Blog 1, 250-300 words
Analyze no more than one minute of something we’ve watched in class. Analysis is a flexible term here, and you might talk about anything from camera movement to sound to to thematic significance. The goal of this assignment is close engagement with media objects. It’s easy to get lost in the expansiveness of a transmedia universe, but specificity and detail should ground all the writing you do in this class. Blog 1 is an opportunity to practice them.
Midterm Paper, 1200-1500 words
Investigate one commercially produced extension of the Buffyverse or Marvel cinematic universe: a spinoff series, film, comic book, game, website, etc. Your media object of choice does not have to be authored by Whedon, but you should consider its relation to him and the characters and/or narratives he created. If you write about something we discuss in class (like Angel or the Buffy comics) be sure you develop your own line of thought about it – I expect you to do original work, not rehash things we’ve already talked about in class. You’re welcome but not required to engage with secondary sources.
Some questions to consider: how does this object fit into a broader story world – does it make a unique contribution? How does its medium come into play? Whose idea was it, and why did it get made?
Blog 2, 250-300 words
Analyze one fan-produced extension of a Whedon story world. There are examples under Resources – you’re encouraged to use them as starting points and find a fan creation that strikes you as interesting and useful in thinking toward your group project. You might consider the following: What attitude does this object take towards its story world (humorous, serious, emotional, reverent, etc.)? Is it invested in particular characters or locations that Whedon created? Does it comply with existing plot developments, or constitute some sort of intervention? Who do you imagine its audience to be?
Group Project
The group project asks you to try your hand at authoring within a Whedon story world. This might take a variety of forms: writing out a “missing scene,” recutting video from a film or episode to convey different meaning, sketching your own comic book sequence, staging a theatrical version of a filmed scene, coding a website that presents a storyline interactively. Anything you can come up with is fair game here, but whatever you author should be thoughtful in its imagining. (As this class doesn’t expect production expertise, the execution is less important: I want you to try something but it’s fine if it doesn’t go perfectly.) You should play to your strengths as a group: choose a story world you are all interested in, and consider what skills you have as individuals.
You’ll turn in two components: your authored extension and a 400-500 word author’s statement. Both will be produced collaboratively. The author’s statement should give a sense of what you are trying to accomplish with your extension: why did you choose to make this, and what do you see it doing? The statement should be posted to the blog by 5PM 6/7; the extension itself can be turned in in whatever form you deem most appropriate, and is due in class 6/9.
Blog 3, at least 250 words
Start planning out your final paper/project. This is your chance to get feedback on your ideas, so include as much information as possible here. What media objects will you be working with, and what’s your approach to them? If you’re writing a paper, what secondary sources will you be drawing on? Do you anticipate any particular problems or difficulties?
Final Paper/Project
You have two options here: an 8-10 page (2400-3000 word) paper or a creative project of equivalent scale. This assignment does not have to be about Whedon, but it should in some way speak to the work of this class – i.e, have something to do with media authorship.
If you write a paper, you should have a clear argument and engage with at least two scholarly sources; one source must come from outside the class readings. (If you have trouble finding sources, check out Whedonology on the Resources page.) You’re welcome to incorporate and expand upon ideas from your midterm paper, but the writing itself must be new.
If you undertake a project, it should be roughly equivalent in workload to an 8-10 page paper; there are no exact guidelines here and everyone works at different speeds, but I’m imagining 8-15 hours of time spent. You’ll complete this project individually, and any medium other than live performance is fair game. As with the group project, you’ll turn in a 400-500 word reflection; here you should articulate what your project is, why you chose it, and how it relates to media authorship.