The End, and The Beginning...

This quarter is over. I am very happy that it is. My written thesis has progressed with the feedback and support of my writing instructor, Janet Duncan. 11 weeks ago I started with an introduction and a rough TOC. I've completed and polished 75% of the main sections and feel pretty good about where I am now and where I'm headed with the ideas and their expression.

My other class, "How To Not Suck as a Teacher" (Teaching Methodologies) was useful for one thing - creating a course PAK. The rest was a waste of time. It's clear that they didn't have an instructor to facilitate the course and sad that it fell to Michael Greene to be the babysitter. I'm glad he was there and he is one of my favorite teachers but we didn't get the benefit of all that Michael has to offer.

I come away with a deeper respect for the hard work, attention to detail, and the volume of elements that have to be created to have a complete syllabus and package for teaching a course. It's not trivial.

There are now 2 quarters remaining in my MFA. 22 weeks to complete my thesis, create the film and the support material. First step is to revise the story and shot flow. Revising them is motivated by thoughts about the old mans flashbacks and my desire to use and feature the wall and its reflection more prominently in the visual fiction. Perhaps the reveal will be that the whole thing is taking place as a reflection in the wall...and experimenting with the reflection as the veil or boundary between life and death...blur the lines between reality and memory.

I have not worked on the art at all this quarter so I have some catching up to do...to be able to make all the elements in time. And complete the written thesis.

D_

John Marshall - Mentor, Friend, Teacher, Designer

This post has been moved to a BLOG set up to honor John. Please go to: http://byuindustrialdesign.blogspot.com/ to leave comments or contribute to the BLOG.

regards,

Duane