That sounds lame. And confusing. The carrot should at least be wearing orange. If anyone has orange clothing, bring it, I'll bring some green pipe cleaners. Also, if there's going to be any violence, one punch will not suffice. There will have to be a barrage of furious blows precisely choreographed.

James-

I think due to our time constraints, the carrot will mostly just look like a person with a sign that says I'm a carrot (unless you know of someone with a carrot suit). Sherry said that it didn't have to be perfect, she also made specific reference to how she thought it would be funny if a carrot punched the guy, so I am taking that as the go ahead to do what we want.

I'm not sure I can wrap my head around a live action carrot, but if it is to be done, the costume must be impeccable. Also, I suggest we keep the number of locations to a minimum. Finally, can carrot assault someone?

CHECK THIS OUT!!!!

Hey everyone Mike and I had a conversation with Sherry today because we were kind of worried that our narrative was falling a little flat. We talked to her about what we could do to make it more intersting, and she said that we should try to incorporate all of the ideas, especially angry anthropomorphic vegetables. "Campy-ness sells to many different audiences, especially kids" I think is kind of how she put it. So, I know we are supposed to be filming on tuesday, but I think we need to switch things up a bit. Here is what I am thinking:

The first shot that was originally the boy walking by the empty lot and throwing trash in it should now be the boy walking by the garden and throwing trash in it. To his surprise, out pops a really pissed off carrot! (Note: she said that even just puting a sign on somone that says 'CARROT' will work fine.)

Carrot does his rap about how this littering dude is totally whack for not respecting vegetables, and then, just for added effect, he punches the guy in the faces and tells him to smarten up.

Now the kid is walking into class a little dazed and confused, wondering what the hell just happened to him. Lucky for him today is the day that his teacher is telling his class about urban farming!

Cut to our charecter sitting in class listening to the teacher "wa wa wa wa wa" (think peanuts) and he is having this intense inner monologue about the error of his ways, and how maybe if he were to respect gardening and vegetables more, he would eventually end up tough like that carrot.

Now school is over, and we see our guy walking past an empty lot with trash blowing through it. Cut to a single tear running down his cheek - but wait- he has a thought! Maybe he can turn this lot into an urban farm!

Now we go to timelaps and see him running around. cleanign things up- star wipe to him standing infront of a completed garden looking much more muscly and tough than before. Again, in walks the carrot and tells him his work isn't half bad or something like that, then they share a moment smiling at eachother which is broken by the carrot slapping him on the back, dude looks jarred, but its okay. This was a friendly slap.

Then at the end, just to wrap it up, over music and video of them wandering around the garden smelling flowers and maybe eating vegetables, there is text that something like... "Respect mother nature, or she pop you." or whatever.

Okay please tell me what you think. Add in stuff that you think will help to make it funny (maybe like clip of the guy going to eat a carrot and the angry carrot looking at him crossly.) You get the idea! We can totally make this happen but I just want to make sure we are all on the same page.

Retrospective Narrative

I finally feel confident in knowing what we are doing.  We have come a long way and transcended much confusion, but we have finally come to a conclusion.  Although, many of the previous ideas were strong ones, such as the children's book, I think that the video we have decided to create is the most practical and will be able to target a broader audience.  Although I am still a little unsure of how the video will turn out, I have hope that it will be a success.  Overall, I feel like this project has been difficult to understand, but we have come to a decisive plan and I like it.  Through this project, I have learned how tedious it is to collaborate, and how important it is to communicate and have someone lead the group in its quest.

Project Retrospective

This project, for me personally, has been somewhat of a whirlwind.

For the first few weeks of the project our team would meet and discuss our urban farming narrative without any real idea of what the parameters of the project were. We knew that we were creating this narrative for Studio Next to use as a marketing tool for their project, but for sometime we were all clueless as to what their actual deliverable was. Was it a do it yourself urban farming kit? Was it a packet of information? This made it hard for me to decide what direction I hoped our project would go in. I didn't know what audience to target because I didn't know what we were marketing, and because I had no target audience, I couldn't decide what would be the most appropriate form of narrative to use.

Eventually we were told that our project wasn't so tightly bound to Studio Next due to time constraints, which made it easier for me to realize the direction I wanted to take because I wasn't so worried about having it match up with their vision. However, by this point in time there were a number of half formed ideas in our group, but no general consensus of which one we liked the most.

