SE+Wk+09


 * Idea**: I'm going to base my visual story project on the song “The Promise” written by Bruce Springsteen. I'm going to try to relate the lyrics to my own experiences of failure, doubt, disillusionment, frustration, etc, but come up with a more universal story.


 * Where:** I first heard the song about three years ago. There are many versions of this song floating around, but my favorite is the solo piano version he recorded in 1998 for the compilation //18 Tracks.// This was the first version I heard. Here's a [|link] to the song if ya wanna check it out.


 * Critics 1:** Santog says that, “Those occasions when the taking of photographs is relatively undiscriminating, promiscuous, or self-effacing do not lessen the didacticism of the whole enterprise. This very passivity—and ubiquity—of the photographic record is photography's "message," its aggression.”


 * Reflection 1:** I'm not totally sure what Santiago is trying to say, but I'll take a shot. I think she's saying that a photograph can still provide knowledge of something, regardless of what the photographer's original intentions were. A photo's passive in the sense that it still teaches something even when it doesn't try or attempt or want to.


 * Critics 2**: Santog also said that for a photo to get a response, the viewer must be “familiar with the images to feel anything.”


 * Reflection 2:** To illicit a response, and that' what I hope to do with my visual story, I have to take/use photos of things that I can relate to and that my audience can relate to.


 * Search:** All the photos I've put in my Prezi are photos I've taken on my phone. I'll only be using photos that I've taken. Some of the photos are older than others. I took many of these photos randomly and quickly without really thinking about them. Some I don't remember taking. But many seem to fit the story. I went on Aviary and made them all black and white. I also distorted a few, played with the brightness/contrast, etc.


 * Prezi:** I think I put about eight photos in the Prezi and hastily created a path. But I'll probably replace a few of the photos once the story I'm trying to tell is more clearer. It's not totally developed yet. I'm not really satisfied with all the images.Some of the images I think are too subtle to have any effect whatsoever (maybe that's where the text comes in). The path will likely change as well. (As the story stands now, someone has doubts about their passions/dreams, goes to their dead end job, drives away from that job as fast as they can, drinks, thinks about lost or non- pursued dreams/goals or thinks about ending up in some dead end job, drinks some more, gets back home and staggers up the steps of their place.)


 * Next:** Take more photos, cut a few of the photos out of the current presentation, develop the story more as I take more photos, read more of the critics, understand and appeal to the audience more, think about adding text to the prezi if necessary, etc.


 * Audience:** Perhaps people around my age (early-mid twenties)/college students/unsure of their future


 * Interpretation of lyrics:** The song's essentially about failing. You have a dream, and you can work hard, but it's not guaranteed that you'll totally reach it. And if you do reach it, there's no guaranteeing you'll be able to hold on to it; it could be fleeting. Sometimes when you don't reach your dream, you give up on it. You might see friends giving up on their dreams and desires and slipping into normalcy. You might see other friends achieving their goals, and you're kinda left out. The promise in the song is the promise one has to his/her self. When that promise is broken or not followed through on, it can leave one bitter, disillusioned, lost, nostalgic, etc.
 * How Can I Relate?:** Well, I've had certain dreams/goals of mine not work out (art school), or be put on hold (music). I'm not bitter or depressed about it, but I can relate. As of right now, I feel like my education is in slow motion. I've been going to this school for a long time, and I've just recently started going full time, and I know I'm going to graduate, but what if all my post-college goals don't work out? What if I take my lofty dreams as far as I can, sacrifice everything, and...nothing. It gets me nowhere. I end up working some dead end job. I'm in school and working hard, but that doesn't guarantee I'll have this bright future. The future's undetermined. This song always makes me think of the doubts I have. (I probably shouldn't listen to this song anymore.)


 * Point:** Hopefully by reading more critics I can make something rhetorical out of my ideas. I want the audience relate to the images of doubt, frustration, daydreaming, disillusionment, etc. My project's very vague right now.

Here are the lyrics of the song: The Promise, written by Bruce Springsteen

Johnny works in a factory, Billy works downtown Terry works in a rock and roll band lookin' for that million-dollar sound I got a job down in Darlington, but some nights I don't go Some nights I go to the drive-in, and some nights I stay home I followed that dream just like those guys do way up on the screen I drove my Challenger down Route 9 through the dead ends and all the bad scenes And when the promise was broken, I cashed in a few of my own dreams Well now I built that Challenger by myself, but I needed money and so I sold it I lived a secret I shoulda kept to myself, but I got drunk one night and I told it All my life I fought that fight, a fight that you can never win Every day it just gets harder to live the dream you're believing in Thunder Road, oh baby you were so right Thunder Road, there's something dyin' down on the highway tonight Well I won big once and I hit the coast, but I paid the cost Inside I felt like I was carryin' broken spirits of all the other ones who lost When the promise is broken you go on living, but it steals something from down in your soul Like when the truth is spoken and it don't make no difference, something in your heart runs cold I followed that dream through the southwestern tracks, the dead ends, and the two-bit bars When the promise was broken, I was far away from home sleepin' in the backseat of a borrowed car Thunder Road, here's for the lost lovers and all the fixed games Thunder Road, here's for the tires rushing by in the rain Thunder Road, remember Billy what we'd always say Thunder Road, we were gonna take it all then throw it all away