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At the start of the month I wasn’t entirely sure what I should propose for my project. It wasn’t until a weekend, just outside the city limits of Greenville, where I was having lunch with my uncle, Scott “Bootie” Cothran. Bootie is the owner of a gym that had opened up right around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s when it suddenly hit me, that I should do a story and background on the gym and the other owners, and why it’s already becoming such a popular spot for Greenville locals. Luckily this was the first one that I really decided on so the idea hasn’t changed too much, but I do know that I will be focusing on the founders and owners, as well as their back stories and reason for starting the business. The gym itself also will play a big part in my project, and I’ll use the events and classes that they offer to reach my audience as well as normalizing the owners. I’m very excited to fully engulf myself with this project and share it with locals of the Greenville area.

The resources and research that I have done mostly consist of getting in contact with all of the owners, not just my uncle. But, I know that some of my biggest sources will be their own individual backstories and personal accomplishments. I’ll conduct interviews with the four owners and I’ll provide visual evidence through video and photography to enhance their stories.

I will first need to get to know the owners of the gym, Motive School of Movement, and get some media of them at work. Also, I’ll need to create a bio for each one to pair up with media of them and their interviews. I’ll also be attending specific classes and events that are held at the gym, to provide a more in-depth story to why this place is one that locals should consider coming to and learning more about. In order to do these things, I’ll have to get interviews with not only the owners but some of the clients that are members of the gym.

Most of my media will consist of actions shots, this is because I can think of no better way of trying to portray the fun and energy that could be had at Motive Movement to locals. Some media may tie into the past of the owners, and this will allow me to really ground their story and help the readers and viewers relate and get to know them. For the main goal of my multimedia project I want to try and expose more locals to American Ninja Warrior and Motive Movement as a whole by really getting to know the owners through their stories and sharing their passion for the sport and the community that they have been able to build here in Greenville, SC.

can you read this?

I never think of myself as an art person. I learned how to use video editing tools in high school but I never really learned how to create videos. I learned how to code a website but I knew coding was not all about web design. One day I became unsatisfied with myself because I realized that anyone with my skills could create the things I created and what I had learned were not what could make a project unique. Then I started to think about it.

• What is Design?

• What is Creativity?

• What brings Life to a project?

        … ?

These were the questions that first jumped out of my mind. With these questions, I started my attempts in this multimedia storytelling class. Actually, these terms are familiar to me as a senior communication major. I have learned and practices multimedia skills in digital communication class and I have ‘designed’ my personal social media content and online portfolio before but I feel I never touched the core of these terms.

One of the most valuable things I gained from this class is that how to design a lively creative project cannot be taught by others but can only learn by myself.

I truly think that just like one can never teach his or her uniqueness to others, creativity cannot be taught. However, it is not that I think all the books and examples we read and learned in class were not useful. In contrast, I think they were great inspirations for my projects. I especially like Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon and Design is Storytelling by Ellen Lupton. The former book introduces the author’ personal ways to acquire creativity. The latter book is not only easy to read but applied the design concepts mentioned in the design of the book itself. Also, the Snow Fall by John Branch exemplifies the power of multimedia storytelling.

Back to my previous point, how to design a lively creative project can only learn by oneself. This is a good example as one of the learn-by-doing things. When reflecting on the whole semester, I feel that this multimedia storytelling class has provided me a good setting for the “doing” part.

• Group Project: Reflection at Furman

• Individual Project: Moments of Life

I still can’t articulate definite answers to the questions I have even today but at least I see a road leading to them. I feel confident that by getting my hands dirty on my future projects, I will eventually come to the answers.

As I sit here and write this post, I am struck with an abundance of excitement. My projects are done, and I am excited to show them to the world, tomorrow is my last day of classes, and I will be graduating in twelve days.

Personal Branding Expert

Last week at my sorority’s senior banquet, I received an award, it read: “Most likely to plan a personal branding seminar” and at that moment I realized how much I have talked about my branding project this semester. But, even though the project is finished I find myself still having conversations about branding and career readiness with the majority of my friends. I am proud of myself, I turned something that I was interested in into a tangible part of my portfolio showcasing a more personal side, and more relatable, part of myself.

I am most proud of how the video of the project turned out. I originally cut it from my project, thinking that it wouldn’t be produced well enough. But, after re-cutting the video, and adding a substantial amount of B-roll, I believe that it is a final piece that ties it all together.

The Importance of Reflection

But, it goes without saying that this past couple of weeks have been one of reflection. It seems only fitting that my group and I spent our semester learning about what reflection means here on Furman’s campus by creating a landing page to showcase our interviews and provide a space for learning. Yet, I would not even begin to imagine how much reflection would play into my final month here at Furman.

