My group has decided to focus on the controversial topic of the legal drinking age for our multimedia project. We thought this would be a good topic since many tragic incidents have already occurred here at Penn State during our few short months here.

Outline:

1.A little history of drinking. (One of us talking while showing pictures)
2.What is going on today with drinking? How many people drink that are legal? Illegal? Review statistics. We can use examples specifically from the university. For example, last week a young man fell from a nine-story balcony and died at the scene. The fatal fall was caused by lethal combination of drugs and alcohol. Also, yesterday a boy fell from a second floor balcony due to the same reasons. Talk about how students are acting recklessly and drinking underage.
3.Should the drinking age increase or decrease? Interview students, teachers and health professionals on campus for their opinions. We know there are many students at many different colleges drinking underage. So should the drinking age lower in order to prevent students from getting underage drinking violations so easily when they go to college or should the drinking age increase in order to allow legal drinking to start after college?

All of us will work on finding research to include into our project. Erin will be in charge of working and editing with IMOVIE. Previously, she has taken a class using IMOVIE and has experience with the workings of the program. Jess will be in charge of the camera work. Rachel is going to be in charge of conducting and finding people to interview. I am going to be in charge of research such as examples that have previously occurred at the university.

One specific scene that we are going to present in our project is going to be the example of the tragedy that occurred last year. We are going to explain the story of how the Paige Raque, a Penn State cheerleader and sophomore from Kentucky, fell from a five-story window at Calder Commons, an apartment complex in State College. Paige was attending a party at the apartment. It was said that the fall was accidental and due to the use of alcohol, after which eight students were charged with furnishing alcohol to minors. This will be just one example we will use in our project. First, we will show a picture of the cheerleader that was taken in Beaver Stadium just weeks before the accident. Then, we will show the building where the fall occurred as someone is talking in the background. We will use the part on IMOVIE that allows 2 layers at the same time, such as a picture and sound in the background. We can also add in a clip about Paige when she was recovering from physical therapy or the press conference she was interviewed at about the accident.

The focus of my Ted Talk will surround how the styles of fashion are continually changing each and every decade. However, I am going to focus on one article of clothing that has made a drastic change from functional to fabulous in the past two centuries: denim jeans.
Right now, I plan to start my talk in reverse chronological order. This way, it will engage the viewers right from the beginning of my talk. I will begin by introducing and displaying pictures of jeans as they are known today. From television commercials to the catwalk, denim jeans are a quintessential icon in every closet. I will also display pictures of the many name brands of jeans that are popular today such as 7 for All Mankind, Citizens of Humanity, and Lucky Brand Jeans. Then, I will explain how jeans use to be a more function driven article of clothing and perceived as a piece of clothing for the blue-collar, manual-labor workers. I will talk about Levi Strauss, the man that introduced denim jeans as “miner’s clothing.” I will display pictures of miners and manual labor workers wearing jeans in the 19th century. Then, I will go on to display other pictures of jeans throughout the decades to show the transformation of the style into what it is today.
I have not decided what my main hook is going to be yet nor how I will conclude my Ted Talk. These were some of my first thoughts of how I wanted to structure my talk. I had not been introduced to the concept of Ted Talks until this class, and therefore have never given one. I definitely have to consider how I am going to make it interesting and engaging while explaining my paradigm shift.

Until last week when Kyle announced that our next project would be a TED Talk, I had no idea what one was about or what I was going to be doing. At my high school, I was never introduced to TED Talks. But however, when I watched one for the first time last weekend, I thought it was very interesting.
One passion that I have, which you may already know due to my blog, is fashion. I have always been very interested in clothes, jewelry, shoes etc. I am going to focus my Ted Talk on the changing styles of fashion. However, since this is such a broad topic and there have been so many different styles throughout the decade, I am going to use my research from my paradigm shift essay and focus on the changing styles of denim jeans. I will elaborate on how the styles of jeans have shifted from a loose fitting wide pant to a form fitting, slimming, and sexually alluring piece of fashion. I will also talk about how the number of people that wear jeans has expanded since the Gold Rush. I found a lot of history and information from my paradigm shift essay that could really help me provide evidence for the paradigm shift that has occurred with denim jeans.