View on GitHub

The-Digital-Muse-Meets-the-Scholarly-Essay

UNC-Lenovo 2018-2019 Project

Two videos are included here. One is a final video poem created in an undergraduate writing course. The other is a reflection video that offers insights into the process of creating a video poem.

Like the Water Video Poem This student has used a video editor to remix a poem by Wendell Berry. The remix makes use of video footage, music, and text on screen to reproduce the poem. The composition calls for several kinds of decision making. The imagery included in the piece is an initial key concern. Here, water imagery resonates with the text of the poem. In many cases, it is helpful to think through the payoffs that can be had from selecting imagery in terms of how directly it resonates with the themes in the poem. Although the water imagery in this piece works well to recast the poem, a one-to-one correspondence is not necessary, and sometime video poems can be effective by juxtaposing imagery that is related but not directly translated from the images referenced in the poem.

The second key aspect of decision making relates to timing in terms of the composition of the piece. For video poems, this often plays out in the sequencing of the text on screen. The text must not only allow for enough time to be processed by readers but also translate into a pacing that creates a flow through the materials and that roughly overlaps with aspects of the mood or tone in the poem.

Like the Water Video Poem Reflection The second video provides insights into the composition of the “Like the Water” video poem. The reflection captures much of the process that went into creating the poem, including thoughts on the decisions associated with the use of materials. Of special interest as well are the insights into the experience of the composer and the learning outcomes associated with the project. For instance, the reflection makes note of the ways that selecting imagery and working with the timing associated with the project spurs insights into the poem itself, translating into a better understanding of the text under study. Further, the reflection offers thoughts on the nature of video poems as artifacts, shedding light on issues of medium, genre, and composition.