Author Archives: henebry

Video Assembly

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Video Elements

This week we finalize your video essays and celebrate the end of our class together.

Monday: Progress Check 3
For HW, post a brief progress report, as follows:

  1. One ¶ detailing what remains to be done on your project;
  2. One ¶ detailing any setbacks or challenges you’ve encountered.

We will be doing Evaluations during the last 20 minutes of class. To get you started thinking about what we’ve done this semester, please fill out this google form, providing me with feedback on elements unique to this class, like the choice of textbooks and assignments.

Be sure to bring your laptop to class!

Wednesday: Semester's End
Final drafts of the video essay assignment are due this coming Saturday, but if you can turn it in time for today’s class, I’ll give a small bonus to your grade and we’ll be able to watch those early videos together in class.

Post your video essay to the assignment page, linked at right.

Video Elements

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Video Elements

This week we work on gathering photographs and video/film footage to accompany your script.

Monday: iMovie Workshop
There’s no homework due today, but please make sure that you have an App on your laptop that you can use to make a movie. If you have a Mac, you probably have iMovie, and most PCs come bundled with some kind of movie software.

Alternatively, as BU students, you can request access to the Adobe Creative Cloud software package, which includes two useful apps for creating movies, Spark and Premiere. I personally prefer iMovie, as it offers more options than Spark without the complexity of Premiere. But Adobe’s software is really impressive.

Come to class with your laptop loaded with video editing software of your choice and with this package of photographs and video clips:

  • a-roll
  • b-roll
    These clips are taken from a class I taught this past summer. My goal was to demonstrate that the technical challenges of combining video in iMovie pale in comparison to the rhetorical challenges of Invention, Arrangement, Style, Memory and Delivery—all of which I failed, to varying degrees.
Wednesday: Progress Check 1
Gather the materials you need to make your video: film yourself speaking your script, make a collection of photographs and film clips, etc.

Note: if you want to add clips from YouTube, you will need to download the file to your computer. As of Nov 28, 2018, you can do that using the site savefrom.net, and opting for 720 mp4 format.

For HW, post a brief progress report, as follows:

  1. One ¶ detailing what you’ve done;
  2. One ¶ detailing any setbacks or challenges you’ve encountered.
Video to Watch for Wednesday class discussion
I realize that some of you are planning to avoid showing your face in your video essay. That’s something lots of YouTubers do successfully. Here’s an example of someone who makes cogent arguments in a pretty academic but nonetheless engaging style.

I’m particularly interested in discussing how Michael Tucker of “Lessons from the Screenplay” alternately mutes and unmutes video from the movies he discusses, how he quotes from stage directions to focus attention on the original screenplay, and how he introduces ideas from Secondary Sources—dramatizing that move not just verbally but visually.

Come to class ready to discuss.

Friday: Progress Check 2
Output a draft of your video essay—it doesn’t need to be full-length. I just want you to go through the process of exporting a movie to .mp4 format, uploading it to Youtube, and pasting it into a comment here on the course website. There will be complications, so it’s best to encounter those now, rather than when you’re up against a deadline next week.

For HW, post your draft video in the comments, below.

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.

Video Essay Proposal

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Video Essay Proposal

Looking ahead to the Script and Video Essay assignments, decide on

  • a principal focus for your video essay: a political issue, event, activist organization, or political movement from the present day.
  • a point of reference from the 1960s or early 70s. Note the bonuses for drawing insight from one of your peers and for working deeply on a historical topic that you didn’t cover in your prior essay.

Then answer and post the following as HW, in 2 ¶s:

  1. What’s your issue? What makes it compelling, puzzling? What quandary do you hope to answer?
  2. What’s your historical point of reference? What makes it relevant for your present-day issue? What insight do you plan to draw from the parallel?

This is just a proposal. By the end of your research in coming weeks, you will likely wind up with somewhat different conclusions than the one you’re positing right now. That’s a good thing. But for now you should have at least a first-order answer to the question, “What’s this essay about?” That’s all you need for this proposal.

Gun Violence

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Gun Violence

On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold inaugurated a new era with the massacre of twelve schoolmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Denver suburb. There had been campus killings before that—perhaps most notably the August 1, 1966, massacre perpetrated by Charles Whitman from the top of a tower on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. But whereas Whitman worked as a sniper, killing 16 over the course of 90 minutes, Harris and Klebold moved from room to room with automatic rifles.

