Ode to An Orange
I decided to create a stop motion film with audio I found because it combined a number of influences and mediums. In Thevenin's essay he talks about texts, processes and literacies. This project helped me learn more about what these terms should mean to my future students. The texts could be mediums or inspirations that help my students create something. For instance the large text in this assignment was Ode to An Orange which is a short story by Larry Woiwode. I decided however, that I wanted more influences and inspiration for how I would adapt it. I decided to look for songs about Oranges and see if I could find one with lyrics and a feeling that matched what I wanted to do. Then, with those inspirations in mind I decided to make a stop motion video so that I could enhance my experience in different mediums. I've never made a video before like this so I knew it would push myself. This goes into the processes of my creation. My texts informed what story I wanted to tell with my creation. The song talked about leaving things behind, and sung about a journey and looking in rinds. So, I decided to tell a story about a familiar journey using an orange, which left itself behind. Now that I knew what story I wanted to tell, my process became clear. I needed to take many pictures of this orange moving on this familiar journey. Then once, I had the pictures, I needed to make the video which required some playing around on Premiere till I knew enough to make it. Literacies come into play with how I talk and think about my piece. Because I chose so many mediums, I have to have knowledge enough to talk about photography, film, sound, light because I chose a visual and auditory medium. I need to be literate enough to communicate why I chose to do what I did, and how I did it. That would include talking about lighting, sound, software, story elements, and others. An assignment like this could be used to talk about all three of these terms with students as they go about a process of creating or adapting something else. There are opportunities all along the path of this assignment to assess what students are learning about these terms.
I really loved what you shared about journeys. I think the song added an entirely new context of journeys, and it was really fun that you chose to do that with this orange. I wonder what meaning you were trying to communicate, if there was a moral or a conclusion to be drawn from the film? I wasn't sure what to take away at the end, but I saw a lot of beautiful moments along the way. For example, watching the orange getting peeled and eaten, and being zoomed in on the orange exclusively throughout its journey.
ReplyDeleteDaniel, I have been nonstop listening to that song since Monday. I appreciate how you looked across texts and found parallels between the song and story. This could be something interesting to integrate into the assignment: they must find another supporting text.
ReplyDeleteI found the moment that the orange is aggressively eaten and the hollow corpse is left to wander about the Nelke quite powerful and evocative.
It would be interesting to see how the piece changed if you had chosen to show the orange rolling from place to place in your photos as opposed to remaining upright throughout -- what does this suggest about the orange's will in it all?