The assignment was to make a digital story. We were told to make a miniature movie using pictures. The rules of the assignment was to use Imovie and make a movie using pictures, our voice, or a text to explain what your movie was about, and a song of our choice. The movie had to last up to a minute or a little over as long as it explained our movie. The movie also had to be personal to us.

         My digital story was of my trip to North Carolina. It was about meeting my aunts, uncles, cousins,  and my older sister. It showed the flight to North Carolina, and the flight back. My movie also showed the family celebrating my cousin's birthday. The pictures that i had used were of me at the airport waiting for my flight, being in the air, my aunt and uncle and two of my cousin's. I used another one with me, my older sister, and more of my cousin's. Another photo was of my father, my sister, and me. Then we had a couple celebrating my cousin's birthday. The last pictures were of the plane ride home. I chose those pictures because they show the love between family, and the long flights to see them and the long flights back.

         I chose this story because it helps me to remember how much my family means to me and the feelings that i felt finally being able to meet them for the first time. This story is significant to me because I love my family, and it was the first holiday I spent with my father's side of the family since i was a baby. These pictures help show the significance that the of the story and explain how much of a happy time it was for me.

        Looking at the rubric, I think I did really well on my project. I liked working with Imovie a lot because it taught me how to use Imovie for one, and it taught me to make a movie using pictures. Imovie was a little difficult to me because i had some trouble when putting in the transitions. My experience in Digital Media class was very enlightening because it taught me more ways to use photoshop, and it taught me how to use Imovie. I think the project that i learned to use, I might use in the future. I'll definitely use photoshop, and there's a possibility that I might use Imovie if I ever want to make movies with pictures.

 

        The assignment we were given was to make a box called photographic truth using pictures from movies or history and making yourself part of them. We were told to use pictures that represent something that happened in the world and make ourselves part of it. The steps i took for this project was listening to the instructions given by the teacher, picking a topic, finding pictures based on the topic i chose, taking pictures of me to use, and then actually working on the project.

         My book has six pictures that i chose for the project of a tragedy that happened in the past. I chose to alter images from the holocaust that show people being viewed after they were dead, or people just coming into the concentration camps. I added myself to theses images by putting my face on the bodies of the people that were living in the time of the holocaust. The tools i needed to use was the crop tool, the eraser tool, the magnetic lasso tool, changing the brightness and the saturation on some of the photos, and on some photos the filter tool.

         The theme i chose to work on was black and whit pictures of the holocaust. I chose this theme because the holocaust was a big tragedy not only for the people that were jewish or even people that were not, but for the pain it cause many people around the world. My presence alter the meaning because it shows a view of someone who never experience the holocaust being part of the mark the holcaust left on our history.

         I've learned many new things about photographic truth. I learned how to alter images and make myself a part of the pictures and part of the life that i never had to live through. I learned the ways you can make yourself someone your not and still fit into the image. I enjoyed this assignment because it taught me more ways on how to use photoshop. The project was a little difficult in some ways but it other ways it was quite easy. I think i was very successful in my creation because i was able to alter the images in the way i wanted to. If i were to do the project over again i would probably put more effort into fitting my whole self into the pictures than just putting my face in them.

 

           The assignment was to create a Lyrical Triptych. The triptych is three panels containing pictures and lyrics. We were told to pick a song that expresses ourselves. We were then told that after we picked our song, we had to search for as many pictures that would help visualize what the song we picked meant. After we searched for the pictures, we were told we had to search through them for three pictures per panel that were to help understand what the lyrics of the song were trying to say. The steps I took were somewhat easy but also somewhat difficult. First, as said before I chose my song and pictures. I went through the paper of instructions that would help us find the tools we needed to use on photoshop. Then I made my first panel for my triptych on photoshop and got to work. I chose three pictures that would work really well together to explain my song and put them on my panel after cutting out some parts of the pictures that worked better than the rest of an image to make my three layers of images. I continued to do that with all three of my images and added the verses of the of the song I chose.

           My triptych has a different array of colors that work well together. The first panel which explains the first verse of the song takes place in a cold, snowy forest with a man walking away and a womans souls laying in the cold. The second panel has a sort of out dated color from pictures that were taken years ago with a little girl whose sleeping and dreaming of her and a little boy together. The last panel has a girl in a dark forest running away and a man watching her. The song I chose was Bring me to Life by Evanescence. My finished work looks exactly how I meant to portray the song. The tools i used in photoshop were most of the ones on the list the teacher gave us. I cut and paste, I used multiple layers for a small part of a image,  I changed the size of most the the images that I had cut out of other photos, I rotated some of them, I adjusted the opacity, I used the magnetic lasso, I used the type tool, and I also put a filter on one of my panels. I used the filter to make the background image look almost fake. I made a second copy of what was suppose to be a soul in my last panel,  most of my images that were cut out needed to be resized to be either smaller or bigger, the picture of the girl in the bottom of my first panel I rotated and changed the opacity so that you could see through her and so that she seemed more like a spirit that a person, I used the magnetic lasso to cut certain parts of my photos out, and I used the type tool so that i could add the lyrics to my triptych.

        The images that reflect the lyrics were pretty much done by themselves though I did have to add a couple pictures to make it not only look good but so that my panels had the three layers of images that were required. The mood that was created from my triptych was the sadness that comes from reading the lyrics and the hope that the man that the woman loves will come find her. The sadness is portrayed in my second panel where the girl is dreaming of herself and the boy. And the hope that the man will come find the woman.

       My experience in working with adobe photoshop has been a very helpful one. I've learn how to use the tools, and I've learned how to make pictures look the way I want them to. I like really like using adobe photoshop when it comes to doing projects because it pushes my abilities to make my work with pictures better. I think I was successful with my triptych with in making the pictures work together and creating the mood for the song that i had chosen. If I could do anything differently I think I would've chosen a different song and find ways to portray it with the pictures because the song I used was hard to put pictures to.

About Me!!!!

Hello. My name is Mariah. I'm going to tell you a little bit about myself. I'm 17 years old and a junior here at Hope High. This is the fourth high school I've been to.  I'm friendly when you get to know me. I love music and I like reading.

         The assignment that was given was to create a magazine cover. We were told we need to create the cover using photo shop. We were also told that we had to put a picture of ourself on it, even if the picture didn't include out faces, and we had to put headlines on the cover like the real magazines have. The steps I took to create my cover was: first I went into photoshop. Then I search on google looking for a good title for my magazine and what color I wanted the title. I then used the lasso tool to move the title of the magazine from one page to the other. I chose the color of the background I wanted and I waited to take my picture so that it was one of the last things I put on.

         My magazine cover is yellow with some made up headlines, though one or two are true. My magazine also has a picture of me on it with the title being Seventeen. The magazine also has some of the characteristics a real magazine would. It has color, picture, headlines, and a barcode. The headlines are done in all different types of fonts and styles. 

          Through my magazine I was trying to communicate my personality. I tried communicating the meaning by making the color of my cover bright. That explains my personality on a day that I'm down or mad. I also chose the title Seventeen not only because seventeen is my age, but also because I like the Seventeen magazines because most of the people in the magazines are teenagers or just reaching adulthood so it's easier to understand how things are at a that age.

           I think I engaged well in this project because I was in class all the time and I work on my project everytime I was in class. I think i could've made my magazine more interesting by adding better designs and not making it so plain. I used all the tools that were useful for this project. I did my best with communication through my magazine cover but I believe i could've done better. The areas I could improve on are invention and communication.