Multimedia projects combine technical tools with creative thinking by using text, sound, still and moving pictures, or animations. The projects can be used for artistic, educational or promotional purposes and are part of most individual's everyday life by being displayed in advertisements, websites, science fair projects or art installations. Due to the wide range of media available, virtually every object, including paper cup baskets at Halloween, can be used as themes for a project.
Mockumentary
Make a mockumentary about the history of the Halloween paper cup basket. Provide pictures of fake ancient papers proving the Egyptian pharaohs or Roman emperors sent their kids to neighboring kings to collect treats. Send your friends dressed up as Mayflower pilgrims to primitive wood cabins with wooden decorated cups in their hands while you film or photograph them, or ask someone dressed up as a cowboy on a horse to fasten a paper cup on their saddle before you take a picture. Have written, taped or filmed bogus expert testimonies, and make paper cup basket museum pieces by covering them in mud, driving over them with your car or placing the cups in a shredder. Take your hard proof and the filmed material and present it in class, or display it on an art fair stall. Alternatively, publish the material online.
Rube Goldberg Machine
Assemble a Rube Goldberg machine that has the purpose of filling a Halloween paper cup basket with treats. Rube Goldberg machines are complex contraptions that perform a simple task following a chain reaction of various elements interacting with each other. Elements can include marbles rolling down a track, catapults, pulleys or paper cups with holes in the bottom. To transform the contraption into a multimedia display, document the progress of the construction, explain scientific forces used to make the machine work, and film the machine when performing the task. Add sound effects or music to the filmed material and display it together with the contraption and your reports on science or art fairs, use it as a classroom presentation or publish it online.
Sorry I'm Late Pranks
Use your Halloween paper cup basket to play a prank on your neighbors as well as providing a multimedia project for online publication or a course project. Make a paper cup Halloween basket and write "Sorry I'm late" on the front. Ask a friend to film your escapade, and go trick or treating during Christmas week. Have an excuse ready, including "the paint on my Halloween basket wouldn't dry until now." Let your friend film the reaction of the neighbors. The next day, visit your victims and ask for consent to use their reaction in a project before you start assembling and editing the material. Include statistics on how many people gave you treats, demographics on who got angry or laughed, or make a count of Christmas cookies in the basket. Present your findings in a multimedia presentation in the classroom, on an art fair or publish the material online.
Alternative Uses
Once Halloween is over the paper cup baskets usually are confined to bins. That is, until you present your multimedia project on alternatively uses. Collect redundant Halloween paper cup baskets from your friends and neighbors and make an art installation or collage. Fill the cups with soil and plant flowers before returning them to their creators. Stuff the cups with paper and use them as target practice missiles or string the baskets together to make a garland. Use the cups when shooting a mockumentary or in the construction of a Rube Goldberg machine. Document your projects with photographic evidence or through filming, prepare detailed instructions and publish your work on a website entitled "alternative uses for Halloween paper cup baskets". Add a Halloween quiz, animations or Halloween sound effects that are activated when people click on elements on the site, and you have provided a multimedia project the world can enjoy.
