Production Report 14a

            In this blog post, I will share a section of my rough draft that was based on the introduction in my outline. The post will discuss difficulties and successes of the rough draft as well.

Outline Item:

Opening:

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Ben.

·      Play “bed time story” background music

·      Ben was very similar to other children

·      He had a very wild imagination

·      He found it fun to bring wild and crazy ideas into reality

·      Ben also went to school

·      His teachers never liked his writing very much because it was “off topic”

·      Reference a comment made by a high school teacher

·      And then, Ben grew up

·      While he was still procrastinating, his ideas seemed to make more sense

·      His process of planning and researching helped create more coherent ideas

·      Setting: reading a story, by a fire place, with glasses on

How to grab the reader’s attention:

1.     Make the introduction like a bed time story. Play soft background music and possibly sit by a fire. This will provide a nice and easy transition into the topic of a writing process

2.     Introduce myself in the third person. This will make the story seem less repetitive (as the use of “I” and “my” will be reduced. It can also make the introduction more relatable to the audience (through personal anecdotes (ethos) that are spoken about me, by me, in the third person).

Adaptation of outline item:

Can be found here.

1.     I presented my content in a relatable and colloquial way. I based the setting off of an individual reading a story by the fire (much like that of a movie). Because the content was presented as a bed time story, it created a smooth transition into who I (Ben) am as a person. Because the rough draft is essentially a story about my writing process, I made the introduction in a story-like form. The bedtime story is all about a boy named Ben. The presentation of myself in this way engages the readers more effectively because it isn’t just an autobiography about myself.  Video essays are quite visual. They use the presentation of the topic (i.e. the looks of the background, clothes, etc.) to help explain the story. I wore a collared shirt and held a children’s book to act like I was reading a bed time story. I also had a (fake) fire going on in the background to make the setting clearer. Setting, as we know, is very important in something like a video essay. I also made sure to be quite colloquial in my language as video essays tend to have that quality.

2.     The production of the raw material went less smooth than I thought it would. There were many things that looked good on paper, but that were difficult to replicate in reality. For instance, the setting. I thought my dorm room may have served as a good spot, but I was wrong. This is because my roommate was doing homework in there and the setting did not really go with what I was looking for (fireplace, dim, etc.). Another thing that I did not anticipate was acting at the same time that I was trying to read. I found it difficult to formulate my ideas while still following a typical bed-time story format (such as reading page-to-page). Something that did go well was the presentation of my content. I was worried that I would not be able to remember what I had said in the outline. However, putting the computer by my phone definitely helped me stay on track. Perhaps printing the outline out would help even more.