Today during class we got a lot of things done, and actually I have gotten a lot of things done for the immersion project as a whole since last week that I am really excited to announce.

I think our team is working well together. When we sat down to record an interview with our source, we immediately took into consideration all of the things that we were specifically really good at. Rubina taped the raw video footage, I asked questioned and did the main pushing towards the interview, and Abdul was a master of picture taking and also asking follow up questions. We each had a hand in the creating of it, so I think that was really interesting. Obviously looking to the future we will have to split up to cover the events of Logan’s life, but that can all be differential and didn’t have to be for the outline and first initial video.

All day today and all day last night I was working on finalizing things for the assignment due today. Personally, I edited mainly by myself, with input from Rubina and Abdul, but it’s kind of a one person job in the main sense. I also did a lot of the initial writing of the story outline, and I’m really proud of both. Rubina and Abdul definitely helped in adding additions, checking with format and style, and also making sure that we had everything that we needed submitted so that we could turn it in as a full thing and we didn’t have any missing holes or gaps in our requirements.

During class time today, specifically, after we turned in the project I worked on dealing with the rest of the footage that we have of Logan so far. I’m cataloging the videos into a folder so we have content and I’m taking notes on the parts of the story that you don’t get to see in just the two minute video. They talked about a lot of really interesting things that will be helpful in writing the actual piece, so I wanted to get those transcribed and written down so that I don’t have to do it all at once when it’s time to piece things together and write. The last thing I did during class time today, was start to play around withe the Medium website and some other learning experiences in regards to the multimedia and visual effects part of the piece that we want to incorporate. It’s really important to me that it looks easy to understand and that the project is appealing and looks professional, because I have a goal to be a writer that does this kind of immersion all of the time, so I want to get that experience and be able to do those things, because that is a really great skill to have no only for this class but for my future.

9/25/14-4:40 pm.

“They Are One Person”-(Title Still in Working Process)

Story By: Abdulrahman Al-Ruwaishan, Rubina Kapil, and Lindsey Oates

Logan Hutson is a 19 year old, polyamorous, transgender, college student, with a homeless man they barely know living in their apartment. They have struggled their entire life with fitting into one framework of a certain identity and continue to have to deal with being comfortable within themselves alongside the basic needs of being human. The fundamental element of acceptance and diversity and understanding a person for not only what they identify, but holistically, should be a driving force in our piece.

The story will start with a general history of their life thus far in regards to their identities. We will make up for lost time by reporting through detailed observations and thorough researching of their past life. Then the story will move into the tribulations that they face in their everyday life, including events that happen, adversity they must overcome, and what it means to be seen as a commodity in a world where you just wish to be yourself. We will capture the dreams, emotions, and raw details of subtle aspects not only of human nature, but specific to their identities. Logan has shared with us  a lifelong goal of opening a homeless care shelter and we will be seeing that progress made along their journey this semester. We expect detailed, clearly immersive accounts of their life at this point in time to be the driving force of our piece. We want you to end the piece saying, “not only do I know more about Logan Hutson as a person, but I now understand so much more about myself.” We want to encourage readers to have more compassion for acceptance.

Sources involved in this story are important to understanding the social connections that they hold with other people. Their partner, Amanda, and their friends, are obviously a huge part of the story in regards to their love and explaining how they love. Their family, especially their mom, whether in opposition or in acceptance, are a pivotal moment to the holistic person and their struggle. Their roommates, both homeless and appointed, are a dynamic we plan on attacking. Their professors, professionals, and other people they encounter alongside their daily lives will also play a minor role in our story. We will receive these contact sheets as we go along with Logan. They assure us that access for not only them but to their loved ones won’t be an issue. Logan’s contact is listed below.

We are working the most on developing our story from the end picture through to the beginning. We want it to be clear that our focus is only on one person’s story and perspective, and that although they can be an example for the kind of struggles they face, they cannot be the authority on an entire population. Our ending story will involve a scrolling profile of Logan as a holistic person with interactive pieces like pictures, videos, and quotes, and will therefore also be visually appealing as well. Extra information from additional sources will be provided to explain certain definitions and details that are necessary to understanding, but will be kept in the background so that we see that Logan is the clear focus, and that a larger social rights issue is the backdrop.

Logan Hutson Contact Info-Phone-(740) 703-0819, E-mail-hutson.124@osu.edu

Preview of Multimedia and Personal Interview Overview

1) Who are the main and minor characters?

Main character- Logan Hutson, identifies as polyamorous, transgendered

Minor characters-Parents, roommate that is homeless,  female roommate, partner, any friends that we talk to about them

2) What is the conflict or challenge they face?

The conflict they face is being accepted not only by societal standards but within their own communities. Being seen as a sort of circus freak of traits instead of just a holistic person that has interests besides their identity.

3) Where are the main location points in which you will need to spend the most time?

Classes about gender, events on campus, spend a lot of time in their apartment, try to go them for the one of the weekends

4) How will you use multimedia to augment this written experience?

