Reflection questions:
1. What is the essential story behind the piece you created?
Triumph over adversity. When I got the rejection letter from
the Fielding Admissions committee I felt that I was at a crossroads, a nexus if
you will. I could very easily have given up at that point – I already had a
Master’s degree as it was – but something inside of me didn’t want to give up
that easily. Since by nature I tend to think visually and in metaphors I
remember seeing a vision of myself being backed into a corner and then feeling
my backbone – a metaphor I suppose for strength, but also for a ladder, a
ladder that I was to use to find a way out the predicament that I was in.
Luckily I tend to do a lot of research when I attempt a major endeavor. I like
to really dig into the resources about what I am attempting to find out
whatever information I can (a trait from my early scientific training as an
archaeologist I suppose). It helps me to embrace serendipity and take advantage
of new situations by already having the right tools (or by knowing where to get
them).
That’s what happened when I got the rejection letter. As I
felt my backbone and was determined to find a way out of my situation (and into
the PhD program) I remembered reading about the matriculation/articulation at
Fielding between the Master’s and PhD programs. I also remembered the phone
number of the person to contact to make my plan happen – Kim Miller, who was
the Media Psychology Admission Advisor at the time (and is the unspoken hero
behind the scenes of my admissions story). It was a good thing that I had that
knowledge so readily at my disposal since I literally had less than a week to
re-apply to the Master’s if I wanted to start right away. The rest, as they
say, is history.
2. What was your purpose in creating this piece of new media
narrative? Do you feel you were successful in communicating your purpose?
My primary purpose for creating the piece, admittedly, was
because it was a required assignment. But the assignment, and the course that
it contributes to, was meant to illustrate a common theme in the overall story
arc of my Doctoral education, a story within a story if you will. I started out
as a punk summa cum laude student with a Master’s degree thinking I could just
walk into a PhD program. Now, halfway through the program I see my education as
transformative experience between relative naivety and hard-fought wisdom, just
like my previous experiences were in getting my Master’s and in getting into
the PhD program.
I think I have been successful in communicating my purpose,
if not so deeply. The humor wasn’t my original intent – there was nothing about
hamsters in the storytable that I submitted to my teacher Dr. Ohler – but it
seemed to work. And I’ve learned to embrace serendipity. In the original draft
of my script the opening line was “I found my backbone one late December day in
2010 as I was crying in my bathroom, like a five year old that had just lost
their hamster”. I later omitted that last phrase about the hamster, but when I
went to compile media files for the production I found that I had already
gathered a picture of a hamster holding its paws over its head, as if it was
backed into a corner and crying (the first picture you see in the video by the
way). Like I said I’ve learned to embrace serendipity so I ran with the motif,
trusting my intuition (I am a future media psychologist after all). As a result
I think I created a much more interesting and original piece than if I had just
pasted in a bunch of people-pictures. (Plus it was serendipitous that I was
able to find a picture of a hamster dressed up as a boxer so it married well
with my pre-existing “Rocky” theme!)
3. Who was your audience? Do you feel you were successful in
reaching your audience?
To be
honest I don’t know. As I was creating the piece I imagined a kind of miasmic “other”
out there that consisted of my teacher Dr. Ohler and my classmates on one
level, and the general public who might stumble across it on the other. I know
that my intent was to satisfy the course requirements but I also wanted it to
be G-rated – clever, tongue-in-cheek, but tasteful enough and cogent enough to reflect
well on Fielding (and myself in case any potential employers/funders might be
looking). That said I think my message comes through in an innovative way that
will stick with the audience. At the very least I hope they enjoy it and
appreciate my creativity and sense of humor.
4. Why did you use your particular approach to media
production and media selection? Were you successful?
I use my approach because I think it works, and I think the
piece is a demonstration of that efficacy (for better or worse). One of the
reasons I’m an A student in Graduate/Doctoral school is because I love what I
study and I love learning the craft of what makes communication effective.
Admittedly a lot of my approach seems like “voodoo” to me – a sixth sense
comprised of my past education and experience in the creative arts, from
theatre to TV – but as I continue my studies I learn that a lot of that “voodoo”
has a sound scientific basis. That understanding then reflexively works back in
to fine-tune the sixth sense. And if it doesn’t than I can use my media
psychology to find out. (Stay tuned for my Dissertation).
5. What did you learn during the process of crafting your
media piece that you can use in creating future new media narrative?
I learned
new technical skills in how to integrate sound and video and where to find it.
I also had the opportunity to recall of a lot old heuristics about what works
and what doesn’t, media-craftsmanship-wise, that I thought I had forgotten from
past experience and training. I was particularly pleased in how that intuition (abetted
by my new understanding of media theory) showed up spontaneously in my media
and editing choices that led me to reflexively rehash and wrap up the piece.
However I was also embarrassed by how much I’d forgotten about editing, so the “irkiness”
and timing of some of the parts that don’t quite synch together as well as I
like bothers me. Luckily I believe the purpose of the assignment was to
demonstrate and apply the principles of narrative theory, even if the technical
parts aren’t perfect. In that respect I think that I learned a lot that I will
retain into my future studies and professional practice.
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