Remediation
First step: Proposal. As soon as I knew what the remediation project entailed, I decided I would argue for the abolition of capital punishment. I had done enough research and writing about serial killers, but I wanted to explore the death penalty a little bit more. That being said, I was not as decisive about what medium to use to convey my argument. In the proposal I toy with the idea of making an iMovie, but spend the majority of my time talking about a Tumblr account. While I never actually made a decision about which medium to pursue for the final project, writing the proposal helped me make sense of my jumbled ideas.
Second step: Storyboard. A storyboard is essentially an outline for digital rhetoric. By the time we reached the storyboard phase of our remediation project, I had decided against making a Tumblr page. I felt more passionate about an ad campaign and I couldn’t figure out how to design a Tumblr platform that I liked. So for my storyboard, I created a layout of my video ad campaign. While I didn’t end up using Viddyad to create my final video as I had anticipated— it had to many restrictions and cost $500 to publish— I did follow my storyboard closely when putting together my iMovie.
Third step: Final project. My final project consisted of a "Death Penalty Quick Facts" inforgraphic as well as a video ad campaign. I created the infographic on the website Piktochart and managed to do so without using any models; I made up my own infographic template. I wanted it to look simple yet clean, so viewers don’t need to spend too much time analyzing it. In theory, the infographic should be viewed before the video to give onlookers a more objective (though still somewhat biased) overview of capital punishment in the United States.
Click here to view my Infographic, "Death Penalty Quick Facts"
The 2 minute and 9 second video inserted above is one of the most difficult projects I’ve ever taken on. Before this class, I’ve never used iMovie; I’ve never even thought about using iMovie because I tend to struggle with technology. But going into the final steps of remediation, I knew that it would be the only medium to effectively communicate my argument. I based my video of off Amnesty International’s 2013 death penalty campaign —though theirs is far more professional. I didn’t have the means or the skills to make such a dynamic project, but I did manage to adopt some aspects of their movie. I used similar colors—red, black, and white—and tried to give every clip a transition to keep viewers on their toes. Other than that, my ad campaign, “Death to Capital Punishment” is entirely my own.
