Jun 27

Monuments and Memory

6-10 min video essay, from a minimum 900 word script. Due midnight on the evening of Sunday, Jun 27. Upload your essay to mymedia.bu.edu; paste a link in the comments and upload your script.

What version of the past should we memorialize, and how should we do so? Should the focus be on groups or individuals? On events or on accomplishments? Should monuments promote interaction or awe from passersby? As social mores change, should we remove or edit outdated monuments—or is it wrong to erase an uncomfortable past?

Your video essay shouldn’t aim to definitively answer any of these questions. It should focus instead on one particular monument, offering a close reading that draws the viewer’s attention to the way(s) in which it fails or excels. The questions posed above aim to get you thinking about what your monument does: what response it evokes in viewers AND what methods it employs in doing so.

Use video clips and still images to allow the viewer to experience the monument for ourselves. At the same time, use verbal commentary, in combination with close-up shots of key details, to deepen our understanding of how it works its magic on passers-by—or fails to do so.

Source Citation: Chicago Style bibliography in the video description. Don’t worry about Hanging Indent, but make sure you follow the format correctly in other respects.

Software: you can use iMovie or a simple video editor for the PC, but if you want to train on a professional video editing app, try Adobe Premiere, available as part of the Creative Cloud Suite you can access for free as a BU student.

Turning it in: upload the video to YouTube or to MyMedia (look for it under “Tools” in Blackboard). Either way you can designate the movie file as “Unlisted.” Paste a sharing link into the comment field below, and attach your script to that comment as .pdf.