Friday, October 22

Student video contests

For all you budding student film makers out there: there are several video contests to submit entries to, especially considering the prizes involved!

The University of Delaware Office of Campus and Public Safety is offering a video contest for students to submit videos up to two minutes long that address the topic of “Emergency 101: Preparing College Students." The video will be posted on the Emergency Preparedness website and shown in seminars and other events. The winner will also receive a $250 cash card. The deadline for submission is 4 p.m. on Friday, November 19.

The Sparky Awards, organized by SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is sponsoring a student video contest about the importance of open sharing of ideas and information. Contest categories include: best animation, best speech, best remix, and people's choice. Entries can be created individually or in teams. Prizes include: an iPad, if the creator is an individual; iPhones, if the video is a creation of a two member team, and iPods, if the video is a creation of a three to six member team. The deadline to submit is May 26, 2011.

EDUCAUSE is conducting a student video and poster contest about information security awareness. The contest is sponsored by CyberWatch, the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), and Chapman University. Winners will receive cash prizes.


Posters and videos must explain information security problems and specific actions college and university students can take to safeguard their computers, mobile devices, or personal information. There are two categories of videos: videos of two minutes or less for use in training or instruction, and 30-second public service announcements. Posters should be submitted separately. The deadline to submit is March 11, 2011.

Wednesday, October 20

Google Chrome Experiments: Arcade Fire's The Wilderness Downtown

There's been a lot of fanfare over the development of HTML5, which will make it easier to incorporate multimedia features that had previously been dependent on third party plug-ins (like Adobe Flash), among others. Google has been a big proponent of the development of HTML5 standards, and has encouraged experiments using its Google Chrome browser, which is HTML5 compliant.

One such experiment is The Wilderness Downtown. Google teamed up with indie rock band Arcade Fire and director Chris Milk to showcase an interactive music video that shows off some of what HTML5 can do. You simply type your childhood address into the site, and the browser opens up to images of your childhood neighborhood (through Google Map's API) all within the musical backdrop of "We Used to Wait." It's definitely a multimedia experience worth checking out.

To look at more Google Chrome experiments, check out http://www.chromeexperiments.com/.

Monday, October 18

2010 University of Delaware Technology Fair

Stop by the 2010 University of Delaware Technology Fair on Tuesday, October 19 from 11am-2pm at the Trabant University Center Multi-Purpose Rooms.

Various technology stations will be set up to provide visitors the chance to ask questions and have hands on demonstrations with emerging technologies. The Student Multimedia Design Center will have a large booth showcasing the different equipment we have available, as well as learn more about the services we provide. Although the fair is geared towards faculty, students and staff are welcome to stop by.

Friday, October 8

History Happens Here! Flickr Project

The National Archives has an exciting project going on in which people are encouraged to download and print out historic photographs from the National Archives and combine them with their current locations, all within the same frame. Here's a more detailed description of the project, as well as project examples.

Monday, October 4

iMovie 09 Tutorials

iMovie 09 is one of our most popular video editing software programs, and we often get questions at the desk related to it. It's a good program to start with if you've never edited a video before; the platform is easy to use and intuitive for the most part. Although we've just finished with our iMovie 09 workshops at the Student Multimedia Design Center, you can still learn how to use iMovie by looking through Apple's iMovie tutorials online. The tutorials are short and focused, with clips on how to import, organize, and edit your videos, how to enhance your videos, and how to publish and share your videos. They are well worth a look if you're interested in video editing and learning how to use iMovie.

Friday, October 1

Digital Narratives

If you have a multimedia project that you're working on and you're a bit stuck on how to approach it or what to do next, I always find it helpful to look at other similar multimedia projects to get inspiration. If you're doing ethnographic research and need to put together a multimedia presentation of some sort, two sites (among many) come to mind.

The first is One in Eight Million, which are multimedia narratives put together by the New York Times. In a city as large as New York, it can seem easy to get lost in the crowd. One in Eight Million gives a snapshot into the lives of individual New Yorkers-- in images and narration that are simple yet powerful at the same time.

The Places We Live also takes an ethnographic approach in looking at how people in various locations around the world live. There is an interactive multimedia element to the digital narratives that is memorable and unique-- the use of ambient sound and photographs feels quite intimate and authentic.

If you come across any other multimedia based sites that would be good sources of inspiration, let us know!