It wasn't until just a few days ago that we finally got together to realize our actual project plan, which was stressful for me because I am somewhat Type A. However, I now feel comfortable knowing that we have a distinctive plan of action and know what our final project is going to look like.

Overall, I liked the idea of this project, but being that this was the first time it had been tried as a teaching method, I feel like there were definitely a few kinks that need to be ironed out for next time. Namely, I felt a definite need for a clearer picture of what Studio Next was producing, and how closely we needed to align our project with theirs.

Retrospective... Go Team!

When we began the assignment many weeks ago, I think it was an understood goal of ours to focus on children as our target audience. On the subject of where to go from there, however, we were clueless. We wanted to give children their own seedlings to start, and we wanted to draw a storyboard, and we wanted to make a cartoon, and we wanted to make posters. Over the weeks, there have been many different ideas floating in the air, and it wasn't until just recently that we came to a group decision as to how we are going to format and present our idea: A narrative video. As a group, I think many different backgrounds, levels of experience, and creative input are represented through our members. This will ultimately produce what I am sure will be an excellent end result.

I also hope you enjoy my ridiculous motivational picture to go along with the retrospective. Together, Fertilizers, WE can reach the TOP!

Retrospection

I think this video idea is great and will come out most adequately. To think it was only yesterday we decided to target children with tricks like story books and bright colors. Now that I've grown not only as a storyteller, but as a human being, and begun to understand what makes a lasting and powerful narrative, I can see that all my plans were but petty schemes. I now feel confident to fulfill a narrative that will sway people so well they'll practically become slaves to the urban farms. I think this project is going to go very smoothly and the work is distributed in a very egalitarian fashion.

Big surprise! I messed up the link in my previous post. Here's one that works. Sorry about that! See you all in the morning!

Nice Job, NBC

Hello all! Just wanted to give some feedback on ideas that have been recently posted.

James -- I love the rap. I feel as if our junk-food-butt-kicking-veggie idea is coming to fruition. Emphasis on "fruit"ion. Ha. ha. Yeah.

Brigid -- I agree with the two story boards idea. I think we could go in different directions with the idea we have, and we should exhaust every possibility.

Me -- I love your idea. Keep up the good work, me.

Also, this is just a side note that really doesn't have much to do with our idea or anything, but it made me smile: I was watching an episode of one of my favorite shows, Parks and Recreation, (Thursday nights on NBC), and was pleasantly surprised to see that on the show, they have started a community garden in this big abandoned pit. Of course, someone planted marijuana in theirs, which hopefully won't happen to us, but thank you, Parks and Recreation, for showing the humorous side of urban farming. All can watch the episode here.

ok, so after re-reading the blog posts, I need to take back my last post. I mis-read, and am realizing I am really bad at blogs. Soo... my revised response is that I get where you are coming from with the concern that an angry carrot might not be enough to intimidate and encourage kids to want to do something about improving their diets.....so maybe that's where actual interviews could come in. I am just trying to think of a way to make the video be entertaining but still let kids know what urban farming is and I can't really think of a good way to accomplish it...any ideas?

I really liked the rap you wrote, Brigid, and I think kids could handle an angry carrot. There's always some kind of villain in a children's book/movie. I was thinking if possible, we could find some kids who are involved in urban farming in Philly to interview if we are still actually creating something. (Are we actually going to make a video or nah?) I am pretty sure we are just supposed to come up with an idea, but someone set me straight.

Veggie Reply

*I just posted this as a comment to the vegetable rap post, but I realized that people might miss that I commented so I am making it a post.*


Okay so your flow is tight, but are the kids going to be scared by the angry carrot? I know if I found an aggressive talking carrot I would probably run away. Also, if the kids are rolling up phillies they might have a bigger problem than poor diet.

Seriously though. I think a good way to have your vegetable dreams answered, is to make a story board for this video, and also another one that is a little bit more serious that can be focused on a larger audience. Two narratives = better than one = better grade.

What does everyone think about making two story boards?

Alright, thought of a way to expand the vegetable idea, even if no one else is interested in pursuing it. So, after the vegetables (I'm thinking a beefed up carrot can be our protagonist) beat the junk food in basketball, the carrot would drop from the basketball hoop (which he has been hanging onto) down, through the court, through the ground, deep into the earth by spinning like a drill. Once he's down there he would perform an intimidating rap with gruff, bass vocals. This is what I have for the rap so far.

