Book Report for Inquiries III

So the task assigned in my Inquiries into Teaching and Learning III class was to give a group book report presentation-you were allowed to do anything but summarize the book.

I get assigned a group, four of us in total. And a book, An Unquiet Mind by Kay Jamison. Long story short, it is the autobiographical account of the authors experience growing up and dealing with her own manic-depression. This story had a great deal of personal significance to me, which gave me all the more impetus to try to really tell this story right. In my group we had me, the musical one, an artist, a member that was unable to attend the presentation, and one who was comfortable speaking and explaining things.

The idea unraveled for me almost immediately. On my own I had been thinking how cool it would be to splice together a bunch of music videos that I felt best expressed the feelings of mania and depression, and the specific episodes in her own life. The question for me became, how can I make this a group project? I sat there in the group trying to come up with the solution on my won and failing miserably. Finally I just told the group what I was thinking-splicing music-and the project just unraveled naturally. The girl who could not attend the performance was going to pick out key quotes to describe particular events in the story, and give them to the artist. The artist was to create five drawings, each using one of the quotes, to represent the five stages we found in her life. Then I would take the drawings, scan them, then splice together some music and create a video out of it. Then the last girl would give a brief explanation after the video was played in class.

This all worked out rather wonderfully I think. Everybody had a part to play. Unfortunately, my part ended up taking about nine hours to complete:/. First I selected songs by scanning through my itunes list and writing down names that grabbed my attention. Then I recorded them using livewire (as itunes would not let me import them into garageband because they were mostly purchased on itunes) and imported them into Garage Band. Then I had to learn how to use garageband! I always seem to have the grandest ideas, only to discover I rarely already poses the means to execute these ideas. Ah well.

I got them all in there, ordered them to make sense with the story, then made a grand attempt at making the transitions sound like I wanted. Some deliberately abrupt and some nice and smooth. The ever patient Dr.MacFarlane was on ichat helping me figure out garageband through most of the night. (Thanks again Tmac!).

Well I was all proud of myself, I had it just the way I wanted. Until I realized it was 13 minutes long. Hm. The whole presentation was supposed to be ten minutes, and I needed to leave time for my partner to explain. Hm. Time to edit more! I ended up removing a few songs, and cutting out some really great stuff (if you ask me) But i knew I had to cater to a different audience. Most people aren't used to sitting still and listening to music for more than 3-5 minutes at a time. So I went for 5. Every time I cut I had to re-do the transitions. Not until I was finished with the whole thing did I realize I could have saved huge amounts of time by waiting until I had the length right in order to make the transitions. Oh well.

So after the music was right I imported it into imovie and imported the scanned artwork as well. Then I was faced with problem number two, how to have an audience not get bored stiff watching the camera pan over the same image for like 50 seconds. I tried to come at the drawings from different angles, and only showing small portions of it until the very end. I hope it worked. I very much wished to have a few more pictures to use.

Now that I am finished, and have turned it in, I think there are things I would still like to do to it. I still only used the Ken Burns effect, once again I felt I ran out of time to try to experiment further with the other effects imovie has to offer. Im just hoping that at one point I will have some 'free time' to try to fool with it some more. Also, Professor MacFarlane suggested I cut it down even further into just about three minuites. I will attempt to do so...but I just love all the music too much!!




Here are the songs and lyrics (if applicable) I used:

An Unquiet Mind by Kay Jamison



1.“Put Your Records On” by Corinne Bailey Rae
Three little birds, sat on my
window.
And they told me I don't need to
worry.
Summer came like cinnamon
So sweet,
Little girls double-dutch on the concrete.

2.Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14: V. Songe d’une nuit du Sabbat (Song of the witches Sabbath) composed by Hector Berlioz performed by the Berlin Philharmonic

3.“Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap
Where are we, what the hell is going on?

4.“Disturbia” by Rihanna
Faded pictures on the wall
It's like they talkin' to me
Disconnectin' phone calls
The phone don't even ring
I gotta get out
Or figure this shit out
It's too close for comfort

It's a thief in the night
To come and grab you
It can creep up inside you
And consume you
A disease of the mind
It can control you
I feel like a monster


5.“Point of No Return” written by Andrew Lloyd Weber
Past the point of no return, the final threshold
The bridge is crossed so stand and watch it burn
We’ve crossed the point of no return

6.“Over the Moon” performed by Idena Menzel
I’ve gotta get outta here!

7.Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14: V. Songe d’une nuit du Sabbat (Song of the witches Sabboth) composed by Hector Berlioz performed by the Berlin Philharmonic

8.“Being Alive” performed by Brian Stokes Mitchell
Somebody hold me too close
Somebody hurt me too deep
Somebody sit in my chair
And ruin my sleep
And make me aware of being alive, being alive

Somebody need me too much
Somebody know me too well
Somebody pull me up short
And put me through hell
And give me support for being alive - being alive
Make me alive, Make me alive
Make me confused
Mock me with praise, let me be used
Vary my days, but alone is alone, not alive.