Reflection on Multimodal Narrative

                While iMovie was not quite a brand new application for me for this project, it still required quite a bit of searching and re-familiarizing as I ventured into the narrative. The topic seemed to demand more thought as well as research on the front end, which is the reverse of my initial reaction to the two multimodal projects. It took more research to find “just the right” song that I wanted to narrate and then at least twice the amount of time searching for images and video clips. Once I got the narrative in my head, it was very hard for me to picture it any other way, but when the images in my head were not available, new directions became necessary despite my reluctant nature to yield. This is probably why it took me so long to track down all of the “stuff” necessary to create my narrative.

                As far as technical skills go, I had to do much more manipulation of video clips for this project. I of course had to crop each one down to the applicable and appropriate segments of video that I needed and then also had to go in and slow video clips down to just the right speed so that the clip would align with the words of the song. I did a lot more with speed control throughout the making of the narrative and also had to save at least twice as many images and videos as I did for the essay. The zoom focus (I believe it is called Ken something…that shows my ineptness with Mac applications) for each image required some tweeting to end on the focal point that aligned with what I felt the focus of the narrative song was at that point. Volume ducking was also another technical skill that I used with each video clip.

                In terms of rhetorical decisions, I tried to decide what the author was trying to convey within his song because I wanted to create a narrative that would do justice to his song creation. I wanted to find all blond girls to hopefully look like it could be the same girl throughout and also because blond seems to be the stereotype for the classical Cinderella stories that we are familiar with. I wanted it to be a narrative that was relatable. I also wanted the end to stick with the viewer and make an impact. I was not pleased with the final clock clip as it does not actually strike midnight; it stops just short. I wanted that to be a moment of impact, the moment that the whole narrative built up to, the moment when the clock strikes twelve and I could freeze the frame for just a moment to leave the viewer hanging and asking, “So what happens in this narrative when the clock strikes twelve??” But, no project can be the perfect portrayal of our minds’ creations, so while I do not feel that I “nailed it,” I am satisfied with the outcome.