Non-Linear Narratives Essay. A Postscript.

This essay was different to my previous ones as I took the proper approach and started reading and gathering quotes before starting the essay, instead looking for quotes to fit what I‘ve written.

Another good thing, is that whilst researching I think I’ve found my dissertation topic and question, which is really cool. I did far more reading than I‘ve done before, which is an improvement from last year. I also gathered more quotes than needed for the actual essay, which will form as material for my the dissertation. I gathered thirty pages of quotes and used about two for my essay, which I'm really pleased with.

But now I'm thinking maybe it wasn't such a great idea as the main problem with the essay, was that I didn’t actually start it until close to the deadline. So there wasn’t any time for revisions and I'm sure it will affect my mark. It's a shame because I put so much into the research and gathered great material for a well structured argument.

But part of the skill of writing essays is finding that balance between research and writing. So that's something I need to work on in the future.

Mulholland Drive. Presentation. A Reflection.

The presentation went very well and the project as a whole resulted in a major change in my development and confidence. It goes back to the summer project last year where nerves and fear almost got the better of me when pitching an idea. The idea then turned out to be our project and it got made. And again, I overcame that fear of pitching through confidence and a passion in what I’m talking about. My idea and brief campaign to use Mulholland Drive paid off, and somehow I also got over my phobia of presentations and didn’t do a bad job. The fact that we were presenting something new (an explanation of what some say is an indecipherable narrative) that people hadn’t figured out or fully understood, helped to give me confidence because I knew people would be interested.

At first I was really anxious about bringing Mulholland Drive up as at the time I didn’t have a clear grasp on the story and what it was actually about. But it was a challenged and so I was determined to deliver what we had set out to do; and that was to explain the narratives that run through the film and essentially explain what the story actually is. And so I watched the film twice before the presentation; once the evening of pitching MD and again the next morning. And it started to become clear. I did a little research on the Internet to see what people were saying about the film and what it meant to them. I wrote down a narratives timeline as they run through the film and a chronological order of events, as I saw them. I then watched the film the night before the presentation just to clarify my conclusion and to spot any missed information.

Overall, I’m really chuffed with how it happened and somehow managing to keep it together during the presentation, which even now feels surreal that its happened and went well. It just goes to show that anything is possible and that the fear of something is far greater than actually doing it.