Use lots of pictures and different facets of their life in sidebars outside of the person as a whole. The portrait of Logan will be the background and we will see their various things coming off from their body as you scroll down to read the story. Lots of video talking specifically about the various challenges they face. Lots of audio of different parts of their life, especially of the different people.

5) How much time can and will you spend with this subject?

As much as possible. We have conflicting schedules that were happening during the first week, so we want to make up for that now. We will have to let go of a lot of our commitments to be able to accommodate to their schedule, and we want to be there for every aspect of their life if we can. If we had to put a number on it, at least 6 hours a week at minimum.

Today in class we had talked a lot about the specifics of setting up a meeting with our source and getting to know their schedule a little better, we also discussed outlining, and decided on some key questions and topics we wanted to cover in our story.

This topics include but are not yet limited to: What does Trans* mean? What is Logan’s identity in specific? What do they feel is the most important issue regarding trans* education? What is the hardest part about being themselves? What is it like to be an advocate for a community that people care so little about actually learning about themselves?

We also decided to meet with Logan on Monday, September 15th at 10:30 am in Thompson Library.

(We have since then met with Logan and they were really accommodating and have been updating us with schedule changes and things so that we can start regularly attending events and parts of their life as a student here)

This was the first time that I felt like our project had a sincere and perfected direction before the outline, and I feel prepared and excited to just start reporting. It’s always hardest to see what the future can hold for the project when you’re just speculating on a source’s availability. After seeing Logan I feel more at ease that they will be willing to work with us. They gave us access for everything, which seems to be a huge hurdle lots of other groups in our class are still trying to overcome.

Notes from the Comm 4221 class and from Nicole on the project.

On it’s face it’s obviously really interesting

We have to make sure we aren’t telling someone’s story because they want it to be told.

Explain as much as you can what her situation is. Exactly how she identifies herself.

Exactly what it is she wants to get out of it.

Shed light on it also what the identities mean to not only her but why they are important in society.

1. I want to know what they feel like every day. I want to know what their love life is like. I want to know what struggles they encounter when living as a trans* and polyamorous person. I want to know what the hardest battle they have had to face is. I want to know what it is like to live with a homeless person living with you. I want to know what even possessed you to live with a homeless man. I want to know why you cry. I want to know when you cry. I want to see why you’re happy. I want to be able to tell every aspect of your feelings by the detail of one subtle moment in your life.

2. I want others to know what it feels like to struggle on the inside while being seemingly fine on the outside. I want others to feel what it’s like to hold multiple hats at once, ones that are all a part of our society and have been socially unaccepted for decades.

3. I will want to know my source inside and out. I will want to know my sources family and friends well. I will want to know my sources teachers, professionals, and acquaintances.

4. I will want to spend the most time with Logan, my main source.

5. This time together will be abundant. My group mates and I already have a right from discussion with them to be able to come into their life no matter what and be around 24.7  if necessary and I will make it a point personally to make sure I am a part of their life in an immense and annoying way.

6. 1-The experience of meeting her homeless roommate and how that will feel when I hear his experiences 2-The experience of speaking with their partner and how she feels about her polyamory. 3-The experience of hardship that comes from the toll of carrying a 22hour credit course load. 4-The experience of when they tell me about their life goals, and open up to their failures. 5-The experience when I see a different side of this person that I hadn’t originally planned in the outline of my story and thought process on it.

7. I will experience all of these things either first hand (preferably and will make the attempt to always make them so), or through the detailed descriptions of my group mates. Our source has also offered to journal and dialogue their thoughts and feelings in their own words, which will be a nice insider perspective. She won’t be able to alter her speech, though, because I will also have my personal opinion and experiences of them from my own observations.

8. I plan on taking lots of notes on my computer because I can type pretty fast. I also plan on doing lots of audio recording to get the full ambience of all of the different unique experiences. I also want to take lots of raw video, because I think it will add to a sense of honesty to the story.

9. I want to give myself a manageable goal of  a possible 10 hours a week on this project, if I can, thought 5 hours a week might be more plausible. Some weeks will be more than others, and obviously with two extra teammates I can make up for more lost time.

10. It will be one hundred percent interactive. I want it to be like Snowfall for Logan’s mind. I want the picture of them to be the main focus, and it zoom in to different aspects of their personality or different struggles they are dealing with and the holistic account of what makes up the one individual.

I haven’t decided what it should be called yet, but some title ideas I had were “Individual” “Unique” “Just One Person” “One of Millions” “Vast” or just “Logan”.

Theme Paragraph-

This project chronicles days and thoughts in life inside of an “ordinary” OSU college student. Struggling with depression, identifying as transgendered, identifying as polyamorous, and balancing school life while living with a homeless man can be tough, but Logan Hutson tries their hardest to remain calm and vibrant, at least on the outside.

Have already reached out with potential sourcing and they are willing to talk about their life and let us follow them around from the beginning, to get in to depth access and really be a fly on the wall in their life no matter what good or bad comes of it.

Welcome to u.osu.edu. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!