Video Journals
ES.S71, Spring 2014, is as much a personal journey as it is a class. The Video Journal assignment offers you the chance to tell your story. The project is to create a video log of your class-related experience (your evolving “body story”), inside and outside of the gym, throughout the semester.
How it Works
Using a smartphone or other easily accessible device, record a weekly video clip (no more than five minutes in length) that captures both your in-class experience and how the work we’re doing affects your day-to-day life. These entries will be uploaded by the end of each week. Toward the end of the term, you’ll edit the journal entries into a 10-minute compilation that tells the story of your ES.S71 journey throughout the semester. The last day of class you’ll have the chance to show your final work during a viewing session (you can always opt out of showing your compilation if you’re not comfortable).
The weekly recording is an opportunity for you to express your history, sentiments, thoughts and ideas on the physical training we’re doing. Your entry for any given week might be about the challenges you’ve faced, insights gained, progress or setbacks experienced, as well as how / if the work we’re doing in class affects your everyday life.
It’s Up to You
How you approach this assignment is up to you. You may simply speak your thoughts, ideas and experiences in an ongoing monologue while sitting at your desk. You might recount and / or comment on things you were surprised by or frustrated with, the challenges you faced, any progress you’ve made on the exercises we’re doing in and outside of class. You might record in-class activities and / or the class-related exercises you’re doing at home. Or, you might take your journaling into the field by recording real-life examples of how the classwork we’re doing is affecting your daily life in terms of feeling more comfortable in your body, more confident, more aware of posture or a little different in your social interactions, etc. In the end, you might try all sorts of different ways of recording your weekly entry. It’s pretty much as if you were on an overseas trip and telling a friend or family member about your adventures. Think of your weekly entry as postcard… The goal is not to make a slick production (you’re not being graded on your cinematography, creativity or video-making skills). It’s all about your personal experience, told as openly and honestly as possible. The key is to simply find a mode of journaling that feels right to you.
A few examples from past classes:
- A student talks about noticing that she “feels the presence of her body” in a new way and records these thoughts while sitting at the desk in her room.
- A student records a 20 second clip of his attempts at one particular exercise every day of the week while talking about some of the struggles he’s faced and progress he’s made.
- A student finds some duct tape and uses her phone as a head-cam to take her recording out into the field. Along the way she comments about having more confidence and then records her interactions with people she meets on campus.
- A student records some of the work we’re doing in class and then talks over the prerecorded video about how he’s begun to notice how other people carry and present themselves, i.e., what their emotional state might be or the kind of day they’re having.
There are no rules, other than what feels right to you.
Help
You shouldn’t feel too much pressure about this assignment. Help is always available. If you need a device, have technical issues or are confused about how to go about recording your entries or what to say, I’m always available. One way or the other, we’ll solve the problem and find an approach that works for you.
