It’s a bit late to be putting this up, but I wanted to get some feedback on my video idea first before I started on it.
“Shark finning is the cruel act of cutting off the sharkâs fins while it is still alive, then the still living shark is wastefully thrown back into the ocean to die a slow and painful death.”
The main purpose of my video would be to spread awareness about the illegal shark fin trade. This practice, aside from being undeniably cruel, is pushing certain species of sharks to the point of extinction. I first became aware of this issue after seeing this [link] drawing, and it has been on my mind ever since.
Now on to the more technical stuff. Since there’s no way for me to actually go diving anytime within the next couple of weeks to film this, I settled for what I felt would be the next best option: stop-motion animation. I’d planned to start drawing small ocean-dwelling organisms being eaten by progressively bigger ones until the final one (most likely a tuna fish) would be eaten by a Great White shark. The shark then gets caught in a fishing net and is pulled upwards and out of the screen. After a short scene of just the ocean scenery, the shark (now finless) comes into view again, after having been dropped back into the waters to bleed to death. The last scene would be a short dialogue between a waiter and a customer in a restaurant in which the customer orders shark fin soup for lunch.
Any opinions on whether or not this idea would a bit too extreme? That’s really my main concern at this point, so feedback would be appreciated.
Hey Eliza,
I think your idea is so wonderful, and I encourage you to write about it/make your digital essay topic on it. It’s funny that you would consider the idea “a bit too extreme” when the heinous act itself is “a bit too extreme.” I feel like you will have a successful presentation because this is obviously something you’re so passionate about and not something that people really know about. If you can successfully connect this with your poem, I think you’ll definitely rock the paper as well. This is such a huge problem that doesn’t get much attention at all, but affects the aquatic ecosystem so much. And..anything that affects the aquatic ecosystem definitely affects us. And as consumers, we should be aware of what goes on so that some people may have such “delicacies” as Shark Fin Soup (uhm..yuck???).
Culturally, sharks have been molded to represent something negative and unnecessary in the world, which is definitely not true at all.
I look forward to your project because this is very interesting and it’s so unique that you want to incorporate this with a poetry assignment.
Best of luck!