The first week of Digital Storytelling 106 was a lot of work. Setting up all the social media accounts wasn’t bad, as it was just filling out essentially the same form several times. Making my introductions through those sites was a bit more work. I hadn’t used any of the sites before, so figuring out how to upload a video to YouTube or audio clip to SoundCloud took me a couple minutes to get right. I’m glad that we’ll be using so many different resources though, as it will make the work in the class more varied and will give me experience for the future.

When I saw that we would be studying noir, I was excited. It’s a subject I’ve been curious about for some time, but I didn’t really know of a way to acquaint myself with it in the way that we’ll be doing in this class. I’ve watched several movies that have been described to me as noir, but I didn’t specifically know what made them so. The readings that were posted were a great introduction. After reading about the times and conditions that brought about noir, its characteristics seemed only natural. The cynicism that pervades through the lighting techinques, characters, and stories is reflective of the time period in which noir came about. Immediately after going through the readings, I understood why the noir I had encountered was described as such.

Going through some of the examples that were posted helped illustrate those characteristics. Sin City seemed to be the most obvious example of noir. Its lighting, cynicism, and questionable heroes all harken back to the original noir films.

The lack of a solid definition definitely drove me a bit crazy, though. It’s easy to identify an action film, or a thriller, or film of most any other genre. Noir is not so easily classified. There’s even a debate as to whether or not it’s technically a genre. As a math person, I like having a definite answer at the end of a problem, and the ambiguity surrounding the term noir is frustrating.

Despite the vagueness of the term, I enjoyed the introduction to noir and look forward to exploring its intricacies.

The first week of Digital Storytelling 106 was a lot of work. Setting up all the social media accounts wasn’t bad, as it was just filling out essentially the same form several times. Making my introductions through those sites was a bit more work. I hadn’t used any of the sites before, so figuring out how to upload a video to YouTube or audio clip to SoundCloud took me a couple minutes to get right. I’m glad that we’ll be using so many different resources though, as it will make the work in the class more varied and will give me experience for the future.

When I saw that we would be studying noir, I was excited. It’s a subject I’ve been curious about for some time, but I didn’t really know of a way to acquaint myself with it in the way that we’ll be doing in this class. I’ve watched several movies that have been described to me as noir, but I didn’t specifically know what made them so. The readings that were posted were a great introduction. After reading about the times and conditions that brought about noir, its characteristics seemed only natural. The cynicism that pervades through the lighting techinques, characters, and stories is reflective of the time period in which noir came about. Immediately after going through the readings, I understood why the noir I had encountered was described as such.

Going through some of the examples that were posted helped illustrate those characteristics. Sin City seemed to be the most obvious example of noir. Its lighting, cynicism, and questionable heroes all harken back to the original noir films.

The lack of a solid definition definitely drove me a bit crazy, though. It’s easy to identify an action film, or a thriller, or film of most any other genre. Noir is not so easily classified. There’s even a debate as to whether or not it’s technically a genre. As a math person, I like having a definite answer at the end of a problem, and the ambiguity surrounding the term noir is frustrating.

Despite the vagueness of the term, I enjoyed the introduction to noir and look forward to exploring its intricacies.