Yesterday’s breakout workshop during class really helped solidify my idea for the advocacy project. I found it helpful to not only discuss my own project, but work through the ideas of two of my peers. During our discussion I tried not to compare our individual ideas, but rather to compare thought processes. Obviously everyone’s approach differed because we chose a variety of unrelated topics. Both of my two group members presented unique ideas appropriate to their respective topics. I thought the workshop proved fruitful because everyone gained an outside perspective on their thought development. And although our topics, ideas, and angles differed, one thing remained consistent: we all knew we needed to start soon!
April 16 seems ages away, but alas, it will approach quickly. We’re all in the final month of school, and this time period just flies by. Sometimes I feel as if we’re stuck in a time warp. The days seem long, but we never seem to know where the time goes. And then all of sudden we blink, and we’re finishing up our first year of college. Like when did that happen?
With the issue of time on our hands, I decided to begin drafting my project this week. Since my multi-media project encompasses both photos and narration, I thought I’d begin by compiling a library of pictures from the dining halls.
So, this week I began my journey at West, shortly after Tuesday’s class. Since I’m trying to use original pictures for the majority of my project instead of online images, I decided that I needed to take A LOT of photos. So while lunching away I began snapping pictures of the dining commons, trays of food, and general public. Did I receive strange looks as I photographed the tray return station? Yes. Did I care? Not in the slightest. Thankfully my iPhone4 takes fantastic pictures with exceptional clarity.
However, while I incessantly violate my peers’ personal space in the dining hall by snapping their pictures, I realized that none of the pictures served a purpose without the narration. When I compiled the multi-media project on affirmative action for this class last semester, my group scripted and recorded the narration and then added appropriate photos afterwards. So, with this in mind I began to draft the opening for my project…
Similar to my group’s advocacy project, I wanted to open up the piece with a quick montage of slides of Penn State and the dining hall. I figured this would resemble one of the opening scenes on a food channel in-depth expose. I would then stop on a picture of Penn State and say something like: “The Pennsylvania State University is home to 39,000 undergraduates, 13,700 of which live on campus and eat in the dining commons on a daily basis. These students, and countless others who visit the commons regularly, generate 600 tons of food waste annually.” I think statistics are effective at grabbing the audience’s attention and providing a sort of “wow factor” in the introduction of a piece. I will then segway into the timeline of food from the buffet line where the everyday Penn State student picks up his/her plate to the landfill where it eventually rots and decomposes. I’m off to a great start and hope I’m putting the finishing touches on my project by this time next week! Any thoughts? Let me know!