(no subject)
writing the dissertation this year has been a completely different writing experience to anything i've done previously. it's longer than all the academic work i've done before (20,000 words - which i think will end up being something like 100 pages) and, although it's definitely not as long as a book or anything like that, the process of doing it is far more similar to that big a project rather than essays i've done in the past. basically, i spend some time researching into a film, watching a bit of a film, thinking about a point, reading a book, and then i just write a paragraph or two about it. it doesn't matter where it goes in, i have a word document that is just full of bits and bobs, most of which probably won't get used in the end. it's a bit like intellectually vomiting onto a page, and just hoping that at the end of the day you'll be able to construct something coherent and interesting out of those carrot chunks.
at the moment, my writing about sin city is coming to a close. taking into account what i've said both about how the film has already been written about and my own analysis, it's clocking in at around 7000 words, which i imagine is far too long. i want this chapter (which is about digital mise-en-scene) to be about 8000-9000 words in total, and it is about four films altogether (although none of them in the same amount of detail as sin city). i can't remember writing that much about a single text before, but i've totally enjoyed being able to fully explore ideas and write a lot about silly little things like a single shot in which somebody's eyes flash up green for a split second (1000 words on that, since you asked).
i have my final meeting with my supervisor on tuesday afternoon, where i imagine he will ask me about the conclusions i'm hoping to draw from this. unfortunately, if he asked me this afternoon, i wouldn't have the first clue of what to tell him. hopefully a couple days more research geared towards answering that specific question will help out, but - at present - my dissertation is just a scattering of research, textual analysis and paragraphs of writing separated and spread out across a huge piece of paper on the floor. well, not literally, but it might as well be.
at the moment, my writing about sin city is coming to a close. taking into account what i've said both about how the film has already been written about and my own analysis, it's clocking in at around 7000 words, which i imagine is far too long. i want this chapter (which is about digital mise-en-scene) to be about 8000-9000 words in total, and it is about four films altogether (although none of them in the same amount of detail as sin city). i can't remember writing that much about a single text before, but i've totally enjoyed being able to fully explore ideas and write a lot about silly little things like a single shot in which somebody's eyes flash up green for a split second (1000 words on that, since you asked).
i have my final meeting with my supervisor on tuesday afternoon, where i imagine he will ask me about the conclusions i'm hoping to draw from this. unfortunately, if he asked me this afternoon, i wouldn't have the first clue of what to tell him. hopefully a couple days more research geared towards answering that specific question will help out, but - at present - my dissertation is just a scattering of research, textual analysis and paragraphs of writing separated and spread out across a huge piece of paper on the floor. well, not literally, but it might as well be.