Final Portfolio

Posted December 8th, 2007 by taylormc

This class has been my favorite class I have ever taken, not just at UNC but in my entire academic career! I don't know where to begin in explaining how much I have learned and grown during this semester. Before this course I had never really had to interpret Literature in any way other than analyzing works of literature in papers. Writing about what I read was the only means of interpretation I had ever been introduced to. Of course while reading a novel or poem I would be reminded of other sources of media such as music or film or other literary works, but I had never had to use any of those to analyze or interpret a work before this course.

Before this class I had no idea how to create a link in a blog, I had never used any sort of photoshop program, I had never used Imovie before, even though it is a program on my laptop! But after all of the projects where we not only learned how to use these programs, but created things with them I feel confident that I will be able to utilize them for other classes and projects in the future.

For me, the best thing about this class was that we were able to choose our own topics for each project. When you are able to base an assignment on a work of literature that you actually enjoyed, it makes the entire process of creating something much more fun. Music is such a huge part of my life that it was SO much fun for me to be able to create a playlist based on one of my favorite novels. And creating the soundtrack to my video project was one of the most fun things I have ever done! I have always said what a cool job it would be to create the soundtracks to films or television shows, and I finally got my chance to actually (sort of) do it!

Finally, having a professor that was so accessible and helpful and interactive as professor Anderson is such a rare and wonderful find! Being able to work on each project in class, and having someone available to answer questions even if they are repeatedly asked until the project is finished is some thing I have never experienced in a classroom setting before. I wish that I could take this class every semester!

The play list was the first assignment of the semester and was my favorite project up until the end of the semester. I chose Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk as my inspiration for the play list. This off the wall novel has so many twists and turns and outrageous characters that it was so much fun finding songs to represent aspects of the novel and characters. In my first play list I did not give a lot of explanation of what or why or how the songs I chose related to the novel or specific characters so for my revision I tried much harder to give more thorough explanations. I also used more lyrics, music videos and excerpts from the novel in an attempt to better explain my choices of songs.

ORIGINAL PLAY LIST
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/19/revisions/198/view

REVISED PLAY LIST
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/19

For my character collage I once again used the novel Invisible Monsters as my inspiration. I chose the main character and narrator Shannon McFarland as my main inspiration for the collage. I used Shannon's veiled face as the focal point of the collage. For the background I used a burning house to represent Evie Cottrell's mansion burning down on her wedding day; set fire by Shannon of course. And off to the sides of the collage a shotgun and camera, aspects of Shannon's former life; she shot her lower jaw off with a shotgun because she was tired of being beautiful, and a camera because she was a model before the shotgun incident.

For the revisions on my character collage I changed the floating camera to a camera on a tripod, and I made the shotgun more visible by editing the color.

ORIGINAL CHARACTER COLLAGE
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/73

REVISED CHARACTER COLLAGE
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/132

I used a poem by Khalil Gibran for my poem collage.

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore

You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.

Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.

But let there be spaces in your togetherness,

And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping.

For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.

For my collage I used the last three lines as inspiration. I love the philosophy on love and relationships this poem offers that two people should not completely depend on one another, and that they should have seperate interests. That is my interpretation anyway!

For my revisions I changed the photograph of pillars to one where the pillars stood farther a part and I also edited the masks of the sky and the trees. I also added lines of the poem as text on top of the sky.

ORIGINAL POEM COLLAGE-
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/74

REVISED POEM COLLAGE-
http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/130

POD CAST- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/files/music2.mp3

This began as a rather daunting assignment given my horrible fear of public speaking; and for this project not only were we going to have to speak in front of the entire class but we were going to be recorded! For our podcast Alex and I chose to discuss music as a literary form. To emphasize this we each chose a song to analyze and discuss the literary aspects that each contained. I chose Lover You Should Have Come Over, by Jeff Buckley, and he chose a song by the Police. Talking about music as a literary form was rather easy considering we had used it earlier in the semester as a way of interpreting literature with our Play Lists.

VIDEO PROJECT- http://www.teachmix.com/nightlit/node/149

The Video Project was by far my favorite assignment of the semester. As I stated earlier I have always thought the most fun, perfect job in the world would be creating soundtracks for films or television shows. Although that was not the entire project, having music as an aspect of this class has been so very enjoyable for me! I have had the application IMovie on my computer since the day I bought it, and other than a silly photo collage of my boyfriend and I, I never knew how to utilize the program. With this project I learned how to adjust transitions, create affects, add videos, and create a soundtrack by adding multiple songs and fading them in and out in specific places. Finding relevant songs and images to interpret one of my favorite novels was the most exciting way of interpreting literature I think I will ever experience.

taylormc's blog
Login or register to post comments

Final Portfolio

Who's online

Syndicate

User login

Navigation

Recent blog posts

Recent comments