This entire video was more simple than I thought it would be. It only took two days to complete, and that includes the editing process. I only needed two actors for my entire video, the guy who was arguing in the beginning and myself. That same guy was also my camera man, and I guided him through my vision of this video as he recorded (with some suggestions from him as well). I tried to cut out as much from the video as possible, but I still went a little over the required time frame. Everything flows well, so I couldn’t cut out anything else. This was a fun project and I hope you guys enjoy!
Author Archives: Crystal Civil
My Video Proposal
I decided to focus on the poem “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou. This poem was
actually my second choice, but now it seems like the best fit for this project.
The poem reminds me of who I am not only as a young woman, but as a young black
woman in this society. Women are also expected to look a certain way because
of the way we are portrayed in the media, but we should know it is unrealistic.
A lot of memories come to mind when I think of “Phenomenal Woman”. I have grown
up watching many African American movies that use this poem to empower the women
within the movies. This poem is uplifting,
which is why I feel like I ca
n relate to it. As a young woman, I
lacked a lot of self-confidence, but as the ye
ars have passed by I found myself gaining confidence and
accepting who i am.
Now, as for my video I definitely want to voice over t
he song “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera. It will start off with a guy ve
rbally abusing a girl, telling her she is ugly, fat, and will never find a
nyone or be anything in life. He will push her to the toilet, and leave her t
here crying. After this she will get up and walk to the mirror look at herself, w
ash her face, and fix herself up (this is when the song will start playing).
The next scene will be her walking towards the pier with a bag in her hand. The
bag is filled with items that reminds her of the verbally abusive guy, but she
will tear these items apart and throw them in the river. The video will then end
with a text from the girl to the verbally abusive guy quoting pieces from Maya
Angelou’s poem saying, “I am not cute or build to suit a fashion model’s size,
but this is who I am. Phenomenal woman, that’s me.” Then it will show her face
in the last scene, and the credits will roll afterwards. I want the entire video
to be black and white, until her face at the end is shown.
I hope my video comes together perfectly. So far seems short simple and sweet.
The Stein, Gertrude Experience
Reading Gertrude Stein was definitely not an easy task. I really had to sit and break apart every line from her poems and her essay. I re worded what I thought she was trying say for each of the pieces, and I looked up whatever caught my attention. I found myself getting really frustrated with all her pieces. I had to keep re reading her work because I would completely misunderstand what I first read. I decided to read everything aloud so I would minimize the times that I had to re-read it, and this worked!
When I read the first poem and saw the repetition about Napoleon at the beginning, I thought that I would have fun reading everything. I was wrong. After a while the repetition became a drag. I started to sound like a fool. “If I told him would he like it. Would he like it if I told him. Would he like it would Napoleon would Napoleon would would he like it.” Seriously, I can’t get her words out of my head. I had nightmares about it. But I have to give Stein her credit. Because her words are so repetitive, I can remember a good amount of things in her pieces. This technique she used was wise because readers are able to understand the message that Stein wants to convey. She probably does not care whether we are annoyed with her writings or not, she just wants us to remember what she is saying. I don’t know, I feel “bitter sweet” about Stein. I understand that she wants us to understand what she understands, but her trying so hard to get us to understand just makes it more difficult for us, well at least me, to fully understand. Understand?
change.
Well everything is just difficult at the moment. I find myself lacking passion for things I used to have so much passion about. I don’t know. Life is just all about change, and for some reason it is difficult for me to adjust to that change. Well, I kind of had an epiphany Sunday morning at around 4am. I just realized that I need to grow, and find myself and accept change as a positive thing. Very obvious answer that I could not fully understand until 11.13.11 at 4am. Hopefully things get better. Heres a poem I wrote last thursday in class, no title.
refused
why does she refuse
why does he refuse her?
Confused she is, or is HE not
No.
She,
They? Maybe not
life is one big knot of pointless nots
Living for what reason, what purpose?
To laugh, to love, to drink and get high
off of life.
To worry, to hurt, to regret then forget
Refusing everything
Or
Taking a chance
The Angry Person with the Broken Mirror
Excuse me, but this mirror is broken.
I see a pair of eyes, but they are the dullest eyes I know
I see a head full of hair, but it needs more straightening
I see brown skin, but it can use some toner
Oh, and I see a body that can shed a few pounds.
But this mirror is broken.
