Informal Presentation

So I've passed the first few hurdles: handing in the paper and doing the informal presentation.

The paper I ended up feeling really proud of. It was 18 pages I think, and the bibliography was also about 18 pages (gosh), annotated of course. Although McGrath didn't really get around to commenting on everything, there were some comments I strove to incorporate and there were some I decided to do differently than suggested. I don't know when I shall get it back, but I am very excited and know that I researched so much and really know what I'm talking about. I hope it showed!

The informal presentation was... interesting. We were in LT because MCAS sophomores were taking over the Film Lecture Hall (ugh!) and LT is meant for black box theatre productions. Not academic presentations. We were supposedly given 6 minutes to present (whether that included Q&A or not, we shall never know), but most went about 8-10 minutes. Some might have gone over. Ivan said he was fairly certain that my informal presentation, with Q&A ran about 12 minutes. That is both scary and very encouraging. Bad in that I really need to know what I'm saying and cut out all the "uhms" and "yeahs" but really good in that I really know what I'm talking about and know what to say for a longer period of time. Some people barely got to 6 minutes, that does not bode well.

For my formal presentation, I shall have an official slide show. Probably a Power Point presentation. I don't necessarily trust Prezi. I probably should have had a slide show for my informal, but I have to admit, I got lazy and decided I was good enough to wing it. I guess it held true for the informal, but I'm not stupid enough to believe that for the informal. Not at all. I'll have a slide show and an outline/focus points for me to talk about.

I was talking to my friend Owen last night online and he wanted to know how my informal went. We just ended up talking about my project, and it was so interesting! I talked a lot about people's reactions to my self portraits and how a lot of them are very... attention grabbing and/or unusual. There are a couple portraits where it is not clear if I am wearing anything out of the frame, and there are photos where I am nude. I have to admit it was very nerve wracking to show off and discuss my self portraits to a room full of peers and teachers. On some levels, I felt it wasn't appropriate, but I know it is now, after talking to Owen and really getting out what I meant by it.

Owen made an interesting comment-- about how it was more powerful (the nude portraits) because they were of someone he knew, that they weren't anonymous as most models in advertisements are. And that's a huge point! Sometimes we turn a blind eye to how potentially unhealthy advertising can be, but if it's someone you know, it's a lot more direct. Imagine that the models in some very objectifying or dehumanizing advertisements are your mothers, aunts, nieces, daughters, sisters, friends..... That's the point I want to make. Personalize it. And in the same way, what messages to we want to send to nieces, daughters, sisters and friends??

America the Beautiful: Documentary by Daryl Roberts

A couple days ago I watched Daryl Roberts' documentary America the Beautiful. It was the edited version and though I'd love to know what's in the unedited version, I'm just going to go with this one for now. There was a ton of valuable information in there. Here are my notes:

America is 5% of the world's population yet is exposed to 40% of the world's advertising.

Go back and watch the employees that deal with advertising again, @ 15minutes.

"We're selling dreams, man."
-Fashion photographer Mark Baptiste referring to the industry's photographs and how they are edited.
At 17:30 roughly. Might be more I want to nab for my paper.

Fiji study 22:30. Internet research this?

Book: Drop Dead Gorgeous by Kim Erickson

So what I have to do is research the introduction of television (and television advertising) in Fiji, look up Kim Erickson's book (sounds like a great resource) and go back to watch the advertising employees bit and transcribe that.

Break!