Week 6 Learning Journal Post

Working on the video was a blast. To do it I had to get past some big challenges. Or at least challenges that felt big until they shrunk down to size.

First off, the technical side was intimidating as hell.

Thanks to some offhand comment Chris or Miriam or somebody made thru class, I discovered Movie Maker lurking in a hidden corner of Windows 7. I was able to get past the tech fear by digging in, plus I actually helped some fellow students learn how to use it after only a half day's worth of experience. The challenges that came up were in the realm of learning a new tool (which I dislike) and coming up with workarounds (which I love) for those (many) moments when vision exceeds skill.

The other major challenge was about content. I had no idea what to do or how to do it. The ticking clock was not helping. I invented and discarded several ideas. I prefer talking about stuff to talking about myself. The idea for Joule and Watt began as an idea about an electric cord, who would have energy adventures around the house. Cord turned into a light bulb because I couldn't figure out how to film him. There was a light bulb that just called out for a moustache to be drawn on it and lo, they were born.

After that, the problem was having too many stories, not too few. I see how an authors fall in love with their characters and want to give them tons of adventures. The editor in me knew enough to keep the story simple. The creator kept adding things. The amount of time it takes to make slides in Powerpoint, get them "right," get them into Movie Maker, then have to do it all over again in order to edit a slide, forced me to settle down and focus. Surely there is a better technique out there. I also chose something that required 2 people to film.

This coming week we will be talking about audience. Thus far, my experience is that getting visitors is kind of amazing and getting comments is like getting little birthday presents. 376 page views as of 10/23,. Mostly via Facebook and Life With Alacrity. 20 each from Rwanda and the Phillipines!! Is that even real? Who are these people? Are they even people??.

Oddly, for someone as shy as I am, the idea that I can actually make more audience happen is very motivational. It is nice to practice here until the time that my "brand" is ready for prime time and my writing is stronger.