To Use the Films to Help Students to Study Well
The final films were collectively impressive. Some were testaments to student creativity, a few left considerable rooms for improvement, and one project was left incomplete. The student who chose to work independently did not complete the project. This student struggled all year with managing time and workload and needed consistent coaxing to stay in the class. However, his concept was excellent. He identified comparisons between the destruction of Thebes and the hubris of Oedipus to the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina. He used Comic Life to lay out images to make his connection. However, he did not film his layout or record his audio.
The group of four girls who were new to digital video also created a project that did not quite meet expectations. However, as this was their first foray into Movie and the first time they had touched a digital video camera, they Tag Heuer Replica performed admirably. Their film depicted the early stages of the conversation between Tiresias and Oedipus. For their film, Oscar the Grouch played Oedipus and Elmo played Tiresias. Their movie consists of multiple clips of Oedipus begging Tiresias for his wisdom, hands outstretched. Tiresias (Elmo) has his back turned, and throughout the film shots of medieval pestilence and plague cut into the scene to convey the conditions in Thebes that Oedipus is trying to alleviate. The film ends with the Tiresias puppet covering his eyes, lamenting “how terrible to see the truth, for the truth is only pain to he who sees” (Sophocles 1379).
One of the better films in the project emerged from the group that experienced the most pain in the planning stages of the process. Throughout the early stages of the project this group was afflicted with absence problems, disagreements over differing visions for the passage, and forgotten props. Their film re-created Jocasta’s speech about fate. The film was a simple black-and-white close-up of Oedipus, struggling with a blindfold covering his eyes, accompanied by jarring music and Jocasta’s advice to “live, as if there’s no tomorrow.” Ultimately, hands reach down from above the shot and remove the blindfold from Oedipus’s eyes. The simplicity of this film, accompanied by the ironic interplay between Jocasta’s words and their unintended meaning, provided for ample class discussion during screening.
The best film was created by three female students working with the messenger’s news of Jocasta’s suicide. Shot in black and white, this group deftly uses close-ups to retell the story of her death and its consequence, Oedipus’s self-mutilation. The use of voice-over is especially compelling, as the sadness in the messenger’s voice, coupled with the power in Oedipus’s voice, carries the tragedy of Sophocles’s work. All of this is accentuated by operatic singing, which further emphasizes the director’s vision. This film eventually won “Best Literature Based Video” at a year-end, citywide City Voices, City Visions film festival Conclusions
Ironically, the character in Oedipus Rex with the clearest vision was the blind prophet Tiresias. Although blind, he was able to use his firm grasp of the past to navigate the present with an eye toward the future. Although we do not benefit from the ability to read bird song or consult an oracle, we too must have a clear vision of the future needs of our students. Originally I set out to determine if a digital video project based around Oedipus could help students engage with the text in a meaningful and transformative way. In this, the project was successful. For two weeks my classroom became ancient Thebes. Students made bed sheets into togas. Students became manifestations of Sophocles’s characters. Sophocles’s words were spoken with emphasis and purpose.
But what of the lofty goal of helping students develop the multimodal literacies that will be required for success in the steadily evolving 21st century? Are my students developing multimodal literacies that scholars, corporate America, and government leaders believe will be essential for a human being to thrive Tag Heuer Replica Watches in the 21st-century workplace (Miller 63)? I feel confident that this project was successful in that regard as well; students collaborated and designed films that created meaning out of black print on a page. They took multimodal elements such as movement, drama, digital video, music, text, titles, and effects and combined them in unified and innovative ways. They designed. They were engaged and motivated. Best of all, they made a 2,000-year-old text come alive.
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