In a very unfortunate accident, a sorority sister and friend of mine suddenly passed away. Our sorority and campus became overwhelmed with shock and grief. I had a hard time dealing with it. But, in an attempt to honor her legacy and provide an uplifting environment to remember her I planned a 5k in her honor. Click here to watch the video recap.

I was shocked to see how much I learned in this class about project management, delegation, graphic design/creating, etc.. would play into making this event possible. This race came together in 2 weeks. I immediately was able to take the skills I learned from interviewing people for the videos in the group project to fundraise money and supplies. I created graphics, and even edited content afterward, knowing the importance of being able to provide the participants with something they could take home from the race!

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According to the National Association of College and Employers there eight core competencies that define “career readiness”. I believe that in this course and through the group and individual projects this course covered and exposed us to all of these topics and gave us situations that would require us to employ these competencies to successfully create and finalize our semester projects!

Final Thoughts

So, to Dr.Kwami, and the phenomenal women in my class thank you. Thank you for pushing and challenging my ideas about myself, my abilities, and my brand. Each of you has touched my heart in a special way and I am so proud to say that I got to spend this semester alongside the most talented women!

Revision leads to improvement, not perfection.

For me, the post-production phrase is where the producer should shift from creating new contents to filling in the gaps in the existing work. This shift started from improving the base of my multimedia story, the long-form narrative. My initial goal for this story was simple: I wanted to leave something as a record of my experience as a Chinese student at Furman and I think it would be more meaningful to capture other Chinese students’ lives as well because they were also part of my life and I am sure there would be many colorful moments they could share with me.

My initial assumption was there must exist a balance between the cheerful moments and the challenging moments I could learn from other students. However, after I organized the interviews to the first draft, I realized that I actually collected many complaints rather than happy memories. This problem led to a unbalanced tone in my story as well, especially when I chose to synthesize the experiences and write the story using a single protagonist. To solve this unbalancedness, I followed Dr. Kwami’s suggestion to add more characters in the story and to delete the redundant paragraphs that may lead to a heavy negative impression in reader mind.

When I finished my second draft, I still felt unsatisfied with the story: The more I stared at the draft, the more unsatisfied I felt with it. I became unsure about the style, the structure, the characters and then I wanted to start over the whole thing. I knew I was getting myself in to a dead end, so I decided to stop for a while and give myself a relief from the narrative.

When I shifted my attention away from the draft, I saw the needs for connecting everything together.

When I started to pay attention to the multimedia elements, I realized that there are many things to consider besides the narrative draft. My planned multimedia elements are a calendar, a map of events, and a video about the Chinese New Year dinner. I already shot the photos and the clips I needed so then I edited them for a rough cut. The major problem I encountered was the unmatched video quality and the lighting issues. This was mainly because I used different devices, sometimes the camera and sometimes my cell phone, during the production phrase. For the first problem, I remedied it by making the overall size of the video smaller and for the second problem, I had to learn light correction to fix it. 

Editing the Video

After I finished the rough cut, I started to make the map of events. Since most of the main events in my story were set to happen at Furman, I downloaded the Furman parking map and tried to add descriptions on it. When I finish the draft, I felt this map was kind of repetitive and I have not decided whether to include in my final project. The same thing happened with the calendar: the information illustrated was repetitive and it added little to my story. This is the part I should spend more efforts on in the future.

The Furman Parking Map

The Schedule Example

The layout and the display of the final product are very important for catching the readers’ eyes.

Reflecting on the reading from last few weeks, I know the final display of the story is crucial. For the layout and display, there are multiple aspects to consider as well such as the inclusion of information, the completeness of the functionality, and the design for aesthetics. Luckily, there are tools that are specifically designed for these needs. I am currently arranging my project on Adobe Spark because it seems to work well in incorporating multimedia elements and in making the whole project consistent in style but I may also try other platform later to compare the final result. In addition to the platform, I made a color template for this project to keep the consistency. I used two Furman colors, purple and gray, and three colors from the classic Chinese painting pigments:

The Color Template

For the personal project, I don’t actually have many data in numbers but I am considering making a relation graph among the characters and maybe more characters than the ones mentioned in the story and give them all a short biography. In this way, I can make the story more inclusive and probably more representative. As I mentioned before, there are tools that can help me with all these things.

Did your mother ever tell you your eyes were too big for your stomach after ordering a meal you simply could not finish? Or that you bit off more than you could chew trying to finish it? Well, mine certainly did. And not much has changed. I have this perpetual tendency to approach projects from the most out of left field direction. I like to take the scenic route when getting to a destination, which is the root of my struggle.

