Web Production / Audio Engineering
Project 3: Documentary

Essential Question: What is the relationship of facts to truth ?


Objective: To discover and tell the untold stories of your family and/or community.


What To Do: Brainstorm - Interesting stories are everywhere. The challenge with this unit is finding them. The best place to start looking are your family, friends, and community organizations. Find the person or the topic that interests you the most. Remember, you will be spending several weeks on this topic so it needs to be sufficiently complex and interesting to keep you engaged.

 

Research: More than any other unit, this one depends on doing good research. Only by talking to people and reading literature on your topic will you be able to discover the story and tell it as truthfully as possible.


Produce: You will research and write a Documentary Research paper on your chosen subject in English, create a photo book / article in Design and produce an audio documentary and website in WebAudio.

 

Requirements: for WebAudio Students

  • Documentary Photo Book / Article from your Design Class
  • Documentary Audio Slide Show from your WebAudio Class
  • CSS Website with JavaScript elements presenting your Documentary Photo Book or Article and Audio/Photo Documentary
 

The applications you will use for this project, at the minimum, include Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash ,InDesign, Dreamweaver, Pro Tools and Reason.

 

Deadline (unless different deadline given below) for a complete and working version of your Documentary Project posted on the webserver by the Friday prior to the April Spring Break.

 

Pre-production work includes: javascript usage tutorials, Pro Tools Tutorials, Reason Tutorials, MicroTrack Tutorials, Flash Tutorials, and Dreamweaver Tutorials

 

Here are the details how to complete your Documentary Audio and Website Project:

 

A complete Documentary Project needs to include at least the following 3+ webpages in addition to at least 2 JavaScript features - you can add more if you wish:

 

  1. Activate your Project 3 button in Sites/index.html to link to Sites/project3/pages/index.html and create a new image for the disjoint image, if any, that describes briefly describes the unit.

  2. Documentary Unit WebPage Template
    1. Create a new webpage template Sites/Templates/project3.dwt along with a new style sheet Sites/styles/project3.css
    2. Include proper copyright notice on every page, preferably somewhere at the bottom
    3. Include in your template navigation to these webpages
      • Home > linked to Sites/project3/pages/index.html
      • Photo Book / Article > linked to Sites/project3/pages/book.html or article.html
      • Audio/Photo Documentary> linked to Sites/project3/pages/documentary.html
      • Other Projects > linked to Sites/index.html (which already exists from our Self-Portrait Unit)
    4. Include the use of 2 different javascript features - DW Spry Tabs, Spry Accordion Panels, FancyBox. You can add more than 2 javascripts features you find on http://dynamicdrive.com or other free javascript websites. These don't have to be used in your template unless you want the feature to be on every single page create from your tempate. You can choose to put the javascript features on individual pages if you wish.
    5. Make your content editable region larger than 734x604 so that your Audio/Photo Documentary can fit into that editable region.

  3. Documentary Unit Introduction Sites/project3/pages/index.html - This page is an overview of your documentary unit including but not limted to:
    1. Brief introduction to the Research Paper - Describe the assignment. In addition, what is your essential question for your research? Why did you choose this topic?What is your essential question for your research? Why did you choose this topic?
    2. Brief introduction to the Audio Slideshow - Describe the assignment.
    3. Brief introduction to the original background music that you created in Reason which the user hears on the index page.
    4. Brief reflection about what you learned artistically and technically in this Documentary Unit from all your Freestyle classes.
    5. Embedded musiccontroller.swf that
      • plays and loops your original background music/audio you create in Reason/Garageband and save as Sites/project3/media/musiccontroller.swf
      • includes a pause button to pause the music just like your practice background music controller
      • includes a play button to resume playing music just like your practice background music controller

  1. Documentary Photo Book / Article webpages Sites/project3/pages/book.html or article.html that includes
    1. Title (text or image) of the Photo Book / Article
    2. Embedded thumbnail of Photo Book / Article 1st image linked to FancyBox overlay gallery display. For some of the gallery images, include a caption. (The use of FancyBox will be your 2nd Javascript feature). The thumbnail will link to a FancBox imageGroup that displays all pages, including the spreads, of your book or article created with InDesign.
    3. Brief introduction to the Photo Book / Article - Describe the assignment. What are some highlights to look for in your Photo Book / Article? Describe and reflection on the process of creating the Book / Article. Wrap the text around the thumbnail.