Deep in the ground is where I grow
and don't you know that's where I throw it
In the name of you and me, for the best of the community
Everyday I'm growin stronger
In the soil, with my brothers
If you can't accept the fact
that the garden's where it's at
Why don't you get up out my face! and I'll find another place
Where the people know the truth, that I can nourish all the youth

Be ya fat be ya skinny be ya rollin up them phillies
If you try livin with - out me
you gon end up in emergency
So check yo street! Check yo ground!
If it's bloomin you be proud
Tend yo garden make it work
Grow them plants in the earth
Till that soil like a fiend
If you wanna see that green
Pickin veggies in the sun
is satisfaction number one

Very funny

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what would happen in my aggressive vegetable fantasy after the vegetables trounce the candy bars and doughnuts. However, I think we can all agree that obscenely muscled vegetables are what children want and it is our duty to incorporate this trend into our advertising. Every day I hear the angelic voices of the children crying out for more angry vegetables to show them the way; how can I ignore this?

My idea.

Hey guys. After having lots of lofty ideas about what we could potentially do with this urban farming project, I realized that I think our best bet is to create a video about the proposed green centers. I mean, we originally set out with this project to find a way to bolster/ properly market the ideas of Studio Next, and I know that we were given the option to either stick with that theme, or go off on our on idea, but after looking at the information we were given it almost seems silly to me to not use this firm base that they have started as a jumping off point.

Okay, that being said, here is my proposal. We create a video about the green centers, but its goal will be to educate all of the different circle groups on the chart we were given, about the green centers.

In the video, we should use the chart as a model for forming our narrative, which could go something like this:
First it starts with an idea. The idea then goes to the government. The government builds these centers with support from the circle groups (school, community etc). After the centers are built the circle groups educate people about these centers (with use of this video), and these people, turn into the many groups listed on the chart, who will be the ones giving back to all of the larger groups that helped form the project.

So you see, it is like the circle of life, (hakuna matata).

If all of that was a little confusing to you, take for example the first flash video you saw on the girl effect website. In that video it narrated for you the simple process of making a poor girls life better. That is kind of what I have in mind.

Let me know what you think.

Friday 9/25 Team Agenda & Notes.

1. Discussion of how new Studio Next information changes our plans.
-Do we try to work our plan in with the idea they have of green centers?
-How can we work it in?
-HOME WORK: Go home and post your notes/thoughts/final fleshed out idea of what you think our final project could be, either in relation to Studio Next's project or not. Just make sure you consider the narrative, and post all of this by MONDAY, to be discussed in group on Tuesday meeting.

Tuesday 9/22 Team Agenda & Notes.

1. Any project ideas you've though of since last meeting.
-School program where school starts a garden with its children, they maintain it as an actual class, then eat the veggies in their school lunch/ give to the community. But how can this be narrative?
-Video or story book of strong anthropomorphic vegetables kicking the butts of junk food. But how can we tie this in with urban farming?

2. Rep from Studio Next returned early, and answered questions from last meeting.
-Studio next project is NOT A KIT.
-It is a packet, but that is all they know.
-Still no solid ideas how to relate to studio next.

3. Discussion of what group members should be doing outside of class for project.
-Brainstorm your own ideas, who you want to target, what your narrative will be like.
-Post it to the blog!

Friday 9/18 Team Meeting Agenda, and Notes.

1. Discuss notes from reps visit to Studio Next.
-The group was talking about who to interview for their project.
-Target possibilities = keep tradition alive ( focus on people who are already participating in urban farming)?
-Studio Next seemed disorganized.

2. Discuss overall team objective (scope of project) / Brainstorming!

-Create a compelling narrative (not just poster or picture) for target audience.
-Who is our target audience?
-?children's parents, ?children
-Create children's book narrative w/ danger/ excitement (and anthropomorphic veggies)
-Create video for target audience.
-Maybe video can be introducing after school program w/ urban farming?
-Want to make kids self-sufficient.

3. Discussion of group time line and due dates.
-Start a blog to be group note book.
-Discuss our actual deliverables for this project.
-Project DUE 13th & 16th.

4.Questions for next rep to take to Studio Next.
-Is this for a community or a house?
-Is it free?
-What is it comprised of? Is it a physical kit or a document?
-How will it be dispensed?
-Who is the target audience for project?
-Do we want celebrities?