Script Transitions

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Video Essay Script: Key Transitions

This week we work on two key moments in your Video Essay: the opening and the digressive turn. In crafting these assignments, I have been working under the assumption that most or all of you would structure your video essays with a principal focus on the politics of the present day, bringing in 1960s events and protest organizations as a deepening/illuminating digression, leaving us with a fuller understanding of what’s happening in the present. For those people, your opening will focus on an event or individual from recent years, while your digressive turn will need to do the work of shifting focus from the present to the past.

But, as I noted on Friday in connection with Emily’s plan to write about the music of protest, for some of you it may make more sense to start with a focus on the politics of the 1960s. If you do that, your opening will introduce a 1960s event or individual, while your deepening/illuminating digression will need to do the work of shifting focus from the present to the past.

Monday: Opening
One way to engage the viewer’s attention is to start with something the reader already cares about. But if your initial focus is on the familiar, it’s all the more vital that you give that topic an unfamiliar twist, to signal the originality of your thinking. For example, listen to just the first 25 seconds of this video essay on the Harry Potter books. Sage Hyden, author of the “Just Write” channel, presents J. K. Rowling as a master of mystery fiction, not fantasy.

Another option is to engage the viewer’s attention with something utterly unfamiliar, that defies expectations, as for example in this Tom Scott video.

For HW, write an opening that engages the reader/viewer’s attention by showing us something familiar in an unfamiliar light OR by showing us something unfamiliar that forces us to question our preconceptions. Ideally, this should be something specific, particular, something that can be illustrated visually in the background when you create the video essay.

Wednesday: Digressive Turn
HW assignment to be completed in class.
Friday: No Class—minor HW
Since there’s no class, I’m using this as opportunity to collect brief write-ups of what each of you did to satisfy the Volunteering assignment posted in the weeks before the November Midterm Elections. The original assignment called for 1-2 hours volunteering for a campaign, but that could take any of a wide variety of shapes, including attending a political rally.

Responding to the Friday HW post below, give a brief account of what you did.

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