Time transcripts of DMAC_Q9_10

[00:00:00:000]	

[00:00:04:040]	I think it was all hard. [laugh]

[00:00:08:090]	Everything was hard. Um, it was

[00:00:12:140]	all unfamiliar.

[00:00:16:160]	It was harder than I expected.

[00:00:20:200]	Um, [pause] I think that's

[00:00:24:260]	that-that came not so much from a conceptual challenge, but

[00:00:28:290]	a technical one. Uh, so the actual

[00:00:33:030]	bits of, of skill needed

[00:00:37:090]	in crafting the thing. Um, sort of the craft work involved

[00:00:41:120]	itself, um, seemed to

[00:00:45:140]	call on a measure of expertise that I didn't

[00:00:49:170]	possess. And so trying to become more expert

[00:00:53:240]	and more skilled in this compressed period of time

[00:00:57:260]	was pretty challenging.

[00:01:02:010]	But again, you do what you can do. And, I-I always remember

[00:01:06:060]	uh, Linda Brodkey saying, in the basic writer course I took from her years ago,

[00:01:10:090]	"Keep remembering second-language acquisition"—or, 

[00:01:14:130]	or, non-native speakers. She said, "Think about yourself.

[00:01:18:140]	"When you were taking the French class, and you had the exam, did you write

[00:01:22:200]	what you knew? Or did you write what you could write in

[00:01:26:220]	"French?" And that's what I was doing with this. Y'know,

[00:01:30:280]	and I was, maybe my horizons were low, but I was saying, "This is

[00:01:35:030]	"what I can do in this technological medium right now."

[00:01:39:060]	Um, one thing that was

[00:01:43:100]	kind of hard was, I had to relearn iMovie. 

[00:01:47:160]	Because I've done work in Final Cut Pro, and one of the Sony

[00:01:51:170]	[inaudible] on PC. So,

[00:01:55:210]	I had to kinda go back to iMovie, and try to just make

[00:01:59:270]	things work, because there's not a lot of

[00:02:04:010]	nuance, I guess you'd say, in that.

[00:02:08:040]	But, you know, I just wanted to do it in that, too, and it's perfectly

[00:02:12:100]	fine. So, that was a bit, "Hmm, I have to actually,

[00:02:16:160]	"[laughing] had to put some time into this, y'know, and figure out how it works." I had forgotten 

[00:02:20:180]	some steps. - (Eddie) So, some of the challenges

[00:02:24:190]	for me have just been learning the technology. Although,

[00:02:28:250]	um, I've been, um, pleased

[00:02:32:260]	that, sort of, the principles I had in my head about how technology works

[00:02:36:290]	from other, y'know, engagement with technology

[00:02:41:040]	has served me well. [inaudible] [laugh] And most of it is

[00:02:45:070]	fair-fairly intuitive. A lesson that I have

[00:02:49:100]	learned over time, that I'm being reminded of

[00:02:53:120]	during this week, is the importance of continuing

[00:02:57:190]	to work with certain technologies.

[00:03:01:200]	if you really hope to engage them in your prac—in your practice. Because

[00:03:05:240]	um, well, for example, probably in 2005

[00:03:09:300]	I attended a Dreamweaver workshop. And, um,

[00:03:14:020]	all I can tell you is that Dreamweaver is, uh, software

[00:03:18:060]	that allows you to create websites. [laughing] So, 

[00:03:22:120]	if it's not—it's like a language, you know? Like, learning French, or Spanish, or something. If you don't,

[00:03:26:180]	if you're not practicing it. - (Torsa) Actually, I have worked with most of the

[00:03:30:200]	the technologies they have taught here, before, but in completely

[00:03:34:260]	different contexts. - I had worked on that when I was writing

[00:03:38:130]	for [inaudible], um, as a kind of feature

[00:03:42:190]	writer for those, and somehow I had not thought of using

[00:03:46:230]	them as part of composition classroom. Or,

[00:03:50:280]	uh, for that matter, using them as part of a, y'know

[00:03:54:290]	literature teaching curriculum or something of that [inaudible]. So, the manner in

[00:03:59:050]	which Cindy and Scott kind of talked to us about it, explained the

[00:04:03:100]	Concept, and how everyone else approached the Concept, showed me

[00:04:07:130]	the immense potential something like that had. So, 

[00:04:11:190]	for me what was really important is that, "Okay, I had

[00:04:15:250]	the skills all along, perhaps, but I did not know what I would make of it." And,

[00:04:20:010]	so, um, so the difficulty for me was not so much

[00:04:24:030]	as, um, learning the technology or coming up with the finished product,

[00:04:28:060]	but the difficulty really was in kind of changing my way of thinking about

[00:04:32:120]	those technologies.

