Jenny and Eva’s Digital Essay
Since Jenny and I discovered that we were both working on a similar theme of self acceptance, we decided to collaborate on this digital essay to produce something simple but meaningful. Her poem was “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde which was about the deep emotion that someone feels when he/she can’t accept his/her physical characteristics because he/she believes that they are full of flaws. These people feel real pain and sadness wondering why they have all these said imperfections and questioning themselves why they can’t look better, perform better, aren’t better than others that they see. They don’t see a bright future for themselves because they are blinded by all the flaws that they find staring at them in the eyes, covering them from true reality. I chose the poem “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman because I wanted to explore the other side of this theme of self acceptance which is those people that are able to celebrate themselves on being exactly who they are. Whitman uses a universal “I” that allows any person to relate despite different walks of life. This poem does not discriminate against anyone because of gender, race, age, religion, sexual orientation or cultural background making it an anthem for everyone. In these words, people can feel comfort because they know that they are worth something in this world and they should flaunt what makes them unique instead of seeing these aspects as flaws. I think that combined, Jenny and I convey both sides of this theme from those who hate themselves and that with hope they will come to embrace themselves.
When it came to thinking of what we wanted to do for the video, we decided that we wanted to create something with no words but simply told a story through images like the “emerging from the Subway” video that we saw. In the beginning of the video, we wanted to show the raw hurt and pain of those that are depressed because they feel they are of no value. They can’t accept themselves because all they see are flaws glaring at them. In the middle of the video, we wanted to display the options that these depressed people have by taking an action of some sort such as writing all their thoughts down in poetry or journal entry form and in talking about it with others among other options. In this way, they may come to realize the pain they are inflicting towards themselves and that with time they will know that they are perfect exactly the way they are. The end of the video shows the light at the end of the tunnel where though they may not realize it, there is hope for these depressed people to love themselves and ultimately accept that they are who they are. There is no need to try to conform to a societal standard of perfection which is impossible and fake. Instead, being true to themselves is perfection. When we were thinking of what background music to use, we decided against lyrical because we felt that words may take away from the simplicity of pure emotion. For the transitional song, we opted to use an instrumental rendition of Katy Perry’s “Firework” which starts out slowly and progressively becomes slightly more upbeat. Finally, we used an instrumental rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” because this is really an anthem of self acceptance and she is the Queen of Self – Acceptance.
Hope that you all enjoy and remember to “show em’ what you’re worth!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0BRap296KI
Special thanks to Jenny for being such an AWESOME partner and letting us combine our creative minds! 😀
