Before you scatter off into the Ether, I wanted to let you know that next week we’ll begin developing your thoughts on story ideas. The sooner you start, the happier you’ll be. (And Sept. 13 is the first deadline for Ball Bearings.)

Don’t do any heavy lifting over break (he says, as if heavy lifting would happen), but jot down notes and thoughts. Questions you have. Topics that interest you.

On Tuesday, we’ll start the Salon process, where we begin to work through those thoughts and mold them into idea.

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Remember the gorilla? What we see isn’t often what happened. These are two interesting examples of that. Hopefully you’ll find this instructive as you begin to think about your story ideas.

A good example of a magazine story idea: “First Person: In Defense of ‘Jump the Shark’ Happy Days episode” by Fred Fox, Jr in the Los Angeles Times.

This is a newspapers story. It would look different as a magazine piece. But the idea: pretty awesome (in my humble opinion).

Then there is this: “Sarah Palin: The Sound and the Fury,” by Michael Joseph Gross in Vanity Fair.

This seeks to do the same type of thing as the Happy Days piece (e.g. answer the question: who is Sarah Palin?) but it does so in magazine style.

A good way to start your magazine story idea search is to just ask: How do we know that’s true? Or: What about that makes people believe that is true?

Common assumptions are fertile ground for magazine pieces. Be curious. Be contrarian. Be mindful of the gorilla.

Interested to hear what you think is good + bad about the second piece. It’s not homework. Simply for those who are looking to delve deeper into magazine writing. Enjoy the holiday.

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Just to recap:

• add me to your Google Doc
• add your three themes (and main theme), the 10 words + your main character/character to the Google Doc
• add 5 influences + links to descriptors of those; the idea is to allow each other the chance to see how the creative process works for individuals within the group

The lecture notes are now up in the Lecture section of the site. Please peruse them before class.

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Tomorrow’s lecture notes are up. I’ll be adding to them throughout the evening; however, you will get a sense of what we will be discussing and some of the emerging technologies we’ll discuss.

Remember: Thursday is writing workshop day so each group will work through ideas. By the end of class, you’ll have the framework for your story. You’ll have one week to draft a script. (You’ll have more time to edit and revise that script, but we must start somewhere.)

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Please take a few minutes to fill out this survey. We are trying to find a name for the new Unified Student Media consortium on the campus. Your feedback would be welcome.

Click here.

Apparently the link for this film is broken in the syllabus. So…give this a try:
The Hero’s Journey in Film

Ciaran | MySpace Video

The lecture notes for tomorrow’s class are up.

Digital Storytelling folks, I’m experimenting with some new Mind Mapping presentation software stuff. We’ll see how that all plays out.

Magazine folks. You’re stuck with my regular presentations.

This is not for research purposes. It’s just for “because” purposes.

I’ve assembled your critique groups for this semester. I’m trying something a bit different this time so we’ll see how it goes.

Please make a note of these groups:

Group 1

• Randi Alles
• Shawn Fink
• Dan Stegemiller

Group 2

• Zack Anderson
• Heather Watts
• Danielle Shanahan
• Mark Hinton

Group 3

• Janine Penner
• Jaclyn Goldsborough
• Joe Jackson
• Abby Perkins

Group 4

• Ty Van Meter
• Jordan Martich
• Davin Zimmerman
• Aaron Heinzman

Please make a note of the iLab hours. I will not keep these so if you ask, I will likely shrug and walk away.

Sunday 8 p.m. to 11:45 p.m.
Monday 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Tuesday 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Wednesday 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Thursday 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
Friday 9 a.m.  – 12:45 p.m.