Final Portfolio

Dear Reader,

Having recently declared my English major, I looked to people in my classes last semester for suggestions on which courses to take. English 366 with Professor Anderson was by far the most recommended. Though I was hesitant at first because creativity is definitely not my strongest asset, I figured this course would be able to help me broaden my imagination.

This class has taught me a lot about myself as well as the English major in general. It has definitely helped me understand what is important in teaching a class as well as what students should be able to take away from classes. I have discovered that it is sometimes more enjoyable and helpful to design projects and use different mediums as expression rather than just write essays about different types of literature. Which brings me to my next point – this course is teaching me that literature doesn’t have to mean books. It can be found in film, photography, music, and so much more. It is incredible to be able to take an English course where you can express your ideas in a form other than solely writing.

This class is fun and exciting everyday. The projects that we are assigned are pretty open-ended so there is a lot of room for interpretation. This does, however, present more challenges for me. I am a pretty strong essay writer because I am able to sit down and focus and re-arrange things so they fit together the way I like. I found that my playlist assignment, thus far, has probably been my strongest project. My podcast isn't quite as focused as I would like it to be. And my collage is a pretty poor depiction of what I hoped (but I will go into all of this in detail below). The beauty of this class, however, is that we don't have to rush through a syllabus and we can spend time revising all of these projects until we feel that we have adequately understood the programs and delivered something that represents what we want to convey.

I am learning a lot about myself through all of these projects. For example, the playlist and collage both revolved around movies, a medium of literature that I enjoy. I have come to realize that I really enjoy seeing everyone else's projects to get ideas for myself and to see what kind of paths we can take. For example, in Anna Kim's Podcast on the Genome Project, I was impressed that she took a step in her own direction and sort of created her own project.

Ironically enough, the video project actually ended up being the hardest part of this portfolio for me. I had a really hard time figuring out how to put voice recordings over the movie clips I had chosen. For this reason, I ended up using one song throughout and just choosing the clips to go along with it. This isn't exactly what I wanted but it turned out to be okay. I was extremely impressed with Hannah's Video Project. It really inspired me and I wish that I could have put together something like this if time had allowed it.

Overall this course has really taught me a lot about myself and the English major in general. I have learned my strengths and know that I can use different mediums for expression. I understand now that the English major can go outside the norm of reading and writing, and I really appreciate this. I honestly think that classes like this will keep the English major appealing to other students. I really encourage all students interested in creative projects and literature to take this course.

Cruel Intentions Playlist

I chose to do my playlist on the character Annette Hargrove from the movie “Cruel Intentions”. I chose her character for a variety of reasons. Not only is this one of my favorite movies, I also can identify with Annette in many ways. For example, I, too, am a daughter of a headmaster. I have been the new girl in town and I know what it is like to fall for a guy.

I was pretty pleased with my song choices for the playlist. I thought they all really worked with the different themes and tones I was trying to express. I tried to pick songs whose instrumentation and rhythm was more important than the lyrics, although in some cases the lyrics were fitting as well. As for revisions, there are a few things that I changed. I added more background information about the movie so someone who hasn’t seen it will be able to identify with the playlist. I did put in a movie preview at the beginning of the playlist, but I think it is more beneficial to add some detail throughout the playlist. I was pretty happy with the layout and thought I explored the html layouts pretty well. I borrowed an idea from Hannah's Playlist and divided my own playlist into a section that discusses why I chose the song and a section on how the instrumentation relates to the movie. I really enjoyed using the codes and understanding how you can control the template.

The biggest challenge for me in this playlist was finding the songs available for use online. I know there are many programs to use and when I eventually got the hang of Zamzar I was able to use it a lot for my podcast. I didn’t find the codes to be too challenging but I also was really interested in how it worked so it wasn’t tedious to learn about it.

Revised Podcast & Original Podcast

For the podcast assignment, I initially focused on Ben Folds and his journey to “making it big” and why he is famous. Basically, I explored why his audience accepts his music and what steps he took to become the musician he is today. I thought he was a good subject for the podcast because he is both a North Carolina and Tennessee native (as I am).

