Throughout the course of this Mythology class, I was able to participate in a lot of projects alongside my teammates, but I think that the second-semester ones that allowed us to craft our own pieces of fiction were the ones that I enjoyed the most. These projects, namely our imagining of Unferth’s backstory and our monster project, allow me to demonstrate my mastery of all the learning targets in Checkpoint 4.
I, along with my teammate Eric Nguyen Lin, were responsible for devising, editing, and writing the draft for the monster project’s script. Due to time requirements, I also had to include scenarios for the script as our group was filming: for example, I added scene 4, which detail’s Holen's walk from school, in order to extend the length of the video while still providing information relevant to the plot (4a). In the same draft, I included scene cuts and stage directions that helped to clarify certain directions for the actors involved. In scene 1 for example, as Alvin lifts up his phone, I instructed the editor to cut to the commercial I voiced over in order to create a smooth transition. In scene 2, I also directed my teammates to act like they were having a lot of fun on the beach (4e). Finally, I wrote Alvin as a metaphor that represented society’s ignorance and apathy towards littering and environmentally destructive behavior as a whole, noted by his continued dismissal of both Holen’s concerns of the Trash Man and Jason’s fear that the trio’s littering could lead to the group facing the monster’s wrath (4f).
In the video itself, I dressed the Trash Man (myself) with a mask from the Netflix show Squid Game. I figured that by alluding to the popular show, my viewers would easily be able to identify me as the monster (4g).
In the Unferth backstory that I co-wrote, I included transitions more effectively than just starting a sentence with “later” and “after that”. For example, on page 2 I carefully described the candles dimly lighting the interior of Frodo’s hut from Unferth’s point of view after I illustrated how he quietly crept up and spied on the building first (4b). The excerpt about the hut’s dim lighting and of the cult members praying to an idol in the hut, both on page 2, serve to craft a mysterious and ominous tone, as the reader is left wondering what could be going on in Frodo’s hut (4d). On page 3 of the text, I correctly indent Frodo and Unferth’s small exchange describing Unferth’s concern for the tied up man. I also used correct punctuation such as exclamation points to describe Bjorn’s drunken slurry of words on page 2 (4c).
Mythology class is one of the most insightful courses I have taken in high school because I was able to hear such insightful ideas from my classmates and my teacher. The latest monster project is a clear example of that: each group came up with an idea that was different from each other’s, from using a cell phone as an antagonist to portraying chronic overwork with the use of a fungus-like drug, and I loved watching all six of them. Which leads me to state that one thing I could have done better during both semesters is participate more often. I let my fear of stuttering and losing my train of thought hinder me from sharing some ideas that could have been insightful. As a result, I will keep that in mind going forward so that I am more open to sharing my opinions with others.