We began the seminar with genealogy recap from the last seminar. We had to think of key words from the last seminar and see if we could think of a definition. These were the results:
Methodology- the knowledge of how to do something.
History- Past events that have occurred.
Establishing shot- The shot in a film/ programme that introduces the characters and the place.
Evolution- How something has formed to become what it is currently.
Other people thought of words such as: objective, contingency, genealogy, subjective, fabrication, perspective and preconceived.
After the recap, we went onto looking at abstract writing and introductions. The question 'what is an abstract' was asked and the response is, a brief summery/overview of the context. The point go an abstract is to give the audience some context into what is going to happen/ what you are talking about. We should care about abstracts because they will be included in our essays and should be 250- 500 words long for a 10,000 word essay. This means the abstract has to be approximately one paragraph long. It is important to learn how to write an essay and what to include in them and therefore I feel this seminar was important.
Our next task was to watch a short clip from Withal and I. We split into group and were given 20 seconds of the clip each to summarise. We then went round in order and read the sentence that we had written about the 20 seconds. My sentence was 'an aggressive conflict is solved by the more rational person insisting a panicked compromise'. When all the sentences were read out together, we had somewhat of an abstract.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6R9fY8lfGo
We also watched a clip from Casablanca which was an excellent example of an abstract as it asked all the right questions for the purpose of the audience. The relationship between the characters is revealed as well as creating intrigue so that you are keen to watch the rest of the film. When one of the characters says, 'two exit visa's', the other character asks 'why?' which introduces more characters and creates a situation for the film and creates a question of why there is focus on a lady and who are these people they are discussing. Motives and character summaries are given also in this abstract.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBJGHvt7I3c
We were also given a bad example of a clip from 'The Room' which doesn't ask any of the right questions for the audience. There is no context and no meaningful content. Some elements are dragged out and some don't have any relevance. For example, the dog has no relevance. It is also barely interactive. This is not how an abstract should be. It should make the viewer intrigued and not confused.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOdjtiOMGbA
Another key tip for writing abstracts is start strong. The best books start with a strong opening line as it sets the tone for the rest of the book. A good example of this is the first line of the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, which reads, 'it was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenburgs and I didn't know what I was doing in New York'. This is a good tip when considering my abstract which I have included below:
My abstract on my project.
There is no
organisation that is more passionate about heritage and nature than National
Group I admire their work greatly and am interested in producing a booklet as
part of the ‘days out’ section of their website. As a British citizen, I can
see the beauty in England’s culture, landscapes and nature and I am very proud
to live within it. Encouraging people to visit and appreciate these natural,
historical and cultural places is what this booklet will aim to do by
demonstrating the many textures around Britain.
Nature is
not as widely appreciated by todays culture as we have so many other man made
distractions. The aim of my project is to make people aware of what they have
in the heritage and nature in their local area. Explaining through words why a
place is beautiful or full of heritage isn’t interesting nor will it be
meaningful. Expressing the essence of a place will not only be interesting and
visually pleasing, it will also intrigue people about the area and maybe make
them ask questions about what they are seeing. The images won’t always be clear
but will be assisted by an explanation. This will mean the audience will first
be intrigued and perhaps want to make sense of the map and therefore read the
description.
I will
imply that the whole book will be filled with texture maps that represent
different counties in England. Each page will be aimed at people within the
local area as well as people who are keen to visit the area.
