Multimedia Product Design Process

Multimedia Essay

Purpose for Multimedia Product

The purpose for my multimedia product is to bring in visual and auditory learners to the topic of biological evolution and pique the curiosity of all students. I chose the “20 Millioin Reasons” song, which I wrote in 2008 for a “Procession of the Species” community event at a festival in Port Angeles that year, because it is fun and interactive and because it supports the teaching I do on the topic of evolution. The “Procession of the Species” event in Port Angeles was inspired by the event of the same title in Olympia, Washington (POSC: Homepage, n.d.). The graphics are from that “Procession” event in 2008 and the subsequent events in the following few years, and from the large song board with lyrics that was used for that event and for other times I have used the song with groups of people. The images, song boards, and song lyrics belong to me.

Target Audience of Multimedia Product

This multimedia product is intended for my eighth grade students in middle school science classes. The target audience is appropriate for this product because the song is playful and educational. Young adolescents in middle school are transitioning to adolescence, and as such, they still are interested in engaging in singing and play while simulataneously wanting things to be deeper and more meaningful. The video, as a whole, balances youthful engery and creativity with the mature topic of evolution, which is fitting for these young adolescents who are stretching themselves and developing their individual identities.

Chosen Software for Multimedia Product

I chose to use Microsoft Video Editor software, which is part of the Microsoft Photos application, for this project for a few reasons. It is easy-to-use software that allows me to align graphics and audio, it creates videos in formats that are accessible for all to view and easy to upload, and it came pre-installed on a laptop I use that has Windows 10. Though I had not used Video Editor software before, I have used a few different, previous versions of Microsoft’s stock movie maker programs. It did not take me long to get the hang of using Video Editor, as it is intuitive, and I was able to use the help menu and the internet to help me with questions I had.

Process for Creating Multimedia Product

1. I opened Video Editor from the start menu of the computer.
2. I added photos I wanted to use by dragging and dropping them to the box in the upper left of the screen.
3. I then started to add the images by dragging them from the box on the upper left to the storyboard across the bottom of the screen.
4. I then clicked “custom audio” from the upper right and inserted the .mp3 file of the 20 Million Reasons song.
5. For each image, I right clicked and adjusted the duration to align with the timepoints in the song.
6. To add titles, I clicked the “add title card” button just above the storyboard, and to the titles, I entered text, chose fonts for and locations of text, and also set durations.
7. I had to periodically go back to “custom audio” to drag the audio track to go the duration of the movie after adding more slides and stretching the durations.
8. Once the movie was complete, I clicked “finish video” from the upper right and saved the video in high quality to my computer.
9. I then uploaded the movie to a YouTube account I previously had.

Discussion of Multimedia Product Conceptual Framework Process

Below is the storyboard I created before starting the multimedia product.

This storyboard helped me create the multimedia product because it organized the song into its component parts and allowed me to think clearly about what visuals would best accompany each section of the song. After my first draft of the storyboard, I was able to see holes and weak parts and prioritize those sections for me to add more visuals to. The timing elements in the storyboard will help me revise this in the future if I so choose.

References

Evolution Of Giraffes Natural Selection. (2019, January 13). Retrieved from http://www.himachaltourizm.com/evolution-of-giraffes-natural-selection/

Lamarck and Giraffes!: Closing the Circle. (2016, June 27). Retrieved from http://hawaiireedlab.com/wpress/?p=1816

POSC: Homepage. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.procession.org/