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Remix & Remediation Project: Visual Rhetoric ENGL 106 November 12th-December 7th

As we learned way back at the beginning of the semester, everythings a remix. You could argue that your psyche is formed, in part, by the particular mix of pop culture texts youve consumed throughout your life. Your research paper involved the mixing together of your ideas and the ideas of others to form something new. And now, for our final project, youll be remixing one or both of these things with even more elements of pop culture to tell a new story.
REMEDIATION is the incorporation or representation of one medium in another medium. REMIXING is the adoption, alteration, and recombination of pre-existing cultural texts (songs, literature, paintings, etc.) to create something new.

Through this project we will once again be learning to compose for a specific context and audience. You will learn the fundamentals of visual rhetoric to complete a multimedia composition. As with the research project, this specific type of composition may not be one that you return to in the future, but the skills learnedparticularly what youll learn about addressing a visual audience, how to connect writing and images, and displaying your ideas visually are ones that will be useful to you in the future as both readers and composers of images. This project requires that you remediate and remix a previous project of your choosing and/or other elements of contemporary pop culture into a movie concept and posterso this project entails a visual composition, and a few pages of written work. The link between your original project and/or source(s) and the movie should be clear, but remix away! Your poster needs to show evidence of your understanding of visual rhetoric principles. We will spend time in class learning the basics of Photoshop to complete the poster part of this project. If you would prefer to create your poster using another program or by hand, you MUST email me with an explanation for your preference.

You will have to turn in the following to complete this project. This project is worth 200 points, and all parts will be turned in digitally. The poster and pitch is due December 7th, when you will share the poster and synopsis with the class. The write-up is due by the end of finals week, midnight, December 14th. 1. Poster (final draft must be submitted as a .PDF or .JPEG file) (75 points) o We will work on this primarily in class, learning the basics of Photoshop together. All Purdue University computers are equipped with the Adobe suite, so you will be able to work on this outside of class in any computer lab on campus. o When collecting images for your poster, you will need to ensure that you find high-resolution images to ensure your poster looks professional. o Disclaimer: Please be aware that this is not art class and therefore I will not be judging you harshly on your level of creative or artistic skill. This is why you will write #5. 2. Pitch (2 minutes, max) (25 points) o You will include this with the rest of the written portion of your project, but you will need to have it prepared at the time you present your poster. We will go over some resources for composing this pitch, but the main thing to keep in mind is conveying the overall concept/plot to your movie in the most concise but complete way. o This isnt speech class so Im not going to grade your presentation skills. 3. Synopsis (~450 words) & information (title, tagline, characters, genre, rating) (40 points) o This written section of your project will provide the details of your film concept. The main portion will be the synopsis, an outline of the plot. Youll also want to include the movies title, tagline, genre, MPAA rating (in your opinion), and a list of the major characters. o Genre: At the very least you need to indicate if your movie is action, comedy, or drama. If you want to be more specific (which you should!), consult IMDbs list of genres (http://www.imdb.com/genre/) and Wikipedias list of fiction and entertainment genres (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genres#Film_genres) o If you are using sources external to your personal projects, you will need to include citations for the articles that youre using for inspiration. 4. Audience write-up (~150 words) (20 points) o Based on what we have learned previously about audiences and what you know about the audience for your films genre, you will write up a description of that audience (demographic) and how you made the decision to address this audience. 5. Visual rhetoric write-up (~450 words) (40 points) o In this (very important) section of your project you will explain, using the visual rhetoric terms and concepts weve learned in class, what choices you have made with your poster. How have you used visual rhetoric to compose the poster? Why did you compose your poster in the way that you did (in terms of attention-grabbing, audience appeal, demonstration of plot, etc.)?

Options: You do have the option of completing this project in different ways. You may work in a group of up to three students, in which case you will need to combine one element from each group members projects (either memoir or research paper). As a group you will have to complete the poster and written portions, and you will need to complete an additional individual write-up describing and reflecting on the processes you undertook to complete the project as a group. The other option available to you, whether working as a group or individual will be to complete a movie trailer or movie website rather than a poster. Im opening this option up mainly on the chance that some of you may have film or webdesign skills already. If you do not have pre-existing skills at composing in these mediums, keep in mind that we will not be learning how to work with them in class. If you choose to do the project in one of these mediums, we will need to meet outside of class to discuss my expectations of such a project. EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES If you turn all parts of the project in by class time on December 7th, you will get 25 extra-credit points. If you would like to choose a cast and director for your film and explain why you chose these people (~300 words), you will get 15 extra credit points. Formatting for written portion of the project: Movie title Movie tagline Pitch Genre Rating Character list Synopsis Audience write-up Visual rhetoric write-up ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Remix & Remediation Project Calendar

