Chris Rahmeh's Wiki Page:

 

About: My name is Chris Rahmeh. I'm an art major and media minor here at Austin College. I am interested in this class because I am curious about different online media and the creative potential it holds. As a kid I was very into cartoons. I loved reading the newspaper comics like Calvin and Hobbes, Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine, among others. I also love online comics such as Axe Cop, Bearmagedon, and the Oatmeal as well as graphic novels like Scott Pilgrim. I also enjoy making my own comics and graphic novels and have created a variety of them over the years.  Besides comics I am also an avid film junkie and enjoy going to see current movies at the movie theater with my like-minded movie nut dad. Other types of media I enjoy are video games and music. Although I have such a passion for more analog media types such as cartoons I would consider myself a primarily digital based person on a day to day basis.

 

Essential Narratives:

 

1. Get Fuzzy (comic by Darby Conley): Get Fuzzy is kind of like your typical roommates in an apartment drama only catch is one of them is a cat, one is a dog, and the other is their befuddled owner. The cat named Bucky Katt is a sociopathic nutjob who loves to irritate his other roomies as well as come up with insane schemes to become famous and inflate his large ego. Satchel Pooch the dog is sweet and dimwitted and is the main object of Bucky's hostility. Rob the human tries the best to keep the chaos in control and provide for the dysfunctional family. This comic strip is a huge reason why I got into cartooning and has always been a constant inspiration to me. On a more strange note I also worshipped Bucky Katt and tried to get him elected class president of my middle school in seventh grade. Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_Fuzzy, http://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy,http://www.universaluclick.com/comics/getfuzzy/.  

2. Anthony Green (musician/singer):  Anthony Green is one of my favorite artists and is a hugely inspirational figure for me. He has been in many different bands including Audience of One, Zolof The Rock and Roll Destroyer, Saosin, The Sound of Animals Fighting, and he is most widely known for being in Circa Survive and his solo work. Anthony Greens voice is very unique and has a very beautiful and resonant quality to it along with being very high pitched. His music is also generally very odd with spacey sounds, weird time signatures, and sometimes strange sounds or instruments. He sings about a variety of different subjects and his views on religion, drug abuse, depression, and other heavy handed subjects are very powerful and resonant to me. Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Green_%28musician%29, http://anthonygreenmusic.com/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfbnSb8kFkI&list=PLH22-xSMERQqUX3ogTqRNTqgzOZbdoxeW

3. Scott Pilgrim (graphic novel by Brain Lee O'Malley): Scott Pilgrim is a series of graphic novels by Canadian artist Brian Lee O'Malley centering around Scott, a lovable dimwitted loser who is in a band called Sex Bob Omb with his equally eccentric friends. Scott meets the girl of his dreams one day named Ramona Flowers and proceeds to dump his girlfriend, 17 year old Knives Chau, to pursue this enchanting woman. Unfortunately for Scott Ramona comes with quite a bit of baggage in the form of seven evil ex boyfriends hellbent on fighting Scott for Ramona's love. Scott Pilgrim is one of the most unique and surrealistic things I've ever read blending together comics, video games, kung fu, and drama for a intriguing read.  I love the art style, the mish mash of genres, and quirky humor in Scott Pilgrim. It is a constant source of inspiration for me when I am drawing my own cartoons or graphic novels. Scott Pilgrim was also made into an epic movie!

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Pilgrim, http://www.comicvine.com/scott-pilgrim/4050-25478/, http://scottpilgrim.wikia.com/wiki/Scott_Pilgrim

4. Harry Potter (Novels by J.K. Rowling): Harry Potter is a series of novels centering around a boy wizard prodigy who attends a school for magic instruction called Hogwarts. Throughout the series Harry makes a variety of magical friends and learns about his connection to a dark wizard named Lord Voldemort. Harry must grow as a wizard and uncover Voldemort's darkest secrets in order to have any hope of defeating him. Harry Potter's excellent characters and the world which they inhabit is enchanting and exceptionally realized. It's one of those series that is easy to get lost in and obsess over. Whenever I read/re-read them I feel like I am a student at Hogwarts. Few media pieces have managed to suck me in so much. Harry Potter is a great series and excellent example of exceptional storytelling. The Harry Potter series has expanded into movies, toys, video games, theme parks, and more. It's kind of its own media empire.

