Joy's+reflection

This satire project was a very, very big challenge for me. I read the book very thoroughly and considered several concepts that I could possibly make fun of. My list consisted of :


 * The Green knight and how green he was
 * I considered a skit involving knights of all different colors fighting on whose castle Gawain was coming to
 * The Green Knight's skin being green (a skin condition?)
 * The green knight's horse being green and named Gringolet*
 * The lord's wife and how she threw her sexuality on another man at the request of her husband? (What husband would do that? WhAt iF they ended up canoodling for REAL? He could have raped her.)
 * How Sir Gawain refused to tell her no outright and continued to try and treat her like a lady and dodge the subject the whole time she was seducing him
 * How Sir Gawain repaid the lord of the castle by kissing him all the time
 * How they spent pages upon pages explaining the heraldry of Sir Gawain's outfit and blah blah five pointed stars (pg 67-69)
 * How this really ridiculous story was somehow a christian fable about sins including adultery and cowardice etc. (That's like saying, so if a magical rubber duck came to me and said come to my bathtub or die etc and then at the end it was a moral about not lying or something..)

(*I managed to include this in my video by naming and labeling my best friend's back pack Verabret.)

After careful consideration, I chose the heraldry of Sir Gawain. As a midieval history buff (when I was little I wanted to be a historian) I thought that this would provide a good stage for me, as I understood some of the meaning behind most heraldic symbols and the importance of symbolism in clothing during that time period. I also chose this option because Mr. Barra recommended it. I knocked down all the other ideas because I was uncomfortable with the other ideas; they seemed too bizarre/'slut-shaming' or did not have enough substance behind them.

From the beginning of the satire project when you announced it, I was kind of worried. In terms of humor I am okay with two-bit jokes and that sort of thing, but I am not a stand-up kind of girl and I am not usually labeled as witty. Occasionally I do one line puns, but I am not someone to really riff on anything. This definitely caused some anxiety throughout the course of construction. I got the idea that I would do a mimic of Sir Gawain's heraldry on the basic uniform of female BRHS students. To apply to current satire, I would also use the motive of poking fun at "typical white girls." Being located in New Jersey, I felt that much of what applies to "white girl" stereotypes applies to students at BRHS, and having seen patterns and trends in clothing throughout the school year I felt that this was applicable. Yoga pants/sweatpants, North faces, Uggs, and Vera Bradley accessories all seem to be popular and I am also a victim of some of these fashion trends. I worried about whether I would be offensive to other girls, but I put a picture of myself in the beginning of my video denouncing myself as an original white girl (I even used a typical 'hipster' director-type style photo. I was careful with my choice of tone even in that.) My dad always says that it's not offensive to make fun of yourself. He says he can make fun of italians because he is italian; I felt that this applied.

I chose a video format because I felt it would be more sucessfully entertained by visual aids. This was definitely true, I had my best friend dress up in all of the items I had chosen to make fun of, and she even did her hair in a side-braid so I could make fun of that. I also felt that the video was the right media for me because I was able to set the tone of my project, I used darker colors which are linked with the middle ages and also chose midieval music. I wanted to make it obvious that this was a parody, and I wanted it to clearly relate to Sir Gawain's story. I chose the most medieval-feeling openings, endings, 'floater' images (burgundy with gold circles), etc, to go with my diction which was meant to copy that of the story. I tried to mimic directly the passage on pg 67, but it just didn't work. It wasn't funny, and I couldn't figure out how to start so that it would be funny. Mr. Barra, I lost sleep trying to figure out how to start my video. I didn't know what to do so I decided to sleep on it, but I woke up a bunch of times in the middle of the night because I was //that// stressed. (I don't know, sometimes stress does that to me.) Around 3 am, I wrote the first paragraph of my satire project on my Google Drive app on my cellphone. Tell me that doesn't show strife? Dedication? Hmmm..

[|this is the final write-down of my spoken piece]

I was glad because once I started, things rolled from there. I tried to keep it pretty faithful to the passages I was mimicking, although I definitely strayed in order to add some humor. I tried to be very detail-oriented and varied the tone/pitch of my voice in accordance with what I was reading. And beginning at line 619 on pg 68, I stayed very very close to the original copy of the text because I wanted to directly relate the project to the book. I even searched on Wanelo, a special shopping app, for the perfect picture of that pink starred Iphone cover. Lastly, I ended the video with an almost verbatim mimic of lines 666-669 on pg 69, because I felt that the little verse gave a really authentic and accurate depiction of the tone of __Sir Gawain__ and/or that time period. And lastly, I included modern day satiric photos that I chose to continue to remind the audience of the topic I was making fun of; "White girls." This includes the Toy Story meme, picture of "how to catch a white girl," and collage of "Common White Girl" tweets that I put together myself. I labled the Toy Story meme as "a tribute to us all" because although my "documentary" was made to poke fun at "white girls" it was also a tribute to them; this can also be seen in the tweet collage which acknowledges the burden of the "white girl" and also offers inspiration ("If Britney Spears can make it through 2007, then I can make it through the rest of this semester").

If you don't think that I deserve a 40/40, you are wrong! I worked so so hard on this project. Do we need to review?


 * 1) I read the whole book. I know a lot of people who did not even open it. So bravo for me, you can totally tell from my video that I read the book. And people who hadn't read the book wouldn't get the connection about heraldry.
 * 2) I made a video. I had to find a video-making, free, online app thing. I do not know how to make a video... I've never really made one before. But I did it. And it looked really good!
 * 3) I coerced my best friend into dressing up for me.
 * 4) I stayed consistent to the tone of my piece //the whole time.// It was a very conscious effort.
 * 5) I mixed modern day and ancient culture successfully.
 * 6) I was funny! I made our class laugh and I tried really hard to be humorous, I gave it a lot of thought.
 * 7) I lost sleep I lost sleep I lost sleep. //Strife//
 * 8) I included a picture of myself to prevent risks of discourse against my project, to prevent controversy. I thought of everything.
 * 9) I edited everything so that the flow of my video was really, really on task.
 * 10) I specifically spent time searching the web through a variety of resources for only one specific photo. I really, really cared about my project, and it shows.
 * 11) I asked for feedback from you, Mr. Barra, on my project ideas.
 * 12) I did not just do a cartoon.
 * 13) It was turned in on time
 * 14) This list and my reflection is well-done, all-encompassing, and coherent. I spent time on this.

Reasons why I should not recieve a 40/40:


 * 1) My dog barked in the voice recording.
 * 2) I did not do this reflection for Friday.

Can I explain that my dog barks at everything? It took me about ten tries to do the whole thing with her only barking that much. I felt satisfied with the progress in non-barking voice recordings I had made. It doesn't really take away that much from the video either. Dogs are dogs.

Secondly, I did not understand that this reflection was due by Friday. For some reason I thought we were doing it in class, forgive me. A lot was going on with the end of the marking period. Also, on Friday when I told this to you, you seemed totally okay with it and acted like I would not be punished grade-wise for this, as long as I turned it in by Sunday. And here it is. Ta-Dahh!

Happy palm Sunday/regular Sunday, Mr. Barra.