English 569: Digital Media and English Studies
Documentary and Ethnography
Dr. Catherine C. Braun, Autumn 2006
LINKS
Class schedule
Class policies
Assignments
MEDIA
ASSIGNMENTS
New Grade Breakdown (as of 11/1/06)
- 25%: Photo Essay
- 30%: Audio Docu-ethnography
- 30%: Reflective Montage
- 15%: Class Participation
Photo Essay
Compose a photo essay (containing 5-10 photos you have taken) about a person, place, or event. The photo essay should be documentary in nature, and each photo should have a brief caption. You will use PowerPoint to combine text and image into a final presentation.
10/2 will be a studio work day, where you will be given class time to scan photographs or import them into the computer, edit your photos in Photoshop (if necessary), choose photos to include in the essay, and arrange them in PowerPoint. You will need to have taken the majority of your photographs by this date and bring them to class.
10/4 will be a studio critique; you will receive feedback from me and your classmates on your photo essay in progress. You should have a draft of your photo essay ready to share.
10/9 will be another studio work day for you to finalize your project.
10/11 is the final due date for the project.
Tips: You will need to take more pictures than are required for the photo essay so that you have a choice and can include only your best photographs. Each photograph should represent some important aspect of the person, place, or event you are documenting. Use the visual principles discussed in class when composing your photographs.
Audio Docu-ethnography (or Ethno-mentary)
Compose an audio documentary with ethnographic flair. You should choose a community/culture to study, spend some time with them to find out what is important in that culture, and conduct a few interviews. Then, mix your interviews along with other sounds of your choosing (background music, background sounds, voice-over narration, etc.) to present an aspect of this community/culture to the class. You will work with Audacity (a free program) to edit the audio.
10/25 will be a work day.
10/30 will be studio critique.
11/1 will be a work day.
11/6 is the final due date for the project.
Montage
For this assignment, you will build upon one
of your previous assignments. You will either add an audio track to your
photo essay or a visual track to your audio essay. You will work with
Microsoft Photo Story (a free program) to combine the visuals and audio.
The Montage assignment has been omitted in favor of spending more time on the audio docu-ethnography. You will still complete a montage, but it will be a reflective montage (see below).
Reflective Montage
For this assignment, you will create a montage in which you reflect upon the work you have done this quarter. Essentially, you should create an audio track in which you discuss what you have learned (about composing in different media, about documentary, about ethnography) in this class. Because your reflection will be composed in Audacity and PhotoStory, you can cite portions of your visual and audio projects in the reflective montage. For instance, as you discuss your visual project, you can show images that you used in your photo essay or even screenshots of your photo essay. You can also punctuate your narration with portions of your audio essay.
11/15, studio work day
11/20, studio work day
11/22, studio work day
11/27, studio work day
11/29, studio work day
12/4, due date for the reflective montage
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