During the conference I would like to discuss the idea of too much information on a subject or glossing over a subject too much. I want my webtext to give enough information without causing boredom for the reader. I would also like to talk about the talking speed of my podcast and podcast slideshow. I've been trying to slow down when speaking, but I'm not sure if it has been enough.

podcast slideshow

After much internal debate, i think i finally decided on a podcast slideshow topic. I will be doing this particular assignment on the cultural impacts of Star Wars. Star Wars is one of those series of films that captured the imagination of a large demographic, thus making itself present in many different aspects of our culture.

Media (Photo of Family Guy Blue Harvest)
-Parodies/Tributes
- Family Guy
-Blue Harvest
- Something, Something, Something, Dark Side
- Robot Chicken
-References in Film (Photo of Zack and Miri)
- Kevin Smith
- Fanboys
-Song
- The Saga Begins (Wierd Al)

Conventions (Photo of people dressed as Star Wars characters)
- Fans dressed as their favorite characters
- "Celebrity" guests
- Stars of the films
- Minor characters
- Contributors
- Artists
- Authors of book series

Politics (Photo of Reagan's "Star Wars" proposal)
-"Star Wars" orbital missile defense program
- Lawsuit from Lucasfilms
- Lost due to parody and giving new meaning
- Harry Cohen "May the Forth Be With You"
- The church of the Jedi census movement (very brief due to first podcast)

Space (photo of astronauts with lightsaber)
- NASA launch
- Luke Skywalker's lightsaber from Return of the Jedi and R2D2
- Handed over by Chewbacca(Storm Troopers, Boba Fett, and random Jedi also present)
- returned to George Lucas
- Toys taken previously by astronauts

20th Century Fox (Photo of Fox logo)
- Nearly bankrupt when optioned Star Wars
- First film grossed $100 million in 3 months
- fox now one of the 6 major studios

Podcast Slideshow

My webtext is on star wars and how it is used to teach or how it pays homage to different aspects of society. My podcast was focusing on the church of the jedi, a religion that is based on the teachings of the films. As for my podcast slideshow,I am a little torn. I originally wanted to talk about mythological references in the film series, but as Brittney is doing her entire project on mythology, I thought it might get a little bit redundant. I'm sort of considering doing it based on historical references, explaining how George Lucas used his films to warn us all not to let the past repeat itself. As of right now, though, I am still undecided.

Revision Strategy

After reading Alan's peer review, I realized that the introduction to my topic was a little off as it didn't quite give the exact point i was trying to make. I feel like I need to rework my opening statements to better suit the webtext, as well as making the transition from one subtopic to the next a little less confusing. I might also need to add in some details about people using Star Wars as a way of teaching the monomyth. I will also need to begin writing the history portion of webtext.

The main thing I need to work on is the style of my webtext. I definitely need to add color, pictures, and font changes. It is pretty boring visually right now.

After the Conference:
I do have a few places where i need to add more citation, as well as fix previous citations. Again the visual aspect needs to be worked on. I need to make sure I keep the same tone, probably need to rewrite a few sections.

Audience

My topic might be of interest for people who enjoy the Star Wars films, as well as people wanting to find new ways of learning. Without even taking the learning aspect into consideration, the portion of my future audience that thoroughly enjoys the Star Wars franchise is of a great number. There are a lot of people that make up my audience that understand the English language, but there are also a large number that only know the basics. Some of my audience already knows about the teaching aspects of the films, but a large portion never thought about Star Wars as a way of learning about religion, history, mythology, etc. My audience probably expects me to inform them on how the Star Wars films have "conned" all of us into learning. After reading my webtext, I would like my audience to understand how watching films from popular culture can be a great lkearning tool for other subjects.

My purpose is to inform people of how the Star Wars films were designed to teach, as well as informing them of how to use these films as a fun way to learn. It is also to persuade them to find other aspects of our culture that could help them to learn (other films, music, etc.)
I think that my webtext should be fairly simple to unserstand to reach my audience, as well as somewhat vague in the terminology of the films for those people that are not that familiar with them.

http://creationontheweb.com/content/view/6248/

this website is somewhat reliable, the info seems pretty straightforeward, although the opinions expressed are clearly biased.

http://library.thinkquest.org/C005854/text/movies.htm

This website seems to work pretty well in giving a jumping off point for further research. A worthwhile source.


The art of the science fiction film draws much of its inspiration from religious and mythological themes.

I'm not quite sure as to what topics I would like to write about this semester, but after reading the webtext about Generation Y, I have grown an interest on how technology is changing popular culture. Not so much popular culture in general, though, I am more interested in how the concept of art and getting art to the people is changing in this ever evolving world we live in. Mp3s are changing the music industry and I am sure that websites, such as Youtube and deviantart, are changing other aspects of the modern art age. In taking Crystal's Eng 104 class last semester, I learned about some websites that are available for young unpublished writers to get their work published as well. As somebody who is very interested in artistic practices of all sorts, this topic seemed like it would be rather interesting to write about.

As a watcher of many different types of movies, as well as being someone who is interested in the mythology and religious aspects of the different cultures throughout the world, I thought it might be fun to combine these to aspects and do research on how mythology or religion effects the movies we enjoy. Several very famous works of film have drawn much insperation from the views of other cultures. George Lucas, for example, filled his ever-popular Star Wars series with many stories and references to Norse and Greek mythology. These teachings found throughout the mythologies of these cultures provided the basis for The Skywalker brand. It might be interesting subject matter to research and discover how mythology or religion have impacted other famous celluloidal works of art.