Or at least that’s what I thought, before I started playing around with Wikipedia’s table of deadliest US mass shootings: re-ordering the table by year, I find that Harris and Klebold were far from the first to use military-assault-style tactics. So I’m eager to get you all looking into the data and at opinion pieces and find out what insights you can offer.

for HW, do one of the following:

  1. Using Wikipedia’s table of mass shootings as your starting point, identify and discuss a pattern you see in the methods, ideology and/or frequency of mass shootings. One option might be to focus on a particular target: for example, schools or workplaces. Don’t clutter up your response with 10 links, but do use details from some of the instances to illustrate the pattern and (hopefully) offer some insight into the nature of these tragedies.
  2. Look into the political furor sparked by the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland Florida. Several options: report on how students from the high school organized and (for a few weeks) held the national spotlight on the topic of gun control; report on the political furor that resulted, the back-and-forth between gun control advocates and opponents.
  3. Find and highlight an interesting or insightful opinion piece on the topic of gun control and/or mass shootings. For example, the generally liberal but always unconventional thinker Malcolm Gladwell argued a few years back in the New Yorker that mass shootings are best thought of as a self-perpetuating fad.

Xenophobia

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Xenophobia

I’m interpreting “xenophobia” in the broadest possible sense, linking hostility toward undocumented immigrants (many of them Hispanic) to fear of refugees (especially Muslims), not to mention the recent rise in antisemitism. These three phenomena don’t always appear together—many Republican opponents of illegal immigration are also staunch defenders of Israel. What’s more, the widespread 2016 fear of Syrian refugee resettlement seems somewhat different in tone from the recent effort to present the Honduran refugee caravan as a threat to national security. But many people believe that these forms of intolerance are related to one another, a kinship evident in the intolerant rhetoric of the Alt Right. I hope to discuss this question further in class.

for HW, do one of the following:

  1. Look into expressions of intolerance by mainstream politicians or commentators—perhaps Trump in particular. Find 10 instances from some particular period or referencing some particular ethnic group and identify a pattern in the politician’s thinking/choice of words. Don’t clutter up your response with 10 links, but do use quotation from some of the instances to illustrate the pattern.
  2. Look into how liberal activists and commentators respond to expressions of intolerance. Find 10 instances from a particular group or individual and identify a pattern in the thinking/choice of words. Don’t clutter up your response with 10 links, but do use quotation from some of the instances to illustrate the pattern.
  3. Focus on a particular instance of intolerance—but use it as an occasion for deepening our understanding of a broader social pattern, perhaps a pattern identified by one of your peers in what they posted for HW.

MeToo

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#MeToo

This week we cover not only #MeToo, but the related controversy over sexual harassment on campus and in the workplace.

Friday: Ending Silence
Time magazine wrapped up 2017 by naming the “Silence Breakers” of the #MeToo movement its Person of the Year. The article provides a useful recounting of the long-overdue reckoning that took place that year. Read that piece, then follow up by doing one of the following:

  1. Comment on a vital insight from the article.
  2. Find a compelling opinion piece discussing #MeToo and bring its conclusions to our attention in a brief summary (include a link).
  3. Find news coverage of opposition to #MeToo and bring it to our attention in a brief summary (include a link).
  4. Find a political protest organization that’s taking on the issues of sexual harassment and/or rape culture and bring its tactics to our attention (brief summary + link).
Monday: Carry That Weight
Under the provisions of Title IX, a law enacted in 1972, colleges and universities that receive federal funding must ensure equal access to education regardless of sex. This had a big impact on intercollegiate athletics, greatly expanding both the number of women’s teams and their level of funding. But in recent years news coverage has focused on the role that university disciplinary procedures play—or fail to play—in adjudicating accusations of rape and sexual harassment. In one particularly fraught case, Emma Sulkowicz, a Columbia University undergraduate, carried a mattress around campus and even onstage during graduation to protest the university’s failure to act on a rape accusation she had leveled against a fellow student. That student, Paul Nungesser, later sued the university under Title IX on the grounds that it had failed to protect him from her slanderous accusation.

