Final Blog

I really enjoyed taking this class! It was one of my only classes that I did not mind going to.  I liked how our grades came from the major papers and assignments and did not include tests.  It made me want to try harder on the papers and was also a relief from having to study. 

            My least favorite assignment was the research paper.  This is probably because it took the most time to write and also included looking up a lot of outside information.  Also, I had to go to the library for this paper.  Our library is quite large and I never go there, which made it a scary and traumatic experience.  The first rhetorical paper was not necessarily my favorite, but I was very interested in my picture, which made it easier. 

            My favorite assignment was the multi-media project.  I thought it was such a fun assignment and I loved that we got to pick our groups and topics.  This kept us all interested and we made it easier to work together outside the classroom.  The filming part of this project was also interesting and enjoyable. 

            Overall I thought that this was a great class.  If Mrs. Lamos taught another English class that I had to take I would definitely sign up!

Weekly Update

            Our filming process is now completely finished.  We went to Harcombe on Sunday and filmed people, foods, and the dining hall in general.  On Monday we went to Schlitter and got the rest of our filming finished.  We also interviewed Sammy Watkins on Monday.  It was so lucky that we randomly saw him in Vickery.  He was literally the only person in the hallway and no other students were around.  I think this is just fate telling us that he wanted to be in our video.  Now that we have our videos, we have to edit and put them into one film.  I am going to find statistics about eating habits or obesity rates for college students.  I might also search for more Clemson related statistics, if they have any.  I think these would help further our point in our video.  The only major part of the project that we have left is the paper.  I am going to do the rational.  I think this will be easy for me because I think that eating healthy is very important to college students.  However, if we are not given healthy options then how are we supposed to eat healthy?  This will be one point that I will make in my section of the paper.  After we compile all of the parts to our paper we will be pretty much finished.  I am going to try and help with the video making, but I do not know how to do too much.  I am not very gifted when it comes to technology.  I think overall we have all done an equal amount in the brainstorming and gathering information process.  I am excited to see our final video!

More Brainstorming

Right now we are in the brainstorming process for our media project.  I think that all of us have contributed a fair amount so far.  I brought a poster and construction paper so that we can create our storyboard.  So far we have all pitched great ideas for our project and video.  I might bring my camera on Friday so we can start filming around campus and the dining halls.  I want to film people that would make an impact for out video’s viewers.  This is why I suggested filming Sammy Watkins.  Everybody at Clemson knows who Sammy is and he could grab people’s attention while they watch our video.  I think it would be good to get his suggestion on the dining halls at Clemson because many people might be interested in what he thinks.  I think it is also important to film other people about their opinions on the dining halls. One of our group members is going to film a girl who got E. coli from a hamburger from Harcombe.  I think this will add a lot of pathos on our viewers.  I want to film all of the bad foods in the dining halls and talk about how they are unhealthy for people’s bodies.  After this section I want to give some nutrition facts.  I think it would be interesting to film people walking around the dining halls and watch them pick what foods to eat.  We can see what the majority of Clemson students choose at the dining halls.  I want to include a small portion on how the dining halls clean their dishes.  They always look dirty and I hope that we can get behind the scenes footage on how they actually clean their dishes.  At the end I want to include a section on the healthy options that the dining halls do have to offer.  I think this is a good start for our brainstorming process.  

Brainstorming Process for the Multimedia Project

      Today we brainstormed ideas for our multimedia project.  The first portion of the project was determining our team name.  This is a very important and extensive decision.  We thought of a couple of phenomenal names, but we are still not sure if we have picked a winner.  Some members wanted our team name to be something simple, but we decided it needed to be bold and easily remembered.  We will decide on a final team name sometime in the near future.  The other brainstorming we did was trying to decide what our topic was going to be about.  We wanted to do something that had to do with Clemson University because it could potentially make a greater impact on the students who eventually watch our video.  We thought about doing something that would interest most students on a regular basis.  Then we decided the perfect topic would be sanitation.  This was still a broad topic, so we decided to narrow our research down and focus on one deadly topic, dining halls.  We thought this would be perfect because thousands of students use the dining halls more than once a day.  One of our group members also knows a girl who is hospitalized from eating a meal at one of our dining halls.  We decided that we are going to interview the victim and ask her what she thinks about Clemson’s dining halls.  We will also interview other students, dining hall cooks, and possibly dining hall dish-cleaners.  We are going to videotape action going on in the dining halls, and if possible get behind-the-scenes footage from their kitchens.  We are going to make a video and incorporate interviews into our video.  We also might add images and music into our video so viewers will stay interested.  Our group wants to display Clemson’s dining halls true colors and see what the student body has to say about their meal options.