Photo Stories: Finito!

So that was a pretty good experience. Creating photo stories is pretty fun. We picked an emotional topic, which is what photo stories are best for, and had a good time with it. I find, after doing the voice over for our story, that I felt pretty cheesy. I think that, while working to evoke emotion, a photo story needs to somehow avoid being to didactic. There is something about some photo stories I've seen that, in depicting something as important and almost sacred as an individual's or group's story, a music and pictures version sometimes makes it almost trite, or flippant. I see that as an important balance to maintain. Putting a story to music and photos can also take away some of it's reality. Pictures and music from the civil war or pioneer heritage, or ancient Egypt shed the desired light on the most positive aspects and failt to see the dirty reality that is there on good sides and bad sides. I've seen depictions of the civil rights movement in photo story form and, with music in the background and the profound pictures of the sit ins and food being dumped on white students protesting for their black peers, I know what side I would have been on and how hard I would have fought. The details of how hard standing up for the right, in this case, though are often over looked and ignorance on the part of those oppossing is always painted as evil when in some cases, that is not the whole truth. There is always negative on both sides and this kind of depiction could lend itself to only seeing things one way...glorifying and villianizing in one three and half minute fell swoop. There is so much to consider, and be delicate about. It's exciting and fun to be a part of this creative process and, in honor of the Academy Awards, be a part of making an idea come to life in the big screen or small YouTube screen.