." I took this idea of finding something that was once a part of a tree and made it into something more. I found a trig that was once a part of a tree and laying beneath it. The twig was near a road/parking lot and surrounded by many fallen leaves. It was also near a construction zone outside of Krebs hall on UPJ's campus. With this, we were asked to 1. Find a thing, 2. Record ambient noise from that location, 3. Record a sound of the thing, 4. Choose an alteration and record the alteration sound, and 5. Write up story.

Here is what I came up with!!

My audio story contained:

1. The thing found: Twig

2. Noise from the location:

• hear a car drive by
• leaves crunching under my feet while I walk to pick up the twig
• can hear construction vehicles at work on the Murtha building
• some fidgeting while walking

3. Sound of the thing:

• I repeatedly tapped the twig off a table

4. Alteration sound:

• I broke the twig with my fingers 4 times in different spots

5. Write up:

At beginning^