Exploring the World of Miyazaki

Reflection

Creating this presentation prompted me to think critically about the main ideas of my project so far. In situating certain concepts in relation to one another, I was able to see which need a bit more development and attention once I turn back to my draft. Since I have multiple objects of study, this presentation was purposeful in evaluating what parallels could be drawn between them and how they differed in significant ways. The time limit helped me narrow down which sections of my research were the most important as well as decide what needed to be thrown out as it either didn't fit with thesis or could be scrapped for other types of analysis. I initially wanted to talk about the different conventions that each films borrows from other genres, but came to the realization that there are other elements of film and media studies that should be focused on instead. This is how the section on the framing of nature came to be, which will have a large role in my paper as I analyze how the duality of nature is present within each film in addition to the manner in which the gaze is placed back upon anthropogenic destruction. There have been a lot of moving parts to my analysis, and I feel as if I started to see them come together. Producing the multimodal elements of the presentation itself was very fun, as I got to return to some of the film stills I captured, draw parallels between Miyazaki's visuals, and give a little love to those stills that probably won't make it to my final paper. The experience of recording helped me get more comfortable with presenting a large amount of complex information, as it was a challenge to not just simply read off of the slides. I think something I could work on in the future is creating transitions between the different sections of a presentation, which is something I will keep in mind as I revise how the sections flow into another in my final paper. I was stuck on what to do with the conclusion of my draft, which resembled an unorganized tangent, and turning it into a slide helped me to refine my ideas and discover the humanistic significance of my work. I have become very invested into Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films as a result of the research process, so it was nice to create an overview of work that has become personally meaningful for others to see.