[00:04:36:140]	I think what I would say, the-the only

[00:04:40:180]	thing that, that I found really hard about this process, um,

[00:04:44:230]	was the, um, the anxiety of putting something together

[00:04:48:280]	um, in such a short period of time. Um, but having said that, it was also

[00:04:53:010]	extremely productive, uh, to have that deadline. - (Theresa): And, being a

[00:04:57:050]	perfectionist, I kept wanting to redo the video with the music, and I

[00:05:01:110]	had to realize that, once again, I don't have that kind of time, so I have to be accepting of where it's

[00:05:05:130]	at. So then, once again, I did think of my students as well, 'cause I'm thinking,

[00:05:09:160]	some of 'em are gonna do the same thing. And so, when I go to assess that, or grade

[00:05:13:230]	that, I have to think along those lines. So, I'm hoping that I

[00:05:17:250]	remember all this when I go to do that with my students.

[00:05:21:250]	I think that there were a couple things that were surprising, um, about

[00:05:25:270]	starting this project. And one of them was just sort of how

[00:05:29:280]	much time, um, this kind of project took. I think it took me maybe

[00:05:34:040]	three hours, to get the first five seconds of my

[00:05:38:090]	video? And that was something I was not prepared for. Um,

[00:05:42:150]	so that was, that was surprising. And, it was also really hard

[00:05:46:170]	to make those decisions, to choose when you have so many different modalities at your

[00:05:50:190]	disposal, right? Actually trying to think about what's gonna work

[00:05:54:250]	best here, what's gonna be realistic, considering my skills. Um,

[00:05:59:010]	so there was, there was a lot to sort through, and that took a lot of time as well.

[00:06:03:030]	The, um, getting the sound clips to not match the audio

[00:06:07:080]	—I mean the visual, the audio and the visual

[00:06:11:130]	un-untied. Um, I kept thinking about, "Oh, I need—

[00:06:15:170]	thinking about video that was together, where the sound matched the audio.

[00:06:19:200]	And it was really hard to fight that impulse, or even the thinking about it. Like, "Oh, this

[00:06:23:270]	"could go there," and then I'm like, "Well, it won't make sense once you pull the audio off of it."

[00:06:27:280]	Um, so that was—I don't if it was hard, or challenging, or easier

[00:06:32:020]	than I thought it was gonna be, but it was just really refreshing, as far as how I was

[00:06:36:090]	approaching the project and how I was approaching the way that the text

[00:06:40:150]	—physical, like the visual text went together with the sound, what the

[00:06:44:180]	possibilities were there. [inaudible] - (Michelle): I think I was also surprised, um,

[00:06:48:220]	by how long and how short sixty could be.

[00:06:52:280]	So for me, I had, like, more than sixty seconds of audio but I had

[00:06:57:010]	less than sixty seconds of video, and so then, so making, y'know

[00:07:01:090]	in one form I was like, "Sixty seconds isn't enough to fit all of this

[00:07:05:140]	in" and then in the other form I was thinking, like, "How do I fill

[00:07:09:180]	"this other kind of sixty seconds?" So I, like, split the sixty into audio and video. 

[00:07:13:230]	What came easy was knowing what I wanted to do.

[00:07:17:280]	Um, what came hard was the

[00:07:22:010]	firm requirement that it could not exceed sixty seconds.

[00:07:26:060]	And so, condensing, condensing, condensing.

[00:07:30:120]	And, it was also hard for me to

[00:07:34:150]	compose, um, off the page. In fact, I ended up

[00:07:38:200]	turning to my computer and composing a Word document that I

[00:07:42:220]	essentially read into my audio recorder. And then it was too long!

[00:07:46:230]	Uh, and so I had to, y'know, cut it and cut it.