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Potter, http://harrypotter.scholastic.com/, http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Harry_Potter

5. Prince of Persia The Sands of Time (Video Game): Prince of Persia is a video game about a young Prince who discovers a mythical treasure called the sands of time during a battle with the Maharajah's army. A traitorous Vizier who aids the Prince in battle  tricks the Prince into unleashing the sands and creates an army as "infinite as the sands themselves" by essentially turning the inhabitants of the city into sand monsters. Amiss the chaos the Prince finds a dagger which allows it's wielder the power to wind back time as well as slow it down. The Prince reluctantly teams up with the Maharajah's daughter, Farah, in order to undo the disaster caused by the sands and defeat the treacherous Vizier. The resulting story is still among one of the best I've seen in a video game. Prince of Persia has absolutely fantastic platforming with a focus on varied acrobatics such as running along walls, climbing columns, and swinging from poles.  Combat expands on the acrobatics by allowing you to vault over enemies heads in stunning slow motion and dodge attacks with a variety of flips and handsprings. Despite the fact that the game is very old, seeing these elements in action still leaves me breathless even to this day. I have replayed this game countless time and each subsequent replay is just as magical and delightful as my first playthrough. "Prince of Persia The Sands of Time" has also spawned several sequels and it's own rather shitty movie.

Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_of_Persia:_The_Sands_of_Time, http://www.ign.com/articles/2003/11/07/prince-of-persia-the-sands-of-time-4, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384444/ 

 

 

A GIF I Made

Authors statement: This was a little video of me being silly that I made into a GIF. To me the GIF emphasizes the importance of being yourself and not taking yourself too seriously. It's a great thing to just be dumb every once and a while and make people laugh. Laughter is one of the best things you can do with your life. On makeagif.com I jokingly named my GIF "to all the h8rs." Partially to emphasize the importance of being yourself and not caring what other people think and also poking fun at the super comment driven world we live in on line where GIFs, blogs, and other media receive a lot of poorly worded and spelled hostility in the comments section. All you h8rs can go suck it.

 

 

 

50 Ways to Tell a Story Ideas:

FiveFrameFlickr

Frame 1. Scorching hot sun

2. Very unhappy looking little kid

3. Melting snowman or ice cream cone

4. Picture of House

5. Kid in bed watching Netflix looking very happy 

 

Workshop 1:

Thunder Road 5 Photo Story

 

1. A woman exiting from a screen door her dress gently waving. (Represents first stanza of the song with Mary slamming the screen door her dress waving.)

2. A man sitting on his porch by the screen door looking sad and lonely. (Represents the rest of the first stanza. Man singing about how lonely he is and how he wants the girl back.)

3.  The woman hiding beneath her covers also looking sad and depressed. (Represents second stanza with the girl hiding in the covers in pain and reminiscing on past lovers.)

4. The man and the woman holding hands by a car, most likely a Chevrolet. (Represents third stanza with the man and woman taking hands and getting ready to ride down Thunder Road.)

5. The car/Chevy driving off down a road with thunder in the background. (Represents the rest of the third stanza and the fourth stanza with the man and woman going down Thunder Road together.)

 

I feel like the song Thunder Road deals with a relationship between a man and a women that is falling apart. The first stanza/picture is about the woman leaving. The door slamming indicates that things are not going well between them. The second and third pictures represent the man and woman's disdain at being apart. The man feels lonely and wants the woman back and the woman is depressed, hiding behind her emotions and reminiscing on past failed relationships. The fourth picture is the man and the woman getting back together after a fair bit of pleading. Sure things are rocky but the two feel like it might work. The fifth picture is them riding down the metaphorical thunder road. The man and the woman are back together and trying again at their relationship. The road ahead of them might be rough and filled with "thunder" but they are determined to make things work and leave all the negative stuff behind.

 

Idea for a Portfolio Project For 2/20 class

I started making a game on twine that centers around a person waking up and getting out of bed and out the door. The catch here is that getting out of bed and out the door proves trickier than it seems. Your alarm clock punches you back when you try to turn it off, remember the "the floor is made of lava game you played as a kid" ....the floor might actually be made of lava, your toothpaste is filled with ants, your shower sprays spaghetti instead of water. These and other dastardly happenings that hinder your progress from getting out the door and on with your life...whatever that is. Do you have a life? Maybe you should just stay in bed and watch TV, it might be easier? That and you might also be the pancake overlord... Some possible statistics to track would be, deaths, laziness, number of times you went back to sleep, things you've eaten that you maybe shouldn't have eaten, ect. 