This project means more to me than just getting a letter in the gradebook, it’s an opportunity for me to manifest something that has been boiling inside of me since November. I appreciate the breadth of this project and want to make it as beautiful as possible; yet, that just may be what is causing me to run into ruts. I am trying to bite off more than I could chew. I hypothesize too many ideas at once and get wrapped up in the ideation of production. The problems I have encountered in my production phase have primarily been a result of trying to get too complicated with things, belaboring my creative aspirations, coming up with too many ideas and losing track of a common theme, and ultimately trying to perfect the story in my head before actually putting it on paper.

CONTENT

I knew I wanted to break up my story into three different chapters: 1. Novelty, 2. Mundanity, and 3. Beauty. That being said, incorporating multimedia elements to break up the narrative was a necessity, for reasons of logic, structure, function, creativity, clarity, engagement, and aesthetic. This was where I brainstormed my first whirlwind of ideas on how exactly I wanted to implement this. I explored a variety content online to try and find further inspiration in my production process. But, I still need to consider the fact that my story is pertaining to a particular audience: Furman. I think that is where I have fallen short in terms of my content, both written and multimedia. I need to do a better job tailoring the artifacts I am choosing to use to appeal or resonate with my future readers. More than anything, I want this to be a story that people WANT to read. That being said, I did learn the value of asking for help where the suit fits. I am by no means a graphic designer. I’m a creative thinker with strategic hands. SO, I decided to use my network and find outlets of support. I shared my ideas for how to break up the three sections of my story with a few graphically skilled friends around the block and asked for assistance. They were thrilled to help! You never know just how much you can improve by using your network as an asset until you open your mouth. My biggest assets in my life have been people, so why not use them to help create assets for my story??

CHAPTERS

To set the scene, I will begin my story with a quote from the one and only Einstein:

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom the emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand wrapped in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.

Albert Einstein

Then, each chapter will have a paralaxing entry with an animated image serving as their introduction or visual header if you will. Each chapter has its own methodical theme with a hidden representation of the word itself. The visuals will be followed by a clear definition of the word to make it clear that the story is transitioning to new depths.

In terms of the other chapters, I have shots for Novelty but have yet to cement a powerful idea for bueauty. Both will include practically identical layouts: using an image in the footage for the first letter, followed by a visual and auditory typewriter effect of the letters spelling the whole word. I am working with friends to get those polished.

COLOR

I began to toy with color schemes.  At first, I instinctively thought to carry over the same warm aesthetic of the personal blog I made whilst abroad, which is the source of some of the anecdotal discoveries I include in my story, plus the blog will be linked somewhere within the narrative. I thought this would maintain a motif and I liked the warmth that it provided to an otherwise cold, curt topic. I want to add a sense of endearment to my story, and I figured I could do this through the power of my multimedia elements. However, other ideas were battling for room in the creative side of my brain and I began to feel fogged with too many ideas at the forefront at once. I began to realize that the source of my headache was from overthinking all these ideas and constantly (and I mean constantly) running them through my mind and thinking about each creative prospect or implication, hypothesizing what things COULD look like without actually implementing them to see what they DO look like. I was not initiating trial and error and it was killing my process. I’ve always been told that it’s never a bad thing to have too many ideas, but overthinking is certainly a burden, a time consuming burden. So, to escape this polluted arena of thought, I tested out one of my alternative color scheme ideas: BLACK&WHITE. Having a B&W theme was something that crossed my mind right away when starting this project. I mean, what’s more mundane than a lack of color? The only thing I am worried about with eliminating the aspect of color is that it is a crucial element of the raw beauty or sheer simplicity in some of the pictures. See below. I tested out both to see which I like better and, to be perfectly honest, I still haven’t fully decided, but I’m leaning towards B&W. We shall see!

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I’m a firm believer in the idea that there’s always room for improvement, but I would say I have achieved quite a bit in my multimedia production process. I have learned that my biggest feats with this project may be the result of ditching my original ideas and coloring a little more inside the lines. Now that I have a good idea of what images I will be using to represent the messages conveyed in my story, I will be focussing on the flow, outline, and direction of my narrative. I want it to be easy to follow, using a Z format with imagery, and also have a place in the minds and hearts of Furman students.

NOVELTY

nov·el·ty

/ˈnävəltē/

noun

The quality of being new, original, or unusual.

“the novelty of being a married woman wore off”

synonyms: originality, newness, unconventionality, unfamiliarity

The idea of novelty manifesting this post poses pretty comical irony.  The fact that this reflection will encompass the process of me overcoming my overly-zealous response to the novelty and scope of this multimedia narrative project, whilst explaining why and how I landed on the idea of novelty serving as the core motif for my narrative.  In case that’s behind you (flew over your head), it’s ironic because I became a victim of my own soapbox ideology.  I fell victim to The Novelty Effect.  The Novelty Effect was, at first, the main idea that I wanted my narrative to surround.  However, I was struggling with wanting to incorporate so many other ideas simultaneously, and my topic ultimately became a jumbled mess.