[00:07:50:250]	To, to sort of—y'know, it seems like, "Sixty seconds? I can come up with something to say in sixty seconds."

[00:07:55:000]	But, it took me awhile to really come up with something that was gonna be

[00:07:59:010]	cohesive, um, but interesting to do in sixty seconds. So, it was

[00:08:03:030]	sort of those, like, the invention stage that was a lot more difficult for me than

[00:08:07:040]	the actual sort of production of it. - To have some 

[00:08:11:060]	kind of arc, in sixty seconds, like, that was the toughest thing

[00:08:15:130]	to say, like, "I know I wanna go from this point to this point,

[00:08:19:160]	"I've got a pretty short amount of time to do it, but I wanna do it in a way that is compelling.

[00:08:23:210]	And that takes an audience, sort of, through a narrative, or through

[00:08:27:290]	an argument, in some sort of way. Um, and-and

[00:08:32:030]	that, like, that, y'know, that was tough, to come up with an idea that I was gonna be able

[00:08:36:070]	—travel somewhere, um, and have it not just, not just

[00:08:40:090]	be something that could be, y'know, delivered in a sentence, but something

[00:08:44:100]	that could be an interesting arc in a minute.

[00:08:48:120]	

[00:08:52:190]	The most surprising part of the process was that I didn't think it would be hard for me.

[00:08:56:250]	I'm like, "I'm a creative person, this will be fine. I'll just go in there, and I'll come up with something

[00:09:00:270]	"cute and clever, and let's do this." And, um, and yeah, it was much harder

[00:09:04:280]	than I thought it would be. - (Sara) Um, I was surprised

[00:09:09:050]	how hard it was for me to incorporate audio.

[00:09:13:100]	I thought, coming from a poetry background, I thought, "Oh sound. I know sound."

[00:09:17:140]	"I can work with it." And then when faced with, just these endless

[00:09:21:160]	options online and not having any clue how to find material

[00:09:25:210]	I just kind of shut down. [small laugh] There was a moment where I was just like,

[00:09:29:270]	"I don't know if I can do this." I, um, y'know,

[00:09:34:030]	I searched a bunch of websites and then just kind of got frustrated and went and found Trauman. [small laugh]

[00:09:38:060]	And was like, "Help me know how to start." And so, in that way it was

[00:09:42:120]	interesting, I could kind of relate to maybe what my students feel like, when I assign them a research

[00:09:46:180]	project and they don't know where to find sources. Really, with audio I didn't

[00:09:50:210]	know where to find sources, or even what to do with the sources when I found them. Y'know, you'd see

[00:09:54:240]	a description of music, which is not like seeing a picture and saying, "Oh yes, that's what

[00:09:58:250]	"I want." You have to play, y'know, these sounds over and over and over again to figure out

[00:10:03:010]	what they are and if they match what's in your brain. And it,

[00:10:07:030]	I found it impossible to find what was in my brain

[00:10:11:100]	online. - (Christina) I think I was surprised at

[00:10:15:160]	first by how much my ideas were not coming together into into a cohesive

[00:10:19:190]	project. Um, because I said, "Okay, I have invention as the idea. I bet if

[00:10:23:220]	"I just stick a bunch of things in there and kind of depend on the juxtapositions, or whatever

[00:10:27:280]	"other kinds of transitions between those images to come through, that that'll make something

[00:10:32:000]	"really interesting." And I was like, "No, this isn't. It's too—"um, I was working both with

[00:10:36:010]	um, black-and-white, y'know, 1950s archival

[00:10:40:060]	footage from the Prelinger Archive, and also with my own, HD

[00:10:44:080]	color footage from outside, um, the building we're in at OSU.

[00:10:48:100]	And, I realized it was such a tonal shift, I had to

[00:10:52:130]	either put some kind of filter, or do something to the footage I took

[00:10:56:200]	or use less of it. And so, it kind of was

[00:11:00:250]	surprising to me, I think, all of the different layers that come into play when you're

[00:11:04:290]	composing this stuff. - I was very surprised by how difficult it felt to judge the pacing

[00:11:09:050]	of my video. I feel like I've come to a place where I can really judge the pacing of my writing

[00:11:13:100]	fairly accurately. And I think of this both in terms of creative and academic

[00:11:17:160]	writing. Um, but in terms of the video, I'd sit there: "Is this

[00:11:21:220]	image on the screen for too long or too little? I really don't know, I can't decide."