 

Twine Game Link to what I've made so far:

http://twinery.org/2/#stories/9b5a80b1-dccb-84a1-3fec-23e51bfcf828

I've started making the storyboard for my game. 

 

5 Photo Story

 

 

 

 

Authors Statement: I saw the meme I used for the fourth picture while perusing the internet a few days ago and fell in love with it. I decided I wanted to base my five photo story around it. The story centers around a happy content cow minding his own business, as illustrated by the first picture. The cow then gets milked (2nd picture) and is absolutely devastated (the Scream cow in the third picture.) The cow vows to steal their souls (fourth picture). The fifth picture (the American Gothic with skull faces) represents the aftermath of the cows dirty soul stealing work on the horrible people that milked it.  The story is meant to be absurd and humorous and also highlights several important things to me. For one I have a very strange obsession with cows, two I love odd stories, and three I used several absurdist recreations of famous art pieces because I love art/am an artist. My main interest is absurdist art, which luckily I've somehow was able to fit in the realm of my story.

 

Idea I have for Remix Video

Take clips from the two movies Grand Torino and Up to show how they are essentially the same movie. Set to catchy theme music from up.

Clip set  one: Illustrates how the protagonists are both grumpy old men.

Clip set  two: Illustrates how both the protagonists wives die.

Clip set three: Illustrates how both have to deal with annoying kids they aren't very fond of.

Clip set four: Illustrates how they become best friends with the kids.

Clip set five: Illustrates how they make loads of unlikely friends.

Clip set six: Illustrates how they both have something (house in Up) (Grand Torino in Grand Torino) that is very precious to them that they are reluctant to give up.

Bonus Clip set: They both have cute yellow dogs.

Questions I would need to answer in order to make this video.

1. What are the storylines from both movies and how do they relate to each other?-I will watch both movies or refresh myself by reading plot summaries or synopses and make my own comparisons from there. If others have already made comparisons I can draw upon those as well.

2. How am I going to arrange my story/arguement?-I will have to finalize each of my comparisons and arrange them in a way that resembles an intriguing story or argument about why these movies are similar.

3. Which video clips from each movie am I going to use to make my point?-I will have to decide on which arguments and comparisons I am going to make about each movie. I will then have to watch the movies and reflect on which scenes and clips illustrate my points and then draw those clips out.

4. What other ways should I use to make my point?-I might have text explaining my points in between video clips or possibly narration. If the video clips alone do not suffice.

5. What can I do to make this more interesting?-Probably set it to music, add commentary, a title and credits screen to tie everything together and make it a more complete package.

 

In Class Storytelling Exercise

And so the group of friends hung a banner to surprise their friend for his birthday, it read "Happy Birthday Fuckface." 

 

He entered the bar at 11 AM by himself and brought himself his first legal drink.

 

Headlines lined all of the papers, news shows blew up, and over social media sites there was a buzz of heated controversy. Apparently one of the fraternities at OU might be racist?

 

Chris looked out the window and saw the ground littered with white powder, and just in time for his test. Chris was overjoyed that his snow dance actually worked.

 

Chris looked out the window and saw the ground littered with gummy bears. Gummy bears were falling from the heavens and spreading joy and yummyness to the populace. Chris was overjoyed his gummy bear dance actually worked.

 

Remix Video Finished

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKIDwoYhwus

Authors Statement: The goal of this video was to point out the similarities between the movies Up and Gran Torino. I set about accomplishing this goal by watching the two movies and coming up with a list similarities between them. I then chose clips from the movies that illustrate these similarities and edited them together into a cohesive video. Text explaining each of my different points breaks apart each segment of the video along with clips to illustrate those points. I got the idea for this project by watching Gran Torino and Up in very close succession over Jan Term and coming to the conclusion that they both followed the same basic story structure albeit being very different movies tone wise. I thought the many coincidences between them were really funny and am glad I got the chance to make a video illustrating these points.

