Sam

Hi Jana,
Sorry about the lack of pictures, but I have to reformat my video before I can get it nto Youtube. At any rate, I know this is late, and I will try to get you the video soon, even if by e-mail (hopefully it will be up before then). At any rate- allow me to expalin what I have been up to.
After the last project, much debate and discourse was brought up about the idea of a third way, beyond complete sorrow and joy. After much brainstorming, and sketching, and writing, i finally decided to work with the idea of overcoming your troubles through perseverance and determintaion. This worked fine- for about a week, I created another cheracter, an every man this time, who faces daily defeats and keeps going. This being cartoon, I tried to make it humorous, but with some meaning. After a week or so, I realized I was going around in circles. My narrative was dull and uninspired. Basically, the chearacter was taking abuse and coming back with softhearted attempts at getting over his troubles and paying back the favor. I was quite frustrated, until I talked to Julia.
She suggested that the narrative was too soft, and that the main cheracter was being too nice. I didn't know how to react to this, as most of my narratives involve themes wherein acts of trangression against others are relatively moot. So, a few more days went by, and my frustration grew. I was sure that I would end up with another depressing narrative and I didn't want to retread. Eventually, I got so irritated that I complained ot my roommates aobut it, who suggested I follow Julia's suggestion and have the cheracter react to his problems in an over the top way.
And so- I decided to go for it and see what happened.
I turned the cheracter into a crazy freak who exacts morbid revenge on everyone and capped it off with the most disturbing, off the wall finale I could think of, an image that attempted to mock the idea of the arrogant jackass who gets everything he wants through cruelty and revenge. Oh, I also took potshots at the idea of good taste and shock value. You'll see when you view the video.
The critique was great, as the film inspired a host of responses. I feel that I took a risk in presenting (at least a small one) and that this risk ultimately paid off. Through discussion we figured out that the movie did have some drawbacks thats needed adressing, such as continuity prolems and the ending. I'm not quite sure what I'll do with the ending, but some peopel really didn't seem to like or get it, so I'm not sure what to do about it yet. At any rate, taking Julia's advice and discussing the project with my roommates really paid off. I've never had such an exciting, nervewracking and ultimately rewarding critique before.