For HW, do one of the following:

  1. Look into the Sulkowicz/Nungesser story and trends or patterns in how it’s been reported, over time or in different publications.
  2. Check out the Title IX Tracker hosted by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Find an interesting case and bring it to our attention.
  3. Look at the reporting on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s initiative to redefine Ed Department guidelines for how universities police sexual misconduct. Report on her initiative and provide a link to an article you found particularly informative or insightful.
  4. Find a political protest organization discussing Title IX issues and bring its tactics to our attention (brief summary + link).

Midterms

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Midterms 2018

Due to the change in schedule, I”m adding a last-minute assignment due tomorrow (Wed, Oct 24). Don’t worry, it’s quite short.

HW for Wednesday
The NYTimes has a number of interactive resources for the Midterms, including a FAQ, a map of competitive districts, and a page profiling the “new faces” of 2018. You might also look at Ballotpedia, a site that tracks not just competitive races but factional rivalries within each of the parties. Identify a race that’s of interest to you (whether based on geography, a candidates’ personal story, or something else) and do some basic research:

  • Find the campaign website for one or both candidates, and consider how they presenting themselves and their opponents.
  • Find at least one piece of news coverage of the race: how is the race being reported? Are the candidate(s) presented as compelling individuals or mere cyphers for their respective parties?

Report your findings as HW, providing links as needed.

HW for Friday
Ethan posted a really interesting campaign commercial as HW on Wednesday. Let’s do an in-depth analysis in class on Friday.

The commercial is for MJ Hegar, a Democrat running for Congress in Texas’ 31st District against incumbent Republican John Carter. According to the NYTimes map we looked at last time, the district is “likely” to go Republican, but the election isn’t a foregone conclusion. And perhaps this commercial is one reason why:

For homework I want you to focus narrowly on a single aspect of the ad: its music, one of its many themes, the way it flows from one scene to the next, the candidate’s self-presentation, etc. Alternatively, do some research on the news coverage of the candidate and report back on a single trend in the way her candidacy is being reported: you might start by finding her page on ballotpedia.org and using its Google News search link.

Black Lives Matter

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Black Lives Matter

This week we cover not only the Black Lives Matter movement, but also the “All Lives Matter” response and (most recently) “Living While Black”—the spate of black people reported to the police for doing nothing wrong.

Monday: Which Lives Matter?
In Aug 2016, the NYTimes provided a useful history of BLM, with a focus on the rise of the Twitter hashtag. Read that piece, then follow up by doing one of the following:

  1. Read up on several of the deaths that contributed to the rise of BLM: Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Laquan McDonald, and Tamir Rice, among others. What patterns stand out? Write a ¶ identifying a key pattern that leads you to some insight about the racial tensions, police practices, or protest methods (whether via social media or in the street).
  2. Find a compelling opinion piece discussing BLM and bring its conclusions to our attention in a brief summary (include a link).
  3. Find news coverage or an opinion piece discussing the counter-protest of “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter” bring its findings to our attention in a brief summary (include a link).
  4. Find a political protest organization that’s taking on the topic of “BLM” and bring its tactics to our attention (brief summary + link).
Friday: Caught for Catching Someone
Just a week ago, the NYTimes reported on a white woman who harassed a black man living in her apartment complex. She called the police to report him as a suspicious stranger; he posted to Facebook. As the article’s author notes, this is just the latest in a series of similar encounters: links in the article lead to others with links to even more examples. These stories often end in the public humiliation of the overeager 911-dialer, some of whom have lost their jobs in the ensuing storm of social-media outrage. Read the article linked above then do one of the following:

  1. Follow the links embedded in the NYTimes article to read up on other instances. What patterns stand out? Write a ¶ identifying a key pattern that leads you to some insight about (a) why these incidents keep happening so frequently or (b) why these incidents draw such a reliable response from journalists and their readers.
  2. Find a compelling opinion piece discussing the “Living While Black” phenomenon and bring its conclusions to our attention in a brief summary (include a link).
  3. Find a political protest organization discussing “LWB” and bring its tactics to our attention (brief summary + link).

Course Description

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What can the social and political ferment of the Sixties teach us about the issues of the present day? Do the ideals of 1960s radicals still ring true? Why did passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1965 lead to racial unrest rather than reconciliation, and how does this history resonate in the rhetoric of Black Lives Matter? Why did foundational American beliefs like freedom of speech place idealists at odds with mainstream American society, and what lessons does the campus free speech movement of the 1960s have for student activists today?