Okay, so I have a pretty ambitious idea for my final project. I really think that it's possible, but it's going to require a lot of thought and work. Ultimately, I would like to create a video that discusses the advantages of using technology, primarily video, to illustrate a narrative while simultaneously creating a video that does just that. There are two core elements of the video I am concerned with:
For the first part of the video, I intend to interview people to obtain different point of views on the topic of how technology can impact or hinder a narrative. I intend to interview people who are affiliated with writing, like English writing majors, writers for the Pitt News, or students who always have their heads in different novels. To get a different point of view on the subject, I intend to interview students or instructors of video production, photography, and media. For the third and final point of view, I'd like to interview people who really don't have any special interest in narratives or video. I'm hoping that the different point of views will create a stable dialogue on how technology can enhance or take away from a written narrative. Questions for the interviewees would be (roughly):
- What is writing?
- What is a story? / What makes a story?
- What is a movie?/ What makes a movie?
- What makes a story/movie/writing interesting?
- Would you rather watch a movie or read a book? (in general)
- Would you rather watch a movie adaptation of a book or read the book on which the movie is based?
In the second part of the video, I intend to illustrate a comparison between the different ways a story can be told to an audience. The first method would be the most traditional: reading written words, that appear on the screen. I'm going to compare this to having the words on the screen read aloud to the audience. The last presentation of the same narrative will be through a visual representation using video footage. To keep the video flowing smoothly, there will be a narration where it is necessary to guide the viewers through what they are seeing.
Disclaimer: The next two paragraphs explain ideas that I really want to include in the video, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to because they are a bit ambitious and I might have trouble incorporating them cohesively into the first two parts of the video.
I would like to play with the idea that Danielewski introduces his novel with: the truth of the image. I can use time alterations and visual effects to alter the image on the screen so that it looks different from the real image that was originally recorded. To show how much the image can actually be altered from reality, I'll show a comparison between the original footage and the final product directly next to each other on the screen.
I was thinking of a few different ways to incorporate the reading from the semester in the video, because they are all great examples to use for the relationship between technology and the narrative, obviously. I think for the comparison between reading text and viewing video footage I might be able to incorporate text and images from Frankenstein, the film, and Frankenstein, the movie. I'd also like to scan include some images from Jimmy Corrigan, but I'm not sure how I'd do that yet. I might attempt to create a live-action version of a few frames in the novel and then compare the original images to the visual adaptation I create.
Finally, for the writing component of the project, I plan to discuss my video in a summary of information gathered as well as a general critique of the work. Also, I could include a copy of the narration or a rough script-like document.
1 comment:
It's hard not to like this - it is big, and ambitious, and covers a lot of territory. The idea of the parallel videos is cool, and the (admittedly incomplete) ideas about how to incorporate things we've studied in the class as a whole are interesting - I'd be especially interested in what you'd have to say about the different variations of Frankenstein.
Still, I need to caution you. You are presenting a big and complicated idea - that's fine - but it's also a very *general* idea. If I call it a critical/essay-istic project, it doesn't quite have an argument. If I call it a creative project, I don't see what the animating image or idea is. This is a project which really wants a starting point, or a center, in order to hold it together. Maybe your aside about frankenstein could do that work, or maybe something about Danielewski, or maybe something entirely different, but you need *something* relatively small, to secure you from attempting to do everything at once.
Post a Comment