For the podcast, I interviewed Matt Villemain, one of my good friends who is a student at UNC and has a local band of his own known as “The Rafters”. He gave some great insight into Ben Folds and I was really pleased with how his interview turned out.

The biggest challenge of this assignment for me was figuring out how to make transitions between my thoughts. I knew what topics I wanted to cover, yet I could never really get the hang out sounding like I was just talking without it being scripted. I tried both tactics – I wrote out some paragraphs of what I wanted to say, and I also just tried to do free speaking. While both had their benefits, I tried to find a happy medium between the two for the revision. I also cut out some of the interview with Matt. That was probably the most difficult part of putting together my podcast. I finally figured out how to zoom in enough so that I could cut my podcast exactly where I wanted it to stop.
I do think that I had a good selection of songs and was able to capture a lot of the personality of Ben Folds. In my revision, I tried to cut back on how much information I put in and tried to focus it more on the "Evolution of Ben Folds".

Revised Collage

Original Collage:

This program was really difficult for me to figure out. Like I said in my cover letter, I am not the most creative person. I had a hard time choosing a character to do because I knew that my collage should have a lot of symbolism and representation in it. I chose to do Forrest Gump because it is a classic American movie with a lot of good themes and a strong central character.

I was not totally pleased with my original collage. I like to think of it as my first draft and my introduction to using the Gimp program. I had a really hard time understanding how to put the layers and the masks but once I got the hang of it things went much smoother.

There is a lot going on in the original collage, too. For the final product, I tried to focus on less objects and present more of a concentrated theme. In the original collage, I used the runner’s legs as the center focus of the collage because running is a theme that is carried out through the whole movie. I tried to make the idea of the entire collage a vision of living the “American Dream” which Forrest does. Behind him is the Vietnam War and all of the tragedy he sees, and in front of him is the Bubba Gump Shrimp Boat business he starts in honor of his friend who dies in the war. I also included a portrait of him and Jenny at the bottom, the image of what he truly is chasing throughout the movie. Everything he does somehow ties back to his devotion and desire to be with her.

However, in the final collage, I was able to bring my focus on to what is really important in the movie. I still kept the image of a man running, only this time it was over water. I also kept the American flag image, and placed the picture of Forrest and Jenny under this flag. I used the reflection tool and tried to create a better overall visual. I tried to take Anna's comment to frame the picture with the chocolate box, but it wasn't working out quite how I liked so I incorporated a box of chocolates into the background. I really like the colors that I put into the collage and was more pleased with the revision than the original picture.

Video Project:

For the video portion of our projects, I chose to do a remake of the trailer for "American Beauty". This is one of the most frustrating projects for me because based on the amount of time and work I put into it, I was not pleased with the result. I wish I could put up all the different ways I tried to do this but they are so bad and unfinished that this wouldn't be as successful. My original intention was to make a commentary about what the theme of "American Beauty" is centered around -- the idea that real beauty comes from the truth of situations, not from appearances on the outside. The main character of the movie discovers this when his lust for his daughter's best friend opens his eyes to the types of feeling and emotion he has lost over the monotonous years of marriage. My original project had different clips from the movie to express this idea and I tried to edit my voice over the clips, but I couldn't get it to work out the way I wanted. After looking at Amanda's Video Mashup of Jumanji, I was inspired to turn the trailer of "American Beauty" into a thriller. I was able to use the Camstudio program to edit out the parts that I wanted and to try to focus on the relationships between the characters in the movie. I was pleased with the clips I chose and I think the music works well, but I just think I could have done more if I had more time.

Other Comments/Blog Entries:

A response to Hannah video mash-up: http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/143
A response to Hannah "House" playlist: http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/9
A response to Michelle's "Gilmore Girls" playlist: http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/9
A response to Alex's Collage: http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/84
A response to Anna's Collage: http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/97
A blog entry on my favorite photographer: http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/92
A blog entry response to "A Fortunate Fall": http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/43
An example podcast of Michael Scott voicemail message: http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/37
A response on songs that are "literary": http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/6
A response to Billy Collins Poetry: http://teachmix.com/litflow/node/8