Video Poem

In Dr. Kist's class, we have been working on our end-of-the-semester video poems. Our cohort is working with Dr. Bruce's cohort to create short videos depicting meanings from either poems or excerpts from books. We are finally getting to the point where we are working on trimming down footage and assembling it into the right order. We are using iMovie to complete the assignment, and while many of us have taken a videography course at Kent, we are still working on trying to remember exactly how to use the program! So far it is going well.

We shot the footage on Monday of this week using some of Kent's historical, cool, and creepy landmarks. Because we were using an excerpt from Night, we wanted to have a very somber video. We used an old train station down by the Cuyahoga River and then moved to the old cemetery in front of Kramer. For the assignment we were not allowed to use any unoriginal footage, meaning we couldn't use any of the pictures from the internet. Due to the nature of the excerpt used, it would have been helpful to be able to use at least a couple of the images that can be found on the internet. We worked out way around that, however, by wearing dark clothing, shooting slow, thoughtful footage, and we are going to pair those things with a song called "Mad World" by Gary Jules. This song is perfect for our video because it is very slow and sad.
To watch the "Mad World" music video, follow this link:



http://youtube.com/watch?v=4N3N1MlvVc4

Dr. Bruce has been pausing class to point out how we can use this project when we become teachers. I think it would be great to allow students to use their creativity to produce video poems and I sincerely hope that the technology and resources for the project are available at the school where I will end up teaching. The only problem for me is that I am not very confident using iMovie or any other movie-making software, so I will have to familiarize myself with the software and maybe have someone on hand who can help if technological problems arise.

Overall, the assignment has allowed my group to take an excerpt from the story of a Holocaust survivor and convert it into a video using our creativity. The assignment got us out of the classroom and working together, which was challenging because of conflicting schedules, but eventually we finished and are pretty content with our footage. Hopefully the video poem will turn out well and I hope others will enjoy watching it!