If anything I created represents me as a writer, I think the best example would be my promotional video for “Joe for the Show”. In case you did not know, “Joe for the Show” is the coffee shop in the Chaddick Lobby that is open during the Wonderful Wednesday performances at 7:30 A.M. A week or so before Halloween, my mom told me that she ran into Ms. Benkesser while working at “Joe for the Show” that morning. She told me that after seeing my promotional video for Galloway’s fall play, Twelfth Night, Ms. Benkesser thought I would be a good candidate to make a promotional video for the store. Obviously, I accepted this task and soon found out that there were certain guidelines I needed to follow when filming the video.
The premise of the video had to be similar to those “You’re not you when you’re hungry” ads from Snickers®. Specifically, the interaction had to be between a barista and a zombie. Once the zombie drinks the coffee, it becomes human again. All of this had to be filmed and edited by Halloween and would be shown in front of everyone during that week’s Town Hall. I was a little stressed at first because I did not have a whole lot of creative input on the video and had little less than a week to film, edit, and submit the video to the President and Vice President on time. Luckily, I was able to add jokes to the script to truly make the video my own. For example, I added a part where the barista asks the zombie what their name was and the zombie just replied with a moan. After making a complex coffee order, the barista character repeats the moan when trying to say what he thought was the zombie’s name. When it was finally shown at Town Hall, it was a smash hit. I could hear the laughter from the audience and was later complemented on how focused the video was on the product and how they thought it was hilarious.
So how does this have anything to do with how I see myself as a writer? This video shows how I can take a prompt that does not sound very original or exciting, and spin it to become a comedic masterpiece of my own. This aspect is apparent in most of my English activities and is why it is easier for me to express myself through filmmaking than writing. When writing an essay, I have to focus more on being formal and analytical than creative and humorous. Filmmaking allows me to channel my humor, which is not appropriate for an essay because it makes the essay informal. This aspect also applies to my Remix of the “Compare and Contrast” essay. For that project, I turned a not very interesting paper comparing and contrasting two advertisements about health into a spoof of “The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross”. If I can think of a way to make a writing prompt funnier, I will not hesitate to do so. This is why I think that my “Joe for the Show” promo is the best option for something that describes me as a writer.