For my project, I have chosen the poem “Mirrors” by Sylvia Plath. Personally, I think this poem is very powerful and impressive and the only way I can describe it is that it’s spiritually haunting and can stir a lot of emotions in a person. The reason I say that is because the poem gives life and narrative to an object- the mirror. Overall, the poem builds a message of the human dependance on mirrors. Not only to see our physical forms but it’s a desperate and tortured reliance we have. We look to mirrors to see the truth for mirrors cannot lie, but it’s our deformed perception of ourselves when we look at mirrors. Also, I perceive the poem as society’s obsession with looks and age- this is a simpler interpretation of the poem.
I think that making a video would be the way to go for the project because there is so much I can do with this poem. The huge problem is that I have never made a real video with acting in it. Actually, my problem is that I don’t think I have the capability and creativity to carry this out. I don’t think that I want acting in it or even a storyline. If I were to do the video, I would want a reading of the poem to echo in the background with a quiet chiming background music (if that’s possible). Also, I think the video would be more powerful if I made it in black and white or just in a grey scale. Other than these components, I don’t really know what to include in the video. This is something I have to work on and research because I do need to think of an idea that is completely doable. I do have these idea in my mind of how wonderful and artistic I want my video to be but since I do not have a video crew, a 20 million dollar budget, and state-of-the-art video equipment. For now, I’m still on the drawing board and coming up with ideas that will make my video cohesive and powerful.
UPDATE – 4/24/2013
(I thought we had to write another blog post updating our “plan” but I realized just now we didn’t . Since I did write it, I’ll just include it here”)
My Plan:
Not much has changed since my last blog post. I have decided to keep the poem I have initially chosen because I know if I were to pick a new poem I would become stressed, confused, and probably fall behind. Being extremely indecisive, I am not going to put myself in that position especially since there are only 2 or 3 weeks to do this project and paper. Also, I just really like the poem which is “Mirrors” by Sylvia Plath.
My plan for the digital part of the project is pretty blank. In my previous post I wrote that I would like to make a video and I listed a few things about how I would like it to be, for example: black and white (or grey), light music (no Metallica here, guys), and most important, no speaking from the actors. I am not sure if I’d even include actors because the whole process of getting someone serious about acting for a video of mine is time consuming, uncomfortable, and not possible with my schedule. This is something I would have to do in fragments.
As for the plot, I am not entirely sure. This is my biggest weakness because I am not sure if I even want an entire story to be told. I do want a message to be put across but to do that in 3 minutes… I don’t know how I’d do it. I haven’t done this before and I don’t want to take too many risks with the little time I have.
This is why the 3-D art option is very tempting.
If I were to do the 3-D I would most probably make a mirror. But it cannot be as simple as that, a mirror on its own does not really say much. Also, I cannot make a gigantic and very detailed image. Most likely, the 3-D art cannot be very elaborate (from the terrible stories of 3-D arts crumbling or not getting constructed properly I’ve heard), so I’d have to choose something that would really say something. In my mind, if it were possible, I would make a very fancy hand-held mirror (a search on Google images reveals plenty of ideas). It’s the “reflection” that would really show the message I’m trying to portray. Therefore, the image may be a disfigured woman to reveal the ugliness of society’s beauty standards and expectation (but the mirror is beautiful, there’d be a contrast). Or another idea was to leave the reflection black and blank as to symbolize another idea of mine (which I haven’t really solidified yet so I don’t want to include it here right now). I just know for certain that I cannot make this project and paper into a cliché.
Actually, the more I write about this 3-D project on here, the more I like the idea. If I had to really choose right this moment, I’d say that I am doing the 3-D art just because I have more of an idea what I want to do and how to do it.