Cultivation: An Analogy

So say I’m a gardener.  I’m not, but let’s pretend I was for the purpose of this analogy of my thought process development arc for my project proposal.  I had an idea, a topical seed.  That tiny seed had huge potential, I could sense it.  I had to feed it.  So, I researched.  Every time I found a new idea, I fed it water.  I poured and poured and poured and poured into this sprouting seed.  At first, I was sensing steady growth.  The idea was sprouting.  But, with each new branch came more weight, putting pressure on the over-watered premature trunk.  At a certain point, the tree became top-heavy, burdened by the weight of too many ideas.  The tree grew into a lop-sided representation of where I saw my idea going.  There were simply too many branches on one side and not enough weight or support in the middle.  It lacked balance.  Before I knew it, the tree was toppling over and went crashing into the ground, breaking many branches through its fall.  All the branches on one side weighing it down with their heavy, far-reaching concepts.  The trunk, the core of the story, the main idea, wasn’t big or strong enough to hold it all together.  The tree is my brain.  My thought process.  My topic needed a point, it needed direction, and I have that now.

Why Novelty?

I was toying with the idea of using novelty as a theme to guide this narrative about my time abroad and how I found that everything in Europe was seemingly so much more beautiful than everything back home.  I mean everything from the churches, to the apartment buildings, to the sidewalk.  Yes, the grey, concrete sidewalk.  The one in Copenhagen – where I studies abroad – that likely looks exactly the same as the one across the street from my house in Chicago.   I retrospectively realized that because everything abroad in a new environment seemed so extravagant and beautiful because of the sheer fact that it was all so novel.  Thus, the birth of my topic brainstorm.

How Did I Get Here?

One word: M I N D M A P P I N G.  Mindmapping!  Look at the diagram below.

We spent some time discussing mindmapping in class one day, so I decided to try it out.  Let me tell you what, mine certainly did not look like the piece of art you see above, but it worked wonders for my thought process and the development of my idea.  I started with novelty, added in finding beauty in the mundane, drew a branch for Denmark, Danish culture, Hygge, cultivating Hygge at Furman, discovering novelty at Furman, exploiting the redundancy of life, so on and so forth.  It allowed me to really gain a better understanding of the direction I wanted to take my story.

When I started branching off with the idea of novelty in the middle of my mind map, I found myself coming to the conclusion that my branches seemed to be jumbled and lacked connection.  But, when I put “finding beauty in the mundane” in the middle, I found it much easier to make “chapters” out of this title.  The branches seemed to be more visibly cohesive – in terms of each one’s purpose – and connect to the main idea.  Finally, a sturdy tree trunk.

What I have discovered through Ellen Lupton’s insightful text, Design Is Storytelling, is that the multimedia elements I incorporate are truly going to matter, in terms of setting the scene, painting a picture of mundanity, and evoking emotion.  I’m a big believer in the idea that pictures tell a thousand words.  Hence, I need to choose my pictures and videos wisely and determine which photos from abroad will serve as assets, rather than fog the story with tangent-esque visual anecdotes.   I know I will need to be careful with not over-using to create a cloudy scene.  One of my biggest challenges thus far, and what I presume will continue to be a feat, is culling pictures from my time abroad and deciding how to frame new pictures in a corresponding manner so that the story flows and applies in context at Furman.

Our reading in to Seth Gitner’s Multimedia Storytelling has really helped me cull through photos.  His explanation of strategic explanation of visual storytelling, there are four different languages that a photo can speak:

• Informational
• Graphically Appealing
• Emotional
• Intimate

His description and depiction of these four categories really helped me determine how I want my photos to speak to my audience.  After reflecting on Gitner’s lessons, I have a vision of my photographs serving as the main component of the message I am trying to convey.  They are the main event, the novel, the movie, and the text is their narration.  Effectively, I want my words to explain my pictures, but for the two to support each other and have a balance of helping the reader see my point and understand my motif.  The pictures should ultimately all portray mundanity.  Hopefully, their mood will transition throughout the narrative to feeling somewhat challenged by bleakness and a scarcity of color or zeal, into a feeling of pure content and appreciation for the beauty that each of the images hold.

So, am I content with my current direction?  Yes.  But, that is incredibly subject to change.  I am still feeling uneasy about the flow and consistency of my story, simply because I do not know how to pick and choose what to include from my time abroad and what not, nor what to include from my time at Furman and what to not.  I know one thing for sure, I will be starting with explaining the concept of novelty, how it came to effect my life abroad, and how it allowed me to take time to appreciate and recognize the beauty of every day mundane life.

Stay tuned!

– Morgan