project prop.- help for narrative writing..

English 569
S. DeWitt
4 March 2009
English 569: Project Proposal

Description of the project:
Color has been an idea studied through various media workspaces, such as in the arts, films, photo documentation and projects, and the subject even takes precedence within the academic field of biology and science. Color and the individual interpretation and experience in color impacts how human beings live and interact with each other on a daily basis. Our capacity to view color (or lack thereof) influences how we see the world, and often limits how much we see of it. On an individual level, differnet colors mean different things to different people. Cultures emphasize different colors for different functions: Red is the color of celebration and good luck in China, purity and integrity in India, and mourning and communism in South Africa. Black also has different interpretations and connotations, both pertaining to funeral themes and also graduation robes in Western graduation ceremonies. Obviously, color is multifaceted and its symbolism is various and vast within the human framework.
Purple, as the color I would like to focus on in my individual piece, is seen differently throughout the cultures. Western culture views purple as having aspects royal and wise. The Purple Heart is given as a military honor for those injured defending America’s foes. Purple can symbolize nobility, envy, sensuality, spirituality, creativity, wealth, royalty, ceremony, mystery, wisdom, enlightenment, arrogance, flamboyance, gaudiness, mourning, exaggeration, profanity, bisexuality, confusion, pride, Scorpio (violet, star sign), May, November, riches, romanticism (light purple), delicacy (light purple), and penance. Purple is a symbol of mourning for widows in India. I think that also different religions view purple differently, during Lent a Church is sometimes decorated in purple clothes to symbolize death and mourning for the death of Christ.
In my video, I’d like to focus on these cultural and religious differences in interpretation of the color, and how these aspects influence and/or interact with the portrayal of purple. Why do people choose purple/ do they have any of these historical or other awareness’s when thinking of the color or when deciding to relate themselves with a color? It is interesting to interview people based on “what do you think of when you see x or y” and portray images of purple royal figures and how the color becomes important in portraying ideas and concepts. So really this project has a circular component, all of the ideas interact with each other and circle back into the main question, which relates to the exploration of color as an interpretative element in human society.


Audience for the project:
I visualize the immediate audience as being you and the class, but for documentary and artistic purposes I imagine a varied audience of artistically inclined individuals. I think that the beauty of this type of project which allows for creative flexibility is that the audience does not necessarily fit into one category of type of people. Instead it encompasses a larger scope of the general audience of a college university atmosphere, including college students, some faculty, that sort of immediate viewing audience. Also I would imagine the film would appeal to a culturally inclined audience instead in aspects historical and religious, since color impacts these areas as well.

Technical considerations for the project
I plan to work mostly with video, though I think still images are interesting using my digital camera, and also working with the audio component to develop different combinations. I need to reserve and pick up a video camera as well as prepare technically before the components and or extra elements I will need to do my project. (aka if I am doing any experimental research or if I need any props) I think the idea of seeing how someone’s day is impacted by color alteration would be interested, like wearing glasses which made the person see purple and then videotaping responses to emotions during the day. That could be one idea of the general outline/setup of the video presentation, having this one component. Also I think it’s important for me to consider a general framework and sequence of how I want these ideas to be presented. Most technical considerations have to do with me figuring out how to properly work the software (imovie, etc) to get the effects I want and learning how to cut audio and video within imovie and other software.
Before I start the project, I still need to reserve the camera and prepare my research and general outline of what I want to present in the film.

Preliminary research

Before I start this project, I still need to do extra online research on the color purple, and find out historical and cultural, religious connotations and also other previous explorations of purple and uses. This is important because it will give me the background for the color and how the color works historically, which I can then work from in being more aware of possible interpretations of the color in current affairs etc. Secondly I need to draw up an outline/sequence of how and what I want to incorporate into the piece, and organize the materials I will need and have in order to do this. I will consult online resources and my own creative ideas. I will have to decide about the personal aspect/ how much I want to interact with this piece (if at all) and how much I want to leave open and more distant.

"the color purple" the movie
Why?

Note that the novel's title is alluded to in Letter 12, when Celie associates the color purple with royalty and longs for a purple dress. But the title undoubtedly comes from a passage near the end of the novel, in which Shug says that she believes that it "pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."

purple foods!

Blue/purple fruits and veggies are rich in flavonoids

. Flavonoids are the most abundant and powerful of all the phytochemicals contained in the foods we eat. There are many categories of flavonoids. One group of flavonoids helps make our blood vessels healthier.
· Blackberries
· Blueberries
· Dried plums/prunes
· Raisins
· Purple cabbage
· Eggplant
· Purple potatoes
also tarro, basil, purple corn grapes

Interesting note: purple has come to represent royalty, it is exotic as well, and I think a lot of these are slightly exotic and diffrent foods which at various times denoted royalty because they were rare etc, wine is a luxury, (purple grapes) so there are definite connections here, eggplant is also one of those delicacy type foods. purple corn is pretty exotic.

Very impressive interview the other day. I interviwed a very religious catholic who had a lot to say about purple, he was very educated in religious studies and knew a lot about the subject (a lot!) I'd have to say its my best interview in terms of content yet, he even knew all about the biblical history! Hopefully there is not too much sound in the background (it was relatively quiet) because he insisted on doing it outside. I also have been getting a lot of "spontaneous " ideas, and I think I'm going to center the film around a basic narrative (me speaking in back) through audio different portions of the film to kind of create a coherent whole and portray my message. I was telling my mom the other day about how great blogging is. I've never blogged before and I see how all of this blogging has not only developed but incredibly helped the entire process of doing this film. She wanted to know where the word blog came from

1998, short for weblog (which is attested from 1994, though not in the sense 'online journal'), from (World Wide) Web + log. Joe Bloggs (c.1969) was British slang for "any hypothetical person" (cf. U.S. equivalent Joe Blow); earlier it meant "a servant boy" in one of the college houses (c.1860, see Partridge, who describes this use as a "perversion of bloke"), and, as a verb, "to defeat" in schoolboy slang.

Random side note. Anyway so far so good. Have some more field work to do this week and weekend, we'll see where this goes!

Reminder: CHECK BACKGROUND SOUND IN INTERVIEWS !!! (go somewhere quiet!!!)
Also: charge camera battery
call elle, another interview?
e-mail class brady (will he let me interview again briefly?)
etc.. purple still images

Been trying to think of more ideas for this.. how to sketch a proper picture. I'm thinking more about narrative, what story i want to tell.

consider: still images
audio-need to check out audio recorder next weekend (or during week, depends)
more video needed-- send e-mails and try and schedule interviews
in class: have video, etc, have more firm concepts in mind.

Today at my interviews I learned a lot of very interesting things. I had to ask questions and I realized how important these questions are.. often all you need to get someone started talking is a simple question (And it's hard to get them to stop!) Of course i am still trying to contact more people... some are harder to get in touch with then others.. and of course learning so many things about purple in the process.. who knew it was such a color with such history and dynamic aspects? i guess ill never see purple the same anymore! now i just need to focus on what other information i want and gathering this information, send out some more e-mails and try and set up interviews or get some other ideas together. purple power!