Time has really gotten away from me lately as my internship comes to a close, so I will have to make this one short! For my video project, I’ve come to understand my place as a foreigner a little more. Paromita told me that by virtue of my identity, a video composed of me narrating Indian history and throwing in some pop-culture references can come off as dominating, even if I don’t mean it. In order to fix this, I re-scripted the video so that a conversation between Umang (boss) and Kanksha (co-worker) takes place.
By writing this script, I’ve learned how to be a clearer storyteller by using visuals to explain without words. To minimize an explanation according to what’s already implied. The original script was a complex idea, so it was crucial to break it down very simply, so the audience could understand and relate without getting bored and shutting the video off. To understand my audience’s perspective the best, Paromita taught me an exercise in which I go through the script and breakdown the major points of what’s being said (every ½ page or so), then put it into a flow chart. That way, I could see what was missing for the storyline to make sense. Because of the all the work from the music video, our projects were pushed back a bit, so I’m not sure this video will be done by the time I leave.
I had a really awesome chance to go interview local students on the streets around their colleges. For the video, I wanted to get unbiased, diverse views of the topic to see what virginity means to today’s generation in India. We asked 3 questions: 1) What’s the first word/idea that pops into your head when you hear the word, ‘virgin’?, 2) Are you losing something when you ‘lose your virginity’?, 3) What has sexual exploration done for you? To see how interested and open people were in talking about these subjects was really inspiring. It really seemed like our interviewees were having a fun time! My favorite answer came from a male answering question 2. He said “No, if anything we are gaining something. We are gaining our innocence.”