[00:11:25:240]	And maybe some of that is my composing was compressed into a very short period of time

[00:11:29:260]	and I had less time to stand back and look at it. But I still was surprised by how difficult it was for me

[00:11:34:030]	to get a sense for how the video looked to an outsider.

[00:11:38:090]	I was in it. Kind of like—and that can happen with writing, you know,

[00:11:42:120]	you get in it and it's hard to look at the moving parts for what they are and realize what you have. [inaudible]

[00:11:46:160]	

[00:11:50:220]	I don't think, not about the composing process, I think about the revising.

[00:11:54:250]	That was, that was surprising to me, in terms

[00:11:59:020]	of just how at some point I was willing to just let stuff

[00:12:03:080]	go. Um, just like, "Okay, that's four seconds I can

[00:12:07:120]	"[laughing] use someplace else." And then, having to sort of make

[00:12:11:170]	make up the, fill in that space with something not

[00:12:15:240]	time-consuming, but to-to make the connections clear.

[00:12:19:270]	[exhale] I came up with a lot more material than I expected I would.

[00:12:24:020]	I think. Um, yeah, so it was a little bit harder sorting through

[00:12:28:080]	what would convey concisely and

[00:12:32:110]	I mean, in a well-crafted way the points that I was looking

[00:12:36:170]	at doing. [inaudible] - (Crystal) Um, and one of the things I noticed for my final

[00:12:40:230]	project was we started out, and I did this with

[00:12:44:260]	my Concept in 60 too, was starting out very big.

[00:12:49:000]	And then it's like, "Okay, that's too much." And then having to narrow down. But I write,

[00:12:53:010]	I do that when I write too. Like, my initial dissertation topic was, like, a series of books.

[00:12:57:050]	And it's like okay, "Way, y'know, narrow narrow narrow." [inaudible]

[00:13:01:060]	In terms of the editing, I really had a difficult time

[00:13:05:110]	deciding what to keep and what to take away.

[00:13:09:170]	How much to show, and how much not to. So, um, where I, when I

[00:13:13:190]	use the term "editing" it was—it's almost the same as in a print essay, where

[00:13:17:270]	you're drafting. Because it's not where you have something and you're taking

[00:13:22:040]	things out, or putting things in, that last final stage.

[00:13:26:090]	One of the things I've been thinking about is, "editing" is more like "drafting" in print.

[00:13:30:130]	And so maybe we need a new term for editing. Maybe it shouldn't be called editing.

[00:13:34:180]	Because that signifies something different to us. - It was very

[00:13:38:240]	—yes. The answer to that, yes it was more difficult. But I would say, even the invention

[00:13:42:260]	was more difficult. Because I can open a Word document and start typing, and maybe I don't

[00:13:47:010]	know what I'm going to say, but um, I know that I can

[00:13:51:020]	y'know, start typing, get my thoughts out, and figure something out. And really, the revising

[00:13:55:060]	and editing process on a computer, even though it can be extensive and detailed,

[00:13:59:110]	I know the process. And it's something that's kind second-nature

[00:14:03:150]	to me. So, part of it was, this was a new medium, and I had no idea how to go about it.

[00:14:07:180]	But then again, it was also, y-y'know, in

[00:14:11:240]	writing a lot of it's in your head. And so you can go to other sources and you can

[00:14:16:000]	find things that they've said and integrate it, but your overall point

[00:14:20:030]	is in your head, that you want to make, or that I want to make. And-and-and this

[00:14:24:080]	—and I know how to make it with words. So, while my point

[00:14:28:140]	might have been in my head, one, I didn't know the point when I was starting out. 

[00:14:32:160]	But two, I didn't know what I would use to make the point.

[00:14:36:220]	Because it's so much more complicated than just words. Um, I could use words

[00:14:40:290]	in a video, I could use sound, images, still or moving. And so, 

[00:14:45:030]	all of those layered things makes it more challenging—made it more challenging for me

[00:14:49:080]	in the drafting process.