Describe a Moment and Analyze

4/22

 

Prompt: Critical Reflection #2 Assignment: Describe a moment and analyze (CR2)

Write about a single experience or moment, and ask: how does this moment, experience, or encounter relate to my essential question?

How are you utilizing/demonstrating grit? How are you exploring your passion(s) and persevering?

You can also compare it with learning experiences you have had elsewhere, whether in or out of a classroom, at LREI or elsewhere (in relation to your essential question).

Essential Question: How can storytelling help me to examine the world around me?

It’s hard to pick a single experience or moment that stood out during Senior Project. There’s a few reasons for this: first, time doesn’t really feel real during our quarantine. Time and recall is something I’ve always had a problem with (which does make the timesheet extra difficult). In my mind, memory works like a photo book: usually clear, though many, many moments aren’t accounted for, and the ones that are are in no chronological order whatsoever. The skills most people can use to deal with this, like using the place and people to determine a general time frame, often don’t work for me. The second is that what I’ve been doing is a very slow, deliberate process. It’s antithesis to how I usually work, and it’s definitely a change. I usually operate on epiphanies when I’m doing a project: I do nothing but think for a long time and then what I need appears. Developing points and arguments work better for me when I don’t think too much, because I have a tendency to go down rabbit holes and generally get off track. 

 

While no experiences really stood out, they have general themes. The research I’m doing by watching films and reading about human behavior to develop my characters is totally unguided. My note-taking and watching tactics are largely self-sourced, and I’m leaning on analysis by Nate and Kamara in their podcast to learn about what makes a movie and how to influence the tone and message. I can’t really compare it to any learning experiences because it’s so self-guided. That does make it very, very difficult. I have no idea what I’m doing when I write down my ideas because I’ve never been shown how to do it. I don’t know the name for what I’m doing, or what I want it to become – a screenplay, a script, or a proposal of some kind, maybe. It’s hard to write and be motivated to write when you don’t really know what you’re doing. I find myself juggling two goals in writing: introspection and cohesiveness. Do I want my story to tell me about the world and myself or do I want it to be good and interesting? Both, but what’s my focus? What do I do if I have to sacrifice analysis for plot, or vice versa? I guess I’ll see. 

 

I also have a double agenda with my research in terms of movies. I’m both looking to see what I can glean about the world they were made in and the message they have and looking for inspiration and things I can use in my own work. This is why the organizing system I developed over time for my notes is helpful.