Narrative in sound + motion, beginnings

So, after making a list of things that I am interested in, and then being told to choose, I decided to immediately mark off cooking/baking. There will be none of that this semester. I still don't think I'm ready to see another picture of Julia Child. Anyway, a few things that I came up with on a longer, more thoughtful list were:

• vintage furniture
• children's stuff (toys, games)
• outer space
• craft sites
• botany
• gardening
• nutrition

I did some mind mapping, starting with the children's fun stuff. Instead of becoming more narrow of a topic though, I somehow reached to a rather different subject, branching from some mention of the big brother/big sister organization. So, still working out the kinks, but here it goes.

"Play-Date" Finder

These children are happy. Why are they happy, you ask? because they have made new friends. (Also, on a very important side note, this is an image from google. I do not know these children, I do not have pictures of these strangers, it just showed up in a google search.)

These days, many parents have very busy schedules, and can find it hard to balance their heavy workloads with their small, high-maintenance children. Setting aside the fact that this is very sad, we come to the problem that these parents are stressed, and these children have limited social interaction. SO. To solve a couple problems at once, we need a community play-date finder!

This would be an imaginary, brand-based narrative about an online service that connects parents and their children to similar families. The way it works is that parents can sign up, and find families in their community with young children. They can then contact, and schedule play dates to be hosted by one family or another. This would be an opportunity that both the parents and the children would benefit from, since the children would make new friends, and the parents would get some down-time (hypothetically). Parent of different families can understand the stress involved with everyday life, and this would be an opportunity to help another parent, while entertaining your own kid.

It's a pretty long-winded explanation, but that's what's I'll be working on refining from here on out. It seems like it has a definite narrative, right?

The audience would the busy parents, and by association, their kids. But the appeal would definitely be to busy but caring parents, trying to free some time for themselves while acquainting their children with some new friends. In a country where neighbors and communities seem to be turning inward, and becoming less involved, this would be a way to try to bring back the friendly-factor some people seem to have forgotten comes with meeting new people. I'm still not totally clear on points like the visual symbolic codes, unless a minivan counts as a symbol for the families. But some things I have worked out are:

• preferred method of communication would probably be internet, for young, computer-savvy parents, and perhaps some sort of mailing list? Even then though, an e-mailing list seems more appropriate, to communicate between members of the group, and for the organization to contact the members as well.
• Jargon/Slang - family appropriate vernacular, "po-po," "tinkle," "fiddle sticks," and other vocab appropriate to say around young children. Ok this is just a joke. Unless it counts, and then I'm totally serious.

In class, my goal is to be able to work out the visual symbols and communication styles; perhaps I'm being to broad with the audience right now?