 

DNN Project Proposal

Set in a distant future, wars and disagreement about our religion and basic ideals  tore apart our planet Earth and reduced it to an apocalyptic wasteland. The remaining humans of Earth looked desperately for something else to worship because without something to cling to they felt hopelessly lost. They decided to revere something a little more practical and thusly decided to worship the things that gave them food, clothing, and other necessary provisions....farm animals. Inevitably there was some disagreement about which farm animals to worship and mankind split into four separate religious factions: cows, chickens, pigs, and goats. Also inevitably these factions hated each others guts and were often at war with one another. My story will drop the audience into the middle of a heated war and tell the story of each faction through separate media outlets. At the end I'll allow the audience to pick their favorite faction and lead them in the final climatic battle to see which farm animal is the true deity of Earth. The audience for my piece will most likely be a mature one, 18 and up because the subject matter and humor will definitely be geared towards older audiences. The overarching war tone is generally geared towards guys but the humor and absurdity of the story should hopefully appeal to a wider audience. The media I have in mind will probably range from comic strips, to blog posts, to facebook pages, websites, or videos to illustrate the stories of each of the four factions but will most likely change once I figure out the affordances and which type of story I want to tell for each one.  The final battle will most likely be a twine game where the player would have the option to choose which faction they want to fight with at the beginning and embark on a choice driven story based on which one they choose. 

 

A In Progress Draft of my interactive fiction game

(Note this isn't finished, just to show what I have so far) I think this should work this is the link it gave me when I published it.

file:///C:/Users/Chris/Downloads/Can%20I%20get%20out%20of%20bed%20today-.html 

 

Up Vs. Gran Torino 2nd Draft

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U24qgFdr84M

 

Another Remix Video (Freak on a Grapefruit)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk1ZnZJTZeo

Authors Statement: I made this video as a joke after noticing the similarities between the beatboxing section in the song "Freak on a Leash" by Korn sounded very similar to the sounds Angel made when demonstrating her "Grapefruit Technique" on a dildo in the popular "Grapefruit Technique" video. I would inter-cut clips of Angel making sickening slurping sounds in between Korn's beatboxing and the two flowed together just as well as I thought they would. I also spent a lot of time making sure the slurping sections would line up as closely as possible with the original song so that their additions would make sense to the cohesiveness of the video. I made sure to not let one element overpower the other so the relationship between the two could be made clearer and thus the comedic effect more poignant. The goal of this video was just to be silly and make the viewer laugh as well as possibly cringe a bit because some of the source material is somewhat raunchy. 

 

Interactive Fiction Laundry List of need to dos....

1. Finish the main story (right now I need to finish, bathroom, getting dressed, and downstairs.)

2. Finish up all the subsections that comprise those elements and link them together somehow.

3. Think up what I want my multiple endings to be, based on the players play through.

4. Code in a tally of progressiveness, laziness, and deaths points.

5. Decide how many points I want players to have to unlock each ending.

6. Code in how many points they need to unlock the endings.

7. Write out each ending.

8. Play through my game a lot to make sure it's not buggy as shit (probably will intersperse this step in between the other steps)

9. Have other people play through my game to make sure it makes sense (it doesn't) and that it is playable.

 

Interactive Fiction (The story is finished I just need the point tallys and the unlockable endings)

file:///C:/Users/Chris/Downloads/Can%20I%20get%20out%20of%20bed%20today-%20(1).html

 

Google Search Bar Story Concept Idea

A person tries to cook something and the results keep getting more and more disastrous. He has to use google for help. 

Ex Searches:

Easy meals to prepare.

How to put out grease fires.

Basic first aid for burns,

How to tell is something is edible?

Replacements for melted kitchen parts.

Can something you cooked be sentient?

Help, my dinner is trying to eat me.

 

Process:

I would need to research how to make a search story to do this.

I should probably add music.

I need to arrange my searches into a cohesive plot.

I need to be familiar with the basic colloquialisms for google searches.

I would probably figure out my story first, then think up my google searches, then try to arrange them into a story, figure out how to make a search story, add music, etc.

 

 

My Schedule I have 40 points want 160

April 17-Attempt to finish IF and possibly playtest component. Would give me 50 points. I would have 90 and need 70 more.

April 24-Make a remix video that is significantly more appropriate and meaningful than my other one....  I would have 105 points and need 55 more.

May 2-(maybe try and give feedback on peoples work for the collaborative badge 40 points) I would have 145 points ideally and need 15 more.

May 8-Make a digital story videp (I did this in DVP so it should be acheivable) I would have 165 points and be donezo hopefully.

 

My Interactive Fiction (html link I think....)

 

Can I get out of bed today- (2).html