Because I know that
My eyes are a beautiful almond shape,
My hair is as natural and healthy as can be,
My skin is more radiant than a the summer sun
Oh! And my body is curvy and great.
This is an outrage!
People are looking at the wrong reflections,
so they should not take the blame for these broken mirrors!
Tell the glassmaker that I will never buy another one of his mirrors.
I want my money back! And an apology as well!
Hmmm… I’m Hungry.
I am on a cleanse called the “Master Cleanse” and I have not ate a single meal since two Sundays ago (October 2, 2011 to be exact). Of course my post would be about food because ONE: Food is the only thing on my mind these days, and TWO: Food is like, awesome.
I am doing this cleanse because I want to try to start eating healthier. I figured that it would be best to cleanse my body from all the waste and toxins, and start fresh. Basically throughout these ten days I had to drink 60oz, or more, of pure organic lemon juice, grade b maple syrup, cayenne pepper and filtered water. Today is my tenth day, and I couldn’t be any more proud of myself. So far I have lost ten pounds, and I want to keep going.
The meal that keeps springing up in my mind throughout this cleanse is the chicken salad from Chipotle. YUM YUM YUM YUM!!!!! Oh, and shrimp pasta. YUM times 1,000! I can not wait to eat this salad, I seriously have never craved salad like this before.
But even though I want to eat healthier, I feel like this new diet plan I have for myself is deleting a chunk of my life that really does makes me happy.
BUT I am really really proud that I made it through this cleanse. Seriously, can you go ten whole days without eating anything? I bet many couldn’t even last two days. Trust me, even on my first day I was ready to give up.
Well after I do the Ease out method, I should be eating regular meals by this Saturday-Sunday. The ease out method is just a way to get me back to eating normally again. I can’t just eat this salad right away because my body is not used to food, so I have to ease into it. By the time our class meets on Thursday, I should be drinking pure orange juice as a part of the ease out method, and on Friday I will be eating soup, mostly the broth (which I am really excited for). I am really happy with this torture I put myself through for the past ten days, and even happier for it to end! Yay me! =)
My “Child Play” Days
The section of Freud’s reading that interested me the most was towards the end of chapter two when he started speaking about child play. He stayed for a few weeks and did field work in the house of an 18 months old boy and his parents. In the end he found that the child repeatedly kept playing the same games, and arranging his toys in the same order whenever his mother left the house for the day. Freud came to conclusion that the child found pleasure in playing with his toys, in the same order, whenever his mother was not present.
I found this to be an interesting way to look at pain and pleasure together. Usually when a person is in pain the only way to get over the feeling is by finding something that comforts them. However, I never really think of children experiencing “pain”, although it does happen, in the way adults do. Seeing that this child possibly found comfort in his toys is interesting. Thinking back to my childhood days when I played with my toys, I can definitely say that my toys comforted me. Overall, I had a happy childhood, not too many sad moments, so I can not say that I played with toys to “ease my pain”. However, I can say that during my junior high school days I found comfort in my stuffed animals whenever I had sad days. It is interesting to see how pleasure changes over the years for us, from playing with toys whenever mom leaves home to hitting the bar whenever you’re too overwhelmed with school work.
BEFORE:
AFTER:
Response to “allegory of the cave”
The “allegory of the cave” is Socrates’ view of how education and knowledge works. He basically believes that everybody is capable of education but some want education more than others. The man in the cave who starts off as a prisoner, and is then thrown into the real world, comes to realize that there are bigger things than the shadows, statues and fire that he experienced in the cage. Living life in cage can only allow people to have a certain amount of knowledge, and everything they know will only be based on their experience in the cage. If people progress and start to experience new things, their knowledge of life will all grow and progress as well.
However, in my opinion Socrates is not saying that people need to be dragged out of their “cage” in order to gain education. I believe that Socrates feels that those who really want to experience life and the world, will show this through their studies. Socrates mentions that the man who escapes the cage and its darkness, and enters outside where there is light, will have enough experience to go back and teach those who are not as educated as him. Those individuals must show that they are also capable of growth, and Socrates mentions that those individuals must be watched when saying “have an eye on those who show the greatest ability in these questions, and the greatest firmness, not only in study, but also in war and other branches of discipline.” (253) I can see that Socrates feels that those who lead a virtuous life are mostly likely to have greater education over other individuals, and it seems like this is his one of his ways of maintaining happiness.