Media Studies 200: Intro to Media Studies
Intended for 80 undergraduate students
Fall 2024 at the University of Victoria
lək̓ʷəŋən and WSÁNEĆ territories
M and Th, 10 - 11:20am | 1.5 units | prereq: AWR
Taught by Jentery Sayers (he / him) | jentery@uvic.ca
Office hours: Th, 12-1pm, in CLE D331
Teaching assistant: Maya Linsley (she / any)
This worksheet covers material from Module 2: Media. Your response is due via Brightspace by Monday, October 21st, at 10am.
The worksheet is open-book, meaning you are allowed to use handouts, the course website, my slides, your notes, recordings of class sessions, the library, and the internet to address the prompts.
Please cite your source material.
Download the worksheet (DOCX format) to complete it in a word processor such as Microsoft Word, Google Docs, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, or Pages for Mac.
This open-book worksheet contains five prompts. You should respond to four of them. I will mark the first four if you respond to all five.
Each response is worth 25 points for a total of 100 points.
Most of the prompts ask you to create media. Please attach your audio, image, and video files to your response in Brightspace. Do not use YouTube, SoundCloud, Vimeo, Google Drive, or any other non-Brightspace platform to submit files.
Prompt 1. Learning the terminology of images helps us to better understand them and all the work that goes into making them. Let’s test this idea by annotating a comic.
Use terminology from the “Images” and “Comics” handouts to annotate one page of a comic of your choice. Fill the margins and gutters of the comic with descriptions of what you see. Then use no more than 350 words to 1) describe your annotations, 2) explain how you organized them on the page, and 3) tell me what you learned about the craft of comics and images from this exercise. You’re welcome to use software to annotate the page, or you can print it and annotate it manually. Just don’t forget to attach the annotations to your submission as an image file.
Stuck? Looking for ideas? Check out these examples from Nick Sousanis’s comics classes in 2015-18. Note how many of them are colour-coded, include a legend, and place the comic on a larger canvas or piece of paper for the sake of annotation.
You’re welcome to annotate a page of Adrian Tomine’s “Translated, From the Japanese” for this exercise. We studied it in class. You’re also welcome to annotate a spread (two pages) instead of a single page.
Prompt 2. Typefaces shape the meaning of text through their material connotation. Let’s test this idea by modifying the text of an animation.
Use your preferred software to transcribe the text of these three frames in THE M00D 0F THE M0MENT. As you transcribe them, please change the typeface from Monaco to a typeface of your choice, including any changes you wish to make to the font as well. (I recommend consulting Typewolf, Google Fonts, or even Wikipedia to learn more about typefaces along the way.) Then use no more than 350 words, including terminology from the “Text” handout, to tell me 1) which typeface you selected, 2) why you chose that typeface to replace Monaco, and 3) how the features of your new typeface alter the meaning of THE M00D’s story. Don’t forget to include the modified source material in your response. You can either paste it into the worksheet as text or attach it to the submission as an image file.
Please change the typeface only once across all three frames. Do not change the typeface in every frame.
Prompt 3. What a sound means in audio may not correspond with who or what caused it. Let’s test this idea by creating some Foley sounds.
Watch this video about Joanna Fang’s Foley work for Sony. Then record a short video (no longer than a minute) of a scene from your everyday life. (It doesn’t have to include any people in it.) Now create and record two Foley sounds that could play at some point during your short video. Two rules: 1) you cannot use your mouth to make the sounds, and 2) you cannot produce footsteps Foley. Next, use no more than 350 words, including terminology from the “Audio” handout, to 1) describe your two Foley sounds, 2) explain how you made them, 3) provide timestamps for when they would play in your short video, and 4) tell me what you learned about the craft of Foley and audio from this exercise. Don’t forget to attach your two audio files and your video file to your submission.
Prompt 4. Learning the terminology of cinematography helps us to better understand video and all the work that goes into making it. Let’s test this idea by describing three shots in a stop motion animation.
Watch Biidaaban a few times and take notes as you do. Now, review your notes and identify three important shots in the video. Then use no more than 350 words, including terminology from the “Video” handout, to 1) provide the following information for each shot: a) timestamp, b) shot type (e.g., ECU, MS, LS, or LA), c) brief shot description (the action and the shot’s content), and d) why you selected it, and 2) tell me what you learned about the craft of Biidaaban and video from this exercise. Try to cover a variety of shot types. The “Video” handout includes a list of them.
Prompt 5. An interface not only transforms input into output; it’s also a threshold where two worlds meet. Let’s test this idea by converting a photograph into a screen cap of an imaginary video game.
Take a photo of a scene from your everyday life and then use whichever technique you prefer to draw a heads-up display (HUD) over it. (I recommend consulting the Game UI Database or Interface in Game for ideas.) You are welcome to stage the photograph as if it’s a scene in a game and add images and other “assets” to it during the editing process. Then use no more than 350 words, including terminology from the “Interfaces” handout, to 1) describe your HUD, 2) identify its genre, 3) explain how you made it, and 4) tell me what you learned about interfaces and games from this exercise. Don’t forget to attach your image file to your submission.
I will use the following rubric, based on UVic’s official grading system, to assess your responses.
1 point will be deducted for every 25 words over the prescribed word count.
10 points will be deducted from the overall mark if no references are included at the end of the worksheet (see details below).
The total of these points (0-100) will constitute 20% of your final mark in this course.
You do not need to meet the word count in each response to earn a high mark. I do, however, recommend using prose rather than point form in your responses. It’s more synthetic and will allow you to make connections.
Please do not forget to cite any material from which you draw ideas or examples. This includes course handouts. You are welcome to use your preferred citation style (MLA, Chicago, or APA, e.g.).
Please submit a DOCX, ODT, PAGES, or PDF file containing your answers and references along with any media you were prompted to attach or embed.
A response to Worksheet 2 is due by 10am on Monday, October 21st, but there’s a three-day grace period. I will deduct five points for every business day I receive Worksheet 2 after 10am on Thursday, October 24th. I will close the submission portal at 10am on Monday, November 4th and cannot accept any submissions after the portal is closed.