25/11/2015 - Seminar
Key word
- Abstract = A brief summary of content.
What is the point of an abstract?
- A way to explain ideas to other people and to myself.
Task - We were given a task where we had to watch a clip from a film called 'Withnail and I', we were split up into 6 groups and each group had to write a sentence explaining what is happening in 20 seconds. I was in the last group.
The link to the clip.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6R9fY8lfGo
My part began from 1 minute 40 seconds.
This is what I have gathered from it....... A guy placed his hand in a sink filled with dirty dishes and found 'Matter', the other guy who seems tired, suggested that they should step outside.
The original description...... Their energy subsides as they find an innocuous lump of 'matter' in the sink, prompting a tired and withered looking man to declare: "I feel unusual, I think we should go outside".
What I learned from this was something called 'Clipped Writing' which is writing that is short but has lots of meaning. Some of the key elements of it is pace, content, no pith and every word must have a purpose. Clipped does not mean inconsequential. The path should have a meaning.
If I had to improve my description of the clip, I would get rid of any words or information that isn't important or the reader shouldn't know about but I feel like I have included every important information from the clip but I could have improved the writing, I could have included how the first guy reacted when he found the object and include the actual quote to my description.
We were shown two short clips, one from the film 'Casablanca' and another from 'The Room' and we compared the two to see the contrast between them, how one was packed with lots of information and how the other one wasn't which was a representation of 'Clipped Writing', 'Casablanca' was short but every word and sentence had a purpose. Some of the key elements from the 'Casablanca' clip was that it wasn't fast, not dragging, full of content, developing characters, developing relationships between those characters and creates intrigue to watch more. The scene answered every question that the viewer had.
'The Room', on the other hand, dragged abit, the characters weren't in sync, the music did not match the scene and there was a lack of information.
Casablanca clip......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBJGHvt7I3c
The Room clip.......
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOdjtiOMGbA
Task - I have to write a 250-500 word essay about anything I want but ideally write about my studio proposal.
Advice - Open strong, be brief, concise and meaningful.
My essay will be about my proposal.
- My idea for this project is to create an information guide in the form of a booklet for students who are moving to Huddersfield and the University but not knowing anything about it. Instead of being an information guide about things to do in Huddersfield like shopping, clubs, sports etc, I want to focus on one specific area, I want to make it personal, relatable and useful to me and students which is why the information is specific.
It's a booklet about the various different types of take aways in Huddersfield because from my experience, it's one of the key information that a student wants to know because they enjoy eating take aways and I feel like it's easier and useful to have all of the take aways in one booklet than collecting lots of leaflets for it.
I will create a booklet that is misleading and not obvious in a sense of that the cover and the design of the booklet will not give the audience the impression that it's a booklet about take aways which I think will make it interesting.
I will create something that is high quality but low volume.
I want to create a modern, simple look because I don't want the design to distract the reader from the information that is written down, I also want to make it informal and I'm talking about the design and the writing because it's basically just one student, me, helping another student about something that could help them.
Conclusion....... I found the 'clipped writing' useful to know because I can use it to help me with the essay that I'm going to write. From now on, when I eventually write my essay, I will write few sentences then review it, get rid of any words I feel like I could afford to delete and make sure the sentences has a purpose.
I will try and do this throughout my essay and I think it will help me.
