Taking Back the Narrative

Link to video

This video follows option two (introduce your essay without the Book of Mormon element).

The first five attempts I did felt forced and choppy. I was frustrated that the emotion my essay evokes when I read it at a normal pace didn't come across when I was rushing through it for the time frame. To combat this, I decided to just wing it and see what came out. The video felt significantly more real because instead of trying to inflect emotion into words while reading from a script, the feelings came out naturally when I was candid. This helped me decide what to focus on and led to the second "winging it" attempt, which I shared the link to underneath the screenshot.

I believed I could make things go back to how they were with the guy I was dating if I could figure out what I did wrong and fix it. This thought process is common in physically and/or emotionally abusive relationships. While I had very mild problems compared to the countless men and women who face much more serious abuse, my eyes were opened to the pain that comes when someone mistreats you and blames their behavior on you.

My favorite part of the video is the idea of taking back my narrative. I let this relationship define me for too long, and writing about it and working on these videos gives me closure. I don't hear his voice in my head anymore. Maybe that's because all of the pain associated with our relationship isn't throbbing inside me; now it's channeled into an essay that I hope will help someone recognize if they are in a similar situation and realize they can and should get out.

In terms of the assignment, I'm not convinced this option is the best way to do it, but I also didn't think it's a bad way either. I do think making a place for the Book of Mormon would be ideal if we could do it in a natural way that doesn't come off as preachy, though I struggled trying to figure out how to do that myself.

I'm excited to watch the other videos and see how we can learn from each other to create a project that will allow us to share our stories in a literary, meaningful way.

Video Experiment

I decided that I would create a video about my own essay, since I understand it and the emotion behind it best. I also decided to not include the element of The Book of Mormon in the video. Here's what I felt about it:

First, I felt really awkward talking about my essay. I think that it would be better to introduce someone else's essay. I felt that I was being redundant because what I was saying is already in my essay. I also felt uncomfortable advertising my own writing.

Second, I was planning on including the element of The Book of Mormon, but I had a hard time fitting it in well enough that I felt comfortable posting it.

Overall, I think that talking about other's essays will be more comfortable and natural since you can't delve very deep in such a short time. As for the inclusion of The Book of Mormon, maybe it would be more doable in talking about other's essays because you wouldn't be explaining as much, leaving more time for that.

Here's the link to my video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyHgfRNZvH4&feature=youtu.be

Assignment: Prototyping a video trailer

I'm asking my students to experiment with a hybrid format for their final project in my Literature of the Latter-day Saints class. They are all writing brief personal essays (drafts of which have appeared on this blog), which in some way or another engage the Book of Mormon (though consciously not in a preachy kind of way). Each student will also be creating one-minute videos whose purpose (as I explained to them in class on Wednesday 11/18/14) is to serve as a kind of trailer or teaser, hopefully leading viewers to view other such videos in the set, and ultimately to click on a link in any given video's description taking them to the complete essay the video mentions (which will be published on a separate blog).

Why the hybrid? We are trying to get the best of both the online world and the literary world of creative nonfiction. Many people are willing to view short videos, and those videos can be a conduit to take viewers to additional content, including those personal essays that are unlikely to be sought out on their own, or consumed much if they were posted by themselves. In short, we are making video trailers that introduce the people behind the essays, and that give viewers a chance to become readers of the more formal written content. 

What's the problem? We aren't sure what type of video will accomplish this goal. I made the following video as a prototype, which we viewed as a class yesterday. This allowed us to discuss some variations on the type of video we will try to make (discussed below in the assignment details). Note that this video is set to start at :32 where I begin talking about Savannah's essay. Rewind the video to the beginning to hear the 30-second intro I give to the Book of Mormon project as a whole.

Amateurs + Scripture + Social Media

Scripture has new life today because of popular social media and because amateurs are unabashedly putting their experiences with God's word "out there" in myriad different ways. How is this happening with the Book of Mormon? How might our own experiences with the Book of Mormon be creatively shared through the new media?

But first, let's think a moment about how scripture has always had a "multimedia" life. It begins as the spoken word, largely, as prophets and holy men speak to the people of their day. It has then been transformed into text, extending the reach of these messages well beyond their first audiences. But it lives in more than the written word. A grand tradition of adapting scripture to the various arts manifests the vitality of scripture. Indeed, one measure of the success of scripture is the degree to which new generations not only read it and discuss it, but use it to express their own faith, their own experience -- in written expression, and in other ways.

The written word continues strong, but complemented powerfully today by technology and media allowing for (and even encouraging) new forms for scripture and new modes of appreciating and sharing experiences with God's word. In a most surprising way, we find it possible to make something amateur that can have mass distribution.