  2. Audio Slide Show webpage (Sites/project3/pages/documentary.html) that includes
    1. Brief introduction to the Audio Slide Show. What is your documentary angle for your audio Slideshow? Who are your audio interviewees? What are some highlights to listen for in your audio project?
    2. Brief statement/reflection about the process of creating the Audio Slide Show. How did you put it together? What applications did you use? What did you find interesting/difficult/useful?
    3. Entire transcript to read while listening to Audio Slideshow - link to a pdf of the transcript that includes thumbnail images of all photos.
    4. Embed your audioslide show Sites/project3/slideshow/slideshow.swf into your content editable region by properly coying and pasting code as shown in the online video tutorial.
    5. Do not use pop-up windows because these can be blocked by a viewer's browser settings.

  3. Sites/project3/slideshow/slideshow.swf - that includes
    • Stage size of at least width734 and height depends on your interactive button placement and sizes - probably 604 in height.
    • Optional background music as appropriate for your topic. If you choose to not have music, simply enter 0.0 for the bgMusicVolume parameter in your captions.xml file. This will make the music play with 0 volume.
    • Intro title (create a single 720x480 jpg to be used as your first photo in your slideshow) with either matching narratiion, music or a silent audio clip.
    • Intro narration with your voice
    • At least 3 interview clips and your Narrator voice interwoven in Final Mix (total of at least 4 different voices including the Narrator)
    • Interwoven SFXs
    • At least 17 photos (1 title photo, 15+ original photos, 1 end credit photo) synchronized to audio just like your practice audio slide show
    • Indication of which photo out of the total (i.e. 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) is currently displayed just like your practice audio slide show
    • Photo buttonswith thumbnails preview so that user can click on a number to see that specific image and hear the matching audio just like your practice audio slide show
    • Pause/Play button to pause/play auto sequence of audio and photos just like your practice audio slide show
    • Prev/Next buttons to manually go to previous/next photo/narration just like your practice audio slide show
    • Closing/Summary narration
    • Closing credits (create a single 720x480 image with text and create a corresponding audio clip with silence for a few seconds)
    • Narration + Interview Time minimum (no intro,title and outro music and credits) = 5 Minutes
    • Maximum time including intro, title, credits and outro = 5.5 minutes

 

Deadlines for Documentary Website, 15+ photos and 3 interviews (converted to .mp3, full transcript of the parts you use in your final audio mix. The transcript is a text version of everything that is said by interviewer and interviewee, no SFXs):

  • Two weeks prior to February break: Interview #1 + at least set #1 of 5 best photos
  • One week prior to February break: Interview #2 + at least set #2 of additional 5 best photos, now total of 10+
  • One week after February break: Interview #3 + at least set #3 of additional 5 best photos, now total of 15+
  • End of Quarter 3: Complete transcript with embedded/formatted thumbnail photos, edited and mixed AUDIO portion of Documentary Audio Slide Show - see #6 above for all details
  • Two weeks prior to Spring Break: Documentary Website Template, all graphics, buttons and editable regions.
  • Friday before Spring Break: Documentary Website content all completed and posted on webserver

 

 

Additional assessments for this project will include

  1. Completion of content requirements listed above for each page
  2. Use of the web design concept: Contrast
  3. Use of the web design concept: Repetition
  4. Use of the web design concept: Alignment
  5. Use of the web design concept: Proximity
  6. Use of the web design concept: Usability including links from every page to every other page and a button back to your Project Listing root homepage (Sites/index.html)

 

Deadline (unless different deadline given below) for a complete and working version of your Documentary Project posted on the webserver by the Friday prior to the April Spring Break.