Wire 106: Week 5 – Taking a Closer Look

This week we will be exploring visual elements of storytelling. And below is a quick list of things to do, followed by some more extensive resources:

  • The Wire Episodes: We will be watching episodes 6, 7, and 8 of Season 2 this week. You know where to find them.
  • 12 stars worth of visual assignments, and don’t do the same assignment twice. Couple of things to keep in mind:
    • Upload all visual assignments to Flickr via your Known site. Be sure to send the images out to Twitter and the Wire106 hub from Known as well.*
    • Be sure to write a post in WordPress for each assignment describing your thinking, process, etc. and be sure to tag it with assignment tags.
  • 2 Daily Creates this week.
  • A 20 minute Photoblitz. Be sure to grab the code and include the seven tasks you were assigned in a blog post, along with the photos you took. Tag this post “photoblitz” (no quotes). Thanks John Johnston.
  • Like last week, you need to watch at least one of this week’s The Wire episode’s live (this time without sound) and tweet along with the class. This will be happening this Tues/Weds/Thur at 9 PM on http://ds106.us/wire-106-live/
  • Video Discussion: Sign-up to join here. Remember, you have to be a part of at least 3 video discussions before the semester ends:
    • Season 2, Episode 6: Wednesday at 5:00 PM;
    • Season 2, Episode 7: Thursday at 10:00 AM;
    • Season 2, Episode 8: Friday at 3:00 PM.
  • Sign-up for a Wire 106 Lunch this week (lunch is always optional).

As for resources, we’ve been doing a lot of summarizing and reacting to the episodes of The Wire. Let’s try and look at this week’s episodes specifically with an eye towards the photography. To that end, look at the Becoming Better Photographers section of the Open ds106 syllabus (http://ds106.us/open-course/unit-5-visual-storytelling/#becoming-better-photographers) and try to find examples of the different points and analyze them. How many can you find?

  • selection
  • contrast
  • perspective
  • depth
  • balance
  • moment
  • lighting
  • foreground/background

Not all of your visual assignments need to be based on The Wire, but we’ll continue to use the episodes as a common text we can refer back to so the class has a common object of desire. That said, feel free to create where ever your inspiration takes you.

*Remember, you upload your image to Flickr from Known, and also send it to Twitter and the Wire106 hub in one fell swoop. Just be sure to include the #wire106 tag in the image title.