ENGL 106 Fall 2012: November 12th-December 7th WEEK ONE: NOV 12 Remix & remediation, Photoshop intro Conferences: NO CONFERENCES Tuesday: Project introduction, visual rhetoric HOMEWORK: Read 7 Elements of a Great Movie Poster Design Thursday: Photoshop intro Friday: LAB DAY: SC238 Remix & remediate, in-class work HOMEWORK: Complete proposal worksheet (on Blackboard) & bring to week 3 conferences, read The Eight Steps to a Powerful Pitch Friday: THANKSGIVING BREAK NO CLASS Friday: Workshopping your movie

WEEK TWO: OCT 19 WEEK THREE: NOV 26th Write-ups

Conferences: THANKSGIVING BREAK NO CONFERENCES Conferences: Individual conferences, share your plot ideas and poster sketch.

Tuesday: THANKSGIVING BREAK NO CLASS Tuesday: LAB DAY SC246 Context/audience, writing a synopsis, in-class work

WEEK FOUR: DEC 3 In-class work & presentations WEEK FIVE: DEC 10

Conferences: NO CONFERENCES

Tuesday: LAB DAY: MTHW301 in-class work

Thursday: THANKSGIVING BREAK NO CLASS Thursday: Pitchwriting & visual rhetoric write-up, in-class work HOMEWORK: Compile notes on your film concept and poster idea and be ready to share with small groups. Thursday: LAB DAY: in-class work POSTER DUE TOMORROW FINALS WEEK: NO CLASS

Friday: Poster & pitch presentations

FINALS WEEK: NO CLASS

FINALS WEEK: NO CLASS

FINALS WEEK: NO CLASS You must submit the written portion of your project to me via email by midnight, Friday, December 14th.

Project Guidelines & Calendar revised 11.12.12 LAC

Remix & Remediation Project: 200 points

All parts of project turned in: Poster: 75 points 75 points 65 points
Poster demonstrates a strong attempt to use visual rhetoric and argument, effectively addresses intended audience, and generates interest in the film. Poster demonstrates use of visual rhetoric and argument, addresses intended audience.

YES 55 points
Poster demonstrates some use of visual rhetoric and argument, vaguely addresses an intended audience.

NO 45 points
Poster demonstrates little attention to visual rhetoric and argument, does not address an audience.

35 points
Poster demonstrates no attempt to use visual rhetoric and argument, does not address an audience or convey movie at all.

Pitch: 25 points 25 points 22 points

Pitch quickly and coherently describes movie in a way that demonstrates attention to audience appeal. Pitch quickly and coherently describes movie.

19 points
Pitch describes movie within timelimit.

17 points
Pitch is either unclear in its description and/or too long.

15 points
Pitch does not describe movie at all.

Synopsis: 40 points 40 points 35 points

Synopsis effectively conveys the films plot and major elements in a well thought-out manner. Synopsis conveys the films plot and major elements without irrelevant digression.

30 points
Synopsis conveys information about the film adequately.

25 points
Synopsis does not convey information about the film in a concise, effective way.

20 points
Synopsis fails explain the film.

Audience Write-Up: 20 points 20 points 18 points

Write-up explains target audience and appeal thoroughly in well-though out, concise manner. Write-up explains target audience and appeal effectively.

16 points
Write-up explains target audience and appeal.

14 points
Write-up provides a weak explanation of target audience.

12 points
Write-up fails to explain target audience.

Visual Rhetoric Write-Up: 40 points 40 points 35 points 30 points

Write-up demonstrates a thorough understanding of vis.-rhet. & argument concepts; thoroughly describes use/attempted use of concepts in poster. Write-up demonstrates an understanding of vis.-rhet. & argument concepts; describes use/attempted use of concepts in poster. Write-up demonstrates some understanding and application of vis.rhet. & argument skills.

25 points
Write-up does not demonstrate a high level of understanding or application of vis.rhet. & argument concepts.

20 points
Write-up does not demonstrate an understanding of concepts or application.

Total: ________ /200 points

Extra Credit: ____ CASTING (25 points) ____ DEC. 7th TURN-IN (15 points)