Week One: Setting Stuff Up

When I saw the sheer number of accounts across various creative websites I had to make, my first thought was “well damn, this class is going to be a handful.”  But looking at all my freshly minted profiles, I can’t help but think that it’s going to be awesome working on projects that will be so multi-formatted.

I already had some of the required accounts, like Youtube and Twitter, though I’ve barely even looked at my Twitter account since making it.  I’m guessing this class will encourage me to post there more actively.

Finished making half a dozen accounts all over the internet for my Digital Storytelling class. #ds106

— Jason Nemeth (@jnemeth42) January 18, 2015

Making the wordpress subdomain was a quick enough process.  Luckily I already have had courses that had me make blog sites, so it didn’t take long to whip up another one.  It’s pretty basic now, I just installed a cool looking theme and am working off that, though I’ll surely be customizing it as time goes on.

I had to make new accounts for the rest of the sites.  I’ve never even used Flickr before, though it looks user friendly and was easy enough to toss on some pictures I had sitting on my hard drive.  Vimeo is another one I’ve never used; I think I’m going to have to do some playing around with that one to completely figure it out.  I’ve used SoundCloud before but I’ve never had my own account.  I uploaded a noir themed song from the L.A. Noir soundtrack to test it out.

I was excited to hear that the theme of this semester is noir, it’s one of my favorite genres in both film and writing.  It even has some great entries in video games like Bioshock and L.A. Noir.  To me noir is a relatively specific genre; it usually features key elements such as crime, investigation, corruption, deceit, the femme fatale, and dark cities.  Noir often takes a cynical viewpoint of the world; crime is almost universally the focus of a noir story.  The protagonists of noir are the moral center of the story, surrounded by a deeply dark world that seeks to destroy them when they upset the status quo.  They often face corruption and moral apathy as they try to right wrongs.  Sin City and L.A. Confidential are strong modern examples of classic flavors of noir in these ways.

I suppose noir is more of a theme than a genre, one that can be attributed to other genres.  Watchmen, for example, is a super hero/political book with heavy noir tones.  It is a case of noir operating at a grand scope as the fate of the world lies between Viedt, the Cold War, and Rorschach’s investigations.

I’m already a huge fan of noir, so I’m excited to see how this class helps me to expand my knowledge of this excellent genre.